Warning! The following contains spoilers for the Superman & Lois episode "Of Sound Mind." Read at your own risk!
tSuperman & Lois Season 3 is really challenging the very core of Superman's character in these latest episodes, as Clark continues to struggle with coping with Lois' cancer diagnosis. The Man of Steel can stand against some of the world's greatest villains, but he has felt powerless as of late watching his wife go through chemotherapy. This latest episode again targeted Clark and his coping, and exposed his classic optimism as a weakness.
One of Superman's greatest traits is his excessive optimism and willingness to believe and strive for the best. When you're Superman, it might be hard to accept there's any scenario for which you can't work out the most desirable outcome. Unfortunately, that optimism hasn't done much to help him through Lois' battle with breast cancer, and it caused some tension in "Of Sound Mind."
The episode opened with Clark sitting in therapy for family members of cancer patients, and for a while, it seemed like things were going great. When the group leader started talking about giving her husband permission to quit fighting his illness and pass on, however, Clark became upset. He didn't openly show that in front of Lois and stated that the therapy went "fine," though he explained that it was not for him and he didn't want to return.
Clark's optimism played to his detriment yet again when he found Lois poring over paperwork for end-of-life planning. Lois explained that the reality was that there was no guarantee that she'll make it through this, and they needed to figure some things out in the event that she didn't make it. Clark refused to look at the paperwork and blew off Lois by explaining that she was young and that he had full confidence she'll make a full recovery.
Wolé Parks shared his thoughts on the series returning for Season 4.
The reality is that Clark has no idea how things will turn out for Lois. While he's putting on this show of optimism for her and his sons, Superman & Lois fans are seeing the truth in that he's legitimately scared and worried about his wife. It's even throwing him off in his pursuit of Bruno Mannheim and making it much easier for the villain to proceed with his plans without a ton of actual resistance or repercussions.
Fortunately, it seems like Clark is learning to cope in an appropriate way, and Superman & Lois showed him returning to group therapy at the end of the episode. Perhaps now that he can face the reality of the situation, he can focus more on figuring out what Bruno Mannheim is up to, and putting a stop to it before Mannheim does something wild with Bizarro's body.
Superman & Lois hasn't revealed exactly what Bruno Mannheim's grand plan is, but we do know his motivation for all his experiments. At the episode's end, we learned that Mannheim's significant other is the cancer patient Peia that's been talking with Lois and Clark throughout her chemotherapy appointments. We also learned that she's Onomatopoeia, which really added an extra dimension to this absolutely wild tale being told through Season 3. We haven't even seen Lex Luthor yet, so I can only imagine how much better this season is going to get.
Catch new episodes of Superman & Lois on The CW on Tuesdays at 8:00 p.m. ET. Those looking to check out the series but need to watch the previous seasons before diving into Season 3 can do so, provided they have an HBO Max Subscription.
