Lex Luthor, dying from cancer, has secretly been given a mercy furlough from prison and asks Lena to help cure him. Meanwhile, Kara and J'onn hunt down James' would-be assassin whom J'onn believes to be Manchester Black.
Tropes in this episode:
- Abusive Parents: Lillian clearly wasn't any kinder to Lex than she was to Lena, despite the former being her favored child. When Lex's dog needed to be put down, Lillian, to teach her son not to form attachments, sent him off on a business trip with his father. She also allowed tutors to enact abusive punishments for any minor failing Lex suffered in his studies.
- Alone with the Psycho: The flashback at the start of the episode shows Lena alone with and clearly terrified by Lex, who has endangered the entire world in his mad crusade against Superman.
- Always Someone Better: Back in the day, Lex always used to belittle Lena's inventions before coming up with ways to improve them. Subverted as of the present day, as Lex compliments her for synthesizing Kryptonite, something he was never able to achieve.
- The Bad Guy Wins:
- By using the Staff of K'lar to show J'onn images of his daughters and then their murder by the White Martians, Manchester gets J'onn enraged enough to use the Staff to kill him.
- Lex gets the cure and escapes custody, though Supergirl flies in for the final scene to confront him.
- Bait the Dog: Lex tells Lena a story of how he met her mother, a good and caring woman, who comforted him after the death of his pet dog, more than his actual mother. He then tells her that she is far better than anybody from their family and encourages her to go help James... all in a ruse to test the Harun-El serum for himself (although he claims, at least, that the story about Lena's mother was true).
- Big Bad Ensemble: With Manchester dead, Lex takes his place in the ensemble.
- Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Eve has been working with Lex from day one and is not as nice as she seemed.
- Bittersweet Ending: With an extreme emphasis on the bitter. James is saved and Manchester is dead. But J'onn ended up succumbing to Manchester's mind games by killing him and Lex is cured of his cancer and has two loyal henchmen (Otis Graves and Eve Tessmacher) by his side.
- Canon Foreigner: James' sister Kelly Olsen is an original character created for the show.
- Card-Carrying Villain: Although he mostly plays himself up as a Well-Intentioned Extremist, Lex does get a sardonic moment where he agrees with Lena describing him as a sociopath.
- Casting Gag: Jon Cryer played Lex's nephew Lenny Luthor in Superman IV: The Quest for Peace. In fact, Cryer says he took the part when approached partly because he wanted to "make up" for Lenny, since he was a very poorly-received character.
- The Chessmaster: Aside from Manchester's actions, Lex is responsible for everything that's happened since the end of the previous episode, all part of a scheme to cure his terminal cancer and regain his freedom.
- Co-Dragons: Otis Graves and Eve Tessmacher for Lex.
- Cop Killer: Lex blows up a police helicopter in the flashback, and massacres the prison guards upon becoming healthy again.
- Crazy-Prepared: Lex escapes when he shoots the D.O.C. officers with lasers hidden behind the family crests in the mansion's courtyard. He then cloaks the entire mansion, making it look like a vacant lot.
- Dark Lord on Life Support: Lex is wheelchair-bound, dependant on respiratory equipment and constantly coughes up blood as a result of his Kryptonite poisoning.
- Darker and Edgier: Lex and his henchmen at the end of the episode are a darker version of their set up from Superman: The Movie: rather than a crooked real-estate developer, Lex is a sociopathic madman who endangers innocent lives to save himself; Otis, while still an idiot, is a sadistic thug instead of the Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain he was in the movie; and Eve, rather than the Anti-Villain who saved Superman's life in the film, is a cold-blooded killer with a science degree who is unshakably loyal to Lex.
- Desecrating the Dead: In a particularly cruel moment, Manchester desecrates M'yrnn's grave just to get under J'onn's skin.
- Double-Meaning Title: While the episode's title was built up as primarily alluding to Lena's relationship with Lex, it also applies to Kelly's relationship with James.
- Dramatically Missing the Point:
- In the flashback, Lex responds to Lena calling Superman a "good man" by shouting "HE IS NOT A MAN!". Lex didn't quite get the important bit of her statement.
- Just like Thomas Coville did to the Kryptonian religion last season, Manchester is doing the same towards the Martian faith to justify his own violent agenda.
- Driven by Envy: As Lex's rant demonstrates, he doesn't hate Superman for any rational reason; he's just jealous that people see Superman as "The Man of Tomorrow", rather than Lex himself.
- "Eureka!" Moment: When she sees two workmen installing new light fixtures in the hospital, Lena puts two and two together, realizing that Lex caused the blackout.
- Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Despite all the manipulation and bad blood, Lex does seem to genuinely love Lena.
- Evil All Along: Eve has been a lackey for Lex since before she was introduced to the show.
- Faking the Dead: Otis has been faking his death on Lex's orders.
- Flashback: To four years in the past, where Lex somehow managed to turn the sunlight red, causing massive damage and then being arrested.
- Foreshadowing:
- The attacker knows about the signal watch James wears and deliberately triggers it, so the culprit could only be someone familiar with Superman and an interest in seeing James wounded but not killed.
- Despite J'onn and Kara seeing him as the prime suspect, Manchester never takes credit for shooting James, an early hint that he isn't responsible.
- During the power surge that endangers James mid-surgery, Lex is sitting in the Luthor mansion, calmly reading a book, not even seeming to notice. By the end of the episode, it's revealed that he knew it was coming.
- Despite Lena considering it not ready, Eve brought some harun-el to the hospital on her own initiative. Or rather, on Lex's orders.
- Freeze-Frame Bonus: There is a portrait of Lillian Luthor in the mansion parlor, which Lex comments on that it feels like her eyes are following him. By the time Lex has cured himself of cancer, Painting Lillian's eyes have been cut out.
- The Ghost: Although mentioned many times, Superman doesn't appear in either the flashbacks or the present day.
- Go Out with a Smile: Manchester, having succeeded in goading J'onn into killing him, dies smiling, even telling him that he looks beautiful this way.
- Hoist by Their Own Petard: Lex's terminal cancer is a result of him working with Kryptonite. He recognizes the irony, though he doesn't find it quite as amusing as Lena does.
- How the Mighty Have Fallen: Lex is dying from cancer and his now confined to a wheelchair and forced to turn to Lena for help, a far cry from the arrogant scientist who once held his own sister hostage.
- It's All About Me: Lex, of course — he even tries to make Lena's achievements about him. Although he then admits that Lena is the better scientist — even he couldn't make synthetic Kryptonite.
- It's All My Fault:
- J'onn still beats himself up about what's happening with Manchester.
- Both Nia and Brainy blame themselves for not having foreseen James getting shot.
- Kick the Dog:
- Lex blows up a police helicopter in the flashback, evidently just because they interrupted his monologue.
- Manchester desecrates M'yrnn's grave to get J'onn's attention, and later, makes him relive his family's deaths.
- Eve shoots a downed police officer to drive home the reveal that she's a villain.
- Kids Are Cruel: According to Lena, Lex didn't just set ants on fire with a spyglass when he was a kid. He would carefully build an elaborate anthill, and lure them into it with a false sense of security before being incinerated by an open flame.
- Lack of Empathy: Lex's is on full display; in a flashback, he turns Earth's sun red, and when Lena tells him that the planet can't live under a red sun, Lex just replies "neither can Superman". He follows this up by blowing up a police helicopter without even reacting to Lena's horror. In the present day, he has James shot to motivate Lena to get the Harun-El ready, and triggers a blackout at the hospital, risking hundreds of innocent lives, to force her to use it, all so he could cure his own self-inflicted cancer.
- Manipulative Bastard: Lex plays on Lena's sympathies and emotions for the entire episode in order to secure a cure for his cancer.
- Mythology Gag: Numerous, most of them related to Lex Luthor's appearances in several media.
- Lex yells "MISS TESCHMACHER'' just like in the 1978 live-action film.
- Lex having Otis and Eve as his henchmen again just like the 1978 movie.
- Lex making red sunlight, something he did in Super Friends, in the episode 'Lex Luthor Strikes Back'. It also happened in Superman: The Animated Series, and, even if Lex wasn't directly involved in that occasion, the episode's villain used Lexcorp's technology. More recently, Lex did this in the New Krypton story arc.
- Lex getting terminal cancer, something that happened in both the comics and the DC Animated Universe.
- Not Lex-related is Brainy's attempt to get Chocos (a Bland-Name Product for Oreos normally associated with J'onn) from the vending machine.
- Set design gag: the interior of the Luthor mansion is the same interior as the Queen mansion on Arrow, which was also the interior used for the Luthor mansion on Smallville.
- No Body Left Behind: J'onn completely vaporizes Manchester with the Staff of K'lar.
- No Endor Holocaust: Subverted; Lex is told in the flashback that Earth life can't survive off of red sunlight.
- Not Me This Time: Though he never admits it himself, Manchester was never responsible for shooting James or the power going out at the hospital (despite the fact that he was attacking a hydroelectric dam), with both being the machinations of Lex.
