I needed to step away from my tv after this episode. I took a hot shower, drank a little, came back to it, and I was still dumbfounded. This is the DC media we should be getting across the board! This is a prime example of how amazing these characters are, especially when they're used correctly. Maybe it's because of the sour taste Flash S9 left in my mouth, but I was not expecting to be as shocked as I was with this episode. No spoilers, but I absolutely love the unconventional ending to this episode. It's something I think previous DC shows like Arrow and Batwoman did very well, and this just took that to 11. The plot twists, the dark themes, and that sick heavy metal biker style Lex Luthor is so creative. I am in love. See you next season!
Superman & Lois (TV Series)
What Kills You Only Makes You Stronger (2023)
User Reviews
Review this title9 Reviews
CGI was better than in the Flash movie
terrylarosa28 June 2023
I'm not kidding. Still boggles my mind how spectacular the CGI is. The family dynamics have been spectacular this season and I've rarely cared for so many people in one show. Sad to know some may possibly not be coming back next season. I was getting worried toward the end of the episode that there wouldn't be a battle but thankfully proven wrong. And what a magnificent fight it was as well as being surprised who he fought. Best cliffhanger I've seen in a while and it's going to be a long wait to see the outcome. It's also great to have a worthy Lex since Rosenbaum played him in Smallville.; movies included. The show is still firing on all cylinders and is only surpassed by The Boys as the best superhero show still around. I know many preferred the bumbling antics of Reeve as Clark but Tyler plays an all around perfect Clark as hero, friend, husband and father. Superlative season.
It really kicks things up a notch to end on a true cliffhanger.
fredschaefer-406-62320428 June 2023
Warning: Spoilers
SUPERMAN AND LOIS has been a really good take on the Man of Steel, and Lois Lane, for that matter. It leans hard into what has made those characters so durable for so long, while taking them in a direction we haven't seen on the screen or TV before: a married couple and parents of twin teenage boys. After three seasons, the show has achieved a nice balance between the main two title characters and their boys, Jordan and Jonathan (Michael Bishop stepping in nicely for Jordan Elsass as Jonathan this season), the former having developed super powers like his father. Having the series set in Smallville, and not Metropolis, has been a big plus too. And with the DCEU going down in flames and being scrapped by Warner Brothers, this show has been the best place for die-hard fans of Big Blue to get their fix. Though a Greg Berlanti show, and being on the CW, it has somehow avoided some of the excesses of the Arrowverse, like overly convoluted plot and repetitious turns and clunky box checking diversity casting.
The third season is usually when a show hits its stride, and when the writers really bring out the dramatic heavy artillery. That was certainly true for SUPERMAN AND LOIS, and this year the dramatic Big Bang was Lois battling cancer. As a rule, I am not a fan of cancer storylines. I don't find them particularly entertaining, and often feel like they are a cheap way to heighten the drama and raise the stakes. But I am not some snowflake who says "my sorrow is not your entertainment." I have the choice to change the channel. And I will admit that they handled Lois's cancer battle very realistically, and I read more than a few comments online praising the show for doing so.
There was a lot more going on beside the cancer plot line, including a battle with Chad Coleman's Bruno Mannheim, and Jordan's growing desire to show off his powers, resulting in rash behavior that threatened to reveal his secret identity, and blow the Kents' cover. This was one weakness of the 3rd season's writing because it often made Jordan act like a real jerk, another cheap plot device to up the drama. And speaking of secret identities, at the rate the show was going, all of Smallville was going to learn the Kent family secret, after Lana and Kyle Cushing, their daughter Sarah, and Chrissy Beppo learn the truth.
This season really got kicked up a notch in the final two episodes with the long-awaited release from prison of Michael Cudlitz's Lex Luthor. There have been a lot of takes on Superman's #1 nemesis-Gene Hackman's being my favorite-and I really liked what they did with the character here. It's more than past time for us to get a mean and nasty Luthor, and Cudlitz really brought it, giving the series a real element of danger. The season finale, "What Kills You Only Makes You Stronger," spent way too much time on the secondary stories of the supporting cast. It's nice that Chrissy is pregnant by Kyle, and that John Henry Irons and Lana are hooking up while the former gets a job offer by General Lane, but does anyone really care that much? What saves the episode is the final quarter where we are treated to an epic battle between Superman and the former Bizarro Big Blue now transformed by Luthor into Doomsday. It was the kind of throwdown the DCEU wishes it could pull off, not for the special effects, but for the dramatic investment. Watching Tyler Hoechlin getting battered to within an inch of his life is really what raising the stakes is all about. I kept expecting Jordan to jump in and join the fight, but they ended it all on the perfect cliffhanger.
