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Next: Superman And Lois S 2 E 3 The Thing In The Mines
Recap of Superman & Lois
Season 2, Episode 2
The Ties That Bind
Tropes featured in this episode:
- Absence Makes the Heart Go Yonder: While at summer camp, Sarah kissed a fellow camper even though she was still in a relationship with Jordan.
- Adaptational Villainy: Phillip Karnowsky, who was a brutal Vigilante Man Pre-Crisis gets turned into a ruthless drug and arms dealer here who tries to kill Clark after taking X-Kryptonite.
- Artistic License – Politics: Kyle presents Lana with a candidate petition with the signature of every firefighter in the department. Kyle is the fire chief. Asking his subordinates to sign a ballot petition for his wife to be mayor would be both illegal and unethical. Lana winning would put two of the three highest ranking city member (mayor, fire chief, police chief) in a single household. Even if Kyle just put a sign up sheet in the break room, he stands to gain personally from his wife being elected and his employees may feel pressured not to be the only one who doesn't sign. Additionally, it's an illegal use of his influence as chief, one that is grounds for termination in many places. The endorsement of the police and fire department are powerful and highly sought after in a municipal election.
- Badass Bureaucrat: After Daniel Hart unexpectedly drops out of the Mayor race due to getting a job elsewhere, Lana decides to run for Mayor herself, with the support of Kyle.
- Big Damn Heroes: Anderson's team rescues Superman from Karnowsky.
- Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Dr. Faulkner, who initially seems to be a simple geologist consulting at the mining site on behalf of AmerTek. But at the end of the episode, she appears to be connected to the alien's arrival, telling her employer that something came through in an excited manner over the phone.
- Breaking the Bonds: When Clark is incapacitated by visions in Tal's fortress, Tal easily snaps his cuffs off, revealing his powers work just fine.
- Brutal Honesty: When Sarah asks Natalie how to deal with a potentially-damaging secret, Natalie suggests she either just admit it or get a whole lot better at lying about it, since the tension between her and Jordan is blatant.
- The Bus Came Back: Tag Harris, who is now a part of Anderson's team.
- Consulting a Convicted Killer: Clark is forced to ask Tal for help in dealing with his visions.
- Continuity Nod: Lara's hologram tells Clark he can't know how happy it makes her that he has two sons, similar to what she herself said to him when she was possessing Lana last season.
- Enemy Mine: In order to figure out what's going on with him when human methods prove fruitless, Clark is forced to pull Tal-Rho from prison so they can find their mother in Tal's fortress.
- Food Porn: The Breakfast made by Lois looks very tasty. Too bad Natalie is a vegan.
- Heroic Sacrifice: Joe the mine worker, seeing Doomsday kill his friends, detonates the explosives while still in the cavern to bury the creature.
- Hero with Bad Publicity: Lois comes under fire due to one witness from an old story of hers about a cult leader recanting their story.
- I Lied: Tal nonchalantly admits to having lied about being depowered.
- Internal Reveal:
- Since this version of Lara's hologram is made from her consciousness from before Krypton exploded, she doesn't recognize Tal and learns about him and his deeds again.
- With John's help, Clark and Lois deduce that the tremors are the cause of Clark's visions.
- It's Personal: The reason Lois was uncovering Ally Allston's cult? Her sister Lucy had joined it and almost died because of it; Lois found her unconscious in the bathtub, having overdosed. Lois says that had she not found and helped her sister when she did, Lucy would have definitely died.
- The Juggernaut: The unidentified alien seems to be quite the unstoppable beast as he has an entire mine tunnel dropped on him and it's apparent he's still alive.
- Layman's Terms: Clark describes his visions as "inter-dimensional kinestesis". He simplifies it to an effect caused by another being, likely the unidentified alien in the mines
- The Man Behind the Man: The unidentified Kryptonian's awakening seems to have been orchestrated by someone...
- Mistaken for Quake: What was believed to be a natural earthquake last episode is revealed to be a sentient being this episode.
- No Celebrities Were Harmed: A cult leader named Ally Allston? It's hard not to be reminded of Allison Mack.
- Obfuscating Disability: Tal-Rho claims to have been depowered by John's Solar Flare missile, making his red sun prison unnecessary, but he turns out to have been faking it while hoping for a chance to get under yellow sunlight again. Clark figures he might have gotten his powers back during the time he was kept in prison.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: It was implicitly discussed last season that Clark has never been sick a day in his life, so when he's experiencing visions and debilitating headaches that literally knock him off his feet, it's a cause for serious concern.
- Papa Wolf: To say Clark is angry at Tal-Rho for laying hands on his son would be quite the understatement. Clark subjects him to a short but brutal No-Holds-Barred Beatdown while bellowing at him to stay away from his son.
- Properly Paranoid: The DOD has been keeping Tal-Rho in a bunker surrounded by red sun lamps, denying him even a hint of any other form of light. Tal-Rho claims it to be unnecessary because his powers were permanently negated when he was defeated last season, but he was lying and the precautions were entirely sensible.
- The Reveal: The reason Sarah was so distant towards Jordan is finally revealed. She admits that she kissed a girl named Aubrey during her time at camp. She insists that it didn't mean anything and "just happened", but Jordan is still hurt at being cheated on.
- The Rival: Timmy Ryan becomes Jon's new competition on the Football team. Jon thinks that he has been taking steroids, as he was the "laziest slacker" before and is now benching three hundred pounds.
- Smug Smiler: Mayor George Dean, who has been running unopposed for 10 years. Even mentioned by Lana and Kyle.
- Spotting the Thread: Natalie quickly spots that there is something wrong between Sarah and Jordan.
- Super Serum: X-Kryptonite has been aerosolized by criminals into an inhalable gas that briefly grants superpowers.
- Tailor-Made Prison: Tal-Rho is locked up in a bunker, trapped in a glass cell far from the bunker walls, and red sun lamps are his only source of light.
- Took a Level in Badass: Jordan's powers are noted to have grown and he's able to decently defend himself in a fight against a superpowered foe. He even geeks out about this to Jon later, noting that he actually hit Tal a couple times.
- The Un Favourite: Tal accuses Lara of treating him this way.
- What the Hell, Hero?: Clark calls out Anderson for recruiting Tag Harris, who is barely 18 and still very much a kid.
- Worf Had the Flu:
- The superpowered drug dealer Phillip Karnowsky is able to get the better of Superman because the visions kick in at the worst possible time.
- Jordan actually stands half-a-chance against Tal because Tal hasn't had much time to gain strength after being stuck under red sun lamps for months, while over that same period of time Jordan's powers have further developed. Jordan still loses, since Tal is vastly more skilled and Jordan is nowhere near the average Kryptonian yet, but he gets a few good hits in. As soon as Superman gets over his visions, he dominates Tal in seconds.
- Would Hurt a Child: Tal-Rho doesn't mind attacking 15-year-old Jordan when Jordan tries to stop Tal's attack on an incapacitated Superman.
- Wrench Wench: Natalie puts her mechanical talents to use, helping Sarah fix her father's car.
- You Are Better Than You Think You Are: Lara tries to convince Tal that there's still good in him, which actually makes him hesitate in killing Jordan. Clark laters says that he doesn't believe it himself yet, but he wants to.
