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This season has been divisive amongst the fandoms. There’ve been a myriad of complaints ranging from the Kyle/Lana drama, the lack of meaningful scenes between Clark and Lois, lackluster villains and the X-K story, but this episode was the breaking point for a lot of fans. What about this episode made Reddit and Twitter enraged fans? It is the writing for Clark and Jonathan.
Does Clark Even Like Jonathan?
Clark being a bad father to Jonathan isn’t a new problem. I’ve talked about it many times in my writings here. It started with episode two when Clark took Jordan to the Fortress and never even considered taking Jonathan. This wasn’t used for dramatic purposes to give Jonathan something he could rightfully take his father to task for. The narrative presented it as acceptable like the normie being at the Fortress would be unheard of and weird. The show continued this narrative of Clark favoring Jordan with only the occasional snide remark from Jonathan about Jordan being Superboy.
I began to hope Superman & Lois would address the favoritism they wrote over two seasons when Jon-El told Bizarro that he only cared about him when he got powers. A sentiment that Jonathan echoed to Clark in this episode when he said maybe he’d respect him if he had powers. Alas, the writers were tiptoeing around this issue just for plot reasons. They needed Jonathan to get snippy about Clark’s lying so Clark could reveal to Lana his secret.
Why make an episode that should be Clark’s relationship with his son as a doppelganger of said son is on the loose about Clark’s best friend? What type of galaxy brain thinking was this? Was this the same thinking that got us Clark lecturing Jonathan about integrity and misrepresenting the family when he was caught for huffing space rocks? Where was the concern for his son’s health? Clark was focused on optics and his only feelings and not the health of his son or even why he felt the need to take X-K.
Clark wasn’t even willing to take Jonathan to the Fortress to protect him. He gave the excuse that Jon-El could see what Jonathan could see. Did the show forget about Lara putting Bizarro in a containment field? She could do the same with Jon-El. Though that would mean Jonathan would be allowed at the Fortress and we can’t have that. That’s only for people with powers and Lois when Clark wants to propose.
Jonathan just existed to propel the Lana plot forward and be a damsel in distress so Jordan could have a cool moment saving the day. They could have had Jonathan stab Jon-El with X-K while trying to merge, but that would give Jonathan an active moment in the episode and give him a win. It isn’t a surprise this writing team wouldn’t want that.
There’s only four episodes left in this season and my hopes of the show addressing this issue in a satisfying way are nil. I don’t think this show is ever going to have Clark apologize for his favoritism because they don’t see it as favoritism. They see it as Jordan’s due as the rightful heir. The most I can expect is a hug and the status quo of Jonathan being treated like a stepson by his own father continuing into season three. Someone needs to ask Todd Helbing if he rooted for Lady Tremaine in Cinderella because it sure seems like he’d be wondering why Cinderella would even want to go to the ball when it wasn’t for her. Cinderella should just be happy that Lady Tremaine is even talking to her and letting her live in the house!
Lana Learns The Man She Went To 2nd Base With In High School Is Superman
While I loathed using Jonathan as a plot point to get Clark to reveal the secret to Lana, the actual scene itself was nice. The show continued the visual motif of Clark taking off the glasses and flying. Though this time instead of lifting a truck, he used his freeze breath on a tree. Lois only got flying for her reveal, so I guess Clark felt it best to keep it simple for the woman he had been lying to while dating and not flex too much.
Lana must feel like an idiot. She’s known Clark all her life. Her daughter was dating his son. They probably watched Masters of the Universe and G.I. Joe together while eating Martha’s cookies as children in the 80’s. It would be mind bending to learn your best friend was Superman. It would make you question your entire friendship with that person.
I do think it was time for Lana to learn the secret. You can only have the secret contained for so long from the supporting cast that aren’t in the Kent/Lane and Irons families. It would also be cruel to not let Lana know about a doppelganger that could come wanting to merge with her. That’s information she should have and give her X-K she can stab Bizarro Lana with.
I don’t want the whole cast to know. Keep Kyle and Chrissy in the dark so you can have a few cast members Clark has to pretend to be a normal guy with. It is inevitable that Sarah learns the truth but let that be season three or season four.
Jordan, Future Reddit Incel
After getting dumped by Sarah, Jordan became that guy who blows up your phone with texts trying to get you to talk to him. This is realistic for a teen boy dumped by his first love. It gets so bad that Lois takes his phone and advises him to write a letter to Sarah which he does and contains the secret that he’s Superman’s son. Unfortunately for him, Jordan tries to give Sarah the letter when her mother is missing. She isn’t really in the mood for his man pain and he gets dismissed.
The fandom has been really brutal to Sarah this season, but I’ll defend her. The kissing a girl at camp was a realistic bit of teen mistakes. A girl would dump a guy when he starts being really sketchy and unwilling to talk about what’s going on. If a man wanted to talk about our relationship while my mother was missing, I’d never speak to him again. Sarah’s behavior is writing choices that make sense to me and not on my list of mistakes this show has made this season.
Random thoughts about “Truth & Consequences”:
- I feel like a lack of meaningful scenes between Clark and Lois has really hurt this season. They haven’t really utilized Tyler and Bitsie’s chemistry like they did in the first season.
- I do like that they haven’t dragged out Jordan’s powers like Smallville did with Clark. He’ll probably have a costume by season four.
- This episode used Jonathan as a plot point, but Jordan Elsass did a good job playing both Jonathan and Jon-El.
- John Henry really has an NFL amount of head injuries at this point.