Which brings us to Season 4, which will be the last. We already know that only the 4 principles will be returning, along with Cudlitz, thanks to the maddening penny pinching over at David Zaslov's Warner Brothers. Part of me wants to say why bother if you're going to gut the show and only give us ten episodes to wrap things up. But being such a fan of the show, I'll take it. It's going to be a few years until James Gunn's SUPERMAN LEGACY gets to the big screen, and this series will have to hold the fans until then.
The third season is usually when a show hits its stride, and when the writers really bring out the dramatic heavy artillery. That was certainly true for SUPERMAN AND LOIS, and this year the dramatic Big Bang was Lois battling cancer. As a rule, I am not a fan of cancer storylines. I don't find them particularly entertaining, and often feel like they are a cheap way to heighten the drama and raise the stakes. But I am not some snowflake who says "my sorrow is not your entertainment." I have the choice to change the channel. And I will admit that they handled Lois's cancer battle very realistically, and I read more than a few comments online praising the show for doing so.
There was a lot more going on beside the cancer plot line, including a battle with Chad Coleman's Bruno Mannheim, and Jordan's growing desire to show off his powers, resulting in rash behavior that threatened to reveal his secret identity, and blow the Kents' cover. This was one weakness of the 3rd season's writing because it often made Jordan act like a real jerk, another cheap plot device to up the drama. And speaking of secret identities, at the rate the show was going, all of Smallville was going to learn the Kent family secret, after Lana and Kyle Cushing, their daughter Sarah, and Chrissy Beppo learn the truth.
This season really got kicked up a notch in the final two episodes with the long-awaited release from prison of Michael Cudlitz's Lex Luthor. There have been a lot of takes on Superman's #1 nemesis-Gene Hackman's being my favorite-and I really liked what they did with the character here. It's more than past time for us to get a mean and nasty Luthor, and Cudlitz really brought it, giving the series a real element of danger. The season finale, "What Kills You Only Makes You Stronger," spent way too much time on the secondary stories of the supporting cast. It's nice that Chrissy is pregnant by Kyle, and that John Henry Irons and Lana are hooking up while the former gets a job offer by General Lane, but does anyone really care that much? What saves the episode is the final quarter where we are treated to an epic battle between Superman and the former Bizarro Big Blue now transformed by Luthor into Doomsday. It was the kind of throwdown the DCEU wishes it could pull off, not for the special effects, but for the dramatic investment. Watching Tyler Hoechlin getting battered to within an inch of his life is really what raising the stakes is all about. I kept expecting Jordan to jump in and join the fight, but they ended it all on the perfect cliffhanger.
Which brings us to Season 4, which will be the last. We already know that only the 4 principles will be returning, along with Cudlitz, thanks to the maddening penny pinching over at David Zaslov's Warner Brothers. Part of me wants to say why bother if you're going to gut the show and only give us ten episodes to wrap things up. But being such a fan of the show, I'll take it. It's going to be a few years until James Gunn's SUPERMAN LEGACY gets to the big screen, and this series will have to hold the fans until then.
S&L proves its greatness once again
siggy0330 June 2023
Warning: Spoilers
It's hard to believe this show is made by the CW right ? It actually respects its viewers, and this episode proved it once again.
This show achieves everything other CW show has failed at, mixing superhero and family drama. The Flash tried that, and failed. Arrow also tried and also failed. But what's the difference between S&L and the other two ? The side characters are actually interesting.
I see a lot of people on IMDb complaining about the fact there is too much family drama. Just a reminder, this show is called "Superman AND Lois", so of course Lois is gonna be a main character.
