Superman And Lois Season 4’s Premiere Killed Off The Man Of Steel, And The Next Phase Of Lex Luthor’s Revenge Is Especially Frightening

Warning: SPOILERS for the Superman & Lois episodes "The End & The Beginning" and "A World Without" are ahead!

When we left off with Tyler Hoechlin’s Clark Kent in the Superman & Lois Season 3 finale last year, he and Doomsday had taken their fight to Earth’s Moon. Of course, anyone familiar with The Death of Superman storyline from the comics or saw Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice knows that Superman fighting Doomsday never ends well, and it was no exception here. The Superman & Lois Season 4 premiere just wrapped up on the 2024 TV schedule, and by the time the two episodes were over, the Man of Steel had been murdered by the creature that had once been the Superman from the Inverse Earth, a.k.a. Bizarro Superman.

But of course, this is a show called Superman & Lois, so the story doesn’t just end now that the former character is gone. Now Elizabeth Tulloch’s Lois Lane is squarely in the sights of Michael Cudlitz’s Lex Luthor, and unfortunately, her sons Jonathan and Jordan, respectively played by Michael Bishop and Alex Garfin, are also now targets. With the first two episodes out of the way from Superman & Lois’ final season, which will run for 10 episodes, let’s go over what went down.

How Superman’s Battle With Doomsday Ended, And How He Lives On In A Different Way

The first Superman & Lois Season 4 episode, "The End & The Beginning,” kept switching back and forth between the events on Earth and Superman and Doomsday’s brutal brawl on and around the Moon, and the Man of Steel did not hold back against Lex Luthor’s twisted creation. From shockwave-inducing punches to letting loose with his heat vision, Clark tried his hardest to vanquish this powerful foe, but in the end, it wasn’t enough. Making matters worse, unlike in the original Death of Superman storyline and Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, Doomsday did not perish alongside Clark. And for an extra heaping of terribleness, he ripped Clark’s heart out to deliver to Lex Luthor, then dumped Clark’s body in the middle of Smallville.

We’ll talk more about the heart in a little bit, although let me just get right out and say it: the chances of Superman being resurrected this season are still pretty strong. This is a superhero show, after all. But regardless of if that happens or not, a replica of Clark’s consciousness lives on. Just like how Jor-El and Lara have been represented in holographic form, with the latter still being active in the Fortress of Solitude (which is also where Clark’s body is being stored), now there’s a holographic Clark there, too. Unfortunately, he can only remain at the fortress; everywhere else, the Kents have to learn to live their lives without Clark.

What Lex Luthor Has Planned For Lois Lane And The Massive Secret He’s Discovered

Last season, Lex Luthor demanded that Lois Lane retire from, journalism or suffer the consequences, as he blamed her Daily Planet reporting for the reason he was sent to prison for 17 years (remember, he’d been framed by Bruno and Peia Mannheim). While Lex is desperate to find his daughter, who’s gone into hiding (and will be played by Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.’s Elizabeth Henstridge), he’s making sure to not let that get in the way of his revenge, much to the chagrin of his longtime ally and current LexCorp head Amanda McCoy, played by Yvonne Chapman.

As we saw at the end of Superman & Lois Season 3, Luthor already had his goons kidnap Sam Lane, though fortunately he was rescued before he suffocated to death in a grave. But that was just the tip of the proverbial iceberg. Luthor has also purchased the hotel across the street from the Smallville Gazette so he can watch Lois as she’s working, which is just all kinds of creepy. But as mentioned earlier, Jordan and Jonathan have been thrown into danger too, and not just because Lois is their mom.

Thanks to Jordan’s impulsivity by confronting Lex Luthor in his Superboy guise to figure out where Clark’s heart was being kept, the chrome-domed menace was able to deduce his identity and knows the whole deal about the Kent family. Since Luthor holds Lois squarely responsible for the relationship with his daughter collapsing, he considers Jordan and Jonathan fair game. So that led to two of the most twisted moments in the Season 4 premiere.

While Jonathan was snooping around Luthor’s hotel looking for Clark’s heart, Jordan was doing the same elsewhere, as he heard it suddenly start beating. Neither of the teens had any luck, but while Jonathan was able to get out of the hotel safely thanks to Sara’s assistance, Jordan was caught in a trap, incapacitated and watched as Luthor destroyed Clark’s heart. Thus, the one chance that had presented itself to bring Clark back to life using the Fortress of Solitude technology was destroyed.

As if all that wasn’t bad enough, Lois was called and told by an automated voice to pick either Jonathan or Jordan to live by pressing 1 or 2, otherwise they would both die. Not knowing what was happening with their boy, Lois pressed one of the numbers, although we don’t learn which one. Something tells me that’s going to come back to create problems later this season.

And that’s how the first fifth of Superman & Lois’ final season unfolded. Right out the gate, Lex Luthor hasn’t just taken off the kid gloves, he’s incinerated them! Where do things go from here? Check out new episodes of Superman & Lois Mondays at 8 pm ET, and keep visiting CinemaBlend for continuing coverage on the series. You’re also welcome to break out your Max subscription to stream the first three seasons, or see what’s coming up in this corner of the superhero media market by browsing through our guide of upcoming DC TV shows.