Wednesday, June 16, 2021

My Review of Superman And Lois 1x10: "O, Mother, Where Art Thou?"

 


Written by Adam Mallinger
Directed by Harry Jierjian 

Tal-Rho: "The thing is Kal, this is the only planet you've ever known, so you don't know the pain of losing one, but I do and I'm not gonna let that happen again. And neither are they."

Well, gotta give this show even more points for creativity. Not only is Morgan Edge not Zod or H'El but it turns out that he was actually being literal about Superman being his brother. Well, half brother. There's a bit of an Aquaman and Orm vibe to this.

Enter Tal-Rho, the son of Zeta-Rho and Lara  Lor-Van, the latter being Ka'-El's mother of course. It's revealed that Tal landed in an English village, got hunted and tortured and now wants to use the Eradicator to retool Earth as a new Krypton.

Of course Tal does give Superman the option to join him, which the latter refused and the rest of the episode then has Superman and everyone working against Tal's overall scheme. Of course the only one who can work the Eradicator outside of Tal turns out to be Lara and this was a moment for Lana to shine.

Having Lana volunteer to host Lara to save the day definitely gave Emmanuelle Chriqui an opportunity to do her best work on the show as Superman got to have a lovely reunion with his mother and Lois a rather nice conversation with Lara before Tal's scheme was temporarily halted.

With Superman out of commission at the Phantom Zone, Smallville somewhat spared  Tal's scheme, the latter also didn't seem to phased by Superman outsmarting as his final scene with Leslie seemed to indicate. There's only five episodes left to go, it'll be interesting to see how Tal's plan progresses. His quest to save his race night be noble but his methods are definitely horrible and yes, his scenes with Superman this week also evoked Man Of Steel as well for good measure.

As for the twins, their scenes were mostly with Sarah and letting her in on what actually happened to Kyle. Jonathan also got another good moment calling out Sam's hypocrisy while Jordan was as honest with Sarah about things as he could be. I do wonder if she'll work out that Jordan has powers before he comes clean on the matter.

- Watching the Lana plot of the episode, surely shes going to retain something of being a host to Lara or work out another way that her childhood friend is Superman.
- Jonathan seems to be the only concerned that his father could become dark but given what he saw in John Henry Irons van that's believable.
- I loved that Superman mentioned Martha during his brief reunion with Lara during this episode.
- Chronology: Exactly where the last episode left off.

O, Mother, Where Art Thou continues this impressive streak of episodes. Going down an actual brotherly route with Superman and Morgan Edge/Tal-Rho genuinely worked a treat, the Lana/Lara were effective to the plot and emotionally. I love that the show deftly series expectations.

Rating: 9 out of 10

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