‘Superman and Lois’ Holding the Wrench Review: An Extraordinary TV Show in a Family of DC SuperHeroes

Jonathan and Lois might be Holding the Wrench for Clark and Jordan, but they are crucial to the success of Superman and Lois. Holding the Wrench is a masterful 40-plus minutes of television in any genre let alone on the CW.

Bitsie Tulloch has been tremendous through the first 7 episodes. In Holding the Wrench, Tulloch outdoes herself and delivers the most heart-wrenching performance in a superhero tv series since Teri Hatcher and Erica Durance shared the screen in an episode of Smallville a decade ago. Lois’s reaction to John Henry Irons’s life in an alternate reality leads her into a downward spiral. What causes this spiral is more surprising, emotional and personal to Lois than simply seeing another version of herself die on screen.

Lois turns her fear into anger towards Jonathan. Jordan Elsass does a great job as Jonathan. His response to his mother’s outburst is tremendous.

All of the other subplots in the episode work as well. Superman interrogates Irons and is shocked about what he learns. Kyle Cushing actually acts as a good parent towards Sarah before he relapses into a deadbeat dad. Jordan doesn’t mope during the episode at all. He helps Sarah out when she needs a replacement musician for her father and is there for Jonathan for the first time in the series.

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

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Men of Steel

Holding the Wrench begins with the whole Kent family outside fixing the truck. Jonathan offers Clark a wrench, which he doesn’t need. Clark flies off to interrogate John Henry Irons.

Irons tells Superman the truth during the interrogation. Lois was his wife on his Earth, they had a family and Superman killed Lois. He came to this Earth to prevent the Kryptonians and Superman from doing the same thing. Irons doesn’t know Clark Kent is Superman.

General Sam Lane gets a crack at interrogating Irons, but has even less luck than Superman. He tries to use their former partnership on the alternate Earth. Then Lane threatens to use truth serum to get the answers from Irons. Neither approach works. Irons reveals Superman also killed General Lane on his Earth and his General Lane wouldn’t have used torture on an innocent person.

The biggest reveal in this subplot is Edge’s supposed goal isn’t to create super soldiers using the X-Kryptonite. His goal appears to be using the kryptonite to transfer Kryptonian consciousness into human hosts.

The effect is shown in the only main action scene in the episode. One of Lane’s soldiers takes Irons to a section of the military base that has Kryptonite weapons. He uses Irons as bait to take out Superman. Green kryptonite does weaken Superman enough to even the odds, but Superman is able to defeat the enhanced soldier with some help from Irons. Superman is exhausted from the fight. While lying on the floor, Irons looks to kill Superman with a Kryptonite spear. An emotional plea from Lois convinces Irons to stop.

Superman promises to prove to Irons that he’s truly different from the Superman on his Earth. Irons leaves the Kent farm as the episode ends..

Wolé Parks is once again doing a great job as Irons. While he is full of grief and anger, he does a great job of demonstrating his control. To his credit, Superman is completely sympathetic to the situation. He doesn’t blame Irons for his agenda and lets him go in spite of Irons nearly killing him twice.

Mother and Son Left Holding The Wrench

Holding the Wrench starts in the present, then flashes back to the inciting incident. Lois is in a therapy session with Dr. Wiles. This isn’t Lois’s first therapy session with Dr. Wiles, but it’s been a while. Not much is revealed in this opening scene other than Lois saying something she regrets. There’s nothing that can prepare you for the emotional onslaught that’s coming.

While Clark heads off to interrogate Irons, Lois and Jonathan snoop around his RV in a brilliantly conceived scene. The RV responds to Lois’s commands as one of the authorized users. She gives a brief overview of multiverses to Jonathan as if it’s no big deal. Lois asks who is John Henry Irons and the bed flips over revealing moniters. A slide show starts to play featuring photos of the alternate Earth. Jonathan is shocked by the image of his Mom being married to Irons in another universe. Lois notices this too but doesn’t seem too concerned until she sees Natalie, the other Lois and Irons’s daughter. In a fantastic nonverbal acting moment from Tulloch, Lois doesn’t say anything and barely moves. The whole world ceased to exist for Lois in this moment.

Clark is horrified by what he learns about the alternate version of himself and calls Lois. In typical Lois fashion, she initially passes off the alternate version of her life as no big deal. Clark brings up the name “Natalie” again and offers to come home so they can talk about it. Lois’s quietly says she’s fine.

The reaction of his mother to what they saw in the RV isn’t lost on Jonathan. He checks on her to see if she’s ok. She pretty unconvincing, but tells Jonathan not to go into the RV for a while and they will go back in later for further research. Understanding his Mom was shocked to her core, Jonathan goes back to the RV by himself.

