Original Air Date: August 24, 2023
Written by: Aman Adumer
Superman finally gets answers about where he came from and who he is, while coming face-to-face with the General. But things get worse when Dr. Ivo escapes and threatens to destroy Metropolis.
Tropes for this episode include:
- Ambiguous Situation: The hologram of the invading army certainly has Kryptonian influences, most prominently the one leading the charge, but all the drones are marked with the symbol of Brainiac, who may or may not have been under the command of Krypton at the time.
- Attack Its Weak Point: How Superman ultimately defeats the rampaging Parasite: locating Ivo in the middle of it and then punching through to tear him out.
- Beyond Redemption: While Superman starts his rematch with Parasite attempting to talk Ivo down, by the end he declares that Ivo has become a monster of his own volition, and focuses solely on taking down Parasite and saving Metropolis. It's notable in that this is the first time in the show that Superman has completely given up on redeeming a villain, showing just how far Ivo has fallen (if he was ever redeemable to begin with).
- The Big Damn Kiss: Lois finally tells Clark she loves him, and he's so overjoyed that he immediately sweeps her up into the air and kisses her as the sun rises behind them.
- Boxed Crook: Deconstructed; The criminals recruited to Task Force X have no real loyalty to the mission, being kept under control through torture and still imprisoned when not on-duty. They take the first opportunity to escape, harming any soldiers in their way, with Ivo in particular going on to threaten the entire city. They have also had their tech upgraded and been given military training to utilize it better in a team, making them a bigger and more organized threat than they ever were before.
- Broken Tears: As the General interrogates Clark, he demands to know who Clark is and why he's on Earth. Clark, who's been plagued by those questions for most of his life, can only truthfully say he doesn't know while tears stream down his face.
- Bystander Syndrome: Jimmy uses Flamebird social media so he and Lois can convince all of Metropolis to subvert this and help Superman by shutting down all the city's power grid. They do just that to starve out Parasite of power while Superman recovers to take the monster down. Alex plays this straight by rolling his eyes and ignoring the message.
- Call-Back: Two to Lois's interview with Superman in "My Interview with Superman". The General's interrogation has him ask Superman who he is, just like Lois did, and both times Superman can only respond that he doesn't know, with both assuming he's lying. Later, after escaping Task Force X and finding Lois, Clark asks Lois if she remembers her interview asking him who he is, and bitterly remarks that he finally knows—he's a weapon.
- Chekhov's Gun: In "My Interview with Superman" Clark briefly tapped into his X-ray vision when seeing Lois and Jimmy through the walls of a bank. He unlocks the X-ray vision for real here, using it to locate Ivo within the Parasite 2.0 and remove him, defeating him with minimal collateral damage.
- Cool Gate: A giant, floating structure, with a negative space forming a Kryptonian shield in the center, served as the device that opened the portal allowing Nemesis Omega to attack on Zero Day.
- Curb-Stomp Battle: The alien army tears through the military with ease, and it's only the explosion on their side of the gate that stops them.
- Cut the Juice: Metropolis manages a truly impressive one when Ivo is draining electricity to become stronger, with everyone turning off their electricity building by building to deprive him of power. Ivo quickly burns through the energy he's already drained, and the Parasite 2.0 begins to shrink, weakening it enough for Superman to finish it off.
- Death Seeker: After Superman learns about Zero Day and he's led to believe he's an invader who came to Earth to conquer it, he's so in despair that it's implied he's going to let Dr. Ivo kill him so he doesn't do any harm to Earth. He only changes his mind when he hears Lois's voice outside, giving him the willpower he needs to escape Task Force X's base and reunite with her.
- Despair Event Horizon: After learning about Zero Day, Superman breaks down, believing he's an invader that shouldn't be on Earth. It's this that convinces the General that he may be wrong about Superman's role in Zero Day. After Dr. Ivo breaks out to fight Superman again, Superman doesn't even try to put up a fight against him even after his restraints are destroyed, and it's implied he would have let Ivo kill him if it wasn't for him hearing Lois's voice outside.
- Does This Remind You of Anything?: The full details of Zero Day paint a suspiciously similar picture to 9/11: A sudden, devastating attack on American soil that the government responds to by enacting programs of questionable legality and morality in the name of security. People of the same heritage as the attackers are assumed to have an association with them and treated with suspicion at best, regardless of whether or not they're old enough to have even been walking when the attack happened. To boot, Zero Day is stated to have happened 22 years ago; as of the episode's airing in late 2023, that would put it in late 2001.
