Let’s just pull the band-aid off right here at the top, and spoilers for the Superman & Lois series finale past this point. In the final act of “It Went By So Fast,” Superman (Tyler Hoechlin) dies and becomes a ghost. And reader, I don’t think this was the reaction the showrunners were going for, but… I laughed so loud.
Part of that is likely Hoechlin’s “huh? I’m a ghost?” expression as he sits up next to his own dead body. At least a chunk of that reaction is that he’s being mourned by adult versions of Jon Kent (Michael Bishop) and Jordan Kent (Alex Garfin), played by actors we had never seen before approximately three minutes prior (the guy playing Jon Kent is Lois Lane actor Elizabeth Tulloch’s husband, David Giuntoli). But the biggest reason is the show’s eleventh hour confirmation that the afterlife exists, and Superman, of all people, is going there. And not a Kryptonian afterlife, either. Heaven, in the continuity of Superman & Lois, is a place on Earth.
To give a little bit of context, earlier in the season Clark had his heart ripped out by Doomsday, and then was gifted a slightly amped up human heart, courtesy of Sam Lane (Dylan Walsh), who was also killed by Doomsday. The end result is that Superman is aging at a normal, human pace. He outlives Lois, whose cancer returns. But after 32 years of having a human heart, it gives out and he passes away as his sons sit by his bedside.
What follows is a montage, narrated by Clark, as he wanders through the Kent home revisiting old friends and enemies in the afterlife. That includes forgiveness for Lex Luthor (Michael Cudlitz), a quick check in with most of the rest of the cast (except Sam, who is therefore… in Hell?), and finally a reunion with Lois, wearing her slinky red dress from Season 3’s episode, “The Dress.”
“God she’s beautiful,” Clark says in narration. “I came to this world alone. And when I left I had so much and it was all because of her… Do everything you can to find love. To give it. To hold on to it. Because life, it goes by so fast.”
They kiss, and credits roll. The end! And while it is all admittedly sweet, earnest, and poignant true to the general ethos of the series… I couldn’t get on board because Superman is in Heaven.
I’ll fully admit, in the interest of transparency, part of my issue is likely that I don’t believe in an afterlife. I don’t necessarily find the idea of Heaven comforting in the way that, perhaps, those of a more religious bent do. And I don’t want to assume too much, but if you do indeed believe in Heaven, Hell, transitory purgatory, or whatever perhaps this ending worked better for you. It’s certainly a lovely thought to believe that two people as in love as Lois and Clark will be together for eternity.
There’s also precedent in the TV universe. Sort of. Though Superman & Lois established relatively early on that, despite spinning out of The CW’s Arrowverse, it’s not in the same universe, another show did end with two characters reuniting in the afterlife. That would be Arrow, which killed off the title character in the final season, and then had Oliver Queen (Stephen Amell) and Felicity Smoak (Emily Bett Rickards) find each other again in an unnamed something or other. So assuming that even with Superman & Lois taking place in a different part of the multiverse the afterlife is preexisting… Sure, Superman and Lois can get back together there, too.
But my bigger issue here (and frankly I had the same sort of issue with the final season of Arrow) is with a sci-fi world going full on fantasy. Again, this may bely my atheistic predilection. But despite the fantastical nature of most of Superman & Lois, it ostensibly has existed in a science fiction world full of spaceships, alien planets, multiverses and mechanical devices. Whenever it’s scratched up against spirituality, like in the second season when a cult worshipped the Bizarro World and tried to get “back” there, it still had a “science” explanation. It’s not necessarily real science, nor is it trying to be. But for four seasons, Superman & Lois set up and obeyed those rules.
Establishing an afterlife in the final 15 minutes of the final episode breaks those rules. It is firmly in the realm of fantasy. And it’s not like Superman tries to even posit that “my Kryptonian DNA let me enter a higher realm of consciousness freed from the flesh of my body” or whatever. Nope, he’s dead. He turns into a ghost. And then Superman heads directly to what is Heaven, for all intents and purposes.
In the world of DC Comics that Superman & Lois comes from, there is Heaven. There’s Hell. There are angels, and demons, and magic and Superman regularly interacts with them. But that hasn’t been present for 53 episodes on The CW. So from my perspective it feels like a bit of a betrayal to suddenly switch around to this in the closing minutes of the finale.
Is it sweet and touching? Yes, because we’ve loved following these characters and actors over the years. But a truly great finale shouldn’t stop you short with questions in the final moments. It should allow you to enjoy these closing scenes without pause. It should be tying up things with a bow in a way that’s consistent with everything that’s come before. That’s not what happened in the Superman & Lois finale, unfortunately, despite an otherwise thrilling and emotionally charged hour. Maybe it’ll be different in the next life.
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So even if you went to heaven, he’s dead. So how was he then narrating to us, the living, his life? It made no sense to me.
They clearly established that ghosts can narrate from the afterlife in episode… No, it did not make sense.
You watch a show with a flying alien & multiverses, but the afterlife was too much? Superman’s creators gave him a Hebrew angelic name – Kal-El. I thought the end was perfect. They stuck the landing and should be applauded.
I’m glad you enjoyed it and it worked for you!
Perfectly said Sam. I was having similar thoughts. The ending was perfect.
The existence of an afterlife was established at the start of the final season with his first death, or more precisely, his resurrection, no?
You had nine episodes to acclimate.
I hear you, but to the point I’m making above he even establishes in the final episode that when he died the first time, there was nothing. He has his heart ripped out, Kryptonian machines keep his body in stasis, and then he gets a heart transplant that, thanks to his accelerated healing, brings him back to life. It’s science fiction, not fantasy.
How would a ghost see ghosts of people who weren’t dead? Such as his own sons back when they were teens rather than the adults who were still very much alive and crying by his recently deceased body? I think you took the ending far too literally. It was his last moments and his visions as he died and that “whole life flashed before my eyes” sorta thing. His narration was about his life up to that point. It was done in a way that you could have an afterlife if you believe in stuff but hey I’m atheist as heck and not once did I think “they’re trying to say Superman’s in heaven?”
I thought it was an absolutely beautiful and very satisfying end to what has easily become my favorite TV show in years and the new benchmark for Superman in pretty much anything.
I think you got it wrong. If the point of the show is that there is an afterlife, Superman would have visited it the first time, and he makes clear that he didn’t. I think what we are watching there is not an afterlife but the final thoughts before passing away, sort of “life before your eyes” flash. Plus if that is the afterlife, why would his young songs would be there? clearly they are not dead. And as far as we know, neither Lana and the rest are dead. So, Poorly choosed way to show his final thoughts? YES. Afterlife? Nope.
The ending was perfect and it does not matter if one is an atheist or believer. Great show. perfect ending.