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camelely · 2 years

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So S&L had a little (okay a lot of) sophomore slump going on this season. And I personally think it was because of four main things, so I thought I'd post about it weeks after the show aired because why not?

Ally and the main villain:

Okay so part of my issue with this was the character design of Ally. Were they going for a maternal look? Because it looked too Granny Goodness to be Parasite.

Either way, they seemed to mirror the real life cult with Allison Mack but that stopped being the case once they decided to make fictional Ally's beliefs factually correct and she became the main supervillain of the season. So it didn't really make any statements, and it didn't really need to be there. I don't think they needed to make a statement about Mack or any of her crimes but once they brought in the main villain, a cult leader named Alison, they needed to do something unless they wanted it to fall flat.

IMO, she should already be parasite when we meet her. She feeds on her followers and leaves them in a state of euphoria at the end of the process. While Lois is chasing down Lucy/dealing with the fallout of Lucy accusing her of cutting corners, Chrissy can meet a woman who escaped the cult, she's sick and doctors are unable to diagnose it but she's certain it was from Ally's powers. Chrissy believes this woman and is moved by her story, this makes her more determined to help Lois with Ally. They didn't need to fight as much as they did, and working together sooner and quicker would have worked out better. Ally can still have the pendant plot, she wants to merge with her bizarro self because her family legend says if she does merge she will no longer need to feed on people. Her other self will cure her, now she's a bit more sympathetic too since all she wants is to stop being a parasite. In the Bizarro backstory we can find out the bizarro Ally wants the powers of her alternate self because she is the opposite. Her energy builds up inside her and she needs to purge it, traditionally she has done this by forcing her energy into others. This is how she gives her followers powers, it's not perfect and often times sending her energy into people kills them. Once she merges Ally can take control of both power sets and give power to her people and take it from anyone she deems unworthy. She can still want her trusted followers to merge, since they can become more powerful through the merge as well. We still get Bizarro Jon, Lana, and Tal. I never thought I would say this, but Tal was the best part of the season and watching his bizarro half die was heartbreaking. Ally can still kill him after a betrayal and Lucy can still betray Superman. We just needed more time with Lucy and they needed more scenes of Lucy and Ally together, just Ally and her followers in general.

2. The secret conversations:

Season 2 is too soon to be having the secret conversation. There is a reason the everyone knows Oliver is GA was a low point for Arrow. There is a reason Supergirl waited until the last ten minutes of the show to do the reveal and spent several episodes talking about why no one has any right to the secret with the Lena subplot. There is a reason everyone in Central City pretends they don't know Barry is the Flash. Say what you want about those particular plots, none of them happened at the start of s2. Not only are secret centered plots boring but the Superhero identity is a staple of the genre so every show eventually gets there. The MCU has had success with the secret identity not being a thing because everyone knowing the secret identities of the heroes is a way to avoid secret subplots, one that works in some scenarios but not others. Having a whole side plot with the boys pressuring Clark into telling people his secret was tedious, and it made the boys come off as naive and dumb. And it is too soon for the boys to be burdened by the secret. They have know for like a year, they should not be this obsessed with telling everyone else. Jordan and Jon don't know the struggles their father has had for his entire life.

Lana finding out the secret was fine I guess... I wish they had Clark fly in front of her and she just looked at him and said, "yea I know", and chose to keep his secret because it's his secret and not hers. The boys (mostly Jordan) could have learned something from that too.

However thats not the direction the show decided to go with. Her getting angry at Lois did come off as a ex jealous of the new girl. But Lois isn't the new girl, she is his wife of like a million years. So it made Lana seem a little desperate.

Slight digression, but what was Clana? The Clark flashback implies she moved on while they were still young but here it feels like he's the one that got away to her. And when he's having the sex talk with the boys they imply he's only ever been with Lois and he doesn't correct them. So the logical conclusion seems to be they liked each other maybe had a little high school fling but never were more serious since Clark left and then Lana moved on by the time he came back. IT also implies they had no closure. I don't care if they ever tell us exactly what Clana was but I do think the writers need to know exactly what Clana was and I don't think they currently do.