- Earth-Shattering Kaboom: One that occurs on the invaders' end of the portal is the only reason Zero Day doesn't end in even more casualties, as it seemingly wipes out the invading force and shuts down the portal. Though it's not stated, the timeline matches up perfectly with Krypton's destruction.
- Eviler than Thou: Waller demonstrates to be a full-blown Knight Templar to the General's Well-Intentioned Extremist when she manipulates the information of what happened to take over Task Force X and order Superman to be a priority, Kill on Sight threat.
- Eye Scream: Livewire zaps Slade's right eye, leading to him wearing an eyepatch by the end of the episode.
- Frame-Up: Waller devises this by secretly freeing the agents of Task Force X to attack their own base from within. Video footage of a giant Parasite is recorded and sent to the government to make the General look bad. With this, Amanda is able to gain leverage to become the new head of Task Force X.
- Freeze-Frame Bonus: During Jimmy and Lois' Flamebird stream, you can read the chat messages that viewers are leaving, with some of them
rooting for Ivo and calling him "based", some commenting on Superman's hunkiness, and one even stating that they're moving to Gotham. For extra bonus points, some of their usernames imply that classic Superman characters such as Lana Lang or Pete Ross are watching. - Gondor Calls for Aid: When the Parasite has Superman on the ropes, Lois makes a Flamebird post to all of Metropolis reminding them of all Superman has done for them, and asking them to shut down all the power in the city to starve the Parasite and give Superman the edge to defeat him. Thankfully, Metropolis gets over their fear of Superman and rallies to the occasion.
- Given Name Reveal: The General is revealed via flashback to be named Sam, confirming him as the show's incarnation of Sam Lane.
- Good Feels Good: When Lois tries to send the Newskid Legion home because it's too dangerous for them to help, Flip explains that when she thinks about helping Superman, like how he helped her, she doesn't feel so small. Hearing that convinces Lois to allow them to help.
- Heel Realization: The General sees Superman's horrified reaction to Zero Day and realizes there's a chance he wasn't involved after all. Though not enough to make him certain Superman is good, it's enough to make him too uncertain to feel comfortable assuming he's evil without further investigation.
- Humans Are Flawed: During Lois' Rousing Speech through the internet, she mentions how humanity are capable of hurting others through greed, hate and fear. But she also mentions how humanity are still capable of great things if they choose it.
- I Am a Monster:
- After seeing the events of Zero Day, Clark comes to the conclusion that he was sent to Earth as a weapon against humanity, and is horrified.
- In part of his raving against Superman, Ivo blames him for becoming a monster. Clark shoots back that Ivo chose to become a monster of his own volition.
- I Am Not a Gun: After learning about Zero Day, Clark falls into despair, convinced that he's nothing more than a living weapon sent to cause destruction. When he tells this to Lois and Jimmy, Lois refuses to believe it and tells Clark he's a person, not a weapon. Later on, hearing Lois' Rousing Speech inspires Clark to embrace his original goal of helping the people of Metropolis, regardless of why he came to Earth.
- I Owe You My Life: The Newskid Legion wants to help find Superman because he saved Flip's life.
- Iconic Attribute Adoption Moment: After getting his eye damaged by Livewire, Slade is shown wearing an eyepatch when Waller strips Sam Lane of his power.
- Internal Reveal: Jimmy discovers the sphere with the Kryptonite in Lois' purse which shows several versions of an evil Superman.
- Interrogated for Nothing: The General tortures Superman while demanding to know when his kind will invade again, but Superman knows nothing about this. Seeing him break down in tears after learning about Zero Day makes the General start to question if Superman was really involved at all.
- Kaiju: Absorbing electricity from Livewire, Task Force X's base, and Metropolis allows Parasite to grow into a hulking giant that resembles an isopod more than a humanoid.
- Keystone Army: When an explosion takes out the fleet that launched the drones and cuts off the portal connecting the invaders to Earth, all the drones stranded on Earth shut down instantly. Their portal device, previously floating under its own power, also collapses.
- Knight Templar: Waller is revealed as one. When the General realizes that Superman is too young to be the original Nemesis Omega and wonders if they guessed wrong, Waller refuses to even consider it and states that Task Force X doesn't make mistakes. She's willing to free all of Task Force X on the population to get a promotion so she can force the General to kill Superman.
- Mistaken Identity: The General and Waller seem to believe that Superman is the same invader (whom they refer to as Nemesis Omega) they met during Zero Day, 22 years ago, due to the invader and Superman having similar abilities and body structure. But after interrogating Superman, the General starts considering they might not be the same person, noting that unless the aliens don't age like humans then Superman is too young to be Nemesis Omega, but Waller still won't take any chances.
