As Clark’s visions continue to get stronger and more problematic, he’s forced to turn to the most unexpected of sources for assistance. Lois and Chrissy have a new issue. Sarah and Jordan’s relationship continues to be awkward.

What I enjoy about Superman & Lois most, aside from its entirely unironic earnestness for the main character and his family, is how much it likes to surprise the audience, even as it also occasionally drops the odd super-predictable thread in there for good measure. It does this with big things and little things, and nowhere is that more evident than in this week’s instalment.

When he has another ‘episode’, in front of his family this time, Clark is forced to come clean that yes, all is not well in his super bonce. For him and Lois, the obvious conclusion is that it’s a lingering side effect of the Eradicator process, given that he seems to be seeing visions of a destroyed planet. And Clark only knows one person who might be able to offer any kind of insight on that, which leads to surprise number one.

Yes, it’s good to see Adam Rayner back – his Morgan Edge/Tal Rho was a delicious mix of genuine callous evil providing a shell wrapped around a scared, brutalised young man, and he provides a great foil to Tyler Hoechlin’s Clark. Here, apparently stripped of his powers, he’s lost none of his ability to wound his half-brother. It hurts Clark that he has to turn to Rho of all people, but with his episodes becoming more frequent and debilitating, and no longer being able to count on the backup of the DOD, he has little alternative.

Meanwhile, back at the Cushing-Lang household, there’s one of the smaller, longer-term surprises. (No, not that one, Sarah turns out to have basically done pretty much what the show was implying, albeit with a twist.) It relates to Kyle and Lana (nope, not that either, you’d have to be blind not to see where the Mayoral storyline is going). Kyle started out season 1 as a really difficult character to like, gruff, bad-tempered and seeing the worst in everyone. After the high note ending of season 1 it seemed as if maybe he was going to go down the same old paths with his jealousy at how much time Lana was spending on the campaign, but instead they sorted it out in a meaningful, grow up way and here he demonstrates just how much he’s grown and more importantly, just how fundamentally decent he always was under all that anger. It’s a small thing in the context of the show, maybe, but it lands well for me.

Back with the El/Rho family reunion, that also takes some unexpected turns (and again no, not the one you’ve guessed – that one is obvious to anyone who’s watched Tal Rho for more than five minutes). It turns out that we get here a reunion of another sort for Clark and an entirely unexpected person. What that does is help to provide some more context for Tal Rho’s complex nature. Yes, he is a bit of a monster, but maybe there is more to him. Maybe, buried underneath the neuroses and the hatred and the years of hurt at the hands of his abusive father, there’s a fundamentally decent (if still not entirely likeable) person.

As for Lois, she’s got problems of her own, when a story from her past resurfaces on a podcast and then goes viral. Seems one of her ex-sources on said story is ready to recant their original account which doesn’t make partner Chrissy exactly giddy with joy about the prospects of what it might do to her paper’s reputation. I suspect this is going to be a season long slow burner and I’m interested to see where they take it, given who’s involved.

Oh, and those earthquakes? Still happening. Lois persuades John Henry Irons to get involved in looking into it further, and what he finds confirms what we the audience already know – it isn’t earthquakes, it’s something headed to the surface, and each event coincides with Clark not feeling at his best.

Jordan and Jonathan each have issues of their own of course. Jordan still can’t work out what he might have done wrong for why Sarah seems so cool on him, though Natalie gets close to the truth when she and Sarah hang out to work on Kyle’s old car. Jonathan meanwhile is sure there’s some unfair play going on with one of his football team mates who suddenly seems to have got a whole lot more powerful at the gym.

Honestly, I thought we had some decent set up in episode 1 but this feels like we have at least half a dozen potentially fascinating (and intertwining) plot threads being put in place, and it’s difficult t know what to be most intrigued about. What is clear is that this is promising to be just as strong as the show’s maiden season.

Verdict: Surprises both big and small and a whole lot of promise for what’s to come. 10/10

Greg D. Smith