TV REVIEWS: FTN Reviews Superman & Lois Season 3 Episode 12: Injustice

It’s been an interesting week or so for Superman & Lois. Since the last episode, the show was confirmed to return for Season 4…but with two big catches. First, the season would only be ten episodes long. Second, the cast is going to be HEAVILY diminished. Many of the regulars will only be sporadically seen outside of the Kents and the new big bad in Lex Luthor. And to quote the episode title from tonight, that, along with this episode, was an “Injustice.”

Why do I say that? Well, once again, they let the teens ruin the good plots that had been going on. Once again, the episode started out BEAUTIFULLY by talking about how Lois was recovering from her surgery and how she looked at herself now that her “new form” was much different than the last. This once again shows how much effort the writing team went into making this storyline feel real. And I wish they had focused on this side of things and the arrival of Lex Luthor.

Because there is no doubt that they went to good lengths to make it clear that this version of Luthor was intimidating AF!!! You honestly wondered if this was a man who would be humbled in prison, and it appeared that way during the “clippers” scene. But then, Lex’s true colors showed, and you had to wonder what else he would do by the time the episode ended. Him going right to Lois and demanding her retirement? Bold, and you can guess that next season will be him going after the Kents to ruin them for what they did to him.

Some might see this as going “too far,” but there’s a poetic irony here. Lex is guilty AF, and this episode showed that he was every bit of the monster that Peia said he was. But, he wasn’t put away for a crime he actually committed, so he does have legit beef, as thin a slice of beef as that is. Of course, now the quest will be to put him behind bars for something he did for real, and that likely will be all next season.

Sadly, the rest of the episode didn’t hold up for various reasons. I’ll start with Bizarro.

Him being “awake” an episode or two back (I honestly can’t remember which) was a fun thing to play with…but they didn’t. They just…left him in the bunker…for Lex to find…and he didn’t go anywhere because…? At first, I thought, “oh, he might be depowered,” but he wasn’t. He had super strength and speed, as the final scene showed. So why didn’t he just escape? Another thing here is that Bruno Manheim promised to tell/give the DOD everything so that Mateo could be free…so why didn’t he tell them where Bizarro was? They WANTED that body, they noted it many times, and sending Superman to get him, just in case, would’ve made perfect sense. But they didn’t, and now Luthor has him…somehow. Yeah, why kill Otis and not Luthor?

And then…there were the teens. Wow, it’s almost as if they’re trying to make us roll our eyes every time they come into a scene. Seriously, “Injustice” could just apply to these scenes with the teens because they were tough to get through.

First off, every single teen getting mad because their parents did the RIGHT THING was cringe. Jonathan had at least a small argument, but he took it to the furthest possible rationale to make himself seem like a victim. As for Jordan, his suddenly becoming a “fame addict” was cringe because we had NO inclination that this was possible, and then the line that he “didn’t care for their rules restricting his life” was just so over the top it hurt to hear. The ONLY good thing that came out of that scene was Clark FINALLY getting 100% angry and demanding that Jordan listen to what he and Lois said.

It was bad enough when Jordan was saying, “You’re just mad because you’re not the only one with powers!” but this is over the limit and betrays his character in certain ways.

Sarah wasn’t the worst, but the way she blew up at Lana for telling the Kents about what Jordan did was just as cringe. Especially the “I’ll just walk to work!” bit because…uh…she said she would be late without her mom…and now she’s going to be REALLY late. Real responsible, Sarah! And the only good that came out of that storyline was the dyed hair conversation. That was beautiful because Lana knew that actions would do better than words, and Sarah wanting to “leave the old version of her behind” was a relatable thing.

Next week is the season finale…and I don’t know what to expect from it. Usually, I like surprises, but hopefully, these surprises make sense, and there’s less “teen drama” to deal with.

3/5