Reviews

5:21 Oracle

by Zoomway

The episode opened with Clark walking into the darkened farmhouse with a bag of groceries. "Mom?"

Suddenly Martha, Lois and Chloe all shouted surprise and Lois even tossed confetti on him.

"Happy birthday, sweetheart," Martha said. "We got you, didn't we?"

"And look," Chloe said as she walked out carrying a lopsided birthday cake with blue frosting, red lettering and yellow candles. "Lois even made her world famous rum cake for you."

"From scratch," Lois said proudly.

Clark got that 'stomach pump' look in his eyes. "Wow, I never would have guessed."

"You should have seen the first two," Chloe added.

This was similar to the L&C episode Metallo where Lois made oatmeal and was sure that Clark wouldn't believe she had made it herself, but when he scooped up a ladleful and watched it flow back into the pot like watery soup, he had no doubt she made it.

Lois ignored the jibes and ushered him into the kitchen, which was likewise decorated in red, blue and yellow. As a matter of fact so were the people. Clark was wearing a blue jacket, Lois a yellow blouse and Chloe a red blouse. Martha remained Superman neutral in green.

Lois placed a present in front of him.

"Open it."

Clark unwrapped a journal with his initials on it.

"Not that you're the 'Dear Diary' type," Lois said, "but since you keep everything to yourself, I thought it might help." It's not clear if Lois was acknowledging that Clark has a secret, or whether she merely feels he's not terribly forthcoming. Either way, Clark has kept journals in various comic book renditions. One was even written in Kryptonian code. Keep that in mind for later in the episode.

Then Clark saw an envelope. "That's Dad's handwriting."

Martha handed it to him. "I found it in his desk."

Clark opened the envelope and inside was a birthday card and inside the card were two tickets to the Wolverines game in Milwaukee. "Behind home plate," Clark said softly.

"Yeah, your dad and his baseball. There's no one in the world he'd rather watch a game with."

That was the end of what we saw of the party, but I have a feeling that Lois was responsible for arranging it simply because last year she was arranging a surprise party for Chloe's birthday until it was ruined by possessed Lana and her krewe du Isobel, mes ami.

The episode reconvened in the cemetery where Clark knelt in front of Jonathan's gravestone. "Thanks for tickets, Dad. I just wish you were here to go with me," he said and set the tickets on the grave. As a light dusting of snow fell, Clark turned around as if he'd heard something and Jonathan was standing behind him.

"Dad?"

"Listen, I'm sorry I couldn't be at your birthday party to see the kind of man you're becoming," spectral Pa said.

"Dad, everything I am is because of you."

"Not everything," he said. "See, there can be no more lessons. You're going to have to do this on your own. I can't help you anymore." Chloe has taken over your lecture series, Jonathan, you can rest in peace. "You're going to have to stop him."

"Stop who?"

Jonathan started to toddle off like he was giving a soliloquy. "He's much worse than we possibly imagined. So many people ... so many people are going to die."

"I don't understand, Dad, what are you talking about?"

Jonathan turned. "I'm talking about Lionel Luthor."

"What is he doing?"

"He's going to do something terrible." Could you be more specific?

"Tell me, Dad, what am I supposed to do?"

"I'm sorry, Clark, but to save this world, you've got to kill Lionel Luthor," he said and began to drift into the mist. "Good bye, son."

Okay, we know that wasn't Jonathan. He'd never tell Clark to kill someone. Is there someone who can shape shift on the show? Hmm, Tina Greer, but she's dead. There was Kyla, but she could only turn into a wolf and she's dead, too ... oh yeah, Brainiac, AKA, Milton Fine.

Also this graveyard scene, according to original spoilers, was to include Clark telling Jonathan about how he messed up with Lana. I assume this was to happen before the 'ghost' of Jonathan appeared. Why it was cut, aside from being a very trivial thing that detracted from Clark missing his father, is unknown.

After the opening credits, Martha tried to placate Clark over his 'vision' in the graveyard. "Clark, grief can play tricks on the mind."

