“Superman & Lois” Review – Series Finale – “It Went By Too Fast”

Reviewed by: Michael Bailey

Originally Aired: December 2, 2024
WRITTEN BY: Brent Fletcher & Todd Helbing
DIRECTED BY: Gregory Smith

REGULAR CAST:
Tyler Hoechlin (Clark Kent/Superman)
Bitsie Tulloch (Lois Lane)
Michael Bishop (Jonathan Kent)
Alex Garfin (Jordan Kent)
Michael Cudlitz (Lex Luthor)

GUEST STARS:
Erik Valdez (Kyle Cushing)
Inde Navarrette (Sarah Cushing)
Wole Parks (John Henry Irons)
Tayler Buck (Natalie Irons)
Sofia Hasmik (Chrissy Beppo)
Chad L. Coleman (Bruno Mannheim)
Emmanulle Chriqui (Lana Lang Cushing)
Yvonne Chapman (Amanda McCoy)
Nikolai Witschl (Milton)
Dean Redman (Warden William Ellis)
Paul Lazeby (Doomsday)
Danny Wattley (Coach Gaines)
Kelcey Mawema (Denise Olowe)
Samantha Di Francesco (Candise Pergande)
Austin Anozie (Malcom Teague)
Pavel Romano (Corey Wellnitz)
Monique Phillips (Aidy Manning)
Toby Hargrave (Chuck Arden)
Dee Jay Jackson (Cobb Branden)
Leeah Wong (Emily Phan)
Jay Zhang (Duc Phang)
Joselyn Picard (Sophie Cushing
Domini Fugere (Older Jordan)
Fred Henderson (Clark 70 Years)
Daisy Torme (A.I. Device)

Rating – 5 (out of 5): (SPOILER WARNING! THIS REVIEW REVEALS KEY MOMENTS FROM THIS EPISODE OF SUPERMAN AND LOIS)

I could go on and on about the first half of this episode and how great it was. Lois facing off against Lex. Lana and John Henry joining the fight. The boys facing off against both Doomsday and Lex. Superman and Doomsday’s moment near the sun, which had some great callbacks to the second season. Superman and armored Lex fighting and Lex’s eventual and final defeat. Plus, the scene in the prison with Mannheim was the cherry on top as was the wedding set a year later.

But, if I’m going to be completely honest, the reason this finale worked so well was the second half.

The most obvious reason it worked so well was the mirrored storytelling. The series started with Clark narrating his early life, which was one of the best distillations of Superman’s origin in live action ever, and the series ended with him finishing the story. It just worked so well and a lot of that has to do with Tyler’s delivery. It’s so natural that it didn’t feel like narration. It felt like Superman was telling me a story.

Another reason is that it worked so well is that the show played fair with the audience about the real world. Clark, saying how bad things had gotten and then saying that despite their efforts they didn’t create a utopia, really spoke to me. He and Lois and the boys and John Henry and Natalie all did their best, but they can’t solve all of our problems. I know the word “realistic” gets thrown around superhero shows and movies a lot these days, but I think that Superman and his family and friends doing their best and helping where they can but still not ushering in an age of peace, harmony and understanding works better. It’s like the end of Superman IV. Superman took his shot, but humanity is still humanity. His job is to help them with the big things they can’t tackle on their own and, indirectly, inspire people through those actions to be better, but people are still going to people.

It’s weird, and more than a little cynical, but I don’t have that much faith in humanity. Even with Superman and Lois trying to do better through their For All Seasons organization.

(Love that Easter egg.)

Seeing the boys suited up was great. I honestly didn’t think it was going to happen, but the shot of everyone flying together put a big grin on my face. Also seeing Jonathan and Jordan grow up and start their own families felt like the most natural thing in the world.

However, all of that was just the set up. It’s the deaths of Superman and Lois that made this finale so special.

Lois getting cancer again hit close to home. Last season I mentioned in my reviews that Lois’s cancer battle and Clark helping to take care of her and the way the boys reaction resonated with me because I lost my mom to breast cancer when I was 17. One of the things I didn’t mention is that she went two rounds with the disease. She came through her chemo and radiation treatments the first time, but a year later a bit of cancer that was hiding in the lining of her lung and evaded detection metastasized and six months later she was gone. So, Lois losing her second battle made me burst into tears.

Which was a little awkward because I was in the breakroom of my job watching the episode during my lunch break. But this isn’t the first time this show has done that to me, so one more ugly cry at work felt appropriate.

