By: Atiya Irvin-Mitchell
Hank Henshaw (Max Mittelman) challenging Clark (Jack Quaid) to a fight on a live broadcast. Clark and Kara are flying to confront him, and Hank challenges Clark to fight for Metropolis like a hero and die like one. When Hank comes face-to-face with the supercousins, Clark tries again to reason with Hank by reminding him that they fought together to save the people of Earth before. But Hank doesn’t see it that way and says he was defending his home from aliens. Hank sees Clark as another invasive alien and blames him for taking his future away, and says now he’ll take Clark’s future away.
Back in Smallville, Ma and Pa Kent are looking very worried while Lois (Alice Lee) gets some troubling news from Jonathan (Darren Criss). Jonathan explains that in his future, Cyborg Superman and his drones destroyed the world and killed Clark and Lois. But that’s what “Dr. Luthor” sent him back in time to prevent. This surprises Lois because Lex turned Hank into Cyborg Superman, but Jonathan assures her that he did it so Jonathan could save them. Lois wants to know why Jonathan didn’t tell them this sooner. There are a couple of reasons. Firstly, Jonathan’s future is dark, and the present is so bright and full of life, and he wanted to take it all in. Secondly, in Jonathan’s time, Clark and Lois died when he was pretty young, so he didn’t get to spend a lot of time with them. When he saw Clark and Lois at the restaurant, they seemed to be happy, and Jonathan just wanted to get to know them. Jonathan promises he won’t let his future happen to them and resolves to “fix it.” Lois tries to stop him, but he leaves, and she borrows the Kents’ truck to follow him.
Kara (Kiana Madeira) is fighting off Hank’s robots, and Clark is fighting Hank. While throwing Clark through buildings, Hank rants a little about his resentment towards Clark. He says he worked his entire life to be a hero, and Clark just breezed in and took it all away. Hank blames Clark for turning him into something he doesn’t recognize, and Clark is trying very hard to keep the citizens of Metropolis from being caught in the crosshairs. Hank isn’t as concerned about preventing collateral damage and throws the very large globe at the top of the Daily Planet’s building at the citizens. Clark catches it before it can crush a little girl, and there is a Sisyphus-esque moment where Hank tries to crush them with the globe.
Luckily, Jonathan swoops in, pulls the little girl from under the globe, punches Hank, and helps Clark with the globe. Clark tells Jonathan to get back to Lois and safety, but Jonathan says no. This mini-confrontation forces Jonathan to tell Clark what he told Lois about his dark future and Clark’s death at Hank’s hands. Clark is shocked that he couldn’t stop him, and we get another flashback of Baby!Jonathan is being held by someone, and he explains that no one could stop him. We see Clark’s body in Jonathan’s future, and Jonathan adds that all they could do was watch.
With all that laid out, Jonathan tries to convince Clark to leave, but Clark refuses because he can’t leave Jonathan. But Jonathan says he can’t leave either because it’s his fight. Before there’s any revolution, Hank returns and throws Jonathan to the ground. But, not before hearing Jonathan call Clark “Dad.” This confuses Hank on two fronts: 1)He’s shocked that aliens are “breeding,” and 2) Clark is 22 years old, and Jonathan is a teenager, so without the time travel element, the math is confusing. Also, this info angers Hank because thanks to him being more cyborg than human these days, he’ll never have children of his own. This is another thing he blames Clark for. He continues attacking Jonathan and Clark and looks forward to being able to kill Clark while his son watches. He electrocutes Clark until Kara stops him by knocking him into the concrete, which renders him unconscious. Kara checks on Clark, and Jonathan tells them both they need to leave because it isn’t safe. He says it especially isn’t safe for Kara, but before he can elaborate, Hank comes to. Clark tries again to reason with him, but Hank still can’t see reason and shoots at a plane. Jonathan volunteers to stop the plane from crashing, and Kara promises Clark that they’ll protect the city while Clark stops Hank.
But Hank continues using the robots and himself to attack the people of Metropolis. Clark tries telling him that the citizens don’t deserve to suffer, but Hank says he’s going to make them regret not loving him. Hank’s robots hold Clark down, and Hank uses the kryptonite powering his body against Clark.
From the Kents’ truck, Jimmy (Ishmel Sahid) and Lois can see the destruction of Metropolis and are pretty worried about Clark, Kara, and Jonathan.
Elsewhere, Slade Wilson (Chris Parnell) is helping an injured Lex (Max Mittelman) to the top of the building while reminding him that he warned him about Hank. In the middle of the “I told you so,” Lois bursts through the door with Jimmy and punches him. Slade is still really miffed that Lex brushed him off after Hank’s first attack, so he doesn’t try to stop her. Lois grabs Lex and tells him he has to shut Hank down. Lex refuses, because despite the reign of terror happening, he still really wants Superman dead. Why? He accuses Lois of thinking she can do whatever she wants because Superman protects her, but who, Lex wonders, protects everyone else from her Alien boyfriend? Lois points out that it’s Hank and not Superman actively trying to level the city. So, Lois says, who will Hank go after next if he succeeds in killing Clark?
