Lois And Clark / Tropes Season Four

Main Page | Tropes Season One | Tropes Season Two | Tropes Season Three | Season Four

---

• Aliens in Cardiff: Lord Nor's invasion of.... Smallville, KS.
• Almost Kiss: Lois and Other!Clark in "Lois and Clarks".
• Alternate Universe: In "Lois and Clarks", after Clark is stranded in a time window by Tempus, H. G. Wells brings the Clark from the parallel universe (whom he and Lois met in Season Three's "Tempus, Anyone?") to the main universe so that he can be fill in for Superman in the absence of the normal version of Clark. This proves difficult for everyone, at least initially. Lois finds it very hard being around him as "it's like having Clark but not." For his part, the alternate Clark, who has a pretty lonely life, is attracted to Lois and the two of them have a "weird chemistry" that he doesn't really understand. Considering that Jonathan and Martha's counterparts in the parallel universe were killed in a car accident when their son was ten, meeting the very much alive normal versions of them is a particularly strange and painful experience for the alternate Clark.
• Angel Unaware: Ultimately the only way Clark can successfully get Lois to the altar. Doubles as a Fandom Nod, as the character in question is very apologetic and makes veiled references to a frustrated audience.
• Aristocrats Are Evil:
  • Lord Nor. He's got a beard and everything.
  • Baron Tempos, one of Tempus' past lives, in "Soul Mates". He has a beard too.
• Attack Reflector: Superman destroys Vixen by deflecting her own fireball back at her.
• Backseat Changing Room: A rare front seat example of the trope: After Clark breaks Lois out of prison as Superman, we have a shot of Lois in the front passenger seat of Clark's car changing out of her prison uniform and into regular clothes.
• Big Bad: None other than Lex Luthor Jr.
• Big "NO!": H. G. Wells, when Tempus jacks his time machine (again).
• "Blackmail" Is Such an Ugly Word: Lord Nor in "Lord of The Flys", when accused of holding Smallville's townspeople hostage:
  Lord Nor: Oh, "prisoners" is such a pejorative term.
  Leeza Gibbons: What would you call them?
  Lord Nor: Students. I wish to educate them to accept me as their unconditional ruler.
• Bookcase Passage: Used often, most notably in Season 4, when Lois & Clark move into a new house together. The revolving bookcase conceals a storage space for Superman's costumes.
• Burning Rubber: In "Lethal Weapon", Clark's total lack of control over his super-speed is illustrated by a fiery trail created by his boots as he skids to stop.
• But What About the Astronauts?: Superman learns that he is not the last surviving Kryptonian and at least a thousand others were traveling through space on a colonization mission when the planet exploded.
• The Caligula: Lord Nor.
• Can't Have Sex, Ever: During Lois and Clark's honeymoon, H.G. Wells crashes the party to warn that if they have sex, they will die. And no, not because of Mallrats's Superman ejaculation theory^note itself based on the 1971 Larry Niven essay, but because Tempus has placed some curse on them.
  Lois: Foreplay is great, but this is ridiculous!
• Captain Obvious: In "Shadow of a Doubt", a killer has strangled a scientist in his office, despite there being no sign of break-in. Dr. Klein lends his expertise:
  "Self-induced strangulation is very rare."
• Card-Carrying Villain: Lord Nor's insignia happens to be an inverse Superman logo.
• Cassette Craze: A tape recording of Lex Luthor exposing Superman's secret identity.
• Chair Reveal: How Leslie Luckabee is unmasked as Lex Luthor Jr. Or is he?
• Cool Bike: In "Faster Than a Speeding Vixen", Dr. Klein is revealed to ride a Harley Davidson to work.
• Continuity Nod: A nice bit of continuity appears in "Dead Lois Walking", when Lois is convicted of murder. The subtitle of her tabloid headline reads, "NUNK SMILES FROM THE GRAVE!" (See "Paparazzi", below.)
• Creepy Cathedral: The belltower where Jefferson Cole plans to release a toxin rain onto Metropolis.
• Decoy Leader: Leslie Luckabee is presented as Lex Luthor's illegitimate son, with the deformed "Mr. Smith" as his valet. Actually, it's the other way around.
• Depraved Kids' Show Host: Mr. Gadget used to be one, until he was sentenced to prison. His name is a spoof on the real-life Mr. Wizard.
• Deflector Shields: Lord Nor erects a giant force dome over Smallville.
• Destruction Equals Off-Switch: In "Lois and Clarks", Tempus plans to destroy the world by launching a nuclear missile attack and tells the alternate universe Superman it cannot be stopped without the deactivation codes. Alt!Superman simply smashes the device that controls the missiles and it does work.
• Disintegration Chamber: In the episode "Battleground Earth" Clark/Kal-El is sentenced to have his "body be disintegrated and your molecules scattered over countless distant galaxies". He is then put into an open cage-like structure. In a somewhat unusual version of the trope, the disintegration is explicitly shown to be slow (and apparently rather painful), and the process is also (fortunately) reversible, at least up to a fairly advanced stage of the procedure.
• Doorstop Baby Somehow left in their living room while they were in the house without Clark seeing or hearing anything, despite his super-senses.
  • A common belief is that the baby was left by Zara and Ching, which would explain how they snuck past Clark's powers. They tended to be amazingly good at that...
• Double Weapon: Drei, the double ended Kryptonian dueling maces.

