Superman and Lois season 3, episode 11 review: Complications

“Day’s off to a great start.” Spoilers for Superman and Lois season 3, episode 11 follow.

Lois heads into surgery surrounded by her family, but before long, Clark has to put on his suit and become Superman so that she survives.

Meanwhile, Sarah deals with the aftermath of her mistakes.

Here’s what went down in Superman and Lois season 3 episode 11, “Complications”.

Superman and Lois season 3 episode 11 review

The Last Supper

With her double mastectomy coming up, Lois has a special dinner with friends and, wouldn’t you know, Lana keeps her promise and gets dinner from the Superman & Lois universe’s version of Hooters. This really isn’t that big of a deal, but it was nice to start off the episode with a bit of levity because after this point, there’s really not in much in the way of that.

We also have a really nice moment of Clark sitting by Lois’ side, smiling at her, reassuring her that everything will be alright through no words, just his eyes and smile. And, if it’s not evident by now, Tyler Hoechlin really is the best Superman because of his constant ability to flawlessly pull off scenes like that.

But as Lois preps to go into her surgery, Peia loses control of her powers, which threatens to basically blow all of Metropolis away. It’s extremely hard to pull off an antagonist like this in a superhero show, and by that I mean, an antagonist that you can’t just punch to defeat. Yet, this episode does it incredibly well.

Tying Peia’s loss of control with Lois’ surgery is brilliant as is Clark telling her that “It’s okay to let go,” which is what he needed to learn earlier in the season. And so, instead of destroying the city, she manages to die as peacefully as is possible with Clark passing on her last words to Bruno and Matteo, which he does for one simple reason. It doesn’t matter if they’re on opposites, they are still humans deserving of empathy, which is what makes Clark Superman.

Finding out the truth

Clark tells Kyle that he’s Superman after he came to the house, accusing Jon of having powers, which quickly settles that conflict. But there’s another conflict within the Cushing household. Sarah is spiraling, once again, due to her mistakes in the previous episode. Obviously, Lana is seeing shades of the past and immediately goes to Kyle, where they stage an intervention with no hesitation.

This leads to a pretty solid scene where Kyle discusses the mistakes that he made in the past, how that has snowballed for him and how he’s managed to find some semblance of purpose, no matter what happens. It’s a really good scene that seems slightly ridiculous with how it ends, but is often sometimes what people who are spiraling need to hear.

Letting go

The weakest part of this episode though is whenever it deals with the idea of Natalie needing to learn to let go of Matteo. It’s a valid storyline, and is honestly handled pretty well in this episode, it just doesn’t land as well as it should. There’s a great scene of John Henry doing his best to get Nat to let go of her infatuation with Matteo (because that’s what it is, not love) that would hit harder if we, as the audience, actually felt anything toward Nat and Matteo’s relationship.

However, what does hit hard though is the ending after Peia dies. Matteo and Bruno are grieving and yet, despite everything that’s happened, Nat and John Henry are there to support them. They see two kindred spirits in the Mannheims and thus, despite their anger (and even hatred in John Henry’s case), they still are there in their time of pain.

Superman and Lois season 3 continues its great run with another really solid episode that paves its way with empathy rather than violence.

Superman and Lois season 3 will be taking a brief hiatus from The CW. It will return on Tuesday, June 20 at 8/7c.

If you’re a fan of Superman and Lois season 3 and would like updates about its future, listen to The CW Spiral Podcast. Subscribe to their YouTube Channel here.