Superman & Lois review: “The Best of Smallville”

Superman & Lois continues to be a diamond in the rough that is the Arrowverse. Amongst all the shows that are currently on air or will be soon, Superman & Lois is standing out.

As a mental health advocate, I love that the series is not holding back when it comes to addressing mental health and putting it in a context that so many can relate to. It’s commendable, and I appreciate the show’s no-nonsense tone. It feels realistic, despite it being a superhero show.

This week’s episode, “The Best of Smallville” takes the series back to its small-town roots as the Kent family goes to Smallville’s local Harvest Festival. Naturally, that comes with its share of challenges.

Superman & Lois tackles teenage heartbreak

Ever since they’ve arrived in Smallville, Jonathan (Jordan Elsass) has been trying to keep it together and doing a pretty amazing job at it. It’s not easy to pack up your city life and trade it in for a small town, leaving behind your girlfriend and a budding football career. But he went along with his family’s decision to move, and this week he’s reaching his wit’s end.

Between the move, getting in fights at school, and coming to terms with Jordan’s (Alex Garfin) powers and newfound success with football, Jonathan is feeling the pressure. Oh that’s on top of finding out that Superman is your dad.

Jonathan was hoping his girlfriend would come to Smallville for the Harvest Festival, but instead she breaks up with him. And if you can remember your first breakup, then you know what Jonathan was feeling all too well. Yet again another reason why Superman & Lois is doing such a great job: you feel the characters’ feelings very intensely.

Jonathan’s overwhelmed and decides to get a bit tipsy at the festival. He makes a scene and heads home immediately after Clark (Tyler Hoechlin) and Lois (Bitsie Tulloch) learn he’s drunk.

This show started off with us believing that Jonathan is the one who will take things in stride and be okay with the move, but it ends up that both he and Jordan are struggling. Everyone has a hard time with change, and everyone has a way to deal with it.

Superdad extends an olive branch

With everything that happens with Jonathan at the Harvest Festival, one would assume that Clark and Lois are about to ground him for the foreseeable future. But Clark surprises his family (and us) with how he handles things.

Instead of yelling at and arguing with Jonathan, Clark gives him this one and only “Get out of jail free” card, and focuses on how he can help Jonathan rather than punish him.

He’s inspired to do this by his past, which we see in flashbacks. Clark realizes he wasn’t the easiest kid to deal with. He was different than everyone else because of his powers and decided to leave home at a very early age, but his mother Martha (Michele Scarabelli) was always open and understanding of his needs.

Now, Clark extends the same courtesy to Jonathan. He shares that he left home young to head to the big city. But he’s here for the boys, and that will never change, even if that means them leaving the house at some point. Cue the tears.

Perhaps the only thing that could make this story sweeter is seeing the town of Smallville dedicate a bench in Martha’s honor. It’s a beautiful moment and comes right when Clark is finally starting to grapple with his mother’s death.

Lois continues to investigate

The mystery behind Derek’s (Clayton James) disappearance gets murkier after Sharon (Jill Teed) shows up with Derek in tow. Lois has been looking into this disappearance and is surprised to see Derek alive and well without any explanation.

So far this season, we’ve seen Lois looking into the town’s “savior” Morgan Edge (Adam Rayner); she isn’t convinced he’s the guy he claims to be. And as we learned at the end of last week’s episode, Morgan is up to something shady involving X-Kryptonite, which grants powers to non-Kryptonians.

It looks like Derek may have been exposed to that, because he and Superman wreak havoc across Smallville in an epic chase. As it turns out, Derek seems to know a lot about Kal-El and the Kryptonians.

Like the conniving guy he is, Morgan steps in when the timing is just right and donates money to help pay for all the damage that was caused during the fight. This guy will do anything to curry favor.

Captain Luthor

There’s more emphasis this week on Captain Luthor (Wolé Parks), who has officially made his way into Smallville — and he’s a force to be reckoned with, let me tell you.

Under the guise of a reporter from Reuters, Captain Luthor makes sure to cross paths with Lois, “introduces” himself and says he came to town for her. We often forget that Lois Lane is a world-famous reporter, but Captain Luthor has other motivations.

The biggest plot twist (well, most surprising) comes when we realize that pre-Crisis, Captain Luthor and Lois were in love on a different Earth. And that Earth’s Superman was evil and was responsible for killing Lois, essentially taking away all of Captain Luthor’s happiness.

It’s no wonder he’s so hell-bent on taking down this Clark/Superman! Unfortunately, he fails to realize that the two Supermen are very different, and the Earth he is on is very different. But that won’t stop him from seeking revenge. Someone should try and help him to understand that the revenge he seeks is on the wrong guy!

Superman & Lois won’t be returning until mid-May (I know, what a bummer!), but it leaves us with an interesting cliffhanger that involves Tag (Wern Lee) emerging out of nowhere and attacking Jordan on his way home from being friend-zoned by Sarah (Inde Navarrette). Tag’s powers came from Jordan’s heat-vision blast a few episodes back, and it’s unclear what the heck is going on with his return.

All we know is that Tag is beating the crap out of Jordan, and now we have to wait two months to find out what comes next.

Grade: B+

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