‘Superman & Lois’ Season 3 Ep 5: Recap & Ending Explained

Welcome to the recap and ending explained of Season 3 Episode 4 of Superman & Lois. This week’s episode is called “Head On,” and it follows the revelations uncovered in the last week’s episode. Intergang got their hands on Superman’s blood via the Department of Defense, John Henry Irons is being blackmailed by Bruno Manheim, and there is a good reason to suspect that Bruno will tamper with Lois’ chemotherapy. 

In this week’s episode, we’ve seen the appearance of a new villain, Deadline. We’ve seen that chemotherapy is taking its toll on Lois, and the last and the most shocking revelation was the fact that Integang stole the corpse of Bizarro Superman. But before we give everything away, let’s see how episode 5 played out.

Lois is starting her chemo 

The biggest concern at this stage of the season is the fact that Lois has cancer, an aggressive one at that. But luckily, she discovered it quickly, and after being scared to undergo chemo, Lois is finally getting treatment due to her personal issues and dealing with life in general. 

No one is seemingly okay with the fact that she is undergoing her treatment at Hob’s Bay medical center, the same medical center that Bruno Manheim is financing and uses its tech to transform violent criminals into superpowered villains assisted by Aleister Hook.

Sam Lane is the first to voice his concerns, but Clark remains steadfast that it’s Lois’ decision, and he’s going with it. Lois, of course, wants to get treatment at Hob’s Bay to get closer to Manheim and investigate him on his own home turf. 

She wants to use her treatment to snoop around the hospital and access Aleister’s files.

Junior confronts Lana Lang about the death of his father 

In the second episode of the third season, we know that Onomatopoeia has killed George. Now his son Junior confronts Lana Lang about her statement following his death and accuses her that she cheated on the election to get elected as the mayor. There’s probably no truth to it; this is a potential trouble brewing in future episodes, with Junior even perhaps resorting to criminal activities to “get back” at Lana. 

Lana had enough decency not to mention that George was probably working with Bruno Manheim and was crooked as they came. Besides, Lana has evidence and proof that George used the town’s funds as his personal wallet.

Bruno Manheim prepares a fresh batch of supervilains 

In one of the earlier episodes, we saw that one more prisoner had gotten a compassionate release due to his disease, and the prisoner in question was James Distefano. In this week’s episode, we can see Jame Distefano being “treated” by Hook. Superman’s blood seems to be keeping him alive, giving him superpowers and keeping the disease at Bay. 

Bruno obviously has a task for him regarding Lois. James Distefano is, at this moment, turned into a superhuman with vanishing powers, also known as a supervillain, under the alias “Deadline.”

Kyle Cushing recruits Jonathan Clark into a police force 

We know that Jonathan has been through some things and the fact that his powers haven’t manifested so far, leaving him in the shadow of his brother Jordan. Jonathan might find his new calling as he is seemingly recruited into a police force by Kyle Cushing. Kyle mentions that they need young people who are willing to help, and who knows, maybe it will lead to a successful career. 

Lois infiltrates the hospital but is caught by Bruno Manheim 

Instead of taking chemo as a regular, normal person, Lois is proving once again why she is considered the world’s greatest journalist. Stealing the necessary credentials, she managed to infiltrate the inner workings of the hospital and access Hook’s office. 

Just when she was about to download some files, primarily the calendar, Bruno Manheim walked into Hook’s office and caught Lois red-handed. 

Lois accuses him of using the hospital as a front for nefarious activities, and Bruno keeps up the facade of trying to help cancer patients. He, surprisingly, decides to show her his state-of-the-art research laboratory. 

As they are walking through the laboratory, Manheim explains why he decided to fund all this technology. He tells her pretty much the same story he told Superman. Hob’s Bay was an extremely poor neighborhood called “Suicide Slums” due to the misery of its denizens. 

His mother got sick when he was a child because the whole neighborhood was living near a chemical waste dump that nobody knew about. Manheim saw the injustice every day and realized that no one was coming to save them. He needs to be the one to save them. 

Manheim tells Lois that he will do everything in his power to save her life, but he draws the line when she meddles in his business, the business of making Hob’s Bay a better place. He likewise promises to send Hook’s research files to her. 

Candice is moving, and Jonathan needs to choose between her and the police job

We know that following Emmitt’s escape, Candice is now living with Kents for a time. Things are tense between her and Jordan, but she and Jonathan are doing great together. At the school dance, Jonathan finds out that Candice is moving to Topeka, several hours away from Smallville. He knows that he will have to sacrifice his weekends to see her regularly, and he asks Kyle Cushing whether he can reschedule his volunteering at the police station. 

Kyle tells him that he needs to set his priorities straight and needs to choose whether he wants to start his police career or see Candice on the weekends. 

Deadline infiltrates the Department of Defense 

The previously mentioned James Distefano makes his way to the Department of Defense and takes the whole building hostage, and he wants “access to all their secrets. Clark is alerted just as he is about to make his way to the school dance with Lois, who slowly starts feeling the toll of the chemotherapy. 

Clark arrives at the building, and Distefano has already started the transfer of secret files. Clark engages him in a fight, but Distefano has powers of molecular manipulation, meaning that he can phrase through objects and make himself invisible. He is also armed with a weapon infused with green kryptonite. 

After a rather short but tense fight, Clark manages to take down Distefano as he is stuck phased with the wall. But Clark’s efforts have been in vain since the data transfer has been completed. 

Later we would find out that the goal of Integang’s operation in the Department of Defense wasn’t to steal the information, as the members were “raiding the cupboards” while Clark was busy fighting Deadline; they stole the corpse of Bizarro Superman. 

How things will play out in the future, we’re going to have to wait until April 25th when the sixth episode of Superman & Lois airs.