The Soap Opera effect, when we're talking about TVs, is about using post-processing technology to make video seem ultra-smooth. In comic books, though, something else entirely. Comic books are ongoing serial products that want to evolve and move forward, but they star beloved, popular, and most importantly lucrative characters that their publishers can't afford to lose. And so we end up with characters that die and come back in silly, melodramatic ways that feel like soap opera tropes. Barry Allen and Kara Danvers famously died in the Crisis on Infinite Earths comic event and actually stayed that way for quite a while. When Superman died, though, it didn't last very long, and he mostly came back with a glorious mane of long hair. Now, Superman and Lois has to tangle with the same problem: how do you kill Superman and bring him back to life without making it feel like a rewind button? Spoilers follow for Superman & Lois Season 4, Episode 04, "A Perfectly Good Wedding."
"A Perfectly Good Wedding"
The writers behind Superman & Lois are in kind of an impossible position with Season 4. The team ended Season 3 in June of 2023 with Superman facing off against his deadliest foe, Doomsday. In November of that year, the CW announced the show would have a reduced cast and episode count, and that the fourth season would be its last. So you have this situation where the writers and showrunners set up a massive showdown, only to realize they no longer had a bridge to run across, Wile E. Coyote-style.
This episode marks the return of Superman, just a few episodes after he died, and considering what the team is working with, I think it largely works pretty well. Even so, it's hard not to see the results of the reduced episode count, abrupt shortening of the show's life, and the incredible shrinking cast.
The B-story that acts as a backdrop for everything going on is that Kyle and Chrissy are planning to get married and running into lots of roadblocks, causing Lois to volunteer the Kent barn as a venue. This is a funny decision, and the show points it out--this is the same place where Sarah and Lana found out Kyle had cheated on them during his alcoholic days. Sarah asks at one point if the barn is cursed, and indeed the significance of the Kent barn in the show is strange to consider.
But the core of the story is that, yes, Clark is back. After putting Sam Lane's heart, infused with Kryptonian blood, into Clark's body, Clark is quickly conscious and able to fly. This should feel cheap--why kill someone if you're going to bring them back not even 3 full episodes later? And in a show with five-plus seasons, I would agree with that. Instead, though, the writers found a way to make it interesting and to do so in a way that fits in with the themes of the show.
Shortly after his return, Clark notices the scar from the transplant hasn't healed. When training with the superpower prodigy Jonathan, Clark has a cardiac event that knocks him out of the sky. When he's drinking wine with Lois later, he mentions that he's feeling the wine for the first time in his life.
Superman & Lois is not just about Superman, but about his family. This is a Superman who has been around a while. He's experienced and emotionally, a little tired--not that he'd ever let it show. But Superman is invincible and largely immortal. So how do you show the toll that time and constant fighting take on him?
Having Clark walk around with a human heart in his body is a great way to make his death matter without also cutting him out of the show for the majority of its final season. He's back, but it's not like it was before. He's more vulnerable to Lex's attacks and to physical stress. He's showing his trauma and age at a time when it's more dangerous than ever for him to do so.
In doing this, the show gives Superman's return important meaning and context. It doesn't feel like a simple reset done because the character is too popular to cancel his comics. Instead, it's meant to evolve the character and tell us something about him.
The Kent brothers get some important character development here, too. Jordan has been so focused on what makes him different that he can't see what he has in common with people, and it's held him back since the beginning of the show. The conversation between Jordan and Lois is massively important for his growth, and he shows that by handing Jonathan the makeshift costume their grandfather created for him.
While this interesting stuff is going on, though, a lot of time is spent on Kyle and Chrissy's wedding and Chrissy's relationship with her mother. Presumably this is a farewell for both Chrissy and Kyle and their storyline. That storyline has always felt a little extraneous, even when the show had more time to work with. Kyle as a character has largely been redeemed from his earlier shitheadedness by taking his sobriety and divorce seriously. On the other hand, I feel like the show has never really known what to do with Chrissy aside from being someone for Lois to bounce off of that isn't named Kent.
It speaks highly of the showrunners and writers that they want to find ways to give the actors and their characters some kind of closure. At the same time, an episode centered around the wedding between two supporting cast members feels like the kind of thing you do in season 4 of 8, not season 4 of 4, and the juxtaposition of the wedding and Superman's newfound limitations is a weird one since they don't really tie together in any meaningful way.
Regardless, Tyler Hoechlin continues to be my absolute favorite live-action Superman, and his parts of this somewhat strange episode haven't changed that.