Lois having cancer was the biggest part of the season, and they handled it perfectly. They made us feel worried the whole season. And again, they achieved what Arrow failed at, with Felicity not being able to walk again in season 4 (as much as I love this show, I'd rather forget about the snoozefest season 4 was). It could also be compared to Iris time sickness in The Flash season 7 and 8. But unlike Barry, Clark actually cares about Lois.
FINALLY, we are done with Jordan and Sarah. I've been praising this show but this was honestly the only thing that annoyed me. It reminds that this is a CW show. Also, can we stop with the focus on Jordan ? I know he is supposed to be Superboy but he has been acting like a whiny and spoiled kid since the beginning.
Jonathan's new actor is surprisingly better than the previous one. I was skeptical at first but he won me, I'll admit.
Now let's talk about the biggest part of the episode: Luthor, Clark and Bizarro.
Firstly, Tyler Hoechlin proved he is the best Superman we might have seen EVER. Don't get me wrong, I love Cavil's take on Superman, but he is better as an injustice Superman. Hoechlin managed to encapsulates everything that makes the character.
Then the actor who plays Luthor is great. Even if he doesn't feel much like a Lex Luthor, he is still menacing and smart enough.
Spoiler alert: Bizarro is Doomsday here, and I see what the writers have done here. Remember in season 2 when we all thought Bizarro was Doomsday, they literally did it now ! Doomsday CGI's is AMAZING. The fact that this show's CGI manages to be better than any recent blockbuster is mindblowing. He looks menacing enough and maybe even better than the one we've had in BvS (but this movie was a snoozefest so it's maybe why). The transformation from Bizarro to Doomsday is amazing, and I found myself feeling surprisingly worried for him, since he had a redemption arc in season 2. It is also surprisingly violent and bloody for this show, and I hope they keep it that way in season 4. The fight between Clark and Doomsday might be the best fight we've had in the whole show.
The cliffhanger made me mad, but in the best way and I'm glad it was renewed for a fourth season. Now, let's be honest I'm scared. I know the CW has an habit of messing up their fourth season in one way or another, so I don't out as much trust in them as I should.
10/10.
This show achieves everything other CW show has failed at, mixing superhero and family drama. The Flash tried that, and failed. Arrow also tried and also failed. But what's the difference between S&L and the other two ? The side characters are actually interesting.
I see a lot of people on IMDb complaining about the fact there is too much family drama. Just a reminder, this show is called "Superman AND Lois", so of course Lois is gonna be a main character.
Lois having cancer was the biggest part of the season, and they handled it perfectly. They made us feel worried the whole season. And again, they achieved what Arrow failed at, with Felicity not being able to walk again in season 4 (as much as I love this show, I'd rather forget about the snoozefest season 4 was). It could also be compared to Iris time sickness in The Flash season 7 and 8. But unlike Barry, Clark actually cares about Lois.
FINALLY, we are done with Jordan and Sarah. I've been praising this show but this was honestly the only thing that annoyed me. It reminds that this is a CW show. Also, can we stop with the focus on Jordan ? I know he is supposed to be Superboy but he has been acting like a whiny and spoiled kid since the beginning.
Jonathan's new actor is surprisingly better than the previous one. I was skeptical at first but he won me, I'll admit.
Now let's talk about the biggest part of the episode: Luthor, Clark and Bizarro.
Firstly, Tyler Hoechlin proved he is the best Superman we might have seen EVER. Don't get me wrong, I love Cavil's take on Superman, but he is better as an injustice Superman. Hoechlin managed to encapsulates everything that makes the character.
Then the actor who plays Luthor is great. Even if he doesn't feel much like a Lex Luthor, he is still menacing and smart enough.
Spoiler alert: Bizarro is Doomsday here, and I see what the writers have done here. Remember in season 2 when we all thought Bizarro was Doomsday, they literally did it now ! Doomsday CGI's is AMAZING. The fact that this show's CGI manages to be better than any recent blockbuster is mindblowing. He looks menacing enough and maybe even better than the one we've had in BvS (but this movie was a snoozefest so it's maybe why). The transformation from Bizarro to Doomsday is amazing, and I found myself feeling surprisingly worried for him, since he had a redemption arc in season 2. It is also surprisingly violent and bloody for this show, and I hope they keep it that way in season 4. The fight between Clark and Doomsday might be the best fight we've had in the whole show.
