Warning: MAJOR SPOILERS for the Superman & Lois episode “A Regular Guy” are ahead!
When Doomsday killed Superman and dumped his body in downtown Smallville in Superman & Lois, he didn’t just take away the world’s greatest superhero. He also paved the way for various people in the Kansas town to start suspecting that Clark Kent was Superman given how Lois, Jonathan and Jordan reacted to that horrible sight. Now that Clark is back among the living, he, and the entire Kent family, have been having to deal with various neighbors and fellow citizens hint, if not outright state they know this secret.
That brings us to the events of “A Regular Guy,” which just finished airing on the 2024 TV schedule and ended with Clark making a game-changing decision that left me shook and will have major ramifications for Superman & Lois’ final episodes. But before we get into that, let’s talk about how the DC TV show finally introduced its version of Jimmy Olsen, played by Douglas Smith.
Clark Kent’s Past With Jimmy Olsen Was Revealed
“A Regular Day” was peppered with flashbacks to Clark Kent and Lois Lane’s Daily Planet days, when they were working alongside Jimmy and his sister Janet. At this stage of his life, Clark had told Lois he’s Superman, but was otherwise doing his best to make sure no one else found out. So when Jimmy invited him to join The Daily Planet’s softball team, he initially declined because he didn’t want to draw attention to himself. However, upon some urging from Lois and realizing he could be the “bunt guy,” Clark changed his mind, and it looked like this would be the beginning of him and Jimmy becoming pals outside of work.
However, because of various emergencies around the world that required Superman’s attention, Clark eventually wasn’t able to go to anymore softball games. Jimmy wasn’t buying Clark’s excuses and initially thought this was his way of demonstrating he didn’t want to hang out with him. But Smith’s Jimmy Olsen is a smart cookie, just like most versions of the character, and he realized that every time Clark missed a game, Superman was somewhere else in the world saving people. So one night, he confronted Clark and asked him if he was Superman. Clark denied this, and in order to sell his story, the next time there was a Daily Planet softball game, he just didn’t show up, even with Superman not being needed elsewhere.
So now we know why Jimmy Olsen hasn’t been seen on Superman & Lois until now, as Clark went out of his way to make it look like he wasn’t interested in being friends with him in order to protect his secret. It’s a sharp contrast from the traditional “pal” dynamic they have, although it was obvious Clark was disappointed having to make this decision. Fortunately, these two reunited at the end of “A Regular Guy” on friendly terms, but I’ll get to that later.
The World Knows Clark Kent Is Superman
Cut to Superman & Lois’ present day story, Clark Kent was going around town attempting to convince the people who’ve indicated they know he’s Superman that they’re sorely mistaken. Easy enough, right? Not really. Clark was having varying degrees of success accomplishing his goal, and there was an especially uncomfortable scene where him, Jonathan and Jordan were basically gaslighting Timmy Ryan, one of the boys’ classmates, in front of his mom. Jonathan and Jordan also became frustrated at all the lies they were having to tell to protect a secret that was spreading
Then entered Emmitt Pergande, the abusive father of Jonathan’s girlfriend Candice whom Clark scared out of town last season for threatening his family and his criminal activities. Having been informed that Clark is Superman, he showed up at Victoria May’s with a gun to show everyone the truth while Clark and Lois were having dinner with Kyle Cushing and Chrissy Beppo. Emmitt fired one round, and left with no other choice, the Man of Steel let the bullet deflect off his chest and allowed everyone in the diner to see him in his Superman costume. In other words, there was no putting the proverbial genie back in the bottle with the people of Smallville, but then Clark decided to take things a gigantic step forward.
After getting his family’s blessing, Clark did a TV interview with Janet Olsen to reveal his secret to the entire world. There’s no going back from this, and by extension, this means the world also knows that Jonathan and Jordan have powers. “A Regular Guy” ended on a bright note, as Clark met with Jimmy Olsen for the first time in years, and his former colleague was absolutely understanding about why he hadn’t told him the truth back then. It looks like these two are finally going to become pals!
It’ll admit, I was surprised that a game-changing move like this came ahead of Superman & Lois’ series finale, which is how Supergirl handled Kara Zor-El revealing her secret identity to everyone. So it’ll be interesting to see how this factors into the final three episodes, for better or worse. Speaking of worse, we also learned that Emmitt Pergande didn’t learn Clark Kent was Superman from Candice, but rather Lex Luthor, as they met each other in prison. Luthor may have had his ass kicked by Clark last week and fled back to Metropolis, but he’s finding other ways to screw with his hated enemy while he waits for that “killer suit” of his to be designed.
Superman & Lois airs Mondays at 8 pm ET on The CW, and you can use your Max subscription to stream the first three seasons. Although the series ends in just a few weeks, there are many upcoming DC TV shows on the way that’ll keep you entertained in its absence.
