"The Late Mr. Kent" is the thirty-sixth episode of Superman: The Animated Series. While investigating a murder case, Clark Kent himself becomes the apparent victim of a murder attempt, and cannot reveal that he survived without exposing his secret identity.
Plot
A group of mourners from the Daily Planet attend a memorial at the local cemetery. The funeral is Clark Kent's. Superman watches from nearby and recalls how this strange situation began:
A few days ago, Kent was ordered to interview Ernest Walker, a petty thief convicted of murder, and now scheduled for execution. Walker insisted that he was innocent. He was caught trying to fence the murder victim's necklace, but swore he found it outside his door. Using his super senses, Kent determined that Walker was telling the truth. He went to see Detective Bowman—the detective assigned to the case—and received the case files. Bowman told him there was no question Walker was guilty.
Kent read through the case files, and was about ready to believe Bowman, when he decided to eat some leftover pizza. Upon seeing the pizza, he remembered Walker's alibi: Walker was at home eating pizza. Following up on this, Kent went to the pizza parlor nearest to Walker's home. While the parlor's delivery boy had quit long ago, the manager unearthed a set of disks containing old delivery records. Later that night, Kent called Lois in triumph: he found a record confirming that a pizza was delivered to Walker at almost the exact moment the murder was committed.
Proud of his accomplishment, Kent drove to the governor's mansion in his car. But someone had planted a bomb in his car, which exploded and sent his car careening into the ocean. Though he survived the explosion and the crash, the disk was destroyed and Superman saw a fisherman nearby. He couldn't emerge from the ocean without revealing his secret identity, so he swam away.
Later, Superman retrieved Clark's car for the police, under Bowman's direction. Lois attempted to convince Bowman that Walker was innocent, as only the real killer would try to kill Clark. Bowman dismissed her—"Kent was a reporter, who knows how many enemies he had?" Lois then argued that Clark could still be alive, but Bowman pointed out the eyewitness. However, Lois noticed that the fisherman had to wear glasses to read a clipboard, and went to question him.
That night, Superman went to see his parents, but even they couldn't figure out how to bring Clark back. Superman said he needed to be Clark Kent—if he had to be Superman all the time, he would go crazy. But regardless, he still needed to help Walker.
Back in the present time, Superman finishes narrating, and is somewhat offended to see Lois check her watch and leave the funeral in a hurry.
Superman decides to go to the governor as Clark Kent and explain Walker's innocence, prepared to reveal his secret identity if need be. Superman heads to his apartment to change, and is surprised to find Lois already in the apartment. She explains that she was hoping he'd left some evidence of his investigation behind, but couldn't find anything. They both realize that someone has been through the apartment already: Clark's computer has been taken, and his phone has been bugged.
As they talk, Lois mentions that the eyewitness to Clark's "death" is unreliable: he has extremely poor eyesight, and wasn't even wearing his glasses when the crash occurred. Superman is elated to realize that he can plausibly claim that Clark could have swam to shore without the fisherman noticing, but Lois denies it, claiming that had Clark survived, he would most likely have contacted someone. Lois briefly sheds tears over Clark's apparent death, and admits to Superman that she cared for him.
Lois, looking through Clark's bookshelf, sees a bomb placed inside. Superman flies her out just before it goes off. Superman puts out the fire and, scanning the crowd with his x-ray vision, sees Bowman near his apartment.
At the Metropolis Police Department, Lois confronts Bowman: he was the officer on the Walker case, he happened to be the one closest to Clark's wreck, and near his apartment after the bomb went off. Bowman dismisses her, but Lois holds up the phone tap—standard police issue—and says she will have it checked for fingerprints. Bowman cracks and throws Lois off the stairs. Unfortunately for him, Superman was listening and saves Lois.
Bowman runs to the roof and steals a helicopter. Superman confronts him, but is shot with bullets strong enough to pin him for a few seconds. Bowman then fires a missile at Superman, which hurls him away then explodes, but Superman is unharmed. He captures Bowman and he and Lois go to tell the governor of Walker's innocence: it was Bowman who killed the woman, and framed Walker for the crime. Unfortunately, the governor has gone to watch Walker's execution. Superman rushes to the prison and manages to save him.
