Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman
Season 2, Episode 8 (20 Nov. 1994): “A Bolt from the Blue”
by Kathy McCormick, Philip Sgriccia

Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman - Season 2, Episode 8

Title: “A Bolt from the Blue”

Medium: television series episode

Original airdate: 20 Nov. 1994

Publisher:
Written by: Kathy McCormick
Directed by: Philip Sgriccia

6 characters in this story:

Character (Click links for info about character and his/her religious practice, affiliation, etc.)	Religious Affiliation	Team(s) [Notes]	Pub.	# app.
Superman (Clark Kent)	Methodist / Kryptonian religion	Kryptonians; Super Friends...  The Justice League		13,409
Lois Lane	Catholic	Raleigh College [Superman's girlfriend, then wife]		3,859
Jimmy Olsen	Lutheran	The Legion of Super-Heroes [Superman's pal]		1,896
Perry White	Baptist; Elvis worship (ordained)	[Superman's (Clark Kent's) boss; Daily Planet editor]		1,574
Jonathan Kent	Methodist	[Superman's adoptive father]		816
Martha Kent	Methodist	[Superman's adoptive mother]		827

Clark Kent and Lois Lane have come to a cemetery. Lex Luthor's ex-wife Arianna Carlin called Lois Lane from prison to tell her if she wanted to know the truth about Lex Luthor's death, she should come to the cemetery.

By coincidence, Clark notices a distraught man talking to the headstone of his father. The distraught man is William Wallace Webster Waldecker (played by actor Leslie Jordan). He complains about family problems and money problems. It is clear from what he says that William Waldecker plans to kill himself. He holds a handgun to his head, but before he can fire, Clark Kent changes to Superman at superspeed and grabs the gun. As Superman holds the gun so it is no longer pointing at William Waldecker's head, a bolt of lightning strkes the two of them, causing some of Superman's super power to be transferred to William. Neither of them are immediately aware that this power transfer has happened, however. William Waldecker just stands there looking at the lightning-fried bouquet of flowers he holds in his hand. Superman starts to try to talk the man out of his suicidal funk.

Timecode: 1 minute, 57 seconds:

William Waldecker: Oh my goodness gracious.

Superman: Sir, listen to me. Life is a very precious gift. Every ne day that we're alive is a chance for us to be the best we can be.

William Waldecker: Oh, please. What would you know about it, Mr. Nothing-Can-Hurt-Me-I-Don't-Need-Money-To-Live? And didn't anybody ever tell you that two primary colors just do not work together?

Superman: You can make fun of my appearance if you like, or you can talk about what's really bothering you. Which do you prefer?

William Waldecker: Well . . . if you put it that way . . .

[William Waldecker starts telling Superman his woes.]

William Waldecker: ...well, you can see how my life is just-- It's just not worth living anymore. I just-- I just feel so guilty. My Daddy went to an early grave. This one, in fact, this one right here. Making all that money, what did I do? Lost it. One filth.

Superman: Sir, Metropolis General Hospital has a referral service for counseling and therapy. There are people there you can talk to. People that can make you se that life is worth living.

[Superman bends William Waldecker's handgun so that it will no longer work. Superman hands William Waldecker his destroyed gun and flies away.]

William Waldecker: Well, that's easy for you to say. [Talking to his mother's headstone.] Well, Mama . . . Looks like I'm not gonna be joining you and Daddy after all. At least, not any time soon.

[William Waldecker drops the handgun to the ground and kicks it with all his strength. The gun flies to a gravestone, chipping off the gravestone's corner, and then continues on its trajectory, all the way into outer space. This is the first time that William Waldecker realizes that some of Superman's power has been transferred to him.]

William Waldecker: Oh my gosh.

William Waldecker adopts a costumed identity and begins saving people and doing "good deeds" in Metropolis, charging people a small feel when he does so. Superman tracks him down as he offers to save a woman's dog from a fire. Superman saves the dog for free and insists that the costumed and masked William Waldecker speak with him. Timecode: 9 minutes, 16 seconds:

Superman: But how could that have happened? I've been struck by lightning before and my powers have never been transferred.

William Waldecker: Don't look at me. All I know is, one minute I was a 90-pount weakling and the next minute I was a 90-pound Hercules. I like it much better this way.

