Plot summary: In an effort to clear the name of a convicted murderer Superman is forced to let the world believe Clark Kent is dead… or reveal his secret!
Notes and Trivia
Episode: 35 (S2.E22)
Original Air Date: November 1st, 1997
Directed: Kenji Hachizaki (3)
Written: Stan Berkowitz (7)
Animation: TMS-Kyokuichi Corporation (15)
Music: Kristopher Carter (8)
Detective Bowman returns from ‘Target‘, which alluded to his corrupt nature, while Lana Lang makes her third appearance after ‘My Girl‘, which confirms she knows his secret, hence assisting with his alibi.
Despite Clark claiming he’d go crazy if he had to be Superman all the time, he appears to have no civilian identity in the future of ‘The Call‘ from Batman Beyond.
The episode name does not appear at the start. Unclear if that was an error or stylistic choice…. but given how easy it would have been to edit in on re-releases it seems like the latter. Maybe they felt it gave away the reveal 60 seconds too early.
Recap
Several Daily Planet employees gather for the funeral… of Clark Kent!!! But Superman is watching on from the distance so what gives?!?
Days earlier Clark was sent to interview Ernest Walker, a death row inmate who is adamant he’s not just innocent but was framed. Clark’s powers lead him to believe Ernest may be telling the truth.
Collecting the case files from Detective Bowman (remember him?), Clark notes nobody attempted to verify Walker’s alibi, so finds himself combing through the delivery logs of a pizza company.
Clark finds the name-clearing evidence, but after bragging about it to Lois over the phone somebody plants a bomb on his car, which explodes and destroys it while he’s en route to the governor’s office.
Making matters worse, a fisherman saw Clark’s car go into the sea and nobody come up, so his testimony leads Detective Bowman to declare Clark dead!
Contemplating that he may need to reveal his secret, Supes flies back to his apartment where Lois is looking for the important evidence. She reveals a bug from the phone, that his computer is missing… and that the fisherman had terrible eyesight!
The surprises don’t stop there as Lois notices another bomb with just enough time for Superman to fly them to safety. In the aftermath they spot Detective Bowman among the bystanders.
Lois later confronts Bowman, accusing him of framing Walker for murder and then killing Clark to cover it up. Bowman attacks her but Superman makes the save.
A brief fracas with a police chopper later and Bowman is arrested. But Walker’s execution has been brought forward, so Superman has to physically intervene to save his life at the last moment.
Clark concocts a cover story to explain where he’s been with an assist from Lana Lang, and Bowman is sent to the gas chamber instead… piecing together that Clark must be Superman in his final moments!
Best Performance
Up to now the only sure-fire way for Tim Daly to win this category is when Bizarro is around so that he’s got 70% of the dialogue. Turns out letting him narrate works too, because this was his absolute best work to date. I don’t know if that’s because he’s just reading the words earnestly directly to the audience versus having to convey it conversationally from one character to another, or if he just gelled with the material better, but the end result is a far superior acting performance. Superman is also a character that doesn’t get to express his innermost whims and desires very often as he has to act as a constant shining beacon of hope. That’s great for a character but tricky for an actor to work with, so Daly getting to play scenes about Clark admitting an error in judgement and wrestling with a dilemma must have been a relief.
Dana Delany brings it too, razzing and grieving Clark all in the same episode. Her bitter scorn towards Lana is pretty great too. I do think they could have taken the grief aspect further (more below), but then she may have stolen it and I do think Daly needs an emphatic win!
Episode Ranking
This is one of the highest reviewed episodes of the series and for good reason. It’s simply far more ambitious than 95% of episodes.
You have to hand it to them, there are few opening premises more compelling than claiming your main character is dead… while we know he isn’t. It’s very ‘The Man Who Killed Batman‘, or honestly a little like ‘Over the Edge‘ where even if you’re sure it’ll all work out, you absolutely have to know how we got here immediately.
It also turns out that detective stories just rule. It’s not an overly complex case, but I appreciate them going through the motions. The pencil-pushing cop, the determined investigator, the hurdles of the pizza place’s record keeping. The fisherman! My word the fisherman! That’s the kind of wrinkle they NEVER include, as it would be inconvenient to his double-identity antics. From there you have Clark wrestling with how to get himself out of this mess, Bowman’s further cover up attempts, Lois in danger and Walker almost being executed regardless of their efforts. Just an extremely tense story.
Clark admitting the foible of wanting a victory for his civilian identity for once, and later wrestling with the notion of revealing his secret may be the most interesting things they’ve done with him this entire series. Good for him! The notion of ‘Parker Luck’ from Spider-Man would almost assuredly affect Clark too, with him having to take a LOT on the chin in order to preserve his secret identity. Missed appointments, bailing on friends etc. Think how many times Clark steps out of a room with an excuse so he can go save the day as Superman and what that would do to his career and personal relationships. But even with all that he feels he needs to live half his life as Clark for his own mental health, so is depressed by the notion of being forced to come clean. It’s all so tragic.
