S01.E06: Broken Trust

[scarynikki12]

Quote

Clark reconsiders his decision to let Jordan play football.

 

 

[scarynikki12]

Look at Supes going old school and saving a train.

 I’m glad Jordan will heal quickly but can still get hurt. In theory this should lead him to be more careful. Of course he’s still a teenager so…

Seeing Jordan’s sensitivity to the fork in the bowl and the locker makes me hope Smallville no longer has chalkboards.

Jon’s glee while Jordan has heart eyes over Sarah’s plan to attend the game is why I love him. He’s just a snugglemuffin.

I’m glad Jon was present for the barn training. When/if it’s time for him to get powers he’ll have a foundation for handling them.

I really want to know if Jon hurting his hand on the log in the background of Clark’s call with Lane was scripted. Because that shit was hilarious.

Jon finally got to play! And Jordan was able to focus on protecting his brother.

So do we think Marcus is his real first name? The Luthors like alliteration so it may not be.

I love Clark placing his hands in front of Jordan’s eyes to absorb his power when he lost control. That was badass and makes sense due to how riled up his old bully was getting him.

Jordan when your mom suggests Rocky Road you take her up on it.

I really love Barreling Through Almost Getting Killed To Get To Her X-Kryptonite Reveal Lois. And Clark lightly banging his head on the table was the perfect response.

Lana is officially on Team Lois!

[cambridgeguy]

They never really explained why Metropolis would host Smallville, did they?  That's one heck of a trip for an unremarkable small town Kansas high school football team to make.  On the plus side, it looks like the Kents are better off being out of there. 

And they did a good job with a pissed off Superman.  Still doesn't explain why they had kryptonite bullets unless Sam really was willing to kill him if he got in the way.

 

[bettername2come]

I yelled "Yes!" when Jon blocked his brother's punch thinking he'd be getting powers there/appreciating his willingness to jump in the fight to fix the situation. Sad but not unrealistic. Nor was it unrealistic that they explicitly ignored their father's command for them to stay in the room. They are believably dumb teenagers who make believably dumb decisions. It's quite refreshing. 

Clark looked scary going up against the DoD. I can see things like that making Sam more likely to listen to Luthor's warning about Superman. I did like Sam being protective over Tag attacking his grandson. 

I also liked seeing Lois getting a chance to have a heart to heart with Jordan about dealing with his powers. It's been a very Clark-focused thing, so it's nice to see her bonding with her son. Oh, and I loved Clark and Jon celebrating when Jordan punched the log and focused his powers. There's a lot of nice family moments throughout the show that makes it different from other DC shows right now. And not even with the Kents, Sarah's family had a good story too tonight, including some sisterly bonding. 

6 minutes ago, scarynikki12 said:

So do we think Marcus is his real first name? The Luthors like alliteration so it may not be.

Maybe Lamarcus? With Marcus as either a nickname or an easy alias. With Lex being named Alexander, the family's not too opposed to non-L names, at least on the birth certificate.

[Lantern7]

After another episode of the bland arc going on over at The Flash, it was nice to come back to Smallville. Granted, a lot of character still haven't grown beyond the one dimension . . . but you can get a laugh at Jonathan in the background, wrecking his hand trying to punch the log. And it was foreshadowing!

Honestly, are all football players on TV shows meatheads? Of course the Crows wanted to celebrate their upset . . . and, of course, the Metropolis High kids had to greet them. I mean . . . five of them dogpiled Jordan for kicks. They weren't being disciplined? Nope . . . they had to come out to trigger Jordan, leading to Jonathan breaking his hand. That was a lot worse than Jordan going heat vision into his father's head . . . and while that wasn't as nasty as I just typed it, you gotta wonder if the team wasn't getting hungry smelling Clark's cooked hand.

Do not piss off Superman. CGI rage monster on The Flash doesn't compare to assholes shooting him with Kryptonite bullets. As much of a drag a Clark can be as a father, as one-note as he might come across as Superman, you can see why controlling his emotions is an ongoing battle for him. It's not always easy to be a good person. I hope that makes sense.

Marcus is pretty smooth . . . at least before he and Lois got attacked. Minimum, I hope he sticks around long enough to meet Lex. Marcus must be annoyed as hell that the main Luthor on this Earth is that big of an asshole.

[scarynikki12]

17 minutes ago, cambridgeguy said:

Still doesn't explain why they had kryptonite bullets unless Sam really was willing to kill him if he got in the way.

I’m not 100% but I think they had them for Tag. 

[AimingforYoko]

26 minutes ago, cambridgeguy said:

And they did a good job with a pissed off Superman.  Still doesn't explain why they had kryptonite bullets unless Sam really was willing to kill him if he got in the way.

I don't know about you guys, but I'm beginning to suspect that Sam Lane might be a bit of an asshole.

[scarynikki12]

29 minutes ago, bettername2come said:

Maybe Lamarcus? With Marcus as either a nickname or an easy alias. With Lex being named Alexander, the family's not too opposed to non-L names, at least on the birth certificate.

That’s true. Oh! Maybe the Luthor family on his Earth is obsessed with first names starting with M? Maybe pre-Crisis each Luthor family on 25 of the other Earths was obsessed with a different letter of the alphabet? So there was Marcus Luthor, Dan Luthor, Walter Luthor, and Burt Luthor. We’ll never know but that’d be fun. 

[bettername2come]

5 minutes ago, scarynikki12 said:

That’s true. Oh! Maybe the Luthor family on his Earth is obsessed with first names starting with M? Maybe pre-Crisis each Luthor family on 25 of the other Earths was obsessed with a different letter of the alphabet? So there was Marcus Luthor, Dan Luthor, Walter Luthor, and Burt Luthor. We’ll never know but that’d be fun. 

I think you're forgetting the obvious...26 letters in the alphabet...DC obsession with the number 52...There's two worlds of each letter!

[Jediknight]

19 minutes ago, AimingforYoko said:

I don't know about you guys, but I'm beginning to suspect that Sam Lane might be a bit of an asshole.

You'd think that his talk with Clark about Tag would have sent up some red flags.  It's one thing to be protective, it's another thing to call a scared teenager a monster.

Clark and Lois are great parents.

Jordan threw that punch, the camera went to slow motion, and Jonathan blocked it?  Jon's got some super speed, I'm guessing.  He just hasn't full unlocked it yet.

How inattentive are the Langs?  We saw that Tag broke the front door when he knocked out and abducted Sara, and they don't even notice that the door is screwed up.

[memememe76]

Jordan is SO ANNOYING. I have literally no interest in seeing him control his powers. In the much shorter time frame, Tag is far more sympathetic when it comes to him dealing with his powers. 

[anamika]

Good episode.

But couldn't Lois also spend a little time with the son who got his hand broken and is now scared of his football prospects? Maybe eat some ice cream with him too? I really feel for that kid.

[Lantern7]

4 minutes ago, memememe76 said:

Jordan is SO ANNOYING. I have literally no interest in seeing him control his powers. In the much shorter time frame, Tag is far more sympathetic when it comes to him dealing with his powers. 

Quick thought before bed: maybe Jordan is a mope as a tribute to Smallville? C’mon, you can see him and that Clark having an angst-off.

