Superman & Lois season 3, episode 11, "Complications," features a major character death just before its season finale. Unfortunately, the death aligns with the show's growing fridging problem. Superman & Lois has struggled since its inception to fully develop Lois Lane (Elizabeth Tulloch) and truly explore her career as a talented journalist and role as matriarch of the Kent family. Too often, she is used simply to move Superman (Tyler Hoechlin)'s story along rather than her own. Her cancer diagnosis in season 3 largely proved to be another method to sideline Lois; the storyline diverged from her strength and instead focused on how the diagnosis impacted Clark.
Now, the premature end of another female character's story arc in "Complications" seems to confirm that she, too, is a victim of fridging.
Spoilers for Superman & Lois season 3 episode 11, "Complications," ahead
Superman & Lois' latest episode sees the death of one of the season's primary villains, Daya Vaidya's Peia Mannheim (a.k.a. Onomatopoeia). Peia was first introduced as a cancer patient who befriended Lois when they were both undergoing chemotherapy. However, she was also soon revealed to be the gender-swapped villain Onomatopoeia, as well as the wife of Intergang leader and notorious criminal Bruno Mannheim (Chad L. Coleman). While it was intriguing seeing Peia give a face and backstory to one of DC comics' most disturbing and mysterious villains, viewers soon learn that she is largely the motivation for Bruno's criminal activities. Additionally, the criminal activities she participated in seemed to be at his behest as they both searched for a cure.
Still, given her will to live, her fondness of Lois, and her love for Bruno and their son, Matteo (Spence Moore II), there was some hope that Peia would take charge of her own story eventually, and that the show would delve into her backstory and motivations separate from her husband. Unfortunately, things take a tragic turn in "Complications" when Bruno manufactures a faulty "cure" for Peia's cancer. When her cancer symptoms quickly begin reappearing, he overloads her with the cure, which also enhances her metahuman powers of sound manipulation. Eventually, Peia's powers grow out of control, causing blackouts and tremors throughout Metropolis, as well as the accidental (and brutal) death of one of Bruno's henchmen.
Sensing her powers are about to kill her, Peia manages to hold them in while Superman flies her above Metropolis to avoid harming any more innocent people. Above Metropolis, Peia unleashes a final massive sonic boom that kills her.
As mentioned above, Peia's death feels very premature because she never got the chance to have her own story. She was so intertwined with Bruno that it was hard to even tell where his story ended and hers began. Meanwhile, her cancer story arc differs from Lois' in that, while viewers had two seasons of Lois in good health, we don't get to fully meet a healthy Peia. We don't know what her life was like before she got sick, her metahuman background is hardly touched on, and her identity seems completely tied up in Bruno. She's fully defined by her illness and her criminal husband.
Superman & Lois further confirms that Peia's sole purpose was to motivate Bruno because his criminal storyline abruptly ends immediately after she dies. He reaches a deal with the Department of Defense and even cooperates with his mortal enemy, John Henry Irons (Wolé Parks). After all of Bruno's desperation, one would think he wouldn't go down without a fight-but he does, and his villain arc is just neatly tied up because the woman whose illness motivated his story is gone.
Peia's sudden death feels even more rushed and unsatisfying considering that "Complications" wasn't even the season finale. She has been one of the major villains all season, yet she died with two episodes left. The reason for this is seemingly that Superman & Lois is trying to make room for Michael Cudlitz's Lex Luthor. Before season 3's premiere, it was confirmed that Luthor would be making his entrance, but episode after episode has passed without him. Now, right after Peia's tragic death, the preview for the next episode, "Injustice," shows Luthor taking the spotlight as the major villain.
In the promo, Luthor is called the "devil" and looks to be a terrifying and formidable villain. Peia's name is mentioned briefly, but just to reiterate how evil and ruthless Luthor is. Perhaps the episode's title references the "injustice" of the female villain being given cancer, an underdeveloped story arc, and a quick death so that Superman & Lois can introduce its menacing male villain and have him close out the season. Additionally, Luthor was initially sent to prison because Peia framed him for murder. Now that he has been released after 12 years, it's likely that he's seeking vengeance. This means that Peia didn't get her own story, but she essentially created the two major villains of Superman & Lois in season 3.
Redditor BookGirlBoston has an interest interesting take on the handling of Peia's death, writing that it demonstrates a misogynoir problem in Superman & Lois. She argues that the show didn't want Lois to die, so it had Peia die for Lois. This is backed up by Clark telling Peia in her final moments to "let go," something Clark was urged to do in therapy in the face of Lois' cancer diagnosis. In the end, he didn't have to let go of Lois to learn the meaning of letting go because Peia was seemingly there to take her place. If this is what Superman & Lois was trying to insinuate, BookGirlBoston sums up the issue candidly, writing, "Using a woman of color to symbolically die for a white woman is a choice that someone needed to say no to."
This also isn't the first time that accusations of sexism and racism have been raised, as Nadria Tucker, a writer on Superman & Lois, claimed in 2020 that she was fired after speaking out against problematic sexist and racist tropes in the show.
Having Lois in major surgery when Peia loses control of her powers is a very odd choice all around. For one, Lois was Peia's friend, and given all that they have been through on their cancer journeys, it would've made far more sense for Lois to be with Peia at the end-not Clark. Instead, Lois is in surgery, and her life is in danger because Peia's powers disrupt the hospital's operations. The primary fear and concern should've been that Peia's life was nearing its end, and she needed someone to be there in her final moments. Suddenly, though, there's this other hovering concern that something might happen to Lois if Superman doesn't intervene in Peia's death.
Meanwhile, the contrasts between Lois and Peia's stories are difficult to ignore. They were made to parallel each other in that they are both cancer patients, wives, and mothers. However, it's the Black female cancer patient who is the villain. Lois' cancer made her a tragic hero, survivor, and fighter, but Peia's made her a ruthless villain. Lois selflessly chose not to use Kryptonian technology to cure her cancer, but Peia chose to pursue unethical practices for a cure. Finally, Lois lives while Peia is the one who dies. Even if the casting of a woman of color was coincidental, the fridging and mishandling of Superman & Lois' first Black female villain as a whole isn't likely to sit well with fans.
(featured image: The CW)
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