Speaking of tragedy and Clark having to temporarily pretend to be dead, this is yet another instance of them having their cake and eating it too, as he gets to hear Lois’ true (platonic) feelings for him without actually, ya know, dying. I think they could have taken this aspect a tiny bit further, but I guess they did use Lana at the end to make Lois reveal her jealousy, so I’ll let them have it.
I am legitimately stunned they were able to get this episode on television though given the kinds of things networks object to or censor. Seeing two different men get led to the gas chamber, one in a hood. Seeing the gas start to fill that chamber while one of them screams for help. Knowing categorically a man was executed. Even the tiniest hiss at the end when they throw the switch on Bowman. The visible veins in Bowman’s eyes as he stares into camera. It’s just really shocking. There is a visceral power to that kind of imagery, giving things real stakes, but I don’t want to sanction the idea that ‘mature’ automatically means good or anything. This is both mature and good.
I will say there’s no way they could prove Walker’s innocence unless Bowman confessed. They can prove Bowman tried to kill Lois & Clark, but that doesn’t disprove Walker was guilty of murder. I don’t know if they were trying to imply Lois was recording the stairwell confrontation, but I don’t think he actually confessed to anything related to Walker there either.
I was really torn about whether to place the episode first or second. I think ‘Brave New Metropolis’ is a better looking episode, with a genuinely thrilling chase sequence in the middle and a very high concept premise, but this is a far smarter script even with the circumstantial evidence thing. However I would say ‘Brave’ fully made good on its premise while ‘Late’ leaves a some stuff on the table they failed to fully capitalise on. I think I needed an even stronger reaction from Lois to Clark’s death even if she did cry at his funeral and when she saw the framed picture in his apartment. I think the Kents were a little too upbeat given Clark’s dilemma. I think Clark could have reflected even more on his potential sacrifice. But this was by far the most interiority our protagonist has ever expressed, which goes beyond the questions posed by Fascist Superman…. but that episode gave us the first Superman/Lois kiss! Gahhh.
My heart says ‘Brave’, my head says ‘Late’. It may have to come down to which episode would I give a stronger recommendation for people to watch and I think ‘Late’ narrowly wins there because it’s a more self-contained story. Not that ‘Brave’ needs any extra context, but if you were watching it cold you may not get anything out of the remixed status quo. I believe you could show ‘Late’ to anybody as their one and only episode of STAS and they’d enjoy it. Much like my not-at-all-controversial placement of ‘The Laughing Fish‘ as the best episode of BTAS.
- The Late Mr. Kent (NEW ENTRY)
- Brave New Metropolis
- World’s Finest
- Livewire
- Double Dose
- Fun and Games
- Father’s Day
- The Hand of Fate
- The Last Son of Krypton
- Ghost in the Machine
- Stolen Memories
- Action Figures
- The Prometheon
- Tools of the Trade
- The Main Man
- Mxzypixilated
- Blasts from the Past
- Target
- The Way of All Flesh
- Solar Power
- Protoype
- My Girl
- A Little Piece of Home
- Feeding Time
- Speed Demons
- Two’s a Crowd
- Identity Crisis
- Monkey Fun
- Bizarro’s World
Rogues Roundup
Detective Bowman (Eddie Barth) (second appearance)
I’m baffled why they didn’t make Bowman a more frequently occurring character or at least make a bigger deal of him in his previous appearance to really build this up.
This kind of everyday evil is in many ways scarier than the colourful aliens and monsters, as there are real Detective Bowmans everywhere. He doesn’t need to do any of the stuff I’ve praised other villains for, like giving Superman a good fight, having an interesting backstory or being emotionally engaging. Framing an innocent man for murder and then being willing to kill two reporters to cover it up is just evil in its purest form. There’s certainly something uncomfortable about how long his struggle with Lois lasts before he chucks her down the stairs, even though we know Superman is right on the other side of the wall.
I almost wish they didn’t feel the need to have him seize a police gunship and open fire on Superman for the sake of a big sexy action scene… but I guess you do get to see him do his deranged evil face (see above!)
When making the final judgement I’m reminded that this list has never been ‘who is the most evil’ or the cop characters would almost always win. It’s about how engaging they are as characters, and in this way Bowman may be a scumbag but there really isn’t much going on with him as a person. He’s deployed fantastically in the script, but without the circumstances of the story there’s nothing to him. So he can climb, but not tooooo high. He’d fare better if this were his only appearance, but I can’t overlook what a nothing burger he was before.
- Livewire
- Darkseid
- Lex Luthor
- The Joker
- Toyman
- Metallo
- Parasite
- Karkull
- Brainiac
- Mr. Mxyzptlk
- Kalibak
- Harley Quinn
- Lobo
- Luminus
- DeSaad
- Detective Bowman (↑)
- The Preserver
- Bruno Mannheim (and Intergang!)
- Kanto
- Mala & Jax-Ur
- Mercy Graves
- The Prometheon
- Corey Mills
- Earl Garver
- Titano
- Bizarro
- Weather Wizard
The Matt Signal 
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