Clark insisted he'd seen Jonathan. "His spirit, his ghost, whatever you want to call it."

Martha confessed that she 'sees' Jonathan all the time simply because she wants to see him so badly. "And right now you're really angry with Lionel and maybe you want someone to say it's okay to get back at him."

"Mom, this isn't the first time I've seen Dad," he said and went on to explain his near death experience in Void (death addict Lana episode) where he had seen Jonathan and that he had told him Lionel knew his secret. "That wasn't my imagination. What if this isn't either?"

Martha looked mortified. "If that's true, if it really was your father ..."

"Then what Lionel is up to is a lot worse than just knowing my secret."

"It would have to be for your father to suggest taking someone's life."

Gas wasted driving to the Talon: $3.00
Two cups of overpriced designer coffee: $12.50
Lana Lang being busted by Lois Lane: Priceless

Seriously, there is such a natural adversarial chemistry between Lois and Lana that it's a shame the producers don't capitalize on it.

Lois saw Lana pick up an order. "Running a delivery service?"

"No, uh ... actually Chloe started short-circuiting and I ..." she fumbled as she tried to make her getaway.

"You know what? Save it, Lana," Lois said, hounding her steps. "There's only one extra hot double-caf no foam in this town. Runs by Lex, walks in here like he owns the place."

"Actually, Lois, he does own the place."

"So are you his new assistant?"

"Um, no, not exactly."

Then the light dawned all over Lois's face. "No way. Well, I guess if you're in the market for a new boyfriend, why not Smallville's most eligible bachelor?" she said and raised her cup of coffee as if toasting Lana.

"He's not my boyfriend." True, Lana is only 'seeing' him like she told Clark last week and she makes out with him and misses him when he's out of town, but gosh, he's not her boyfriend.

It's funny, Lana was really racking up the lies for Lois. First saying she was picking up the coffee for Chloe, who lives and works in Metropolis and so after a three hour drive it would be pretty cold. Then she lied about Lex being her boyfriend. Up to this point the scene was filled with this great cat and mouse stuff between Lois and Lana, but it had to come to an end.

"Uh-huh," Lois said. "Look, I know I'm not versed in the whole girl talk thing, but I do have an unbiased ear and I know what it's like to have a case of the bad boy blues."

It's too bad because Lois actually seemed to be grilling Lana rather than simply conversing with her. Also the grilling followed a logical progression and all paths of Lana's escape route, including lying, were cut off.

I don't really see a friendship with Lois and Lana no matter how hard they try to promote one. Though this scene wasn't all that friendly. Neither the staging nor the dialogue projected any real cordialness between the two girls. Was Lois sincere about being an unbiased ear? It's hard to tell even later in the episode.

There was a brief scene of Clark and Chloe coming down the stairs to the Daily Planet basement. It's one of the few shots they have for the limited set space.

"Okay, Clark, I'm the president of Ghost Believers Anonymous, but your dad Hamleting you?"

What's the protocol here? Should a proper noun that's been corrupted into a verb require one or two T's when adding i-n-g?

"Chloe, I know how it sounds."

"All right, hand me a cloak and call me Horatio."

Prithee, Haratio, tell me one thing. Dost thou think the Superboy series looked o' this fashion i' reruns? And smelt so? Pah!

After the Hamlet references were expended, they got down to wondering why Jonathan would want Lionel Luthor dead.

"All right, say this ghost of your dad is right and we dig through Lionel's closet and we find a smoking gun," Chloe said, mixing her metaphors. "Then what?"

"Depends what it is."

"Would it? I mean is there anything we could find that would make Clark Kent kill someone?"

The scene abruptly switched to the object of their discussion as Lionel downed a couple of pills from a prescription bottle that he quickly pocketed as soon as he heard the door to the study open.

"My helicopter's waiting, Dad. What's so important?" Lex asked, apparently grumpy his coffee never showed up.

