Superman & Lois ended after four seasons Monday on The CW with the final episode of the DC Comics-inspired series seeing a final showdown between Superman (Tyler Hoechlin) and the foes he’s faced all season long. With so much on the line after a season that saw Superman die and return, this time with a human heart, the final showdown was an intense one and not everyone made it out of the series finale alive. However, according to series showrunners Brent Fletcher and Todd Helbing, while the episode was not without loss, there was something “poetic” in how things went down for one particular character.
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Warning: spoilers for the series finale of Superman & Lois beyond this point.
After dealing with Doomsday, aka Bizarro Superman, at various points in the season and the series overall, the Superman & Lois finale saw the hero and the antagonist come together for a final fight. Superman was ultimately victorious, but it wasn’t the sort of end to a major battle one might expect. After disabling Doomsday, Superman flew him to the sun where Doomsday awakened briefly. However, instead of a knock down drag out fight to the bitter end, the two figures just looked at each other and Doomsday was gently sent into the sun. His death ended up more of a merciful release than anything else and speaking with ComicBook, Fletcher said that the moment between these men was more important than a fight.
“I think by the end, Doomsday’s life had been denigrated down to just pain, suffering, dying, and hate,” Fletcher said. “He was always raging. And so, what the end is for us, I think, is release. Release from all the hatred and the pain, and an acknowledgement between these two that they shared something. They had that moment between them, just an acknowledgement of the things that they shared and that to us felt more important than a fight where you bet him physically. It felt, it felt more poetic in a lot of ways.”
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“And in a lot of ways, Doomsday, you know, Bizarro Superman’s story is really tragic, probably the most tragic of the series,” Helbing added. “And it felt like out of any way to end it, this was the most graceful.”
Having Superman’s big face off with Doomsday end up being something that is quieter and more merciful is ultimately a sad but fitting moment. Superman is, at his core, a character about humanity and while Doomsday ends up dying, it’s the decency and grace that he is shown at the end that speaks to Superman’s character. It also makes for a nice lead in to the ultimate defeat of Lex Luthor (Michael Cudlitz) in the episode as well as well as the final interaction we see between the hero and the villain. At the very end of the series, in the “flash forward” to Clark’s death as an old man, there is a moment between Clark and Lex as he’s transitioning to his afterlife where we see Clark extend some of that humanity and grace to his biggest enemy, even in the end.
“I think from the conceit the idea that Superman is the person and Clark Kent is the facade just never really rang true with me,” Helbing told ComicBook. “He was raised in Smallville, he had these two great parents, and Clark Kent to us felt like the real person. So, I think generally we were trying to create a show about a couple and Clark Kent who happened to be Superman. That was our guiding light.”
