SPOILER WARNING: This article contains major spoilers for "Loyal Subjekts," the latest episode of Superman & Lois.
Kyle Cushing is in a world of trouble, and he's just beginning to realize it. In "Loyal Subjekts," the latest episode of Superman & Lois, he began to realize something was wrong when he blacked out and woke up in the middle of a field with no recollection of how he got there. As he will soon discover, his decision to join Morgan Edge's special project has landed him in dire straits. After undergoing Edge's X-Kryptonite procedure, he has just opened the door for a Kryptonian entity to possess him, which means he may no longer be in control of his own actions.
Speaking to CBR, Superman & Lois star Erik Valdez broke down what this twist means for Kyle moving forward. He delved into Kyle's motivations to help his community and the good intentions he has under his gruff exterior. He promised the show will explore more of Kyle's backstory, even though the journey may be a bit of a "slow burn." He also explained his different approach for Kryptonian Kyle, teased how this will impact Kyle's relationship with Lois Lane and more.
CBR: If you had to introduce Kyle Cushing to your friends, what would you tell them about him?
Erik Valdez: Well, there'd probably be a pretty conversation without Kyle there that went something like, "Alright, guys. Look, this guy comes off a little rough. You might not quite grasp who he is. Don't judge him by [the] first interaction. He's a really good guy with a really big heart with really good intentions. That said, the conversations may be a little awkward right off the bat, so let me go grab him for you." That would be the pre-conversation.
The conversation with him sitting there, and all these people there, it'd be like, "Hey, guys, this is my buddy Kyle here. He's a good guy, cares a lot about his town. I just wanted to bring him out and say hey to you guys," and Kyle might be like, "How's it going?" That may be the start of it all. Then, you know, he blossoms slowly, as you can see, so that would be kind of how I think it would play out.
What is one aspect of Kyle's character you relate to the most and why?
You know, I do! I'm very different than Kyle on so many levels. I'm a lot more outgoing. I'm a pretty positive person. I think Kyle is not necessarily negative, but he just has a different outlook on life. But where we kind of relate is in our upbringing, in a lot of ways. I was born and raised in Texas and I grew up predominantly in El Paso, Texas. I was born in Lubbock, Texas, but I spent a lot of my life with my grandparents, through visits, etc. We were very close with them. So holidays, whatnot, I'm out on a farm outside of Lubbock, Texas.
So where my dad grew up and went to school and everything was a town called Abernathy, Texas. Abernathy, Texas' population [is] probably 1500 to 2000 people. So it's even smaller than Smallville, right? So I grew up around a lot of these people, and even though I don't share a lot of the same ideas and ideals as middle American and small town America on certain levels, I understand them. I understand Kyle, because a lot of these folks have just never ventured anywhere in the outside world.
When you're in your own kind of little bubble, the only thing that really matters is those people you care about and your loved ones and your friends. So for Kyle and me, that is 100% accurate. I have a lot of acquaintances in this world; I have very few friends, and then I have my family. At the end of the day, I will be friendly to anybody and everybody, but like Kyle, you cross anybody that I love, and there's gonna be hell to pay.
I think a lot of that comes through being raised in a small town world with very little money and just having to fend for yourself and rely on those that they're around you and building up this sense of community trust with your small group of people. So I think that's where he and I relate the most.
Kyle, obviously, has a few personal demons. Will we see the show explore that further at any point? Have the writers filled you on a bit more of his backstory that we haven't seen on screen yet?
That is a great question. Unfortunately, I'm going to have to be pretty vague about everything, but short answer is yeah, there have been conversations about why Kyle is who Kyle is and what all happened to shape him. We will definitely explore some of that. I don't know specifically when or how. I can't really say much about it.
Again, everything with Kyle is kind of a slow burn, and then there's pivotal moments that happen here and there. I think that's going to continue to be the trend moving forward. The slow burn may be accelerated a little bit; you may start to open up a little bit more of these layers of Kyle, but he's a hard nut to crack.
