TV

A school fight pushes Jordan to the edge in Superman & Lois clip

Tyler Hoechlin and Elizabeth Tulloch discuss some of the familial and professional challenges Clark and Lois face.

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Published on March 9, 2021 10:02AM EST

Being a teenager in high school is hard. Being a teenager in high school with emerging superpowers is even harder — as evidenced by this exclusive clip from the CW's Superman & Lois.

In the scene from Tuesday's episode above, Sarah Cushing's (Inde Navarrette) aggro boyfriend Sean (Fritzy-Klevans Destine) accosts Jordan (Alexander Garfin) and pushes him up against a wall because he's still pissed about Jordan kissing Sarah way back in the pilot. And in case you forgot, the last time Jordan and Sean butted heads, the socially anxious Kent son lost his cool and unleashed his heat vision. Unfortunately, it seems as though we're heading yet another fire show because Jordan's eyes light up once again. (There's also a shot of his clenched fist, which we're choosing to interpret as a reference to the Arthur meme.)

If you watched the clip, then you know Jordan narrowly avoids going supernova thanks to the arrival of his father, Clark Kent (Tyler Hoechlin), whose super-hearing alerted him to the escalating situation at the school and rushed over to intervene — because every high schooler wants an eavesdropping father who saves them from the school bully in front of their classmates (not!). That's actually indicative of one questions Clark is facing as Jordan's powers emerge: How do you balance protecting your kids and letting them live their lives?

"It's a new responsibility where you aren't just the one controlling things. You can't just make sure everything's okay," Hoechlin tells EW. "You gotta really consider the fact that at a certain point, they're going to be in charge and responsible for their own decisions and you're not going to be able to protect them all the time. I think having to deal with that new responsibility of being there for them but also letting them go at the same time is a complicated [situation]."

Superman and Lois — Jordan Elsass and Alexander Garfin on 'Superman & Lois'. Katie Yu/The CW

Before Clark zipped over to the school, he was just hanging out on the Kent farm, which raises another question: How is he adjusting to life after being fired from the Daily Planet? From Hoechlin's perspective, as well as one can hope.

"As much as it was a shock, I think there's a bit of a relief in the sense that he has been trying to make things come together on all of those fronts [and] maybe this was a chance to say, 'Okay, that's one thing I guess I'm not worried about right now. Maybe, I'll be able to give a little more time to these other two things,'" says Hoechlin. "So I feel like so much happens immediately after [he's laid off] that it's something he'll appreciate — having the extra time to focus his energy elsewhere." Like watching over his children perhaps?

Speaking of job changes: Elsewhere in Tuesday's episode "The Perks of Not Being a Wallflower," Lois Lane (Elizabeth Tulloch) settles into her new job at the Smallville Gazette with Chrissy Beppo (Sofia Hasmik) and continues her investigation of Morgan Edge (Adam Rayner).

"She really only has one partner, and Chrissy is a great character. I find her really fun. She's a great comic aspect of the show," says Tulloch. "She really looks up to Lois. So part of the dynamic of their relationship, which is sort of adorable, is that she's already quoting Lois' version of a TED Talk or MasterClass back to her, and Lois is like, 'Okay, enough already.' But she is one of the world's most respected and trusted journalists, so it's also about her not only writing stories and solving this issue that she's looking into with Morgan Edge, but also teaching someone who is younger and less experienced than her."

Tulloch went on to tease some of the challenges Lois will face as the season progresses. "Having to work without the resources and the support of everybody who worked at the Daily Planet is different for her. She's having to do everything on her own," she says. "There's one episode down the road where she's all proud of herself because she's like, 'I even did my own copy editing!' Well, Lois Lane is famously a horrible speller, so Chrissy is like, "Hmm…Yeah, no. We don't need to do that again.'"