- My God, What Have I Done?:
- Continuing from the previous episode, Mist is still horrified at having betrayed Superman's trust despite his status as a Boxed Crook leaving him with no other option. He spends his screentime prior to the breakout sitting in his cell in sorrow, ignoring Rough House's attempts to console him.
- The General looks genuinely shaken when he sees Superman break down in tears after the General reveals the Kryptonians' role in Zero Day.
- Mythology Gag:
- In their livecast on the Flamebird channel, Jimmy Olsen introduces himself as "Jimmy Olsen, Superman's best friend," and Lois Lane implicitly starts to introduce herself as Superman's girlfriend before stopping and declaring herself a reporter.
- Waller says that their superiors and Checkmate reviewed the recent incident and made the decision to put her in charge of Task Force X.
- In the comics, Livewire is explicitly out of consideration for the Suicide Squad due to her powers making it impossible to keep her under control. This also ends up being the case here, as her powers properly awakening allows her to easily destroy her Shock Collar and stage a mass break out from Task Force X's prison, aided in part by Waller sabotaging the camera system.
- While they don't appear on screen, the usernames of people viewing Jimmy's livestream imply that it's being watched by Lana Lang, Pete Ross, Lori Lemaris, and Bibbo Bibbowski, all friends of Superman throughout the years in the comics.
- New Superpower: This episode is when Superman gains a form of his X-Ray Vision.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Completely in line with Task Force X, their upgrades to Ivo's Parasite suit results in Ivo transforming into an energy-sucking Kaiju tearing Metropolis apart just to win a rematch with Superman.
- Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: After Waller secretly allows the agents of Task Force X to escape, Dr. Ivo breaks Superman out from his constraints so he can have a rematch against him. But thanks to the destruction Dr. Ivo caused in the base, Superman escapes from the base after he hears Lois's voice outside.
- "Not So Different" Remark: In the livestream, Lois says that Superman is capable of great harm, but so are humans, and that like Superman humans can also do great things.
- Now, Let Me Carry You: Lois' Rousing Speech, asking the citizens of Metropolis to turn off their power and save Superman like he's saved them so many times. It works, and hearing it happen gives Clark the strength he needs to finish the fight.
- One-Winged Angel: For the climax of the episode, Ivo drains electrical power from every nearby building to make his Parasite armor grow into a Kaiju-sized monstrosity and wreck Metropolis.
- Parting-Words Regret: Part of why Lois is so distressed about Clark's kidnapping (besides the obvious) is that her last words to him came across as if she thought he wasn't normal, which he explicitly stated earlier was the reason he hid his identity.
- Revenge Before Reason: It's implied that Waller's determination to have Superman eliminated doesn't just come from her duty to serve her country, but it's to get revenge on the invader for wiping out her unit. While the General is also furious that he lost his unit to the invader and believes Superman is responsible for it, he's thinking clearly about what he learned from his interrogation from Superman and has his doubts about him being responsible, but Waller doesn't care what Superman has to say and just wants him dead. Her desire for revenge is so bad that she secretly frees the agents of Task Force X to attack their own base from within, and after Dr. Ivo is taken care of by Superman, she pins the blame for everything on the General so she can take over Task Force X so she can finally have Superman killed.
- Rousing Speech: Lois gives one to Metropolis via Jimmy's livestream about how they need to help Superman despite the recent public backlash against him.Lois: People have told you to fear Superman because he's different from us... but we humans are capable of causing hurt and pain, too. Because of greed. Because we want to punish those who don't look or act like us. Because of fear. But we're also capable of greatness. It's what we choose to do that matters. Superman has made his choice. It's our turn, Metropolis... It's time for us to save Superman.
- Sanity Has Advantages: Waller notes that with Ivo rapidly going insane, there is a limited window in which to make use of him. After he is captured following his full breakdown, she mentions his "last" invention, implying his insanity had gone too far to be of use to anyone anymore.
- Serendipitous Survival: In the flashback to Zero Day, due to the General being on a personal call in the equipment tent and Waller going in to fetch him, the pair end up being off to the side when the invading machines come through and massacre their platoon, and end up surviving when the invasion portal closes. Unfortunately, this leaves the pair with a serious case of Survivor Guilt, with the General wanting to ensure another Zero Day never occurs while Waller wants to avenge her platoon by any means necessary.
- Shut Up, Hannibal!: After Ivo spends an entire season blaming Superman for ruining his life, Superman finally has enough and retorts that Ivo's downfall is his own fault. He also ignores Ivo's taunts about him not being human, having finally come to terms with who he is.Ivo: You turned me into a monster!
Superman: You chose to become a monster, Ivo.