• Doppelgänger Replacement Love Interest: After Superman is trapped in Tempus' time warp, H.G. Wells enlists his Alternate Universe counterpart for help. Things get a little awkward between him and Lois, particularly since the Lois Lane of alt-Superman's world has been missing for years and is presumed dead.
• Energy Ball: Vixen fires them out of her wrists.
• Precious Puppies / Right Hand Dog: Little Tony carries around a little pooch.
• Evil Costume Switch: In "I've Got You Under My Skin", in which Clark suffers Grand Theft Me, his hijacker dresses him in leather pants and a black lycra shirt. Quoth Lois: "Change out of that stupid outfit, honey."
• Evil-Detecting Dog: The teaser to "The Night Before Mxymas" shows a dog barking angrily at Mr. Mxyzptlk, who retaliates by turning it into a toy.
• Evil Duo: This show became very fond of having villains show up in pairs - usually a criminal genius or Mad Scientist and their less intelligent hanger-on - even in cases where both parties were on more equal footing, there was always a "leader/assistant" dynamic. Often, the assistant would either be much less evil than their boss or much less competent, though on some occasions the minion would end up being Eviller Than Thou.
• Expecting Someone Taller: Penny makes this observation of Jimmy in "AKA Superman". Then again, she's under the impression that he is Superman.
• Expendable Clone: Tempus' Body Double, planted by Andrus so nobody would notice him missing from the asylum. Later, Tempus tricks Superman into capturing the fake Tempus.
• Five Rounds Rapid: Col. Ambrose Cash orders his tanks to open fire on Lord Nor's Deflector Shield. It's about as effective as throwing rocks.
• Food Slap: In preparation for her Shotgun Wedding to Leslie Luckabee, Lois is forced to share dinner with him... which ends with Lois hurling a plate of food at his head.
• Good Is Dumb: Andrus, a time-traveling "Peacekeeper" who frees Tempus from an asylum (where he was rendered harmless) so he can face trial in the future. Unfortunately, since no one in the future has any perception of violence, Andrus is about the least-competent warden ever.
• Got the Whole World in My Hand: President-elect Tempus' flag depicts a giant fist punching through a globe.
• Gratuitous Foreign Language: Penny Barnes ordered in Chinese at a restaurant.
• The Grotesque: Mr. Smith.
• "Groundhog Day" Loop: Myxy puts a different spin on it - he, Supes and, eventually Lois are the only ones fully aware of the loop, but everyone is subconsciously aware of it, causing them to become increasingly fatalistic. After enough loops, World War 3 is on the horizon.
• Happily Married
• Haunted Headquarters: Lois & Clark's new apartment has a ghost in it.
• Headdesk: Mr. Smith bangs his head against a video monitor when Leslie Luckabee starts going off-script during an interview.
• Heel–Face Turn: Jerry White undergoes one in "Lethal Weapon", when Perry discovers that he hasn't gone straight after all.
• Hidden in Plain Sight: In "Voice From the Past", Superman is busy looking for Lex Luthor Jr.'s hideout. It turns out to be in an abandoned subway station directly underneath the Daily Planet.
• Hollywood Heart Attack: Jonathan Kent suffers one during one of Mxyzptlk's time loops.
• I Need a Freaking Drink: In "Dead Lois Walking", an overworked Dr. Klein drinks hooch from a laboratory beaker.
• Identity Impersonator: In Season 4, Tempus attempts to unmask Superman in front of the world, but is thwarted when a second Clark Kent is seen walking hand-in-hand with Lois. (It helps that one of the Clarks is from an Alternate Universe).
• Immortality Immorality: Connor Schenk, an elderly convict, enlists the help of a scientist to steal Jimmy's life force via a machine, thereby transforming himself into a young man while Jimmy rapidly ages.
• In the Back: Leslie Luckabee, after undergoing a Heel–Face Turn and attempting to free Lois from Lex Luthor Jr.'s torture device. Junior reckons he's too much of a coward, and Leslie backs off, only to be shot and tumble into a sewer ditch. Hmm, wonder if that's the last we'll see of him.
• It Works Better with Bullets: Bad guy Ethan Press holds his brother Eric hostage and forces him to help kill Superman. At one point Eric fights back and grabs the disintegrator gun they stole from the Pentagon, then points it in Ethan's face. Ethan tells Eric he's not "man enough" to do it. Eric pulls the trigger and, as in the description, nothing happens. Ethan gloats, "I disarmed it!" and shows Eric the part he removed.
• Just Like Robin Hood: Clark's medieval ancestor, "The Fox".
• Kangaroo Court: Lord Nor puts Kal-El on trial for his phony marriage to Zara, using footage of Clark and Lois snogging as evidence.
• Kill and Replace: Deathstroke and his wife target a reclusive billionaire by killing off the small handful of people who know what he looks like, with the intention of assuming his identity.
• Kill the Poor: The homeless are shown to be immune to President Tempus' telephone-linked subliminal messaging, by virtue that none of them own a phone. In response, Tempus passes legislation making it illegal not to use the phone, then lines the hobos up before a firing squad.
• Knight Templar: Vixen. "To eradicate evil."
• Law of Inverse Fertility
• Left Hanging: The Doorstop Baby finale.
• Licked by the Dog: Woody Samms makes a Heroic Sacrifice by bodysurfing back into his own body, thereby reverting Clark to his old self. Now vulnerable again, Samms is fatally shot by Little Tony, but survives when the mobster's puppy wanders over to his bullet-riddled body and licks the body-swapping crystal in his hand. ...Yep, Samms is now a quadruped.
  • But the puppy is okay, right? Right?
• Lipstick Mark: Penny Barnes plants one on Superman, thinking he's Jimmy Olsen in disguise. Cue a raised eyebrow from Lois.
• Living Doll Collector: Tim and Amber Lake from the episode "Don't Tug On Superman's Cape" collect rare things, and tried to acquire Superman. They also have a car they're "Just batty over"...
• Living Shadow / Tragic Villain: Edward Hanson, ex-scientist and victim of a Freak Lab Accident.
• Long List: In "Dead Lois Walking", Lois and Clark look into the number of people with a grudge against Lois to figure out who is framing her. Given that Lois is a determined reporter whose articles ruined or gotten a number of people imprisoned, the list quite long.
• Love Is a Weakness: Lex Luthor Jr. to Superman, as he holds Lois hostage.
• The Maiden Name Debate: Perry gives Lois a new nameplate for her desk that says "Lois Kent." She is later seen sliding her previous plate and new one together to see how she likes "Lois Lane Kent". In the end she's still not sure.