The cliffhanger made me mad, but in the best way and I'm glad it was renewed for a fourth season. Now, let's be honest I'm scared. I know the CW has an habit of messing up their fourth season in one way or another, so I don't out as much trust in them as I should.
10/10.
Better than the second season
lakings9729 October 2023
Superman & Lois: Season Three on CW continues where season two left off with Smallville trying to rebuild after another catastrophe. This season Michael Bishop replaces Jordan Elsass who played Jonathan Kent. The storyline drew deeper into the Kent family as Lois Lane is diagnosed with breast cancer. Lois transfers to Mannheim's cancer center to try to get the story behind the man to put an end crime ring. Mannheim's wife had superpowers and was in cancer care but when her husband uses Superman's blood to try to cure his wife only to cause her to lose her life. In the meantime, the Kent boys are growing up to be their own man, Jonathan joins the young fireman's group while Jordan is slowly learning his superpowers and the public notices there is a second blur. At the tail end of the series we learn Lois had put Lex Luther behind bars and is about to get released for wrongful accusations. Lex who is played by Michael Cudlitz finds meta verse Superman only to turn him into a monster super villain and the season ends on a cliffhanger battle on the moon. The follow up season will be different with more than seven regulars being axed from the series. Being a superhero fan I would highly recommend this series.
Really Good but that Ending Kinda Ruined it For Me [8/10]
panagiotis199329 June 2023
Warning: Spoilers
Live Reaction / Review for Superman and Lois Season 3 Episode 13 ''What Kills You Only Makes You Stronger'' (S3. E13): I hope this episode is good. Episode 12 was good and I gave it a rating of 7.5/10. Kyle is about to become a father... again. Ok, I didn't expect that. John and Lana soon will be a thing. I hope we will have Lex in this episode. Sam's girlfriend works for the enemy? Damn and I was happy about him. Bizarro looks and acts like an animal, its creepy in a good way. Also he gets stronger every time he dies? That's an interesting concept. Damn it also gets uglier every time, looking like the hulk or something.
Finally Clark wears his suit but the episode is almost over, nothing has changed I guess. So far I like this Lex Luthor but im not like a crazy fan. I wonder how Lex was able to control Bizarro? I guess torturing him so much made him easier to control. Finally a fight! Bizarro reminds me of DCEU Doomsday, im sure they had Doomsday in mind when they did this design. The CGI is pretty good for a tv show, I have to admit, better than the Flash movie. They went to the moon? Wait it ends like that? With a huge cliffhanger, why!? Anyway overall a good episode and I like the fight. My rating is 8/10.
Finally Clark wears his suit but the episode is almost over, nothing has changed I guess. So far I like this Lex Luthor but im not like a crazy fan. I wonder how Lex was able to control Bizarro? I guess torturing him so much made him easier to control. Finally a fight! Bizarro reminds me of DCEU Doomsday, im sure they had Doomsday in mind when they did this design. The CGI is pretty good for a tv show, I have to admit, better than the Flash movie. They went to the moon? Wait it ends like that? With a huge cliffhanger, why!? Anyway overall a good episode and I like the fight. My rating is 8/10.
The low rating is because of the lack of common sense
hawkinsuhc10 July 2023
Warning: Spoilers
Bizarro attacked Otis and Lex Luthor in the previous episode. Mind you, Manheim supposedly gave Superman and the DOD all the information as to what he had done and where all of the supposed things, Bizarro included, were in order to save his son. How could Superman and the DOD not go and look for the body? They knew a collapse or cave in would not destroy him! As a result, Lex Luthor was able to get his hands on Bizarro! A Superman with the mentality, more or less, of Jordan! That's just so stupid. Also, I don't understand why Clark/Superman hasn't taken Jordan to the Fortress and simply stripped him of his powers! He's an immature, petulant child running around with powers and has no idea of the responsibility having them entails. The writing is just somewhat ridiculous regarding the season. Also, although it happened a couple of episodes before this one, eventually the entire town of Smallville will know Clark Kent's secret identity!
