‘Superman & Lois’ Season 3 Ep 7: Recap & Ending Explained 

Welcome to the ending explained for Superman & Lois’ Season 3, episode 7. In the last week’s episode, we’ve seen that Lois’ new chemo friend Peia is actually the villain Onomatopoeia and has a close relationship with Bruno Manheim. In this week’s episode titled “Forever and Always,” we’ve gotten glimpses into Bruno Manheim’s past and the depth of his connection with Peia. This episode did everything to humanize Bruno Manheim and make him seem like a villain with a cause. There’s Smallville drama brewing on the horizon with Chrissy, Lana, Johny Henry, and Kyle developing complicated relationships. 

Jordan and Jonathan are beyond scared for their mother’s life and are going a long way to figure out how to help her. One more member of Manheim’s family likewise has gotten closer to Superman, unknowingly, but before we reveal everything, let’s start from the beginning. 

Bruno and Peia go a long way & have known each other from childhood

We have pretty much known all there is to know about Bruno Manheim regarding his criminal activities and goals. We know how he started at the bottom of the Suicide Slums and transformed the area with his sharp business sense with a side of criminal activities. Naturally, he couldn’t do it alone, and this week’s episode revealed who was pulling the strings along with him all along. 

In a series of flashbacks, we learn that Peia and Bruno Manheim have known each other since childhood, and the two developed a relationship. Bruno wanted to pitch Peia’s boss, boss Moxie, with some “business proposals” on how to get Lex Luthor to “pay” for the fact that he abuses Hobbs Bay for his personal gain. 

Bruno never planned to stop halfway to the top. Peia warned him that his ideas would lead to bad things, but Bruno knew something had to be done. If shady things need to happen at Hobbs Bay, they should be done to benefit the people of the surrounding area and not the elite at Metropolis. 

We can see Bruno rising to the top of the criminal chain, buying a house solidifying his relationship with Peia, and ultimately, we can see Boss Moxie figuring out that Bruno Manheim wanted to take over his “business.” 

Peia worked with Moxie, and he used her as her enforcer due to the superhuman powers that she obviously had even before she got sick with cancer and Bruno tried treatments on her. In a destiny-defining moment, Peia decided to murder her former boss and declare her love and allegiance to Bruno Manheim. The two eventually got married, which is why their connection is so strong. 

Lois is right yet again despite doubting her journalist’s instincts 

Lois is getting sicker as the episodes pass. She is now starting to feel the effects of chemotherapy. She alternates between pain, vomiting, and general weakness while trying to be a successful journalist and a full-time mother whom her community relies upon. Clark is trying to help, but he can do only so much. 

While undergoing treatment in the hospital, Lois and Peia meet once again. The two have connected over their shared misery and cancer, and Peia is “helping” Lois learn more about Hobbs Bay. Only it’s not true, and Peia is actually throwing misdirects in Lois’ direction. 

Lois gets kind of suspicious. Peia has grown up in Hobbs Bay and never crossed paths with Bruno Manheim. Feeling like Lois knows too much, Peia asks her to leave her alone and moves to another spot to take her final treatment in peace. 

Lois feels terrible, she feels like she’s losing her instincts, and she can’t believe she was fishing for an angle while the poor woman was receiving her chemo. 

Clark decides to help, claiming there has to be something more to the story, and he decides to visit Bruno Manheim in his home for an interview.

While there, Clark asks Bruno how come he invested in the hospital, which is the only business that generates nothing but debt, which means that through the hospital, he keeps losing money while all other business ventures of his keep generating ludicrous amounts of money. 

Bruno claims that the people of Hobbs Bay seem to get sick with cancer at a disproportionate rate compared to the general population, insinuating that it’s because of the toxic waste slums that used to surround the area. 

Clark doesn’t take this as a good enough answer, and he keeps pushing until he finally realizes that someone really close to Bruno has to be sick with it. Bruno exhibits the same emotions that Clark is feeling, and he figures correctly. 

Bruno Manheim and Peia are married, and he is doing the hospital and cancer treatment thing to hopefully cure her. He understands that a desperate husband is likely to turn every stone to help his family. 

Meanwhile, back at the hospital, Lois profoundly apologizes to Peia. Peia accepts the apology but claims that the two can’t be friends. They come from vastly different backgrounds, and chances are, neither of them will live long enough to see the friendship develop. The real reason, however, is the fact that Peia hides the secret of her marriage from Lois. 