Anyway, I think if she didn't already know (the writers were cowards for not doing this), they should have had her ask Clark for time to process, tell Lois she needed space because she felt like she told them everything but they kept so much from her and her family/daughter was put in danger multiple times because of the events of last season. Her conversation with Jordan was so mean they needed to call it out in the same episode lol, but honestly Jordan needed the wake up call that telling people doesn't make things better so I didn't mind it. I also didn't mind her being angry at Lois for seeking out a friendship or whatever, we just needed to get payoff for that. She had a better resolution with Clark which makes sense since he is the friend who was lying to her, but if she was more mad at Lois and the resolution was with Clark it goes back to the Lana is not over Clark conversation and I was not here for that angle.

The writers this season seemed to forget the Superman secret is Clark's secret. His family can have an opinion because it effects them, but at the end of the day it is his choice to tell people or to not tell people. The way the plot played out it seemed telling Lana was because the boys wanted him to and Lois telling Chrissy was something Lois wanted to do. I did like Chrissy's reaction, it was cute her and watching Clois dance like THAT'S SUPERMAN!! was adorable! But it wasn't necessary.

Also Lana, Sarah, and Chrissy all found out too close to each other! Three characters went from not knowing to knowing in record time. Why? They needed to be spaced out better, it really did ruin the pacing of the season and will likely continue to mess with the pacing.

3. Sidelining John Henry/Natalie for the Cushing family:

Natalie is such an interesting character. Her developing a familial relationship with Clark after his dopple killed her mom would have been such a good plot. Instead we get her being rightfully distrustful in the start and then coming around offscreen and eventually helping save the day. But like it felt rushed and cheap. I think when they eventually had Jon and Clark fight, she should have been someone he talked to. Someone who gets the feeling of powerlessness around Superman.

The Cushing family did not need two cheating plots. And sure Lana being lied to and thinking 'you never loved me' directly leads to her yelling that at Clark when he revealed her secret. But like we didn't need that angst either. They invested so much time in establishing Kyle as a jerk at the start of last season and gave him a mini arc where he ended the season ready to become a better person. Why did they spend all that time just to undo it all here? For a bad cheating plot? I kinda think he should have died last season and Lana's arc should have been about grieving him while raising kids. But if he did survive why not either have him be a supportive husband trying to wrestle with his alcoholism and have the alcoholism be the thing that might upset the mayoral campaign? Or if they absolutely need to do the cheating plot because they want to leave the door open for Lana/John and Lana/Tal just write Kyle out. Why is he still taking so much screen time!?

Sarah's coming out plot was bad, the cheating trope was harmful, and they did nothing with it. Others with more knowledge and experience can and have talked about this in more detail, my only thought is it would have been so much better if they did the Jordan Sarah breakup and then had her explore her sexuality and meet Audrey? Aubrey? at school. She can still choose to be with Jordan by the end but we should have seen her figure things out on screen and while she was single.

4. The Kent family drama, and the Clark/Jon stuff:

My personal big issue with this season, IMO it brought down the entire season. Firstly Jon and Jordan switched plots this season. Jordan should have had the dad will only care about me if I have powers thing, since the pilot implied pre powers Clark and Jon were closer. Clark should start training Jordan and Jordan loves the bonding but he realizes his dad used to play football with Jon and spend all this time with Jon, he thinks the only reason Clark is interested in doing this stuff with him is because he has powers. And Jon should have had the secret training sessions with General Lane. Then when Clark visits bizarro world and sees a version of Jon that became a hero and hates him and a version of Jordan he neglected and hates him it should be a wake up call!!!

