Superman and Lois season 1, episode 5 review: The Best of Smallville

“Think of it as Smallville’s ‘Burning Man.’” Spoilers for Superman and Lois season 1, episode 5 review.

As Smallville prepares for its annual Harvest Festival in the latest episode of Superman and Lois, Clark gets his Superman time out of the way so he can spend time with his family.

Meanwhile, Lois’ story about Morgan Edge begins to change impossibly quickly.

The Harvest Festival

One of the big things that has been consistently great so far in this Arrowverse series has been Tyler Hoechlin’s portrayal of Superman. He’s charming, optimistic, and he nails the serious moments whenever they pop up. However, one thing that hasn’t been shown quite as much is Hoechlin’s Clark. There are moments here and there, which are great, but the beginning of this episode really highlights Clark Kent instead of Superman. His excitement for the Harvest Festival is just wonderful, dorky, and completely perfect for the character.

We also get to see more of Clark as a teenager which really helps us have more of an overall understanding of Clark’s struggles – both as a parent and as Superman. Teenage Clark’s struggles aren’t quite conveyed as convincingly as adult Clark recalls them, but the fact that these scenes are able to showcase Clark’s own frustrations when he was Jonathan and Jordan’s age is nice, relaying that it’s not just lip service that he struggled too because we actually get to see the events play out. It’s hard not to compare these scenes to Smallville but, even though it’s not really not a fair comparison, the teenage Clark scenes here don’t resonate quite as well.

The story goes on in Superman and Lois

As for Lois though, just as she thinks she has an in for her story about Morgan Edge, her source’s son returns from the ether, seemingly right as rain. A lesser show would’ve just been like “Dang, too bad this didn’t work out.” However, Superman & Lois does the smart thing and integrates the overarching narrative of Lois’ story with the main dilemma for this episode. This was incredibly smart to do because it builds the world well, as we finally get some information about these other “Kryptonians,” while also creating a more compelling singular episode.

On top of that, Captain Luthor has his first interaction with Lois and it’s nerve-wracking to say the least. It’s a conversation that feels incredibly mundane on the surface, but obviously, since we as the audience know more than Lois does at this point, there’s an underlying nervousness to the scenes. There’s a constant, uneasy feeling about whether Luthor is going to do something to Lois or not, even though there’s probably a good chance that he won’t unless he feels that he has no other choice.

These two storylines do a really great job of coalescing by the end of the episode with a nice flight chase scene between Superman and the fake “Kryptonian” in which Luthor is trying to keep up with them. It’s not the best action scene of the series so far, but it’s still engaging nonetheless and ties two seemingly disparate storylines together in an organic way.

Brotherly love

So much of this series so far has been about Jordan’s struggles with his mental health and his readjustment to Smallville. And while we’ve seen a bit of Jonathan’s struggles as well, he’s often put that aside for the betterment of Jordan. Here though, it’s nice to finally see him let loose, even though you want to slap in the face for doing so.

It’s an interesting role reversal in this episode as well, with Jonathan being the one needing comfort and Jordan being the one giving it. There’s a lot of scenes dedicated to Jonathan protecting Jordan, but now that it’s the other way around, it’s nice to see how much Jordan also loves Jonathan.

Jonathan ruins his date and he forgives anyway. That one act alone speaks volumes, but the fact that he then immediately goes to make sure his drunk brother gets home safely is another great example of the strength of their relationship.

Despite some lackluster acting and an action scene that isn’t on par with others so far, Superman & Lois continues to be an incredibly fun vehicle for Clark Kent and Lois Lane.

What did you think of this week’s episode of Superman and Lois? Let us know in the comments below!