Juggling
lor_10 July 2023
Warning: Spoilers
The fans love this latest version of the Superman saga, with its lengthy cast list and disparate story lines, but the sum total of juggling all this content for a weekly installment is less than the sum of its parts. We get larger-than-life superhero action, loads of soap opera, a strong dose of sadistic violence for vicarious thrills, and impressive special effects. It's meant as family entertainment aimed at lots of demographics but the changes of tone, separated by handy commercial breaks, are ridiculous.
It takes half the running time before the main story takes hold: arch-villain Lex Luthor torturing a Superman-styled guy vividly as he plays a Heavy Metal music cassette, maiming and torturing as per the title to toughen up his monster creation (providing gore for the audience to revel in), followed by an inconclusive battle royale of huge monster vs. Wily Superman for all of Smallville to marvel at while they're assembled to watch a meteor shower.
Key human interest story has a pregnancy announcement cuing a public proposal of marriage by the dad to be before the assembled Smallville populace, and other developments for the extended blended family of characters. The soggy dramatics are cornball, punctuated by a very brief sex scene (sex with an ex, suitable for tv).
It takes half the running time before the main story takes hold: arch-villain Lex Luthor torturing a Superman-styled guy vividly as he plays a Heavy Metal music cassette, maiming and torturing as per the title to toughen up his monster creation (providing gore for the audience to revel in), followed by an inconclusive battle royale of huge monster vs. Wily Superman for all of Smallville to marvel at while they're assembled to watch a meteor shower.
Key human interest story has a pregnancy announcement cuing a public proposal of marriage by the dad to be before the assembled Smallville populace, and other developments for the extended blended family of characters. The soggy dramatics are cornball, punctuated by a very brief sex scene (sex with an ex, suitable for tv).
A Rushed, Overstuffed, Confused Mess that Doesn't Really Feel Like a Finale.
demigodshmurda28 June 2023
Warning: Spoilers
I've been a defender of this season because of how things started. It really seemed like this season wasn't about putting Superman up against him umpteenth bad guy, but was rather about him dealing with a villain he can't fight; Cancer. And now here we are however many weeks later with me having been forced to eat my own words several times over.
What, you thought we were gonna try to take Superman in a new direction by making him powerless in a new way? Yeah, nah. Here's a new actor playing Lex Luthor and a big CGI fight with Doomsday! What, you thought we were gonna give Lois an arc about reclaiming her womanhood after going through a traumatic battle with cancer and being forced to do a double mastectomy? Yeah, nah. Here's an adaptation of Onomatopoeia that we're gonna completely waste by not taking advantage of her coolest power! What, you thought we were gonna do anything interesting at all? Yeah, nah. Jordan and Sarah are just gonna piss and moan at each other the entire back half of the season and undo all the work we did to make them a good couple in season 1 (and it seemed like they were just finishing the job season 2 started by the way).
Not only is anything actually interesting completely disregarded in these last two episodes, but I honestly don't think that's on purpose. I think they were planning for a 15 episode season, then got told they were only doing 13 episodes late into production, weren't allowed to use Lex Luthor until it was too late in the season to rewrite course, and had to scramble together three episodes worth of story into one ungodly fast and long finale! Really, the only thing that's the fault of anybody that works on this season is the cliffhanger. No, it's not as clever as when the Flash did it at the end of season 1 since Doomsday can breathe in space as you just showed THIRTY SECONDS AGO! A better cliffhanger would've honestly been fully committing to the Death of Superman thing you clearly wanted to do, at least in the short term, before finding some new way to resurrect him halfway through the next season. Sure, we all know there's gonna be another season, but this would've been a great way to adapt Reign of the Supermen like you've been wanting to do since season 1!
