Season 2 Episode 13 – All is Lost or I Am The Pumpkin King
The BAM Crew (Bethany, Alison, and Michael) are back with thoughts on episode 13 of the second season of Superman and Lois. All is Lost is not only a lyric from one of the numbers in A Nightmare Before Christmas, it is also an episode about dads reconnecting/connecting with their kids. The Crew compares the four fathers presented during the episode and while it was a tough contest they ulimately choose who was the best dad. They also talk about what should happen with Lucy, why Lana was tough but fair with Jordan, how both Lana and Clark let down their children with past pop culture and so much more.
Also, Bethany reveals who had The Most Punchable Face and Alison lets everyone know who was The Most Aestheticaly Pleasing people in the episode. Michael also delivers a really off the cuff Professor Bailey’s Superman 101 when Alison asks for one about the Parasite. Finally, The Crew addresses all of your feedback!
Michael is writing the reviews for Superman and Lois over on The Superman Homepage. Check out his review for All is Lost by clicking here.
Michael also has an essay in the recently released Oooff! Boff! Splatt! The Subterranean Blue Grotto Essays on Batman ’66 – Season 3 and you can order a physical copy of the book by clicking here and get the Kindle copy by clicking here!
Finally, go and check out Alison’s podcasting efforts over on The GeekCast Radio Network! She co-hosted So You Wanna Be A Hawkeye series and you can find the first epiosde of that by clicking here.
The Superman and Lois Tapes can be found on both Apple Podcasts and Spotify. The show can be reached by email at thesupermanandloistapes@gmail.com. You can also leave comments here or over at the Facebook page for the show, which you can get to by clicking this link.
The main theme for the show is “Heroes” by the awesome Mike Schmidt. You can find his work over at Speed Force Music.
Next Time: The Crew discusses the next episode of Superman and Lois titled All Is Lost!
Thank you for the fun show, SALTy BAM Crew.
I will rewatch the streaming episode of S&L before I comment on the episode (in case I missed anything), but I have some points to add on the Parasite 101, understanding that Uncle Michael had zero prep work when he did it.
The cartoon episode with I. C. Harris was a direct adaption of the first Parasite comic book story in Action Comics 340. The man in the comic was Raymond Maxwell Jensen, and the radioactive waste Jensen thought was money was actually a waste product from Superman’s experiments with radioactive elements he discovered in space, which is why this particular radioactive waste changed him into the Parasite (so don’t try this with Earth radioactive waste at home, kids). Jensen was defeated by his own greed. He absorbed too much of Superman’s powers and blew up.
As comic book luck would have it, some time later, in Action Comics 361, it was discovered that Parasite’s disintegrated atoms were floating among clouds in the Earth’s stratosphere, and were in the way of an alien mapmaker making scans of the solar system for the Planetary Geographic Commission (does that name even work?). The alien used their ship’s technology to actually collect Parasite’s atoms, thinking it was a rare radioactive cloud, and detecting life signs, used their handy “revival chamber” to restore the Parasite. The alien was killed for their troubles, and Parasite used his absorbed knowledge from the alien to land their spaceship on Earth so he can go after Superman again, this time being careful not to take too much power to blow himself up again.
Also, my dad once told me that Parasite became a Firestorm villain post-Crisis because John Byrne explained in Adventures of Superman 442 that post-Crisis Superman could not have his powers stolen, he could only be drained of the solar energy that fuels his powers. So Parasite wouldn’t work as a post-Crisis Superman villain. Later writers obviously decided to move away from Byrne’s idea because it’s fun to do a story where someone steals Superman’s powers.
Thanks, Isamu, for that recap. While listening to Michael’s “on the fly” Parasite 101, I was thinking, “There’s something more to this.” but I couldn’t think of what, exactly.
By the way, BAM Crew, I’m happy to post comments, no matter who writes in first. It’s a community, not a competition. Personally, I wish there were many more listeners commenting on each episode.
Definitely lots of “dad stuff” in this episode. It was either good planning or a lucky coincidence that it aired a bit before Fathers’ Day. I especially loved Superman coaching Jordan with his flying, and their absolute glee, which I think is exactly the right reaction. Who among us, if we discovered we could fly, wouldn’t be completely giddy about it? If I found that I could fly, I don’t think I’d ever walk anywhere ever again.
From the previews of the next episode, it doesn’t look as if Superman is going to recover with just a day under an intensified sun lamp. I imagine that it will bother him quite a bit to have to be on the sidelines if Jordan, John Henry, and Nat step in to cover his role as Earth’s hero.
With only a couple of episodes left in this season, I’m really looking forward to what the writers have in store for everyone, because I’m absolutely confident that, whatever it is, it will be good, and it will surprise me.
Hi, again.
Some random thoughts so I can actually comment about the show and not just the comics:
I watched the streamed version of “Tried and True,” and I didn’t notice anything different in terms of extra scenes. I also heard no mention of hospitals. I only heard a reference that “Timmy is sick” from Jordan to explain why Jonathan was starting QB in that night’s game. And then later at the game with Denise gossiping to Sarah and Jordan about “Timmy’s mom caught him huffing some weeeeeeird drug from the mines.” Of course, since Timmy was doing a drug, it would make sense for Timmy’s parents to take him to the hospital for detox. And since Timmy’s dad is the captain of police (thank you, Auntie Bethany for adding that to my… HEAD CANON), they kept it quiet, and that’s the reason why I heard no hospitals…
And on this “Lost” episode:
Clark seeing chores being the “bright side” of a day… that sounded a lot like my dad…
Also, Clark asking one of his children for advice on how to help the other sibling also sounded very much like my dad…
I also liked how Lois was starting to let Chrissy Beppo “into her world” a little bit with having her accompany her and General Lane to find Lucy in this episode. But making her wait in the car as lookout – not cool! At least Lois lets Chrissy in a lot more in the next episode.
I love that hourglassed Eiffel Tower on Bizarro World… I think it was actually upside down in the comics (and very crooked).
Lucy seemed very deranged in this episode… reminded me of the kids at school that think COVID is a hoax. Hopefully we will hear about some real consequences for what she did and not a “get out of jail free” card like Timmy did because her dad was/is chief of the DOD police.
Yay! Nat is John’s armored partner. Called it! And I loved your assessment of how Nat has come full circle and finally accepted this world’s Superman.
The last scene of Ally bringing the portals together reminded me of the old Superman movies in terms of the special and sound FX… and that’s not a bad thing.
Having watched the next episode (with my favorite Mayor Dean moment of Superman putting him in his place), I wonder how the writers are going to tie everything up in the final episode. I have a feeling I will have some unanswered questions (especially about Ally’s family history with the pendant and the inverse world) — but I also have a feeling that not getting all of the answers won’t spoil my enjoyment of the season.
And nice work with the backwards talk, Uncle Michael, and thanks for taking the trouble to make that work. My dad and I used to have fun with palindromes that not only spelled the same backwards and forwards, but *sounded* the same both ways. Or at least similar… (“See… cookies.”)
Looking forward to seeing who will be the next character on the show who will need to “smooth things over” with another character…