Superman & Lois 2×05 Review: “Girl… You’ll Be A Woman, Soon”

Superman & Lois returns from its brief (Olympics) hiatus with “Girl… You’ll Be A Woman, Soon”. Despite how fractured the season’s plotlines seemed for the first few episodes, they are starting to tie together now. 

Lois’s sudden pivot on Ally at the beginning of “Girl… You’ll Be A Woman, Soon” is a bit surprising, considering that Bizarro came out of the mines before she went to confront Lucy. I understand she might not have made the connection until after, but it seems odd that in the previous episode, she was still so certain that she was right. Now she’s wondering if she made a mistake. It just seems to be out of nowhere, given what we’ve been shown so far.

I suppose I can appreciate the recognition that when confronted with new information, it’s not a bad idea to reconsider your previous convictions. Obviously, not everything should be held to the same standard, but you also shouldn’t just automatically reject anything that challenges your worldview. It’s good to see that even someone smart like Lois can acknowledge when she may have made a mistake.

Of course, Lois didn’t really make a mistake. Ally is officially the Big Bad of this season. Granted, she’s not wrong about the “other self”, but being correct doesn’t necessarily make you right. As Chrissy said, she’s scary.

I’m glad Chrissy and Lois are back on good terms again. Her speech at the beginning absolutely made sense. Lois has definitely withheld the truth from her time and time again. We know that there are things that Lois can’t tell her, but she’s not wrong that Lois decides what Chrissy has the right to know, and it’s hard to maintain a working relationship with an imbalance like that. So I appreciate that Chrissy sort of put Lois in her place.

It looks like my theory that Ally is somehow tapping into people’s pre-Crisis memories was incorrect. From Chrissy’s description, it sounds like people are, in fact, able to see Bizarro world. (A Bizarro world in which Ally is supreme leader, apparently.) And Clark’s observations about Bizarro – that he is his opposite – implies that it’s probably the same for everyone. So it stands to reason that the people most attracted to Ally’s cult are people whose lives are better in Bizarro world.

I just have one question: Does everyone in Bizarro world look like other!Clark?

Jon is getting some character development in “Girl… You’ll Be A Woman, Soon”! Too bad it’s because of drugs. There are a couple of lingering questions around Jon’s use of X-K. Namely, are the powers that he is exhibiting caused by the X-K, or are these his latent Kryptonian powers developing? Candice had mentioned that everyone reacts differently, but it seems as though those people get the same abilities consistently.

For example, if you take X-K and it makes you stronger, then you would keep getting stronger. Jon, on the other hand, seems to be gaining a variety of powers. Based on his spar with Jordan, we can tell that he’s gotten super strength and speed, as indicated by the slowed-down reactions. He’s also gotten heat vision. This could imply that his Kryptonian powers are finally emerging – as Jordan seems to think – or it could mean that his half-Kryptonian biology makes him react to the X-K differently than everyone else.

Interestingly enough, the X-K didn’t seem to affect Clark at all. He even used it to help subdue Bizarro, correctly reasoning that, as his opposite, he would react differently to it. We also have to take Anderson’s team into account; Tag seemed to gain a multitude of powers. Does how you’re exposed to it make a difference? Why does it seem to be affecting Jon’s mood, but not anyone else’s? (Although I actually like that Jon is having these mood swings. He gets the short end of the stick a lot, and I’m actually excited to see him be snarky and moody. He’s earned the right to be sarcastic.)

Jordan is so excited about Jon developing powers. His reaction to finding out was adorable. I wonder what will happen when he finds out that it’s because of drugs? I suppose that depends on whether or not Jon’s powers become permanent.

The Cushings were actually interesting in “Girl… You’ll Be A Woman, Soon”! Now, don’t get me wrong, I absolutely loathe infidelity as a plotline. (It’s so overdone and often just drama for drama’s sake.) But they have felt so removed from the rest of the characters since the beginning of the season, and everything coming to a head at Sarah’s quinceañera, an event where everyone was together, felt perfect. The scene with Sarah, Kyle, and Lana was so uncomfortable to watch, but I just really loved the way that Lana handled everything.

On the surface, it may seem as though Lana was dismissive of Sarah’s feelings. Sarah didn’t feel up to going back to the party, and Lana talked her into it. But I felt that Lana was more trying to remind Sarah that you shouldn’t put your own life on hold because of the behavior of other people. As much as Sarah had seemed to not want a quinceañera, she had been having a good time before learning of her father’s affair. I’ve been in similar situations; my brain will tell me I don’t want to do something, but afterward, I’ll be extremely pleased that I did.

I also appreciated that Lana acknowledged that they wouldn’t be sweeping what happened under the rug. One of Sarah’s main issues in season 1 was that her parents seemed to care more about appearances than anything. I still remember them hiding in the car during Sarah’s therapy sessions because they didn’t want to be seen. But in this episode, Lana seemed more concerned that she didn’t want Kyle’s behavior to ruin a night that was meant to be all about Sarah. It was more, “You deserve this night,” than, “We have to keep up appearances.”

Now, the question is whether or not Lana knew that Kyle had been having an affair. It seems that people read that scene between the Cushings very differently. Some read it as though Lana was just now realizing that Kyle was lying to her. Others read it as Lana having known about the affair, but thought that it was over and now suspects otherwise. I guess we’ll discover which theory is true in the coming episodes. (But I’d like to remind everyone of Lana’s reaction to finding out Sarah cheated on Jordan. That surely will come back to haunt her.)

I have actually liked Kyle this season. He’s obviously made great strides to better himself in all aspects of his life. The conversation he had with Clark highlights that he has been making positive changes, mostly because it was almost friendly. Unfortunately, the past often comes back to bite us. I hope that he and Lana can move past this. People are capable of change, and I really hope the show doesn’t negatively reinforce Kyle’s attempts to do so.

Can I just take a minute to say how odious Dean is? When Lana told him that they were going back to the family’s original name, Cortez, and he called it “progressive”? What’s “progressive” about your own damn name?

Also, I’m sorry, but I’m not going to feel sorry for Tonya. It looked like they were trying to make her sympathetic, but this is a woman who knowingly slept with a married man. Any issues that arise from that situation, you brought them on yourself.

“Girl… You’ll Be A Woman, Soon” is starting to bring everything together, but questions remain. Ally has been tied to Bizarro world since childhood but how? Why? Are Jon’s powers solely because of X-K or something else? What is up with Anderson?

Author: Jamie Sugah

Jamie has a BA in English with a focus in creative writing from The Ohio State University. She self-published her first novel, The Perils of Long Hair on a Windy Day, which is available through Amazon. She is currently an archivist and lives in New York City with her demon ninja vampire cat. She covers television, books, movies, anime, and conventions in the NYC area.

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