• Mayfly–December Romance: "Brutal Youth" focuses on Lois' discover that Clark does not age as fast as a normal human being — if he aged at all. It is (possibly) resolved when Superman gives up some of his youth to rescue Jimmy from Rapid Aging, and also to de-age the villain of the week into a baby. Clark later suggests he has given up enough of his youth for it to no longer be an issue.
• My Brain Is Big: Dr. Klaus "Fat Head" Mensa.
• My Own Private "I Do": Plan first, elope later. Much later. Long story short, every criminal and his brother finds the notion of crashing the Kent-Lane wedding irrepressible. Finally, a guardian angel spirits the couple away to a hilltop wedding. Also in attendance are Jonathan, Martha, Jimmy, and Perry, who were also summoned.
• New Era Speech: Leslie Luckabee announcing the relaunch of our friendly neighborhood LexCorp.
• Not Even Bothering with the Accent: "Australian"-born Leslie Luckabee. He blames it on having "watched too many TV shows" as a kid.
• Obstructive Bureaucrat: Preseident-elect Tempus sics about a hundred of them on Superman, penalizing him for his lack of a flying license, not reading crooks their Miranda rights, and failure to pay taxes.
• Off the Wagon: Ellen Lane can really put away the eggnog.
• Only in America: Tempus' excuse for why he's leading the Presidential election poll (under the pseudonym "John Doe"), despite only entering the race yesterday.
  Lois: Well, even you must be surprised by your surge in popularity given that, well, no one knows ANYTHING about you.
  Tempus: Ain't America great?
• Overlord Jr.: Bill Church Jr., and later Lex Luthor Jr.
• Overly-Nervous Flop Sweat: One episode had them talking to the accomplice of the episode's bad guy. Throughout it, he's very clearly nervous, and when Lois asks if he's sweating, he says yes, then tries to brush it off by saying he's wearing wool.
• Percussive Maintenance: Need to stop nuclear missiles from launching? Punch the console.
  Tempus: Too late! You need an abort code to— (SMASH) ..Or—Or that, you could do that.
• Phantom Zone: Not the Phantom Zone, but pretty close. In "Meet John Doe", Tempus imprisons Superman within a single nanosecond of time, which resembles a giant...spinny, glass cube-thing.
• Power Incontinence: Upon being exposed to red kryptonite in "Lethal Weapon", Clark loses control over his powers. Before long, he can't even sneeze without turning his whole house upside-down.
• Psychic Dreams for Everyone: In "Meet John Doe", Clark has a recurring nightmare of Lois being dragged away from him. At the episode's conclusion, Superman gets sucked into Tempus' time portal, revealing it was he who was being dragged away.
• President Evil: Tempus, courtesy of Mass Hypnosis.
  Tempus: Dragon, I'm told that you are the cruelest, most sadistic, most feared cutthroat in Metropolis. You killed your parents when you were 3, and it's been downhill ever since.
  Dragon: That's more or less it.
  Tempus: How'd you like to be Secretary of State?
• Punny Name: Myrtle Beech, aka "The Wedding Destroyer".
• Purple Is Powerful: Nor's sigil.
• A Real Man Is a Killer: Ching and Zara take this view toward Clark's pacifism.
• Reincarnation Romance: Clark and Lois are revealed to be this in "Soul Mates".
• Ret-Gone: In "Meet John Doe", Andrus, a time traveller from the future Utopia created by Superman and his descendants, ceases to exist when Tempus traps Superman in the time window. He and Utopia itself are presumably restored after Tempus is defeated and Superman is rescued in "Lois and Clarks".

