User Reviews

After that weird visit to Bizarro World we're back to the intense family dynamics that make this show so great. Some good action although they should teach the boys how to throw a punch. I was hoping beyond hope that revelation at the end would come to pass. The boys are right on this account. The family secret is causing irreparable harm. But once again Clark seemingly comes through. On a complaint note John Henry should not have survived that beating though I'm glad he did. Props on the superb acting as usual.

Finally, one of the big reveals!! Next could it be Jordan? I was seriously worried the show was going to hold back and make Clarke second guess his decision and say nothing - edge of my seat awesome moment waiting for the will he won't he.

But now she knows his secret, will she survive the end of the season?

Also, one complaint, the amount of time and the speed at which Lana was moving to remove that kryptonite was so painful to watch and not in a good way. Terrible writing for this scene!!

This is the way you change the obvious flaw in the canon of Superman, his secret identity. This opens up the story line in so many ways now, both to the better, yet much more complicated at the same time. Once the family secret is out to anyone, it eventually becomes public knowledge. And I expect we see that Jordan telling Sarah won't just make it all good, the relationship didn't change, and he was keeping big secrets from her.

I think this episode was fine, there were a few epic moments but also many stupid things like:

John Henry Irons spent severel episodes in a coma after getting beaten by Bizarro. Now evil Lana beats much more brutally and he just walks away.

It's mentioned that evil Lana was sent back to her world, but how? How could they throw her in the vortex without them getting caught in it? Also previous episodes established that even Superman can't just simply go through the portal. He needed his full speed to be able to pass. If two human just threw the unconcious Lana in that would kill her because there is no way she could survive (but of cource she will because the writing is very inconsistent).

Jordan is simply an idiot. As a character he's been reduced to a stupid loverboy who chooses to reveal the family secret to the girl who just cheated on her and therefor putting his entire family and Sarah in danger most likely ruining her life for good. And Why? Because he is selfish and stupid. Also the scene where Lana is taken and he insists on talking to Sarah about his feelings is pathetic. 'Hey Sarah, I know your mother just went missing but let's talk about my feelings'... Stupid and insensitive.

Jon-El's "masterplan" could had been easily stopped if Superman simply froze the explosion he caused which would had been the safer way to save Lana.

Clark telling Lana her secret was not necessary. It just came out of nowhere. The show spent a lot of time on Lana this season but she barely interacted with the Kents. Such reveal should had been built up during the whole season and not just rushed in a single episode. And there were really no logical reason for him to tell her especailly after the last episode where Clark saw the consequences of revealing his secret to the world. It's just bad writing.

But the most disappointing part was the reveal itself. The most iconic Superman moment is his ripping off his shirt to reveal the S logo, but the show for some reason keeps avoiding this. Clark was in the right clothes to do so but instead he decided to start levitating in the middle of a road, where cars can come by, where houses are surronding them. It's just reckless! And what was the point of freezing a random tree? Just pointless.

Wow, I have not reviewed a single episode this season, huh? Overall thoughts: Not as good as season 1, but still pretty good, though I think this "half" of the season has been better than the front half (pretty much everything before that first monthlong break). That first half of the season had some weird choices made like the reveal of Bizarro being too early in my opinion, and his death also coming way too soon (for very little payoff I may add, so thanks for dying as soon as you became a real character, Anderson); Sarah cheating on Jordan off-screen in-between seasons going completely under the radar because the person she cheated on him with was a girl, then the show refusing to acknowledge Sarah's hypocrisy when she finds out that her dad cheated on her mom; and Anderson just being an awkward fit for the show in general, especially since they didn't end up doing *anything* with him! Safe to say that the front half of this season was a little all over the place.

The back half has been pretty solid however. I'm really liking Bizarro Jon-El (though they totally should've just gone all in on the Connor Kent thing and called him Con-El in the Bizarro World, but I do understand why they didn't), I think he's a fun character and you can just tell that Jordan Elsass is having the time of his life in the role! He's so much fun to watch! If there's been one standout in these last two episodes, it's been Elsass. Man's on fire this season! And since he's the main antagonist for this episode, it puts his performance on full display and it is fantastic! His character is such a conniving little brat that you really want to hate him when he does what he does in this episode, but you can't bring yourself to hate him in a Malcolm Merlyn or a Season 1 Eobard Thawne kindof way!

And this was a mostly great week for Jordan too. The faceoff between him and Jon-El was fun to see, and I loved finally getting to see Jordan fly, officially completing his kryptonian powerset, though the fight itself had some clearly whiffed punches because both Jordan Elsass and Alex Garfin were doing the fight themselves, but you wouldn't notice that the punches didn't land if you weren't looking for it (the fight scenes in Daredevil have been making me pay more attention for that kind of stuff). When it came to the stuff between Jordan and Sarah however, that's where the episode lost me. I understand where they're both coming from, especially with Jordan's social anxiety disorder making him go into overdrive and overthink everything, but I do have a couple things to point out here, and one of them ties into the larger theme of this episode.

1. Lois went to Lana's office to help smooth things over between Clark and Lana, and Sarah just happened to be there dropping Lana's stuff off. *Sarah* was the one that *started* the conversation, not the other way around. I have serious doubts that Lois would've said anything about Jordan and Sarah's breakup with Lana in the room, yet Jordan wouldn't let Lois get a word in about it. Yes, a conversation happened, but do I think that's what Lois went there for? No.

