There are Easter eggs, and then there are deep-cut Easter eggs. And the big name reveal for Gretchen Kelley (Rebecca Staab) in this week’s episode of Superman & Lois, “A Perfectly Good Wedding,” definitely qualifies as the latter. That’s because she isn’t Gretchen Kelley at all. She’s — spoilers past this point — Cheryl Kimble, a character from the classic DC Comics series Superman Vs. Aliens.
You might have a lot of questions here, and don’t worry, I’m going to (hopefully) answer all of them. First things first, in Superman & Lois, “Gretchen” posed as a romantic interest for Sam Lane (Dylan Walsh), but was secretly working for Lex Luthor (Michael Cudlitz) the whole time. She was tasked with killing Sam earlier in this season and even went so far as to bury him alive. But it was clear she felt at least a little bad about it.
This week, Jordan Kent (Alex Garfin) tracks her down and sends Jonathan Kent (Michael Bishop) and Lois Lane (Elizabeth Tulloch) to track her down in Metropolis. When they do, Lois reveals her real name: Cheryl Kimble. Despite Lois trying to get Cheryl to flip on Lex, she says she’s been working for him for a long time and knows better. Later in the episode, two-bit fire-armed (literally) criminal Hacksaw Kronick (Petar Gatsby) tries to kill her, only to be stopped by Superman (Tyler Hoechlin). She escapes, though to where is TBD.
So, what about that Superman vs. Aliens thing? The 1995 miniseries by Dan Jurgens and Kevin Nowlan pit the Man of Steel against the xenomorphs. It takes place out-of-continuity, and in order to make things a fair fight, Superman is sent far from Earth’s sun, and in the first issue gets temporarily blinded by a xenomorph’s blood. But to the point of this article, the person who sends him on this task is the new CEO of Lexcorp, and head of the aerospace division, Cheryl Kimble. She’s also your classic Alien antagonist, a corporate woman who wants to use the xenomorphs for weaponization.
Weirdly, Gretchen Kelley is an entirely different DC Comics character, introduced as Lex Luthor’s personal physician. I will firmly and confidently state that there is a zero percent chance the xenomorphs will show up in Superman & Lois — after all, this is a Warner Bros. TV production, and Alien is owned by Disney — so I’m not quite sure why the name switch was important. Perhaps there will be some sort of riff, and having Cheryl Kimble be in the aerospace division of Lexcorp might pay off in some fashion?
Or alternately, the writers were just having fun with a crazy deep-cut Easter egg. Either way, go read Superman vs. Aliens, because it’s surprisingly good.
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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”
- Monday, October 21, 2024: Superman & Lois, Season 4, Episode 4: “A Perfectly Good Wedding”
- Monday, October 28, 2024: 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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