‘Superman and Lois’ Broken Trust Review: Jordan Kent is Jonathan’s Kryptonite

After a brief hiatus, Superman and Lois returns with Broken Trust, an episode that reinforces many of the show’s strengths and a few of the weaknesses.

Tyler Hoechlin as Clark, Bitsie Tulloch as Lois and Jordan Elsass as Jonathan Kent continue to shine in this series. The superb cinematography is still intact in Broken Trust. While there aren’t many Superman scenes, the series continues to make the most out of each of them. The investigation into Morgan Edge is starting to pick up steam via the brief partnership between Lois and the mysterious Marcus aka Captain Luthor (unknown to a suspicious Lois). Wolé Parks is starting to add a lot of layers to this character.

Jordan Kent continues to struggle to grasp the responsibility of having powers. The idea of the storyline is good, but instead of anger, Jordan’s rebellion against his parents and brother comes across as whiny and insignificant. Jonathan has been through a lot of change too, but has put his jealousy aside and is consistently trying to do the right thing. The boring marriage of Lana and Kyle Cushing continues to be a weak spot for Superman and Lois. Kyle’s new source of frustration is over Lana taking a promotion from Morgan Edge. His anger is over Edge not giving him a job, despite as Lana points out, Kyle being a respected firefighter. While Lana doesn’t need Kyle to fight her battle, Kyle’s frustration should be pointed at Edge for trying to court his wife.

With the non-spoiler details out of the way, lets dive into superhero theatrics, family drama and more in Broken Trust. Superman and Lois is airing on The CW and streaming on the CWTV app.

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Superman Helps Tad

Everything about Superman worked in this episode from the effects to Superman offering support to a misunderstood teen with the potential to harm his family. Superman doesn’t kill Tad out of fear. He offers him aid.

In the last episode, Superman was able to prevent Tad from harming his sons. Broken Trust starts with Superman trying to catch the recently escaped Tad. The troubled teen attacks Jordan, but before causing too much damage, Superman swoops in. A great chase ensues with Superman eventually catching up with the speedster. Tad destroys the train track which forces Superman to repair the track using his heat vision before the car derails.

Tad kidnaps Sarah. He tries to get information from her about Jordan’s connection to the bonfire. She doesn’t know anything. Superman shows up before Tad can do anything dangerous. While attempting to talk down Tad, the D.O.D. shows up with kryptonite weapons. They wound Superman, but he’s able to use his heat vision to destroy the kryptonite shrapnel in his chest. In the most intimidating scene in the series, he tells the men to stand down with fire in his eyes.

For the first time in Superman and Lois, we see a lesson Clark gives his sons exemplified as Superman. He doesn’t just tell Jordan about the importance of trust. Clark shows it as Superman. In a concurrent sequence of events, Superman shows restraint when addressing the D.O.D agents who shot him. He uses his words and keeps his promises to Tad to help him. Jordan shows no such restraint and his actions have major consequences.

Broken Trust Drives Wedge in Kent Boys

Tad’s escape early in Broken Trust worries Clark and Lois. Clark thinks the boys shouldn’t play in their upcoming game against Metropolis High, which is their former school and rival of Smallville High. Jordan is adamant about playing in the game and Jonathan promises to watch out for his brother.

Once the boys are in school, Jordan sufferers a massive migraine that causes his hearing to go haywire. The scene is shot similarly to young Clark developing hearing and X-ray vision in Man of Steel. Jonathan is able to calm his brother down in the bathroom. He thinks Jordan should tell Clark what’s going on. Jordan wants to stick it to the Metropolis players who made his life hell. I understand wanting to stick it to bullies and proving your doubters wrong, but there are more important things at stake. Jordan’s the only person in the Kent family that fails to grasp the consequences if something happens.

There’s a fun training session involving Clark, Jordan and Jonathan. In order to help Jordan control his strength, he shows Jordan how to use a horizontal tree as a punching bag. Clark teaches his son how to punch properly and Jonathan is the perfect cheerleader for his brother. This is a warm and wonderfully acted scene by Hoechlin, Elsass and Alex Garfin as Jordan.

During the football game, Jordan suffers another migraine causing him to collapse on the field. Clark rushes onto the field to check on his son. In the best moment of the episode, while lying on the ground, Jordan can’t control his heat vision. Clark places his hand in front of Jordan’s eyes and absorbs the rays.

Back at the hotel, Clark asks Jordan to tell him what happened. Jordan tries to evade, but Jonathan steps up and tells Clark what’s going on. Of course, Jordan says he didn’t tell Clark because his dad wouldn’t have let him play in the game, which Clark points out is true and would have been the right decision. Clark for the umpteenth time tells Jordan this isn’t what his powers are for and Jordan retorts he’s not like his father. This portion of the father-son conflict has been around throughout the series and is well-trotted territory at this point.

While Clark heads out to stop Tag, Jordan and Jonathan leave the hotel room against their father’s orders. They get picked on by the Metropolis players. Jordan’s inability to control his emotions rears its ugly head again. He attempts to throw a punch at one of the players. Jonathan knows the kind of damage this could cause and tries to block the punch with his palm. The force of the blow fractures Jonathan’s arm.

Back at the Kent farm, Jonathan lays into Jordan in front of his parents. Jonathan starts with the whole “I’d never try to hurt” thing he uses every time he screws up. His parents aren’t having it. Jonathan starts saying he understands the responsibility he has. Clark challenges this declaration. He needs Jordan to understand he isn’t different from Clark. The anger Jordan feels is the same thing Clark has felt (as seen just a couple of scenes ago). If Clark doesn’t keep his emotions and anger in check, then he will break the trust of the people he has promised to protect. This is Hoechlin’s best performance to date.

Next morning, Jordan has a seizure and Clark quickly heads to the Fortress of Solitude with Jordan to close out the episode. I hope Jordan changes after this episode.

New Journalism Duo

While the boys head to Metropolis, Lois continues her investigation into Morgan Edge’s involvement at the Smallville mines. Edge gives Lana a promotion, which causes Kyle to pout like a child that has a new toy he can’t afford to buy.

Lois stops by the Cushings’ house to see if they will help her. Lana politely refuses. Kyle does what Kyle always does. Sarah offers to babysit her sister, so her parents celebrate Lana’s promotion with a date. This sets up a convenient scenario for Sarah’s kidnapping.

Marcus shows up on the Kent farm. He has two press passes to enter the mines and offers to share a byline with Lois. In a very Lois manner, Marcus is able to smooth talk his away around the mine’s security guards.

Marcus and Lois discover exo-kryptonite (Marcus’s term) in the mines. Before they can dig further, Edge’s fire-eyed assistant shows up. She has the duo on the ropes, until Marcus pulls out a cool laser blaster and downs the enhanced assistant. Lois knew Marcus was full of it before meeting up with him as the press pass was forged. The conversation is interrupted by Clark’s phone call. I really like that Lois was onto Marcus from the beginning and used his access to try to find the story.

Lois reveals everything that happened to Clark near the end of the episode. The exasperation on Clark’s face is fantastic and a great acting moment in an episode full of them by Hoechlin.

Broken Trust Final Thoughts

Broken Trust is a great, but imperfect episode of television. Kyle Cushing and Jordan Kent’s lack of character development has been an issue from the beginning of the series and continues to fester. Everything else about the series is firing on all cylinders. The special effects look good for television, Hoechlin continues to be a great Superman and Clark Kent and Elsass is astonishing as Jonathan.

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