Also, I guess “X-K” is going to be the plot device that creates metahumans. I get flashbacks to MBTV, where Omar G. referred to Kryptonite as “plot rocks.” Or, for the Brits, “premise stones.”

[thuganomics85]

Superman & Lois returns and reminds everyone that, yep, parenting a kid with superpowers; even when one of the parents has them as well; is rough!

I'm trying to remind myself that a lot of Jordan (and Jonathan's) antics are atypical teenager misbehaving and normally things that can hopefully be grown out of or fixed after learning from some harsh mistakes.  But, yeah, when you have super-strength and could literally kill someone with your eyes alone, that just takes everything to a whole other level.   Despite his brattiness, I do feel for Jordan on that end, but the kid really is going to have to grow up quicker than others, or it might get even worse than what happened tonight.

Still, I feel for Jonathan the most.  While he isn't without his flaws (hiding the truth from Clark at first and allowing Jordan to go out partying were both wrong calls), he really has gone above and beyond being a supportive brother, and has his own burden to bear with having to not just protect Jordan's identity, but even Jorden from himself.  And now he not only broke his hand, but there is a good chance he might never fully recover from it.  Damn.  I don't know if he'll get powers or not, but I hope Jonathan at least gets some kind of positive outcome here, when it is all said and done.

Glad Clark was able to get to Tag in time, but damn, he/Tyler Hoechin was actually kind of scary when he briefly lost his cool and got in that solider's face!  Really shows that it is a great thing that Clark was raised in a loving family and learned to not let his emotions get the better of him.  Because imagine what he would have been like without that moral compass (Answer?  Probably 

Spoiler

like Omni-Man from Invincible!

Lois' investigation into Morgan Edge leads her to teaming up with "Marcus" a.k.a. Luthor, and not only getting close to the truth on that front, but also figuring out that there is something off about good old Marcus.  Because most reporters don't tend to carry a ray gun around with them...

Sarah might be onto Jordan now.  Will she be the next to find out about the Kents?!

Lana is probably right that Kyle is making an effort, but he is still all over the place and I feel like he still lands on "being a dick" most of the time.

Pretty good return, I thought.  And in general, the acting; especially from the Kent family cast; are probably some of the best out of the superhero shows right now.  Great casting all around.

[BeautifulFlower]

Jordan is clearly developing his super hearing right?

"I don't have a quarterback." Okay.......so what position was Jonathan then? Was he not the backup quarterback? 

I'm glad Lana is going to work with Lois. If only Kyle could come around.....

I'm glad Clark and Lois agreed that Jonathan had every right to be mad. I feel bad for Jonathan. You can clearly see how left out he feels in the log scene. As well as the football team cheering with Jordan. I'm happy he finally got to play football. Seriously, what position was he before this game?

Kudos to Lois not letting go of "Marcus" using things that would get any other person arrested for having as well as his suspicious backstory.

[dwmarch]

I'm starting to think the real villain of this show is football. Every time these kids get into trouble it's football-related. "Dad, I have rage headaches and might randomly shoot lasers from my eyes but I need to go show the douchebags that I'm not afraid of them anymore! And I must do it in the ritual gladiator combat arena known as American Football!" Sure son, go get your aggression out on the field, what's the worst thing that could happen?

I had a good laugh at Clark standing in for the audience. "Why does a journalist have a ray gun? That doesn't make any sense!"

Once again, the reach of the CGI exceeded its grasp but I appreciate the ambition with that train sequence. Someone in the writer's room was all "and then Tag will bend the train tracks to send a freight train flying but Superman will swoop in and use his laser-vision to fix the tracks and set the train down gently!" and someone in production was like, "sure, why not?"

3 hours ago, scarynikki12 said:

I’m not 100% but I think they had them for Tag. 

They didn't develop them for Tag though and Supes knows that which is why he is righteously pissed. This is one area in which I think DC does better than Marvel. How does Marvel stop their powered individuals? With bureaucracy! How does DC do it? They either recruit other powered people (Suicide Squad) or they build weapons that would ruin Superman's day.

[Chicago Redshirt]

1 hour ago, BeautifulFlower said:

Jordan is clearly developing his super hearing right?

"I don't have a quarterback." Okay.......so what position was Jonathan then? Was he not the backup quarterback? 

It is pretty frustrating that the writers just don't seem to get football or remember continuity around it.

The show clearly established that Jonathan was going to be the starting QB at Metropolis HS, and that it was a pretty good football program. Then moving to Smallville meant that he took a back seat to the reigning QB there and was even called QB2, or backup. That the coach apparently forgot that he had Jonathan as QB2 is pathetic, let alone the notion that a high school football program would not have a backup QB (not to mention most likely a third-string QB and an emergency backup to that person). It's only the most important position on the field. It's almost as pathetic as the coach not having tried to use Jonathan's knowledge of the Metropolis players and playbook to the Crows' advantage. It also bugs me more than it should that Jordan had been established as a defensive standout. Although the show called him a defensive back, the coach used him only as a pass rusher. But in this episode, he apparently was switched to offense for some reason, because coach told him that the Metropolis linebacker had been killing them and wanted Jordan to put a stop to it. 

The show gets so many things right. Like Clark's characterization as himself and Supes is pretty close to perfect. And I think in the few episodes so far, there has been far more success in creating the right amount of balance between showing him as a badass while presenting him with actual challenges in a way that neither Supergirl nor Flash have ever really demonstrated.

In other areas:

I am officially at the point where I am tired of Jonathan being the good son and getting crapped on. Give him his own powers, let him sulk for more than a scene about how he has gotten royally screwed. Have Jordan be the supportive brother for a change.

I know that kids will be kids, but in this particular case, Jordan and Jonathan really should have listened to their dad and stayed out of sight since there was a superhuman who was potentially stalking them. Although in fairness, Supes should have stashed them in any of the million places that Tag would likely never have thought to look for them even with super-speed, instead of just leaving them at the hotel with the Smallville football team, the same team Tag was a part of and could easily learn what hotel they were at.

I am tired of Kyle's raging man-crush on Morgan Edge, so I enjoyed that he got blown out thinking that Morgan was going to hire him to be his right hand guy and  getting passed over for Lana. I put the over/under on how many episodes before Edge makes a pass on Lana at 3.

I consider it a major super-parenting fail that everyone was like "it was a mistake" that Jordan crippled Jonathan. It's not like Jordan slipped on a banana peel and his fist ended up in Jonathan's palm while his chocolate ended up in Jordan's peanut butter. Jordan fully intended to punch Metropolis bully. He could have killed him or at least imposed serious damage if Jonathan didn't intervene. Despite the nice message about the importance of trust, Jordan broke his on multiple times and levels in this episode. He broke his promise about being able to control himself on the football field. He lied by omission about what he was experiencing so he could play the football game against his old classmates. He didn't listen to Clark's command to stay in the hotel room so he could pick up alcohol. And he lost control of his powers and emotions a second time by some basic trash-talk. Please, show, let Jordan suffer the consequences of his actions just once. Or let him stop his incessant whining at least once to realize that he doesn't have to live up to the abilities or the sheer goodness of being Superman, but that he can be a decent guy in his own right.

[kickingnames]

The Smallville football coach is the worst. “I don’t have a quarterback?” Never mind the kid decked out in pads talking to you was expected to be the starting quarterback at the school that you are currently playing. That was ridiculous.

