I want to start off by telling you the score of this review, and something I learned just before coming to write it. The score will be 3.5/5, and part of the reason it got a .5 knocked off was the “reveal” of the Arrowverse disconnect.
Specifically, in an interview, the head of Superman & Lois confirmed something that was said in tonight’s season finale “Waiting For Superman”. Mainly in that this Earth and this Superman & Lois…aren’t the ones from the Arrowverse. Despite EVERY indication that they are, they aren’t, and in fact, they are an alternate Earth version of the pair. Apparently this decision was made “early on” and they couldn’t reveal it until tonight’s episode. This makes no sense in a thousand different ways, and as one former DC Comics writer wrote, “This is SO SO dumb”, and yes, yes it is. But believe it or not, this wasn’t the dumbest part of the episode, just arguably the most frustrating bit. Because a LOT of fans are going to see now that this show has kind of been a ruse the whole time in us THINKING it was Arrowverse, but it wasn’t, and again, that’s dumb.
Going to the episode itself, it actually was pretty entertaining…up to a point. Because with the “merging of the worlds”, we got to see some really cool visuals, as well as various character moments that were really cool. Like Lois being alone on “Bizarro World” and looking up at her Earth in the sky, or Kyle feeling that “Karma” had finally gotten him because he couldn’t be with his family at “the end”.
Furthermore, seeing Superman in “Solar Supercharged” mode was pretty awesome visually, and something we can honestly say we hadn’t seen before, thus making it a true “season finale” move. And while usually I’d lament an “all or nothing move” with no proof that it would work, Superman sold it by telling his kids to “not give up hope” and that he was “more unsure about this than anything else in his life”, so that helped cover it up.
Another key moment was Lana shooting down Kyle’s attempt to reconcile fully. Because if there was ever a time to “get over it and move on” as some would unfairly say, it would be after the near end of the world. Instead though, Lana did the mature thing (unlike a few episodes ago) and noted that she wasn’t over it, and that it was unlikely she would EVER get over it. Which was a really cool thing to hear! Because that’s very REAL! She did give him the dance, and said he would always be in her life via the girls, but that they couldn’t be what they were before, and that’s some great writing. After all, just because you feel bad about a sin…doesn’t take the sin away, especially when that sin was really hurtful.
Lois telling Chrissy the secret about Clark was also a big moment due to how Lois had put Chrissy through the ringer in various ways and now…she was in on it all. And her reaction to it all was also very real and fun and that helped make it even better.
So, where did things go off the rails? Well…in various spots. First of all. Tal showing up to “save the day” only to lose spectacularly was kind of dumb. Him and Clark reconciling was fine but him thinking he could take Ally alone was dumb and it was made manifest. Second, when Clark went Super Saiyan and beat Ally…it’s never actually explained how he truly separated her (outside of just overloading her), why his “solar blast” was able to separate the planets again, why one both Ally’s stayed on their side of the Earth, how Tal ended up on Bizarro world (and apparently is going to seek out Lana on his Earth…not happy about that…) and so on.
In many ways, it was kind of like the ending of the first Superman movie, in that “it works because it did” with no real explanation given and…we honestly can’t really have that nowadays because people will call it out. It also didn’t help that a “Major cameo” in Diggle was literally just him expositioning about next seasons villain and tell the other-Earth John Henry Irons that he found this Earth’s John Henry Irons killer and NOW he wants to find out why. Ok…
Another dumb thing was that when the Bizarro-Earth Lois showed up…no one did anything. They just…left her there, no talking, no trying to get her thoughts on things…she was just…there. Really stood out in the bad way.
To be clear, the good parts did outweigh the bad, and the character bonding moments and the “Miracle Monday” festival was really nice. But between the plot holes and the Arrowverse “reveal” it definitely weighed things down. I still look forward to Season 3 though, even if it is now a bit more limited in scope.
3.5/5
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