History Recap / Supergirl2015S4E15OBrotherWhereArtThou

* KickTheSonOfABitch: 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.

* DrivenByEnvy: As Lex's rant (quoted below under RantInducingSlight) 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.

* RantInducingSlight:

* BittersweetEnding: 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 henchman (Otis Graves and Eve Tessmacher) by his side.

** Manchester's fixation with J'onn proves he never game 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 [[TogetherInDeath wants to die so he can be with Fiona.]]

* DarkLordOnLifeSupport: Lex is wheelchair-bound, dependant on Respiratory Equipment and constantly coughes up blood as a result from his Kryptonite poisoning.

* DirtyCop: Lex's security guards seem to be happy for any chance to abuse him. He later gets his revenge on them.

* EurekaMoment: When she sees two workmen installing new light fixtures in the hospital, Lena puts two and two together, realising that Lex caused the blackout.

* FreezeFrameBonus: 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 kryptonite cancer, Painting Lillian's eyes have been cut out.

* GoOutWithASmile: Manchester, having succeeded in goading J'onn into killing him, even telling him that he looks beautiful this way.
* HoistByTheirOwnPetard: Lex's terminal cancer is a result of him working with Kryptonite. He recognises the irony, though he doesn't find it quite as amusing as Lena does.

** J'onn still beats himself up about whats happening with Manchester.

* LackOfEmpathy: 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 [[HoistByTheirOwnPetard self-inflicted]] cancer.

** Set design gag: The interior of the Luthor mansion is the same interior as the Queen mansion on Series/{{Arrow}}, which was also the interior used for the Luthor mansion on Series/{{Smallville}}.

* NotMeThisTime: Although 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.

** PlayedForLaughs in the present; [[NoSnackForYou A vending machine holding out on some cookies]] causes Brainy to unload anything he's upset about onto Nia, including [[ComicBook/{{Brainiac}} 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."

** Lex goes from calm philosophising and EvilGloating to a scream of rage when Lena calls Superman "a good man".

* ShoutOut:
** Brainy quotes Creator/KeanuReeves in ''Film/{{Speed}}'' when explaining to Nia how they can't be together.
** When Lena tells Lex she won't ever give him the cure, Lex reveals he got his hands on it [[ComicBook/{{Watchmen}} ten minutes ago.]]

* ShoutOut: Brainy quotes Creator/KeanuReeves in ''Film/{{Speed}}'' when explaining to Nia how they can't be together.

** Lex making red sunlight, something he did in WesternAnimation/SuperFriends, in the episode 'Lex Luthor Strikes Back'. It also happened in WesternAnimation/SupermanTheAnimatedSeries, and, even if Lex wasn't directly involved in that occasion, the episode's villain used Lexcorp's technology.

** Lex making red sunlight, something he did in WesternAnimation/SuperFriends, in the episode 'Lex Luthor Strikes Back'. It also happened in WesternAnimation/SupermanTheAnimatedSeries, and, even if Lex wasn't directly involved in this one, the episode's villain used Lexcorp's technology.

** Lex making red sunlight, something he did in WesternAnimation/SuperFriends, in the episode 'Lex Luthor Strikes Back'. It also happened in [[WesternAnimation/SupermanTheAnimatedSeries]], and, even if Lex wasn't directly involved in this one, the episode's villain used Lexcorp's technology.

** Lex making red sunlight, something he did in WesternAnimation/SuperFriends, in the episode 'Lex Luthor Strikes Back'. It also happened in SupermanTheAnimatedSeries, and, even if Lex wasn't directly involved in this one, the episode's villain used Lexcorp's technology.

* MythologyGag: Numerous, all of them related to Lex Luthor's appearances in several media.

** Lex making red sunlight, something he did in WesternAnimation/SuperFriends, in the episode 'Lex Luthor Strikes Back'.

* UnexplainedRecovery: Otis' presumed death is completely glossed over, with no mention of how he survived an attack from a Hellgrammite that (presumably) definitely killed Mercy.