With Jonathan injured and Jordan really struggling with his powers, any chance we can maybe move away from football as the conduit/metaphor for the teens’ growth? (I like football and all, but seriously...)

Poor Clark just had such a not-good day:

• His son nearly blows up a football game
• He finds out that said son has been hiding his increasingly tenuous grip on his powers from Clark
• He has to deal with a traumitzed and confused kid with powers who has kidnapped his friend’s daughter
• He has to protect said confused kid from the military by stepping in front of kryptonite bullets (bet that felt great)
• He gets to confirm that his father-in-law has commissioned kryptonite bullets for use by the military, even (especially?) against Clark himself
• He has to deal with one of his sons seriously injuring the other
• He finds out (1) his wife almost got killed while all this was going on because (2) another of their enemies also has powers

I love him practically banging his head against the table by the end. He’d had a long day.

Edited May 19, 2021 by kickingnames

[Cthulhudrew]

Am I the only one who wondered why no one brought up the idea that if Jon hadn't blocked Jordan's punch, that he might have killed that other kid? Because that kind of seems like an important object lesson here, too.

Also, just how many L-L names are we going to get on this show? Lois Lane, Lana Lang, Leslie Larr, possibly an L-Luthor...

[ukgirl71]

Another superb episode.  I am loving the subtle acting choices nearly as much as the storyline - Clarke’s various tones of voice in his conversations with Jordan, the little look of jealousy (?) from Jon in the barn training session, the look in Lois’s eyes when Luther tells her the stone is x-Kryptonite (something in her own backyard that could harm her husband and family, after all), and her eyes conveying her pain at not being able to heal Jordan’s hurt in their conversation on the porch.  

I love that the mama bear instinct is helping push the storyline on - Lois’s determination to get in the mines is provoked in the first few minutes by the threat to her son, via Tag, while Sara’s kidnap moves Lana to act now that she knows Edge is somehow behind the boy’s powers.  Lois’s reporter instincts are now in overdrive with both Edge and Luther.  And now that Sara is clearly suspicious of Jordan...  This show is doing a great job of giving everyone a chance to shine.  Even Kyle’s motivations are noble, if misguided.

Clarke’s reaction at the table to Lois’s almost afterthought of her nearly getting killed was note perfect - the problems are really piling up for him, especially now that Sam’s soldier side seems to be winning out over his family side.  I loved the parallel between Jordan’s anger and Superman’s - total kudos to Tyler the way he can switch so successfully from protective dad to furious superhero.  

I agree that Jon’s interception of the punch suggests some sort of superspeed is brewing - I do hope so.  Not that I think it will interrupt what is a beautifully, and realistically, played sibling relationship, but perhaps Jon’s anger over the threat to his football career (and a quick trip to Edge’s CAT scan machine?) will be the trigger for his powers.

The CGI at the train stopping might have been a little ropey, but it made up for me with Clark carrying Jordan off at the end.

Edited May 19, 2021 by ukgirl71
Forgot to add a bit

[cambridgeguy]

5 hours ago, kickingnames said:

The Smallville football coach is the worst. “I don’t have a quarterback?” Never mind the kid decked out in pads talking to you was expected to be the starting quarterback at the school that you are currently playing. That was ridiculous.

He's also not very observant.  So Jordan just stood there in a daze while the QB got decked?  No cause for concern, keep him out there!  Although maybe they're trying to setup Clark as the new coach in future seasons. 

[Chicago Redshirt]

10 hours ago, cambridgeguy said:

They never really explained why Metropolis would host Smallville, did they?  That's one heck of a trip for an unremarkable small town Kansas high school football team to make.  On the plus side, it looks like the Kents are better off being out of there. 

And they did a good job with a pissed off Superman.  Still doesn't explain why they had kryptonite bullets unless Sam really was willing to kill him if he got in the way.

 

I think S&L employs the same geography as the show Smallville, namely that Metropolis is a big town in Kansas about three hours away from Smallville, rather than a New York proxy on the East Coast. In which case, it would make sense that they would be on the same football schedule.

One thing that occurs to me: the twins are canonically freshmen and the move to Smallville seemingly happened early during their freshman year. So there probably wasn't much time for all the taunting and other problems to have taken place while they were at Metropolis. Sure, some of the kids may have gone to the same junior high as the twins and been douches then. But the notion of a longstanding torment doesn't make sense if they were in Metropolis High for like a month.

The two reasons that come to mind:

1. They anticipated Superman was going to potentially interfere and they wanted to be prepared to deal with him. if that possibility arose.

2. The DOD knows some about X-K, and regular kryptonite affects people who have gotten powers through X-K similar to how it affects actual Kryptonians.

[Lady Calypso]

This was a solid episode back from a two month break. The family aspect, not just from Clark, Lois, Jonathan and Jordan, but from the Langs as well, is the best part of this show. Seeing the various dynamics and how they work, or don't work, is fascinating to me. I loved getting to see Jordan and Lois share a solo scene together; they haven't really, so it was good to see Lois get to talk to Jordan about his fears. She really has a protective touch, but is also just as stern as Clark is. They both really swap roles on Good Cop/Bad Cop and it works well for their family dynamic.

Poor Jonathan. Of course he's a teenage boy, so disobeying Clark's orders to stay in was to be expected. But he has been doing so much to help Jordan, and been such an amazing brother. He saw what Clark did to help Jordan on the field and he thought he could intervene and stop Jordan from using his super strength on their enemy, even the douchey guy who taunted Jonathan about stealing his girlfriend (btw, I'm totally fine with never meeting this girl because she's also an ass if she starts dating one of Jonathan's old friends IMMEDIATELY after breaking up, unless Douchey QB is lying). And what does he get for it? A broken hand. Jonathan has definitely had it rough the last six episodes. Poor kid needs a break, and I'm glad he got to express his total anger and have Lois and Clark both let him do so. 

Also, screw the football coach. He sucks ass. Sure, continue to bench the kid that was supposed to be the star QB for Metropolis and only put him in after the other QB can't go out.

Jordan obviously needs to get himself under control, and obviously football is not the answer. He's had a few episodes where his powers haven't been a huge deal, but now they definitely are. I'm glad he showed a whole lot of guilt for harming Jonathan and that was his primary focus on the loss of control over his powers. The brotherly dynamic also works so well for me. Jordan and Jonathan have showcased their love for each other so much and it's fascinating to watch. They've really built up that relationship well. 

Speaking of that, the background scene where Clark is talking to Sam while training Jordan, and we see Jonathan injure his hand trying to do what Jordan did? Hilarious. I LOVE that we got that because I found myself not paying any attention to the Clark/Sam conversation because I was so distracted by Jordan and Jonathan. Those moments are going to make the show successful.

I appreciate that we got a little more of Sarah and her family. I don't even remember her sister's name, but I am glad we got to have a small scene with them. I'm also glad we got to see Tag again because it's important to show that not everyone who was given powers, or had powers awoken in them, are meant to do bad. Similarly to Jordan, they might just be struggling for control. Having Tag insistent on not harming Sarah purposefully but needing her help on understanding what he thought Jordan did was, at least, an opening to Sarah being suspicious of Jordan. 

