Previous: Superman And Lois S 1 E 8 Holding The Wrench
Next: Superman And Lois S 1 E 10 O Mother Where Art Thou
Next: Superman And Lois S 1 E 10 O Mother Where Art Thou
Recap of Superman & Lois
Season 1, Episode 9
Loyal Subjekts
Tropes:
- Acquired Poison Immunity: The residents of Smallville have been exposed to trace amounts of X-Kryptonite for their entire lives, building up a tolerance to it. This allows them to survive the infusion procedure which gives humans Kryptonian powers, while everyone else eventually destabilizes.
- Acting Unnatural: Lana immediately picks up on something being wrong when Emily leaves in the middle of her daughter's performance without a word. Kyle, on the other hand, does a better job covering for his absence by claiming he intends to check on her.
- Alternate Identity Amnesia: Kyle has no memory of his time under the control of his Kryptonian personality. All he knows is that he was at the recital, blacked out, then woke up in a field with bruised ribs.
- Ambiguous Situation: It's unknown if Irma Sayres is using Leslie Larr as a fake alias or if she legally changed her name to it.
- Bait the Dog: Turns out Sarah was right: Tegan Wickhem doesn't have any interest in Jonathan, she was just being nice as because had a broken arm.
- Big Damn Heroes: Sam saves Lois and Jonathan from Emily and Jasper Townes with a Kryptonite gas grenade.
- Blatant Lies: Leslie towards Emily, when the latter asks if the procedure to turn her into a Kryptonian hurts and she denies it.
- Brown Note: Edge is able to trigger the Kryptonian personalities implanted in his subjects using a sound audible only to them.
- Calling the Old Man Out: Both Lois and Jonathan do this to Sam.
- Cassandra Truth: Lois storms into Edge's meeting, trying to convince all the people in there that he will turn them into something else. Naturally, nobody believes her.
- Crazy-Prepared: Jonathan actually did take some of the weapons from Irons's van, which he uses to knock out Emily and Jasper Townes.
- Dented Iron: Clark is heavily bruised after the robbery because he was weakened by synthetic Kryptonite and got peppered by bullets.
- Everyone Can See It: Clark teases Jordan about him still insisting that he and Sarah are Just Friends, even though they constantly hang out together.
- Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: Edge tells Lois that he believes Clark will join them.
- Evil Is Petty: Edge explicitly ordered the hit squad to make Lois suffer, presumably for daring to get into his way.
- Flashback Twist: The episode opens with Leslie leading someone into Edge's office, using a P.O.V. Shot from the unknown someone. Later in the episode, she does this with Lana in the same style, so Edge can confront her about leaking information to Lois. After Kyle is revealed to be one of Edge's subjects, the flashback happens again and we see it is actually Kyle whose eyes we're seeing from.
- Forced to Watch: Kyle, after his Kryptonian personality takes over, Neck Lifts Lois and Jon and tells her that Edge wants her to suffer. He then trains his heat vision on Jon while keeping her in his grip. Superman chucks him halfway across Smallville before he can fire.
- Guilt Complex: Lois still blames herself for things entirely outside of her control (this time, Jordan's powers going out of whack).
- Heal It With Fire: The only way to save Jordan is to have the Fortress purge the Kryptonite from his body using precision heat beams, an extremely painful procedure for someone lacking Clark's full Kryptonian toughness. Clark has Jordan squeeze his hand through the excruciating process as Jordan all but screams in pain.
- Heel Realization: Sam tells Lois after she called him out that he realizes that he was being selfish.
- He Knows Too Much: Edge sends his subjects to kill Lois because she's figured out his plans.
- Hyde Plays Jekyll: Kyle enters the barn acting like his normal self. Once the Subjekts break in and Jon blasts them through a wall, he reveals he's also been taken over and uses his heat vision to destroy the weapon before Jon can turn it against him.
- Know When to Fold 'Em: All three of Edge's subjects retreat once Superman shows up.
- Jerkass Realization: Sam acknowledges that Lois was right about him, so he now decides to stay and make the safety of his family his top priority.
- Magic Pants: And cap and jacket, apparently. The heat lasers generated by the Fortress seemingly only affect Jordan's internal organs without causing any damage to the clothing they have to pass through to get there.
- Never My Fault: Edge refuses to take any responsibility for the wellbeing of his Subjekts, as they all volunteered.
- No-Nonsense Nemesis: The Subjekts don't screw around, with Emily going for Lois's emergency device first and Kyle destroying Jonathan's Red Sun Emitter the second he lets his guard down.
- Not So Similar: Sam tries to appeal to Jon as a fellow squishy human to justify commissioning anti-Superman weapons. Jon won't have it because, as strange as Kryptonian powers are, he knows in his heart neither Clark nor Jordan would ever hurt him or an innocent.
- Power Incontinence: The synthetic Kryptonite causes Jordan's ice breath to manifest and go out of control, building up and then freezing fluid in his lungs faster than he can expel it. Once he's been healed, Jordan says he thinks he's got the hang of it now. On a lesser note, Clark is also affected by it, as guns give him a bruising.
- Properly Paranoid: Jon swiped all the anti-Kryptonian weaponry Irons was keeping in his RV, just in case. It comes in handy against the artificial Kryptonians sent by Edge to kill Lois.
- The Reveal:
- Kyle has not fallen off the wagon. He's been flaking out on Sarah because he accepted Edge's offer, and is experiencing blackouts when the Kryptonian sharing his body takes over.
- Rosetti's first name was Reno.
- Leslie (or rather her host)'s real name is Irma Sayres.
- Subjekt 11's host's name was David Fuglestad.
- Edge is setting up shop in Smallville not just because it possesses the world's only supply of X-Kryptonite, but because its people have been exposed to the substance over their entire lives and thus can survive being given powers by it.
- Edge claims to have come from another world and calls Superman "brother".
- Shooting Superman: The Mexican bank robbers gladly unload on Superman, even though they should be well-aware of how pointless it is. When he actually passes out after being blasted by a shotgun several times, the one he didn't knock out redoubles his efforts even though the bullets clearly aren't penetrating. Eventually, Superman wakes up and knocks him out, along with the guy carrying the cash.
- This Is Unforgivable!: Lois disowns Sam for hurting her family with his Kryptonite weapons. Though at the end of the episode, they seem to start patching up their relationship.
- Wham Line: Edge telling Superman that he got his powers when he arrived on Earth, at the same time Superman did, and calling Superman "brother".
- Wham Shot:
- Superman experiencing shortness of breath in Mexico, followed by being harmed by regular bullets. (At least being bruised by them for the first time.) Lois is rightfully stunned when she sees Clark's badly bruised body as he's icing down his wounds at home.
- Kyle using heat vision, revealing Edge got to him, too.
- Edge wearing a black Kryptonian suit, dodging Clark's attack and knocking him to the ground.
- Worf Had the Flu: Superman actually gets knocked out by a shotgun when he stops a bank robbery in Mexico, thanks to the synthetic Kryptonite weakening him just enough for the bullets to cause bruises without puncturing the skin. Downplayed in that he quickly recovers and thwarts the robbery.
