Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman
Season 1, Episode 16 (6 Feb. 1994): “The Ides of Metropolis”
by Deborah Joy LeVine, Philip Sgriccia

Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman - Season 1, Episode 16

Title: “The Ides of Metropolis”

Medium: television series episode

Original airdate: 6 Feb. 1994

Publisher:
Written by: Deborah Joy LeVine
Directed by: Philip Sgriccia

8 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
Lex Luthor	Episcopalian (lapsed); Nietzschean atheist	Injustice League; Secret Six...  Secret Society of Super Villains; The Injustice Gang; The Legion of Doom		1,508
Cat Grant	Catholic (lapsed); promiscuous hedonist	[Daily Planet gossip columnist; co-worker of Clark Kent]		140

Timecode: 7 minutes, 44 seconds:

Perry White looks at the latest newspaper. It's headline blared: CONVICTED KILLER ESCAPES. Below the headline we see a photo of Eugene Latterman, who escaped in this episode's opening scene after being convicted of murder. There is also a photo of Lena Harrison and her husband Henry - the man that Eugene Latterman was convicted of murdering.

Perry White: Lois, are you doing a follow-up on the Eugene Latterman escape?

Perry notices that Lois Lane isn't really listening attentively. She is staring at a notepad, twiddling with a pencil. She seems lost in thought. In previous scenes we saw that Eugene Latterman escaped from the courthouse after hearing the guilty verdict rendered in his murder trial. Feeling that Lois Lane was a person he could trust, Latterman hid in her car and convinced her to help him escape. She is now harboring this fugitive.

Perry White: Lois, are you, uh, with us here?

Lois Lane: Yeah, I'm on it, Chief.

Clark Kent: You upset over the verdict?

Lois Lane: The man is innocent. He is no more a killer than I am.

Perry White: Well, now, wait a minute. The man signed a confession, didn't he?

Lois Lane: He was under duress when he signed it and his attorney wasn't even present.

Clark Kent: Lois, the man shot his boss and then set fire to the room to try to hide the evidence.

Jimmy Olsen: Fingerprints on the gun, his clothes had Harrison's blood on them, not to mention, he and Harrison's wife were doing the deed.

Lois Lane: Jimmy, it's okay to have an affair if your husband's a brutal sociopath.

Clark Kent: No, it's not. It's not okay . . . Assuming it's true.

Perry White: What's true?

Clark Kent: That they're having an affair.

Lois Lane and Perry White stare at Clark Kent, not sure what he is talking about. Their conversation was about the Eugene Latterman case, and Clark's words mostly could fit into this context. But something about the way he talked seemed out of place.

Perry White: Well. You know, when Priscilla left Elvis, February of '72, she went straight into the arms of Mike Stone, her karate instructor. Also married.

Lois Lane: Forgive me, Chief. I-- I'm just not in the mood for another Elvis yarn.

Perry White: Wait. You're not in the mood for an Elvis yarn?

Lois Lane: Chief, Eugene and Lena--

Jimmy Olsen: Speak of the devil.

Lois stops speaking. She was about to say something about the fugitive Eugene Latterman and his affair with Lena, probably to explain how their situation is different or special or desperate or something. But whatever she was going to say, we don't hear it at this time. Jimmy Olsen saw Lena herself enter the room and didn't want Lois saying something about her or Latterman that Lena might overhear. The camera cuts to the other side of the room where we see Lena herself.

Jimmy's phrase, "speak of the devil," is a common colloquialism without any particular religious significance, but given what we learn later in the story, it also serves as foreshadowing. Lena appears here as the "innocent", a woman brutally beaten by her husband who understandably (at least to Lois Lane's way of thinking) fled to the arms of another man, who rescued her. But Lena is not innocent at all. She was never beaten or in any way harmed by her husband. In fact, she and her husband worked together to concoct a story about her being beaten so they could gain Eugene Latterman's sympathy and frame him for murder. Lena and her husband murdered a homeless man and burned the body so that it would look like Lena's husband had been killed by Eugene Latterman. Far from being the innocent she first appears to be, Lena is in fact quite "devilish" - a woman capable of the cruelest of deceit, betrayal and murder, all for the sake of greed.

Timecode: 8 minutes, 56 seconds: Cut from the staff meeting in the previous scene to a new scene, in which Lena Harrison talks just to Lois Lane and Clark Kent. She has come to the offices of the Daily Planet to enlist their help. She wants the reporters to write a story urging Eugene Latterman to turn himself in so that he won't be hurt by police trying to find him. At leat this is what she says. In talking to Lois and Clark, Lena is very convincing. She really does seem like a person who was brutalized by an ogre of a husband and she really does seem like she is in love with Eugene Latterman, although all of this is a lie.

