Recap / Superman And Lois S 2 E 11 Truth And Consequences

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Recap of Superman & Lois
Season 2, Episode 11

Truth and Consequences

Jon-El arrives on Earth intending to force a merge with Jonathan. With Lana-Rho planning the same, the Kents debate as to whether they should inform Lana of the potential danger she is in, a debate compounded by the family's ongoing struggles with the effect of their shared secret on their various outside relationships. Superman works to both stop Ally and her Bizarro world followers and protect the inhabitants of both planets.

Tropes Featured in this Episode:

• Alone with the Psycho: Jon-El confronts Sarah in her new car before going into her house to kidnap Lana, though she doesn't realize the potential danger she's in and just thinks that Jonathan is dressed and acting very oddly.
• And This Is for...: Jordan drops Jonathan-El with a final punch after telling him, "This is for my brother."
• Attack Backfire: John Henry tries to use his red sun blaster on Lana-Rho, but all it does is restore her strength after going through the portal had weakened her considerably.
• Bad Liar: After being saved, Lana tells Sarah that she just needed some air and somehow, the day got away from her.
• Big Damn Heroes: At the beginning, Clark interrupts the forced Fusion Dance Jonathan-El tries with Jon.
• Cain and Abel: Jonathan-El seems to have this relationship with his own brother Jordan-El, whom he treats with visible contempt, and with Jordan Kent, whom he resents as being the "weaker" brother who nonetheless is the one who has powers on Earth-Prime. In particular, Jonathan-El seems to really despise Jordan Kent and assumes an antagonistic attitude towards him immediately. Jordan Kent, for his part, simply hates Jonathan-El because he is an obvious sociopath who is threatening his family.
• Didn't Think This Through: When returning the beatdown Jonathan-El gave him, Jordan punches him into the sky, then leaps after him to continue the fight. Only once he's up there does he realize he hasn't actually figured out how to fly, and soon both teens are reminded that gravity still exists.
• Entertainingly Wrong: When he kidnaps her and says crazy-sounding things, Lana thinks that Jonathan-El is Jon under the influence of X-Kryptonite.
• Evil Doppelgänger: Jonathan-El and Lana-Rho, specifically. While most people on Bizarro Earth are different from their Earth-Prime versions, it seems they are usually not on opposite ends of the moral spectrum. But Jonathan-El and Lana-Rho are fanatical, superpowered followers of Ally and willing to do anything, including commit murders, to advance her goals as well as their own.
• Fusion Dance: Jonathan-El begins to merge with Jonathan at the start of the episode, but is interrupted by Clark.
• Homefield Advantage: Jordan is weaker than Johnathan-El on a level playing field, but on Earth, Jordan is fueled by the sun while Jon-El is weakened by it. Jordan simply has to outlast Jon-El to come out on top.
• How Do I Shot Web?: Jordan's got the Super-Strength down, he's got the In a Single Bound down... but actually staying in the air once he's up there is another matter, requiring Superman to save him.
• Human Pincushion: Superman gets his chest riddled with Kryptonite shrapnel from Jonathan-El's improvised Kryptonite bomb, then stabs him in the chest with a large shard for good measure, all of which Lana has to remove.
• Hypocrite: Jon-El tells Sarah he doesn't care what "some small town idiot" thinks, although he also grew up in Smallville in the Bizarro World. Although he did quickly get into urban high society after revealing his powers and becoming a Celebrity Superhero in his own right. Which was how he met (the then very elite) Ally at a nightclub.
• Internal Reveal:
  • Clark gets caught up on the events he missed two episodes ago, like Lana winning the election and Candice being the drug dealer, and learns that he's been gone a month instead of a day like he thought.
  • The episode ends with Clark revealing to Lana that he is Superman.
  • Before that, Superman reveals to Lana that the Jonathan who kidnapped her was from another world, so she won't keep thinking that Jonathan Kent has gone nuts on X-K.
• In the Back: Nat stabs Lana-Rho in the back with X-Kryptonite, saving her dad.
• It's All My Fault: Clark blames himself for Lana's capture as he thinks that he let Jonathan-El get away while selfishly protecting his secret.
• Keeping Secrets Sucks: The entire episode, including the title, teases the idea of letting the Cushings in on Superman's true identity and, by extension, his family, as they realize that keeping the secret is doing more harm than good—first with Jordan's relationship with Sarah, which in turn pales to the dangers both Sarah and Lana now find themselves in thanks to Ally's cult and the Bizarro selves. At the very end of the episode, Clark reveals his secret to Lana, with the approval of his family, all of whom agree that keeping her in the dark is doing more harm than good at this point.
