Warning: This article contains spoilers for Superman And Lois season 2, episode 3, starting with the opening paragraph.
Superman and Lois just pulled off another of its patented villain twists in its latest episode. Two of the first season’s most shocking moments came when Captain Luthor turned out to be John Henry Irons and Morgan Edge was revealed to be Kal-El’s brother, Tal-Rho. Season two just delivered a similar twist in its third episode, as the hints that Doomsday was coming proved to be a brilliant bit of misdirection.
In “The Thing In The Mines”, Clark Kent finally gets to face the Kryptonian creature that’s been clawing its way up to the surface of Smallville — and it turns out not to be Doomsday, after all, but Bizarro, another of Superman’s most iconic foes. Just like in the comics, the Arrowverse’s Bizarro is a twisted clone of Kal which means that Hoechlin is playing his own nemesis this time around.
While speaking to Entertainment Weekly, Hoechlin opened up about the arrival of Bizarro, explaining why this was such a “gift” for him as an actor.
“I think it’s a gift for anybody that’s on a show when you’re given something that allows you to completely go away from what you’re doing consistently,” Hoechlin said. “It’s always a gift to have the opportunity to really step out of your comfort zone of the character that you’re getting used to and trying something new. I thought that was really fun, and I definitely am playing a lot of different things than Clark or Superman is dealing with. All of this thing has been a challenge, but it’s been exciting and fun to just explore.”
When asked what makes Bizarro such a dangerous threat for Clark and his family, Hoechlin played coy, admitting that answering that would be “actual spoilers”, but he did tease that this season will be all about how “we have choices and people go down different paths.” He continued:
“Clark and Superman, Kal-El, has always been very much [believed] in the path that he’s walking, and maybe not everybody always does that. I think there’s always a question of, what happens if Superman wasn’t Superman anymore, if he started making different choices? So those are themes that we get to kind of explore: walking away from Superman and still being part of Superman.”
Bizarro’s origins have yet to be explained, so it remains to be seen how he ended up buried under Clark’s hometown in the first place. It’s also going to be interesting to determine why the hero shares a mental link with his doppelganger, which is causing him to experience violent mood swings — something that’s not ideal for someone as powerful as Supes. Now the cat (or clone) is out of the bag, expect some answers to come as Superman and Lois‘s second season continues Tuesdays on The CW.