Superman is a notoriously difficult character to write because it's so easy to come up with problems he solves with punches and speed, and so challenging to find interesting problems that resist those methods. And often, even those ideas are handled with the grace of a monthly 1990s comic book. Somehow, Superman & Lois is facing yet another one of these and handling it with aplomb. Spoilers follow for Superman & Lois Season 4, Episode 07, "A Regular Guy."

"A Regular Guy"

Since the very public death of Superman, which conveniently took place on Main Street in Smallville, people have started to talk about the things they saw that night. The secret that Clark has protected for years is at risk.

This week's episode is about the nature of keeping that secret. It's an excellent episode, but it's not a fun episode. It's interested in how painful it can be to keep that secret, and in how many different ways it can be painful. To protect his secret, Clark has to lie to people who deserve the truth. He has to gaslight people who know what they've seen. He has to avoid friendships and many social situations, especially those that one can't easily slip away from. He has to play a role as being human in the boring, mundane ways despite being human in the ways that really matter.

And now, with his secret already leaking out, his sons are quickly finding out that his superpower is a prism: powered by light, they look like a gift from some angles but reveal themselves to be a curse from others.

The Mechanics of Lying

There's some silliness, such as when Clark goes to a convenience store, spots an airplane in trouble on the television, and leaves the store to "get his wallet." But the show reframes even those moments by looking at them from the clerk's perspective. She knows what she saw, and she's being forced to doubt her own eyes. Clark has valid reasons for protecting his secret, but there's no way around it: it feels really bad. It looks bad on Clark.

The worst moment comes, though, after one of Jonathan's schoolmates comes at him blaming him for things that happened back in Season 2 when a then-powerless Jonathan was experimenting with synthetic Kryptonite (XK). Jonathan and Jordan do their best to keep the secret, but they end up going to the schoolmate's house with Clark where Clark tells the mother that it's impossible he's Superman--causing the mother to accuse her son of being on drugs once again. Is this kid a jerk? Absolutely. Jonathan didn't ruin his life. But now people are lying to him in front of his mother and making him look like a crazy person for protesting.

We also flashback to Clark's Daily Planet era and finally meet an incarnation of Jimmy Olsen. In this timeline, though, they never really became friends because Jimmy figured out the truth pretty quickly, and Clark lied to him and distanced himself to protect himself.

As much as older cartoons and some moments in the live-action movies have made the whole secret identity thing look like a fun game of tightrope, this storyline takes a more holistic perspective, looking at it from the points of view of the heroes and the mundanes, and shows the many ways it hurts both sides.

Rather than ruining the fun of the character, though, this all comes across as empathic. It's about Clark seeing the way his secret hurts people--his kids more than any others. And while it is an important job of protecting his family when they lived in Metropolis as unpowered children, the fact is that three of the four members of the Kent-Lane family are superpowered. Looking at the world in the modern era, with teenage children bordering on adulthood, this modus operandi is outdated for this version of the family.

Decision Time

This all culminates in two separate events--one that solidifies the decision and one that makes it real. The drug-dealing father of Jonathan's girlfriend approaches Clark publicly in the town diner. Instead of trying to deflect, Clark makes the decision to reveal himself. Time slows down Flash-style and Clark looks around. It would be so easy for him to reach up, change the bullet's trajectory to make it harmless, and turn the objectively terrible person in front of him into a laughing stock who can't aim. But that would be a comic-book move; a reset to keep the status quo to ensure that we can publish another issue next month. This version of the character is growing and evolving (and aging). It would feel inauthentic to this version of the character to do that.

To make this decision truly real, though, Clark and Lois decide to reveal his identity to the world by way of an interview, set in the Kent kitchen, on live television. It's warm and intimate and makes sense for the character.

Fallout

However. It's wild, in my estimation, that they did not demonstrate his powers in some way that would be difficult to deny. Of course, these days, you can show people the bare truth and they'll simply ignore it because it doesn't fit their worldview. There will be people they cannot convince. But to have a semi-public figure like Kent, who can be easily found, say that he's Superman and not show it seems like something that would invite people who want to test him and prove that he's a fake. But maybe that's inevitable. I'm curious to see how this aspect plays out.

It does, however, disrupt Lex Luthor's playbook. For a hot minute, he could hold this secret over Clark's head and make him a hostage. In this way, it depowers Lex. And for the people of Smallville, it doesn't matter. That same clerk from before passes him in the diner and refers to him as Mr. Kent. Smallville knows who Clark Kent is, with or without the glasses.

Superman & Lois has been about finding the humanity inherent to Superman by way of his family since almost episode 1. Even as the show enters its final act, it's still about that--figuring out what makes Superman tick and how he fits into this world. We don't know yet whether it'll stick the landing, but between this and the handling of his death and resurrection, Superman & Lois is one of the best depictions of Superman yet, and both the cast and crew, especially the writers and actor Tyler Hoechlin, should be proud of what a unique thing they've created.