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Lois & Clark:
The New Adventures of Superman
Season 4, Episode 3
403-sweartogod
Air date October 6, 1996
Written by John McNamara
Directed by Michael Lange
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As Lois and Clark prepare for their second wedding, they find themselves pitted against the 'Wedding Destroyer'.

Plot[]

As Lois and Clark's wedding approaches, they are beset by anxieties and fears that things may go awry again. Mike, a cheerful old man who both Lois and Clark somehow recognize, appears in various places and different jobs to assuage their fears and encourage them.

Myrtle Beech, dubbed "The Wedding Destroyer" by the press, breaks out of prison using explosive components mailed to her in nail polish bottles by her former therapist, Dr. Voyle Grumman. She plots to ruin Lois and Clark's wedding as revenge for their putting her in jail by exposing her identity. (Like Bad Brain Johnson, Myrtle Beech is introduced as an archenemy of Lois and Clark but never appeared in any previous episode.) Voyle pretends to be her fawning toady, but in actuality he has been manipulating her from the beginning; after Myrtle lost her fiance in a car crash on their wedding day, she saw Dr. Voyle for grief counseling, and he gradually encouraged her to become the Wedding Destroyer, taking sadistic pleasure in observing and recording her emotional pain and the emotional pain she brings to the couples she targets. Tabloid reporter Leo Nunk contacts Myrtle through Voyle, offering to keep her up-to-date on Lois and Clark's wedding plans in exchange for an exclusive interview after the wedding is ruined.

After Myrtle sends them a threatening tape recording, Lois and Clark decide to investigate her past. During their investigation, Clark overhears Nunk and his photographer partner, Lamont, spying on them. He confronts Nunk and Lamont as Superman, accusing them of feeding information to Myrtle. During the heated exchange, Lois steals Nunk's notebook. The notebook mentions Voyle, so Lois and Clark visit him for an interview. Voyle is nervous during the interview, particularly when they ask about Nunk. He becomes convinced that Nunk talked to Lois and Clark about him and Myrtle. Voyle and Myrtle confront Nunk. Though he denies telling Lois and Clark anything, Voyle "accidentally" kills him with Myrtle's tool for ruining the wedding: a wedding ring with a remote-controlled electric shock. Lamont overhears the murder from a hiding spot but cannot see it.

Lois and Clark raid a secret hideout in Voyle's office which Clark spotted with his x-ray vision during the interview, and find his notes on Myrtle. Together with information obtained in an interview with Emily Channing, one of Myrtle's bridesmaids, they piece together the true origin of the Wedding Destroyer: Orphaned at five years old, inheriting a fortune when she turned 18, Myrtle became an incurable romantic whose one wish was to find love, having been denied it in childhood. However, her fiance was in love with Emily, and he was on his way to tell Myrtle the wedding was off when he had his fatal car crash. Voyle found out about this but kept it from her, instead encouraging her to start destroying weddings.

Lamont calls for Superman about Nunk's murder, telling him the whole truth, but he did not see what it was they used to kill him. Meanwhile, Voyle and Myrtle go into hiding. With no leads on where to find them, Lois and Clark decide to hold a fake wedding to lure Myrtle out.

Myrtle has Lois's wedding ring switched with the electric shock one after her mother picks it up from the jewelers. During the fake wedding, Clark puts it on her hand, and Lois is subjected to an electric shock. Myrtle and Voyle show themselves. Myrtle says she is satisfied to see Lois brought down, and if anyone pursues her she will use the remote to kill Lois. Clark intuits that she plans to kill Lois anyway, and is simply hoping to use her to ensure a clean getaway. Clark and Lois tell her the truth about her fiance and how Voyle has been manipulating her. This backfires, making Myrtle hate Lois and Clark more than ever for taking away her happy thoughts of her fiance. She decks Voyle and proposes to kill Lois immediately. However, Clark realizes that Myrtle is not malicious by nature and only ever hurt people because of Voyle's influence; he talks her into handing over the remote. As Myrtle surrenders herself to the police, Mike appears to offer her words of comfort and hope.

An ephemeral summons brings Lois, Clark, their respective parents, Perry, and Jimmy to an island west of Metropolis. Mike is waiting for them to serve as minister for the wedding. All of them recognize Mike as someone who was always there to provide words of encouragement when they needed them. Lois and Clark are married, with customized wedding vows. Afterwards they mysteriously appear back at their apartment, but a wedding photo, marriage license, and a slew of presents and well-wishes prove that the wedding was real.

Cast[]

Main cast[]

Recurring role[]

Guest starring[]

  • Ray Buktenica as Leo Nunk
  • Delta Burke as Myrtle Beech, the Wedding Destroyer
  • David Doyle as Mike, guardian angel
  • Charles Fleischer as Dr. Voyle Grumman
  • Jerry Giles as The Head
  • Leann Hunley as Emily Channing
  • David Lewman as Messenger
  • Billy 'Sly' Williams as Lamont

Trivia[]

In the brief close up of Dr. Voyle Grumman's notes about Myrtle Beech, it can be seen that the notes doubled as a script for actors Dean Cain and Teri Hatcher. Cain and Hatcher's lines are enclosed with quotation marks, and ellipses serve to indicate a change of speaker.

The close up of the note which prompts Lois to visit Voyle's office alone also gives a further glimpse into Voyle's sadism: "But Myrtle may have to learn to cover her tracks. She is now on trial for her last endeavor, and my[sic] very well go to prison, where I will stand by her as her grief counselor for the length of her sentence. I'm sure there is plenty of pain in prison, in need of a sympathetic ear."

Though this episode is Leo Nunk's only appearance, the episode "Dead Lois Walking" contains a darkly humorous reference to him. The issue of The National Inquisitor which appears in the cold open has the corner headline "Nunk Smiles on from the Grave!"

Quotes[]

Myrtle: "In the face of all this adversity, he loves her for her feisty resolve, she loves him for his... quiet strength, the knowing way he draws her into his arms... comforting her... whenever life's endless cruelties become too much for her, and she can't imagine a world without him... but that's exactly the kind of world she's going to be living in. A world where the pain of simply being alive and alone is... almost intolerable."


Lois: "What kind of a man are you, taking that poor grief-stricken woman and turning her into a monster?"
Voyle: "I need her."
Lois: "Why?"
Voyle: "Myrtle is a singularly unique case, grief and rage in perfect union, acting out with spectacular force. You see, I need to feel pain - other people's pain. And she is a lifetime supply, providing of course, that she's handled correctly."


Clark [talking about his wedding to Lois]: "Look, everyone needs to know that this isn't some kind of evil genius/clone/amnesiac fake out, because there would be a riot."

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