Superman and Lois season 2, episode 9 review: 30 Days and 30 Nights

“Stop telling me to act normal. None of this is normal.” Spoilers for Superman & Lois season 2, episode 9 follow.

Ally Allston escapes from prison and enters the portal, forcing Superman to follow her in.

Back on Earth, John Henry Irons and Jordan Kent must try and fill Clark’s shoes while he’s gone.

Here’s everything that went down in Superman and Lois season 2, episode 9 “30 Days and 30 Nights”.

A world without Superman in Superman and Lois season 2

Immediately, this episode starts off with a bang as Ally escapes from the D.O.D. and makes her way straight back to the portal. Too late to stop her from entering, Superman follows her into the Bizarro-portal, causing him to disappear for a month. This is such a great set-up to an episode as it forces every character into situations that they aren’t prepared for. Lois being a single parent, John Henry being a superhero, and everyone else trying to figure out what to do without Clark there.

This set-up works so well just from a character standpoint as a lot of the internal conflict in this episode, while long-building throughout the season, is accentuated by Clark’s disappearance. It purposefully feels like the hope and happiness that almost everyone has around Clark disappeared along with him. This show has gotten very dark and depressing at times, but that feeling is that much more oppressive in this episode because of the lack of Superman, which very much works in its favor. If this is what the whole show felt like, that would be a problem, but this episode really helps to show what Superman actually means, just simply by being there.

But then, even without Superman there, hope is restored by the end of the episode through the sheer perseverance by everyone, from Lois to Lana. You can just feel Clark’s influence, and almost eternal optimism, from everyone when they get past their own fears and frustrations.

Superboy

With Clark gone though, John Henry Irons steps up to the plate and tries to be a new hero around the world, even if he can’t be everywhere. It’s honestly really nice to see him not give up on being a hero after recovering from his injuries.

However, the most important thing is that Jordan is now trying his hand at being a hero, even more so than when he protected Jon and Candice. It’s nice to see him actually using his powers to help save people, well mainly Kyle in this episode, instead of just continuing to train. That was beginning to get stale, so it was time to move on from him doing so and this episode does exactly that, which is great.

This also leads to a really solid argument about whether or not Jordan should be a superhero between him and Lois. It’s an organic mother/son argument where it’s very easy to understand both sides of the argument (and easy to cringe when both of them hurt their own argument because their emotions get the better of them!).

The episode provides some great growth for both of them though once Jordan convinces Candice to admit that she was the dealer and helps Lois and Sam find the X-Kryptonite operation. So, when both of them get captured and they need help, it’s genuinely nice to see Lois trust in her son to help save them.

Remembrance

As for Natalie, though, it turns out that the day that this episode takes place during is also the anniversary of her mom’s death and well, she’s obviously still struggling. And how John is acting doesn’t help. Her anger, frustration, and sadness are all justifiable as she still hasn’t time to properly adjust to everything else around her, so when she sees her dad seemingly just forgetting everything about their old life, it’s something that everyone can probably understand.

But after Nat calls John out for seemingly trying to forget his Lois, we get to see one of the most heartbreaking scenes of the season as John watches a video of Lois interacting with Nat, right after she was born. Seeing John Henry just break down crying, it’ll pull at your heartstrings, whether you have kids or not (which I very much don’t). And Wolé Parks gives his best performance since he first appeared on the show in that scene. He was brilliant.

Superman & Lois uses a great set-up this week to focus on the so many great character moments that it’s easy to feel like you don’t even want to see any of the superheroing moments.

Superman and Lois season 2 will now be taking a hiatus from The CW and will return on Tuesday, April 26, at 8:00 p.m. ET.

What did you think of Superman and Lois season 2, episode 9? Let us know in the comments below!