Superman and Lois Season 4 Episode 9 Recap: The Cliffhanger: Superman’s Fate “To Live and Die Again,” the second-to-last episode of Superman and Lois Season 4, is full of emotion, action, and suspense. It sets the stage for an epic series finale. Lex Luthor and Lois Lane’s fight gets so bad that they both break. They push each other to their limits. At the same time, Superman (Tyler Hoechlin) faces his toughest challenge yet, which puts Smallville on the verge of destruction. With alliances changing and the stakes rising, this episode builds up to what looks like it will be a thrilling ending.
Lex Luthor’s Revenge Unleashed
The peak of Lex Luthor’s campaign against Lois Lane (Elizabeth Tulloch) has been reached. Lex is enjoying his short-term victory after Amanda McCoy (Yvonne Chapman) orchestrated a public debate that hurt Lois’s reputation. In a smart move, Superman gives Amanda credit for the plan, knowing that it will make things worse between the two bad guys. This hurts his pride. Lex’s feelings of insecurity get worse, so he gives Amanda large shares in Luthorcorp as a reward—not out of kindness, but to regain control.
Lois Lane won’t stay down even though Lex’s relationship with Amanda is falling apart. Advertisers are pulling out of the Smallville Gazette, and Amanda has filed a defamation lawsuit against her. Even though there are problems, Amanda’s bragging about Cheryl Kimble’s disappearance and Lex’s growing power only makes Lois more determined. Lois uses her skills as an investigator to start her search for justice by going back to see an old enemy, Bruno Mannheim (Chad L. Coleman).
Unexpected Friendship Between Lois and Mannheim
Bruno Mannheim and Lois’s reunion at Stryker’s Island makes her cry in a way that was not expected. She tells Mannheim she’s sorry for his loss of Peia, his wife, which makes the criminal feel better. At first, Mannheim doesn’t want to help, but in the end, he agrees to give information about Lex. He tells a very important secret: Cheryl Kimble, who is now known as Gretchen Kelley, was in a relationship with Lex before he broke up with her. The new information gives Lois more power and puts her on a collision course with Amanda.
The Rise of Doomsday
Lisa gets more information while Lex’s plans go in a bad direction. Milton Fine helps Lex find out that Doomsday, the monster who killed Superman earlier this season, has gone back to the mines near Smallville to try to find a way back home. Lex takes this chance to show off a new, deadly weapon: the “Killer Suit,” an improved version of John Henry Irons’ war suit.
At the same time, Superman trains his sons Jonathan and Jordan to be ready for the inevitable battle with Doomsday. Clark struggles with the fact that he is losing strength. This is made more difficult for him by the fact that he knows that his sons’ best quality is working together. As Clark starts to accept that his sons will protect Earth in the future, this emotional scene shows how the torch is being passed on.
Amanda’s Breaking Point
Amanda finally stops being loyal to Lex when she finds out that he sees her as disposable. Amanda gets into a fiery fight with Lex after finding out that he has left her out of his plans and is back in Smallville to release Doomsday. Lex ignores her feelings and focuses even more on his goal of destroying Smallville, which makes her anger and heartbreak stand out.
As Lex goes down into the mines to free Doomsday, his sick grudge against the town that turned him down takes center stage. When Lex says he wants to “kill him one more time,” he means it. He wants to make the monster his ultimate weapon. The creature changes into a scarier, spiked version of itself when Lex fires at Doomsday. It looks like something from a comic book.
Superman vs. Doomsday: Round Two
The most exciting part of the episode happens in downtown Smallville, where Superman faces off against the newly improved Doomsday. The fight is absolutely terrible; buildings are falling apart and terrified people are running away. At first, Superman is sure of himself, but Doomsday quickly makes him doubt himself. He hits him hard enough to leave the Man of Steel bloodied and broken.
Even though things are crazy, Clark takes the time to tell Lois and his sons how much he loves them. His unfinished sentence, “I always wi…” hangs in the air as Doomsday hits Superman with a devastating final blow that sends him flying out of sight. The screen goes black, leaving viewers on a very tense cliffhanger.
The Cliffhanger: Superman’s Fate – What Will Happen to Superman?
Is this the end for Superman? “To Live and Die Again,” the title of the episode, suggests a journey that goes in a circle, just like Superman’s earlier death and resurrection this season. The stakes couldn’t be higher with the last episode of the show coming up in a week.
The Kent family’s future is uncertain after Superman’s apparent defeat. The family seems to be about to break because they’ve already lost so much: Clark in the premiere, General Sam Lane (Dylan Walsh) in Episode 3, and Lana Lang’s (Emmanuelle Chriqui) near-death experience. Still, the episode gives us a hint of the possibility of redemption and victory.
The series finale will be a battle for the ages because Lex Luthor (Michael Cudlitz) and Doomsday both made threats at the same time. Even though the odds are against them, the Kent family’s strength and unity could help them get through these tough times.
What’s Next?
With Superman hurt and Doomsday causing chaos, the finale looks like it will be an epic battle. Will Lois’s ability to look into things and the twins’ growing skills turn things around? Could Amanda McCoy’s disappointment with Lex lead to an unlikely team-up with the heroes? The most important question is: Will Superman return to protect his family and town?
The answers will be in the much-anticipated series finale next week. One thing is for sure: Superman and Lois is ending with a bang, with all the high-stakes drama and action that made it a genre-defining superhero show.
Jai Jamison, who wrote and directed Monday’s Superman & Lois episode, talked to TVLine about how intense the next-to-last episode of the show was. He admitted that the emotional cliffhanger might bother fans, like his own mother, who doesn’t like endings that aren’t resolved.
Jamison said that the ending of the episode, with Superman fighting Doomsday and having an emotional moment with Lois, was meant to keep people on the edge of their seats and raise the stakes for the series finale. He also thought about how hard it was to direct such an important episode and how it set up the characters’ breaking points leading up to the final showdown.
The last episode of the show will air on The CW on Monday, December 2, at 8 p.m. Get ready for a thrilling and emotional ending!
