Warning: SPOILERS for the Superman & Lois episode “When the Lights Come On” are ahead!
A few days ago, I wrote about my desire to see Clark Kent and Lex Luthor actually fight each other before Superman & Lois finished, because so far this season, rather than just have the latter have Doomsday (who’s no longer in the picture) and his minions carry out his dirty work against the former. Well, my wish came true way sooner than I expected! “When the Lights Come On” just finished airing on the 2024 TV schedule, and Tyler Hoechlin and Michael Cudlitz’s characters exchanged blows in a pretty brutal brawl thanks to the implementation of.an even playing field. In the process, events unfolded that paved the way for Inde Navarrette’s Sarah Cortez to exit the series.
Clark And Luthor Duked It Out In Downtown Smallville
Because Luthor wouldn’t give up exacting revenge on Lois Lane, his daughter Elizabeth, played by Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. alum Elizabeth Henstridge, told him to stay out of his life forever, as she wouldn’t expose her soon-to-arrive son to that kind of hatred. Well, as we see at the beginning of “When the Lights Come On,” Luthor takes losing Elizabeth yet again very hard, as evidenced by him getting violent on his hotel room and burn his picture of Elizabeth as the girl and all the documents he’d assembled to track her down. But by the time Amanda McCoy showed back up, he regained his cool and gave her new instructions, including passing along schematics for an unknown device for a scientist under his employ named Milton to construct asap.
Lex Luthor’s efforts to establish LexCorp’s new headquarters in Smallville (again, all part of his efforts to harass Lois) have been impeded by red tape thanks to Mayor Lana Lang, and this episode, it seemed like he’d finally overcome that by offering resident Aidy Manning $5 million for her land. However, she changed her mind partly because of Lana and Clark’s persuasive words, with the latter’s especially impacting her since, like many other Smallville residents, she’s learned that Clark is Superman. Luthor countered by offering $10 million not just to Aidy, but everyone else in the bar where she was supposed to sign the paperwork, but the other Smallville residents convinced her not to buckle, as they knew whatever Luthor is up to won’t be good for the community.
Upset by Lana Lang’s interference, Luthor disabled the security system in her home and sent his henchman Otis Grisham to turn on the gas in her home and kill her. When Lana woke up because of the smell and turned off the stove, Otis tried to carry out the deed with his own two hands, and it was only thanks to Sarah walking him over the head with a baseball bat that he was stopped. Clark was understandably enraged at how close his friend came to dying, so he called Luthor out in the middle of downtown Smallville to get him to back down once and for all.
However, Luthor had a trick up his sleeve: he had Milton outfit all the street lamps in the area to emit red sun energy, thus sapping Clark Kent of all his superhuman abilities. So the two ended up fighting mano a mano outside in the pouring rain, with both men bloodied before too long. Fortunately, Clark emerged the victor and demanded Luthor leave Smallville and never come back. Luthor complied, but upon returning to Metropolis, Amanda McCoy (who decided to throw her full support behind him) informed him he was going about his approach to neutralizing Superman all wrong, and that he needed to get a “killer suit.” Oh yeah, we’re getting Superman & Lois’ version of Luthor’s trademark warsuit, y’all!
Sarah’s Leaving Smallville To Study Abroad
If you’ve been following along with Superman & Lois since the beginning (and for those who need any refreshers, the first three seasons can be streamed with a Max subscription), you know that Sarah Cortez has been through a lot, from nearly dying by suicide prior to the events of the series to being charged with a DUI in Season 3. Lately, aside from special events like her dad’s almost-wedding to Chrissy Beppo, Sarah’s life primarily consists of working at the diner and sleeping. She’s been craving freedom and a fresh start, and while she can't fly to anywhere she wants like Jonathan and Jordan, in “When the Lights Come On,” she told her mom that she wanted to travel abroad for her junior year of high school.
Initially Lana was skeptical that this was the right move for her daughter, but after the incident with Otis, she decided that Sarah should study abroad, not just to keep her away from Lex Luthor’s machinations, but because she deserved a chance to see the world. When Sarah met up with Jordan and Jonathan the next morning, she told them she planned to either go to Santiago, Chile or Greece for junior year, and the boys, feeling a bit mischievous, decided to help her decide by flying her out to the Greek Islands.
It’s left ambiguous whether we’ll see Sarah again before Superman & Lois is over, but considering Inde Navarrette previously said that she’d only appear in three Season 4 episodes, then that would make “When the Lights Come On” the last of the trio. Hopefully this doesn’t end up being the case, as I’d like to see Sarah get to say goodbye to Erik Valdez’s Kyle Cushing before she leaves to study abroad. But if “When the Lights Come On” is indeed the last we’ll see of Sarah, at least we know she’s off to do great things.
There are just four episodes left of Superman & Lois to go, so remember to tune into them Mondays at 8 pm ET on The CW, and then visit CinemaBlend for our thoughts on the latest developments. You can also pass the time by looking over the upcoming DC TV shows and upcoming DC movies.
