SPOILER WARNING: Do not read this interview until you’ve finished watching the March 29 episode of Superman & Lois titled “30 Days and 30 Nights.” You can check out the non-spoilery Part 1 though!
Tonight’s episode of Superman & Lois found another Jonathan (Jordan Elsass) at the Kent Farm… from the Bizarro World. But that’s not all that happened this week! Jordan Kent (Alex Garfin) did the vigilante thing some more and saved the day, even flying…. Sarah and Jordan seem to have broken up…. and Superman is still missing! Oh yeah, and Lois now knows Sam has been training Jordan in how to use his powers.
We spoke with Alex Garfin about these happenings and more, which you can find below.
So Sam seems to think training Jordan has a good idea where Lois clearly doesn’t. You, as Alex… which one of them do you think is right?
I think, personally, that Sam’s idea is correct in the broad scheme of things. I can understand Lois’ position. Se’s a mom, she wants to protect her kid, the kid’s quite young… but the idea of just training? I think that Jordan needs to learn it. He’s found himself in too many situations at this point – between Tag Harris and Zeta-Rho – where he was woefully unprepared to be the center of superhero like attention. So in the broad scheme of things, yes, he should be training, but I do understand Lois’ point of view.
Were you surprised that you got to fly?
Not really… it was a bit of a long time coming, in the fact that I’ve been training to go up on that wire. It’s a lot of work to fly. If you don’t know what you’re doing up there, you kind of flop around like a fish, and no one wants to fish-like Superman, Superboy… whatever they’re gonna call me.. so it was a long time coming. It was great that I finally got to do it. It was great to do it in this context, because I think emotionally-driven powers are such a big theme of this show.
Is the breakup with Sarah something that Jordan could have navigated better with his dad around?
Clark has been a bit of a guiding voice in Jordan’s life. Even though he was quite absent when he was a kid and was kind of best friends with his mom back in Metropolis, Clark has always dropped wisdom on Jordan, and we see that in thepilot when he talks about his dad on the porch. I really liked that scene; it was really beautifully written. I think Greg Berlanti wrote it. So yes, if Clark was around, it would be very different. But he isn’t, and that’s the theme of the episode. He’s not around, and we don’t really know what to do without him.
When you first saw Jordan Elsass in that costume with the red pants, what was your reaction?
Oh, come on! I mean, first of all, he looks like the drummer from Green Day. I’m just gonna drop that one right off the bat. We were roasting him… I was laying it into him. Don’t worry. I did it for all of us!
He came out in the red pants and the leather jacket with the “S” written on it. I’m like, “this is too much!” I’m sorry. I mean the costume team put together that amazing outfit… it’s an outfit so good that everyone’s going to be talking about it forever and ever and ever. They did a great job of really making it like, “oh my God, what’s going on?!?!”
Well, just wait until they give you a costume… I hope it doesn’t have red pants.
I want the underwear on the outside of the pants. I’m requesting it! I’m going classic!
How might Clark respond if and when he finds out what Jordan has been doing?
I think that Clark will have a mix of fear and pride, a lot like Lois. Clark obviously understands it more than Lois will, because he was in that situation. He left his family when he was what, 16? So he was not too much older than Jordan when he completely left to go to the North Pole. So I think there is a bit of understanding from Clark that there wouldn’t be from Lois, but also, it’s his son, and he’s fearful.
Superman & Lois returns in a few weeks with “Bizarros in a Bizarro World” – see the trailer here.