Superman: Well, I can understand that, Mr. . . .? What should I call you?

William Waldecker: Do you know that I haven't even thought of a good name yet. What do you think of "Brawny Man"?

Superman: I'm sure you're gonna come up with the perfect name. But right now, I'd like to have a talk with you about right and wrong.

William Waldecker: Well, if you think you know that much more about it than I do . . .

Superman: You can't charge people for saving their lives.

William Waldecker: Well, my goodness me. If that isn't worth something, I don't know what is. Excuse me, but I'm just plying a legitimate, if somewhat unique, trade to an increasingly service-oriented economy. I'd think you'd welcome the help. You may be Superman, but you can't do everything. Bye, now. Geronimo!

[William Waldecker jumps off the building ledge they are sitting on, and flies away.]

Timecode: 13 minutes, 27 seconds: William Waldecker visits Lois Lane in her apartment. Lois is eager to interview this new Superman. She warmly welcomes him. He brings her flowers and candy, apparently trying to win her affections. He notices a box of financial records on her coffee table.

William Waldecker: Miss Lane -- You don't mind if I call you Miss Lane? This is a very bad idea, tossing out your financial records without shredding them. Dishonest people pray for this sort of trash.

[Before Lois can protest, William Waldecker uses his super-speed to shred the papers in the box.]

William Waldecker: Well, that's better.

Lois Lane: [coldly] Those were my '94 tax records.

William Waldecker: Oh, my goodness.

[These were Lois Lane's current records, the papers she needed to work on her taxes right now. William Waldecker looks chagrinned, and Lois struggles to maintain her composure and not get mad at the man, because she still wants to interview him.]

William Waldecker: Um, what was it you wanted to ask me?

Lois Lane: Who are you?

[William Waldecker shakes his finger, shakes his head, and makes a "Hmm mmm" sound, indicating that is a question that she can't ask. He wants to maintain his "secret identity."]

Lois Lane: Well, are you from Krypton, too?

William Waldecker: Oh, no, ma'am. I'm from Tennessee.

Timecode: 19 minutes, 35 seconds:

William Waldecker visits his sister, Wandamae, in the mental institution where she has been institutionalized because she is insane. She thinks she is married to President Abraham Lincoln. She asks her brother to perform the children's finger-play/nursury rhyme (i.e., finger rhyme) "Here is the church. Here is the steeple. Open the doors. And there's all the people!"

Wandamae Waldecker: Okay. Okay, do it.

William Waldecker: Here is the church . . .

Timecode: 21 minutes, 10 seconds: Lois Lane and Clark Kent tell their boss Perry White what they have learned in their investigation of William Waldecker.

Lois Lane: William Wallace Webster Waldecker. He's not married, both parents are dead, he has a sister in an institution.

Perry White: What kind of an institution?

Lois Lane: It's for, uh, people who are challenged by reality.

Perry White: Ah, one of those.

Clark Kent: The family moved here from Little Big-Holler, Tennessee, 25 years ago.

[Jimmy Olsen bursts into the office and turns on the TV so his colleagues can see something interesting. It is a TV commercial for William Waldecker's services. He is now advertising himself as a hero-for-hire by the name of "Resplendent Man." The ad concludes, "It's Resplendent Man, strange visitor from the heart of Dixie." People can call him using a 1-900 phone service. He charges for his services and he also charges for the phone call: $3.98 for the first 15 seconds.]

Timecode: 22 minutes, 37 seconds: William Waldecker (a.k.a. "Resplendent Man") sits on the ledge of a building in Metropolis using his X-ray vision to peer into a building across the street. He is looking at women getting dressed (or undressed) in a women's locker room.

William Waldecker/Resplendent Man: Whoo hoo hoo! Well, slap me silly. Oh! Hmm...

[Superman arrives, blocking William Waldecker's view.]

William Waldecker/Resplendent Man: Do you mind?

Superman: Yes. I do mind. I have tried to be patient. I have tried to be understanding.

William Waldecker/Resplendent Man: Get a grip here. Do I tell you what to do? No, I don't. I'd appreciate the same courtesy from you.

Superman: You will take this to heart. You will memorize it. You will live it. The strong do not exploit the weak. The powerful do not attack the defenseless. And you do not use your X-ray vision to spy on women in a locker room.

