Lois investigates Mannheim's clinic while the rest of the family contemplates their futures.
Tropes:
- Almost Kiss: Matteo tries to kiss Natalie at the dance, but the latter storms out. Not because he did anything wrong, but because she has had no experiences with dating so far whatsoever.
- Boyfriend-Blocking Dad: Sam goes into overprotective grandpa mode when Matteo shows up to reunite with Natalie.
- Career Versus Man: A rare male example. Candice finds a place to live with her aunt in Topeka, but it's a four-hour drive from Smallville so she and Jon could only plausibly make it work as a weekend thing. Problem is, Kyle has also offered Jon a weekend job at the fire station so he can eventually become a firefighter, and Jon's time is already divided on the weekdays with his present job at Brit & Dunn's Quick Mart and school, so Kyle won't let him reschedule. Candice refuses to let Jon give up that for her, saying that they'll figure something out.
- Chronic Hero Syndrome: Lois just cannot help herself and goes snooping around the clinic while receiving her second chemo, getting caught by Mannheim in the process. At the end of the episode however, she seems to take Clark's worries into consideration and finally decides to rest a bit instead of going to the dance.
- Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Mayor Dean's son Junior obviously loved him very much and is still heartbroken about his death.
- Freudian Excuse: Coupled with Motive Rant. Bruno Mannheim tells Lois that his mom fell ill when he was 14 years old because his neighborhood was built next to a chemical waste dump. Nobody cared to do anything about it, so he decided that he had to stand up and save his community all by himself.
- Intangible Man: Deadline has the power to render himself and those he touches intangible through Flash-like molecular vibration. That plus a Kryptonite knife makes him a hassle for Superman, as Deadline simply phases through every attack before capitalizing on Superman's openings. Superman eventually realizes that Deadline has to be tangible to attack, allowing him to catch him mid-swing and send him flying with a Shockwave Clap.
- Logical Weakness: Deadline has to be solid to attack, allowing Superman to counter in those moments. It also doesn't render him deaf, allowing Superman to take him out with a Shockwave Clap.
- Major Coward: Deadline grabs General Hardcastle and phases her through a wall into the DoD's top security computer vault. Faced with being killed by the criminal, she provides her retinal scan to unlock the system for him to then attach a data uplink to. As a result, the DoD's top secrets are now in the hands of Intergang.
- Neck Snap: How Deadline kills the soldier accompanying Hardcastle.
- Not What It Looks Like: Lana catches Sarah outside with Junior and mistakenly thinks she's been outside drinking the entire time since she's holding Junior's flask, rather than just popping out for a few minutes to talk to him and taking a sip to be friendly. Luckily, Sarah manages to explain the whole situation to her mother.
- Outliving One's Offspring: One of the female chemo patients lost her daughter to breast cancer 3 years ago.
- Put on a Bus: Candice moves in with her aunt in Topeka, which is a 4 hour drive away from Smallville.
- Rogues' Gallery Transplant: The original Deadline was created as a villain to Starman. And the Deadline in this show seems to take inspiration from the Rebirth era Deadline, especially with regards to his armor, who was mainly a Deathstroke villain. But instead of fighting Deathstroke, Deadline battles Superman instead.
- Shipper on Deck:
- Sarah helped orchestrate Matteo meeting up with Natalie.
- Jordan tries to convince his grandfather to try a dating app.
- Sitcom Arch-Nemesis: Jordan seems very annoyed by Candice constantly occupying the bathroom, calling her his possible "mortal enemy". It seems to be one-sided though, as Candice calls him sweet upon departing.
- Tastes Like Friendship: Junior and Sarah share a drink when the latter goes checking up on him and offers to rekindle their friendship.
- Tele-Frag: When hit by Superman's Shockwave Clap, Deadline's suit is damaged and he winds up partially phased into a nearby wall, which fortunately for him just leaves him pinned rather than a more gruesome application of the trope.
- Treachery Cover Up: Lana initially wants to expose Mayor Dean's dirty laundry because she's being attacked for his death, regardless of having nothing to do with it. Seeing Junior's pain at losing his father, however, convinces her to instead name the new town hall in his honor, an act that will hopefully appease her critics without having to make him a Broken Pedestal.
- Villain Respect: Bruno Mannheim compliments Lois on being bold enough to sneak around his facility while receiving chemo. He also promises to do everything in his power to help her, while also making it clear that he will not tolerate her foiling his plans.
- Wham Shot: Sam explains to Lois and Clark that the data Deadline stole was the locations of other DOD facilities storing sensitive assets, which Intergang raided while Superman was occupied. The one Mannheim was after? Bizarro.
- You Are Better Than You Think You Are: Sam gives Nat some encouraging words after she walks out on Matteo due to her insecurity. This results in her going back to him.
- You Are Too Late: Superman eventually manages to defeat Deadline, but Deadline just boasts that he's too late, and the camera pans to reveal that the transmitter he placed has finished uploading the data from the DOD server.
- You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: Averted. After killing a Red Shirt, Deadline forces General Hardcastle to unlock a security station with a retina scan. When she does so, Deadline just slaps her around a little instead of killing her. She escapes when Superman shows up.