Lois seeing her dad before she passed was a nice touch, and Tyler’s grief was perfect. I loved that before her death Clark mentioned that they spent every day together and the age progression was very well done. Bitsie even had a little Margot Kidder going on in the shot of them drinking wine on the porch.

Then we get to Clark’s life after Lois, and he doesn’t leave Earth or retreat from public life or any of the other scenarios that have played out in the comics over the decades. He just… goes on. Because that’s what happens. It’s never the same and you never “get over” that sort of loss, but you find a way to muddle through and sometimes you get a dog, and boy did this show split the difference between the dog from Smallville and the name Krypto and I was there for it. The way Tyler delivered the line, “How have I never had a dog?” was spot on, no pun intended.

Then Clark had a heart attack and again the writers circle back to the pilot by having his heart attack happen where Jonathan Kent (the older one) had his, which was just brilliant. And his death scene was a mix of sadness and joy as he says goodbye to (most) of his family and friends (including Krypto) before joining Lois. Lois wearing the dress he bought her and Clark wearing the shirt he wore when he told the boys his secret combined with Jonathan and Jordan opening the door… it was just perfect.

And right after it was all over… right after Lois and Clark joined each other in the afterlife… it hit me that this is the only way the show could end.

Superman and Lois was the most unlikely Superman adaptation ever. The road from Tyler’s first appearance on Supergirl to the pilot of this show was long and winding and frankly it was a miracle that any of that happened and what separated it from its predecessors is that it rode this line of being reverential to the past while still forging its own identity. And that identity was a world where Clark Kent became Superman but didn’t sacrifice his personal life. He got married. He had two sons and after two decades he had to change the way he operated not only because he wasn’t the only one with powers and abilities far beyond those of mortal men, but also because his body was failing him.

This Superman had to face what we all face, and therefore, and for the first time, we were given a Superman that we could relate to without using fear and/or xenophobia as a catalyst.

Superman is us and we are Superman.

And, on top of ALL OF THAT, they let him die. Not in a final battle with one of his archenemies, but because he was old, and his time ran out.

That was really brave and I’m still in shock that it happened.

And during that final walk through the house as he said his goodbyes we get a moment with Lex where he forgives him. This was all in the afterlife, so it didn’t “really happen” but it goes to the heart of this version of Superman being the one that will ultimately try to see the best in people, even the ones that tried to kill him.

It was magic.

Should the episode have been longer? Yes. At the risk of being pinged for an obvious pun it went by too fast. Should we have seen Tal-Ro one last time? Absolutely. Should we have seen Sam Lane during Clark’s walk to beyond? I think it’s a shame that it didn’t happen, but in the end the show ended where it began.

With Superman and Lois together. For eternity and with Superman delivering one more suggestion to us that we find love in our lives where we can.

A show that I never thought would happen is over and I am sad. I wanted a few more seasons. This finale, though, was so good that I’m okay that we didn’t get more. Because the creators of the show gave us a definitive ending for my favorite character.

We will probably never see this show’s like again. It will occupy this weird space in the Superman lore. For some it was forgettable. For others it was entertaining.

For me, I feel secure in saying it will always be my favorite live action interpretation of my favorite characters.

What more could anyone ask?

To Dylan and Alex and Michael and Jordan and Wole and Tayler and Erik and Emmanuelle and Inde and Sofia, thank you for being part of this show and adding so much to the Superman mythos.

To Adam Rayner… dude, I never thought I would want Superman to have a brother, but you made it the most natural thing in the world. Thank you for that.

To Chad Coleman and Michael Cudlitz… thank you for taking two villains that were integral to my era of the comics and breathing new life to them.

To Todd Helbing and Brent Fletcher, thanks for making this show a reality.

To Kate Aldrin, Jai Jamison, Andrew Wong, Juliana James, Geroge Kitson, Kristi Korzec, Michael Narducci, Max Cunningham, Max Kronick, Rina Mimoun, Nadria Tucker, Patrick Leahy, Aaron Helbing and, for personal reasons, Adam Mallinger… thank you for making this the best written superhero show of the modern era.

And to Tyler and Bitsie, thank you so much for doing something I never thought I would see and that’s taking the Clark Kent and Lois Lane that have lived in my head for nearly four decades and bringing them to life.

And that’s that. I appreciate everyone that has read my reviews for this series over the past three years and change. It was truly an honor to be the one covering it for the Homepage.

Bye, everyone. Until next time.