I could probably watch Superman & Lois forever, but it’s hard not to see the early cancellation of The CW’s final DC show as a blessing in disguise. It’s rare enough for a superhero saga on TV or film to get any sort of ending, let alone a happy one – like their comic-book inspirations, these things are meant to run in perpetuity. But Superman & Lois is an exception, and by pitting the Man of Steel against his own mortality – in a manner that fans of Kurt Busiek and Stuart Immonen’s comic Superman: Secret Identity might recognize – its fourth and final season provided the best and most moving conclusion a series about Superman could hope to find.
The season began on the back foot, with changes behind the scenes whittling a once robust ensemble down to the core Kent family members: Clark (Tyler Hoechlin), Lois Lane (Elizabeth Tulloch), and their teenage sons Jordan (Alex Garfin) and Johnathan (Michael Bishop). There’s some awkwardness in how the final 10 episodes navigate a suddenly underpopulated Smallville, but the heart of Superman & Lois – its tale of family and community –stays firmly in place. Meanwhile, the story zeroes in on the most human elements of the iconic hero, who Hoechlin continues to embody with the utmost thoughtfulness.
And that hero dies very early in the season. It isn’t a spoiler to say this; season 3 ended with Lex Luthor (Michael Cudlitz) unleashing Doomsday, a character whose only function in the comics and movies is to kill Superman. And besides, death’s door seldom remains closed for superheroes. The initial episodes of season 4 wrestle with how to bring back Superman, their dramatic tension stemming not from whether he’ll return – that’s practically a given – but rather, what sacrifices must be made in order to resurrect him. There aren’t a lot of surprises in what the other characters are willing to give up, but the “how” and “why” behind each turn packs an emotional punch – made all the more charming by the show leaning into its limited resources. (The climactic fight scenes, for example, feel akin to Power Rangers and other Tokusatsu.)
There’s no turning back from some of these choices, whose impacts are deppened by the deft and timely use of flashbacks to fill in the margins of every subplot. As the season proceeds, it feels like every nook and cranny of the characters’ pasts has been examined, including those concerning “Superman’s Pal” at the Daily Planet, Jimmy Olsen (played with wide-eyed enthusiasm by The Alienist‘s Douglas Smith). Smith makes for a brief but pitch-perfect addition to the cast during a story arc about Superman pushing people away to preserve his double life. That such a major figure in the Superman mythos can only stop by for a short while is heartbreaking; this is a version of Clark who can’t truly be pals with Olsen, or with anyone for that matter, because his secrets have primarily been about protecting his family.
Luthor’s presence threatens these secrets too, as the famous baddie essentially moves to Smallville in order to harass the Kents. It’s a curious version of the iconic villain, molded more after a gruff biker than a ruthless CEO (even though he’s still technically the latter). Cudlitz approaches the character with a sinister sense of calculation, until he eventually takes on a more familiar, comic-inspired appearance. Luthor has traditionally been obsessed with Superman, but this iteration of the evil industrialist is just as fixated on Lois, since it was her reporting that put him in prison – and separated him from his daughter – for 17 years. Parenthood is a central driving force in the series, a theme that circles back around to Clark’s decision to hide his true nature for the sake of Jordan and Jonathan – the latter of whom finally exhibits superpowers this season.
The brothers continue to have a gentle, lovable dynamic with bits of expected teenage friction. (Bishop, who replaced Jordan Elsass last season, fits his role like a glove.) But as always, they’re contending with Superman’s rogues gallery as well as the trials of coming of age. The teenagers’ lives are also complicated by some new minor characters – fellow Smallville residents who recognize a unique dimension to the Kents’ grief over Superman and suss out their connection to the hero. Here as elsewhere in season 4, every major plot point is tied to questions of family and community.
When I reviewed season 3, I predicted that it might be the best Superman & Lois would ever be, given the looming cast departures. I fear I was mistaken. The writers make impressive use of supporting characters like Mayor Lana Lang (Emmanuelle Chriqui), her ex-husband Kyle Cortez (Erik Valdez), their teenage daughter Sarah (Inde Navarrette), and Superman’s allies John Henry (Wolé Parks) and Natalie (Tayler Buck), wrapping up their personal arcs while entwining them with a larger plot that challenges some long-held certainties about who Superman is and how he operates.
There’s the question of how effective his morality truly is when his enemies exploit his refusal to kill or maim them. But more importantly, season 4 prods at what (or whom) Superman’s secret identity is really protecting. While widening the emotional net on a topic previously explored in a run of comics from 2020 and at the end of The CW’s Supergirl, Superman & Lois grounds this dilemma in Clark’s friends and neighbors. It becomes clear that essentially lying to the people around him might be doing more harm than good.
Adding flavor to this story is the decision to treat Superman’s “disguise” – i.e. the removal or addition of his glasses – as something magical without bothering to explain it. Not seeing the difference between Clark and Superman becomes something rooted in belief rather than logic. It’s a beautiful approach to something so simple and ludicrous, and it paves the path for a wonderfully meaningful moment where Clark agonizes over whether to keep wearing his spectacles.
Superman & Lois’ spotlight was never as evenly split as its title implies, though Lois is at least allowed to wrestle with some of the mistakes that led Luthor to her family’s doorstep in season 4. With the focus on Superman for this last hurrah, we’re able to really see his humanity as he’s slowly stripped of his powers in astonishing (and meaningful) ways. The final scenes are among the most moving any superhero adaptation or modern TV series has to offer (we’re talking a This Is Us-like tearjerker here), because of how astoundingly the purity and decency at the heart of Superman have been captured. “It Went By So Fast” is the title of the series finale, but it’s also a central theme that Superman & Lois always kept in mind: the idea that life flashes by, even for the Man of Tomorrow, forcing him, and all of us, to make the best of it.
