Season 2, Episode 7: "Anti-Hero" (SPOILERS)

I know these descriptions don't give much away, but I am genuinely excited by them. I am really intrigued by all the branches of this seasons story and where they might converge.

 

This is the episode originally titled "Fallout." With Supes (not Clark) trying to get the military involved with Allston, I'm assuming something big goes down with that storyline in episode 6.

 

I'm guessing Lt. Mitch Anderson is the anti-hero.

 

Sounds more like its Tal-Roh.

Love this interview

From Marvel to DC: 'S.H.I.E.L.D.' alum Elizabeth Henstridge on directing 'Superman & Lois'

 

Sneak peek dropped!

‘Superman & Lois’ Exclusive: Is Jon Kent Going Down for an Alien Drug Deal? | Decider

 

Anti-Hero is either Bizarro, Tal-Rho, or even Lt. Mitch Anderson.

 

Guess we now know who Tal-Rho's wife was in the Bizarro world and it makes sense considering its opposite of Earth-Prime.

 

Okay this episode was a wild roller-coaster ride of emotions IMO, and I loved every minute of it. From the dysfunctional family drama with Lois and Johnathan which might be some of the best acting we have seen from Bitsie Tulloch in this show so far to the stuff with Clark saving Tal-Rho and finally Bizzaro's fate.

It was great seeing Anderson finally get his butt kicked for a little bit though, but I still have a hard time believing Bizzaro is actually dead now because I feel like that character had so much more potential going forward.

I really hope that's not the case, but I guess we'll just have to wait and see.

 

Spoiler

R.I.P. Bizarro

 

So why is there a break? Is something happening next Tuesday?

Also, damn, Clark! I know Lois is normally the bad cop, but he tore Jonathan a new one and then some when he chewed him out at the end of the episode.

 

The second half of this episode was much better than the first. Was pretty heavy on the drama here but I thought they handled it pretty well.

Should have seen the twist coming with Anderson and him teaming up with Ally makes a lot of sense for the story going forward.

Sucks to see Bizarro gone so soon but something tells me that won't be the last we see of him. I understood their decision to do so though since he was no longer a threat and not a whole lot more they could have done with the character moving forward.

The Jonathan stuff was where the drama didn't really land for me until Clark's talk with him. I liked the Cushing or Lang? stuff, her talk with Lois specifically. I liked Sarah's "friend" too.

A good episode that set a lot of things up for the rest of the season.

Only thing I can think of is the NCAA tournament technically starts Tuesday night

 

Jonathan’s priorities are messed up and his loyalty to his girlfriend is misplaced.

I will bet you seeing Mitch Anderson taking on 3 Kryptonians is how they’d use Batman.

 

Tal’s sacrifice for Clark at first seems like a heroic change of heart, but it’s actually sad. All his life, Tal’s father programmed him for self-sacrifice. Now that the original goal of that self-sacrifice is no longer an option, the programming has shifted Tal’s focus onto Clark.

 

I’d probably want to be a hero to someone, too, if I was in Jonathan’s shoes.

 

This episode was a bit of a mixed bag for me in the writing department. There were just some choices I didn't totally buy.

First was Jonathan taking the X-K with the police and drug dogs RIGHT THERE. I get it if he wants to take the fall for Candice, but the way it was played made it seem like he legitimately thought he wouldn't get caught or in trouble for some reason, which...dumbass.

The big one being Tal-Rho's sacrifice. I don't think he and Kal reached that point to make me believe he would do that. Like, if Kal had shown him any hint of forgiveness up 'til then, giving him even the tiniest hope that they could one day actually be brothers? I'd buy it. But we never properly saw something like that so this just didn't ring true to me.

The other being Anderson trying to murder Superman when he was already down. Especially while the actual target of all his anger was right there in the room with them. Ignoring the significance of "murdering Superman in cold blood" for a minute - from a logic standpoint it just doesn't seem like he'd do that when he doesn't even know if he'll ever be able to get Bizarro out of that cage without him. Like he still needed Superman in that moment to get what he really wanted. It just felt like the writers had him do that so that Tal-Rho could take the bullet(s), and that's the only reason.

I also feel like they've had Superman try to argue to Anderson "you're making a mistake" one too many times. It's like, dude, you should be able to tell by now that the guy is well beyond the point of reason for arguments like that to have any effect at this stage. It just makes him look kinda dense, imo.

All that aside, I enjoyed the Tal-Rho stuff the most. He's just a fun character now that he's basically allowed to be the show's Loki, lol.

Also really liked Lana's big moment here, as well as Clark reading Jonathan the riot act at the end.

Finally, I'm glad Anderson's no longer with the DOD because I had definitely reached my limit of watching him get away with behavior he definitely should not have remotely been able to get away with, lol. His team-up with Ally felt kinda inevitable now, but I'm looking forward to seeing how that develops nonetheless.

