Superman and Lois ending explained: How [SPOILER] sets up a whole new Arrowverse

The finale of Superman and Lois featured yet another shocking cliffhanger, leaving fans in need of some answers for season 2. 

Superman and Lois has enjoyed a successful first season, running for 14 of its 15 episodes (with multiple interludes) before its fifteenth installment, the season finale, hit the screens tonight.

That debut season has been on the receiving end of acclaim from both fans and critics as it rebooted the Man of Steel and the intrepid reporter’s TV history by telling a story that had never been seen on the small screen (or the big one).

The first season couldn’t bow out without giving audiences one more huge cliffhanger. Yes, the finale, “Last Sons of Krypton”, was another major episode for the show, but what does that cliffhanger ending really mean?

** Contains spoilers for Superman & Lois’ season 1 finale. **

The season 1 finale ended when John Henry Irons’ daughter Natalie found her way to Earth-Prime and embraced her father, setting up a new dynamic for the second season. But it also left us with some major questions in regards to the future of the Arrowverse.

How did Natalie survive on Superman and Lois?

When we last saw Natalie Lane Irons on Superman and Lois, she helped her father, John Henry Irons, build the super-suit that allowed him stand toe-to-toe with every Kryptonian he faced throughout the first season.

But since John Henry somehow made his way to Earth-Prime, he has been broken by the thought of having lost both his wife and his daughter. While Natalie didn’t actually die on screen, it was presumed that she could have considering that she was left on the same earth as the destructive Superman that killed her mother.

Now that she’s here – and here to stay it seems as actress Tayler Buck has been promoted to series regular for season 2 – it will undoubtedly change the entire dynamic for the Kent/Lane/Irons families and stir up some old feelings for Lois as well.

How Natalie’s arrival could change the Arrowverse

While Superman and Lois has remained rather separate from the other shows within the Arrowverse, it is part of it – something that the arrival of Arrow‘s John Diggle earlier this season confirmed. Moreover, the fact that John Henry Irons could exist on Earth-Prime also confirmed this because, after Crisis Of Infinite Earths it was established that only one living version of the same person can exist on the same earth. Thus, as the show made the effort to confirm that Irons’ Earth-Prime doppelganger is dead, he can exist there without any repercussions – much like we saw with Earth-2 Laurel Lance/Black Canary on Arrow.

Those terms and conditions of the new multiverse weren’t outright spoken about on Superman & Lois but there was enough work done to at least make it clear that they were in place. However, the events of the season 1 finale promise to change the Arrowverse’s new multiverse forever, simply because it makes the heroes aware that it exists.

Remember, the heroes of the Arrowverse think that the multiverse was destroyed after Crisis On Infinite Earths. The events of that crossover rewrote everything, merging Earth-1 with Earth-38 and Black Lightning‘s unnamed Earth so that it seemed like there was only Earth-Prime. But the crossover also confirmed that a new multiverse is out there – one which features the likes of DC’s Stargirl and Titans.

John Henry Irons is the only recent interdimensional traveler in the Arrowverse and his arrival is close enough to Crisis to explain that away (hence why nobody ever questioned it). However, we saw Natalie’s arrival take place right before our eyes and so did Superman, Lois, Jonathan, Jordan and, of course, John Henry.

Does this mean that Superman, one of the Arrowverse’s primary heroes and the same Superman who witnessed the end of the multiverse in Crisis, is now fully aware that the multiverse does still exist? If so, could this result in more heroes learning of its re-emergence and pave the way for future crossovers with the likes of Stargirl?

We’ll have to wait and see, but it seems that Natalie’s arrival could have even bigger repercussions than it already has.

What did you think of Superman and Lois season 1, episode 15? Let us know in the comments below!