Superman & Lois: [SPOILER] Dies in “A Brief Reminiscence In-Between Cataclysmic Events”

Tonight's episode of Superman & Lois, titled "A Brief Reminiscence In-Between Cataclysmic Events," marked the end of the road for a character who is a key figure in the Superman mythology -- at least unless there's some kind of last-minute misdirect happening. The death is not exactly something that will change the course of the series' future -- at least not as far as we can currently tell -- but it's certainly going to have an impact on Superman's life, and might set up a potential new character introduction in the next season or so. so let's dig into this one. Remember, there are spoilers ahead.

In the episode, Superman finds himself flashing back through his life, with a heavy focus on his relationships with Jor-El, Lois, and Martha. As it turns out, these flashbacks are being "farmed" by Morgan Edge/Tal Rho in order to gain leverage on Superman.

Final chance: spoilers ahead for tonight's episode of Superman & Lois, titled "A Brief Reminiscence In-Between Cataclysmic Events."

During the confrontation that follows, a mostly-powerless Superman finds himself helpless to stop Tal Rho from destroying his sunstone, this erasing Jor-El from existence.

It makes some sense; Rho and his Kryptonian father both hate Jor-El for stealing Lara Lor-Van away from them, and during his attempts to recruit Superman to his cause, Jor-El's holographic avatar popped up to discourage his son from listening to his corrupt half-brother.

Of course, what we have learned is that Lara used The Eradicator to store copies of hundreds of Kryptonians. Whehter this means there is a chance that another verison of Jor-El is out there or not remains to be seen. That said, it may be that Superman will instead get a hologram Lara at some point in the show. After all, we've seen him interacting with his Kryptonian father for many years, but rarely with his mother...and the series began with Clark losing Martha Kent, so there would be some symmetry to losing Martha in the premiere and, say, getting Lara "back" in the finale.

Since Lara is being characterized on Superman & Lois as a brilliant scientific mind who designed The Eradicator and whose work Jor-El is unable to recreate, bringing her into the series makes a ton of sense. After all, the spectral Jor-El (and, before him, Val-El, who appeared to Seg-El in Krypton) has primarily been used to help learn how to operate Kryptonian technology -- something that, at least in some specific ways, it seems Lara is better at.

Superman & Lois airs on Tuesday nights at 9 p.m. ET/PT on The CW, following episodes of The Flash.