This really does feel like there's three episodes crammed into this one finale for one reason or another. I mean, when you have a literal monthlong timeskip right at the beginning of the finale, there's pretty clearly a lot of story that had to be shelved in order to get this episode out on time. Lois overcomes her trauma off-screen, Kyle and Chrissy suddenly have a baby on the way, Not Lex is just back having no repercussions for killing a guy on Main Street, we don't see any buildup in Sam and Gretchen's relationship (long con or not, we should've seen more of them getting to know each other), Bizarro becoming Doomsday happens in a single minute and a half montage without a single explanation to how he can't die anymore or wants to fight Superman now (after the two of them seemingly made amends in season 2), and Clark does literally nothing until the third act when he can finally suit up and fight Doomsday! The pacing of this episode is all over the place and nothing leaves the audience guessing. And honestly, I can trace most of that back to my major complaint about these last two episodes...
I hate this show's Lex Luthor. Nothing against Michael Cudlitz, I'm sure he's a great actor, and he has a really threatening Lex Luthor voice. But every single thing this show has Lex do just feels so... Beneath him. His main rivalry isn't even really with Superman, it's with Lois. Sure, him wanting to force Lois into retirement seems very much like how he should act; almost dipping into Reverse Flash levels of pettiness. But the thing that makes Lex *Lex* is his inferiority complex! His rivalry with and hatred of Superman is a cornerstone of his character, and it's completely missing from this version of the character! Partially because we only get the character for two episodes, but we only see one scene of Clark and Lex alone together, and the conversation isn't even about their rivalry! I really don't understand how you screw up a Lex this bad! He's a very simple character to write, but that doesn't mean he can't be entertaining!
Another thing that irks me about this Lex is that he doesn't have the master-planner element of the character. Lex Luthor has backup plans for his backup plans, and knows the ins and outs of every way to stop Superman. He researches different ways to stop the Man of Steel, knows how his powers work, etc etc. Heck, the first thing we see Supergirl's Lex do on-screen is turn the sun red! How did Supergirl get this aspect of Lex more right than Superman and Lois!
The montage of Lex killing Bizarro over and over to turn him into Doomsday not only comes out of nowhere, but seems like it was plucked from a Lex Luthor spotlight episode. I mean, there was a monthlong timeskip. Maybe that month Lex spent creating Doomsday was supposed to be a whole episode about him planning the best way to either 1. Kill Superman, or 2. Turn the world against him. And either would've been more interesting than what actually ends up happening. Sorry show, it doesn't matter how incredible that big CGI fight was, or how amazing Doomsday's CGI model looks (I actually *love* how detailed his model is, and emblazoning the backwards S into his chest and making him asymmetrical and oddly proportioned were really nice touches). When there's no buildup to it, I'm not gonna be invested!
And again, this Lex just wants to get Superman out of the way so he can kill Lois. Fundamentally, Not Lex in season 1's first half (and even the second half tbh) is a more comic-accurate Lex than this Lex is. So what am I supposed to call him? I already call John Irons "Not Lex" out of spite for the show not letting him be the character he was clearly supposed to be, so what do I call this loser?
Oh, and another thing. How come Doomsday can't die? How come he gets resurrected over and over again? This is *never* explained in the show! And the way Lex discovers it too is just so contrived too. There's just a random yellow sun gun there, completely undamaged by fallen rubble, to "kill" Bizarro with because that certainly makes a lot of sense for Bruno Mannheim to have! Bruno Mannheim who definitely doesn't know how Superman's powers work as well as Lex Luthor should!
And why does Bizarro just fall in line with Lex so quickly? I think the events we're presented with in the episode are shown out of order. I think we're supposed to see Lex killing Bizarro a bunch of times, then asking him for permission to keep doing so. That Lex spotlight episode I think we were supposed to get? I think it was this Lex telling the Kal-El from another world his story, interspliced with him killing him over and over; torturing him into servitude. But because the season got chopped by a couple episodes, we're stuck with a Bizarro that gives in too quickly (and makeup artists that forgot to give him all his scars from season 2 the day they filmed this scene), and a Lex with no history and no rivalry with Superman!
But even if they were to have introduced Lex earlier in the season, they still would've had the same problem as Supergirl season 4 did. I really liked their portrayal of Lex (not to mention Jon Cryer's performance), but his introduction just completely upended the "Alien Politics" storyline that I thought was really good! And in Superman and Lois season 3, Lex shows up to upend the "Lois Lane Overcomes Cancer" storyline that I thought was really good! How did two separate CW Superman shows make the same mistake with the same villain! How did they make the same mistake twice!
