Wednesday, February 02, 2022

My Review of Superman And Lois 2x04: "The Inverse Method"

 


Written by Jai Jamison And Andrew N. Wong
Directed by Melissa Hickey

Chrissy (to Ally): "Can you meet me? I want you to tell me the truth about Lois."

Last season had a clear path when it came to enemies for Superman and Lois. The former thought he had an enemy in Captain Luthor who would later turn out to be an ally in Steel while the latter's battle with Morgan Edge soon back to Superman when Edge was revealed to be his half brother.

This season the enemy playing field feels different. While Bizarro has undeniably proven to be a great physical threat to both Superman and Steel, Lois has found herself a personal and psychological threat in Ally Allston (Riya Kihlstedt). So far, she's shaping up to be a very dangerous adversary for Lois. 

In the comics, Ally Allston became a version of Parasite and the opening flashback in this episode where Lois referred to Ally as a parasite preying on vulnerable people to Lucy (Jenna Dewan) definitely seemed to be laying the ground work for a future storyline this season. Make no mistake, Ally has certainly done a number on Lucy Lane.

It's been six years since we saw the character back in the first season of Supergirl and needless to say that Lucy has become a shell of herself. Depressed at the state of her life and lingering childhood anger towards Lois, I can see why Lucy fell in Ally's dangerous trap and joined the Inverse Society. Unfortunately the lengths in which Lois has gone to save her sister have only resulted in pushing Lucy further into Ally's grasp.

However it's not just Lucy that Lois will potentially lose to Ally. Lois's relationship with Chrissy has never been on an even keel and Ally was quick to exploit that when she gave Chrissy access to Lois and Lucy's conversation. She succeeded in creating a divide between Lois and Lucy and now has managed to do the same to Lois and Chrissy. To me, Ally has definitely shown to be a far more dangerous threat than Bizarro.

Saying that, Bizarro has definitely not lacked as a baddie so far. As I pointed out earlier in the review, he's a massive physical threat to both Superman and Steel and nearly killed the latter when he wasn't killing Anderson's own Superman team. However Tag managed to survive and took Bizarro's amulet away with him, so that's another potential problem for everyone in the next episode.

As for the Cushings this week, their storyline definitely feels too detached from the main plots this season so far. Also a tiny bit too predictable with Dean trying to get dirt on Lana's family by targeting Sarah. However the reveal that Kyle might have cheated on Lana with a bartender definitely felt cliched. I don't mind the story so much, but it's definitely needs to tie in to the main stuff at some point.

- Jonathan started using the X-Kryptonite due to Candace goading him to do so with Natalie spotting something off with him. Also Sarah's friend, Denise fancies him.
- We now have a plot where Jordan will be getting trained by Sam so that he can help Clark against Bizarro. Sam should've been involved in the Lucy story this week.
- Lucy talked about seeing another version of herself during her suicide attempt. Crisis related memories or something else?
- Chronology: From where the previous episode left off, also five years ago in the opening flashback scene, not to mention trips to New Carthage and Bolivia this episode.

The Inverse Method definitely added the tension this week with both Ally Allston and Bizarro causing havoc for our main players. Both are compelling villains for different reasons and both are bringing out interesting sides to the characters as well. I can see why Lucy's return has divided fans but I'm intrigued to see where tho story will go.

Rating: 8 out of 10

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