Recap / Superman And Lois S 2 E 930 Days And 30 Nights

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Recap of Superman & Lois
Season 2, Episode 9

30 Days and 30 Nights

Superman disappears into the Bizarro portal, and everyone has to cope with the difficulty of life in his absence and the uncertainty of any return. The town still blames Jonathan for the loss of their football season, election day arrives for Lana, and Jordan decides to make his first rescue attempt, since his father isn't around to help anymore. Meanwhile, Natalie struggles to cope on the anniversary of her mother's murder, distressed that no one else remembers her Lois Lane.

Tropes:

• Big Damn Heroes: Twice.
  • Jordan saves Kyle from a fire, with John then putting it out.
  • At the end, Jordan saves his mom and grandfather from being shot by one of the drug dealers, zapping his gun with heat vision before using his freeze breath to immobilize the guy for a follow-up punch.
• Bullet Time: When a mook on XK tries to use heat vision on him, Jordan's Super-Speed allows him to perceive time as moving extremely slowly, dodging out of the way of the attack before speeding behind the mook to punch him unconscious.
• Chronic Hero Syndrome: Something Jordan has in common with his dad. It ultimately leads to Sarah leaving him.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: Due to Jordan's rapidly-increasing powers. In the previous episode it seemed like Micky, hyped on X-K, at least had a chance against Jordan, and Jordan did suffer split knuckles and a facial cut that he didn't want Sarah to see. This time, two much larger thugs who are also on X-K, and the only ones in the lab not wearing filters to avoid breathing it, get laid out completely in about thirty seconds of real time.
• Damsel in Distress: Lampshaded in Lois's conversation with Sam, where it comes out that she has far more familiarity with being tied up by bad guys than he really would want to know about.
• Dramatic Irony: While Jordan's secret superheroics ultimately kill his relationship with Sarah, one of his most prominent moments comes in this episode when he saves her father's life.
• Election Day Episode: The Smallville mayoral election that Lana's been campaigning for all season finally occurs, with her winning by a decent majority of the vote.
• Flight: When saving Kyle, Jordan takes his very first, brief flight.
• Generation Xerox: Jordan steps into his father's usual role of rescuing Lois Lane.
• Godzilla Threshold: Lois is adamant about keeping Jordan out of fights and has him remain in the car as they're investigating the XK facility. When they're caught and about to be executed, however, she realizes Jordan is the only chance they have of surviving, let alone stopping the superpowered mooks guarding the place.
• Greater-Scope Villain: Lois and Sam deduce from the sophistication of the XK processing facility that someone with serious money must be bankrolling it.
• Harmless Freezing: Jordan uses his ice breath to freeze a drug boss solid before uppercutting him into the air.
• Internal Reveal:
  • Jon finally tells Lois and Sam about Candice, once they convince him that she'll get immunity as long as she helps take down XK distribution.
  • Lois learns that Sam's been training Jordan to use his powers.
• Lethal Chef: Nat's attempts at waffles, in a waffle iron, are either gooey or burnt.
• The Masquerade Will Kill Your Dating Life: Sarah breaks up with Jordan because he's been flaky for the past month and won't explain why, other than making it clear it's a family matter he isn't at liberty to discuss. Since her terrible home life is public knowledge, this excuse doesn't fly with her.
• My God, What Have I Done?: John, when he realizes that he forgot about the anniversary of the death of his wife and how it hurt Nat.
• Mythology Gag: The seeming Ship Tease between John and Lana references their relationship during the New 52 continuity.
• Out of Focus: Clark only appears very briefly at the beginning and at the end.
• Overprotective Mom: Lois is not okay with Jordan using his powers at first. However, she comes around at the end, with a little help from Sam.
• Prohibited Hero Saves the Day: Lois makes it clear that Jordan is to stay in the car no matter what. But when she and Sam are captured by super powered baddies, Sam makes her season reason, that Jordan is the only one that can help them and he's only a few yards away. Lois reluctantly calls for help and Jordan comes in, easily taking out the bad guys and freeing his mother and grandfather.
• Sdrawkcab Speech: Briefly with Bizarro Jon, but he then focuses and is able to speak normally by Earth standards.
• Ship Tease: From Nat's perspective at least, John is blatantly flirting with Lana.
• So Proud of You: Lois tells Jordan this at the end.
• Superman Stays Out of Gotham: During the month that Clark is missing, no mention is made of any other heroes besides Steel, especially Supergirl, who would be most suited to take care of the disasters that Superman's not there for since she has the exact same powers and should be aware of them via her super-hearing and/or by watching the news. Realistically, Lois should have called the other heroes to tell them what happened to Clark and let them know they'll need to be extra vigilant while Superman is AWOL.
• Time Skip: One month, with the effects of Superman being away being shown in several ways.
• Took a Level in Badass: Jordan, big time, being able to control his powers expertly after the training with his grandfather, even taking his first (brief) flight. Still no X-Ray Vision, however.
• Tornado Move: Superman is warned that his powers won't protect him from the portal's destructive energies, Ally having survived because she hopped in using Bizarro's suit. Superman gets around this by flying around in a circle at high speed, gathering debris from the mine as a protective coating before flinging himself into the portal at maximum velocity. It works, as shown in the final scene.
• Training Montage: Jordan is shown doing various exercises Sam gives him, such as shooting cans with Heat Vision, using Super Breath to flash-freeze water in mid-air, as well as old-fashioned boxing. Jordan will later use all of these skills when he rescues Sam and Lois from X-K loaded thugs.
• Tranquil Fury: Lois quietly glares at Candice throughout their conversation, keeping it civil otherwise.
• Underdogs Never Lose: Lana wins the mayoral race at 57%.
• Undying Loyalty: First Sergeant Wu frees Ally so she can bring back Anderson from beyond the portal.
• Wait Here: Played with. When investigating the X-K processing lab, which has a high likelihood of being guarded by thugs given temporary super powers, Sam concedes to Lois's Mama Bear demand that Jordan (who by this point is pretty much Superboy!) wait in the car. Needless to say, Sam and Lois are quickly captured by a thug with Eye Beams. Who, as would soon be demonstrated once Lois caved in and called for help, could have been TKO'd by a single punch from Jordan had they just brought him along.
• Wham Shot: Lois and Jordan see Jon coming home, but when he shows up dressed like a punk rocker, they quickly realize this is actually Bizarro Jon.
• What the Hell, Hero?:
  • Natalie lays into John Henry for forgetting that this was the day their Lois died.
  • Lois gets mad at Jordan for his vigilante ways, and Sam for training him.
• You Are Too Late:
  • Sergeant Wu says this to Superman, when he arrives after Ally already crossed the portal.
  • Later done retroactively. Bizarro Jon reveals that Superman failed to stop Ally, and the final shot is Superman looking at something offscreen which is generating bright light and wind.

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