Lena Harrison: I'm very worried. I haven't heard from him. Eugene wrote me, told me how much he trusted you. [She is referring here to Lois Lane.] You were the only one who believed in him.

Lois Lane: What can we do for you?

Lena Harrison: They'll find him. They'll track him down and kill him. My husband . . . was a violent and cruel man. There were nights, so many nights that I thought, God forgive me . . . if only he were dead then Eugene and I could . . . He did it for me.

By this, Lena Harrison means that Eugene committed the murder of her husband for her.

The conversation with Lena Harrison is interrupted when Perry White enters the room and gets Lois. Reed - a female police detective - is there to see her, to ask her if she knows anything about the whereabouts of fugitive Eugene Harrison. Lois doesn't tell the detective that she is, in fact, harboring Harrison in her own apartment. After the detective leaves, Lois rushes to Clark Kent, feeling she has to confide her secret in somebody. She wants to tell Clark, but she wants to do it in a way that will ensure that he won't tell anybody.

Timecode: 11 minutes, 26 seconds:

Lois Lane: Tell me the biggest secret you have.

Clark Kent: What?

Lois Lane: Tell me the biggest secret you have. Something you would never reveal to another soul.

Clark Kent: Why?

Lois Lane: 'Cause I'm about to tell you the biggest one I have and I need blackmail material.

Clark Kent: I-- I can't.

Lois Lane: Spill it.

Obviously, the "biggest secret" that Clark Kent has is that he is secretly Superman. This scene is one of many in this series that utilizes this central element of the Clark Kent/Superman story in an ironic or humorous way, in which the people around him talk about Superman to him without knowing that he is, in fact, Superman. Clark knows this is his biggest secret, but of course he does not want to tell Lois this, so he thinks of another secret, one that has been weighing very heavily on his mind (since earlier in this episode).

Clark Kent: Okay. The truth is that my mother might be having an affair with a younger man.

Clark Kent's father seems convinced that his wife Martha is having an affair with her art instructor, although he has no direct evidence of this. He seems to have come to this conclusion largely because of the painting the instructor or Martha painted of Martha in the nude. It was "artfully posed", but still shocking to the very conservative sensibilities of Jonathan Kent. At this point, Clark Kent doesn't know whether or not his mother is having an affair. Later in the episode we learn definitively that she is not having an affair or anything close to it. But for now, Clark is very concerned about his parents and doesn't know what to think.

Lois Lane: Not big enough.

Clark Kent: What?! My parents have been married for almost 30 years, Lois.

Lois Lane: Okay. What I'm about to tell you cannot be repeated. Swear it.

Clark Kent: I swear.

Lois Lane: On the lives of your future grandchildren.

Clark Kent: Okay.

Lois Lane: And no matter what I tell you, you can't do anything about it.

Clark Kent: Got it.

Lois Lane: Eugene Latterman is hiding out in my apartment.

Clark Kent is visibly stunned. He stares at Lois Lane for a moment and then, without further hesitation, turns to pick up a nearby telephone.

Lois Lane: What are you doing?

Clark Kent: You are calling the police.

Lois Lane: You swore!

Clark Kent: Lois--

Lois Lane: On the lives of your future grandchildren!

Clark Kent: Lois, you cannot make me swear to something that's illegal. You are harboring a fugitive. A murderer. The man is dangerous. He killed Harrison andh he can kill you.

Lois Lane: He's innocent.

Clark Kent: He was tried and convicted by a jury of his peers.

Lois Lane: Oh, leave the truth and justice stuff to Superman, would you!

Lois and Clark both fold their arms and momentarily turn their backs to each other, clearly on opposite sides of this issue.

Lois Lane: See, I knew I shouldn't have told you. But you're my partner. Right?

Clark Kent: When it's convenient for you, yes.

Lois Lane: [pleading] Come to my apartment. Talk to Eugene. If you still think he's a murderer, then you can call the police. Deal?

Clark Kent shakes his head, indicating that he can't believe it but he's giving in to her. Lois sees she has won this argument and, at least for now, forstalled any action by Clark to notify authorities.

Lois Lane: Yeah.

Lois walks away and we cut to the next scene, showing Clark Kent asking Eugene Latterman questions in Lois Lane's apartment.

Timecode: 13 minutes, 1 second:

Clark Kent: You had an argument the day before he was killed.

Eugene Latterman: That's true, but that doesn't--

Clark Kent: And you admit that you hated him.

Eugene Latterman: It was the way he treated Lena.

Clark Kent: You were having an affair with his wife.

Eugene Latterman: It wasn't an affair. We were in love. But Lena didn't want to . . . consummate until--

Clark Kent: Until you killed him.

Eugene Latterman: No. Until she left him. You didn't know him. Lena would come to work with bruises on her.