• Right Through His Pants: Seeing as this is Superman we're talking about, this trope gets dialed up to eleven. A post-coital Clark and Lois are shown splayed out on their kitchen floor, fully-clothed and ready for work (Clark hasn't even undone his tie or removed his glasses); And yet, both were evidently so overcome by passion that they forgot to use protection.
• Rimshot: Accompanies each of Reverend Bob's horrific jokes.
• Rings of Activation: When the assassin Tez is sent to Earth in "Big Girls Don't Fly" he arrives via a teleportation beam that consists of two rings.
• Robotic Reveal: Vixen's suit is damaged during her final bout with Superman, revealing her mechanical innards.
• Runaway Groom: Responsible for creating The Wedding Destroy. Yep. The Wedding Destroyer. If you haven't figured it out yet, she is basically a psycho who goes around destroying people's weddings.
• Save Both Worlds: No sooner does Clark leave for New Krypton to prevent a civil war, than Lord Nor lands on Earth and takes it over.
• Sexy Shirt Switch: Lois in "Meet John Doe".
• She Who Must Not Be Heard: Brenda, Jimmy's newest girlfriend in "'Twas the Night Before Mxymas". Though she never actually speaks, we are treated to sight gags of Brenda going from a Rhodes scholar to scantily-clad streetwalker (via Mxyzptlk's influence) over the course of the time loop.
• Shoulders of Doom: Lord Nor.
• Sleeping with the Boss: After they get married one episode saw Lois being promoted to the Daily Planet's editor. Clark jokingly says he's looking forward to sleeping with the boss.
• So Proud of You: Ethan Press, the villain in "Stop the Presses", considers Lex his personal idol.
  "Amazing, isn't it? Out of all of the villians who've wanted you dead, I am going to be the one to pull it off; a spoiled dilettante with too much time on his hands. [chokes up] Lex would be so proud."
• Spit Take: In "Chip Off The Old Clark", Lois interviews Leanne at her home and Leanne gives her some water. Leanne says, "Please, I beg you, don't ask about our intimate relations. Suffice it to say... they don't call him Superman for nothing." Lois immediately spews out a mouthful of water.
• Stopped Clock: At the end of the multi-part episode that involves Clark being lost in time, the exact time of his departure is needed to save him. Good thing said departure involved an explosion that damaged the Big Bad's watch.
• Strip Poker: The Teaser to "Lethal Weapon" shows Clark and Lois playing this game at home.
• Subliminal Seduction: Tempus' "subliminator", which carries his hypnotic messages across phones lines and (later) every electric current.
• Suspiciously Similar Substitute: Lord Nor is a fairly obvious stand-in for General Zod.
• Sword Fight: Clark (as "The Fox") versus Baron Tempos.
• Tempting Fate: Clark's repeated assurances to Lois that nothing will postpone their wedding.
  "Besides, it's not like the Wedding Destroyer broke out of the asylum or something."
• That Poor Plant: Mr. Mxyzptlk causes a loop in time, forcing Clark to relive a day again and again during which everyone becomes more depressed and pessimistic. Each time it happens, the Christmas tree in the Daily Planet office dwindles until it's just a stalk with a bauble on it.
• The Talk: Lampshaded when Superman comes to Dr. Klein for help in determining if he can father children with a human. Klein thinks at first Superman needs The Talk, and starts spinning a colorful metaphor involving flowers until Superman corrects him.
• There Is Another: Clark finds a Kryptonian colony that had survived Krypton's explosion, though after the cross-season introduction they didn't expand on that.

