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...