This article contains spoilers for the series finale of Superman & Lois
Key Takeaways
- Superman & Lois finale prioritized post-battle emotional aftermath over the actual fight.
- The final battle with Doomsday and Lex Luthor was less climactic than expected.
- Show ended with a tearjerking twist: Lois dying of cancer, Clark left alone and lonely.
When a superhero show or movie like Superman & Lois comes to an end, it tends to use a massive battle to put the finishing touches on things. Yes, there is generally a postscript where the heroes reflect on the battle and talk about what they will do next, but the struggle is almost always the central part of the show. But Superman & Lois has never been the stereotypical superhero series, and the showrunners definitely decided they wanted to walk their own path.
In the process of treading its own path, the Superman & Lois showrunners have made it so that this show will go down in history as one of the best iterations of the Man of Steel but also the people around him. And the way to make it one of the best shows out there is to make sure that was the focus of the finale as well. And that was also what made the series finale so surprising. That the showrunners managed to show the final battle but found a way to make it less important than what happened after.
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Superman & Lois Put Final Battle In The Background
That doesn’t mean there wasn’t any final battle with the bad guys. Things kicked off pretty much the way the audience expected. The series finale of the final Arrowverse program began with Superman doing battle with Doomsday one more time, and it looked like Doomsday was going to win yet again. But then Clark and his family and friends were able to turn the tide and eventually take the monster (who was once a version of Clark) out of the picture once and for all.
Then it was time for the climactic battle with Lex Luthor. But something funny happened on the way to that battle. It wasn’t really all that climactic. Luthor thought he had a leg up on Superman with his new powerful suit, but when the pair went head-to-head, the fight wasn’t nearly as even as the supergenius thought it would be. He was rather quickly dispatched after each man landed a few punches and Luthor was returned to jail. While Superman winning the big showdown wasn’t all that surprising, what was a bit of a shock was that all of that was over and done with half the episode left to go.
Some of the rest of that postscript was similar to what other shows like the ones in Arrowverse would feature. Lana Lang, who spent most of the series either worried that her husband was going to do something dumb, or dealing with aftermath of her divorce because he did indeed do something dumb, finally ended the series with happiness as she married John Steele and they presumably lived happily ever after. But that too wasn’t the biggest part of the series wrapup. And it was the wrapup that allowed Superman & Lois to stand out from the crowd in a very big way.
Tearjerking In A Way That Stands Out
What Superman & Lois did that really allowed the show to stand out is that the happy ending fans would expect didn’t happen. At least not at first. First, the show returned to one of its most gutwrenching and realistic story beats. And in doing so, also allowed plenty of fans to feel an emotional bond with Clark.
A good bit of the story in Superman & Lois Season 3 dealt with Clark and his family trying to help Lois through a battle with breast cancer. There were discussions about how to cope with things like a double mastectomy, as well as planning for if the worst happened. And then, perhaps as a kind of okey-doke, the cancer was beaten, and everyone could relax. That is until the series finale.
In a long monologue that closed out the show and the Arrowverse once and for all, Clark walked everyone through what happened to everyone after the wrapup. As it turns out, Lois got her cancer back and this time it killed her. And that left Clark alone, with his adult children moving out and being on their own.
The loneliness and sadness left Clark finally getting himself a dog and while this was obviously Krypto, the idea of Superman living out his days just sitting out his days on his porch and walking his dog was something that no show has even come close to trying. It was depressing and sad, and yet, somehow the perfect way to end the series. This wasn’t just “and that’s it until the next fight.” Fans got to see the literal end of Superman.
Superman having a human heart was a big part of Season 4.
Because the true end of Superman & Lois was the death of Superman. It was his second death. And his last one. The human heart that his father in law provided to him eventually gave out. And the last scenes of the Arrowverse were Clark’s version of heaven as he saw the people he loved and cared about once again as he rode off into the sunset.
While the show had its hokey moments for sure, it was the perfect ending for a series that stressed the human element to everything. Whether it was how the Kent boys handled stardom or how the family dealt with loss. The showrunners managed to put their own stamp on the Arrowverse with what was arguably the best of the bunch.
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