Eugene Latterman has her explained that from his perspective, he and Lena Harrison were not having an affair. Whatever the nature of their relationship, which was universally described as an affair by other people during the trial, Eugene and Lena were apparently not having sexual intercourse. This is what Eugene means when he said and Lena didn't "consummate" their relationship. Eugene himself seems like he had been more willing to "consummate" than Lena was. He was clearly very smitten by this woman, who is quite attractive and a very convincing actress who portrayed herself as the victim of a brutal husband. From this scene we learn that Lena had not had sex with Eugene.

Interestingly enough, later when we learn that Lena and her husband were criminals and murderers, Lena makes it clear that martial infidelity is an ethical line she would not want to cross. Ironically, the criminal of the story truly believes in this moral value and would not actually have an affair. Lena's husband feels the same way. Thus, the episode's criminals share a deeply held value with Clark Kent - their belief in marital fidelity. While Lois Lane was far more tolerant of the idea that Eugene Latterman and Lena Harrison had an affair (something she only later learned had not actually happened), because Lois felt that Lena's suffering at the hands of her actual husband justified the affair.

Timecode: 17 minutes, 5 seconds: Lex Luthor is shooting clay pigeons (clay disks used in shooting sports) off the room of penthouse apartment on the 110th floor. Lois Lane and Clark Kent come to visit him as part of their investigation. Clark asks what would happen if Lex Luthor ever missed, and failed to shoot the heavy clay disk before it fell so many stories to the streets below. Couldn't it hurt or kill somebody? Lex Luthor audibly does the math, calculating the velocity of the clay pigeon, its weight, etc., and concludes that, yes, it would certainly kill somebody if he missed and it fell. But, he explains, that's why he never misses. This scene is somewhat humorous in a morbid way, but also demonstrates a number of characteristics of Lex Luthor: He is incredibly intelligent, able to calculate the physics relating to the question. He is extremely confident, feeling he would never miss a shot. But he is also extremely narcisistic. His confidence and entertainment exceed the value of any lives of Metropolis citizens who might be killed if he actually did miss. In one of the last scenes of this episode, we see Lex Luthor once again shooting clay pigeons off of his penthouse roof. He does miss and a pigeon does hit somebody. Rather than being shocked or horrified by his action, Lex Luthor simply tells his assistant, Nigel, to "call the lawyers."

Timecode: 25 minutes, 24 seconds:

Lois Lane: Clark, men and women lie to each other all the time. It's a national pastime. I mean, sometimes it's okay to lie.

Clark Kent: It's never okay.

Lois Lane: So you're saying you will never lie to your wife. That is, assuming someone is crazy enough to actually say "I do" to you.

Clark Kent: That's right.

Lois Lane: All right, here's the scene . . . Your wife has spent the entire day at the beauty parlor. She's died her hair red. Cut it all off just to lpease you, only it looks ghastly. She comes home, you open the door, and she's standing there all hopeful, "Honey, do you like it?" What do you do?

Clark Kent: My wife would know that I loved her just the way she was. Why would she dye her hair red?

Lois Lane: Oh! That is just--

Before Lois Lane can protest too much about Clark Kent essentially dodging the question, Perry White walks between their desks and looks at them, giving them a look that says they should get back to work. They quickly cut off their personal conversation and try to make it clear that they're both on hold on the telephone, trying to work on their story. Perry may also be piecing together this snippet of conversation with other things he has seen going on recently, putting together the pieces in his mind that lead him to realize that Lois and Clark know where Eugene Latterman is. Perry pauses for a few moments in between the desks of Lois and Clark, looking at them, but he finally walks away.

Clark Kent: Okay, I'd tell her the truth. That I loved her, and that I liked her hair better the way it was before, but that if she's happy, then that's the important thing.

Lois Lane: Poor woman.

Clark Kent: Who?

Lois Lane: Your wife. She's married to Mr. Right. Mr. Always Right.

Timecode: 32 minutes, 11 seconds: Clark Kent's mother arrives at his apartment.

Martha Kent: Where's your father?

Clark Kent: Uh, he went to the store. You're here early.

Martha Kent: Is he all right?

Clark Kent: Yeah, he's fine, Mom, but . . . I'm not so sure I am. Dad thinks that you're having an affair with that artist teacher of yours. Is that true?

Martha Kent: Clark, there are things that happen between man and woman, between husband and wife, that you have yet to experience.

Clark Kent: Mom, what are you saying?

Jonathan Kent bursts through the door to the apartment, jubilant that he has found flowers that his wife likes.

Jonathan Kent: Clark, I found the peonies! Your mother always loved--

Now Jonathan sees that his wife is already there in Clark's apartment.

Jonathan Kent: --peonies.

Martha Kent: Are those for me?