• Lured into a Trap: Jonathan-El uses his shared visions with Earth-Prime Jonathan to lure Superman to where he's keeping Lana, then detonates a large propane tank filled with Kryptonite to disable Superman, after which he goes to merge with his counterpart.
• Megaton Punch: Jordan hits Jonathan-El with an uppercut so powerful, it sends him flying into the clouds.
• Mythology Gag: Jordan and Jonathan-El's fight mirrors a similar confrontation in the Smallville episode "Bizarro," right down to the villain being weakened by sunlight and then punched high into the sky.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Completely unwitting example by Lana, when she unknowingly distracts Clark from going after Jonathan-El, enabling the latter to escape.
• No-Holds-Barred Beatdown:
  • Lana-Rho gives John Henry a brutal one.
  • Jonathan-El gives Jordan one, before the latter returns the favour once the former runs out of juice.
• Oh, Crap!:
  • John Henry says this when his red sun blaster heals Lana-Rho instead of weakening her.
  • Lois when Sarah mentions seeing Jonathan outside her home "dressed like he was going to a rave in the Matrix", realizing that Bizarro Jon could have been after Lana.
• Pop-Cultural Osmosis Failure: While talking with Sarah at the mayor's office, Lois mentions the band Primus, which means nothing to Sarah.
  Lois: There was this one guy, Dave, he was spectacularly awful. He was in this Primus cover band-
  Sarah: What's Primus?
  Lois: A band no other band should ever cover.
• Pre-Asskicking One-Liner: "Who's the weak one now?" by Jordan after catching Jonathan-El's punch and then returning the favour.
• Psychic Link: Jon is plagued with the same kind of painful visions Clark experienced with Bizarro, as he is connected with Jonathan-El.
• Punch Catch: Jordan does this to Jonathan-El, marking the point when Jonathan-El's strength fails him.
• Punch! Punch! Punch! Uh Oh...: Jonathan-El delivers a No-Holds-Barred Beatdown on Jordan at first, until the latter senses the power of the other's blows diminishing and then performs the before-mentioned Punch Catch, and El's immediate reaction shows that it dawns on him that he's in trouble.
• Ship Tease: Not knowing that Superman is her (married) friend Clark, Lana invites him inside her house after he saves her from Jon-El, which he politely declines.
• Skewed Priorities: While Lois understands that Jordan worries about the state of his relationship with Sarah, she points out that they have more pressing matters at hand. Sarah agrees with this, refusing to take Jordan's letter when her mom is missing. Although it turns out later that Jordan's letter would have revealed his secret to her, and possibly shed light on what was going on with her mom.
• Sure, Let's Go with That: Superman explains to Lana that the Jonathan who kidnapped her was a different Jonathan "from another world." She asks if he means another planet like Krypton, not knowing that doppelgangers from parallel universes are a thing. Superman just goes with that rather than try to explain everything.
• Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: Sarah is not in the mood for a letter from Jordan when her mom just went missing.
• Take That!: Lois tells Sarah about her own past dating history, which was largely marked by Dating What Daddy Hates, including a guy who was in a Primus cover band. Sarah does not know who Primus were. Lois responds: "A band that no other band should cover."
• Victory by Endurance: When Jonathan-El attacks Jordan, he initially has the upper hand and keeps pummeling him senseless. However, Jonathan-El doesn't have the benefit of a red sun to keep him powered up, while Jordan can recover thanks to the yellow sun, so his blows gradually weaken until Jordan is able to tank them without being hurt. Once Jordan knows Jonathan-El has lost his edge, he catches Jonathan-El's fist in his hand and starts returning the favor.
• Villain: Exit, Stage Left: After being stabbed by Natalie with a shard of X-Kryptonite, Lana-Rho flees back through the portal.
• Wham Episode: After a season and a half, and being best friends since childhood, Clark finally reveals his true identity to Lana, ensuring the Cushings now know the true nature of the Kents.
• Worf Had the Flu: Johnathan-El's powers are certainly close to those of Superman himself and far more developed than Jordan's, allowing him to toss Jordan aside with ease in their first encounter. But thanks to spending a day under a yellow sun, he quickly burns through his energy reserves fighting Jordan in their rematch, allowing Jordan to turn the tables.
• Year Outside, Hour Inside: As established in the previous episode, Clark only spent a day or so on Bizarro World despite being absent for a month by Earth's clock. Though Bizarro World runs on the same timeline, he speculates that the timeless nature of the void between them is responsible for the lost time.

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