‘Superman & Lois’ Season 3, Episode 11 Recap & Ending, Explained: Is Lex Going To Take Control Of Bizarro?

With two more episodes still remaining in the third season of CW’s Superman & Lois, the eleventh episode already feels like the finale, as most of the key characters gain a sense of closure and the tension of the central plotline gets somewhat eased in a heartbreaking end. In the previous episode, Peia broke free of the DOD facility using Lois as a hostage and reunited with her family. Sara was involved in an accident while driving away from a Kegger party, and she was charged with DUI by the authorities. To make matters worse, she was saved by Jordan, whom Junior had vaguely spotted from the passenger’s seat. Learning about another metahuman rescue, Kyle’s suspicion started growing about the Kent family somehow being involved in this, and he went to verify. At a critical and time-sensitive juncture, Clark had to reveal his secret identity as Superman to Kyle. The aftermath of all these events is explored in “Complications,” and an impending disaster is teased during the final moments.

Spoilers Ahead


Deliberate Misdirection: What Are Bruno And Peia Planning?

As the eleventh episode of Superman & Lois begins, shootouts keep happening across Metropolis, and as authorities and Superman reach the locations, they find the attacks to be faked by the fabrication of audible suggestions. With the power to generate and manipulate sonic waves, Peia is behind these attacks, and she is doing so in order to keep Clark in a state of confusion so that he can’t pinpoint their location. While keeping the DOD and Clark distracted, the Mannheim family is planning to secretly move to a more secure location halfway across the world, where legal intricacies will provide them immunity even if they are tracked down. If the intensity of Peia’s shockwave is any proof, Bruno’s cure for cancer harvested from Bizarro’s corpse has not only done what was intended but also augmented her powers. Mateo and Bruno rejoice to finally have a shot at starting their lives anew, leaving the sordid past behind, and even though Peia puts on a happy appearance, she knows everything isn’t right.


Dinner To Celebrate A New Beginning

As Lois is about to go through her mastectomy operation, her close ones decide to throw a party for her last meal before her surgery. Planning beforehand, Lana, Sarah, and the Irons gather at the Kent household for dinner. As the families gather at the table and gorge on some delicious Tallahassee hot wings together, Lois feels at ease about her upcoming operation and mentally prepares herself for the road to recovery.

Sarah is feeling guilty for unwittingly exposing Clark’s identity to Kyle, and on top of it, her DUI charges have kept her basically under observation by her parents. To make things even more awkward, Jordan is not willing to talk with her, and as she approaches him, he low-key expresses his disdain for her. Feeling despondent, Sarah tosses and turns throughout the night after returning home.


Necessary Rectifications 

Kyle takes the news of Clark being Superman unexpectedly well and even goes as far as to thank the Man of Steel by going to the office of the Smallville Gazette. As Clark leaves, Chrissy is relieved now that she doesn’t have to hide Clark’s secret identity from Kyle, but unfortunately, Kyle overreacts to her not sharing the information in the first place and leaves.

At the Lang household, Lana notices Sarah is hurting badly and is fearful about her future prospects getting hampered due to the DUI situation. Lana considers the possibility that her daughter might slip into depression all over again and fears the repetition of an awful scenario. Years ago, Sarah was brought back from a tough phase where she underwent depression, which led to her drug abuse and eventual OD. To sort the situation out, she goes to Kyle and asks for much-needed guidance for their daughter.

As the Cushing family meets at the town diner, Kyle shares his experience of battling with his own demon, alcoholism, and how that led him to eventually lessen the number of bad decisions he made. Just as he found a purpose in being a father and also a fireman, which helped him fight against his insecurities and the feeling of unworthiness, he asks Sarah to try finding her purpose, which can provide her with a sense of fulfillment. Lana and Kyle suggest their daughter take up the waitress job at the diner, and Sarah hesitantly agrees to do so. Sensing the tension between Kyle and Chrissy, Lana suggests her ex-husband take a dose of his own medicine, i.e., seek solutions to his own problems as well, and following her advice, Kyle patches up with Chrissy by acknowledging his mistake.


Did The Mannheim Family Get Caught?

Despite her father’s understandable hatred towards the Mannheims and Mateo’s unlawful activity of aiding her mother to break out of the DOD facility, Natalie can’t stop missing Mateo, whom she still loves. In her ‘Bug’ exo-armor, she goes to the vacant penthouse of Bruno to search for Mateo, and her father, John Henry, who was tracking her suit anticipating something like this, arrives there as well. John requests his daughter to try and forget about Mateo, as whether he eventually gets brought in by authorities or not, his future doesn’t align with Natalie anymore. John’s experience has taught him the adverse effects of clinging to the past, and he doesn’t want his daughter to have the same fate. As a rarity, Natalie agrees with her father, and the duo flies off.

