Superman & Lois season 1, episode 9 recycled a scrapped idea from Smallville season 4. Episode 9 of the Arrowverse series, titled “Loyal Subjekts,” saw Superman (Tyler Hoechlin) and Jordan (Alex Garfin) become infected by a Kryptonite disease. It occurred as a result of Clark getting sprayed with a Kryptonite gas in a previous episode.
The disease hit Jordan a lot harder than it did Clark. Sometime after contracting it from his father, he began experiencing symptoms while getting ready to help Sarah (Inde Navarrette) with her musical audition. Suddenly, Jordan found himself sneezing uncontrollably and freezing anything that came in contact with his icy breath. Apparently, the disease inadvertently triggered another of Jordan’s latent Kryptonian abilities, the arctic breath (also known as freezing or ice breath). As the sickness worsened, Superman had to take Jordan to the Fortress of Solitude to get a solution from Jor-El. To fix the issue, they used heat rays to restore his body to its normal temperature.
Jordan’s arctic breath manifesting in this way is actually an idea that almost made it into Smallville season 4. Each of the show’s first three seasons featured an episode where Clark picked up a new power, and the intention was for season 4 to continue that trend. It was stated in an official companion book to the show that at some point in the development stage, an episode titled “Cold” was in the works. The plot would have involved Clark catching a cold and accidentally freezing objects whenever he sneezed. However, “Cold” ultimately didn’t fit into writers’ plan for the season and it was subsequently dropped.
Later on, Smallville reworked the concept by replacing the ice breath with his super breath in the season 6 episode, “Sneeze”. The big difference here is that instead of freezing things with his sneezes, the extreme gusts of winds produced by his lungs blasted them backwards with tremendous force. After going through some shenanigans caused by his super breath, Clark finally got a grasp on this new power and learned to use it at will. As for the freezing breath, Smallville didn’t actually use it until season 9, where it was revealed that he had learned it off-screen at an unspecified time.
Part of the fun of watching Smallville‘s Clark grow into Superman was watching him acquire his powers individually season by season, so it was a bit disappointing when it inexplicably skipped the ice breath. With that in mind, it’s good that Superman & Lois isn’t repeating that with Clark’s teenage son. Instead, it made proper use of Smallville’s original arctic breath plan (but with a twist). What remains to be seen though, is if this experience has made it possible for Jordan to use it whenever. If so, he could have a new tool in his arsenal that’s sure to be helpful in his own battles.
