Superman & Lois - Haywire

"Haywire" is most notable for Superman & Lois & Jonathan & Jordan adopting one of the pillars of Smallville. It turns out in this reality Smallville, Kansas, was also pelted with loads of Kryptonite which explains Morgan Edge's (Adam Rayner) interest in mining the town and offers the first "freak" as one of the Kent brothers' classmates exhibits odd powers after being be exposed to the rocks. All the major themes from the first three episodes are revisited here. Clark's (Tyler Hoechlin) split focus causes problems with everyone, in bad writing that was easy to see coming General Sam Lane (Dylan Walsh) begins to view Superman as a threat for no reason at all, Lois (Elizabeth Tulloch) is stymied in her attempts to keep Edge out of Smallville, Jonathan (Jordan Elsass) continues to sulk at his brother's sudden popularity, and Jordan (Alex Garfin) begins to grow into his role as a member of the team.

Despite a dust-up, Lois and Clark manage to make-up by the end of the episode (as do the Cushings who come together despite their recent problems). Sam Lane's disapproval over the amount of attention Clark is giving to his sons, and his choice to loudly vocalize that opinion, strains his relationship with the family. One thing he is correct on is the uptick in criminal activity in Metropolis where Superman is suddenly absent (although I'm not sure how making Superman your enemy mitigates this issue?). The only real action we get is Superman stopping an attempted prison break of D-list Lex Luthor wannabe Thaddeus Killgrave (Brendan Fletcher). Despite the ambush, it doesn't take much for Superman to take care of the situation. The new influx in Kryptonite (and possibly Kryptonite powered threats) may lead to some more action as Superman & Lois seems determined, at least at the outset, to stay away from introducing any core Superman villains.