Warning: Spoilers for Superman & Lois season 2, episode 4.
An incarnation of DC’s Parasite – Ally Allston – appears to be the main villain for Lois Lane’s story in Superman & Lois season 2. Played by Rya Kihlstedt, Ally is a mysterious cult leader with deep connections to both Lois’ family and her work as a Daily Planet reporter. Only four season 2 episodes have been released, and Ally’s presence in Smallville has already created some serious problems for Lois (Bitsie Tulloch) in the show.
Clearly, Bizarro is far from the only villain that the main characters have to be concerned with in Superman & Lois season 2. There’s also the matter of Ally Allston, who poses a big threat to Lois’ career and the life of her sister, Lucy Lane (Jenna Dewan). Since Ally played a direct role in Lucy’s previous suicide attempt, Lois has been determined to save her sister and put a stop to Ally’s brainwashing practices. But so far, Lois has had no luck in breaking Ally’s hold on Lucy or preventing Ally from further complicating her life. After Superman & Lois season 2, episode 4, titled “The Inverse Method”, Ally now has damaging information on Lois that could potentially ruin her journalistic reputation for good.
During the episode, Lois Lane angrily referred to Ally as a “parasite” who feeds on the weak-minded. This insult was actually a reference to Ally’s DC Comics counterpart. In the comic books, Alexandra Allston was one of several incarnations of a Superman villain called Parasite. Parasite (who was adapted twice in Supergirl) is a purple-skinned metahuman who can draw energy from super-powered opponents and use it to fight characters as powerful as Superman. In the early 2000s, DC created two new versions of Parasite, whose names were Alexander and Alexandra Allston. The two were a pair of teenage twins who received their energy-draining powers from an experiment.
Superman & Lois’ Ally is an adaptation of Alexandra Allston, though how the two of them are connected is currently unclear. As things stand, Ally doesn’t seem to have any powers and bears very little resemblance to the comic book character. Ally receiving powers is a scenario that could theoretically happen, but that may not be the trajectory of her character in the Arrowverse. Instead, it’s possible that what Superman & Lois wanted was a character who would fit into a Lois Lane story. In the comics, the goal of the Allston twins was to get revenge on those who wronged them, and that does appear to describe Ally’s motivations for going after Lois in the Arrowverse series. And as Lois’ aforementioned comment suggested, Arrowverse’s Ally is a “parasite” in an entirely different way from the comics.
It makes perfect sense for Superman & Lois season 2 to give Lois a non-powered, human villain. After all, the show has always been about Clark and Lois, so it’s fitting that each of the two leads has a separate story, complete with their own antagonist. When Superman is busy saving the world from Bizarro, Lois can be dealing with more grounded threats like Ally and her villainous cult.
Superman & Lois returns with new episodes February 22 on The CW.