• Trap Door: Randy Goode expresses his displeasure with a mooks by dropping him down an empty elevator shaft. This has apparently become routine for him.
• Trial by Combat: Superman and Lord Nor's gladiator Duel to the Death.

• Unknown Rival: Lord Nor has long had his sights set on taking over New Krypton, a goal that required him to marry Zara as her family was the planetoid's ruling house. Unfortunately for Nor, Zara had already been betrothed to Clark by their families. Nor grew to hate Clark for standing in the way of his goal, even though Clark didn't even know he was betrothed to Zara until adulthood. Clark even points out that the traditions of Nor's own society is what is keeping him from ruling New Krypton.
• Unsatisfiable Customer: Lois makes ridiculously picky food order at a roadside restaurant. Clark pleads with her to keep a low profile, since she is a fugitive.

• Villainous Demotivator: Lord Nor is prone to vaporizing people with heat vision when he doesn't get his way.
• Walk on Water: Vixen demonstrates the ability to sprint across oceans.
• War for Fun and Profit: Randy Goode leaks a compromising photo of Superman to the press, sabotaging a vital peace talk which the Man of Steel is mediating.
• We Can Rebuild Him: Johnny Corben, aka "Metallo".
• We Come in Peace — Shoot to Kill: Lord Nor's posse of evil Kryptonians take over Earth handedly, but not before handing out friendly brochures.
• Weakened by the Light: Edward Hanson, aka the "Shadow".
• "Well Done, Son" Guy: Mr. Gadget acts this way toward his son.

• We Will Not Use Photoshop in the Future: A tabloid reporter snaps a picture of Superman kissing Lois, but it's a fake: Jimmy reveals the image was made using 3D models of Lois and Superman and digitally posing them in a lying-down position.

---