Lois Gets The Most Heartbreakingly True Line In The ‘Superman & Lois’ Season 4 Premiere

Lois Lane on Smallville Main Street in the Superman and Lois Season 4 premiere

The first two episodes of Superman & Lois Season 4 are an emotionally harrowing affair. Whether it’s — spoilers past this pointthe death of Superman (Tyler Hoechlin), or seeing Lex Luthor (Michael Cudlitz) force Lois Lane (Elizabeth Tulloch) to choose which of her sons lives, and which one dies… Those two hours do not let up. But the one line that absolutely floored me, that was so real I completely lost my composure? Lois saying, “This wasn’t supposed to happen. Not before me.”

The lead-up to this moment is that Doomsday has killed Superman, ripped out his heart, and unceremoniously dumped the Man of Steel’s dead body on the main street of Smallville in front of Lois and his two sons. Doomsday leaves, Lois hesitantly walks up to the body… And when she turns him over, screams once she sees the empty cavity in his chest where his heart used to be.

The show then flashes back through their entire relationship — from first meeting to going on dates, all the way through Clark helping Lois with her cancer battle in Season 3. When we cut back to the present, Lois is holding Clark’s face, and muttering, “No, no, no,” over and over.

“This wasn’t supposed to happen,” Lois says. “Not before me. No.”

At that point Jonathan (Michael Bishop) and Jordan (Alex Garfin) rush toward the body, begging their mother to say their father is okay. He’s not, and as Lois completely loses it, she tries to hold her kids back.

lois crying superman and lois season premiere

What absolutely gutted me about this line is that it isn’t just the sort of thing that Lois Lane, ace reporter, says about Superman, the Man of Steel. This cuts to the core of the very real fear that anyone in a long-term relationship has about the person they love… They don’t want to be the first to go. They don’t want to watch the person they love, and have loved most of their life become a lifeless body, while they somehow, some way have to continue onward.

Things are certainly amped up here because of the plot of the show… Superman is a super-powerful being who, at least in the comics, lives for far longer than any human. And Lois in the series has, as mentioned earlier, been battling cancer. Though she’s doing better now, the majority of last season was about the character making peace with her time on Earth being limited; dealing with her vulnerabilities beyond fighting Superman’s villain of the week.

But the best lines in fiction are the ones that connect to the characters while also ringing true for the wider audience. Tulloch has already proven herself a master of channeling emotions like this, throughout her four-season run on Superman & Lois. And once again, she expertly captures the disbelief, horror, and gut-wrenching loss of watching your husband die before you.

It’s awful to watch, but like Lois, you in the audience are trying to deny it, saying “no” along with her, a repudiation of the pain and anguish both we at home and her in the show are feeling. It’s that emotional truth this line gets to. But if Lois Lane can keep going past this tragedy, perhaps so can we all.

Where To Watch Superman & Lois:

Superman & Lois Season 4 Premiere Dates And Episode Guide:

The final season of Superman & Lois premieres with two episodes on The CW on Monday, October 17, 2024 at 8 pm ET / PT. Episodes then stream the next day on The CW website and app. After the premiere, it will air once a week for 10 episodes total in Season 4, with exact air dates TBA.

Here’s the full list of episodes in Superman & Lois Season 4, with premiere dates:

  • Monday, October 7, 2024: Superman & Lois, Season 4, Episode 1: “The End & The Beginning”
  • Monday, October 7, 2024: Superman & Lois, Season 4, Episode 2: “A World Without”
  • Monday, October 14, 2024: Superman & Lois, Season 4, Episode 3: “Always My Hero”
  • TBA: Superman & Lois, Season 4, Episode 4
  • TBA: Superman & Lois, Season 4, Episode 5
  • TBA: Superman & Lois, Season 4, Episode 6
  • TBA: Superman & Lois, Season 4, Episode 7
  • TBA: Superman & Lois, Season 4, Episode 8
  • TBA: Superman & Lois, Season 4, Episode 9
  • TBA: Superman & Lois, Season 4, Episode 10 *SERIES FINALE*

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