"Obviously something you've got cooking in Honduras, although I doubt it's the banana daiquiris," Lionel said, but not with his usual goading tone. "You've been racking up quite a lot of frequent flier miles, son."

"Challenging upper management often leads to a bout of unemployment," Lex threatened, keeping Lionel in his place as an employee of LuthorCorp.

Lionel cut to the chase. "You're involved with Milton Fine. I know that he's been smuggling some of the most deadly viruses in the world into this country with your help."

"Don't worry, Dad," Lex replied casually. "We're not going to be putting them in any Halloween candy."

Lionel persisted on the dangers of the imported micro-organisms, but Lex assured him he had everything under control.

"Your business partner is a man who seems to be able to appear at opposite ends of the Earth simultaneously. How much control do you have over him?"

Lex complimented Lionel's research, but said it was incomplete.

"Shut down the operation, Lex. Shut it down now. Wherever you're incubating these viruses, you have to destroy them. Milton Fine embodies a threat greater than you appear to realize."

Lex shrugged off the warning and told Lionel that he learned from him to keep his enemies close.

"This is one enemy you don't know and not knowing who you're in bed with can make for a very uncomfortable awakening." This probably applies to Lana, too.

Do you realize Lex being in a relationship with Lana puts Lionel in mortal danger? Look at the facts. She dated Whitney, his father died. Dated Jason, she killed his mother while possessed by Isobel. Dated Clark, his father died and now she's dating Lex. Lionel's days are numbered.

"Well, I'll present that nugget to the board when they ask me why I'm late," Lex said and exited.

The moment he left, Lionel began gasping for air and crawled to a table and began to scribble symbols on a piece of paper. His eyes had turned milky white and the camera zoomed in to show the symbols in his eyes ... brain?

Now we have a perfunctory Chloe and Clark investigation scene where Clark seems to serve the function of a henchman working for the main villain so that the audience can hear the exposition. Clark even started to enter the door without thinking about an alarm.

"Wait, Clark, the alarm," Chloe cautioned. "I culled the transponder from Lionel's keyboard so we could override the digital cipher."

"Gee, boss, you're so uh ... smart," Clark said with his eyes.

As the door hissed open, Chloe said, "I need a night life."

Look on the bright side. If you ever get arrested for all the illegal hacking and breaking and entering, there's a girl named Bertha at Metropolis women's prison who can teach you how to boogie.

But let's be honest, Chloe is no doubt still hung up on Clark and Clark is still hung up on Lana. So Lana had to rebound to Lex and perhaps Clark will rebound to Chloe. Doomed romances spring up on this show like mushrooms in a dark bog.

Chloe sat down at the keyboard and brought up Lionel's calendar. He had an appointment scheduled with the top reporter from the Inquisitor about "the weapon." On Lois & Clark the Inquisitor was a tabloid. There was also an appointment at the Pentagon for the following week.

"Looks like the mysterious weapon is the hot topic this week," Chloe said.

"Maybe it's not so mysterious."

"Wait, you think you might be the weapon Lionel is talking about?"

After the commercial break, Lana showed up at Luthor mansion. "I bought us coffees, but after a three hour conversation with Lois, they got a bit cold."

"Well, I can't wait to read all about Lex and Lana in tomorrow's early edition," Lex said, which made no sense at all.

"She's not like that. Believe it or not she's a great listener and with everything that's been going on she's been a wonderful outlet for me."

Lex sighed loudly.

"It looks like I'm not the only one who needs an outlet," she said, knowing the sound of sexual frustration when she heard it.

"Lana, something's happened. I've been wrestling with whether or not I should let you in on it."

Lana glanced down, as if preparing herself for her secrets and lies speech.

"But when all is said and done, you're the one person in the world I can share it with," he said. "I've been working on something. Something bigger than either of us."

"Lex, whatever it is, I trust you."

"This isn't about trusting me anymore. This is about trusting you. It's about knowing how deep you want to get involved and knowing when to say stop," he said and opened a folder. "Lana, what I'm about to show you means you're all in one hundred percent."

