Superman on Television

Lois & Clark: Episode Reviews

Season 4 - Episode 13: "Sex, Lies and Videotape"

Reviewed by: Nathan MacKenzie

Originally Aired: January 19, 1997
Directed by Phillip Sgriccia
Written by Dan Wilcox

Guest Cast:
Jack Wagner as Randy Goode
Downtime Julie Brown as Samantha
Tony Amendola as President Kasparov
Alan Charof as General Navance
Archie Hahn as Barry Dunning
Ben McCain as Brock Thompson
Scott Leva as Thug
Charles C. Stevenson Jr as Priest
Nina Blackwood as Jean Sally
Irene Olga Lopez as Mrs Lopez
Robert Garrova as Boy Scout

Synopsis:

Superman and Lois find themselves together being more than friends in a photo on the front page of every tabloid and newspaper in Metropolis (minus the Daily Planet of course). They must do everything they possibly can to clear their name or this could be the start of a war between two Eastern European counties. The big question is though, is this photo real or is it a fake?

Review Rating - 2 (out of 5): I must admit, I have never been the biggest fan of this episode but after re-watching it again, my feelings for the episode have changed, but only slightly. I am a huge Superman fan and I don’t like it when his name is tarnished or he loses the faith of the people. But in this episode even though it happens, technically he hasn’t done anything wrong except to love his wife, but unfortunately Clark not Superman is married to Lois Lane.

At the start of the episode we learn pretty quickly who the villain of this episode is, Mr Randy Goode. He is a Lex Luthor type villain, jealous of the Man of Steel in every way, always the bridesmaid and never the bride. So as they say if you can’t find a way to win, cheat. So as Superman is being awarded yet another award ahead of Mr Goode, Mr Goode makes contact with one of his work colleagues who is at the ceremony, Samantha, to find some dirt on Superman and find some she did. Superman was being awarded the International Peace Prize now I must add in, at the start when you see Superman fly onto the stage to accept his award, you will notice he already has the award in his hand, not good prop placement there I think. Anyway, after the award ceremony is complete, Lois and Superman walk off and Samantha captures Lois getting a little close to Superman and with this she shows her boss who gets excited, tells her to find more damning evidence of the two of them together.

Back at the Daily Planet, Lois has used her celebrity status as a reporter to get a room in a fairly reclusive hotel normally used by the rich and famous which makes Clark a little suspicious. Now, Clark sees that Lois has the confirmation letter in her hand and she shreds it in front of him. Clark grabs the shredded paper and since he is Superman, uses sticky tape to quickly put it back together. Lois has told a little white lie to get this room, but eventually Clark concedes and thinks it’s a good idea for the two of them to get away. Clark tells Lois to go on ahead and he will see her there later on. Samantha at this point has gone undercover at the Daily Planet (wow, they let anyone in here) and has found this confirmation letter and has seen where the hotel is.

The B-plot to this episode is the peace talks that Superman, the latest International Peace Prize winner is to mediate between two Eastern European countries, Latislan and Podansk. Now I know what you must be thinking, these countries don’t exist. And you would be absolutely right; these are made up countries which were specifically made up for this episode. This B-plot will make more sense later on in the episode.

Lois waits for her husband to arrive as she hears a knock at the balcony, Superman has arrived. As husband and wife lie on the bed together, Samantha who has found her way to this hotel takes a photo of the two of them together. The following day as Samantha leaves her hotel someone knocks into her and knocks her camera bag off of her shoulder and you automatically hear a crack, it was her camera. As she inspects it, we see the film was exposed so she quickly goes to her little black book and we see ‘Hanks Photo Lab’. Now I’ll let you start to pit two and two together.

The next day, we see a large photo of Lois and Superman on every newspaper and tabloid in Metropolis minus the Daily Planet, this doesn’t look good for the pair, but what about poor Clark. Not only has the world turned against Lois and Superman, but the peace talks between Latislan and Podansk have now broken down which could now cause the two countries to go to war. When Lois and Clark see the photo their first thought is fear, as they know that this event actually took place and in their minds, this photo is real.

So Randy Goode is over the moon with the reaction towards Superman, he decides to try and continue the peace talks. As he brings the leaders of the two countries back together, they both demand an explanation from Superman in order to move forward otherwise there will be no peace. Superman arrives however can’t give an explanation, so he tells them that he will reveal all during a press conference the following day. This starts to worry Mr Goode so with the help of Samantha puts another plan into action to ensure his rise up the popularity chain continues and Superman’s continual demise.

Clark has brought his parents to town as he has come up with the only solution to this problem, he must tell the world that Clark Kent is Superman. As you can imagine, this doesn’t go down too well with his parent or with Lois. Clark gives his reasoning and is adamant that this is the only way. Lois leaves and feels the only way to fix this is to get behind who took the photo, thinking that the photo was real. However when she runs into Jimmy, Jimmy has done some digging and found a place that can produce fake photos, it is Hanks Photo Lab. As Lois and Jimmy find their way to the lab, they discover that in fact that the photo is indeed a fake. Now I laugh at this cause when you see the photo, you know it’s real, you know how I know. If Samantha’s film was exposed, then how did you get a pic of Lois in the same outfit as she had on that night in the hotel? I believe that was a little bit of laziness there in the story writing.

As Lois leaves Jimmy at the lab to download everything he can find, Lois is again captured, but captured by Mr Goode and Samantha. Their plan is two bombs, Superman must make a decision to either save Lois, or save the peace conference. As Superman arrives at the press conference he receives an envelope, it tells him that Lois is at the hotel we saw them both earlier (This hotel was used three times in filming, must of got a good deal on the room). He flies off to save her but as he arrives, it’s time for a game of charades. I like this game; they are good at this game, you can tell that they must play this game at parties. ‘Trigger also blows peace talks’ as Superman figures out the charade. After he saves Lois, Superman uses a piece of glass, throws it in outer space and uses his heat vision which reflects off of it to stop the bomb from blowing up the peace talks. So just like Batman Forever, he was able to save both.

Superman arrives with Lois at the press conference; they stop Mr Goode and Samantha and announce that the photo was indeed a fake, with evidence supplied by Jimmy Olsen. Superman then continues on with the press conference, tells a little white lie which he is not comfortable with but I do like what he says the reason why, there was a bigger truth to protect here. So Superman again saves the day, saves the peace talks and all is well in the world again.

Next week, Tempus is back and we all get to Meet John Doe.

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