One of the things I have really enjoyed about Superman and Lois is that the show centers on the family. For a character like Superman, that’s a perfect choice. The current storyline of Lois’ illness wouldn’t work without the family being so important throughout the run of the show, or wouldn’t work as well. That theme also gives us an interesting opening for “Too Close to Home.”

The episode starts off with a unique version of father/son time as Clark and Jordan take care of something as only they can. I’m still not sure how I feel about the revelation that this Earth doesn’t really have any other heroes than Superman, Steel, and Goggle-Boy (Jordan needs a codename), but it makes for some good bonding moments for the two of them. When Clark hears something that worries him, he takes off, entrusting Jordan to complete their mission.

At the farm, Lois is annoyed that Clark is being over-protective, and we see some domestic scenes as Clark tries to keep things going, Lois keeps working, and the boys bicker over something that doesn’t really matter. I’m glad they included that scene. Both sons have the potential to grow up to be extraordinary people, but they’re not perfect and they are teenagers. I like that the writers took a beat to show this, even in the midst of the ongoing tragedy. While Clark takes charge at home, there is a very different kind of family life going on with the Cushing/Langs. Sarah is staying with Kyle after her surprising argument with Lana, and poor Kyle is trying to navigate the minefield of figuring out what’s going on without pushing Sarah away or further alienating Lana. After a phone call takes a surprising turn, Kyle finally finds out what led to Sarah leaving home for a bit, and is shocked, then apologizes to Sarah for being in the middle of a dispute between the parents. Kyle may be the character on the show who has the most growth over the seasons, and it’s worked, coming gradually over time.

In his workshop, John Henry Irons runs some tests and comes to some surprising conclusions. He races to the Kent farm to share what he’s learned, and gets several surprises he doesn’t like. John and Clark are definitely not seeing eye to eye on this, and I get where both of them are coming from. With some shows, I’d be worried about a huge rift developing between them, but the characters here are generally well-written and mature enough that I don’t think that’s going to happen. Jon goes to see Candace, who isn’t home, and has a confrontation with her father, Emmet. That man is a waste of space, and shows just what he’s made out of in how he choses to deal with a teenager saying things he doesn’t like that happen to be true. Lois and Clark talk about movie night, and then Clark decides to make something right, because that’s who he is. Emmet could be looked on as a plot device, but he also makes a very sharp contrast to Clark on just about every level, the issue of superpowers to one side.

Clark goes to talk to John, and they actually have a mature discussion, with no threats, hints, or super-powered brawling involved, like more or less normal people. John comes to a decision about what to do next, as the ever-present threat of Bruno Manheim lurks in the background. In the comics, Bruno is generally a third-stringer at best, but on this show, he has largely taken the place of Lex Luthor in many ways. While this goes on, Sam is continuing his training of Jordan. This world doesn’t have a Green Arrow or a Batman, but a man with decades of experience in the military as a leader, and also dealing with special threats on this Earth, isn’t a bad choice to coach someone in the use of their powers. The two have a disagreement about how to keep the secret going, and it’s both a matter of tactics vs. preference, and a bit of a generational battle.

Not having a great day, Jon gets home and is caught between Lois being worried and what Clark told him to do earlier. Lois isn’t pleased to hear about Clark’s earlier instructions, and you know that’s going to be a conversation later on that Clark won’t enjoy at all. In another example of the kind of great writing I enjoy on this show, Kyle goes to Lana to try and find out what’s going on. Kyle cheated on her, and it would be easy to just write him off as some idiot guy who doesn’t care about others, driven by selfishness. But the truth is, Kyle cares a lot, and his past failings don’t mean he’s always wrong, as he calmly but firmly calls Lana out on what she did wrong. And, to her credit, Lana agrees. It’s a well written scene between two people who aren’t together anymore, and likely never will be again, but still have lives that touch on each other.

Also not having a great day, Clark gets home and gets the proverbial both barrels from Lois. She takes a stand for what she needs as she’s going through this fight for her life, and she’s reasonable throughout it, not devolving into some big shouting match. Clark, chastened, agrees to try and find out what’s going on with Jon. Eventually, this leads to a sort of family meeting as Jon finally fills his parents in on what happened with his truck, and Emmet’s involvement. This a bad time to get a call from the DOD, but Lois assures Clark she can handle things as he goes to handle the latest crisis. This particular crisis also ties to the lurking menace of Bruno Manheim, and Sam reveals some things to Superman that the hero hadn’t known about what the DOD did in the wake of Superman’s battle with Ally and the Bizarro Earth crisis.

