Superman and Lois season 2, episode 3 review: The Thing in the Mines

“Nobody expects you to be made of steel on the inside.” Spoilers for Superman and Lois season 2, episode 3 follow.

Clark’s visions continue to get worse and not only does this stop him from performing as Superman, but as a good father for a time.

Meanwhile, Lana ramps up her mayoral campaign and unsurprisingly hits early adversity.

Here’s everything that went down in Superman and Lois season 2, episode 3, “The Thing In The Mines”.

Doomsday

As Clark’s visions worsen, they begin to also affect his physical self in much worse ways as well. Not only can he no longer concentrate while flying, he can’t control his heat vision when he loses his temper. It was genuinely smart to use this in the scenes where he gets angry at Jonathan and Jordan because that’s a feeling that probably every parent knows at some time or another (not that I really know, don’t have kids). It’s such a great physical tell for the problems that Clark is experiencing. His pain and anger, which is just being amplified, comes out through his eyes, a.k.a. the windows to the soul, and Clark’s soul is in pain, both physically and emotionally. It’s great.

For most of this episode, there’s barely any Superman action. It’s entirely family drama “The Thing In The Mines” is all the better for it. Every interaction Clark has with every member of his family is engrossing and heartfelt and it just makes you feel for these characters.

But then the final third of the episode hits and has the obvious appear. Doomsday. Containment suit and all. But actually no, not Doomsday. It turns out the creature that was crawling its way out of the mines was none other than this show’s version of Bizarro, which is honestly fascinating. It’s exciting to see what Superman and Lois season 2 will do with the character.

Mayoral race

As for Lana’s mayoral run, it really shouldn’t be as interesting as it is without Clark and Lois involved in some shape or form. However, because the first season built up such a great character in Lana, these scenes manage to pull you in simply because you’re rooting for her. You’re rooting for her to win, which seems like a sure-fire thing, but corruption is a hard thing to beat.

All of the blame for the town’s problems are being laid at her feet even though she was simply a cog in the machine, not the machine itself. But that doesn’t really matter. It’s easy to place blame on the person who unknowingly screwed you over at the whim of someone else, rather than that faceless someone else who is truly to blame. And we get to see that here, as well as Lana’s internal struggle with the fallout of it, which is great.

Drama in Superman and Lois season 2

Now the high school drama portions of this episode are where it gets a little iffy in terms of quality. There are some really great scenes. The final scene between Jordan and Sara. The bonding moments between Jonathan and Natalie. The boys’ issues being used to push Clark’s story forward. All of these are great scenes. The problem lies within the drama itself.

Every scene that focuses on drama with Jordan or Jonathan just feels a little too long and it leaves them feeling like they slightly overstay their welcome, which honestly gets annoying after a while. This is something not quite as tangible as say, an actor’s performance, but when a scene goes on just a little too long, you can just sense it, and it happens several times throughout this episode *cough* football practice *cough*.

Despite some drama overstaying its welcome, Superman & Lois has yet another great episode that paves the way for an interesting foe as the season progresses.

Superman and Lois season 2 airs new episodes on The CW on Tuesday nights at 8/7c.

What did you think of Superman and Lois season 2, episode 3? Let us know in the comments below!