I can"t believe Superman & Lois has already teased a new fatal eventuality for its hero in season 4, only a few weeks after he was revived in the first place. The Superman & Lois season 4 cast of characters have been through a lot in this season alone, with Clark Kent having arguably experienced the most turmoil during this time. Season 4 opened with Doomsday tearing Superman"s heart out in its first episode, and while his family managed to bring him back, the road forward hasn"t gotten a huge amount easier for him since his return.
After having his heart ripped out in Superman & Lois season 4, episode 1, the Man of Steel wasn"t out for too long, with the series alluding to his return at the very end of episode 3 thanks to the donation of Sam Lane"s replacement heart after his demise. However, the live-action Superman show is already teasing that this transplant could lead to Superman"s second death. With two episodes left until the story ends, I"m fascinated to see how this plotline is handled, and if the hero really is as doomed as Superman & Lois season 4, episode 8 suggests.
Superman & Lois Has Already Set Up The Man Of Steel's Death Again Just Episodes After Reviving Him Close Superman & Lois season 4, episode 8 sees Clark Kent and John Henry Irons discuss Clark"s superhearing, with the Kryptonian explaining that it doesn"t seem to have ever come back to the level they both knew it to have been at before his fight with Doomsday and its aftermath. Steel does some tests on his friend, and discovers that Superman"s cells are deteriorating because of the transplanted heart inside him, with Sam Lane"s older human heart being unable to work in Clark"s body in the same way his own did.
John explains that not only does this mean that Superman"s powers will slowly deteriorate until they"re gone, but also that he may well only have as long as Sam himself would have - or even less time - due to the heart"s state and effect on Clark. Faced with this somber news about his own mortality and impending death, Clark then tells Lois and his children about John"s findings, which sets an especially worrying tone since the episode also sees Lex Luthor get his own supersuit that he"ll presumably use to try and face off against this more vulnerable Superman.
Since it seems another human heart would have similar issues, short of finding Doomsday and stealing his heart - which currently seems a questionable move following the villain being pacified by Lois in episode 5 - I find it hard to see how Clark could manage to evade this particular fate currently. That said, the direction this storyline is taking had been teased since well before this chapter of the show.
Why Superman & Lois' Second Clark Kent Death Story Makes Sense Close Superman & Lois had suggested to us that Clark"s new heart was giving him problems since his return, notably having him collapse while flying alongside Jonathan in episode 4. Since it"s established that Kryptonian hearts are very different to the human version of the organ - even beating three times where a human body would beat twice - it stands to reason there"d be some ramifications when it comes to putting a human heart inside a Kryptonian body, even if said human heart had been imbued with a serum to make it a closer match.
Indeed, underlining the downsides of bringing Clark back with Sam Lane"s heart helps to make the story feel more grounded. Had Superman returned as good as new after having his heart wrenched out of his chest and replaced with a new one, it might be hard to ensure audiences didn"t feel like Clark was basically invulnerable to some degree. While this approach is literally and figuratively heartbreaking, it does ensure we feel like Clark"s return had a real cost, both to Sam Lane and to Superman himself.
On a different note, it increasingly seems that Superman & Lois" endgame story wise is to have Clark"s sons take over for him in the superhero sphere, with season 4 giving Jonathan powers and making Superman"s secret identity public information - so they would naturally anticipate Clark"s sons following in his footsteps, and his prospective impending retirement as a hero would allow him to formally hand his mantle over to his children. With this in mind, setting up that Clark needs to think more directly about the boys replacing him also makes logical sense.
I'm Desperately Hoping Superman Gets A Happy Ending Despite Season 4's Major Death Tease While the Superman & Lois death tease wasn"t exactly promising, I still can"t help but hope for a happy ending for the Man of Steel after all he and his family have been through over the course of the show. Though it"s hard to see how the show could walk back the reveals of this episode, it seems like it will have to balance out this story in a way that ensures the ending of Superman & Lois isn"t a completely grim affair, since the series has overall held a reasonably light tone for the most part throughout its run.
Potentially, this storyline could be used to justify giving Superman a peaceful retirement that he might otherwise have never been able to justify to himself when he knew he could use his powers to help others. With his sons both now having powers and being able to look out for one another - likely with the help of John and Natalie Irons - and Lois now free of cancer, letting Clark enjoy his remaining days in Smallville to their fullest as he talked about doing all those years ago in the show"s first episode would have a pleasant kind of catharsis.
Now that there are two episodes left and a whole heaping assortment of storylines left to tie up, I"m genuinely not sure what to expect from the ending of Superman & Lois. But after watching Clark and his family sacrifice so much to take care of one another and the world around them, I think it"s fair to hope for the best case scenario, even if season 4"s newer revelations raise some ominous question marks about what exactly that might look like.
Superman & Lois season 4 airs new episodes on Monday nights at 8/7c on The CW.

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