Season 2 Episode 8 – Oblivion or X-K Huff and Stuff
After a very unintended break The BAM Crew (Bethany, Alison, and Michael) are back to talk about the eighth episode of Superman and Lois Season 2. Into Oblivion taught The Crew many, many lessons. One of those lessons is never accept a drink offered by someone that is involved involved with The Inverse cult. Then there is the important lesson of never play Rock/Paper/Scissors with Lois Lane. Also, and maybe more importantly, never get into a van that has people in hazmat suits in the back.
The Crew also discusses what Jordan’s superhero name should be (The Black/Gray Blur or Hooded Justice) before getting to the all-important segments of the show. Bethany reveals who had The Most Punchable Face and Alison lets everyone know who was The Most Aestheticaly Pleasing. Finally, The Crew addresses all of your feedback!
Here is a link to that blog post from Xum Yukinori that was discussed during the feedback segment.
Michael is writing the reviews for Superman and Lois over on The Superman Homepage. Check out his review for Into Oblivion 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 30 Days and 30 Nights.
Good to hear the BAM crew in my earbuds again. Thank you all.
Okay, given the choices for Jordan’s heroic name, I’ll go with Hooded Justice, although it kind of sounds like a Klansman who somehow got onto the Supreme Court. Also, is the drug the Inverse Cult members are using somehow un-tasteable only in tea, or is the tea somehow specially designed to mask the drug? It seems odd that it would be put specifically into tea, since I’d imagine coffee would be the hot beverage of choice for more people. As for “Never get into a van with people in hazmat suits”, how about the lesson kids were supposed to learn from PSAs and after school specials: “Don’t get into a windowless van“?
I continue to love this series immensely. I was thinking about that recently and I’m pretty sure that the last series I watched that always excited me and never disappointed me was The Good Place, which, for me is a high-water mark for TV, so Superman and Lois is in rarified company as far as I’m concerned.
The relationship moments in this episode were very good, I thought, particularly between Jon and Jordan, who are very believable as brothers, even keeping secrets from their parents, and Lois and Clark as concerned, frustrated, angry parents. You noted that Sarah seemed to be pushing Jordan a bit too soon to meet Aubrey, but teens don’t always work well with nuance in their relationships, particularly in young love. This might also explain Jonathan’s strong protectiveness of Candice in a situation where an adult might think, “She’s dealing drugs and got me in serious trouble. Maybe I shouldn’t trust or protect her.” Again, teens don’t always think that way, more evidence that these young people are acting like real teens, not TV teens.
I’m very eager to see the world on the other side of the portal, and the effects on the people who went through the portal (with and without the pendants). I also hope that John Henry Irons’ health, both physical and psychological, continues to improve and that Natale becomes less hostile/suspicious of Superman, but I leave these things to the writers, who continue to accumulate a large balance in the Bank of My Goodwill.
For “Most Punchable Face”, I have to go with Candice’s supplier of “X-K Huff and Stuff”. He had it coming. For “Most Aesthetically Pleasing”, I’m sticking with Sarah, for sticking by her Dad in a difficult time, without holding it against her Mom that Kyle is Out of the House (which I hope is not permanent).
Finally, on a personal note, my feedback for your next episode may come late. I will be travelling the last week of April, so I may not watch the next episode of the series until early May, but rest assured, I will be leaving feedback as soon as I can. (I’d hate to disappoint.)
Thank you for using my joke as an alternate title, though I think it fell victim to autocorrect. I meant “huffin’ stuff” as in the stuff the high school jocks are huffin’ — and as the song goes, “they can’t do a little ‘cause they can’t do enough.”
And yes, Dad introduced me to a lot of 1960s and 1970s kid shows when I first started to watch television — including the Krofft shows. I think I was the only kid in my school who knew who H. R. Pufinstuf was. Other kids asked me if he was a Power Rangers villain. I’m pretty sure Rita Repulsa and Witchiepoo are distant cousins…
I didn’t hear much comment on Nat’s backstory in this episode, which showed how she crossed universes to follow her dad. I think the “temporal anomaly that was compromising the integrity of [their] dimension” looked a lot like the antimatter wave from “Crisis” (and they both escaped just in time). I first I thought Nat was going to eventually fill the typical CW hero show role of being the “person in the chair” on support comms for future Steel missions. But seeing how she immediately went after her dad without any hesitation makes me think she may become John’s armored partner in the field one day.
I agree that “Hooded Justice” is a bit too Klan. I’ll stick with “Hero in a Hoodie” (Jordan Power!).
This is the first time we see the portal to the inverse world, but we still don’t have the story on how it was created in the first place. I don’t think it was clear whether Bizarro punched open that hole himself, or if the hole was already there and Bizarro simply (well, not simply) “came through”, as Dr. Faulkner said at the end of episode 2. I’m sure we’ll get the answer soon.
I also don’t get how the DOD never came across this portal as they locked down the mines. Maybe members of Ally’s cult are in the DOD? We see First Sergeant Erin Wu helping Ally get to and through that portal in the next episode, but I get the feeling she only became aware of Ally and her cult because she was still loyal to Anderson and was still following him. Not sure if she went all-in like Anderson and “tried the tea,” or if she was only helping Ally just to “save Anderson.”
And speaking of tea… wow! I really don’t see how Lucy Lane is going to come back from all of this. I’m sure the brilliant writers have come up with something.
Sophie is basically a plot device on the show, isn’t she? She blurts out that Kyle is jealous of Clark in episode 1. She is the reason why her sister Sarah stays home one night to be kidnapped by Tag in episode 6. She is the excuse for Lana to not answer Kyle’s question in this episode. Maybe next season Sophie’s bullying at school will attract the Blackrock symbiote to make her the prime villain of season 3. (Venom is still a big deal, right? So why not S&L Venom?)
And Mr. Bailey failed to mention that he himself is one of those “other people” on my Dad’s “Done-in-One Wonders” podcast. In fact, Mr. Bailey inspired that podcast episode with his Facebook comment about how frustrating a podcast with Dr. Manhattan from Watchmen would be (and he was right).
Thanks for another fun discussion, SALTy BAM Crew. Until next time, watch out for those shadow selves.