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Lois and Clark were stressed AF in this episode. Imprisonment in a Hannibal Lector cage, a brother almost dying and a son huffing rocks to be good at football?! Yet neither one of them had it as bad as Bizarro.
Poor Bizarro Is Dead
Mitch continued his power trip by having Clark put in a cell with his amused brother Tahl-Rho. It is hilarious that Clark, the symbol of good and decency, is in captivity with a man who was bent on using humans as meat puppets. Clark refuses to give up the location of Whiter Clark AKA Bizarro, so Mitch tortures Tahl with a kryptonite collar. Clark gives them the location of his Fortress and not Tahl’s desert Fortress.
When the soldiers find Bizarro’s containment suit there, Mitch jumps to the wild conclusion that Superman is working with Bizarro. This makes no sense even if you look at it purely from Mitch’s point of view. If they were working together, why would they fight multiple times? Why would Superman ask for Mitch’s help to locate Bizarro before fighting him at Salar de Uyuni? Why ask Mitch politely for the pendant and not just storm the DOD? There’s no logic to it because all critical thinking skills have left his brain. He’s running on hatred.
After Clark and Tahl escape using a fake fight as a ruse, Mitch’s ready to go full Superman villain. Superman’s rogues tend to blame him for situations they created themselves. Blaming themselves would require a measure of self-awareness they aren’t capable of and would be too painful. Blaming Superman is convenient since he is a good man that makes it is easy for them to imagine ill intent when there is none and project every insecurity they have about themselves onto him.
Mitch hasn’t given Clark an inch all season. He’s wanted 100% control of every situation and when Clark balked at that, Mitch took it as a slight against him. This road of being offended Superman didn’t want to be his bitch as now made Mitch a Big Bad. He loads up on x-kryptonite and attacks Tahl’s Fortress. Tahl takes kryptonite bullets to the chest meant for Clark. He’s gone from shoving Zod into his brother to risking death for him. I don’t know how I feel about this growth from him. It does feel abrupt given that he’s only been in two episodes this season, but he has had months to reflect on his actions and Clark and his kids are the only family he has left.
When Clark takes Tahl to the sun so he can the sunlight he needs to heal, Mitch proceeds to murder Bizarro. I’m a fan of this move for a few reasons. It makes Bizarro’s arc distinct from John Henry Irons who also traveled from an alternate universe. He’s never going to have the journey from antagonist to ally. It makes his story even more tragic because his actions have partially led to Mitch giving Ally the other pendant she needs. If he had murdered fewer people, he possibly could have saved Earth Prime. Actions have consequences.
Snorting Rocks Is Bad
Jonathan had a rough week as rock peddling girlfriend tried to give him x-kryptonite when cops showed up x-kryptonite sniffing dogs. Yes, this has become a big enough problem that they’ve now trained dogs to sniff for rocks from Krypton. If they had those dogs in the TV series Smallville in the 2000’s, those dogs would have barking every 30 seconds given that universe used kryptonite like it was hemp. Kryptonite was even in gum!
Jonathan takes the baggie of rocks you can inhale since Candace lives in a trailer and she can’t handle her life getting any worse. This leads Jonathan to getting threatened with being expelled unless he tells where got the x-kryptonite. He isn’t arrested which makes sense given there being no laws prohibiting snorting rocks from space. Even worse for him than the threat of getting kicked out of school is Lois finding out. Elizabeth Tulloch’s Lois is one of the scariest mothers on television. It feels very real. I was scared and I haven’t been putting rocks in my body.
Lois demands to know where Jonathan got the poppers, excuse me, x-kryptonite from and he refuses to snitch on his dealer. He’s not going to ruin someone else’s life to save his own butt. This could be viewed as a moral position to take all the responsibility onto himself given no one forced him to use it, but it is stupid. Candace was the one who sold a substance that gives people superpowers to god knows how many teens. She should not skate from responsibility just because she’s had a hard life. What if one of those teens got heat vision and couldn’t control it? People could have been melted because of Candace.
I hope Jonathan gets powers because I’m tired of him being sad about not being special. I think they’ve milked every bit of story they can get out of it and it is only season two. It is time to move on from it.
A Woman Paying For a Man’s Actions
Mayor Dean used Kyle’s affair with the bartender to undermine Lana’s mayoral campaign. He painted himself as the family values candidate. I could understand using that in politics if the candidate was the one who cheated, but when it is the other way around it feels mean. I wouldn’t want to vote for someone who was like “Hey, everybody! She got cucked! How can she run a town when she can’t keep her man out of other women? I’m too busy in the church choir to be fornicating with women who work at establishments that sell the devil’s juice. I’m going to pray for Lana that whatever sexually transmitted diseases she’s picked up from her philandering husband clear up. Poor thing.”
Lana manages to turn Mayor Dean’s sleazy play back on him by pointing out how straight up mean it is to kick someone while they are down. It was the obvious move, but when someone digs a hole, you might as well kick the dirt down on them. It is what he deserves for being so dumb.
Meanwhile, Sarah didn’t really feel like she could talk to Jordan about her dad boinking another woman given that Clark has never cheated and never will cheat per showrunner Todd Helbing. She reaches out to the girl she kissed at summer camp, Aubrey. I would have preferred Sarah talk to Natalie about this given that they’ve already bonded, but Natalie is dealing with an injured father who presumably doesn’t have health insurance. Aubrey helps Sarah see that she doesn’t have to be mad at Kyle just for her mother’s sake and Sarah reaches out to her father.
Random thoughts about “Anti-Hero”:
- I wish we were getting more Lois and Clark together this season. It feels like most of the scenes they have are apart. This series is called Superman & Lois. Act like it.
- I hope Ally Alston actually becomes a version of Parasite. You’ve given her the name of one of the versions. You have to fulfil the implicit promise there. If I had to hear about bathtub pill cults and she doesn’t start draining people, I’m going to be mad.
- I do think a big reason why Bizarro had to die this early in the season is because it is a logistical nightmare to have your lead playing a dual role for multiple episodes. Tyler Hoechlin has enough of a workload playing his regular role and when you add on Whiter Clark, it gets harder.
- Lois has mostly been reacting to other people this season. I wish we had more of her being proactive.