Lois is brought to Hob’s Bay Medical Facility for her surgery, and the initial tension rattles her younger son Jordan a bit too much. The sudden emotional stress has triggered Jordan’s powers as his X-ray vision starts manifesting, and he flees from the room and curls up outside in panic. However, as a responsible elder brother, Jonathan comes to Jordan’s rescue and manages to calm Jordan’s senses by practicing the drill the brothers used to do in the past when Jordan used to suffer from anxiety attacks.

As the Mannheims are about to move from Metropolis via their secret subway hideout, Peia is overcome with extreme pain and, as a result, starts losing control over her powers. Bruno injects her with his Bizarro cure once again, which initially calms her senses momentarily but soon aggravates her situation. Unable to control her powers anymore, Peia’s sonic waves wreck down the hideout, and a panicked Mateo rushes outside to seek help while Bruno, still in denial, watches helplessly.

Mateo goes back to the penthouse to search for help, and one of Natalie’s devices, which she had implanted there, alerts her of Mateo’s presence. Natalie arrives and meets Mateo, but following him, Bruno and his henchmen arrive as well. As Bruno and Co. threaten Natalie, John arrives clad in his “steel” suit and lays waste to Bruno’s thugs. Peia, who is disorientedly roaming through South Metropolis, emits uncontrollable sonic waves that cause a citywide blackout, and the effects can be felt at Hob’s Bay Medical Facility too, which is in the nearby vicinity.

John Henry pins down Bruno, but instead of giving in to his provocation of killing him, he makes a sound judgment and asks Bruno to help his wife instead of continuing the fight. Superman flies off and approaches her but gets thrown away by the severe surges of a sonic wave. Bruno and Mateo watch helplessly as Peia’s condition worsens, and neither Nat nor John can help them as there is no chance of survival being anywhere close to her. The same Bruno who was hell-bent on murdering Superman tearfully asks John whether Superman can help his wife—something John doesn’t have an answer to.

Superman approaches Peia once again, holds his ground, and urges her to let go. Peia, too, realizes that she has been living on borrowed time and has come too far to be saved. In her final moments, Superman tries to comfort her by assuring that her family wouldn’t have wanted her to suffer and embracing her to contain the sonic wave destruction. Peia whispers her last words to Superman, who takes her beyond the clouds, and a massive sonic explosion follows. As Superman descends to Mannheim’s penthouse with Peia’s lifeless body, he states that her last words addressed to her family were she will love them forever and always, the same words Bruno used to say to her to profess his love. The show did a great job humanizing a ruthless assassin, and even though there was no redemption at the end, at least she got some solace in her final moments from the assuring presence of the Man of Steel. Bruno and Mateo break down in front of Peia’s deceased body, while John Henry clutches onto his daughter’s hand as the fear of losing someone close creeps up after witnessing such a devastatingly tragic moment.

As Bruno and Mateo are taken into DOD custody, Bruno agrees to confess to everything in exchange for his son’s acquittal. He entrusts John Henry with Mateo’s future and knows pretty well he has chosen the right person to do so.

Lois wakes up after her successful surgery, and her reply to Clark’s question about her well-being—about feeling like a toy broken and put back together—really pulls at the heartstrings. Learning about Peia’s fate, Lois feels aghast, but even she knew that Peia wouldn’t have survived with Bruno’s experimental cure. Later, as Clark and Lois return to the Kent household, Clark states how tough it was to realize that the pain Peia felt in her final moments was similar to what Lois had to go through during her treatment and diagnosis. Lois acknowledges that the battle wouldn’t have been possible without Clark’s loving, caring presence either.


Is Lex Going To Take Control Of Bizarro?

As the episode ends, the scene shifts to Bruno’s dilapidated hideout, where Bizarro has awakened and come fully to his senses. With Bruno’s chapter done and dusted, the rest of the two episodes of Superman & Lois Season 3 will deal with Bizarro’s threat, which is surely going to increase manifold with Lex coming into the play. After Bruno’s confession, Lex will be acquitted of the charges he was imprisoned for, and it goes without saying that his revenge will be cold and brutal.

In many adaptations of the character of Bizarro, it is Lex Luthor who created him using Superman’s DNA. However, this version of the character had another comic-book-accurate origin—as a being from the Bizarro world—but now has ended up in a scenario where Lex will have a serious role to play. There is a huge chance of Lex trying to control Bizarro and put him against his arch nemesis, the Man of Steel, and it remains to be seen how the combined threat can be tackled by Superman and co.


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Siddhartha Das
Siddhartha Das
An avid fan and voracious reader of comic book literature, Siddhartha thinks the ideals accentuated in the superhero genre should be taken as lessons in real life also. A sucker for everything horror and different art styles, Siddhartha likes to spend his time reading subjects. He's always eager to learn more about world fauna, history, geography, crime fiction, sports, and cultures. He also wishes to abolish human egocentrism, which can make the world a better place.

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