Recap / Superman And Lois S 1 E 8 Holding The Wrench

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Recap of Superman & Lois
Season 1, Episode 8

Holding the Wrench

Feeling left out of Jordan and Clark's growing relationship, Jonathan decides to work with Lois as she investigates John Henry Iron's past. Jordan bonds with Sarah over music. Meanwhile, Superman and General Lane work to interrogate Iron's to discover why he's on their Earth. In the wake of a near tragedy, Lois seeks counseling to help process her feelings.

Tropes:

• Adaptational Name Change: Irons's niece, whom his daughter Natalie is based on, was named Natasha in the comics.
• All Therapists Are Muggles: Lois goes to a therapist to discuss her anger and her concerns about lashing out at Jonathan, but she can't discuss any of the details around the inciting incident because it's about her half-alien son who was attacked by a machine gun fired from an RV owned by a man from a parallel universe who is out to kill Lois' superhero husband.
• Ambiguous Situation: What's become of Irons' daughter either before or since he departed from their world is not revealed.
• Anger Born of Worry: Lois yells at Jon after he nearly gets killed by the RV.
• Assimilation Backfire: X-Kryptonite may grant Kryptonian powers to humans, but it also gives them a weakness to Kryptonite.
• Bad Guys Do the Dirty Work: Irons kills Rosetti just before Rosetti can kill Superman.
• Bait the Dog: Kyle makes an honest effort to reconnect with Sarah, encouraging her to audition for the musical revue at school and offering to be there with her. But after Leslie's manipulations throw him off, he fails to turn up and Sarah is left disappointed again.
• Blatant Lies:
  • After Lois blows up at Jon, Clark asks if she's alright, which she says she is.
    Clark: I'm going to say that's a "no".
  • General Lane insists the weapons in the 7734 lab were never meant to be used against Superman. Superman immediately calls him on that, so he admits he has to prepare for the worst-case scenario.
• Crazy-Prepared: General Lane has all sorts of Kryptonite weapons developed to take down Superman, and the walls are lead-lined to block his X-Ray Vision.
• Deadly Gas: The 7734 lab has aerosolized synthetic Kryptonite.
• Didn't Think This Through: Jon goes back into the RV when Lois takes a break. When he opens the weapons locker, the AI flags him as hostile because Lois isn't there with him.
• Easily Forgiven: Despite multiple accounts of attempted murder on Clark and actually killing Rosetti, Irons is let go at the end of the episode, as a possible first step towards his redemption.
• Flashback: Irons has another one, this time of Superman trying to stop him from travelling across Earths.
• Good Cop/Bad Cop: General Lane is ready to have his Lieutenant Trask torture Irons, if he doesn't tell him what he wants.
• Heroic Willpower: Despite being bombarded with Kryptonite weaponry, Clark doesn't back down from the fight with Rosetti, even managing to level the playing field once he grabs Rosetti's mask.
• Hidden Depths: Jordan used to play the piano. And when Kyle fails to show up at Sarah's audition, he volunteers to step in, playing it again while she sings.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: Rosetti visits the Kryptonite lab to give himself an edge against Superman with the Kryptonite gas weapons stored there. During their fight, Superman manages to rip his mask off, exposing him to the gas, followed by Irons running him through with a Kryptonite spear kept in the same lab.
• How We Got Here: The intro scene shows Lois starting her therapy session with Dr. Wiles, saying she hurt somebody. The episode then reveals that she blew up at Jonathan and generally blames herself for things out of her control.
• Hypocrite: Lois blows up at Jonathan for running headlong into danger, getting himself in mortal peril, and having to be saved by Superman at the last second. Gee, where could he possibly have gotten that from?
• Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: Irons kills Rosetti by stabbing him with a Kryptonite spear. He nearly does the same to Superman but is talked down by Lois.
• Internal Reveal:
  • The main characters learn that Irons was married to his world's version of Lois, and of the existence of their daughter.
  • The boys learn that they almost had a sister, who would have had the same name as Irons' daughter.
• Lockdown: When Jon triggers the RV defense system, blast shields cover every window and the doors are sealed.
• Manipulative Bitch: Leslie apparently lies to Kyle, acting as if he turned down their offer and making Lana look like she hid the job offer from him.
• Mundane Utility: Clark uses his powers to fix the wrecked family car.
• Mythology Gag:
  • Irons having a personal connection to both Smallville and someone from Superman's life was featured in the comics' New 52 continuity. There, he was in a relationship with Lana (which no longer seems to be the case with the DC Rebirth relaunch).
  • A weakened Superman, hit hard with a heavy dose of Kryptonite gas, is left at the mercy of a vengeful man holding a Kryptonite spear. This man, a brilliant mind and skilled with gadgetry and machinery, having born witness to the raw power and destructive potential the Man of Steel possesses, is prepared to kill him to prevent the world from being destroyed. Only when Lois Lane comes into the room and convinces him that he's going to kill an innocent man does he realize he has almost become what he hates and stands down. All of this played out in a similar situation in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice.
• No, You: Clark and John Henry Irons argue over the merits of John Henry getting to see Lois after the truth of Iron's identity is revealed.
  Superman: [Lois] doesn't trust you!
  Irons: You're the one she shouldn't trust!
• Outliving One's Offspring: The emotional core of the episode is dealing with the loss of one's own children. Lois finds out that alternate!Lois's child with Irons was a daughter named Natalie, after Lois's grandmother, which would have been the name of her third child with Clark who was miscarried. She never dealt with her trauma and, while still trying to cope, Jonathan is nearly killed. This near-tragedy presses all of Lois's trauma and grief buttons at once with the idea of losing yet another child. With a bit of professional help, she's able to begin the healing process and find enough acceptance to know how to talk down Irons, who has been separated from his daughter Natalie.
• Power Incontinence: Rosetti briefly loses control of his powers while taking Irons to the Kryptonite lab.
• The Reveal:
  • Lois had a miscarriage when the boys were toddlers and she wanted to name her child, who would have been a girl, after her grandmother Natalie who was Sam's mother.
  • Rosetti has Kryptonian powers, with the same instability as demonstrated by other X-Kryptonite subjects. How he came to possess them is not revealed.
  • On Irons's world, Edge created a Kryptonian army which Superman eventually joined.
• Sympathy for the Devil: Both Clark and Lois feel for Irons. This leads them to eventually letting him go at the end of the episode, as a sign of goodwill.
• Talking the Monster to Death: Lois successfully talks Irons down from killing Clark.
• Title Drop: Lois says those words during her talk with Jon.
• Tranquil Fury: Clark is calm but pissed that his father-in-law has an entire laboratory full of Kryptonite weapons at his disposal specifically meant to take him (and presumably his cousin as well) down.

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