- Not-So-Well-Intentioned Extremist:
- Lex claims that trying to kill Superman is for the good of all humanity. It doesn't take all of five minutes for him to invalidate any good intentions; he murders police officers without batting an eye, and when Lena calls Superman a good man, Lex snaps that he isn't a man and that Lex was meant to be the "Man of Tomorrow", not Superman.
- Manchester's fixation with J'onn proves he never gave a damn about the Elite's lofty rhetoric about combating anti-alien bigotry. He's left his colleagues to rot inside the D.E.O. and devotes all his energy just so J'onn will be angry enough to kill him. However, this is probably because Manchester wants to die so he can be with Fiona.
- Police Brutality: The Marshals guarding Lex seem to be happy for any chance to abuse him. He later gets his revenge on them.
- Power Nullifier: In the flashback, Lex finds a way to block out yellow sunlight, leaving only red, to depower Superman.
- Pragmatic Villainy: The DOC guard assigned to Lex deliberately drops a glass of water Lena asked for and lets him languish on the floor. He turns out to be Otis in disguise, acting as such to sell the ruse.
- Rage Breaking Point:
- In the flashback, Lena calls Superman a good man, which sets off Lex on a deranged Motive Rant highlighting his intense envy towards Superman.
- Played for Laughs in the present; a vending machine holding out on some cookies causes Brainy to unload anything he's upset about onto Nia, including his evil ancestry and that Mon-El could be a jerk. He lampshades this, saying how James being at death's door has "forced me to process every difficult thing I've ever experienced."
- The Reveal:
- After three and half seasons of being The Ghost, Lex Luthor finally shows up in the flesh.
- Lex has been The Man Behind the Man to Lena this season helping her perfect the Harun-El Serum.
- When J'onn probed around Manchester's brain it opened a two-way door allowing Manchester to poke around his brain.
- Lex had James shot to force Lena to test Harun-El Serum.
- Otis Graves faked his death and Eve has been Evil All Along and on Lex's payroll the entire time.
- The Shrink: Kelly Olsen is a psychologist.
- Shout-Out: Brainy quotes Keanu Reeves in Speed when explaining to Nia how they can't be together.
- "Shut Up" Kiss: Nia kisses Brainy when he starts beating himself up again. Sadly, it gets interrupted by the blackout.
- Skyward Scream: J'onn, after suffering through losing his family again thanks to Manchester.
- Suddenly Shouting:
- Lex goes from calm philosophizing and Evil Gloating to a scream of rage when Lena calls Superman "a good man".
- While talking to J'onn, Manchester goes from affable to furious as he insists that J'onn come to his senses and become a Well-Intentioned Extremist like Manchester.
- Strike Me Down with All of Your Hatred!: This time, after failing to sway him to his side, Manchester succeeds in goading J'onn into killing him, so Manchester can be with Fiona again.
- Take That!: The DOC guard refers to Lex as "Individual One", drawing an unflattering parallel between him and Donald Trump ("Individual One" is the code name used for Trump in Robert Mueller's investigation into him).
- Trailers Always Lie: Lex's Evil Plan to turn the sun red? All part of a flashback set four years before the show started.
- Unexplained Recovery: Otis's presumed death is completely glossed over, with no mention of how he survived an attack from a Hellgrammite that (presumably) definitely killed Mercy.
- Unfinished, Untested, Used Anyway: Lena is forced to use the Harun-El Serum to save James even though it hasn't been tested on humans yet. This turns out to have been invoked by Lex, who knew she wouldn't test it in a timely manner unless she was given a push.
- Wham Episode: Manchester is dead and Lex is free, accompanied by a still alive Otis Graves and Eve.
- Wham Line: Combined with Wham Shot as Eve suddenly steps in with a gun aimed at Lena, clearly on Lex's side.Lex: Miss Tessmacher!Eve: Sorry, not sorry.
Lena: How long?
Eve: Since forever. - Wham Shot:
- Manchester holding the Staff of K'lar.
- The DOC agent's image inducer revealing him to be Otis in disguise.
- What the Hell, Hero?: Alex, no longer remembering that Kara is Supergirl, gets very angry with her when she just leaves the hospital as James is being prepped for surgery, for seemingly no good reason.
- You Are Better Than You Think You Are: Kara tries to comfort J'onn after killing Manchester, telling him that this doesn't change what he is. J'onn disagrees, as he is no longer sure about who he is.
- You See, I'm Dying: Lex, due to Kryptonite poisoning.
