Superman and Lois’s second season came to a close earlier this week, in a year where The CW shook everything up. Part of those major changes was the premature cancellations of many wildly popular shows, such as DC’s Legends of Tomorrow, Batwoman, and Charmed.
However, Superman and Lois not only scored another season but is also one of only three DC shows still on The CW. Four if you count the pending arrival of Gotham Knights.
Regardless of the other DC shows, it seems that Superman and Lois have a bright future still over on the CW. With the completion of this latest season, we finally received answers to some of our most burning questions as well as developed a few more questions along the way.
So did this season live up to the hype that the freshman run provided? I can’t scream yes loud enough to convey just how amazing this season was. Let’s explore why season two is even better than the last.
[Warning: Spoilers from the second season of Superman and Lois are below! Please read at your own risk.]
If you don’t want to “go there” quite yet, see my Superman and Lois season 2 premiere review first.
It’s a Bizarro world
The story picks up about three months after the events of the previous season and life has seemingly returned to normal. Well as normal as you can expect for a family of superheroes.
With the defeat of Superman’s brother Tal-Rho (Adam Rayner), it seems like Clark Kent (Tyler Hoechlin) is having a pretty easy time saving the world. The superhero front has remained quiet, allowing him time to train Jordan (Alex Garfin) and keep Jonathan (Jordan Elsass) out of trouble. The biggest emotional challenge for the Kents was the arrival of Natalie Irons (Taylor Buck) in the closing moments of season one.
Of the Kents, Lois (Elizabeth Tulloch) is struggling the most with Natalie’s arrival. While on Earth-Prime she is happily married to Clark, on another Earth her doppelganger was married to John Irons (Wolé Parks) and mother to Natalie. This internal struggle in Lois about her dedication and love creates an interesting family dynamic that plays out over the course of the 15 episodes.
At first, Natalie comes off cold, feeling lost in a world that isn’t hers and surrounded by faces she knows. Their connections are no longer there, isolating her a lot. However, with time, the two families merge into one, functioning as a unit and not as emotional messes.
It doesn’t take long until the world of superheroes and villains is thrown into wack, with the appearance of a large hand smashing through a mine wall in the final scene of episode one. Then begins the mystery of Bizarro, a Superman from another world who is pale and creepy looking. His suit is a mirror image of Clark’s and so is his speech. Coming from an Inverse Planet, a.k.a. Bizarro World, Bizarro Clark indicates that he came to this earth to kill Ally (Rya Kihlstedt), a cult leader.
Ally’s inverse self discovers that combining herself with Earth-Prime Ally gives her Superman-like powers. So using her cult following, who happens to include Lois’ sister Lucy Lane (Jenna Dewan), Ally’s plan is to seek herself out, and then combine the two Earths.
She wishes to rule over both with an army of super-powered soldiers. The mission for the rest of the season became to stop Ally at all costs because combining the worlds would be disastrous.
The best of Superman and Lois season two
Typing out that synopsis made me think of how convoluted the story feels when condensed and written down on paper. But in truth, the season played out really well for what it was.
At the core, this season was about family and what that means to every single character. For the Kents and the Irons, it was about what constitutes a family. Is it just blood, or is there room to love more? The answer becomes apparent pretty early on that there is always room for more in your family because the heart has unlimited capacity to love.
The season also asked the question about trusting those that you call family, even when it’s hard. For Lois and Lucy, that struggle played out multiple times throughout the season. Both wanted to trust each other, but years of bad interactions tainted what little trust still existed. However, the love always remained. In the end, the two sisters do end up closer again, but it took saving the world to prove that to each other.
The trust also came in the form of Clark and Lana’s (Emmanuelle Chriqui) friendship. Clark finally took the plunge, telling Lana that he was Superman. This was a huge step in their friendship because Clark has difficulty sharing that secret with many. This secret also impacted their friendship quite a bit for a few episodes, as Lana processed the initial lack of betrayal with sadness and anger. Ultimately the two end up working it out.
Don’t get me wrong, I absolutely love the action and the heroics that Superman and Lois provide, but the heart of the show is truly the message of family. Seeing that front and center was definitely the best part of this season.
Head scratchers
In what may be the biggest twist of the season, about midway through the finale, Sam Lane (Dylan Walsh) dropped the bomb that Superman and Lois is not on the same earth as the other Arrowverse shows. Talking to the twins, he indicates that other worlds have all kinds of heroes, however, their Earth only has Clark.
This was definitely shocking because it seemed that they were indeed all connected, however it makes sense storywise that they are not. This season included an incursion of Earth-Prime and Bizarro World, which seemed pretty cataclysmic. However, no other heroes appear to help Clark and his brother Tal to save the world. That stuck out like a red thumb initially.
The portrayal of Lucy Lane is also so different than the one from the Arrowverse. Clark and Lois are very similar to their other world counterparts, but where Arrowverse Lucy is confident, this one is not. The storyline of her in the cult felt like it was out of the left-field, not matching the image of Lucy I have in my head. I hope we get more of Lucy and can see her more self-assured than this season.
Overall impressions of Superman and Lois season 2
Superman and Lois continues to show what good superhero television can be. Similar to Stargirl, the quality of this show is unmatched and definitely of a higher caliber than we have seen from an Arrowverse show. I found it interesting in this final episode how it drew a line in the sand, finally dividing itself from the larger Arrowverse.
No, this isn’t the same Superman and Lois from that world and perhaps that’s for the best. With the Arrowverse comes a lot of baggage, by removing itself Superman and Lois can play by their own rules. I am excited to see this show continue to grow into its third season and beyond because the possibilities are truly endless.
Superman and Lois is currently streaming on The CW.