Then the action shifted to a laboratory. "Lex, what is this place?"

"The future. I'd like you to be by my side when it arrives."

Lana leafed through the pages in the folder. "You've been collecting viruses?"

"The most deadly on the planet."

"What are you going to do with them?" she asked, playing Clark to Lex's Chloe.

"Change the world," he said immodestly. "Lana, we've been able to alter the viruses, transforming them into the ultimate vaccine." He picked up a tube. "One shot of this and theoretically, you could be protected from any disease that could be unleashed."

"Unleashed? By whom?"

"Well, according to Fine, the black spaceship might be one of many. Listen, you need to keep this between the two of us, even Fine doesn't know we're developing the vaccine here."

"I thought you two were working together. Why don't you trust him anymore."

Well, that confirms that Lana did know Lex was in contact with Fine, which was left rather ambiguous last week.

"Because I think he might be reporting back to something a little higher up," Lex said and handed photos to Lana.

"You found the ship."

"I was tracking Fine and he led me right to it, but that's not the intriguing part. These two photos were taken a hundredth of a second apart," he said, pointing out that Fine is next to the ship in one picture, but gone in the other. "Where did he go?"

"My God, do you think he came out of that ship like the others?"

"That's why I was going along with him. I thought I could buy some time while I found his weakness, but I'm starting to think he doesn't have one."

"He might," Lana said and went on to tell Lex about Lionel's weird behavior after the meteor shower. "He grabbed me and told me how to stop them."

Yup, kryptonite. Isn't it ironic that the thing that can kill Clark Kent is now something Lex knows about because of Lana?

Martha arrived home just in time to hear the answering machine picking up the call. It was Lionel. "I know things are strained, but something is going on that Clark needs to know about. Please, call me as soon as you get this."

Martha picked up the phone and dialed, but noticed a dark figure sitting by the window in the living room. She hung up the phone. "Jonathan," she said softly.

"How long, Martha?" he asked in a suspicious tone.

"What?"

"How long have you had feelings for Lionel Luthor?"

"It's not like that."

"I've always wanted you to be happy, sweetheart. I've always just wanted you to be happy, but not with him."

"Jonathan," she said and knelt next to his chair. "You know you're the only man I ever loved. It's been so hard without you. Your voice, your touch. I miss you so much," she said and reached out to touch him, but he vanished.

"I miss you, too, sweetheart," he said, now standing behind her.

"Why did you have to leave me?"

"Martha, I didn't have a choice and soon neither will a lot of other innocent people."

"Are you talking about Lionel? What is it? What is he doing?"

"He's going to drown you all in your own blood," he said in a very un-Jonathan way. "Just like he did me."

"Like he did you? What ...?"

"Martha, I'm sorry, but you have got to tell Clark there is no other chioce. Lionel Luthor has to die."

Jonathan vanished again, but he was looking through the window from the outside and then his face turned into that of Milton Fine, who then whooshed off. Martha was left looking around the living room calling Jonathan's name.

This seemed like a particularly cruel thing to do to Martha. Unlike with Clark, Fine was tampering with Martha's feelings. He was making her feel guilty about the choices she had made since Jonathan's death and telling her to convince her son to commit murder.

Martha then told Clark about her visitation. "He said Lionel was going to drown us all in blood, what does that mean?"

"I don't know. Mom, I think it might have something to do with Lionel using me as a weapon."

"But Clark, you'd never go along with that," Martha said, stating the obvious.

"What if he's found a way to control me? Maybe that's what Dad's come back to stop."

"All this time I thought Lionel was making up for his past."

Clark assured Martha it wasn't her fault, that Lionel had been manipulating all of them.

"Clark, he said something else. I think he meant Lionel had something to do with his death."

The story shifted abruptly again, this time to Lex listening to one of his laptop operatives saying they had tracked Fine to the Midwestern United States. Then Fine walked into the room. "Good evening, Mr. Luthor."

Those operatives are on the ball.

