They looked like the same place Edge and Superman met earlier. It’s not clear where they actually are, but for some reason I keep getting a “Mars” vibe from them. They seem a bit too bleak and red to be on Earth.
The easiest way to mentally deal with this is to just accept one of the common tropes behind Superman - Kryptonians have an unconscious telepathy that doesn’t allow people to recognize their super identities. However, it can be over-ridden if you think about it too much. When Clark puts on his glasses, this telepathy is activated.
Canonically- at least, comic book canonically- Kal-El wanted to wear glasses to disguise himself in his Clark persona. However, the first time he tried to surreptitiously use his heat vision, the glass melted. He still had his spaceship, though, and made some lenses from the heat-resistant windows. Another purpose for the glass on his ship was to act as a telepathic antenna to teach infant Kal-El on the flight to Earth. Now, whenever he is Clark, he’s wearing the glasses and constantly pretending to not be Superman- and the glasses amplify that underlying thought and broadcast it to everyone around him.
How this works on TV and in photos… um, just don’t worry your pretty little head about it.
Personally, I’ve always liked this explanation- it’s fairly elegant, and uses several bits of Supes’ backstory to explain away what would be a pretty big problem. However, if I hadn’t known that in this last episode, I would’ve been really bothered by Lana’s inability to recognize him- she, more than most, should be able to recognize him.
I kept thinking of that scene in Mystery Men, where Mr. Furious realized that the only difference between Captain Amazing and Lance was a pair of glasses…
Oooh! I like that! Thank you.
Yeah, watching that scene, I had a flash of what might have happened in Smallville the first time Superman was shown on TV. Guy walks up, having missed the intro of who/what Superman is, and asks those gathered around the TV, “Hey, why is Clark on TV? And why is he in that silly outfit? Is this a game show or something?”
Hilarity ensues.
I’ll also accept a scene in the finale where everyone in Smallville finally comes clean and admits they knew all along, but were keeping his secret for him out of loyalty to his mother.
Have you seen this one about Batman’s identity
I think I’ve asked this before in this thread, but…how sure are we that this series actually takes place on the Arrowverse’s Earth-1? General Lane is a different actor than his previous appearance - which could be down to Crisis, or even a simple re-casting the audience is just supposed to ignore, ala Rhodey and others in the MCU. But is there any internal evidence so far in the series that it takes place on the Arrowverse’s Earth-1? Not only do I not think they’ve mentioned Kara/Supergirl yet, I don’t think they’ve mentioned anyone from the other Arrowverse shows.
This is from the same production company as all of the other Arrowverse shows, and unlike Stargirl, it’s exclusively a CW original, and with Crisis consolidating all of the CW DC shows into a single world, it would seem really odd to make it another world. But, if this is Earth-1, it also seems really odd internally that no one has even mentioned anyone or anything from the rest of the Arrowverse.
It seems to me like right now they’re keeping Superman & Lois in only loose continuity with the rest of the Arrowverse. Much like the Marvel TV shows early in the MCU, they want audiences to be able to watch it as if it’s in the same world as the other shows if they want to, but also want audiences unfamiliar with the other shows to be able to watch it without feeling like they’re missing something. I don’t know why they would be treating Superman & Lois differently from all of the other Arrowverse shows, though.
Well, when the other shows came up, the Arrowverse was a strong going concern. Now with Arrow, Black Lightning (which was initially independent) done and with Supergirl and Flash winding down, they probably don’t want to “burden” the new show with all the accumulated baggage. That would reaslly be the tail wagging the dog. (Legends kind of operates in its own corner anyway.)
And Flash, Batwoman, Black Lightning and Supergirl are characters that might need the synergy of a shared universe - but Superman is Superman.
re the X-Kryptonians’ depowering:
They’re all in mid-air, hitting Superman with their heat vision. Eradicator is activated, Superman is drained of his energy to the point of collapse (although I got the impression he was crawling the last few yards to his Fortress of Solitude, so enough juice to get there), and all the in-mid-air X-Kryptonians are depowered. I turned to my wife and said, ‘All those people are dead or critically injured from their falling.’
Of course, we don’t actually see them affected, or even falling. Next thing you know, the normal citizens of Smallville are waking up on the ground, not a scratch on any of them. Handwaving at its finest. 
