WARNING: The following contains major spoilers for Superman & Lois Season 1, Episode 4, “Haywire,” which aired Tuesday on The CW.
The latest episode of Superman & Lois shows how much of a mastermind Morgan Edge (Adam Rayner) really is. Not only is he railroading Lois Lane (Elizabeth Tulloch) at the Smallville Gazette, he keeps winning the dusty Kansas town over and getting access to just about everything.
They believe he’s their savior, coming with thousands of jobs to stabilize their economy, so it’s understandable. However, as the citizens make this deal with the devil, they also inadvertently provide him with the ultimate weapon against the Man of Steel.
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Edge cuts a mysterious figure because while he’s into media, companies and capitalism, he’s running energy projects as well. It’s why he’s been buying up coal mines across America, all as part of his scheme to turn them into renewable energy sites. At the end of the episode, we see why he had such a strong interest in Smallville.
After the town signs over the Shuster mines to him, we see Edge and Leslie Larr (Stacey Farber), his personal assistant, smashing open a cave wall to reveal thousands of crystals that look similar to what’s used to harm Superman. It’s the site of what Edge calls “X-kryptonite.” It’s no surprise the mineral is in Smallville, as Clark (Tyler Hoechlin) did come from space in a meteor shower; so it seems that his Kryptonian vessel may well have altered the rocks, and thus, the terrain of Smallville.
What’s interesting is Edge seems to have previous experience with this material. Early on in the episode, a flashback from six years ago has him tracking another meteor shower in the Saskatchewan area, where he found a ship similar to Kal-El’s. Fans aren’t sure if this is Larr’s, but what is certain is Edge had access to rocks here, too. He could have been experimenting on them all this time and using the data to pick up their energy signatures across the world.
In 1960’s Action Comics #261, Supergirl experimented on the green kryptonite to render it inert, but that failed and produced this warped kryptonite. It was able to give living beings powers, though, such as Streaky the Supercat, so once more, it appears as if the show is tinkering with this storyline. By tracking meteor showers, such as the one Clark arrived in, Edge would have the ideal map to the crystals and to creating super-soldiers.
We don’t know what the effects on Superman will be, which other locations have been terraformed or the impact exposure to these rocks has on the public. But it does appear that Tag Harris (Wern Lee) got his super speed when Jordan Kent (Alex Garfin) blew up a canister at the mines. Thus, Edge could indeed be making metas. We also don’t know if this mineral aged Larr from a child to an adult, but it seems to be why she has laser-vision. But what’s for sure is with Captain Luthor (Wolé Parks) seeking a supply too, Superman’s world just got a lot more dangerous, and Edge’s find might be opening a whole new can of worms.
Superman & Lois stars Tyler Hoechlin, Elizabeth Tulloch, Dylan Walsh, Alex Garfin, Jordan Elsass, Emmanuelle Chriqui, Inde Navarrette and Wolé Parks. The series airs Tuesdays at 9 p.m. ET/PT on The CW.
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