And RIP Bizarro. If this is the end of him, I'd prefer he didn't go out like that, but I'd get it. This has been nothing short of an awesome take on one of Supes' cheesiest/silliest rogues, imo.

Despite my quibbles with the writing, I thought Agent Simmons did a good job with the directing on this ep, so just like the Pink Ranger, I hope she gets an invite back.

 

If there's anything that I've learned from watching comic book films and TV shows in the past 10 years, when you need to give a hero that wears a red cape a fun antagonist, just pair him up with a morally ambiguous brother with a British accent.

Seriously, I could watch an entire episode devoted to Clark and Tal-Rho and their brotherly banters. Also, does anyone else think that Anderson wasn't telling the whole truth about his superiors approving his decision to imprison Superman? Even before he went crazy with the X-Kryptonite, it feels like he was trying to hide something from them.

While I felt bad for Jonathan at the end of the episode, Clark and Lois's reactions were justified since he isn't thinking straight. Also, I'm kind of hoping that Jordan and Sarah amicably break up by the end of this season. It's getting pretty obvious that they aren't right for each other. I don't think it has anything to do with Sarah's preference in people, but more about what she emotionally needs. The only thing that I'm worried about is that they'll drag this on for the sake of drama and I have no desire to see Clana 2.0 happen on this show.

And I think it's safe to assume that Lana was Tal-Rho's wife in Bizarro world. Here's to hoping that we also get an episode that's mainly devoted towards exploring that place.

 

In 2x02, Superman told Tal that he wants to believe what their mother does, that there’s still good in Tal. Then Tal had days or weeks in solitary to think about what might have been. I don’t buy that Tal has really changed, but I can believe that he’d be primed to do something impulsive to protect his brother.

 

Tal-Rho giving off Vegeta vibes. I wouldn't shocked to see him train Jordan at some point.

I like how Lois is written to act like a real mom. Most TV moms don't usually get real angry at their kids in TV shows when they misbehave. Lois acts how a lot of mothers probably would if they found their kid was taking drugs.

I wonder when John Henry and Natasha are coming back?

 

Though Anderson is now seeing Ally just as Superman wanted, he wouldn't believe Superman anyways. He was going to go rogue regardless.

This is the third episode without John Henry Irons and his daughter, Natalie.

 

For me, this episode was a big dissapointment and then first time I've really been upset with the writers.

Maybe I'm naive & biased, I dunno. I am in recovery myself and I work in addiction counselling, so I view Jonathan's behaviour with nothing but empathy. And I thought that would be the approach here... I thought they would explore Jonathan's drug use with empathy.

I found both parent's reactions and responses ignorant and shaming. I found the ending with Clark showing absolutely no interest in what might be behind Jonathan's behaviour and offering no emotional support whatsoever, to be quite shocking & out of character. It was painful to watch.

I mean it really made me dislike Clark, and I hate it when writers make me dislike Clark (I'm looking at you MoS).

I don't know what they are planning to do with Jonathan's arc, or whether there will be any fallback from how they reacted, but for me the only way to repair it would be for Jon to get into even more trouble now because of being isolated even further, and eventually Clark apologising to his son for not realising he needed help/someone to talk to & responding with anger instead of love.

Cause otherwise the show is sending the message that the best way to deal with teenage drug use is punishment, shame & shutting down any attempt to explain themselves...

Which is just not okay with me

Also, why did no one even mention the fact it was kryptonite and therefore even more dangerous? It felt like they were responding to any old regular drug & ignoring the fact its so much more complicated than just being caught with a bag of weed or something.

1. He's half kryptonian, whether he has powers or not. Therefore using X-K was extremely risky and could have had any number of unpredictable consequences.

2. Him thinking he needed superpowers to be able to stack up against the rest of his family... that needed addressing emotionally. That needed addressing by his dad, SUPERMAN... the very reason why his son feels inadequate.

I just don't get what they are doing with it. Why start this plot just to have the reaction to it be so flat?

Maybe there's more to the big picture...

 

Interesting. I appreciate your perspective, as I did not view this as any kind of addiction scenario. I just saw it as, he juiced once or twice to cheat at sports, which I felt he deserved to be torn a new one for (especially after his brother had to quit the team because he learned those powers and sports don’t mix the hard way, by injuring Jonathan himself). Especially with X-K being less a drug, and more a military-grade weapon whose users nearly killed Clark on a couple of occasions (and literally did just get Bizarro killed). So I like hearing another side to it.

 

I think Jon's parents would have handled it better if everything wasn't already happening at once. They were both under tremendous stress already — Lois worrying about her husband (arrested for treason) and sister (cult brainwashing), and Clark breaking out of jail and then failing to prevent a murder — which doesn't make their reaction to the surprise of Jon's situation right, but it was the straw that broke the camel's back.

 

Maybe on modern TV shows, but there's a lot of TV moms who would blow up at their kids even for something lesser than doing drugs. Of course, my go-to example is always Claire Huxtable.