Fine helped himself to some liquor and gave one of those anecdotal stories Lex used to give. This story was about the custom of toasting someone by clinking glasses.

"I thought we had a deal, that you would inform me of the virus's progress, but I seem to be shockingly cut out of the loop."

Lex suggested that Fine had known about that for weeks. "Come on, you must have inherently believed I'd buy your CIA bluff?"

Fine nodded and complimented Lex on his insatiable mistrust. Then Lex promised Fine the vaccine had been processed. "But I'd be foolish to hand it over to someone whose agenda was still up for grabs."

"Lex, it's a vaccine, what threat could it possibly pose?"

"Now that's a question I've been asking myself for weeks," Lex said and rose from his chair. He opened a box containing kryptonite. "I'm hoping this will help me get a few answers."

He held it out to Fine, who merely smiled. "Close, but I'm not one of them. I was only made by them," he said and his finger turned into a saber that he pressed against Lex's throat. "Where's the vaccine?"

There was another brief exposition scene at the Planet.

"Now before I tell you any of this, you have to promise to keep a cool head and back-burner those American Psycho instincts." This is why Chloe never ends up with Clark in the future. No man, not even a super man, could stand to hear someone talk like that on a daily basis. Shouldn't she be putting her teen syntax behind her by now?

"Chloe, what is it?"

Chloe, who'd gotten hold of Lionel's cell phone records (naturally), told Clark that Lionel had made at least 20 calls to Jonathan in the weeks leading up to his death and that the last call was made an hour before Jonathan died and the call had been placed using a tower only a mile from the farm.

Clark, leaping to conclusions in a single bound, phoned Lionel and had him meet with him in the barn.

"Clark, I'm glad you called," he said. "Thank you. We don't have much time."

"Is this where it happened?" Clark asked, as he brooded in the darkness. "Is this where you met my father the night he died?"

"Yes, yes it is. I had to talk to him, it was important."

Clark grabbed Lionel and tossed him across the barn, sending him crashing through a table and no doubt crippling or killing a man Lionel's age ... but not on Smallville.

"He found out, didn't he?" Clark asked. "He found out about your plan to use me as a weapon."

"A weapon? No, Clark, it ..."

Clark grabbed the poor old guy and tossed him again. "What did you do to him?"

"Clark, I wanted to help him. He needed an ally, but took it the wrong way."

Before Lionel could get any farther than his knees in an attempt to stand, Clark held him down and put his hand on his throat. "You killed my father."

"No."

"What happened, he wouldn't go along with your plan? Is that it? You pushed him. You pushed him till his heart gave out."

"Listen to me, Clark ..."

"I will never be anyone's weapon," Clark snarled.

Lionel cowered. "You're not the weapon, Clark. It's not you!"

"Lies."

Clark turned and saw Jonathan behind him. "That's all he's going to tell you, son. You have to kill him before he gets the chance."

"Listen to me, Clark," Lionel pleaded.

"Shut up!" Clark shouted.

Jonathan stepped closer. "Do it, Clark. Do it."

Clark turned back to Lionel, but now looked unsure. "You killed him."

"Yes, he killed me. So go on, son, avenge my death!"

"Your father would never make you a murderer, Clark."

Clark looked back at Jonathan, who shouted, "Kill him!"

"Listen to me, Clark, listen to me," Lionel said.

Jonathan's face became distorted with rage. "Clark, I know this is difficult for you, but you've got to kill Lionel Luthor!"

Lionel began to choke under Clark's grasp.

"Clark Kent, kill him now!"

Clark's eyes began to glow and he turned and shot heat vision at Jonathan, knocking him backward.

"Ya know," ersatz Jonathan said as he dusted himself off. "I asked you to do one simple thing. This is what I get. You're a tremendous disappointment to me, son."

"You're not my father," Clark said evenly.

"Looks like I might have underestimated you, Kal-EL. Catch!" he said and tossed the tractor at Clark.

Clark was none the worse for wear, but Jonathan-Fine whooshed up behind him and put his arm around his neck. "It would be so easy to snap your neck like a twig, but I still need you."

