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Unnecessary costume change in "The Lucky Cat" episode
posted by PT 100STAFFMOD on February 15, 2017 at 5:11 PM
At about eight minutes, Kent goes downstairs to the basement to inspect the floor joist from below, and ends up putting a two-by-four under it to support the floor. But he changes into his Superman costume downstairs, even though he knows there's no one else down there because everyone else is upstairs. So no one ever sees Superman.
Then he changes back into his Kent persona and comes back up the stairs. It was a totally unnecessary double costume change. The only reason I can think of to do that is so it would be more obvious to the kiddie audience that it was Superman, not Kent, who fixed the floor. It still seemed sort of weirdly unnecessary, though.
Reply by thomasguide2
on March 2, 2017 at 9:23 PM
Someone could have come down to the basement, how would he explain him holding up the ceiling?
Reply by PT 100
on March 2, 2017 at 11:08 PM
It took him almost no time to fix the floor, and everyone else was not only upstairs but also far away from the basement door. Even if an Olympic sprinter had run from where the others were, he would not have been able to get even to the basement door before Kent reappeared. And besides, Superman/Kent has x-ray vision and could see everyone upstairs right through the floor. There's no way he could have had a problem being found out.
Originally I thought it might be done that way so that kids wouldn't get confused and would be sure it was Superman using his superpowers. But I guess not, because someone else pointed out to me that there are other episodes where Kent uses his superpowers when no one else is in the room, but doesn't bother to change into Superman to do it. Once he bent a gas pipe in Perry White's office right after everyone else had left the room. It would have been easier to get caught in White's office than down in that remote basement.
Reply by thomasguide2
on March 4, 2017 at 12:07 PM
He did get caught in White's office, ( sort of) White came back to get his hat and saw Clark bending the pipes. White thought he was going crazy so he dismissed it, but Jimmy and Lois came back too but I guess they didn't see the heater was moved. They don't mention it again, even after Perry White finds out at the end of the show that he's not crazy. He should have questioned Clark.
Reply by Sixties Holdout
on March 4, 2017 at 8:25 PM
That floor joist was so flimsy and easily propped up that a man of normal strength could have propped the 2x4 under it and then kicked the bottom end of the 2x4 over to force the joist back into place. I actually did that once when I was repairing a floor. It's not very difficult.
Reply by Moondoggie
on March 4, 2017 at 11:27 PM
I always thought it was weird that Kent, using his super hearing, didn't hear White coming back to his office.
Reply by Sixties Holdout
on March 7, 2017 at 12:37 AM
I think that in both of those episodes the writers simply disregarded obvious superpowers such as x-ray vision and super hearing. Kind of sloppy, but in one of the two episodes it at least made for some suspense.