Lois asks Peia and her family to join them in Smallville for a weekend to get a break after her last chemo treatment, and Peia declines, trying to figure out the next lie to sell her. 

At that moment, Bruno Manheim and Clark walk into the room, and Bruno comes clean and explains that he needs to keep his relationship with Peia mostly hidden because he has many enemies (but he proceeds to make an extremely public appearance with her?) 

Now that her chemo round is over at the hospital’s rooftop, Peia gets to ring the bell. She and Bruno Manheim are both emotional, and she explains that he did everything on earth and the heavens to help her, and she couldn’t ask for a better husband. This somewhat softens up Lois, who figures out that Bruno Manheim has a human dimension, not just the “turning criminals into supervillains” angle. 

Chrissy and Sarah try to connect without Kyle in the picture 

It’s been several days since Lana Lang learned that her ex-husband, Kyle, has a new girlfriend, and she is taking it well. She is mature about it and allegedly doesn’t hold it against Chrissy. The person that does have a problem with it is Sarah, who claims that it’s “gross.” It’s just such a teen thing to say, but it must be weird when your father’s girlfriend is closer to your mother’s age.

One afternoon while Sarah waits for her father to return from work, Chrissy appears in his apartment, and the two decide to go for a movie without him. The two bond, they have some similar interests, and it seems like an uneasy alliance is on the horizon.

However, while returning from the movies, Sarah sees Lana walking away. She likely saw the friendly exchange between her and Chrissy. Sarah wants Lana to realize that nothing will ever replace her as a mother, and the two reconcile while shooting fireworks in the middle of the field.

John Henry Irons meets Nat’s boyfriend

In one of the first episodes of the third season, while at a party in Metropolis, Natalie Irons met a wonderful young man that she took a liking to almost instantly. As their relationship gets increasingly serious, she decides it’s time for Matteo to meet her dad. In theory, John Henry Irons is fine with it, but in practice, he is scared of his little girl growing up and boys hounding her.

He agrees that Matteo is perfectly polite and there’s nothing wrong with him, but he feels protective of Natalie, and that’s all. Despite scaring Matteo, the two eventually reconcile, and Matteo expresses that John Henry Irons should meet his mother, who is equally as protective of him.

Johny Henry and Lana Lang likewise are getting closer to each other, and we have a new budding romance on the horizon.

Matteo returns home to his family, and wouldn’t you know it, Bruno Manheim and Peia are Matteo’s parents. This means that Natalie is due to have dinner with the family that is responsible for the death of Johny Henry Irons of this Earth. And let’s not forget that Manheim and this version of Irons are also mortal enemies.

This is just about the only plot twist we had in this episode, and as soon as Matteo specifically mentioned his mother, I kinda saw it coming.

Jordan and Jonathan are trying to utilize Kryptonian technology to help Lois

Jordan and Jonathan are aware that Lois keeps getting worse. They are dumbfounded at why Clark does nothing to help her since he lies on the vast reserves of Kryptonian knowledge and technology that might save their mother from likely death.

The two decide to make their way to the newly rebuilt Fortress of Solitude to have a quick chat with their deceased paternal grandmother, Lara Lor-Van. Her hologram explains that there’s nothing she can do. Using experimental technology on Lois would be dangerous because she is human, and it might end up deadly.

The boys refuse to take no for an answer until Clark arrives to sort out the mess. Jordan and Jonathan leave, but things take a turn for the worse when they find Lois’ last will & testament and home. They go into a sorrowful rage, afraid for their mother.

Lois explains that making a last will doesn’t mean she will die, but it’s a sensible thing to do in her situation. Jonathan and Jordan blame Clark for not doing everything to help her and urge him again to try Kryptonian technology. Clark explains that a) it’s dangerous, b) if they use the technology on Lois, it wouldn’t be fair toward every other human being suffering from cancer, but that revealing such technology to humans would be detrimental in the long run for the world peace in general.

The boys finally make their peace with the decision, but I feel the issue is not completely resolved.

To see how Lois’ treatments turn out and how Bruno Manheim will react to Matteo bringing Natalie Irons home to dinner, we’re going to have to wait until next week when the eighth episode titled “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner” airs.

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