Superman & Lois: Here's What You Missed in "Fail Safe"

The episode opens with Tal-Rho talking to his father's hologram, being berated and abused in order [...]

By Russ Burlingame

The episode opens with Tal-Rho talking to his father's hologram, being berated and abused in order to prove that he's "the one," and then cuts to Superman interrogating him at the DoD, asking where The Eradicator and Leslie Larr have gone. Tal won't say, or doesn't know, and hints that all he hears, is what's in his mind. After a short back and forth, Superman tells Tal that if he won't show him where Larr is, he'll find her himself, and after that, they will never see each other again. At the Kents' home, the boys try to skip out on school, where there will be an assembly to give the official line on what happened with "Morgan Edge," but Clark and Lois aren't sold.

At the Cushing's house, the mayor is telling Kyle and Lana that he is working to take some of the heat in the community off Kyle, but he needs time. At school, Sarah and Jordan sneak out of the assembly, while the football team tries to pump Jonathan for answers as to what the DoD is up to. The pretty girl he has had his eye on walks up to him and offers to run out of the school with him, too.

At the newspaper, Chrissy and Lois are trying to figure out what they're going to write about the situation, and Chrissy puts pressure on Lois to get her father to make a statement.

At the Kent farm, Clark brings John Henry breakfast. Clark tries to encourage him to go work at the DoD, given his sophisticated system to track Kryptonians, but John Henry says that he thinks he'll be moving on once they have found Larr. As Clark turns to go, the system pops to life: Larr is about to attack the DoD. Superman flies off, and John Henry suits up in his armor.

Just before she can hit the DoD, Superman takes Larr out of the sky, and then John Henry blasts her with a red sun weapon, knocking her out. Back in the office, Sam says he wants to take the Kryptonite and all the Kryptonite weapons and sink them to the bottom of the ocean. Sam promises Clark that he, Lois, and the boys will be safe.

Driving around with the girl he's crushing on, Jon finds her to be pretty nosy. Meanwhile, Jordan and Sarah are walking through the woods together.

In the local diner, one of the firefighters comes in, and Kyle goes to say hello. Three of Kyle's team are at a table together, but they all blame him for one of Edge's Kryptonians starting a fire that nearly killed one of them.

At the DoD, Lois is angry that her father isn't issuing a statement. She is trying to talk him into giving a full and honest statement, but he doesn't think the town or the world will be safe if he acknowledges anything significant of what just happened.

In flashback, Tal Rho think she's ready to go out into the world, but his father tells him to hide out until the Eradicator arrives and they can begin their plan. At the DoD, Rho tries to convince Superman that he should side with Kryptonians, telling him that he knows he has to control himself every second so that he doesn't kill everyone around him, and asks if it felt good to lose that control when Zod was in control of him. Superman leaves.

At the paper, Chrissy is angry that Sam didn't give a public statement, and tries to corner Lois into telling her more, but when Lois won't, she accuses Lois of lying to cover for the DoD and tells her to leave.

Parked by a pond, Tegan starts pressing Jon for information. He figures out that she doesn't care about him, and only wants to be popular for extracting information from him for gossip, and he leaves to walk home. Back at the Cushing house, Kyle is getting increasingly angry that the town he lives for has more or less disowned him for his support of Edge, and suggests maybe it's time to move.

On a bridge over a pond (the same one?), Jordan and Sarah are having a moment when they're stopped by a police officer.

At the DoD, Sam is walking Superman through the 7734 armory, and Superman tells him he disagrees with the idea of getting rid of it all.

In the Kent barn, John Henry is talking with his computer when Jon comes in to chat. John Henry starts talking to him before Clark comes in to ask why Jon isn't in school. In the town square, Sam calls Lois to say he's worried about Clark. At the Cushing house, Lana is worried about Kyle, who is looking desperately for work out of town. She gets a phone call that Sarah and Jordan have been arrested.

Back at the Kent farm, Clark is talking to Jon about skipping class when Lois comes home angry at Clark for telling Sam to keep 7734 going. He tells her that the world deserves the means to defend himself from the only thing he can't defend them from, which is himself. Lois gets the call to bail Jordan out of jail and drives off angry.

After Lois and Lana pick up the kids from the police station, Lana overhears the mayor telling one of the cops that the whole Edge thing was Kyle's idea. She blows up at him for lying, and Lois pulls her aside to try to encourage her. After Lois gets home, she sends Jordan to his room and goes to talk to Clark about 7734. She tells him that he's wrong, but Clark is convinced that they need a plan. He echoes Rho's comments about how good it felt to let go and not hold back with his powers, and explains that's why he thinks there needs to be at least some acknowledgment of a possibility that he's corruptible. Lois finally relents, but says there's no way she's trusting the DoD with the tech.

In the barn, Clark pitches the idea to John Henry Irons, who says he'll call Sam. At the paper, Lois brings Chrissy a statement that's mostly true, and apologizes to Chrissy.

In flashback, Rho has a confrontation with his father, saying that when he finds the Eradicator, he will recruit Superman to help him. He says that he won't d othings his father's way, disconnecting the hologram and tossing it aside. In the present, in his cell, Rho rubs his temples, hearing voices in his head. He says, "your way is the only way. Goodbye, father," and closes his eyes. When he opens them, they glow blue.

Back at the farm house, Lois and Clark are yelling at the kids for skipping school. The kids go to bed, and Clark and Lois start cuddling. At the DoD, Rho stands up and blows the glass out of his cell. His vital signs are gone, but that doesn't stop him from simply walking out, injuring a number of soldiers as he does, and flying away before Superman can get there. Superman arrives, then flies to the atmosphere to search the planet for Rho. When he can't find him, he returns to the DoD -- but Rho is near the sun, absorbing as much power as he can. He hears his father's voice echoing in his ears: "Become the Eradicator."

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