Previously – Lex Luthor has taken up shop in a hotel in Smallville. Lois Lane’s story sent him to prison for 15 years, which ruined his relationship with his daughter. His efforts to bury Lois’ father, Sam Lane, alive was thwarted, but he was able to successfully use Doomsday to kill Superman. Doomsday ripped out Superman’s heart and delivered it to Luthor while Lois, Jordan, and Jonathan were left with the body.

Curious citizens of Smallville watch as Lois, Jordan, and Jonathan grieve over Superman’s deceased body. Smallville Mayor Lana Lang shows up to disperse the crowd. Lois instructs Jordan to take Superman to the Fortress of Solitude to see what Kryptonian technology can do for Superman.

Jordan takes Superman to the Fortress of Solitude that was recently built. It’s attended to by a hologram of Superman’s Kryptonian mother, Lara. She says that she can’t regrow Superman’s organs. The best the Fortress can do is keep Superman’s body in a stasis pool.

At the Kent home, Lois explains to Lana what Luthor has been doing to her. Lana wants to evict Luthor from his hotel, but Lois doesn’t want Luthor targeting Lana too.

Sarah gives her support to Jonathan, who is worried about Lois’ condition. She still has to undergo radiation treatments, and losing her husband is a lot for her to handle. Jordan returns to tell Jonathan and Sarah about Superman being in stasis, but he doesn’t talk about being unable to revive him without a heart.

Luthor’s assistant Amanda is eager for him to return to his business, but he is content with enjoying a world without Superman. Jordan tries to track Doomsday and has to admit to Jonathan that he needs to get Superman’s heart back if they want to see their father alive again. They keep this from Lois, who needs to go to the Gazette to write the story. Jordan says he will see if Luthor has the heart while Jonathan will delay Lois.

Lana and Sarah discuss helping the Kents. Lana wants Luthor out of Smallville, but she worries about putting her family in danger. Luthor meets with a man named Bash, who informs him that his stock is down. Bash suggests Luthor become a celebrity CEO and hold a press conference to repair his image, but Luthor doesn’t want to leave Smallville. Jordan, in his Superboy costume, confronts Luthor and demands to know where Superman’s heart is. Luthor wonders if he’s going to kill him and examines him. Luthor knows Jordan doesn’t have it in him and warns him he’d better be ready to kill him the next time they meet. Jordan leaves, defeated.

At the Smallville Gazette, Jonathan hesitates to tell Lois what Jordan found out at the Fortress while Lois works on a “Death of Superman” article. Lois notices Luthor returning to the hotel across the street and goes to confront him. Thanks to Jordan’s visit, Luthor has put two and two together. He knows that Superman was Clark, and he can tell that Jonathan doesn’t have any powers. When Lois tells him to leave her sons out of this, Luthor points out she didn’t leave his daughter out of it. Luthor isn’t above threatening Jordan and Jonathan.

Lana investigates Luthor’s properties and shell corporations. As she worries about men like Luthor taking businesses away from Mom and Pop organizations, a man named Chuck enters. He was there to witness Doomsday bringing Superman’s body back to Earth, and he wants to talk about the Kents.

Lois confronts Jordan about visiting Luthor. She is understandably upset that thanks to him, Luthor knows their secrets. Jordan wanted to help, but Lois tells him he isn’t ready and that he’s not his father. Before the discussion can continue, Lana calls her. Lois orders the boys to stay home as she leaves.

Lana tells Lois that Chuck was able to recognize Lois’ grief over Superman as a wife’s grief for her husband. Chuck promised to keep the secret to himself, but Lois tells Lana that Luthor knows and she may have to deal with the world knowing their secret.

Jordan feels even worse after talking with Lois. He worries that he’ll never be like Superman, and his super hearing picks up Superman’s unique heartbeat. Jonathan warns him it’s a trap, but Jordan follows the sound anyway.

Jonathan isn’t left to himself for very long. While working at the diner, Sarah sees Luthor come in. She calls Jonathan and tells him to break into Luthor’s hotel room while she keeps him at the diner. Lana enters the diner, and Luthor introduces himself to her. Lana would rather talk to Sarah than talk to him about business. Lana and her daughter go into the kitchen to talk privately.

While Jonathan goes through Luthor’s personal items, the costumed Jordan explores a container yard. He locates a LexCorp container and takes out guards with super speed. Lana questions Sarah about Luthor, and Sarah admits that she’s delaying him so that Jonathan can investigate his room. Lana tells Sarah to text Jonathan and tell him to get out of the hotel, and while they are talking, Luthor takes his leave.

Lois returns to an empty home. In an intense series of scenes, Lois gets a call from Clark. It’s actually a faked voice, and he tells her that one of her boys will be dead. Jonathan hears someone enter the hotel room while Jordan finds a decoy Superman toy. A phone operator tells Lois she has to press 1 if she wants Jordan to live and 2 for Jonathan.

It was only Lana in the hotel room, and she helps Jonathan leave. Meanwhile. guards with kryptonite guns overwhelm Jordan. He tries fighting back, but a sonic device makes him collapse. Lois has ten seconds to make her choice, and while we don’t see it, she does press a button. The phone operator simply thanks her for participating before hanging up.

It’s unclear how much Lois’ decision affected events, but Jonathan enters the Kent kitchen while Luthor meets Jordan in the container yard. Even while on the ground and in pain, Jordan says he won’t leave without Superman’s heart. Luthor holds the heart and drops it just out of Jordan’s reach. Then, he stomps Superman’s heart in front of Jordan.

Lois is alerted to a break-in at the Gazette, and when she and Jonathan investigate, they find a distraught Jordan. He admits he wasn’t ready and that thanks to him, they’ll never get Superman back. While Lois doesn’t blame Jordan, Jonathan does. Lois doesn’t want them to fight amongst themselves because that’s what Luthor wants. Lois says that they need to say goodbye to Superman.

Amanda tells Luthor she made an offer in Smallville so that Luthor can set up headquarters there. Luthor finds out that his daughter, Elizabeth, didn’t want him to find her so she made contact with the Department of Defense. The only one who knows where she is located is Lois’s father, Sam Lane.

Lana tells Sarah that she’ll be blocking Luthor’s deals in Smallville, but their happy moment is cut short when Sarah gets a text about Superman. She has to tell Lana that Superman is really dead. Lana, having been friends with Clark her entire life, takes it hard.

The Kents see Superman’s body in stasis in the Fortress. The Lara hologram says that Superman left something for them. It’s a hologram of Superman himself. He had it made when the Fortress was created, but he didn’t get the chance to tell them because of Lois’ health issues. He had hoped that they wouldn’t need it. The hologram will always be at the Fortress whenever Lois, Jordan, or Jonathan needs him, but outside the Fortress, it will just be the three of them.

Given the reduced and rotating status of the cast, it seems like last episode was Sam’s while this one was for Lana and Sarah. As mayor of Smallville and Lois’ emotional support, Lana has a crucial role in the series, but she may not be in every episode this season.

This episode raised a lot of questions. Why was Sam involved in hiding Elizabeth from Luthor and where is she? Which son did Lois choose to save and will we ever find out? Did Luthor destroy Superman’s real heart and will the show continue without Superman? Now that Tyler Hoechlin can appear in every episode as a hologram, will Superman ever come back? With Doomsday still around and Luthor gaining more ground, things are going to get even harder for the Kents.

Discuss this article on the Toonzone Forums!

The post Superman & Lois: “A World Without” Episode Recap appeared first on Anime Superhero News.