Love it! Nice points all around.
But, Lois did think Superman was under the Revenge spray, so I think she wouldn't mistake his actions for saying that "hey, we have a chance." She already thought they had a chance.
The Luthor point - I've seen it argued that Miranda dosed him with the "permanent" solution. I'd never really considered this, but it WOULD explain a lot of his behavior from this point onward.