2. I know Jordan wants Sarah to know that he's Superboy, but the Kent family keeps their secret for a reason. You and your dad had a conversation about it in "The Thing in the Mines", and you agreed not to tell Sarah until five-ish years down the line. So spare me the way that you railroaded your mom about wanting to tell Sarah your secret when you and your father have already had this discussion! Him being gone for a month does not mean that the terms of your agreement changed no matter how much you want them to.

And 3. Jordan, buddy, Sarah cheated on you! She cheated on you and lied about it for a week before you finally found out and reacted exactly like you should've! That was an example of the "You lied to me" trope done right since the anger wasn't focused on the lie itself, but instead on what the lie means for the people involved. Sarah cheated on you and hurt you (and me because these actors have fantastic chemistry and I shipped the crap out of them in season 1, and I *never* ship), and you deserve better, man! It's okay to want Sarah back, but there's gonna be a point where you have to realize that if she didn't feel bad about it (which the audience knows she didn't based on her interactions with her mom in "The Thing in the Mines"), and you're just gonna have to move on. Losing your first love sucks, and I get that, but you deserve better than a cheating hypocrite. Yes, that's Sarah's character. She's a cheating hypocrite.

And can we also just talk for a second about how Sarah wants Jordan to get to know Audrey? You know, the person she cheated on him with? What did you think his reaction was gonna be? He's clearly not comfortable with that based on his reaction to you cheating on him in the first place, so why not back off about it instead of forcing him into it? I know that conversation technically went down in "Into Oblivion" (there was a month long break, so please let me have this one if I'm incorrect), but I couldn't not comment on it since I was ranting about Sarah.

And now for the big reveal of the episode. Well, big reveal to the audience, not the characters. The big reveal is... That The CW does, in fact, make Superman and Lois. And by that, I mean that Clark pulls a Barry Allen and tells someone that he's Superman. Yes, I know that this is a first for this show, and I am also aware that this is only the second season so maybe I should cut them a little slack on stuff like this. It might end up being good, we don't know. But based on the preview for the next episode where we hear Lana screaming at Clark "You lied to me", I think we all know where this is going.

I've already complained about this enough when Stargirl pulled this in "Summer School: Chapter Nine" and "Summer School: Chapter Ten" last season but I'll say it again here, "You lied to me" is an objectively bad trope. Clark has every reason in the book to keep his secret, and I'd bet real money that none of those reasons are going to be discussed in the next episode!

In fact, secrets is a big theme in this episode, though it's never explored in great detail if I'm being honest. Jonathan is mad that in the Bizarro World his family was public about their secret identity, which makes NO SENSE for him to be angry about, and that makes him go on a legit tirade about his dad keeping his identity secret from the people he cares about as if that's Jonathan's secret to tell, which it isn't! Clark hasn't told anyone his identity unless he trusts them 100%. He was in love with Lois and knew that she could keep her mouth shut since she was a trained reporter, so all evidence points to it being alright to tell her. Lana and Sarah are a different beast entirely though.

Sarah is a lying cheater that should never be trusted, and Lana is an emotionally mature adult that's currently going through some massive life changes what with her being mayor and finding out that her husband cheated on her a while ago (and Kyle came clean about everything afterwards and showed legitimate remorse by the way, which is what separates him from Sarah). The difference between Lois and Lana is that Lois's job requires her to be good at keeping secrets sometimes, whereas Lana is just a regular civilian in the grand scheme of things. Lana could screw up and say the wrong thing to the wrong person, and then everyone on earth would know Clark's secret and Lois and the boys might be dead overnight! This is a world that canonically has murderous speedsters, evil time travelers, literal demons, beings made out of pure grief that believe all life on earth needs to be extinguished, and whatever the heck Gary Green from Legends of Tomorrow is supposed to be! We can't leave anything up to the chance of a human error.

That all said, I will give credit where it's due. The moment where Clark tells Lana his secret is shot beautifully! It very much echoes the moment from the Pilot where Clark revealed his identity to Lois (I think he was even wearing the same jacket which is a great detail you don't expect from a CW show), and it's a really cool moment in itself. I just think the way we got here is absolutely ludicrous!

I know I complained a lot about this episode, but I did legitimately like it. Not one of the season's best, but far from the worst thing I've seen from the CW this year. That award still goes to the time travel logic from The Flash's "Armageddon, Part 4". I just see the way the show is heading and am very scared for their future. So if you're gonna take Clark revealing his secret to Lana and do nothing but play the "You lied to me" card, don't do it! Don't even think about it!

7 / 10

I just hope that next episode doesn't focus so much on the fact that Clark kept the secret, and deals more with what it means to the characters to know that Clark is Superman *now*. When's the next episode airing again? MAY 31ST?? ARE YOU KIDDING ME? WE JUST GOT BACK FROM A MONTH LONG BREAK AND NOW WE'RE GETTING ANOTHER ONE! Say what you want about Stargirl season 2, but at least all of their episodes aired week-by-week to keep the viewers engaged! I swear, it's like the CW WANTS this show to fail sometimes! There's barely gonna be any viewers left by the finale at this rate!

It's just dumb! All of this is really stupid to me! Jonathan's so in love with a girl, who's obviously not going to stay with him, that he wants to tell his secret to her in hopes she'll stay. Jordan is jealous because he doesn't have powers. Now Clark and Lois want to tell Lana so she can be burdened with the secret as well. It's just idiotic! After seeing the bizarro world you would think Clark would completely understand why his secret must remain just that! A secret! Both his boys are idiots and will become targets as soon as the world knows who he is. Lois will forever be a target. The government will use his father-in-law. It's just stupid to me. I thought in the movies that young Clark was naive but his kids are just a whole other level of sheer and other stupidity.