Superman & Lois review: “The Eradicator”

Superman & Lois heads into the season finale with the Kent family contending with Tal-Rho’s ambition to destroy the world. 

Superman & Lois is back again! Unfortunately, this week’s episode, “The Eradicator,” is the penultimate installment of the season. Next week will mark the end of the show’s freshman season, and I must admit I’m pretty bummed.

Superman & Lois has quickly become one of my favorite DCTV shows. Maybe it’s the writing, maybe it’s the characters, or maybe it’s the fact that The CW allocated a lot of budget to make the show look as good as it can. In the span of 14 episodes, the series has covered a lot of ground and given viewers a fresh new perspective on a beloved story. This time around, we don’t see the origin story of Superman, but rather his day-to-day life with two teenage sons and his wife Lois (Bitsie Tulloch). But Superman & Lois digs much deeper. The first season dove into topics pertaining to mental health and other issues people have to deal with whether or not they’re a superhero.

In “The Eradicator,” we get to see just how much the move to Smallville has impacted the Kent family, especially when they’ve got a rogue family member trying to destroy the entire world flying around. More on that below!

Beware SPOILERS ahead!

Smallville struggles to survive

In the wake of the Morgan Edge (Adam Rayner) debacle, the town of Smallville is struggling. No one wants to live there anymore, businesses are shutting down, and to make matters worse, the DoD is still lurking about.

It doesn’t help that Edge, aka Tal-Rho, managed to escape and is a bigger threat than ever before. Caught in the middle of it all is the Cushing family, who has been on the outs ever since Kyle (Erik Valdez) and Lana’s (Emmanuelle Chriqui) involvement with Edge became public knowledge. In their defense, they didn’t really know what was going on, but it’s put them on everyone’s naughty list nonetheless.

In light of this situation, Kyle and Lana decide they’re going to move out of Smallville to get a fresh start for their family. That’s understandable, but it’s going to cause a ripple effect of heartbreak and devastation for people around them, mainly the Kent family. Sarah (Inde Navarrette) and Jordan (Alex Garfin) have grown closer, and Clark isn’t happy about his best friend Lana’s decision to move. Clark does his utmost to convince her that she is the heart of Smallville; the town won’t be the same without her, but then again, the town isn’t really what it used to be anyway.

As much as Clark has noble intentions, he comes off quite selfish here. He too left Smallville once upon a time to get a fresh start, and that’s what Lana wants to do now for her family. Don’t get in the way of that, Mr. Superman!

War on the horizon

We’ve seen flashes of John Henry Irons’ (Wolé Parks) Earth and the unfortunate demise of that world’s Lois Lane, his wife. It’s what brought him to this Earth, but now instead of wanting to kill Superman, John is just hoping to take down Morgan Edge, the man behind the madness.

Jonathan (Jordan Elsass) has been through a lot in this first season, between the move, going through a breakup, and not finding a place at school. But where he does feel comfortable is with John, helping him build weapons. Clark and Lois don’t love the situation, but Jonathan argues that it’s best to be prepared for Edge’s inevitable return.

Jonathan helps John fix his suit, but offends him when he comments that it’s cool that John’s daughter helped him make it. While it is cool that she helped, it’s an insensitive thing to say given that this young girl witnessed her mother get killed on live television. But again, playing devil’s advocate here, Jonathan is just a teenage boy who has been through the wringer lately — let’s cut him some slack.

The DoD’s presence in Smallville has been rubbing the townspeople the wrong way, and they’re adamant about getting them out of there. Unfortunately, it puts Lois in a bad place because she’s the town’s journalist, but General Sam Lane (Dylan Walsh) is her father. But for Lois, her first priority is always speaking and telling the truth, which is why she lets Chrissy (Sofia Hasmik) run a scathing story about Sam and the DoD.  It doesn’t go over well with Sam and makes the town hall meeting very awkward, but it was necessary to let Smallville know what is actually going on.

Lois divulges the truth when the townspeople start getting heated. She tells them that Edge escaped and that he still poses a threat to their small town. Her attempt to appease the folks backfires, and instead, one of them comes forward claiming that she has proof of the DoD’s shady activities.

Edge goes rogue…again

Edge breaks into the DoD, and from that point onwards tensions escalate. John helps the DoD locate Edge, but they have no idea that he’s consumed the entirety of the Eradicator. He now has the ability to snap his finger and resurrect the entire Kryptonian race. That doesn’t sound scary at all, does it?

The gang heads to Metropolis to face off with Tal-Rho/Edge and quickly learns that Tal-Rho is no longer the one running things. Chaos breaks out, and we get an eerily familiar scene of Lois on the news reporting what is going on in Metropolis. It’s nearly identical to the scene on Irons’ Earth when Lois was killed by Superman, but this time around, things play out differently.

This version of Tal-Rho attempts to kill Sam, Jon, Sarah and Jordan, who are on their way to a safe place, while Lois, Superman, and Irons try to fight off the growing Kryptonian army. Unfortunately, a car accident causes everyone to get injured, but that’s the least of their concerns.

Tal-Rho kidnaps Jordan and implants a Kryptonian consciousness inside of him. In the final moments of the episode, we learn the Kryptonian inside of Jordan is none other than Tal-Rho’s father, Zeta-Rho (A.C. Peterson).

Superman & Lois has a lot of ground to cover in next week’s finale. We know that a Kryptonian consciousness taking over one’s mind and body doesn’t always end well. Could this spell trouble for Jordan? Or will the Kent family band together and save Jordan from the wrath of Morgan Edge?

Tune in next week to find out!

Grade: B+

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