William Waldecker/Resplendent Man: Oh, please. What planet are you from? Try to grasp this. It's not a really hard concept. You may not like what I do, but there's not really a blessed thing you can do about it.

[William Waldecker/Resplendent Man drops off the ledge of the building and flies away.]

Lois Lane talks to Superman and asks if he knows how William Waldecker ("Resplendent Man") got his super powers. Superman is evasive. He doesn't exactly lie to her, but he leads her to believe that just as William Waldecker didn't answer many of Lois's questions, the man didn't answer Superman's questions either. Superman thus led Lois to believe that he didn't know how William Waldecker came to have super powers.

Now, at the mental institute where William Waldecker's sister resides, Lois has talked to William Waldecker's sister, Wandamae. The sister told Lois that her brother received her powers from Superman. Clark tries to persuade Lois that Wandamae is simply crazy and doesn't know what she is talking about. But Lois Lane's intution tells her that Wandamae was telling the truth.

Clark changes into Superman and comes to talk to Lois, hoping to avoid having this information revealed to the public, and also hoping to repair the damage that Lois Lane's discovery might do to her respect for Superman. Timecode: 28 minutes, 42 seconds:

Lois Lane: Did you lie to me?

Superman: What makes you say that?

Lois Lane: Either you know what I mean or you don't.

Superman: I didn't . . . lie.

Lois Lane: All right. Did you lead me to believe something that wasn't exactly true?

Superman: Yes.

Lois Lane: I wouldn't have expected that from you. [Pauses] You know, when I kept Kryptonite a secret, it's because it's life-threatening. This is news.

Superman: Lois, do you have any idea what would happen if this information became public knowledge? Everyone would want super powers. Everyone would think that they deserved super powers.

Lois Lane: It's a reporter's job to disseminate the news, not to ponder the consequences of every story.

Superman: If more people pondered the consequences of their actions, this planet wouldn't be in the state it's in.

Lois Lane: Well, I'm not a philosopher, I'm a reporter.

Superman: And a human being. Which is more important to you? I'm only asking you to think about it. Talk it over with Clark.

Lois Lane: Clark's a reporter, too.

Superman: Both of you have good hearts, Lois, and good instincts. I know you'll do the right thing.

[Superman flies away.]

Timecode: 30 minutes, 11 seconds: William Waldecker/Resplendent Man flies over Metropolis, singing the old gospel song "Amazing Grace."

Timecode: 31 minutes, 51 seconds: Gretchen, the doctor who has custody of Lex Luthor's stolen body, brings Wandamae Waldecker to the mausoleum of Lex Luthor, which is located in a Metropolis cemetery. In previous scenes in this episode, we have seen that Gretchen has a secret lair hidden underneath this mausoleum. In the lair, she scientific equipment and Lex Luthor's body. She is still trying to revive Lex Luthor, the man she loves. This mausoleum has been glimpsed before, but it can be seen particularly clearly in this shot. The mausoleum seems to reflect no clear religious affiliation. It has a medieval look to it, but doesn't seem designed to reflect any particular Christian or Judeo-Christian sentiment. What is the meaning of the stone dragon that is the most prominent feature? There is also a stone relief sculpture of a knight, perhaps a crusader, on the wall next to the door. Perhaps this represents Christian dragonslayer Saint George? Years later, in a episodes of Smallville, Lex Luthor owned an ornate box which was given to him by his father. Lex Luthor's father told him that the box had belonged to the legendary Saint George. Or perhaps the dragon somehow represents Lex Luthor's Nietzschean beliefs?

Was the mausoleum designed by Lex Luthor prior to his death, or did somebody pick out this ornamentation, including the dragon? Perhaps Lex Luthor's ex-wife Arianna Carlin had a hand in designing this stone monument to the billionaire.

Later (timecode: 33 minutes, 24 seconds) we can more clearly see the inside of the mausoleum when Lois Lane sneaks inside it; she followed Gretchen and Wandamae there. A large gold disk with a relief sculpture of a man is on one wall. Is this Lex Luthor's idol Alexander the Great?