I could write multiple essays detailing the many reasons the drug plot was bad. But the one I want to talk about is it dragged on too long and made Clois look stupid. I mean they keep complaining Jon has no friends, but like he went out drinking with the football guys and seemed to be friends with a few of them so... But regardless if he has no friends the only people he could be covering for are his girlfriend and Jordan. And clearly Jordan isn't dealing X-K... And I don't blame Jon for most of it. Clearly he is having a hard time and Clois just ignored him!? I mean Lois had a whole month to bond with and assure the boys everything would work out. And Jon straight up tells Clark he feels like he has no future and Clark leaves to go fly with Jordan. Wtf. I think if they had taken a beat with the X-K and let it develop all season and then resolved it next season that might have worked a little better, but here we got Jon learning about it, trying it, deciding it wasn't for him, and getting caught all happen in record time and then Clois was just dumb for so long about where he was getting the drugs/who he was covering for. By the end of the season the Kent family feels broken, and yet they didn't really get it together by the end. The writers just pretended it was all good. And had the family moment with the ocean fortress, but it was just them all happy the world didn't end. Once that feeling passes the problems will be back. I guess we just needed a moment with Clark and Jon that showed they were going to work on their issues. And no Clark being like Jon should meet holo grandma and get technology does not count. I guess the season could have been done without the drug plot, it would have been so much better without the drug plot, but really the drug plot was just for angst. Unneeded angst.

Overall 'unneeded angst' is exactly how I would describe the whole season. A little joy will go a long way for a show like Superman and Lois and I hope s3 realizes that. Anyway this was really long so if you made it all the way to the end thanks :).

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queenofthearchipelago · 2 years

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My thoughts on the new s&l episode:

- I kinda hate Lana being angry at Lois, this whole deal about "It's not just Clark's secret" is just... Not true? If Lois had told Lana without Clark's okay, then that would have been the problem. Lois was respecting her husband's wishes in no one else knowing because let's be honest, a LOT of people know already. If this was a show where Superman didn't have much support I'd feel different but he does, and Lana didn't really need to know. Even last episode I could feel Clark only wanting to tell Lana because he finally felt okay to tell Lana. He wanted her to know, and the fact she was kindof in danger was just a bonus excuse. It's right that it was Clark's decision to tell her, Lois had nothing to do with it and blaming her now is unfair. And I'm kinda upset that they wrote Lois to at first be angry about it, and rightfully so, to them being like, yeah okay Lana's right. I respectfully disagree, Lana only had rights to be mad at Clark and she wasn't.

- Part 2 of the Lana drama, is that she doesn't want the Kent's around her family, which is also ridiculous. I nearly cried when I saw how Clark's face fell when she said that. I don't think Lana realizes how important her role in Superman's life is. Lana represents the everyday good person he strives to protect everyday, and now she wants him gone. But further than this, the Kent's being around doesn't force her to lie, that's not exactly how this works. She already knows, this is the most important secret on the planet and she shouldn't tell her 15 year old daughter, perhaps ever, but especially not until she has proven she can keep a secret of that level of importance. I realize honestly is important to Lana, but integrity comes first in this situation. But also, I've been wondering if the show was ever gonna address that Clark doesn't really have any friends. He has his Superman support team, but he doesn't hang out with anyone, the closest he gets to that has been the rare scene with Lana. I hope we go through an arc in the next few episodes where Lana realizes that this is what it means to protect Superman. He needs a friend, and the only one he had doesn't want him around because of fundamentally who he is.

- This entire thing with Lana is super upsetting. I like this version of Lana but this feels out of character.

- While I'm thinking about the Cushing family, Kyle's doing his best and I just wanna throw him some point for that. Never the perfect dad, but always trying. I can always see how much he loves his daughters and I appreciate that he is always trying for them.

- The fight between Ali, Superman, Tal Rho, and Irons was AWESOME. The bit where Ali got hit in the face with the hammer was hilarious

- Tal Rho is the best character on this show, fight me. I put into evidence every scene he had in this episode. The flowers for Lois, hysterical. His speech about just wanting his brother back, so good. And it's not even out of character or rushed, we have evidence back to the first time he introduces himself as Clark's brother that he secretly wanted a brother more than fulfilling his father's wishes. Excellent, this guy is the life of this show, every episodes he's in is elevated for it

#superman and lois #tal rho #lana lang #lana cushing #clark kent #lois lane #s&l #kyle cushing

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