Look, that's all I've got. I gave this season a fair shake, and I mostly enjoyed it, but this season reeks of wasted potential. And a lot of that honestly stems from them being so desperate to introduce a Lex that's not played by Jon Cryer so that they can officially confirm the Arrowverse split. The season rushes past all of Lois's post-cancer development, never takes advantage of Onomatopoeia's voice mimic superpower, never goes all in on making Bruno Mannheim the main villain, never deals with the fallout of Not Lex's identity being revealed to the world when he used his hammer to kill a guy on Main Street (unless we're all just gonna forget about the "New Man of Steel" that was on the news in last season's "30 Days and 30 Nights"), and never even tries to make a version of Lex that's worthy of taking Jon Cryer's Lex's place.
But you know what? I'll take a rushed, overstuffed, confused mess that doesn't really feel like a finale over Eric Wallace flipping the bird to every Flash viewer any day of the week! This finale sucked, but at least it wasn't a giant, unapologetic middle finger to an entire fanbase of people like "A New World Part 4: Finale" was!
4 / 10.
What, you thought we were gonna try to take Superman in a new direction by making him powerless in a new way? Yeah, nah. Here's a new actor playing Lex Luthor and a big CGI fight with Doomsday! What, you thought we were gonna give Lois an arc about reclaiming her womanhood after going through a traumatic battle with cancer and being forced to do a double mastectomy? Yeah, nah. Here's an adaptation of Onomatopoeia that we're gonna completely waste by not taking advantage of her coolest power! What, you thought we were gonna do anything interesting at all? Yeah, nah. Jordan and Sarah are just gonna piss and moan at each other the entire back half of the season and undo all the work we did to make them a good couple in season 1 (and it seemed like they were just finishing the job season 2 started by the way).
Not only is anything actually interesting completely disregarded in these last two episodes, but I honestly don't think that's on purpose. I think they were planning for a 15 episode season, then got told they were only doing 13 episodes late into production, weren't allowed to use Lex Luthor until it was too late in the season to rewrite course, and had to scramble together three episodes worth of story into one ungodly fast and long finale! Really, the only thing that's the fault of anybody that works on this season is the cliffhanger. No, it's not as clever as when the Flash did it at the end of season 1 since Doomsday can breathe in space as you just showed THIRTY SECONDS AGO! A better cliffhanger would've honestly been fully committing to the Death of Superman thing you clearly wanted to do, at least in the short term, before finding some new way to resurrect him halfway through the next season. Sure, we all know there's gonna be another season, but this would've been a great way to adapt Reign of the Supermen like you've been wanting to do since season 1!
This really does feel like there's three episodes crammed into this one finale for one reason or another. I mean, when you have a literal monthlong timeskip right at the beginning of the finale, there's pretty clearly a lot of story that had to be shelved in order to get this episode out on time. Lois overcomes her trauma off-screen, Kyle and Chrissy suddenly have a baby on the way, Not Lex is just back having no repercussions for killing a guy on Main Street, we don't see any buildup in Sam and Gretchen's relationship (long con or not, we should've seen more of them getting to know each other), Bizarro becoming Doomsday happens in a single minute and a half montage without a single explanation to how he can't die anymore or wants to fight Superman now (after the two of them seemingly made amends in season 2), and Clark does literally nothing until the third act when he can finally suit up and fight Doomsday! The pacing of this episode is all over the place and nothing leaves the audience guessing. And honestly, I can trace most of that back to my major complaint about these last two episodes...
I hate this show's Lex Luthor. Nothing against Michael Cudlitz, I'm sure he's a great actor, and he has a really threatening Lex Luthor voice. But every single thing this show has Lex do just feels so... Beneath him. His main rivalry isn't even really with Superman, it's with Lois. Sure, him wanting to force Lois into retirement seems very much like how he should act; almost dipping into Reverse Flash levels of pettiness. But the thing that makes Lex *Lex* is his inferiority complex! His rivalry with and hatred of Superman is a cornerstone of his character, and it's completely missing from this version of the character! Partially because we only get the character for two episodes, but we only see one scene of Clark and Lex alone together, and the conversation isn't even about their rivalry! I really don't understand how you screw up a Lex this bad! He's a very simple character to write, but that doesn't mean he can't be entertaining!