So, "Marcus" Luthor and Lois find X-Kryptonite and that also opens the door to a new investigation from Lois on Luthor. I'm glad she's caught on to him.

That ending worked well, in the build-up with Jordan finally losing control and Clark finally needing to get him the proper help to figure out Jordan's powers. I do feel bad for Jordan, who really has been struggling to fit in, and I can't really blame a fourteen year old boy for not knowing how to control his emotions or powers. I also like Clark explaining to Jordan about how their anger ties to their powers, and even having that showcase in this episode. I think having that also connects to the whole purpose of Luthor being around out of fear of Evil Superman. I like the connection that, without Clark's total control, he COULD turn out to be the Evil Superman that Luthor knew from his Earth.

[Diapason Untuned]

8 hours ago, Chicago Redshirt said:

The show gets so many things right. Like Clark's characterization as himself and Supes is pretty close to perfect. And I think in the few episodes so far, there has been far more success in creating the right amount of balance between showing him as a badass while presenting him with actual challenges in a way that neither Supergirl nor Flash have ever really demonstrated.

This show has so much heart to it, and I love that it's centred around Clark being a dad, being a son and being a member of a community. That stuff informs his superhero career every day and it's great that the show is leaning into that.

 

Quote

I am tired of Kyle's raging man-crush on Morgan Edge, so I enjoyed that he got blown out thinking that Morgan was going to hire him to be his right hand guy and  getting passed over for Lana. I put the over/under on how many episodes before Edge makes a pass on Lana at 3.

The look on his face when Edge passed him over was something else. 😁

I would ask if Edge would be so dumb as to mess up the works by screwing around with an employee at this sensitive stage in the game, but hey, he's Morgan Edge after all 😅
 

Quote

I am officially at the point where I am tired of Jonathan being the good son and getting crapped on. Give him his own powers, let him sulk for more than a scene about how he has gotten royally screwed. Have Jordan be the supportive brother for a change.

I agree. Seriously, give the kid a win for once, show!

 

Quote

I know that kids will be kids, but in this particular case, Jordan and Jonathan really should have listened to their dad and stayed out of sight since there was a superhuman who was potentially stalking them. Although in fairness, Supes should have stashed them in any of the million places that Tag would likely never have thought to look for them even with super-speed, instead of just leaving them at the hotel with the Smallville football team, the same team Tag was a part of and could easily learn what hotel they were at.

To be fair, Clark was going right out to deal with Tag, so it wasn't an issue.

Edited May 19, 2021 by Diapason Untuned

[LeisureTime]

Forget geographic location in the state, just school size-wise, there's no way Metroplis and Smallville would play each other, right?  Unless Metroplis High is the comically smallest school in the whole city it's named for, they'd be in entirely different classes. Fellow Kansans, help me out here. But mostly, I have to get over that (and the "I've got no quarterback, QB2!" coach) because the rest of the episode was phenomenal. But do add me to the list wishing someone had pointed out what could have happened if the blow that snapped bones in Jonathan's wrist had hit Cutter in the face. He'd probably be dead or using a feeding tube for the rest of his life.

[AimingforYoko]

14 minutes ago, LeisureTime said:

Forget geographic location in the state, just school size-wise, there's no way Metroplis and Smallville would play each other, right?

I don't know about everywhere, but in Minnesota, the city schools are actually in the smaller classes. All the big schools are in the suburbs. 

Minneapolis North, for example is in 1A, the second smallest class just above Nine-Man.

[tennisgurl]

Really happy to see this show back again, its just as good as ever. The various dynamics among the Kents and even the Langs are so complex and warm but also often frustrating, in the way that families often are. Poor Clark is just having one hell of a day, if its not one things its another. One son is having tons of issues with his powers and accidently hurt the other one, his father in law is making bullets especially designed to hurt him and tried to use them on a scared child, his wife is almost killed and now another bunch of superpowered bad guys is here to cause trouble. Hopefully he and Lois get a date night in the near future, he really needs some chill time. 

I feel bad for Jordan, having these powers and little control over them must be so hard to deal with on top of normal teenage stuff, and I could really feel his remorse and fear over what he accidently to his brother. I feel worse for Jonathan though, he just tries so hard to be a good son and brother and he just keeps getting the shaft. Honestly I think that Lois and Clark were a bit too easy on Jordan for what he did, he could have seriously injured or killed that kid if Jonathan hadn't intervened, not only possibly killing a kid over some lame trash talk but exposing him as having super strength. Its tough that he has to deal with these powers, but Jonathan is the one who got his arm so broken that he might never be able to use it fully again, I think he's the one who has had the worst day, at least until Jordan apparently overloaded. Jordan did make a mistake in hurting Jonathan, but he very much meant to hit that jerk, even if he might not have thought about what that would actually mean. I am glad that Clark and Lois said that Jonathan had every right to be upset, but I would have liked to have seen one of them checking up on Jonathan instead of spending their whole time comforting Jordan. He does really need to learn how to use his powers with responsibility, but he also needs to realize that the consequences of his actions are very real. This seems to be just a variation on their usual family roles, Jordan is having issues and needs all of the attention and Jonathan is either taking care of his brother or just ends up getting ignored. 

Clark and Jonathan trying to get Jordan to punch the block was hilarious, and it was so sweet how happy they all were for him. I wonder if it will turn out that Jonathan and Jordan have sort of split Clark's powers, with Jordan getting some and Jonathan getting some different ones, he did manage to move his arm pretty fast to keep Jordan from breaking that kids face. 

Clark was seriously scary with his laser eyes turned on, really makes you feel lucky that Clark is such a nice guy, the man really does have an impressive amount of patience. Not only is he pissed that Sam was willing to gun down a traumatized teenager, but those kryptonite bullets were clearly not just made for the kid. Thanksgiving is going to be SUPER awkward this year.  

Sarah looks like she's picked up her moms high school hobby of being kidnapped by meta humans I guess. Kyle is seriously the most obtuse person, his crush on Morgan Edge is blinding him to his obvious villainy, even as he sulks and whines about Lana getting a job instead of him. I am really glad that Lana at least is listening to Lois, although Kyle will probably still be Morgan Edge's hype man as he personally tears Smallville apart with his superpowers while cackling evilly. "Think of all the construction jobs we will get now that every building in town as been torn to the ground!"

[dwmarch]

Another thing I thought of that was a big missed opportunity was when Lois was sneaking into the mine with Luthor. She should have put a pair of glasses on to be less recognizable. Then again, disguised or not, Edge's security people should recognize her so I'm going to go with that they actually did (the gate guard gives her a look as she goes by) but they let her in so that Edge's henchwoman could toast her discreetly. And she could have if she hadn't mwa-ha-ha'd before unleashing her laser blast.

Speaking of glasses, Sarah should be putting two and two together any moment now. Jordan might have powers. Superman saved me last week. Superman looks like Mr. Kent without his glasses... OMG WTF!

Luthor says that a black man going in to the mine alone would be suspicious but Smallville doesn't seem to be that kind of town, at least as far as we have seen. And if Smallville was that kind of town, a black man going into the mine with a tiny, adorable white woman who clearly doesn't belong there would not be any less suspicious. FWIW, it appears Lois was just humoring Luthor's flimsy excuses in order to find out more about what he's up to so maybe that's why she didn't call him on it at the time. 

