Warning: spoilers ahead for Titans season 4, episode 6.
Superboy fails to emerge from Titans season 4's winter finale with dignity intact, and this altered personality teases a huge new direction for the artist formerly known as Conner Kent. Joshua Orpin's Superboy has been out of sorts ever since Mother Mayhem stabbed him in Titans season 4, episode 4. The wound brought a snake into STAR Labs, and ultimately allowed Mayhem to control Conner remotely. Despite that connection being severed, Lex Luthor's creation is still behaving erratically, abruptly transforming into a total jerk during Titans season 4, part 1's finale. Superboy not only shaves his hair off and switches up his wardrobe, he becomes an insufferably arrogant egotist too.
With the apocalypse fast approaching, Nightwing and his fellow Titans lack time to properly unpack why Superboy just became the STAR Labs boss from hell, but Mother Mayhem must be responsible on some level. After Beast Boy transformed into a virus and killed the snake inside Superboy's body, Mayhem's spell lifted. Nevertheless, influence from an evil entity might have awakened the Lex Luthor half of Superboy's genetic makeup. Freed from Mother Mayhem's spell Conner may be, but her presence in his mind has seemingly triggered a persona that was already inside Superboy, bubbling beneath an exterior of kindness and heroism.
Superboy's Titans Transformation Was A Long Time Coming
Superboy's jerk transformation occurs too near his stint as Mother Mayhem's puppet to be a coincidence. Rather than her magic unlocking Conner Kent's "Lex Luthor" side, however, the experience may have simply pushed an already-troubled Superboy over the edge. Superboy was born as a lab experiment, deprived of family roots and meaningful connections, but joining the Titans filled that emotional hole. Titans season 3 then tested Conner's new bonds, firstly when he blamed himself for failing to stop Hank's death, and again when Nightwing knocked Superboy out with Kryptonite dust. These experiences intensified the inner conflict Superboy was already feeling due to his unconventional birth.
Titans season 4 promised Conner the grounding he sought when Nightwing, likely as a way of apologizing for the aforementioned Kryptonite dust incident, arranged a meeting between Superman and his sort-of-son. Delighted at the prospect of discovering himself, Conner's disappointment was palpable when the man famous for flying around the Earth in an instant proved too busy, and this allowed Lex Luthor to slither into Conner's affections. After once again failing the Titans - in his mind, perhaps - by letting Mother Mayhem into STAR Labs, Superboy may have made a conscious decision to embrace the qualities he received from Lex Luthor, the only father he knows.
Will Superboy Change Back In Titans Season 4, Part 2?
Since Superboy is not technically under outside influence during the crazy Titans season 4, part 1 finale, switching him back to non-cringe Conner will require more than just a magical hand-wave from Jinx or an internal examination from Beast Boy. One possibility is that Superboy finds himself humbled by failure when Titans season 4 resumes. Not only does his blood moon satellite plan backfire exactly how Nightwing warned it might, Superboy's mad rush into the Church of Blood's secret lair immediately results in his capture. Such embarrassment may convince Conner that his Danny Zucko impression is not the solution to internal strife.
Alternatively, Superboy's sudden Lex Luthor transformation may be setting up the arrival of Superman in Titans season 4. The root cause of Conner's current malaise is a lack of parental grounding, and when Superman let his son down, Lex Luthor stepped up. The only cure for Conner being such a colossal jerk in Titans may be meeting Superman, and modeling himself after a more wholesome father figure than he found in Lex Luthor. At the very least, Superboy's hair would improve.