Jordan continues to struggle mastering his new powers, and when he finally finds a method which works, it causes trust issues with his brother. Lois determines to find out exactly who ‘Marcus Bridgewater’ might be and enlists the help of Clark, leading to some surprising discoveries.

As Jordan’s powers continue to manifest and cause him pain, even a trip to the Fortress of Solitude only provides the direction of the answer rather than a solution itself – he must learn to focus and control his abilities, starting with his hearing, as his father did so many years before. Thankfully for him, noise-cancelling headphones (which if you stop to think too hard on it, must be really bloody good ones) are a thing which exists in the year of our Lord 2021. So he has respite, but the focusing thing doesn’t come easy.

Over at Edge Industries, Lana settles into her new role, and ends up being approached by an old friend looking for a job. Does she really want to get people she knows and loves involved given her suspicions about Edge himself?

Speaking of Edge, he’s furious that obstacles keep being thrown in the path of his shifting the X-Kryptonite and demands Larr do better. When she comes up with a devious plan, it works slightly better than she could have predicted, given that superstar reporter Lois Lane is on the case, and is bringing her husband with her now she knows that people with powers are part of what’s going on.

And that leads nicely into Lois’ pursuit of ‘Bridgewater’ – having established that he can’t be who he says he is, she confronts him to find out the real truth. Of course he can’t tell her the truth (or so he thinks) and when Clark goes off snooping himself as Lois keeps ‘Marcus’ busy, he puts two and two together and comes up with… well, not the right answer.

Because the main thrust of this episode, over and above all the various subplots going on, is a bit more revelation as to the exact identity of ‘Captain Luthor/Marcus Bridgewater’, and that all just gets very fascinating very quickly. We’ve known for a while now that this guy’s single-minded pursuit of Superman doesn’t necessarily come from the evil place we might have expected, but the layers which get added here really do change the whole focus of events. This is one hell of a complicated character (to say nothing of one who will be familiar to comic-reading fans of the Big Blue Boy Scout) and things really feel like they are about to get a whole lot more interesting.

Back to the brothers Kent for a second – I know I keep saying it but these two really are one of the huge strengths of the show. Jonathan has every reason to be the sulky, pissed off teen from any number of shows but the fact that he’s Clark Kent and Lois Lane’s boy means that even when stuff bubbles over, the heart is in him to see past it, even if not immediately. Jordan, for his part could also easily be the tortured goth boy weirdo who just wants the world to go away but again, those Kent/Lane genes and heart balance it out, even if not always immediately. When these two fight, it never feels like it’ll be something which lasts too long, and whereas that could get dull if it ends up being overused, for now it just feels like a really essential part of the nuts and bolts of everything the show does.

Verdict: Some big revelations balance nicely against subversion of basic tropes elsewhere. This show really is as super as its central character. 9/10

Greg D. Smith