[bethy]

Definitely a good episode, football nonsense aside. It's already been said, but the coach saying "I don't have a quarterback" to Jonathan was so, so stupid. I mean even if the show hadn't already told us that Jon was a quarterback and had been called QB2 in show, a team simply wouldn't not have a backup quarterback. Bleh. Get it together writers - if you're going to make football an important part of the show, at least understand even the basics of how the game is played.

So, Sarah's little sister didn't notice that her sister had been kidnapped? She'd just gone off to take a bath or something before dinner and a movie before Tag arrived. I thought maybe she'd been drugged or something, but no. I guess she just never wondered what had happened to the pizza and her sister and watched the movie she picked all by herself before heading off to bed. Okay. 

I loved how broken up Jordan was over having hurt Jon. I think it's that relationship more than any other that's going to have an impact on how Jordan continues to react to his powers. And Jon is way overdue for powers of his own!

Agree that Clark's head-bang on the kitchen table was the best. Poor guy. 😂

[Jediknight]

15 hours ago, LeisureTime said:

Forget geographic location in the state, just school size-wise, there's no way Metroplis and Smallville would play each other, right?  Unless Metroplis High is the comically smallest school in the whole city it's named for, they'd be in entirely different classes. Fellow Kansans, help me out here.

True, Smallville would be 2A or maybe 3A, but Metropolis would be 6A.  The teams wouldn't face each other.

[arc]

So all of Jordan's middle school tormentors got on to the offensive side of the most elite varsity team in the state???

"You give back to the community", says Sarah to the literal face of Smallville's foreclosure crisis. I mean fine, Sarah probably wants to think the best of her mom, but come on.

Jordan nearly eye-lasered his brother in the face. It's impossible to overstate how irresponsible he's being over not talking to his dad about the onset of super-hearing. (It's also a little unbelievable that nothing in the big city triggered another spell of it until a whistle blew during the football game. And it could not possibly have been the first whistle of the game either given that the coach said number 55 had been killing them all game.)

On 5/18/2021 at 11:04 PM, Chicago Redshirt said:

It also bugs me more than it should that Jordan had been established as a defensive standout. Although the show called him a defensive back, the coach used him only as a pass rusher. But in this episode, he apparently was switched to offense for some reason, because coach told him that the Metropolis linebacker had been killing them and wanted Jordan to put a stop to it. 

Yes, this. The show sure puts a lot onto football plots considering they don't give a shit about writing it well. And I don't even know much about football! I learned the rules from the super unrealistic arcade game NFL Blitz! Now I watch like a Super Bowl and maybe one other game a year! And I still know there's three lazy ass-pulls an episode because they don't care!!!

To be fair, I think "I don't have a quarterback" wasn't literal, but just meant the coach didn't think he could rely on his QB2 (not Jon) for anything except handoffs.

I'm disappointed Lois didn't adopt glasses for her disguise to sneak into the mines. Also, Luthor's reasoning for doing this now was that the mines were full of inspectors, and then... Lois and Luthor had all the privacy they needed to sneak into the most important part of the mine!

Jordan breaking Jon's hand was an accident but only because Jon was trying to stop him from killing that Metropolis kid Cutter. Jordan swung with full intent on Cutter and it's way irresponsible not to address that.

Clark and Lois did some great parenting*. So that's the thing for me; the show has really implausible plotting but the core family dynamics are well written and acted and worth watching. 

* aside from leaving out that Jordan nearly murdered a former bully, which really should have been a big deal.

But speaking of super-irresponsibility, Hologramps from a few episodes ago was wildly irresponsible to dismiss Jordan's apparent lack of powers so quickly.

[PAForrest]

I feel like Oprah should do a talk show in this town, and she can stand up and yell, "You get laser eyes, and you get laser eyes, and YOU get laser eyes, and EVERYBODY gets laser eyes!!!!!" And the town goes wild! I mean, seriously, it's going to get to the point that everyone in this town will, sooner than later, have some sort of supes ability as Morgan Edge intends ...

... except for you Jonathan Kent. All you get is perpetually screwed over. Yikes. I understand now why I've quickly come to resent this lopsided relationship between the bros and will always feel sorry for the older brother who is mostly overlooked and/or forgotten by his parents on a weekly basis. I already endured a version of it for 15 years on another CW series. Jonathan, sweetie, honey, cookie - if you keep on this path giving 100% and getting back, on a good day 40%, but most of the time 2%, it will not end well for you. It will end very very very badly for you. Seriously, you might want to consider running away and joining the circus or the military. Save yourself!

I suspect not a single writer on this show has ever even been to a football game, much less understands how it's played or supposed to be coached. It's time to move away from this sport - and maybe the writers should stay away from sports entirely. I don't think it's their thing at all.

Like him or not, Jordan is a danger to everyone around him except Clark. At this point he should be home-schooled until such a time as he gets a handle on his powers.

Poor Tag, he really just wants answers. He's a little bit like Deadpool without the foul mouth - he desperately wants someone to fix him. BTW, does Tag have parents? I don't recall now if we ever saw his family asking about him, wondering where the hell he's gone to.

Lois needs some instruction on how to come up with a costume and blend into whatever role she's playing to break in somewhere. She's really not good at it. Luthor, of course, is a natural.

Morgan Edge telling Lana he wants her to work for him because she was so good at all those reverse mortgages is not the compliment she thinks it is. I think it means he knows you're not above doing suspect work given that while those mortgages have pros, they also have cons that sometimes border on scam. At least Lana quickly came to realize that Lois is right, something nefarious is happening at the mine. Which is, of course, sad for the town and all the guys for whom this work is legitimately a lifeline.

However, as much as I want to see Lana and Kyle as a real couple, they just don't fit. And as parents, they're certainly no better than the Kents where it comes to Jon. I mean, they walk in the house and start making out in the kitchen before realizing their youngest is home alone and their eldest is nowhere to be found. I don't think parenting in Smallville is a model for anyone else in the world to emulate. There must be something in the water supply.

I always thought Gotham was supposed to be NYC, and Metropolis more along the lines of Chicago. But when I look into it, while at times that was true, it's also supposed to be NY with the Toronto skyline. But that definitely doesn't work here with the proximity issues. So maybe in this iteration I can head-canon that Metropolis is St. Louis, MO, and Smallville is on the edge of Kansas and MO. Otherwise, it gives me a headache.

They certainly had a lot going on in this episode.

[cambridgeguy]

23 hours ago, Chicago Redshirt said:

I think S&L employs the same geography as the show Smallville, namely that Metropolis is a big town in Kansas about three hours away from Smallville, rather than a New York proxy on the East Coast. In which case, it would make sense that they would be on the same football schedule.

Yeah, they probably want to keep Metropolis in their back pocket as a location for future episodes.  However, that's a retcon because we've seen a map of the post-Crisis Arrowverse on the Flash and Metropolis is definitely on the East Coast.

[shapeshifter]

3 minutes ago, PAForrest said:

I feel like Oprah should do a talk show in this town, and she can stand up and yell, "You get laser eyes, and you get laser eyes, and YOU get laser eyes, and EVERYBODY gets laser eyes!!!!!" And the town goes wild! I mean, seriously, it's going to get to the point that everyone in this town will, sooner than later, have some sort of supes ability as Morgan Edge intends ...