"Who are you?"

"I'm the guy who's going to help bring this world to its knees," he said gleefully, but then cried out in pain and turned around. Lionel, his milky white eyes back, walked towards Fine with his hand outstretched.

"Don't touch me," Jonathan-Fine warned Lionel. "Don't do it."

He dood it. "Argh!" Jonathan-Fine wailed, turned metallic and then vanished.

Lionel's eyes went back to normal. "What ... what just happened?"

Another abrupt shift to Lionel's penthouse office. "I was fairly certain Milton Fine was a Kryptonian," Lionel said as he entered, "but I didn't realize shape-shifting was one of their miraculous abilities."

This proves that Lionel's knowledge of the ship and the Kryptonians doesn't all come from being possessed by Jor-El, or he'd know Fine wasn't a Kryptonian.

"It isn't," Clark said.

"Then Fine's not a Kryptonian?"

Clark said nothing.

"Clark, it is important that we keep this from Lex."

Clark nodded. "Fine was created by Kryptonians and he's already been destroyed twice."

"Twice? Some sort of self replicating entity, that's incredible."

"That's one word for it, but why was he so afraid of you?"

Lionel shook his head.

"And how were you able to destroy him just by touching him?"

"I'm not sure," Lionel said and opened a partition hiding a safe and began dialing in the combination. "But I feel the answers could lie somewhere in here."

He opened the safe, which was filled with boxes and notebooks of papers covered in Kryptonian symbols.

"Where'd you find all this?"

"I didn't find it," Lionel replied and picked up a notebook. "I wrote it."

He approached Clark. "And whatever voice I'm channeling," he said, offering the notebook to Clark. "I believe that what I wrote was meant for you."

Then, I'm not kidding, they bring all that crap to the Daily Planet so Chloe can save the day. The offices aren't even empty, people are milling around in the background while boxes of extraterrestrial stuff gets plopped on Chloe's desk.

"So Hell freezes over and nobody bothers to tell me?" Chloe asked, noting Lionel and Clark working together.

"Chloe, listen. Mr. Luthor has been writing these. Seems to be some sort of warning, but I can't decipher it."

"Well, unfortunately my Kryptonian is a little rusty. What about ..." she said and looked up at Lionel.

"I don't know what any of this means, Ms. Sullivan, I am simply the oracle."

Lionel turned to Clark. "I believe the answers could be found with a visit to your fortress."

"The last time someone talked me into taking them to the fortress, it was a trick to release General Zod."

"Yeah, I have plans this weekend," Miss 'I need a night life' said. "So if we can protect Smallville from the wrath of Krypton's deadliest villain, that would be great."

Lionel nodded. "Ancient hieroglyphics were deciphered by finding repeated.."

"Repeated patterns, yeah, I know." Let's face it, there's very little this teen doesn't know. "So let me scan this and see if we've got any."

Why can't Clark decipher it? He had that light flood his head a couple of years ago and then he was able to translate what the ship message was. I know he said it was kind of jumbled, but this isn't like Hebrew looking similar to Aramaic but being two different languages. This is Kryptonian even if it's been put into a code. When is some fraction of his super brain going to kick in?

Since Clark has little ability to provide answers, he defaulted back to asking questions. "Why would Fine expose himself now?"

"He's afraid I'll help you to stop what he and Lex are planning to do," Lionel said.

"Which is what?" Chloe asked, robbing Clark of his one function.

"Fine has been helping Lex to develop a virus so lethal it could bring humanity to the brink of extinction. LuthorCorp scientists completed the project today."

"So this weapon isn't Clark, it's this virus." Yes, who'd use Clark as a weapon? He can't even open a door without setting off an alarm.

However, Lionel explained that he felt the warning being deciphered had to do with something even more lethal than the virus.

"Maybe the virus is just a part of it," Clark said. "Do you have access to it?"

Lionel shook his head. "No, I don't even know where it is."

