Superman & Lois' Wolé Parks Talks John's 'Dark Turn,' Chemistry With Lana and Whether We'll See [Spoiler] Again

Andy Swift
·5 min read
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Tuesday’s Superman & Lois pushed John Henry Irons to his breaking point. Then it pushed him further.

After refusing to let Bruno see Pia unless he hands over his arsenal of weapons and experiments (including Bizarro’s corpse!), John found both himself and Natalie in Intergang’s crosshairs, leading to a fatal confrontation between John and Atom-Man aka Henry Miller. And since Wolé Parks‘ character remains alive and well, you guessed it, John is the one who killed Henry. At this point, Superman, Natalie, the boys — everyone is worried about where this troubling journey will lead John next.

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Meanwhile, Lois admitted to being scared of her body changing after getting her mastectomy, resulting in a beautiful, gravity-defying dance between the Supers; Mateo and Natalie reunited, swapping “I love you”s for the first time; and Bruno revealed that Bizarro’s corpse is the key to saving Pia.

Below, Parks discusses how John’s split-second decision will affect his character moving forward, what he thinks about John and Lana’s budding romance, and whether we’ll ever see Diggle again after his brief mention this week:

TVLINE | So… John killed Henry. That was a lot. Were you as surprised as the audience?
You know what’s interesting? I don’t like to find out things ahead of time. like to read the scripts and be surprised, so I was definitely surprised when I found out. To be honest, I cheated and accidentally saw it on the stunt coordinators’ calendar. It said, “JH kills blah, blah, blah,” and I was like, “What?!” He’s taking a dark turn this season.

TVLINE | And how are you feeling about that? It’s definitely a change of pace seeing him at odds with Superman again.
It makes sense in so far as the journey I feel like everyone’s on this season. John is juxtaposing with Superman about how they perceive things, just like how the Manheims are juxtaposing with the Kents about how they deal with cancer. I find it’s kind of fascinating to have everyone on these individual tangents.

TVLINE | On the flip side, I love seeing John at odds with Bruno. Their scenes are so intense, I imagine it must be fun to play out that drama.
What I love about working with Chad L. Coleman — because we knew each other before from both being on All American, but we never worked together on screen — is that he loves playing. For the scene in the interrogation room this week, we had so many different takes where he might get angry or menacing, and I would react to that. That’s the kind of actor I love working with, because you don’t know where the scene is going to go.

TVLINE | Between you, Chad and Spence Moore II, it really is one big All American reunion.
One-hundred percent. We were joking about it the other day. Like, somebody else needs to pop on here for no reason.

TVLINE | Back to your dark turn, John insists that he didn’t have a choice, while Superman obviously disagrees. Who is right? 
I’m biased towards my character, but I understood what [John] was saying. One of Superman’s greatest strengths, but also his greatest weakness, is that he only sees the good in people. In that situation, it’s really easy for Superman to say John had a choice. I’m like, “Dude, you have superpowers. You’re invincible! This guy broke into my house and was beating me up, throwing me into walls and was going to kill me.” In my mind, John didn’t think he had a choice, especially combined with Natalie getting attacked earlier in the episode. It’s easy to talk from a high horse when you’re invulnerable.

TVLINE | Not to play Devil’s Advocate — but I will, because you played the Devil on The Vampire Diaries — wasn’t this guy technically already dead? Like, John just put him back down?
Thank you! And John did try to say, “Hey, this is done. Stop and stay down.” But he was like, “No, I’m going to kill you.” At that point, it was fight or flight. John couldn’t run away from him. He already tried that and it didn’t work. So he had to kill him. That’s where my mind went with it.

TVLINE | I appreciated Sam’s brief Diggle mention this week. Any chance we’ll see him again, since Superman & Lois is basically the last Arrowverse show standing?
I don’t like teasing people, so no, you’re unfortunately not going to see him again. But the good thing is that David [Ramsey] directed Episode 5, and I actually got to shadow him. He’s such a great part of our crew at this point, and also our cast. So you’re not going to see Diggle, but don’t worry, because Lex is coming! We’ve got enough stuff coming on. I guarantee that you will be entertained.

TVLINE | It’s funny to remember that we thought you were Lex at one point.
[Laughs] I did too! But I’ll tell you, the performance that Michael Cudlitz gives is so amazing. This is a very different kind of Lex. I’m a comic fan, and I honestly feel like Lex is sometimes overdone, but this take on him is a lot darker, a lot grittier — you know how our show gets.

TVLINE | Lastly, we have to talk about Lana. What’s going on between her and John, and how do you feel about it?
I love it, I just think it’s horrible timing. [Laughs] I want John to have a happy ending. He’s been through a lot, with a world war and Superman killing his wife and all that, and was finding his way in this world — and then Bruno Mannheim came along and ruined it. John is trying to find love, but he’s also got to fight and protect his family. So we’re threading the needle a bit, but I love that he’s finding somebody, and I think Lana is a great match for him.

Your thoughts on this week’s Superman & Lois? Drop a comment with your hopes for the rest of the (hopefully not final) season below.

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