Jonathan Kent: There's no one else.

Martha Kent: For me, either, Jonathan.

Jonathan Kent: Is that true, Martha?

Martha Kent: Yes! You're the first man I ever kissed and you'll be the last.

Martha loves her husband deeply, but she seems a little exasperated that she has to explain to him that she is NOT having an affair. Of course she isn't, and she is disappointed that her husband and her son could have doubted this. But she loves them, and she is ready to quickly forgive them for thinking anything like this.

Jonathan Kent: So, no affair?

Martha Kent: Well, unless you call two cups of coffee at Mazzie's an affair.

Jonathan Kent: Oh, Martha, I should never have doubted you. I know you too well.

Martha Kent: Yes. And you should also know, that just because I may qualify for membership with the Gray Panthers, that doesn't mean I'm slowing down. And it doesn't mean that I have to stop growing and experimenting and thinking and making friends with interesting people.

Jonathan Kent: Well, I just hope I can keep up with you, Martha.

Martha Kent: You don't have to. Just understand me like you always have. Just be there for me . . . like I know you always will.

Martha and Jonathan Kent embrace each other tenderly. Then they kiss. Clark, watching all this, is visibly relieved. End of scene.

Timecode: 36 minutes, 32 seconds: The computers in the Daily Planet newsroom all go haywire. A graphic with the logo "Ides of Metropolis" is displayed on all computer monitors, which have been taken over by some outside force. The TV news reports that a computer virus is causing havok throughout the country with all systems that are run by computers, which in this day and age seems to be pretty much everything. This is a national crisis. Jimmy Olsen watches the TV news report, with his boss Perry White standing behind him.

Gloria Campos (TV anchorwoman): Nothing seems to have escaped this deadly virus, with no end in sight.

Jimmy Olsen: Great shades of Elvis.

Perry White: You got that right.

Jimmy here uses the Elvis-based profane utterance that he has heard Perry White say so many times before. We have never seen Jimmy use this expression before. Is he doing so simply as a way of sucking up to his boss, or has he simply heard it so many times that the phrase has been somewhat infectious and has now been uttered without thinking by Jimmy?

Timecode: 38 minutes, 44 seconds: Lois Lane and Detective Reed are breaking into the company owned by Henry Harrison. They are looking for clues. Detective Reed previously had Harrison's body exhumed and examined, and found that it was NOT Harrison. Now Henry Harrison himself, who was supposed to be dead, sneaks up behind them and holds a gun on them.

Henry Harrison: Good evening, Miss Lane, Miss Reed. Permit me to introduce myself. I'm Henry Harrison.

Cut to a few moments later, after Harrison has secured his prisoners and Lena Harrison has arrived on the scene.

Lois Lane: [addressing Lena Harrison] So you were in on it all along?

Lena Harrison: Of course. I believe in marital fidelity.

Lois Lane: What about your loyalty to Eugene? He loved you.

Lena Harrison: Oh, yes, poor Eugene. I thought the legal process would finish him off. Now I'll just have to do it myself.

Lena smiles an evil smile. She intends to kill Eugene Latterman.

Detective Reed wonders why. Lois Lane explains, having figured things out. Lena and Henry Harrison fill in the blanks, willing to divulge details of their plan because they plan to kill Lois Lane and Detective Reed. The Harrison's software company was about to fail financially, but Henry Harrison engineered an amazing computer virus that would wipe out all computer systems throughout the country. He would then sell his own computer system, the only one that would be unaffected by the virus, to everybody and become incredibly wealthy. So all of their mechanations, including murder and framing an innocent man for murder, were for the sake of greed.

Timecode: 45 minutes, 23 seconds:

Clark Kent: Well, go ahead, I'm waiting.

Lois Lane: For what?

Clark Kent: The morality play. The "you should have trusted me and my infallible reporter's instinct" lecture.

Lois Lane: Clark, you don't need me to remind you of your shortcomings. I would've thought by now they'd be obvious. Come on. I'm starving and you're buying.

Lois Lane: And just in case you did miss the moral to the story . . . you should trust what's in people's hearts, not just the facts, ma'am.

Clark Kent: Ah.

Lois Lane: You know, I have a funny feeling that you didn't tell me your biggest secret.

Clark Kent: Well, just to put your mind at east, Lois . . . you're right.

[End of scene. End of episode.]

The process of listing characters who appeared in this source is not yet complete. Webpage for Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman - Season 1, Episode 16 (6 Feb. 1994) created 5 January 2008. Last modified 11 June 2014.

All characters, images, comics and source material © by their respective copyright holders. This page (including original commentary, organization, lists, markup, page layout, etc.) © 2024 by ComicBookReligion.com. All rights reserved. Website built by Database-Genius.com, Database-Design.org. Login...