Although one could say their powers were fading, not cut off like a switch, and they had enough to land themselves. Unlikely, given they woke up from unconsciousness. Another explanation is the supposedly-drained-to-the-point-of-collapse Superman managed to catch them all, deposit them on the ground safely, and a l m o s t make it to his Fortress. A stretch, but I’d take it.
S01E11 A Brief Reminiscence In-Between Cataclysmic Events
GREGORY SMITH (“EVERWOOD”) DIRECTS THE EPISODE - Clark makes a startling discovery about Morgan Edge.
“Superman Smashes the Klan”, based on the 1946 radio serial “Clan of the Fiery Cross” where Superman takes on the Ku Klux Klan.
Based on the title, I thought this episode was going to be all flashbacks. Indeed, they revisited material from the Pilot, so much of it in fact that I suspect they just added in some of the deleted scenes. It was great seeing the old Fleischer suit back in action. But then Morgan Edge showed up and things rapidly took on a darker tone. Much, much darker. I’ll take it as a good thing that Lois has John Henry Irons on speed dial.
The show is going on another hiatus, as expected. The final stretch begins July 13.
If it wasn’t for the fact there Edge reached the farm first I would have thought Clark and Lois were in cahoots to call in Irons, but there was no time for those two to confer. Although it wouldn’t surprise me if those two had talked about possibilities at some earlier time.
So, first, the first 30 minutes of this show were absolutely beautiful. Just… frickin’ gorgeous, and hopeful, and just… happy. There might have been a lot of dust in my living room at this time :).
Second, I don’t like how quickly Clark gave up. I understand it from a storyline perspective, but it was just really quick.
I was also expecting some unforeseen reaction from hormone-laden Jordan and his first kiss.
But I’ll trust that the producers know where they are going.
I suspect it’s more of a situation where they had the season arc in mind, filmed the longer, more complete scenes, and for the pilot just took snippets of scenes we didn’t see in their entirety until this week. Sort of the opposite of deleted scenes.
Well… poo!
I got the feeling he caved to save his family - but he did tell Lois he was sorry in a way that makes me think that he’s just playing along until he can take down Edge.
Well see.
Early Supes comics had a fascination with LL names- Lana Lang, Lex Luthor, Lois Lane, etc.
I agree. For a show about a living god, this show has been unexpectedly good at the smaller character work and mostly just ok at the big action setpieces. That first half was wonderful. Everything after Morgan Edge (or Tal-Rho) came into the picture was just ok.
I’ve been pleasantly surprised that the writers seem to really understand the characters and want to develop them in ways that previous series and movies mostly haven’t. Much, much less teenage angst and melodrama than the other Arrowverse shows and families and people that could even be mistaken for real human beings that react in ways real human beings react (again in an odd contrast for a show featuring beings with god-like powers).
I think it was Kurt Busiek, but I recall one comics writer claiming that the best Superman stories were the ones that featured Clark as a character as much as Superman and this show is really proving that’s the case.
We haven’t seen anything to confirm that this show is contemporaneous with the other Arrowverse shows. I have started to suspect that Superman and Lois has so far been taking place a few years before Crisis, and is in the parallel universe where Supes and Lois had twins all along. They have not yet been merged with the “Earth-1” S & L who more recently had a single infant while staying at Argo City. I am very curious about what will occur in the episode when David Ramsey guest stars. Will he be the Arrowverse’s John Diggle, as when he showed up on Batwoman recently, or might he show up as John Stewart, ring and all?
Heck, if the merge is still to come, John Henry Irons might even get his daughter back.
I loved how he picked up the green car right out of Action Comics #1
Nice touch.
Brian
That’s…a very interesting idea. I’ve brought up a couple of times in this thread that we haven’t actually seen any internal evidence in this show that it takes place on the Arrowverse Earth-1, and in fact some circumstantial evidence points to it not being Earth-1. If this is a world that is going to become merged with Earth-1, it certainly resolves a number of continuity issues.
Against that, though, is that I don’t think I’ve ever seen a TV or movie adaptation ever be nearly that ambitious with that kind of in-universe pre-retconning.
I agree. I was really impressed by Tyler Hoechlin. The way he conveyed with facial expressions and body language the pure joy of his first flight, then the devastation of heartbreak when he realizes that Lana is in love with someone else, and then channeling Christopher Reeve…Honestly, I didn’t much like Tyler Hoechlin as Superman when he first appeared on Supergirl. I think this may be the first time I’ve truly bought him as Clark and as Superman.