In Cold Blood
Despite her health issues, Lois continues her investigation into Bruno Mannheim, leading to a discovery about how Henry Miller gained powers. Meanwhile, Jon comes into conflict with his girlfriend's father.
Tropes:
- Abusive Parents: While apologizing to Sarah for slapping her, Lana mentions that her own mother would do things like that and that she doesn't want to be like her.
- All Just a Dream: At the beginning of the episode and again later on, Clark has the same dream about Metropolis being destroyed and arriving too late to save Lois.
- Arm Cannon: The leader mook has a pair of Kryptonite-based flamethrower cannons on his arms, which prove effective in pinning down and nearly killing Superman.
- Big Damn Heroes: John Henry saves Clark from the goon with the Kryptonite-weapon.
- Bitch Slap: Lana gives one to Sarah during an argument. It leads to Sarah leaving the house.
- Broken Pedestal: While she is initially protective of her father, Candice is saddened to learn that he really did steal the truck and the watch from Jon.
- Call-Back: Lana uses the "Get out of my face!" line on Sarah, just like Lois did on Jon back in Season 1.
- Captured on Purpose: Lois stands directly in front of the door when the freezer is opened so the mooks will focus on her. Chrissy then triggers the Superman signal while they're distracted, allowing Lois to call for him before they can kill her.
- Continuity Nod: As the junior heroes debate how to get the stolen truck out of the chop shop, the idea of just super-speeding inside comes up. Jordan isn't too supportive of that plan because there could be surveillance cameras inside, similar to a prior episode where he got caught on a party store security camera resulting in Sam deleting the footage and chewing him out later.
- Crazy-Prepared: The freezer with Superman's blood in it is insulated to hide it from the latter.
- Don't You Dare Pity Me!: Lois eventually admits to Clark that she won't let go of the Mannheim case because people are already treating her like she's fragile when that hasn't happened yet, in addition to fearing all the terrible symptoms of chemo.
- Driven to Suicide: The leader mook blows himself up rather than to face imprisonment or possibly his boss's wrath.
- Fiery Cover-Up: The leader mook blows up the entire warehouse after John destroys his weapons, not because he expects it to kill John and Superman (his dialogue indicates he's well aware it won't), but because it will destroy everything they haven't already moved to another location.
- Five-Second Foreshadowing: Lana stands by Sarah's door, trying to talk to her but only getting silence in return. The next scene ends with Sarah going to her father for comfort.
- Foreshadowing: Candice's father asks Jonathan questions about his new car, including the price (which Jon doesn't know, since it was a gift from his Uncle Tal). Later on, Jonathan has his car stolen.
- Green-Eyed Monster: Kyle apparently still has some possessiveness issues regarding Lana, as he is none too happy to hear from Sarah that John Henry gave her a new alarm system, despite Kyle himself having slept with Chrissy recently.
- How Do I Shot Web?: Outside the chop shop, Jonathan wants Jordan to try to see inside using x-ray vision. Jordan is a little embarrassed to reply that he can hear what's going on inside, but he can't get x-ray vision to work (yet).
- Imported Alien Phlebotinum: General Lane asks Clark if there's any Kryptonian technology that could help Lois. Clark already checked with his mother at the Fortress, who told him she lacked the means to help.
- Internal Reveal:
- The episode has a montage of Lois telling several of her friends and relatives about her cancer.
- Jonathan tells Candice about Eliza kissing him, off-screen.
- Manly Tears: The normally stern and calm General Lane breaks into tears after Lois tells him about having cancer.
- Moby Schtick: Lois states that Bruno Mannheim is her "white whale".
- My God, What Have I Done?: Lana is instantly horrified after she slaps Sarah during their argument.
- My God, You Are Serious!: Kyle's reaction when Chrissy tells him about almost dying in a freezer.
- No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: Superman leaves Lois at the clinic to deal with a flood, even though he's clearly suspicious that she'll ditch it if he does. He's right to worry, as she nearly ends up killed by Intergang when she goes looking for an excuse not to attend.
- "The Reason You Suck" Speech:
- Candice lays into Jon after he tells her her father may have stolen his car, though she ends up finding the engraved watch later and admits she was a bit too quick to condemn him.
- Lana and Sarah give this to each other regarding the latter telling Kyle about security measures behind Lana's back.
- Reed Richards Is Useless: A variation. The advanced Kryptonian technology at the Fortress won't help with Lois's condition.
- The Reveal: The serum Bruno Mannheim used to give Henry Miller powers is a synthesized version of Superman's blood.
- Shout-Out: To The Waltons. Candice's dad says, "Good night, John boy."
- Sibling Team: Jon, Jordan and Natalie all work together to recover Jon's truck, with Natalie and Jordan flying at superspeed under smoke cover to take out and distract the thieves while Jon takes back the keys and drives the car out of there.
- Superhuman Transfusion: A blood transfusion from Superman is able to grant Henry Miller powers, but it's unstable and he can't handle it as effectively as Mannheim would like.
- Third Line, Some Waiting: The A-plot is about Lois's investigation and her cancer treatment. The B-plot is about Jonathan trying to tell Candice what happened with Eliza and her father stealing his truck. The C-plot has the Lang family troubles and Kyle being jealous of John, which has the least focus and sees little resolution.
- Tragic Keepsake: Nat gives the watch that belonged to her mom to Lois, now engraved on the back with the names of all Lois's friends and family.
- Un-Confession: When first trying to tell Candice about Eliza kissing him, Jon is interrupted by her father.
- Wham Line: Sam says that the blood Mannheim and his people were using was Superman's own. It's not yet revealed how they were able to acquire it, let alone so much of it.
- Workaholic: Lois misses her chemo twice because she is so obsessed with Mannheim, much to Clark's, Sam's and Chrissy's chagrin.
