'Superman & Lois' season 1 episode 3 review: The Perks of Not Being A Wallflower

This post contains spoilers for Superman & Lois.
Check out our review of Superman & Lois season 1 episode 2.

Superman is the world's hero — not just America's — and the series taking time to highlight him responding to tragedy in other countries is everything I'm here for. It's a brief moment in the opening of the episode, but it's enough to subtly drive home a very, very important aspect of Superman's character. With that scene comes an aspect that will play a major role in the theme of the episode: Clark's hearing. Technically, Superman can hear everything going on the world at any given moment. He chooses to filter certain things out after years of practice, but everyone's a little bit flawed. When Jordan nearly loses his calm at school, Clark magically appears to de-escalate the situation. On the one hand, Jordan was about to out their entire family in a hallway. On the other, the boys now know that their dad is spying on them. 

The Superman that makes mistakes is the exact kind of Superman I want to see in my superhero media. Clark Kent (Tyler Hoechlin) is not a perfect man, and sometimes he thinks the end justifies the means when it really, really doesn't. When the kids still won't speak to him, Lois (Bitsie Tulloch) reminds him that he almost lost her the time she caught him listening in. So, maybe spying on their kids isn't the best course of action here. Promises are made, parents are forgiven and all is well in the Kent-Lane family.

And then Jordan (Alex Garfin) joins the football team.

"The Perks of Not Being A Wallflower" ultimately comes to the conclusion that this isn't such a bad idea by way of Jonathan (Jordan Elsass) convincing his father to give Jordan a chance. But the episode is wrong and it's very, very stupid. Obviously, they make the rules and it's their universe to build parameters in, but this angsty child has zero control over his powers. We literally just watched him nearly lose it at school not thirty minutes ago. Trust, trust, ra, ra, whatever. It's not about trust. It's about ensuring your child doesn't kill another child on accident. Irresponsible, Clark. 

A whole host of things will go down in the process of Clark ultimately deciding he's okay with Jordan playing the game. First, Jonathan's punished by the coach who, to be honest, is a complete dick, for telling him that his brother was high key talented. Next, Jonathan feels threatened that he is losing his thing because we have to continue to make up problems for these boys. (Yes, he makes up for it later, but what if we just skipped this dance?) Then, the boys are caught lying to Clark about playing football. Next, Jordan is a complete monster, telling his dad that "everything you do is a mistake. I just wish you would go back to not being around anymore." And, finally, Clark listens to his teen son and lets his other — and infinitely more volatile — teen son play football provided he is the assistant coach on the field...

Most of the excitement sits with Lois' part of the episode as she continues her quest to take down Morgan Edge (Adam Rayner) and save Smallville (from both him and itself). After finally finding a lead to come forward, Lois gets car-bombed for her trouble. Later, she'll find herself going toe to toe with a powered individual whose super strength even stops Superman in his tracks for a brief moment. The action in this week's episode is solid, but it's a quiet moment between Lois and Clark that wins the night. Before her attack, she wonders if she's going too hard on this Edge angle. Clark — never once worried that his wife can't hack a car-bombing or threats from a billionaire — simply tells her to trust her gut and that he's on her team no matter what she chooses. He just needs her to be able to live with that choice. Clark might be struggling in the dad department, but he's got this husband thing down pretty well. 

By and large, "The Perks of Not Being A Wallflower" is Superman & Lois' best episode yet. It hits all the right points for Superman and it lets Lois shine as only she can. Jonathan, while having made up problems, is starting to grow on me. Meanwhile, Jordan Kent is a textbook Nice Guy who doesn't need an entire show empathizing with him. The "boys will be boys" angle should be over. Don't let it have space in a show about Superman.