😄
Thanks for bringing a smile back to my face, @PAForrest, after I ruined my lovely sunrise walk mood by reading the morning news!
Laser eyes for all!!🤣

[Affogato]

18 minutes ago, cambridgeguy said:

Yeah, they probably want to keep Metropolis in their back pocket as a location for future episodes.  However, that's a retcon because we've seen a map of the post-Crisis Arrowverse on the Flash and Metropolis is definitely on the East Coast.

And Kansas also? On the East Coast?That would be fun. 

[bettername2come]

30 minutes ago, cambridgeguy said:

Yeah, they probably want to keep Metropolis in their back pocket as a location for future episodes.  However, that's a retcon because we've seen a map of the post-Crisis Arrowverse on the Flash and Metropolis is definitely on the East Coast.

I think this confirms my suspicion that they're on a different earth and this is why we've heard nothing about other heroes, or ARGUS, or the DEO.

[bethy]

1 hour ago, PAForrest said:

I understand now why I've quickly come to resent this lopsided relationship between the bros and will always feel sorry for the older brother who is mostly overlooked and/or forgotten by his parents on a weekly basis. I already endured a version of it for 15 years on another CW series.

😂😂😭😭😭😭

[kickingnames]

3 hours ago, arc said:

To be fair, I think "I don't have a quarterback" wasn't literal, but just meant the coach didn't think he could rely on his QB2 (not Jon) for anything except handoffs.

I repeat, the kid was going to be the starting QB for a much bigger rival — if Smallville’s coach doesn’t trust Jon as even a backup, he’s the worst in terms of coaching. But more importantly, pretty much all the football-related writing on this show is bad to the detriment of the rest of the writing on the show.

 

3 hours ago, arc said:

So that's the thing for me; the show has really implausible plotting but the core family dynamics are well written and acted and worth watching. 

I am 100% with you there. Give me all the Kent family dynamics.

[Mikay]

On 5/19/2021 at 8:36 AM, Chicago Redshirt said:

One thing that occurs to me: the twins are canonically freshmen and the move to Smallville seemingly happened early during their freshman year. So there probably wasn't much time for all the taunting and other problems to have taken place while they were at Metropolis. Sure, some of the kids may have gone to the same junior high as the twins and been douches then. But the notion of a longstanding torment doesn't make sense if they were in Metropolis High for like a month.

One of the bullies mentions them knowing each other in grade school. So I took that to mean there had been some overlap on the middle and elementary level. I think we are supposed to surmise that Jordan has been bullied for years. That’s pretty tough for a kid. This episode crystallized a lot of his difficulties for me and because of that I had some questions about Clark and Lois’s parenting for other reasons than listed here. Clearly, they are overestimating Jonathan’s capability to cope with the massive changes to his life that are happening at a rapid clip, but also despite their attempt to support Jordan, they are potentially going about that in the wrong way too? Like would you let your emotionally fragile, super-powered teen son confront his childhood bullies knowing he doesn’t know how to control his powers at all? That's seems like an obvious recipe for trouble. The show sort of established reasons for their decisions, Jordan’s abilities are inconsistent and holo-Jor-El said a few episodes ago that his powers would be weak, but with the bullying and his own previous mental health struggles like anxiety, it feels like Clark and Lois have been under scrutinizing his adjustment to having powers. Controlling emotions as a teen is always a struggle, but when you have a history of anxiety and panic attacks there’s obviously an extra burden. Not necessarily your typical teen angst. Add in the impact of long term bullying, and more recently laser eye beams that respond to your feelings, that’s a lot going on.

All of this culminated in one of the stranger parts of the episode. The fact that Jordan could have killed or at least greatly hurt another kid being almost forgotten in the shuffle. He had such little control over his emotions that he could have hurt someone in a permanent way. And it adds into what I said before. Jordan has a lot going on, and his powers are mixing in with a lot of issues he’s had for awhile. Hopefully, there will be significantly more training for him and a greater focus on control because Granpappy Jor-El is completely full of crap. 

[legaleagle53]

2 hours ago, bettername2come said:

I think this confirms my suspicion that they're on a different earth and this is why we've heard nothing about other heroes, or ARGUS, or the DEO.

Except that the final episode of the Crisis crossover made it clear that Superman, Supergirl, Flash, and Black Lightning all exist on the same earth -- Earth-Prime.

I think what happened is that the showrunners and writers were so anxious to have this show succeed on its own merits that they went out of their way to ignore the existence of Supergirl, et al., continuity be damned.  They're just hoping that nobody will really care in the long run.

Oh, and as for Lex Luthor's name? it's still Lex Luthor. "Marcus" is just an alias -- after all, Lex wouldn't be dumb enough to introduce himself to Earth-Prime's Lois Lane as Lex Luthor, especially since he knows that she's married to Superman.

[blackwing]

So Tag has escaped from his DOD prison, and comes back to Smallville looking for answers from Jordan because he saw the video and sees that the explosion originated from Jordan.  It is explained that this video is all over the internet.  Question:  Why isn't anybody else in the universe wondering about this explosion that originated from Jordan?  Everyone should have seen it, and everyone in the high school should be wondering about it.

I don't understand why Kyle Cushing thought he would be rewarded by Morgan Edge with an executive level position.  He's a firefighter.  He's completely unqualified to work in an office setting and has probably never held an office job in his life.  His wife works for the bank that is owned by Edge, so it does make sense to give her a promotion.

On 5/18/2021 at 9:21 PM, cambridgeguy said:

They never really explained why Metropolis would host Smallville, did they?  That's one heck of a trip for an unremarkable small town Kansas high school football team to make.  On the plus side, it looks like the Kents are better off being out of there. 

3 hours ago, cambridgeguy said:

Yeah, they probably want to keep Metropolis in their back pocket as a location for future episodes.  However, that's a retcon because we've seen a map of the post-Crisis Arrowverse on the Flash and Metropolis is definitely on the East Coast.

I don't get that either.  So apparently Smallville is far enough away from Metropolis that Jon's girlfriend dumped him because it was too difficult to keep seeing each other.  But close enough that they can just casually have a football game there?  Was this a regional/playoff game, or just a regular game?  Sarah was planning on going to the game.  How was she going to get there?  Drive herself or take a fan shuttle?  She's 16, her parents were just going to let her go to the big city on her own?

I also don't understand why a high school (presumably one that doesn't have a lot of resources considering that half the town is apparently on the verge of the poverty line) would put the players up overnight in a fancy high rise hotel.  I was thinking the towns were maybe 3 hours apart at most, why wouldn't the players just pile onto the team bus and take a nap?  Driver gets them back to Smallville at midnight or so.  What's the problem?  But I guess then we wouldn't have the Jets vs. Sharks street brawl and the near-killing and Jon's broken hand.

Also, for a supposedly "big game", there were hardly any spectators.  I get that COVID and all for filming purposes, but COVID doesn't exist in the world of this show.  They couldn't have CGI'd in a packed stand of spectators?

In this map above, where is Smallville?  Is it too unimportant in the grand scheme of things (since nobody knows that Superman is from Smallville) or is it under the girl's arm?  The Flash is from Central City, isn't that supposed to be vaguely around St. Louis?  Interesting that Gotham is vaguely where Chicago is.  If Metropolis is really on the East Coast in the "S&L" continuity, then it makes Sarah taking a plane to watch a football game kind of unbelievable.

