Superman and Lois season 1, episode 11 review: A Brief Reminiscence In-Between Cataclysmic Events

“It’s time for you to go save the world, Clark.” Spoilers for Superman and Lois season 1, episode 11 follow.

Every hero has a beginning, and now, we get to see this version of Clark’s origin story and how the Arrowverse‘s Superman came to be who he is.

Along the way though, we also get to see how and why Clark will never follow Morgan Edge into the abyss.

The early days of Superman and Lois

Eleven episodes into the season (with only four left after this one) and the show has an entire episode set within a flashback? Sounds like a recipe for disaster, right? Well, if Superman & Lois has shown us anything by this point, it’s that we should trust them to make something that is wonderful and prove that they know that it’s the correct thing for the show. And well, they’ve yet to disappoint because that’s absolutely the case with this episode.

“A Brief Reminiscence In-Between Cataclysmic Events” is entirely the first five minutes of the first episode of the series expanded drastically. What was already perfect is explored in even more phenomenal ways. Scenes from the show’s opening montage are replayed but with new material added that doesn’t feel gratuitous in any way at all. In fact, they feel necessary, even if they weren’t. From Clark’s first appearance in Metropolis as Superman to his first time in The Daily Planet, everything is expounded on in some way that works incredibly well.

Plus, any excuse to see Clark and Lois interact and fall in love with each other is something that is worth seeing just to provide us with a different dynamic from Tyler Hoechlin and Elizabeth Tulloch. Their chemistry has been phenomenal from the get-go and that is absolutely no different here. It’s impossible to not giddily laugh when watching them flirt with one another and, eventually, watching them get married.

First meetings

In this origin, we also get to see what is basically a truncated version of Superman Smashes the Klan, which is incredibly interesting to see adapted into live-action, at least in part. Seeing Lois and Clark work together to crack a case is an absolute joy to behold and, while not the focus of this season, it’s also something that will always be welcome when it comes to both of these characters.

What this also shows is that Lois especially has been fighting the good fight against evil since forever. This shouldn’t come as a shock as this is who Lois is, but it’s still wonderful to see her fight for what is right, even if no one else is listening. It’s an incredibly poignant characterization and played exceptionally well by Tulloch.

In the Fortress

As it turns out, these origins aren’t just here for our enjoyment (though they are very enjoyable). The reason they take place now is down to the fact that Morgan Edge is in the Fortress of Solitude with Superman, rifling through his memories, looking for a weakness. This is very much a meta-textual way of the show telling us how Edge takes something that is good and hopeful (the image of Superman) and wants to corrupt it for his own means. It takes the joy of seeing Clark and Lois’ early days and turns that into fear. Honestly, it’s excellently done.

But seeing Edge also ties into what Superman and Lois have always been doing, fighting evil from the beginning, specifically in this case, racism. The man who Lois was tracking for months is just the same as Morgan Edge. Tiny men who take slightest bit of power that they have and use it in order to destroy people that they deem lesser. Whether human or Kryptonian, these people are all the same evil who need to be stopped. And just how Clark sacrificed himself to save people against the racist villain in the flashback, he does so once again by giving into Edge. And both times, he trusts Lois to finish the fight – which hopefully she will be able to do.

Superman & Lois once again knocks it out of the park and goes into its final hiatus on an incredibly strong note.

What did you think of Superman and Lois season 1, episode 11? Let us know in the comments below!