Ivo: Then what does that make an alien freak like you?!
Superman: Don't you read the paper? (uses X-ray vision to locate Ivo within Parasite and rams into him, removing him from Parasite and depowering the Kaiju) I'm Superman. - "Shut Up" Kiss: As seen in The Big Damn Kiss above, while Lois is in the middle of telling Clark that her world is better with him in it and that she loves him, Clark becomes overjoyed and kisses her before she can finish.
- Spotting the Thread: Implied for The General, who sees Superman's Heroic BSoD when faced with a hologram reenactment of Zero Day and seems to put it together with the latter's earlier admission of growing up on Earth to realize that Clark would've been too young to be Nemesis Omega. The only thing that stops him from having a full Heel Realization is the possibility that Superman's species age differently from humans, which seems to be his last defense when he expresses his newfound doubts to Waller.
- Tyrant Takes the Helm: After the General begins to express his doubts that Superman is the world ending threat he initially believed him out to be, as he theorizes Superman may be too young to have been responsible for Zero-Day, Waller, who refuses to believe Superman isn't a threat, and was responsible for the criminals breaking out, and Ivo going on a rampage, is given command of the mission. Now that the General is her subordinate, she gives him the order get close to, and kill Superman.
- Villainous Breakdown: What little sanity Ivo has left disintegrates over the course of the episode as he first is denied the opportunity to kill Superman out in the field in the prior episode, then as he obsessively hunts for more power and to kill Superman in his rapidly expanding Parasite suit, devolving him into a raving madman. Even at the episode start, Waller notes they have only a limited amount of time they can make use of him before he is too insane to utilize. During the actual fight with Superman, Ivo seems to be winning until the citizens of the Metropolis all shut off their lights, causing him to Depower and rant that Superman turned him into a monster. Superman counters that Ivo chose to be a monster, with or without Superman in the picture, and even though Superman isn't human, he's still going to protect the people of Metropolis.Ivo: No! You can't do this to me! You promised me Superman! He took everything from me! And I am not finished with him! I don't want to cage him! I want him to suffer!
- We Need a Distraction: Leslie releases Ivo first and gives him the Parasite suit so he'll make a beeline for Superman, giving Leslie time to free the others. When Superman escapes in the confusion, Leslie uses her powers to supercharge Parasite then flees with her fellow prisoners as the base personnel are stuck dealing with a rampaging monster.
- Wham Episode: Holy.
- The General's name is revealed to be Sam—as in General Sam Lane, Lois's father.
- Zero Day is revealed to not just be the day alien tech arrived on Earth, but a barely-averted invasion that resulted in the deaths of the General and Waller's entire squad, with the alien tech left behind in the aftermath. The invasion itself is only halted by an Earth-Shattering Kaboom on the invaders' end that is all but stated to be Krypton's destruction. Though the invasion is assumed to be that of Kryptonian forces, and the design of Nemesis Omega certainly lends credence to that, the invader's drones have a very familiar insignia... namely that of Brainiac.
- Superman learns his purpose is to apparently be a weapon that will finish what Zero Day started and conquer Earth.
- Slade finally loses his right eye, courtesy of Livewire, who has developed natural electricity powers without the need for stolen tech.
- Lois moves on from the possibility of her Clark going evil when she sees how disturbed Clark is by the concept... only for Jimmy to find the exact same File X that warned her of said possibility in the first place.
- Waller frees Task Force X's Boxed Crooks behind the General's back and uses Parasite's ensuing rampage to convince her superiors to remove the General from power, placing her in charge of Task Force X.
- Wham Line: Waller gets one in the Zero Day flashback that finally confirms a longstanding mystery:Waller: (looking for the General) Sam?
- Xanatos Gambit: Waller wants Superman dead no matter the cost, and Task Force X just captured Superman last episode. When the General refuses to execute Superman while he's in their custody, Waller goes behind the General's back to stage the Rogues Gallery's mass breakout, knowing the rogues hate Superman and blame him for their capture rather than accept fault for their own crimes. Either Dr. Ivo killed Superman for Waller, or Superman stopped Ivo's rampage, but the breakout and rampage under the General's watch were enough evidence for the U.S. military to lose faith in the General and place Waller in charge, where she is free to personally order Superman's assassination.
- You Are Better Than You Think You Are: When Clark tearfully confesses the belief that he's a weapon sent to Earth as an invader, Lois reassures him that he's a person capable of making is own choices to harm or to help.
- You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: Waller declares that the General is no longer suited for leading Task Force X, according to the higher-ups. She takes over and orders him to kill Superman on sight with a weapon made by Ivo.
