Superman and Lois season 1, episode 4 review: Haywire

“I’m not throwing away time with my family for a show of good faith.” Spoilers for Superman and Lois season 1, episode 4 follow.

Since moving back to Smallville, Clark Kent has been shirking his Superman responsibilities in Metropolis in favor of being the father that his family needs, much to the chagrin of General Sam Lane.

Meanwhile, Jordan and Jonathan are still coming to grips with their quickly changing new lives in Smallville.

Parenthood is hard in Superman and Lois

After three episodes of your main characters going through various familial problems, it would be very easy for the fourth to feel lackluster in comparison. However, that very much isn’t the case with this episode as a new wrinkle is thrown into the mix in Sam Lane confronting Lois and Clark about their parenting. As a result, there is a lot going on in this episode which is easily something that could make it feel bloated and yet it doesn’t.

There are some great moments throughout where Clark either gets confronted by his family or leaves his family hanging due to his responsibilities as Superman. It’s a complicated situation with no answer that feels right because there isn’t one. Often shows will paint these situations, even when there isn’t a right or wrong answer, as one side being right and the other being wrong, but Superman and Lois refuses to do that, highlighting the conflict of being stuck between both. It’s frustrating in all the right ways because, watching it play out, you want to side with someone, but it creates for a more engaging viewing experience by not doing so.

This leads to a really interesting villain in Thaddeus Killgrave. There’s not a whole lot to the actual character and, really, he could be considered a “villain of the week” but he never actually feels like that in the episode. He only has a couple of scenes, but in each of them, the character feels fully realized (even when he isn’t) thanks to a really solid performance by Brendan Fletcher.

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Lois and Lana

As Lois continues her fight against Morgan Edge, another person in Smallville begins to see who Edge truly is: Lana Lang. Even though he’s wowed everyone else in town with more-than-likely false promises, he shows his true colors to Lana by basically saying that she’s better than Smallville. The one conversation that he has with her, which is creepy and uncomfortable to watch, really shows who this man actually is and it really shouldn’t come as a shock.

Meanwhile, Lois still is searching for any way to expose Edge for the scumbag that he truly is. So, if trying to kill her doesn’t stop her, what will? Lawyers of course. Lawyers are probably the only thing that could constitute as Lois Lane’s Kryptonite. But does that put an end to her crusade? Of course not, she just has to change it, which is going to be the compelling thing moving forward.

Beyond just changing the fabric of her investigation moving forward, this episode is tour de force for Elizabeth Tulloch. She’s been fantastic through the first three episodes so far, but she kicks it up to a notch in this episode. She’s just phenomenal and a perfect Lois Lane. In fact, she’s a perfect Lois Lane to go with a perfect Clark Kent.

Highs and lows of high school football

As for the boys, this episode is much more Jonathan-centric than the previous one was. Sure, it was Jordan’s first high school football game and Jonathan reacts to him getting praise instead, but the episode is so much more than that for him. It’s more than football. It’s more than powers. Instead, this episode is showing that Jonathan gets just as much from his dad, and his mom, as Jordan does.