Jonathan begins poking around. He digs deeper into the video files and watches Superman kill Lois on the other Earth. When he opens the weapons cabinet, an alarm sounds. He isn’t authorized to be in the RV. Jonathan is locked in and a countdown begins. Lois is outside at this point, but can only beat on the RV door. She calls for Clark. He is able to get in the RV and shield Jonathan from the automatic weapons just in time.

Get out of My Face

In the 2nd best scene in the series and just so happens this episode, Lois, Clark and Jonathan have a conversation about what happened. Clark and Lois are both upset with Jonathan, but handle situation differently.

Jonathan admits that he was worried about his Dad’s fight with Irons and was looking for weapons. Clark and Lois both have their issues with the search for weapons. However, Jonathan points out that Clark and Jordan are basically weapons. He describes how vulnerable he is. Clark unconvincingly says that he and Lois will protect him. Jonathan reminds his father that he barely got to the RV in time to save him and Lois could do nothing but call for help. He also noticed how upset Lois was about what she saw in the RV and wanted to try to help her.

Lois goes scorched earth on Jonathan. She let Jonathan join her because she trusted him and his ability to understand the danger. Jonathan takes the hint that Lois doesn’t trust him anymore and snaps back. Clark tries to lower the temperature, but the thermometer is destroyed by Lois’s anger.

Lois points out that Jonathan nearly died through no fault but his own. If he had died, it wouldn’t be because Jonathan was unarmed, but because he was reckless and stupid. She finishes Jonathan off by telling him to get our of her face. Elsass does a great job of selling his fear in this scene as Jonathan. He’s never seen Lois this angry and doesn’t know what to do in the face of it.

Once Jonathan leaves the room, Clark points out that Lois might have been a little harsh. He knows Lois can handle any situation and he want to help her through this, but Clark understands he might not be the person who can help Lois in this situation. The conversation with Clark is what led to the therapy session shown intermittently and this next scene, which is the best acting scene in a CW superhero show.

Natalie

Almost losing Jonathan scared Lois to her core and she lashed out in response. Then Dr. Wiles drops the most emotional reveal of the series, Lois had a miscarriage and the pregnancy was far enough along that she even had a name picked out. The daughter was going to be named Natalie. Yes, the same name as her and Irons’s daughter from the alternate earth.

If you weren’t in tears yet, Tulloch is about to reduce you to a puddle. Dr. Wiles points out that Lois may not have taken enough time to process her grief. Tulloch perfectly inhabiting the soul of Lois, says she used her vacation days and took the right amount of time.

Dr. Wiles pries a little more into how Jonathan’s actions scared her. Lois doesn’t need much prodding. Her fear was over Jonathan going to the RV for her. If he had died, it would have been Lois’s fault and it would have been another child she failed. The following line and delivery by Tulloch absolutely wrecked me:

I can’t lose another child because of me.

Lois Lane

Before Dr. Wiles can finish telling Lois the miscarriage wasn’t her fault, Lois cuts her off. Lois says the guilt she feels is real, then starts rattling off reasons why the miscarriage could have happened. Dr. Wiles cuts Lois off. She points out that working, sex, exercising, etc. aren’t the reasons for the miscarriage. The miscarriage is something that happened to Lois, not because of something she did or didn’t do. Lois mentions how excited she was to meet Natalie. Dr. Wiles finishes the session by telling Lois that she needs to grieve properly. Wendy Crewson does a great job as Dr. Wiles throughout this episode. Tulloch isn’t finished breaking your heart.

Back at the Kent farm, Lois explains the whole situation to Jonathan, apologizes and offers this pearl of wisdom about not having powers:

We are the extraordinary humans in a family of super people and we have to stick together.

Lois Lane aka The Tear Inducer

Holding the Wrench for Sarah

Kyle Cushing is somewhat palatable in Holding the Wrench. After some encouragement, he convinces Sarah to enter a singing competition at school and offers to help by playing his guitar.

While nervous about signing up, Sarah receives additional support from Jordan. He mentions that he played piano.

Kyle finds out Lana lied about Morgan wanting him on the leadership committee. He blows off Sarah’s performance. Sarah is about to quit until Jordan offers to play for her. She crushes the audition. Kyles tries to apologize, but Sarah tells him to shove it and not to make any more promises.

Jordan has a small role in Holding the Wrench, but he was great throughout. He didn’t mope around, was quick to offer Sarah help and immediately understood something was bothering Jonathan.

Holding the Wrench Final Thoughts

Television, superhero or otherwise, doesn’t get much better than Holding the Wrench.

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