Superman and Lois season 3, episode 3 review: In Cold Blood

“This story is not more important than your health.” Spoilers for Superman and Lois season 3, episode 3 follows.

Lois begins to tell those close to her about her cancer diagnosis. But instead of taking care of herself, she continues to hunt down Bruno Mannheim.

Here’s what went down in Superman and Lois season 3, episode 3 “In Cold Blood”.

Superman and Lois season 3 episode 3 review

Nightmare

Starting off with a nightmare can be pretty damn cliché, but there are times when it works so well, and this is one of the times where it does so. It was such a smart way to visualize how Clark feels about hearing his wife’s terrifying screams, but not being able to do anything. He can’t just zap away the cancer with his powers or anything at the Fortress. He can’t be Superman to fix this problem. He can only be Clark and attempt to get Lois where she needs to be to heal, which is the most difficult thing that he can do – because he can’t do anything except be there and often say the things that neither want to hear.

This is then immediately followed by a montage of Lois telling everyone that she has cancer and what the next steps are going to be. Seeing every main character on the show hearing this hurts so much, but it doesn’t truly hit until Sam breaks down in fear for his daughter. That’s when the realization of what it means for these characters hits home. Sure, we all knew what it meant when Lois first revealed it in the previous episode, but there’s something about Sam trying his hardest to hold back his tears before eventually succumbing that is just a gut punch.

Investigation

Because of her impending health treatments, Lois begins to pass off her research on Intergang to Chrissy so that she doesn’t work so much. But really, who thought that would stop her from getting a new lead and heading out to investigate? And that’s what she does, leaving her first treatment in the dust, which really should be a shock to no one watching. But it makes sense why this would make Clark so mad because he’s so scared for Lois and he knows that he can’t do anything other than be there, which he then isn’t because he’s also Superman.

This simple fact leads to Lois following Chrissy to her stakeout and she drags her inside where they are forced to hide from several members of Intergang. However, this causes them to stumble onto a freezer full of bags of blood. Which, as it turns out later, these are bags full of Superman’s blood. How they got these? Who knows at this point, but this seems like a good way to introduce Apokolips onto the show in some capacity or even potentially introduce a new version of Supergirl as this isn’t the same universe as Melissa Benoist’s Supergirl.

What’s fun about this part of the episode is that we finally get to see classic Intergang weapons when they fight Superman after Intergang opens the freezer, which gave Chrissy and Lois the opportunity to call for help from Superman. This show has been very grounded, but it also never shies away from its more comic booky elements either, so its honestly always nice to see that stuff translated to screen in some shape or form.

Missing appointments

As mentioned though, Lois misses her appointments which leads to great moments of anger and frustration from everyone around her. Whether it be the fear and anger that Sam takes out on everyone around him, the frustration that Chrissy takes out on her, the attempted apathy that John tries, and fails, to pass onto Nat, or Clark taking out his frustrations on himself. It all feels so well realized and apt for anyone who has ever had a loved one in this same situation.

However, this episode isn’t perfect as the B-plots, that see Jonathan’s truck getting stolen and the issues with Lana and Sarah rising, are not as interesting as the rest of the episode. They aren’t really bad, but they’re not even close to as interesting as everything going on with Lois and Clark though. That said, Lana slapping Sarah feels like it comes out of left field and that’s not something that’s rectified easily.

Superman and Lois continues to handle its cancer storyline incredibly well, even if the last third of the episode falls a bit flat on a couple of fronts.

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What did you think of Superman and Lois season 3, episode 3? Let us know in the comments below!