In this episode's climax, Gretchen has Lois Lane and Wandamae trapped in a cage underneath the Lex Luthor mmausoleum. The cage bards are wired so that if anybody tries to bend them, a bomb will go off, killing anybody inside. Gretchen rigged the cage this way to prevent Superman or William Waldecker from using their super strength to free the captives. Gretchen's plan was to repeat the conditions of the lightning strike in order to transfer super powers from William Waldecker to herself, and eventually to Lex Luthor's body (so as to revive him). For a brief time, Gretchen manages to obtain super powers via successful electricity-facilitated transfer from William Waldecker, but Superman intervenes and reverses the power transfers (with Williams help). Thus, Superman gets all his power back from both Gretchen and William who are left powerless. Gretchen attempts one last villainous deed: She triggers a timer on the cage bomb, in order to kill Lois and Wandamae. Superman can't rescue the women, lest the bomb go off. But before the timer counts down and the bomb goes off due to Gretchen's activating it, Lois Lane figures out the keypad combination and released herself from the cage.

Timecode: 42 minutes, 36 seconds: Later, back at the Daily Planet offices, Perry White wonders how Lois knew the combination.

Note that as this scene begins, in the foreground we can see Jimmy Olsen reading the tabloid newspaper known as the National Whisper (an analog for the National Enquirer. The banner headline reads "ELVIS ROLLS OVER AS DAUGHTER WEDS!" This newspaper headline does not relate directly to Perry White's worship of Elvis Presley, but it does represent yet another of this series' many Elvis Presley references.

Perry White: Lois, how in the world did you figure out the combination?

Lois Lane: She seemed to be fixated on my connextion to Lex . . . so I tried the date of my wedding.

Clark Kent: Thank God it worked.

William Waldecker: Yes, we do have an aweful lot to be grateful for.

Lois Lane: How's Wandamae?

William Waldecker: Oh, Miss Lane, she's fine. Well, she's as fine as Wandamae gets. Who's to say it's a bad life?

[William Waldecker here refers to the fact that Wandamae believes she is Mary Todd Lincoln, married to Abraham Lincoln. Clearly his sister is insane, but she does seem happy.]

William Waldecker: You know, if there's one thing that I learned from all this, it's that life is worth living for as long as you get to, 'cause you never know what's gonna happen next.

Clark Kent: Well, you learned something else. You found out who you are, deep down. You did the right thing when it counted, even though it meant making a big sacrifice. I think Superman would say that's what being a hero is all about.

William Waldecker: Well, I'm not so sure it was such a big sacrifice. To tell you the truth, having super powers turned out to be kind of a burden. Well, thank y'all.

[William Waldecker waves good-bye and leaves.]

Perry White: [chuckles loudly] What a story. Some nobody little guy suddenly wakes up one morning with super powers and just as suddenly, he loses them. Boy, I'd give my pension to know how it happened.

[Perry White suspects that Lois and Clark know more about this than they are telling him, but he doesn't say anything further. He walks away, passing Jimmy Olsen as he does. He grabs the National Whisper tabloid newspaper away from Jimmy as he passes the young man.]

Perry White: Jimmy, I don't want you reading this trash in the Daily Planet building.

Clark Kent: Well?

Lois Lane: Well, what?

Clark Kent: How do you feel about not telling Perry everything that we knew?

Lois Lane: Bad. I feel bad. But Superman was right.

Clark Kent: Yeah. That's one of his more irritating qualities.

Lois Lane: Do you think that that strange woman had Lex's body all along?

Clark Kent: I guess so.

Lois Lane: What kind of a person keeps a body frozen in a glass case?

Clark Kent: Somebody's who having a hard time getting a date? [Lois smiles at Clark's little joke.] Well, at least we know for sure that he is dead.

Lois Lane: Absolutely. I saw everything go flatline.

[Clark walks away. Cut to new scene: Outside the mausoleum. Policemen look at the glass case which contains Lex Luthor's body. A coronor's van drives up and the "coroner" asks the men to help her load the glass case and body into the van. Except it isn't really a coroner. It is Gretchen, wearing a coroner's uniform. Somehow she must have escaped custody and is now continuing her plans to revive her beloved Lex Luthor.]

The process of listing characters who appeared in this source is not yet complete. Webpage for Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman - Season 2, Episode 8 (20 Nov. 1994) created 15 January 2008. Last modified 11 June 2014.

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