Tuesday, October 08, 2024

My Review of Superman And Lois 4x02: "A World Without"

 


Written by Katie Aldrin And Kristi Korzec
Directed by Sudz Sutherland

Superman (to Lois/Jonathan/Jordan): "I'll always be here at the fortress to help, however I can but out there, it's just going to have to be the three of you."

Yup, this two part opening episode just didn't let up with the heavy stuff. A dead superhero, a vindictive arch enemy and a family desperate to get their patriarch back, regardless of the consequences. Oh and more former regulars involved in the mix.

With Superman put in a regenerative status at the Fortress of Solitude, it was up to Jordan to play hero and try and retrieve his father's heart. Unfortunately for Jordan, not only did Lex not find him remotely intimidating but he also was several steps ahead of him. In fact, who wasn't Lex ahead of this week? It felt like he was outsmarting everyone.

I mean he easily saw through Sarah's attempts of keeping him distracted and there was something particularly evil about the way he forced Lois to choose between her sons. Then there was his glee in tormenting Jordan while stamping on Superman's heart. Again, this might be one of the darkest iterations of Lex we've seen in a while. His insistence with remaining in Smallville to torment Lois bring the icing on the cake.

Worse than that, Lex now knows that Superman and Clark are the same person and Lois now has to deal with the imminent fallout of Lex eventually using that knowledge to blow the Kents apart. Still, there's still something amusing in watching Lex's associates bring baffled by his fixation on Smallville while ignoring the say yo day activities of LexCorp.

The last scene with the Kents in the Fortress of Solitude was particularly heartbreaking. As much as I don't want this dead Superman story to be dragged out, especially given that we have less episodes this season, the acting in these scenes are brilliant. Everyone has brought their A game for those moments as the Kents are barely holding together.

I also thought this episode utilised both Lana and Sarah rather well with both of them having their own interactions with Lex. Lana in particular was willing to incur Lex's wrath by trying to stop his acquisition of the hotel across from the Gazette. However, its pretty clear that Lex will be more than a match for Lana but I look forward to more scenes between the two of them.

- Amanda was trying to get Lex to do an interview with Janet Olsen. We'll be meeting Jimmy Olsen this season.
- Though she has yet to physically appear, we already saw pics of Elizabeth Luthor (Elizabeth Henstridge) as Amanda helped Lex get closer to finding her.
- Absent from this episode included Sam, John, Natalie, Kyle and Chrissy. Chuck also worked out that Superman was Clark Kent.
- Chronology: Exactly where the previous episode left off.

A World Without certainly didn't let up and it upped the tension big time. They've really written themselves into a corner with Superman's death and it's going to be interesting to see how they resolve this one. These first two episodes have kicked things off brilliantly for the show.

Rating: 8 out of 10

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