 

On 5/18/2021 at 9:37 PM, Lantern7 said:

Marcus is pretty smooth . . . at least before he and Lois got attacked. Minimum, I hope he sticks around long enough to meet Lex. Marcus must be annoyed as hell that the main Luthor on this Earth is that big of an asshole.

On 5/18/2021 at 9:27 PM, bettername2come said:

Maybe Lamarcus? With Marcus as either a nickname or an easy alias. With Lex being named Alexander, the family's not too opposed to non-L names, at least on the birth certificate.

Maybe I missed it on an earlier episode, but is there any reason to believe that this guy is NOT Lex Luthor?  He's from an alternate world, yes.  But maybe he is that world's Lex?  I think "Marcus" is just an alias.

On 5/18/2021 at 10:50 PM, memememe76 said:

Jordan is SO ANNOYING. I have literally no interest in seeing him control his powers. In the much shorter time frame, Tag is far more sympathetic when it comes to him dealing with his powers. 

Agreed... this is shallow but I still cannot stand his hair and his puffy face.

15 hours ago, bethy said:

So, Sarah's little sister didn't notice that her sister had been kidnapped? She'd just gone off to take a bath or something before dinner and a movie before Tag arrived. I thought maybe she'd been drugged or something, but no. I guess she just never wondered what had happened to the pizza and her sister and watched the movie she picked all by herself before heading off to bed. Okay. 

This.  The sister didn't think anything about the fact that Sarah was gone?  She told her parents that Sarah was in her room sleeping.  Did she think Sarah went out and was she covering for her or did she really not know?  Also, I don't understand why Tag took Sarah anyways... to make sure she was ok?  Why not stay with her in her house? 

 

 

[bettername2come]

1 hour ago, blackwing said:

Maybe I missed it on an earlier episode, but is there any reason to believe that this guy is NOT Lex Luthor?  He's from an alternate world, yes.  But maybe he is that world's Lex?  I think "Marcus" is just an alias.

Honestly, I’m going off some theories or spec from the first few eps (pilot maybe?) where some were thinking this might be a son of Lex Luthor. With more information about him being from an alternate universe, the idea of him being regular Lex of that universe makes sense but I don’t think they’ve said a first name and I feel like that’s on purpose.

[norcalgal]

On 5/18/2021 at 7:37 PM, Lantern7 said:

Marcus is pretty smooth . . . at least before he and Lois got attacked. Minimum, I hope he sticks around long enough to meet Lex. Marcus must be annoyed as hell that the main Luthor on this Earth is that big of an asshole.

The actor still creeps me out from when he played a villain on The Vampire Diaries

On 5/18/2021 at 8:12 PM, Jediknight said:

How inattentive are the Langs?  We saw that Tag broke the front door when he knocked out and abducted Sara, and they don't even notice that the door is screwed up.

 

17 hours ago, bethy said:

So, Sarah's little sister didn't notice that her sister had been kidnapped? She'd just gone off to take a bath or something before dinner and a movie before Tag arrived. I thought maybe she'd been drugged or something, but no. I guess she just never wondered what had happened to the pizza and her sister and watched the movie she picked all by herself before heading off to bed. Okay. 

On 5/18/2021 at 9:25 PM, thuganomics85 said:

Still, I feel for Jonathan the most.  While he isn't without his flaws (hiding the truth from Clark at first and allowing Jordan to go out partying were both wrong calls), he really has gone above and beyond being a supportive brother, and has his own burden to bear with having to not just protect Jordan's identity, but even Jorden from himself.  And now he not only broke his hand, but there is a good chance he might never fully recover from it.  Damn.  I don't know if he'll get powers or not, but I hope Jonathan at least gets some kind of positive outcome here, when it is all said and done.

Agree about both the door and Sarah's sister seeming not to know/care why her older sister just disappeared.  Also, with all the racket Tag made when he broke into the house and confronted Sarah, why didn't Sophie come over to find out what was happening?  

And finally, I too hope Jonathan will develop powers sooner than later. Jordan is the classic "squeaky wheel gets the oil" so poor Jonathan gets shafted.

 

[rmontro]

On 5/18/2021 at 10:21 PM, cambridgeguy said:

They never really explained why Metropolis would host Smallville, did they?  That's one heck of a trip for an unremarkable small town Kansas high school football team to make. 

Smallville is supposed to be in Kansas, and we know Metropolis represents New York.  But comics are not always consistent.  I've also seen versions where Smallville is basically a suburb of Metropolis, or a small town not that far away.  If that's the case here, it would make a lot of sense for the teams to play each other.

I was thinking while watching this how refreshing it is to see Superman as a character in our current culture.  We went through a period of dark anti-heroes when Superman seemed passe, but these days we see so many of our traditional values being marginalized if not outright attacked.  So it makes it seem cool again to see a hero with high moral fiber.  The dark heroes are a dime a dozen now.

[arc]

12 minutes ago, rmontro said:

I've also seen versions where Smallville is basically a suburb of Metropolis, or a small town not that far away.

Yeah but for this show they need it to be far enough away that it was, well, not quite traumatizing, but definitely more than a major inconvenience to move away from Metropolis. And Kyle’s chip on his shoulder about the town only works if it is a depressed mining town*, not a suburb of a big city.

* this is stupid, btw. If this was a new mine for a former farming town, well, dumb, but if (as this episode and other episodes imply) it’s always been a mining town, then how did X-kryptonite not already produce a ton of meteor freaks throughout the town’s entire mining history?

[scarynikki12]

4 hours ago, legaleagle53 said:

Oh, and as for Lex Luthor's name? it's still Lex Luthor. "Marcus" is just an alias -- after all, Lex wouldn't be dumb enough to introduce himself to Earth-Prime's Lois Lane as Lex Luthor, especially since he knows that she's married to Superman.

We don’t know with any certainty but I think Luthor doesn’t know Clark and Superman are the same person. When he saw Clark and Lois cuddling I think his reaction was about seeing his “wife” with another man. I feel he’d have tried to kill him as Clark if he made the connection.

Now he should be aware that Lois has a working relationship with Superman and that may be informing his current plan.

I’m really interested in seeing if he’s investigated enough to know that Lois and Clark are parents of teenagers. If not then maybe that’s what makes him realize and accept that she’s not his Lois or it could show the depths of his villainy if he decides to take her from her family anyway. In general I’m leaning toward him pulling a Quentin Lance and trying to force Lois to be her doppelgänger.

As far as the name Marcus could be his middle name but I’m now all in on the idea that there were a couple dozen Earths where the Luthor family was obsessed with a different letter. It’s fun imagining a Waldo Luthor fighting against his world’s Superman. 

[Chicago Redshirt]

4 hours ago, legaleagle53 said:

Oh, and as for Lex Luthor's name? it's still Lex Luthor. "Marcus" is just an alias -- after all, Lex wouldn't be dumb enough to introduce himself to Earth-Prime's Lois Lane as Lex Luthor, especially since he knows that she's married to Superman.

I also don't think that Luthor knows that Clark is Superman. He has referred to Superman as Kal-El, but has given no overt sign of noticing that Lois's husband is the guy he's trying to kill. It will be interesting once he makes the connection that the love of his life in this universe has fallen for an alien tyrant, if he hasn't already. 