Another thing that irks me about this Lex is that he doesn't have the master-planner element of the character. Lex Luthor has backup plans for his backup plans, and knows the ins and outs of every way to stop Superman. He researches different ways to stop the Man of Steel, knows how his powers work, etc etc. Heck, the first thing we see Supergirl's Lex do on-screen is turn the sun red! How did Supergirl get this aspect of Lex more right than Superman and Lois!
The montage of Lex killing Bizarro over and over to turn him into Doomsday not only comes out of nowhere, but seems like it was plucked from a Lex Luthor spotlight episode. I mean, there was a monthlong timeskip. Maybe that month Lex spent creating Doomsday was supposed to be a whole episode about him planning the best way to either 1. Kill Superman, or 2. Turn the world against him. And either would've been more interesting than what actually ends up happening. Sorry show, it doesn't matter how incredible that big CGI fight was, or how amazing Doomsday's CGI model looks (I actually *love* how detailed his model is, and emblazoning the backwards S into his chest and making him asymmetrical and oddly proportioned were really nice touches). When there's no buildup to it, I'm not gonna be invested!
And again, this Lex just wants to get Superman out of the way so he can kill Lois. Fundamentally, Not Lex in season 1's first half (and even the second half tbh) is a more comic-accurate Lex than this Lex is. So what am I supposed to call him? I already call John Irons "Not Lex" out of spite for the show not letting him be the character he was clearly supposed to be, so what do I call this loser?
Oh, and another thing. How come Doomsday can't die? How come he gets resurrected over and over again? This is *never* explained in the show! And the way Lex discovers it too is just so contrived too. There's just a random yellow sun gun there, completely undamaged by fallen rubble, to "kill" Bizarro with because that certainly makes a lot of sense for Bruno Mannheim to have! Bruno Mannheim who definitely doesn't know how Superman's powers work as well as Lex Luthor should!
And why does Bizarro just fall in line with Lex so quickly? I think the events we're presented with in the episode are shown out of order. I think we're supposed to see Lex killing Bizarro a bunch of times, then asking him for permission to keep doing so. That Lex spotlight episode I think we were supposed to get? I think it was this Lex telling the Kal-El from another world his story, interspliced with him killing him over and over; torturing him into servitude. But because the season got chopped by a couple episodes, we're stuck with a Bizarro that gives in too quickly (and makeup artists that forgot to give him all his scars from season 2 the day they filmed this scene), and a Lex with no history and no rivalry with Superman!
But even if they were to have introduced Lex earlier in the season, they still would've had the same problem as Supergirl season 4 did. I really liked their portrayal of Lex (not to mention Jon Cryer's performance), but his introduction just completely upended the "Alien Politics" storyline that I thought was really good! And in Superman and Lois season 3, Lex shows up to upend the "Lois Lane Overcomes Cancer" storyline that I thought was really good! How did two separate CW Superman shows make the same mistake with the same villain! How did they make the same mistake twice!
Look, that's all I've got. I gave this season a fair shake, and I mostly enjoyed it, but this season reeks of wasted potential. And a lot of that honestly stems from them being so desperate to introduce a Lex that's not played by Jon Cryer so that they can officially confirm the Arrowverse split. The season rushes past all of Lois's post-cancer development, never takes advantage of Onomatopoeia's voice mimic superpower, never goes all in on making Bruno Mannheim the main villain, never deals with the fallout of Not Lex's identity being revealed to the world when he used his hammer to kill a guy on Main Street (unless we're all just gonna forget about the "New Man of Steel" that was on the news in last season's "30 Days and 30 Nights"), and never even tries to make a version of Lex that's worthy of taking Jon Cryer's Lex's place.
But you know what? I'll take a rushed, overstuffed, confused mess that doesn't really feel like a finale over Eric Wallace flipping the bird to every Flash viewer any day of the week! This finale sucked, but at least it wasn't a giant, unapologetic middle finger to an entire fanbase of people like "A New World Part 4: Finale" was!
4 / 10.
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