I think if you go about it too quickly, just from, say, a writer's perspective or a television perspective, just to get to a certain point quicker because it's convenient, I don't think that would be doing the story of Kyle justice. So I personally am in no rush to completely peel apart these layers of Kyle. I like the idea of letting him open up a little bit at a time and letting people get a glimpse into who he is, because that's true to who the character is in his real life.
We've seen bits and pieces of this on the series so far, but I'd love to hear this in your own words: why do you think Kyle is so driven towards Morgan Edge?
So Kyle's motivating factor is, if he sees an opportunity to take care of the people that he loves -- in this case, his family and his town, because the people in Smallville mean everything to him -- if he sees an opportunity to do something good for somebody else, that is a big motivating factor for Kyle. Again, there's the rough facade and the bravado and the rough edges, etc, but at the end of the day, he genuinely wants what's best for for people. If he sees an opportunity that he thinks it's going to benefit everybody else, genuinely, he's going to do everything he can to go after it.
So in this regard, again, Kyle, playing into the not having left this small town bubble, there's a bit of a naive side of Kyle, too. I don't know where you're from, where you were brought up, etc., but I still go back to Texas quite a bit, because it's where a lot of my family is and my friends. If you go outside of Dallas, say, where we go a lot because my wife's family is from there, too, out to the country, it's a completely different world, right? If you dangle a shiny penny in front of someone who's never seen a shiny penny, they're going to be intrigued. In this case, you've got this shiny penny named Morgan Edge, who is coming in, and it really piques Kyle's curiosity, because it's like, "Oh, whoa, this guy, he's worth how much money?!" and Kyle's probably never seen more than five figures in his entire life.
So you've got this guy that comes in there, and he's promising the world and you've got a town that you're the fire chief of, which is a pretty big position -- you're a small town celebrity in that regard; you're the local superhero, so to speak -- and you get an opportunity now to bring this guy in and bring jobs to those who can't put food on their table, etc., that's what really got him going from the get go. Then we see, even in Adam [Rayner]'s portrayal of Morgan Edge, which is phenomenal, you got these crystal blue eyes that look at you, and then this little smile and this charm and this British accent that sounds really fancy to a country boy. All of that is like, "Oh, this guy is legit."
Kyle is the kind of person that if he sees something, he invests 100% of himself into it, for better or worse. I think that's been what has drawn him in and made this his big focal point, because in -- you know, we're starting to see some little bits of doubt here and there, but up until this point, this has been the answer for Kyle's people. So he was extremely proud of that, and not knowing that this is where it was going, he fully thought he was doing what was best for everybody that he cares about.
How will the events of tonight's episode change that?
So leading into this episode, and what's happening here, Kyle has seen a little bit of a tonal shift in his town, because there are jobs and people are working and stuff. So in that regard, he's successful in what he's set out to do, but you're starting to see some doubts. Even though he doesn't really get along with Lois, he respects her and Kyle is a not of dumb guy; he's just very stubborn. So there's little bits of Lois constantly saying, "Hey, he's not who you think he is. He's not who you think he is." And then, Lana is starting to have these little moments of doubt, because she's working for the guy and whatnot.
I think it's at this transitional point where Kyle is starting to see that he might not be the guy that Kyle thought he really was. Kyle, being the stubborn person that he is, is also not really quick to admit defeat or to admit that he was wrong. So the stubbornness plays into that. While there's a little bit of a shift in starting to question things, he's not quite ready to let go of everything, because he's one of those that will hold on to the horse until it bucks him off type of thing. I think that's where we're at right now.
It's my understanding that the X-Kryptonite exposure changes the subject's personalities, in the sense they're possessed by a Kryptonian. How did that impact the way you approached Suped-Up Kyle?
So, to me, it's two different characters. You have the host, which is Kyle, in his physical form, and that's about it. Once he's possessed, once this turn happens and he's activated, so to speak, there isn't any Kyle that's really in there. So anything that he does, says, reacts to, etc, is a completely different character, and that's how I approached it.
