Season 1, Episode 12: "Through the Valley of Death" (spoilers)

Official description released (feel free to merge with the post above):

DAVID RAMSEY (“ARROW”) GUEST STARS – Lois (Elizabeth Tulloch) and John Henry Irons (Wole Parks) can’t seem to agree on the best way to stop Morgan Edge (Adam Rayner). Meanwhile, Jonathan (Jordan Elsass) encourages Jordan (Alex Garfin) to focus on strengthening his powers to help locate their dad. Lastly, an old friend is brought in to help with the search. Elizabeth Tulloch, Jordan Elsass, Alex Garfin, Inde Navarette, Emmanuelle Chriqui, Erik Valdez, Dylan Walsh and Wole Parks also star. (#112). The episode was directed by Alexandra La Roche and written by Katie Aldrin & Michael Narducci. Original airdate 7/13/2021.

 

I knew Lois and John Irons wouldn't agree on how to deal with both a mind-controlled Superman and Tal-Ro. My guess is Diggle, whom I'm thinking could lean towards being in Superman & Lois more than Legends or Flash because Argus and living in Metropolis.

 

I would think that would would happen, such as an explanation as to why he surrendered. He did it for his family.

 

At about :33 in this promo, it looks like she's having that exact conversation with him:

 

Good catch!

 

Nice way of communicating through Super-hearing.

 

I guess when Superman is in an out of character state, they’d focus on the supporting characters.

 

Another really solid episode, but I knew they couldn't be done with Edge's arc like they were alluding to towards the end. I thought they handled Diggle's appearance well too - it didn't really feel forced. I liked the Cushing's arc here as well and I always forget they even have a second daughter. I don't even remember her leaving to...wherever she went.

Bitsie brought her A game in this one as Lois was the real standout and I liked the little plotline they gave the twins.

 

The fight between a mind-controlled Superman and John Henry Irons was the other side of the fight from the last time they met. It's almost as if this is what the fight from Batman v Superman should have been.

 

This was probably the weakest episode to me. It took me the entire episode to realize that we had 3 Johns in this episode lol, that's a new record.

Superman being taken over by Zod kind of fell flat since he didnt really do anything, there was no impact to it unless it pops up again by end of the season.

Diggles appearances have been....appearances. I dont think he's in the next episode? Which if he's not then he really was wasted in this one and his own personal storyline didnt go anywhere from The Flash.

It was a good Lois episode as far acting and getting across how much Clark means to her.

The Lanes....felt out of place. I know they kind of were there to show us how the town is dealing with those that were taken over by Kryptonians but if you took them out of the episode nothing would be lost.

 

I've gotta say, I did feel really aware it was a CW show in this episode. The writing was a bit lazy in places. Like why was John's little rocket suddenly the ONLY weapon they had? They could have easily taken out Edge & Superman with weapons from 7734...

I found John Henry's turn around a bit too easy. And Clark suddenly being able to fight off Zods consciousness completely? I dunno, I wasn't expecting it to be that easy, I thought it'd be about him keeping him at bay until they could use the eradacator on him again or something.

I also personally found that last scene with the hugging a bit cringe, especially the boys clapping each other on the shoulder as their parents kissed and the line 'alright, you too'... and I mean, I'm a pretty sappy person

That said, there was plenty I was happy about. I loved that he called out for Jordan in the desert. I loved Jonathan's chat with John Irons (feels like Jordan got the powers, Jonathan got the moral compass/stoic confidence of his father). Diggles appearance felt natural. Also kind of liked the Cushings side story. Kyle is growing on me.

But yeah, no where near the quality of last episode.

 

While I get CW isn't full of quality, we can't act like other networks don't have the same issues this episode faced

 

Obviously nobody else has Kara's number...

 

What if anything happened with Diggle’s presumed Green Lantern Ring. I don’t want to bother watching if nothing new happened with that.

 

For Rao’s sake this is exactly the reverse of what people have been saying on Supergirl. Just like the comics other heroes are rarely referred to outside of crossovers. IRL there’s no crossovers this year and Melissa Benoist is spending all her time on her show.

 

Felt like a filler episode, the one upside, the acting was quite good. Not much happened in the hour , though there were some nice scenes. Of the two sons, Jonathon is the far superior actor, as good as any of the "adults"

 

Finally got to watch. Much like episode 8, I found it to be one of the sloppier episodes. Once again, cutting away to the Cushings while the stakes are this high is just jarring. Especially when what they're doing is a light-hearted family bonding montage.

I was never into the idea of them using Zod here, and still am not. Especially this way. Felt so unnecessary. Diggle was also totally unnecessary.

There were definitely still things I liked, though - basically anybody's scenes with Irons were great. LOVE that guy. Lois' desperation to get someone to actually want to save Clark was palpable. Loved Clark calling out to Jordan, too.

I really hope Tal-Roh is the Eradicator 2.0 now as I'd predicted.

 

I liked the Cushing scene, but yeah, it probably could have been pushed back a bit in the episode.

I like Iron's suit in grey/silver over the dull green. And glad he still had his hammer.

Always good to see Diggle, but his dialogue needed work. Making far less references to the arrowverse would have gone a long way.

 

During his conversation with Irons, Jonathan’s voice sounded processed, like the Kryptonian revenants. I guess it was just rough from shouting and from the emotional topic, or maybe something was going wrong with the episode’s audio, but he sounded different from how he did in the rest of the episode.