Not to worry, the answer gal was on top of it. "I think we know someone who does."

Lana and Lois walked into the Met U dorm only to find Clark looking through Lana's papers. He can't even do a panty raid right.

"What are you doing?" Lana asked.

"Smooth one, Smallville."

"There's something I have to talk to you about."

"How did you get in here?" Lana huffed and took the papers from Clark's hand.

"I think I heard a keg being tapped," Lois said, hurrying for the door. "I'm going to check it out."

"Lana, I realize I shouldn't be going through your stuff, but I think you're involved in something extremely dangerous."

"Are you worried that I'm involved in it, or that I'm involved in it with Lex?"

Clark put on his best groveling face. "No, Lana, this has nothing to do with my feelings. Lex doesn't know what he's gotten himself into, neither do you."

"You break into my place and expect me to believe anything that comes out of your mouth?" Uh, Lana, remember when Lex broke into your Talon apartment, looked through your sketches of the spaceship and the aliens and now you're dating the guy? Oops, I forgot, he's not your boyfriend. Carry on.

"Lex is in trouble and if you care anything about him at all, you'll tell me where that lab is before it's too late."

Speaking of the lab, Fine was impressed. "Looks like I underestimated your willingness to tackle a nonprofit venture."

"LuthorCorp doesn't take the threat of an alien armageddon lightly," Lex said. "You were never going to create a vaccine for humans, were you?"

"Is that what you think?"

"It was your way of protecting your extraterrestrial guests when they arrive and unleash some horrible disease on us."

Fine was amused. "I never intended to mass produce the vaccine," he said and filled a syringe. "One dose is all I ever needed."

He grabbed Lex's hand and injected the concoction into his wrist. "Let the rest of the world find its own cure."

Lex collapsed and Fine punched a box with "danger" written on it and then sparks started to fly as he whooshed out. Then Clark whooshed in and Lex looked up and I have no idea what Clark did or didn't do or whether Lex saw him because that's where the scene ended.

The next morning a doctor looked Lex over and informed him that whatever he'd been injected with didn't seem to have any effect on him. "In fact, you've never been healthier."

As the doctor exited, Clark entered. "Are you okay?"

Lex turned around. "Yeah, so I'm guessing my father told you everything that happened at the lab."

"You know, Lex, if you'd listened to your father's warning, none of this would have happened."

Lex shrugged. "None of what? All the viruses were destroyed and now LuthorCorp has the technology to create an extraordinary vaccine."

"Lex, you've been double-crossed. Where's Fine right now?"

"I don't know, my operatives are scouring the globe," he said, but noticed Clark's dismissive expression. "Clark, I'm the good guy here. LuthorCorp spent over 10 million dollars producing that vaccine."

Clark just nodded with a side order of eye roll and began to leave.

"One more thing, Clark. Lana called me."

Clark turned around.

"I don't want to hear you were rifling through her stuff like a crazy roommate again. If you want something from me, don't go running to Lana to find it. You really crossed the line," Pot Luthor said to Kettle Kent.

"All those years we were friends (about 2), were you just waiting for me to step aside so you could just swoop in and make your move?"

"I don't know, Clark. All those years you told Lana you loved her, were you just waiting to walk away and break her heart?" Zing. "Look, there's a natural tendency to blame the person who replaced you, I get that, but I didn't take Lana from you. You lost her all by yourself."

Clark got in Lex's face, opened his mouth and ... closed it again. He turned around and left. That's telling him, Clark.

Later that night Lionel paid Martha a visit to confess that he had called Jonathan the night of the election and told him that he knew everything about Clark, but that Jonathan was so angry that he never gave him the chance to explain. "I wish I had a heart as full of strength and goodness as your son, Martha, but I don't. But I want you to remember that I was at least honest with you," he said as he headed for the door. "In time, maybe you'll be able to forgive me." Exit Lionel.

Meanwhile, at Luthor mansion, Lex brought in some Chinese food.

"I'm sorry if things got awkward," Lana said. "I was really hoping Clark wouldn't end up in all this. I just don't want to hurt him."