[PAForrest]

1 hour ago, arc said:

Yeah but for this show they need it to be far enough away that it was, well, not quite traumatizing, but definitely more than a major inconvenience to move away from Metropolis. And Kyle’s chip on his shoulder about the town only works if it is a depressed mining town*, not a suburb of a big city.

* this is stupid, btw. If this was a new mine for a former farming town, well, dumb, but if (as this episode and other episodes imply) it’s always been a mining town, then how did X-kryptonite not already produce a ton of meteor freaks throughout the town’s entire mining history?

Wasn't the whole reverse mortgage thing in the beginning a way to try and save family farms? Isn't that why Martha took one out on her own farm - to help other family farms? I always thought Smallville was supposed to be a, well, small one-horse kind of town surrounded by family farms. The mine doesn't really seem to fit that scenario, and certainly not for a suburb of Metropolis - which for sure wouldn't account for the supposed miles between Metropolis and Smallville. Yeah, I too am thinking around three-four hours apart. And if Smallville is still in Kansas, then Metropolis has to be more along the lines of St. Louis, MO.

Again, this is giving me a headache because none of it makes sense. I agree if the mine was always there, pretty much everyone in town would have been affected to some degree ages ago. I guess we're not supposed to put that much if any thought into it.

[Chicago Redshirt]

4 hours ago, blackwing said:

So Tag has escaped from his DOD prison, and comes back to Smallville looking for answers from Jordan because he saw the video and sees that the explosion originated from Jordan.  It is explained that this video is all over the internet.  Question:  Why isn't anybody else in the universe wondering about this explosion that originated from Jordan?  Everyone should have seen it, and everyone in the high school should be wondering about it.

I don't understand why Kyle Cushing thought he would be rewarded by Morgan Edge with an executive level position.  He's a firefighter.  He's completely unqualified to work in an office setting and has probably never held an office job in his life.  His wife works for the bank that is owned by Edge, so it does make sense to give her a promotion.

I don't get that either.  So apparently Smallville is far enough away from Metropolis that Jon's girlfriend dumped him because it was too difficult to keep seeing each other.  But close enough that they can just casually have a football game there?  Was this a regional/playoff game, or just a regular game?  Sarah was planning on going to the game.  How was she going to get there?  Drive herself or take a fan shuttle?  She's 16, her parents were just going to let her go to the big city on her own?

I also don't understand why a high school (presumably one that doesn't have a lot of resources considering that half the town is apparently on the verge of the poverty line) would put the players up overnight in a fancy high rise hotel.  I was thinking the towns were maybe 3 hours apart at most, why wouldn't the players just pile onto the team bus and take a nap?  Driver gets them back to Smallville at midnight or so.  What's the problem?  But I guess then we wouldn't have the Jets vs. Sharks street brawl and the near-killing and Jon's broken hand.

Also, for a supposedly "big game", there were hardly any spectators.  I get that COVID and all for filming purposes, but COVID doesn't exist in the world of this show.  They couldn't have CGI'd in a packed stand of spectators?

In this map above, where is Smallville?  Is it too unimportant in the grand scheme of things (since nobody knows that Superman is from Smallville) or is it under the girl's arm?  The Flash is from Central City, isn't that supposed to be vaguely around St. Louis?  Interesting that Gotham is vaguely where Chicago is.  If Metropolis is really on the East Coast in the "S&L" continuity, then it makes Sarah taking a plane to watch a football game kind of unbelievable.

 

Maybe I missed it on an earlier episode, but is there any reason to believe that this guy is NOT Lex Luthor?  He's from an alternate world, yes.  But maybe he is that world's Lex?  I think "Marcus" is just an alias.

Agreed... this is shallow but I still cannot stand his hair and his puffy face.

This.  The sister didn't think anything about the fact that Sarah was gone?  She told her parents that Sarah was in her room sleeping.  Did she think Sarah went out and was she covering for her or did she really not know?  Also, I don't understand why Tag took Sarah anyways... to make sure she was ok?  Why not stay with her in her house? 

 

 

My fanwanking - Tag's superspeed allows him to perceive while viewing the video that there was something emanating from Jordan just before the explosion. If it were obvious, other people would have picked up on it. 

Kyle's man-crush doesn't  have to answer to your silly logic about qualifications! He deserves to be in the warmth of the sun that is Morgan Edge no matter how little he actually might have to contribute to the company. Surely, Mr. Edge could use a random guy who gets a big clock necklace and says stuff like, "Yo, you just got Edged, son!" and "Stop! Morgan time!"

Three hours away, heck, even a subway ride away, could be too much to make some relationships worth it. We haven't really seen much about who Eliza is as a person, but I'm going with at best a fickle 14-year-old girl and more likely kind of a bitch. It seems super obnoxious to dump someone within a short period after their grandmother died and without giving the notion of a long-distance relationship much if any time. And if Cutter was not just trying to get in Jon's head, the notion that she started dating Cutter such a short period after the breakup doesn't speak well of her. 

I'm assuming this was just a regular game, and that there were a few ways that Sarah could have gotten to Metropolis. It makes sense that there would be boosters who would carpool to the big city for the game and she could have gotten a ride with some of them. 

It would not surprise me if the high school or at least some of the parents at the high school have messed up priorities and would indeed pour money that they didn't need to to let the kids stay in Metropolis for the weekend. 

IIRC, he has only been referred to as "Captain Luthor." It could be that he is that world's version of Lex Luthor, or it could be that he is a relative of that world's Luthor. 

The reason why Tag spoke to Sarah in the first place and took her to Metropolis are all Doylist in nature: because the writers wanted to put Sarah on the time-honored Lana Lang/Lois Lane path of suspecting that there's something unusual about Jordan. From a Watsonian perspective, it would make far more sense to take a second run at Jordan or a first at Jonathan or to snoop around the Kent farm at superspeed. The best in-universe explanation of why Tag took Sarah was a combination of wanting to make sure she was OK/guilt over what he did and wanting to continue to press her for answers about Jordan. If it was just a question of making sure she was safe, he could have just run her to Smallville General Hospital or whatever. 

[Chicago Redshirt]

19 minutes ago, PAForrest said:

Wasn't the whole reverse mortgage thing in the beginning a way to try and save family farms? Isn't that why Martha took one out on her own farm - to help other family farms? I always thought Smallville was supposed to be a, well, small one-horse kind of town surrounded by family farms. The mine doesn't really seem to fit that scenario, and certainly not for a suburb of Metropolis - which for sure wouldn't account for the supposed miles between Metropolis and Smallville. Yeah, I too am thinking around three-four hours apart. And if Smallville is still in Kansas, then Metropolis has to be more along the lines of St. Louis, MO.

Again, this is giving me a headache because none of it makes sense. I agree if the mine was always there, pretty much everyone in town would have been affected to some degree ages ago. I guess we're not supposed to put that much if any thought into it.

The mines itself could have always been there, but the X-Kryptonite could have been a relatively new development. In other words, the mines were trying to excavate coal/copper/fill-in-the-blank, but either no one knew about the existence of X-K there (perhaps because they were focused on the known items they were digging for) or somehow the X-K only formed relatively recently (Crisis did it!).