I don't like the third episode "In cold Blood" because Lana actually slaps her daughter. The very next episode, Too Close to Home is full of dramatic conflict, but a more tolerable and 'working through things' kind and is very well done. It's a core episode, one of those required in order to proceed and it's actually a pretty masterful episode. But contrary to what you might think the conflict doesn't stem from what happened in the previous episode. The entire episode more on John Henry and his daughter, as well as his sister...or this Earth's version of his sister as well as his now dead doppelganger.
We see throughout that Bruno Manheim is taking people, criminals on death row who've gotten compassionate releases for terminal illnesses and giving them powers with some serum or cure. It turns out the compassionate releases are genuine, these people were dying and he is actually trying to save thier lives...giving them a serum to make them stronger/giving them powers. The problem course is they have to keep taking the serum. The reason the now super-powered criminals are 'dead' in DoD custody isn't because Bruno will come after them for being traitors or narcs but without the serum thier actual terminal illness will kill them. And contrary to Clark and Lois' journalistic intuition, initial conclusion, that's not a trap or a caveat Bruno set these criminals up with. Lois begins to suspect that perfecting the cure really is what's important to him. Even more than giving people powers, he wants to cure people and save lives. He's a protector of 'his people' in South Metropolis which was once called Suicide Slums.
Episode
5 called Head On is boring as hell, I don't even remember what
happens in it except there's a school dance and John's daughter
Natalie has a new boyfriend who takes her to it. She is not
comfortable or 'natural' is such social situations. And it becomes
painfully clear, painful to her at least, how un-normal she was
raised and how she stands out. My junior prom was the same way. But I
can see how this mediocre episode can fuel the argument/feeling so
many people have that this show has become a boring family drama. It
was a filler episode and should not be treated as anything
else.
Episode 6 and 7 are full of character development and are
reasonably well-driven I mean well written, well acted, good pacing
and all of that. At the end of 7 called Forever and Always Clark
interviews Bruno Manheim who briefly lets his shield drop. His
emotions and true motivation shine through. "Lois is dying
of cancer. Are you really going to look me in the eye and tell me you
wouldn't do anything to save her? This is your wife we're talking
about." And Clark recognizes "No I don't think it
is. This is personal...to you. Someone you love is dying and that's
why you're so obsessed with finding a cure."
Bruno was pretty obsessed and for Clark and Lois, unscrupulous in how far he went for this serum. Using one of his meta's to break into the DoD to steal a sample of Superman's blood. And then in the next episode to steal Bizzaro's body so they can use his blood to make and engineer the cure. Which one can guess will not work. The genius is, that it was actually set up masterfully and believably, long before hand why a cure from Bizzaro's blood would not work. It is established even before Bruno Manheim's name is mentioned that Bizzaro's world, the world with the red sun is actually on inverted physical laws compared to ours. He not only has flame breath and freeze vision, the opposite of our Superman, he is strengthened by Green Kryptonite and weakened by our Earth's yellow sun. He actually evolved under an inverted set of physical laws. Which is why the miracle cure Bruno created form his blood will not and does not work. A cure from Superman's blood ironically enough, probably would have.
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