Recap / Superman And Lois S 1 E 10 O Mother Where Art Thou

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Recap of Superman & Lois
Season 1, Episode 10

O Mother Where Art Thou

Tal-Rho's origin and his motivations are revealed. Superman works to locate the device that threatens humanity only to have an unexpected encounter with someone from his past. In hopes of saving her possessed husband, Lana plays a pivotal role in discovering the key to reversing the effects of the eradicator.

Tropes:

• Ambiguous Situation: Jonathan wonders if the Morgan Edge from Irons's Earth was also Tal-Rho. And since that Earth's Kal-El didn't marry Lois or have any family, it was easier for Tal-Rho to persuade him to turn against humanity since he was offered the family he never had and was no longer alone. Jonathan worries this will happen to them since Clark is being offered his Kryptonian family back, but Lois shuts the fear down with how they're Clark's family on Earth-Prime and he will never abandon them for any reason.
• Arranged Marriage: Lara describes how, on Krypton, couples were made based on genetic compatibility and this is how marriage was handled for centuries. She was paired with Zeta-Rho per this tradition. However, she met and fell in love with Jor-El, causing her to end the relationship.
• Calling the Old Man Out: Jonathan calls out his grandfather when he refuses to let Sarah see her father. It gets him to reconsider.
• Continuity Nod: Superman channels all of his energy into a Solar Flare, a move used by Supergirl a couple of times and one which she mentioned he had used before. Like in that show, using it is said to "put him out of commission" for a couple of days as he recovers.
• Freudian Excuse: When Edge landed in Britain as a child, he was shot at, captured, and studied until he eventually escaped. Hence, this tragic experience fuels his hatred of humanity and to see them as the enemy or, at best, "inferior" to Kryptonians.
• Green-Eyed Monster: Zeta-Rho stole the sunstone containing Lara's consciousness (intended to be a matching pair with Jor-El's) from baby Kal-El's rocket in retribution for Lara leaving him.
• Heroic Sacrifice: Lana agrees to go through the resurrection process so Lara's consciousness can be brought out to explain the workings of the Eradicator, as Dr. Donovan cannot reverse it by himself, despite the risk that the process may be irreversible. Fortunately, it can be undone.
• Heroic Willpower: Even after burning out all his energy using a Solar Flare, Clark still manages to fly to the Arctic and drag himself into the Fortress.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: Superman uses the combined heat vision of Edge's subjects, combined with all of his own energy, to supercharge the Eradicator and remove the Kryptonian minds from their bodies. Only Leslie Larr is spared, having been far from Smallville at the time.
• Humans Are Flawed: While Tal-Rho thinks that Humans Are Bastards, Clark refuses to let an entire race die because of the faults of a few. Superman specifically states this trope, but says that many humans are good at heart nonetheless.
• Ineffectual Death Threat: Sam isn't fazed by "Kyle's" threats to kill him once he gets free when he interrogates him about Dr. Donovan's whereabouts.
• Internal Reveal:
  • Lana is told about Edge's plans.
  • Jonathan tells Sarah about what happened to Kyle. And she also figures out that this is why Jordan left before the play.
  • Jonathan tells Jordan about seeing the footage of alternate Superman killing alternate Lois, which Lois probably overhears as well as she's walking into the room.
• Irony: Tal-Rho wished to bring back his and Kal-El's mother, who's helping prevent him from taking over Earth.
• It's All My Fault: Lana beats herself up over unwittingly helping Edge in his plans.
• It's Personal: "Kyle" plans on killing Jonathan first after getting free, as he is the one who incapacitated him.
• Kick the Dog: The Kryptonian inhabiting Kyle's body has visible enjoyment cruelly telling Sarah that her father is dead. Thankfully, he's lying and only trying to get under her skin.
• The Law of Conservation of Detail: Lana and Kyle have two children, but Sarah's younger sister is only given a token mention of being at a relative's place.
• Mythology Gag:
  • Though related in vague terms, Lara's explanation of Tal-Rho being the result of a genetic match vs Kal-El being a birth suggests the latter's origin (and Kryptonian reproduction in general) is roughly similar to that of Man of Steel and Krypton.
  • Tal-Rho being a Kryptonian who landed in Britain nods slightly to Superman: True Brit, if not also a meta-gag to Superman's traditional Kryptonian enemy General Zod thrice being played in live-action^note the Christopher Reeve films, Smallville, and Krypton by British actors.
• No Endor Holocaust: A whole bunch of people were high up in the sky fighting Superman when they suddenly got De Powered and turned into ordinary squishy humans. But somehow they still all end up on the ground safe and unharmed?
• Oh, Crap!: Edge when he realizes what Superman has planned for the Eradicator.
• Parting-Words Regret: Sarah, once she hears what happened with her father, is afraid that calling Kyle a drunkard will be the last time they spoke.
• Related in the Adaptation: This version of Morgan Edge is Superman's half-brother.
• The Reveal:
  • Morgan Edge's real name is Tal-Rho, son of Zeta-Rho and Lara Lor-Van, making him Kal-El's older half-brother.
  • The device Edge has been using to implant Kryptonian consciousnesses in humans is called the Eradicator, an invention of Lara which also allowed Jor-El to preserve his consciousness in the Fortress. Edge is using it to colonize Earth.
• Shout-Out: Jonathan describes to Sarah that what's happened to Kyle and others as being a type of "body snatching".
• We Can Rule Together: Tal-Rho wants his brother by his side in the upcoming invasion.
• Willing Channeler:
  • Lara explains that the Eradicator can't imprint a mind onto an unwilling host. Even if they don't understand the full context of what's happening to them, the subjects do have to consent to the procedure for it to work. This is why Edge recruited individuals willing to do anything to improve their lot in life.
  • And a most conspicuous case in-episode... Lana Lang volunteers to be put in the Eradicator to channel Lara Lor-Van, Superman's birth-mother, as the heroes needed the original inventor of the technology in the Eradicator to find out how to undo its effect.
• With Us or Against Us: Tal-Rho makes it clear that he will fight Clark all the same way he will humanity if he doesn't join them.
  Superman: There is no "us or them".