There's some subtleties early on, that may or may not even really come across and I purposely played it as subtle as possible, because you don't want to give away the big reveal too early, but even from the moment where Emily, you see her shift in the auditorium when her daughter is performing and gets up and leaves and that's super awkward, in that moment where she leaves and Kyle and Lana and Sarah are left standing there. In a normal situation, Kyle would probably be like, "Wow, that's really strange. We should go check on her in a minute." Maybe after Avery is done singing, because he's probably -- the daughters have grown up together; he likes Avery, too. That little moment where there's really not a lot of hesitation in him saying, "Let me go check on her." That's one little subtlety of a little bit of Kyle meeting this possessed version of himself, and that's about it.
There's that little movement of the two characters merging. Then, from that point, when he goes to the farm, to the barn, at that point, he's not really Kyle at all anymore. The way that Morgan Edge has had these subjects get activated and everything, they're still -- until the point where they need to carry out the mission, whether it be to kill another individual or whatever for Morgan Edge, they don't sound different, they don't act different, right until they need to, even though they are nowhere near related to their host.
So even though you still hear Kyle and Kyle's voice at the beginning of that, it'd be like, "You know, I just came from auditorium. What's going on?" and then, "Oh, you're pretty good with that thing!" Up until that moment, it sounds and looks like Kyle, but it's already not him. It's completely gone. So from a portrayal standpoint, long winded answer, it's an opportunity to play a completely different character. That's how I approached it and what makes it really exciting to me too, for this episode and where we go from here.
Now that he's gotten a taste of Edge's real plans, how freaked out is he, on a level of one to "call Superman"?
Calling Superman is still probably a last resort, because it would mean Kyle admitting defeat and showing weakness and he's too stubborn to do that right this second. But you see a bit of that scene, when he comes back and he's all roughed up, and he legitimately has no idea what happened, by the way, when he's saying, "Look, I was in a field. My ribs are killing me." He has no idea that Superman took him out!
Again, someone like Kyle, who is in a position of power as the fire chief, he's a bit of a brute-ish kind of guy and a little bit of an alpha male in that regard. He's terrified! But he does not want to outwardly show it, and that's almost what makes it more interesting to me, because he's not one to really let go of power or control.
He's a small town fire chief; to him, it's a big deal. When he's in this situation where he can't control it, even though situations like fires are dangerous and whatnot, he's able to get the better of them; he's able to control it. He's now in a situation where he really doesn't know what's going on. He knows something's not right, but he has no idea how to approach it. I think that is where Kyle gets really scared, and the vulnerability will start to start to show a little bit. He doesn't know what to do, really.
Lois' dynamic with Kyle is very tied into their push-and-pull over Edge and his agenda for Smallville. Since he's seen Edge's true colors, how does that change the way he sees her? How will he feel about Lana's involvement with Lois' case?
Yeah, it's definitely gonna bring up some tough conversations between the characters and a little bit of Kyle having to eat crow, so to speak. There's gonna come a point where it's inevitable; he's got to realize that, okay, maybe I wasn't 100% right about this the entire time, and my biggest opposer Lois Lane has been saying the exact opposite of what I've been saying and, oh, there might be some truth to that. So there'll be some uncomfortableness between the two of them.
But, again, I think ultimately the respect and whatnot wins out. That still ties into Kyle's thing. He's not a jerk for jerk's sake. If he's wrong, he'll admit he's wrong begrudgingly, and it might take him a minute, but he's not just gonna try to find an excuse and skate around that interaction, that inevitable conversation, so to speak. It may not play out as rapidly as we might think, or how we might think, even. I think that's a good way of answering it without giving too much away.
What is one moment or scene you just cannot wait for fans to see?
[laughs] Okay, in the vaguest way possible, Episode 10 in its entirety.
Superman & Lois stars Tyler Hoechlin, Elizabeth Tulloch, Dylan Walsh, Alex Garfin, Jordan Elsass, Emmanuelle Chriqui, Inde Navarrette and Wolé Parks. The series airs Tuesdays at 9 p.m. ET/PT on The CW.