Lois reads her story on Walker's exoneration, but takes no satisfaction in her byline; Clark is still gone. Just then, she gets a phone call and bolts up from her desk in shock. At Lana Lang's penthouse, Lois finds Clark alive and well, but with a bandage around his head. He claims that he washed ashore, found a phone and called Lana, but was too weak and disoriented to call anyone else until later. Lois is outraged, but accepts the story.
Some time later, Bowman angrily reads the story of his own scheduled execution, written by Clark. While he sits in the gas chamber, he wonders how Clark survived the car bomb. He suddenly realizes that Clark is Superman. However, as soon as this realization comes, the lever is pulled.
Continuity
- Bowman's corruption was foreshadowed in the episode "Target".
- Clark calls on Lana to help him since she is one of the few people besides his parents who know his secret identity, as revealed in "My Girl".
- Interestingly, Superman tells his parents that he needs to be Clark Kent and he'd go crazy if had to be Superman all the time. However, in Batman Beyond, "The Call", Superman has apparently abandoned his "Clark Kent" persona, as Clark Kent, supposedly a normal human, would have passed away by then.
Background Information
Production Inconsistencies
- When Clark calls Lois to tell her has the evidence to clear Walker, the his shirt, tie, and pants change from yellow, black, and green to Clark's usual white, red, and blue.
- When Jimmy and Lois hold up the Daily Planet, the lead is "Superman saves condemned man". In the next shot, the "con" is missing.
- Both Walker and Bowman are sentenced to execution by gas chamber. Most states in the U.S. abandoned lethal gas as a method of execution in the early-mid 1990's, before this episode was produced. Furthermore, Metropolis is located on the eastern seaboard of the U.S. (the same as Gotham City), and only two states on the eastern seaboard have used the gas chamber (see also Justice League Unlimited, "Task Force X"):
- Maryland discontinued the gas chamber in 1994, but allows prisoners sentenced to death before March 25, 1994 to choose that method of execution; assuming Metropolis was located in Maryland, Walker might qualify, but not Bowman;
- North Carolina formerly used the gas chamber, but now uses injection only.
- Walker was on death row for five years before his execution, but Bowman's seems to be scheduled within months, or even weeks, of his arrest. Typically, there is a delay of several years between conviction and sentence being carried out, while the condemned person is allowed to appeal his or her sentence to the higher courts.
Trivia
- This is one of the only two episodes that is narrated by Superman in flashback. The other is "Absolute Power".
Cast
| Actor | Role |
|---|---|
| Tim Daly | Superman/Clark Kent |
| Dana Delany | Lois Lane |
| David Kaufman | Jimmy Olsen |
| Joely Fisher | Lana Lang |
| Eddie Barth | Detective Kurt Bowman |
| Paul Colbert | Ernest Walker |
| Peter Renaday | Clerk Priest (uncredited) |
| Gregg Berger | Manager |
| Shelley Fabares | Martha Kent |
| Mike Farrell | Jonathan Kent |
Uncredited Appearances
Quotes
Superman's narration: Luck. That's what it all boils down to, doesn't it? The smallest break one way or the other. It can save a life or destroy one. And you can't fight it, no matter how strong you are. |
Superman's narration: Dinner was hard to pass up. I hadn't eaten all day... not that I needed to. |
Superman's narration: I suppose I could have flown to the Governor and given him the disk, but that could have raised some awkward questions. Maybe there was some ego involved too. I wanted this to be Clark's victory, not Superman's. |
Lois: Who else but the real killer would have done this? He was probably afraid Kent was getting too close! |
(On the phone) |
Martha Kent: Well, this is a fine mess. |
Lois: I always teased him. But I had so much respect. (shedding tears) And I liked him too, I really did. I wish I'd told him. |
Lois: (answering her phone) Lane here... what? |
Lois: I don't believe it! You've been sitting here in the lap of luxury while I'm out risking my neck! |
Detective Bowman: How did he survive that car bomb? How? (look of shock) He's Superman! |
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