Warning: SPOILERS for the Superman & Lois episode “A Perfectly Good Wedding” are ahead!
Tyler Hoechlin’s Clark Kent was killed off in the Superman & Lois Season 4 premiere, but anyone familiar with the original Death of Superman storyline, or really any superhero story, could logically surmise this wouldn’t stay permanent. Sure enough, the end of last week’s episode saw Clark being brought back to life after receiving the recently deceased Sam Lane’s heart that had been injected with Bruno Mannheim’s serum, which contained the Man of Steel’s blood. Now three weeks into Season 4’s run on the 2024 TV schedule, Superman has reunited with his family and he’s back to his normal self… well, almost.
A good chunk of “A Perfectly Good Wedding” followed Kyle Cushing and Chrissy Beppo preparing for their impending nuptials. (To make a long story short, Kyle and Chrissy decided not to go through with the wedding, but they remain together, and the former managed to win over the latter’s disapproving mother.) In the midst of that story, Clark discovered his body isn’t at 100% after coming back from the dead. As if that wasn’t enough, despite not appearing in this episode, Lex Luthor continued to make things difficult for the Kent family in at least one major way, if not several.
Superman’s Powers Have Diminished
When Sam Lane’s heart was put into Clark Kent’s body, the Lara AI said she had concerns about how his body would handle the heart even if he returned to life. Sure enough, over the course of “A Perfectly Good Wedding,” we see that Clark’s powers have diminished, as evidenced by the scar on his chest not healing after this week, him taking a tumble while he and the newly-empowered Jonathan were flying through the Arctic, and him feeling the effects of alcohol, to name a few examples. While it’s possible that these effects are just temporary, Clark and Lois speculated that he may have to get used to them being permanent.
To be clear, Superman is still a force to be reckoned with, as evidenced by when he rescued Jonathan from one of Lex Luthor’s minions (more on that in a moment). But now we have to consider the possibility that for the remainder of Superman & Lois Season 4, Clark won’t be nearly as powerful as he was those first three seasons. The one consolation is that now both his sons have the same powers, so they can pick up the slack on that front. That said, Jonathan accepted the Superboy mantle in this episode while Jordan takes some time away from superhero exploits to figure things out.
Lex Luthor Continues To Make The Kent Family’s Lives Difficult
“A Perfectly Good Wedding” was the first episode of Season 4 where Michael Cudlitz’s Lex Luthor didn’t appear, but his presence was certainly felt. After weeks of keeping an ear out, Jordan was finally able to pinpoint the location of Gretchen, the woman who tricked Sam Lane and kept him captive on Lex Luthor’s orders. Not feeling comfortable going out into the field, Jordan had Jonathan take Lois to Gretchen, whose real name is Cheryl Kimble. Although Cheryl was saddened to hear that Sam was dead, she refused to help Lois put Luthor behind bars, as she’s known him for 30 years and is well aware of what can happen to someone who betrays him.
Unfortunately for Cheryl, the mere act of walking out into the world when Luthor had instructed her to lay low was enough to piss him off. In the middle of Kyle and Chrissy’s almost-wedding, Jordan and Jonathan overheard a fire breaking out at a mall in Metropolis. The latter flew to rescue the people trapped inside, and not only Cheryl was among them, she was handcuffed to a metal gate. In other words, the entire mall was set on fire as a cover to specifically kill Cheryl. Even worse, one of Lex Luthor’s minions was lying in wait and attacked Jonathan with advanced flamethrowers. Fortunately, Superman flew in to save Jonathan, extinguish the rest of the fire and neutralize the attacker, though Cheryl escaped in the process.
Now remember, the world still thinks Superman is dead at this point on Superman & Lois, so Clark had John Henry Irons take Luthor’s goon to the DOD so he wouldn’t be seen. Lois also planned to go to the DOD to ensure the goon would keep quiet about seeing the Man of Steel and see if she could convince him to flip on Lex Luthor. Problem solved, right? Wrong! At the end of “A Perfectly Good Wedding” as Clark and Lois are getting intimate, their phones blow up with notifications from news outlets proclaiming that Superman is alive.
So how did this happen? While we can’t say with 100% certainty just yet that Lex Luthor is responsible, two theories that come to mind both lead back to him. One, Cheryl went back to Luthor and told him what she saw to get back in his good graces. Two, there’s another mole at the DOD, and when they overheard Luthor’s goon sharing how they were stopped by Superman, this mole passed along that information to Luthor. Either way, I find it hard to believe that any other party other than Cudlitz’s character leaked the information. Sure, then you have to ask why he didn’t just send Doomsday to kill Superman again, but this move also aligns with his brand of pettiness.
Next week will bring us to Superman & Lois’ Season 4’s halfway point, and one week closer to the show concluding its run on The CW. Stay tuned to CinemaBlend for more coverage on the DC series, and remember that the first three seasons can be streamed with a Max subscription. You’re also welcome to look further ahead into the future by looking through our upcoming DC TV shows and upcoming DC movies guides.