We don’t immediately see Lex’s answer, because we cut away and see Clark being thrown into a building. He also has green veins courtesy of Hank’s kryptonite and generally looks bad. Things don’t look good for Clark as Hank says, “time for the grand finale,” meaning Superman’s death. But, before he can follow through, a piercing noise stops him. It’s the same one Lex used to stop him during their lab confrontation, so he rages at Lex for trying to control him and leaves Clark.
Meanwhile, Jonathan is helping the plane that Hank shot out of the air land safely. The people are grateful, but the relief is short-lived when Jonathan sees Hank flying above him. He is headed in Lex’s direction, and speaking of Lex, he’s trying to shut Hank down, but Hank appears before he can finish. When Hank confronts him, Lex uses Lois as a human shield. Lois tries to reason with Hank, but it doesn’t work, and he tries to use his heat vision on her. Jonathan stops him by throwing a pipe at him, and so Hank turns his focus on Jonathan. But Kara saves him and tells him that he can’t defeat Hank on his own. Jonathan disagrees and tells her he has to do this on his own. He shows her his experimental kryptonite shielding armor. It’s just a prototype, he says, but if he wears it, he won’t be hurt by the kryptonite. Kara tries to tell him that that isn’t enough because he’s still too strong. He doesn’t listen and tries to leave, but Kara stops him and demands to know what she could’ve done in the future that made him hate her so much. Kara has noticed that Jonathan doesn’t like to look at her and can’t believe that he won’t even fight side-by-side with him.
Upon hearing this, Jonathan seems to feel guilty and explains he doesn’t hate Kara; in fact, his issue is that he loves her very much. After Clark and Lois died, Jonathan says that Kara raised him. In that flashforward of the future where Metropolis burned, it was Kara holding Baby!Jonathan. We get a montage of Jonathan’s childhood with Kara and hear Jonathan explain that Kara was his only family and source of companionship for a long time. She taught him to use his powers and be a good person after the world ended, but then she died. Jonathan says he just doesn’t want to watch her die again. We get a glimpse of the future and see a very distraught Jonathan looking at Kara’s body. But Kara’s more focused on the part where he told her about all the good she did as opposed to the sad ending. Jonathan just wants her to stay out of harm’s way, but Kara tells him that his parents are loved by the entire world, and they love the world back. Since Kara hasn’t been on Earth that long, her world is smaller, but she considers Jonathan a part of it because he’s her family. So, she asks Jonathan to let her protect him. He reluctantly agrees, and they resolve to take on Hank together.
Hank has gone back to trying to pound Clark into the pavement when Kara and Jonathan swoop in and distract him. Together, they create a cyclone, which distracts Hank and rips off his arms. He attaches his robot’s arms and uses X-ray vision to see that Kara is wearing the armor, which is why his kryptonite isn’t hurting her. He finds the weak spot in the armor and shoots her down. The kryptonite has penetrated through Clark’s skin, so he’s not in great shape. But when he sees Hank trying to crush Jonathan’s skull, he pushes through and saves him. He tells Hank he won’t let him hurt his family, and the future belongs to everyone, and rips out the battery in Hank’s chest. Hank is on his last legs and wants to self-destruct and take everyone with him. But he gets distracted by Jonathan coming to check on Clark. Particles of kryptonite are raining down, and he wonders why the kryptonite isn’t hurting Jonathan the way it is Clark. Clark says it’s probably because his mother is human. Realizing that Lois is Jonathan’s mother seems to be a bit too much for Hank, and he still doesn’t understand the math, so Jonathan explains that he traveled from the future to stop him.
Hank thinks about his human life and says he was supposed to be the future of Earth, but humanity chose aliens instead. He realizes that’s the future now and shuts down. Clark feels a little sorry for Hank, but Jonathan is just relieved because of how dark the future gets. Kara climbs from under the rubble and hugs Clark and Jonathan. The happy reunion is short-lived because the time travel device Jonathan used is running out of power, and he still needs to go home. But, he isn’t ready to leave yet. Still, Kara encourages him to go back to his future because everything is fine now, and she can’t wait to meet him there.
Lois arrives, and Jonathan tells his parents that he has to get going, but he wishes they’d gotten to spend more time together. Clark thanks him for saving his life, and Lois says she’s proud of him. But, she’s worried that his future could still be dark. But Jonathan says he knows it’ll be fine, because they’ll be together.
Once Jonathan is gone, Clark asks Lois for his glasses, which confuses Lois because he doesn’t actually need them. Also, Clark is worried that the wrecked truck will upset his father, but Lois thinks both his parents will just be relieved that Clark is okay. Lois says they saved the future and saved Superman. About that, Clark’s powers aren’t working after all the kryptonite exposure. He tells Lois he can’t be Superman for her anymore, but Lois says even if they didn’t save Superman, they saved Clark and Jonathan’s future. Didn’t they?
We flash forward and in the future things are still pretty bleak. Superman-like statues are patrolling the city, and Slade Wilson announces that they’ve captured a renegade: Superboy. Lex Luther tells “Jonathan Lane” to send his regards to his mother. He adds that he’s heard he’s trying to travel to the past, and that doesn’t work for him. Lex asks Jonathan where he’d get an idea like that, which is odd because before it was Lex who helped Jonathan go to the past. Jonathan also has a scar over his eye that wasn’t there before, which suggests that the future has changed, but not for the better.