Superman & Lois Star Explains Lana's 'Heartbreaking' Choice, the Importance of Keeping Relationships 'Respectful'

Andy Swift
·4 min read

Following a month-long hiatus (which felt much longer!), Superman & Lois returned on Tuesday to chronicle the fallout from Clark revealing his secret identity to Lana — and there was a lot of fallout.

The episode was kind enough to pick up exactly where we left off, with Clark still floating above his befuddled bestie. And while she asked all of the expected questions (“How did I not see this?!”), she also posed some particularly personal queries, including “Why didn’t you come back for me?” and the absolutely gut-wrenching “Did you ever love me?”

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“It was heartbreaking,” Emmanuelle Chriqui tells TVLine of her character’s extremely vulnerable moment. “It’s such a fine line. The thing that we’re always so careful about is that all of the relationships are very respectful. We’re adults now. But this is a moment where she’s finally getting answers to all these question marks from her past, so she can’t help but to ask. She’s going to put everything on the line. She’s so overwhelmed, so shocked, so bombarded. Every question she’s ever had just comes out.”

But there was one pivotal moment when Lana chose to hold her tongue, deciding not to fill Sarah in on her recent discovery. She came close, beginning a conversation about something “important,” but she quickly pivoted to talking about an internship at the mayor’s office. Sarah didn’t exactly buy her mother’s sudden shift in tone — and neither did Chriqui.

“With that kitchen scene, I don’t know how much I bought that she was just going to be talking about an internship,” Chriqui says with a laugh. “But the intention behind it, I absolutely get. She goes into full-on protective mode and thinks, ‘How can I possibly share this with Sarah, knowing what’s at stake?’ On one hand, you’re like, let’s just be transparent. We can handle it. But on the flip side, after Lois tells her that their son has powers too, it’s like, ‘Oh, hell no.'”

After getting the full picture — including Jordan having powers, plus the whole Lana-Rho situation — Lana made the difficult decision to distance herself and her family from the Kents.

“It did feel like a breakup,” Chriqui says. “In a lot of ways, it was a breakup. It’s a temporary time-out. Lana just became the mayor and preached about transparency, and these secrets are so enormous. All of this is complicating her complicated life even more. She has to look out for her family, and she can’t be the liar. That’s where she gets really stuck in her boots. She can’t be the liar every single time they’re together.”

That breakup is also a behind-the-scenes disappointment for Chriqui, who has previously raved about getting to develop a non-antagonistic female friendship between Lana and Lois.

 

“It was a bummer, but it was also an important moment for both of them,” she says. “Lois’ initial reaction when Lana confronted her was valid, and when she takes time to think and sees the other side, it felt pretty accurate to what someone might do when they’re so overwhelmed that they can’t see straight. That’s the crux of it — there’s hurt, there’s stress and there’s the feeling of ‘This is so surreal. How is this happening? How could I not clue into this sooner? How could you befriend me while keeping this from me?’ They’re so good at lying, they don’t even realize they’re doing it.”

Elsewhere in the hour, Superman teamed up with Tal-Rho (much to John Henry and Sam’s disapproval) to destroy Ally’s pendant, Natalie unveiled a super-suit she built for Jonathan to prevent him from getting merged, and Kyle was caught rocking one serious divorced-guy beard.

Your thoughts on the hour? Drop ’em in a comment below.

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