Loyal Subjekts
Episode 9 of Superman and Lois begins with Lois continuing her investigation into Morgan Edge, wondering just what he’s doing in Smallville. Dead-set on finding out the truth, Lois decides to use Lana to find out as much as they can. Part of this begins back at the start of this entire ordeal, with Edge promising to make Emily better. That “better” includes raising an army by using different people as hosts for Kryptonians. Edge decides to up his recruitment drive too, with a new ad asking for double the volunteers. Lois shows up at HQ and confronts Ede about it, showing how much she really knows. Edge chuckles confidently, telling her she has no evidence and boasting that she’s unable to stop this now. Meanwhile, Clark continues to fight the good fight but something is wrong. For some reason he starts to breathe heavily, clutching his chest. He thwarts the threat in a Mexican bank but starts bruising as a result. This is obviously not right, and when Lois sees this back home, they decide to contact Sam to find out more. Back at school, Jordan and Sarah continue to grow closer together. However, Jonathan is warned off from speaking to a girl called Tegan. Well, that’s easier said than done when she flirts a little with him. Seeing this as a hint, he asks her to hang out…but she rejects him. Following the kyptonite bio-weapon used last episode, both Jordan and Clark start to feel the side effects. It turns out the kryptonite is causing his lungs to fill with fluid and this in turn is making it freeze. The only way to stop this is going to be reversing the process through burning. Unfortunately this also means he’ll miss Sarah’s Revue. With Lana in charge of the Young Executive program at Edge Corp, she starts asking questions she really shouldn’t be. Unfortunately Edge finds out she’s sniffing around and decides to offer her the same deal Emily was given. However, Lana refuses. Regardless, Edge activates his “Subjekts” to go after Lois, rather than Superman. With news of Clark still weak after the kryptonite incident, Edge sees it as the perfect opportunity to fracture the family. However, Lois runs into trouble back home when Emily shows up. Sam manages to distract them with kryptonite weapons, as Jonathan too grabs a gun from the barn. Despite a well-placed blast knocking out Sarah, Kyle shows up too and reveals that he too is part of this program, having been turned into a kryptonian. When Clark returns home with a newly-recovered Jordan, the soldiers scarper. This allows all of them to breathe a sign of relief as the threat passes. With the attack thwarted for now, Clark joins Lois with their investigation as they realize the kryptonians have one thing in common- they’re all from Smallville. When Clark realizes, he heads out to meet Edge in the middle of the Arizonian desert. Supe charges at Edge but he sidesteps, knocking him to the ground. When he gets back up again, Edge calls Clark his brother.
The Episode Review
Superman and Lois has been one of the bigger surprises this year, with a superhero show that plays on ideas of family and with a solid mystery woven throughout. This whole Kryptonian storyline is nicely woven into the show and it helps that the plot has been a slow burn across these episodes too, slowly adding more context to the plot. Sure you could grumble that the high school drama is a little formulaic and the showdown between Supe and Edge is very obviously filmed with a green screen, but these are minor points in what’s otherwise a solid show. The ending certainly hints that we’ve got a lot more drama to come, as the truth about Edge is revealed and it seems Superman has a credible threat to face off against now. Could this be the show that bucks the trend of awful CW quality? Right now it certainly seems that way.