Kyle, really doing everything he can for his changed family, goes back to his place to talk to Sarah. He’s upset about what Sarah did, but also fair and agrees Lana was so very in the wrong. Kyle talks things out with Sarah, and raises some really good points. He’s clearly trying so hard as a father, and he does excellently in this scene. However, as much as I like the show, I do have a few pet peeves about it, and one of them is the ease with which people flit back and forth between Kansas, where Smallville is, and the East Coast, where Metropolis is. It reminds me of the weirdness on Arrow where people were regularly somehow commuting between Star City and the not-quite-so-well-hidden Nanda Parbat. At any rate, John goes to see someone for a very emotionally difficult talk, and it doesn’t really go all that well, although he does learn some things he needed to know. The meeting is observed, and there will be fallout from it, I have no doubt.

Lois, showing that her illness hasn’t diminished her legendary tenacity as an investigative reporter, gets out of Jon all the details about the saga of his truck. Infuriated over his being hurt, Lois goes to confront Emmet, which isn’t necessarily her best choice. That meeting goes about like you’d expect, as mother with nothing but righteous wrath confronts slimy drug dealer. It escalates and she leaves. Getting home, the stress of the day catches up with her and she shows that she’s really not as healthy as she’d like to think she is. At the DOD, Superman confronts Sam and one of the medial researchers, and is not at all happy about what they’ve done. He takes very definitive steps to make sure nothing else from this particular DOD lab is going to fall into the wrong hands.

In another unwise confrontation, which this episode seems to have a few of, John goes to see Bruno. It’s not a great idea, and it shows just what a clever, manipulative menace Bruno is. Suffice it to say John doesn’t improve his situation at all. Kyle manages to broker a peace summit, for lack of a better term, with Sarah and Lana, and they all meet at the town diner. While that moves along, Clark gets home, sees Lois not doing well, and learns about what they’ve been up to today. This leads to what I believe was my favorite exchange of the entire series. Lois: This isn’t a job for Superman. Clark: He’s not going.

Bruno makes the mistake of the wrong threat to John Henry, and John takes matters into his own hands. The scene also shows the importance of secret identities, a crucial part of superhero culture that the Arrowverse was never great at and the MCU apparently declared open war on. At the diner back in Smallville, a very pissed off Clark comes in, and this contrast to his usual pleasant self gets everyone’s attention. Clark confronts Emmet, and this one goes about as you’d expect. Clark barely manages to not show his power, although he comes up to the edge of it, and runs Emmet out of the diner and maybe out of town. After that ends, Clark reverts to his usual style and apologizes to everyone. There’s even a brief but good scene of him and Candace talking about Jon, while in his booth, Kyle is very impressed at this side of Clark.

Steel handles the superheroics for this part of the show, and pulls off a clever last-minute save. After a quick “Are you ok/I’m so sorry” moment, Steel flies off to deal with Bruno. It’s another not-smart confrontation, and Bruno has everything he needs in place to deal with this threat. Candace goes to see Jon at the farm, and he shows both what a good kid he is, and hints of what kind of man he’ll become. This leads to an offer that on another should would devolve into a bad sitcom setup. Lois and Clark get a chance to talk and Clark uses his powers to check in on someone.

The next day finally brings some closing scenes as a very eventful episode begins to wind down. Lois is having a good day, or at least the start of one, as the Kent family starts to adapt to their new dynamic. Clark has a talk with Jordan about his conduct with his grandfather, and it’s a good parenting moment. This leads to a good makeup scene with Jordan and Sam, and I like how they handled it. Lois goes to see John and smooth over a few things about how she handled something that’s important to him. They also make up, and agree to work together a bit closer and communicate better as Lois continues with her treatments. The episode ends with more menacing from Bruno Manheim, who really is being played excellently by Chad Coleman.

What I Liked: The writing on this show is fantastic, and the characters have real emotional depth. Among the good threads were the Cushing/Lang scenes, John Henry in Metropolis, the Sam and Jordan moments, and Clark confronting Emmet. In the past, you never would have seen a scene like that for Clark, only Superman. The Kent family is going through a lot, but they are both working together and acting like real people. The “not a job for Superman” was a fantastic moment.

What I Didn’t: As I commented on above, Smallville and Metropolis are NOT that close together. It’s not like going one town over. Just about every Superman show seems to forget this, and sadly this one isn’t an exception. There were a lot of individual bad decisions on the episode, although they worked and were in character. John Henry at the least should have been smarter than this.

I thoroughly enjoyed this episode. Tyler Hoechlin is the best live action Superman, and Clark, we’ve had since Christopher Reeve, and that’s very high praise in my book. I’ll give this one a 4.5 out of 5. There were so many great moments, and some interesting setup for what’s to come.