"I don't either. I care about him, too."

You're both so kind and down to earth.

"But then I have to remind myself that Clark's specialty is barging in where he's not invited and then somehow making you feel like you're the one who should apologize."

"Okay, um, I have a great idea," Little Miss Perky said. "How about a moratorium on the Clark topic?" Sure, why not? It's not like the show is about him anyway.

"Twist my arm."

"Don't tempt me," she said seductively, or as seductive as Lana gets.

Lex got up and walked to the booze table. Lana rose and followed him. "I still can't make sense of all this. Why would you be asked to make a super vaccine just to have it destroyed?"

Lex looked down at his wrist and ridges forming an imprint of the vaccine gun had welled up. "I don't know, but then again I think like a red blooded human."

"Well, he's obviously preparing for something."

Lex began cutting the wax away on one of the caps of his booze bottles and cut his finger and winced.

"What happened?"

The cut instantly healed itself, getting that charcoal gray look that resembles Fine in his morphing stage.

Lana walked up to him. "You okay?"

"Yeah, never better."

Clark sat in the loft looking at the birthday card from his father. Lois walked up. "I thought you'd be outside Lana's dorm with your binoculars by now."

I should point out here that the original spoilers for this episode said that Clark would be 'Stalker Man' spying on Lana. You know, like the old days. Thankfully they decided to change directions, but it does make the stalker references seem out of place, especially when Clark had only one scene that could be remotely applied to stalker behavior.

"I appreciate the concern, but Lana and I are none of your business," and started to leave.

"Please, Smallville, I've had three exes put under military surveillance. I'm hardly qualified to dish out post relationship tact," she confessed. "But it's time for some tough love. Lana's going to move on."

"She already has," he said and walked to the other end of the loft. "Lex."

Lois followed. "And it sucks, but you've got to trust your gut that you did this for a reason. Whatever reason guys have for dumping hot, smart, fun girls (or Lana) these days."

Clark moped on.

"Look, give her some space, Clark. Your whole night stalker routine is going to ruin any good feelings that Lana has for you."

Clark munched a worm. "If there are any."

"Sometimes you have to tuck your feelings away until it's the right time. Like stuffing dollars into a piggy bank for a bike you can't quite afford."

"Except I can't quite imagine that there is anyone else out there."

"Ah, you never know, Clark. Maybe when you finally crack open that piggy you'll find that all this time you haven't been saving for a bike, you've really been saving for a Harley," Harley said.

Yes, Lois just compared Lana to a bike and so I'm still not sure if her three hour tour with Lana was friendly or not.

Clark smiled. "There are times when I think you don't know me at all," he said and shook his head. "And others when I think you know me better than anyone."

"Well, that's what I'm here for, Smallville. One save at a time."

"And speaking of saving things," Chloe said as she joined the loft brigade. "Clark, your mom thought we might want to share some of the leftover birthday cake."

Clark looked pained.

Lois took the cake. "Well, I'm sure there's a goat on this farm who will appreciate my knack for batter," she said and left.

Chloe complimented Clark on how well he took the whole birthday thing, which kind of confirms it was probably Lois's idea.

"The baseball tickets. They hit me harder than I thought."

"Yeah, but those tickets weren't your dad's only gift," she said and then talked about Jonathan raising Clark to be his own man was his real gift. I wish we actually saw more evidence of that on the show, but we don't.

Clark smiled. "I thought you just came here to get tipsy off Lois's rum cake."

"Actually I came by for your Kryptonian dictionary," she said and pulled out a notebook. "I ran Lionel's symbols in that program and it came up with this pattern. Three signs repeated 32 times."

Clark looked at the paper.

"What does it say?"

"Zod is coming."

Need I say that was the end of the episode?

It was actually good for a myth episode because this year finally deals with real elements of the Superman myth. No caves, stones, or witches, just Zod and Brainiac and the whole 'take over the world' thing. And I may be one of the few, but I like Lionel as a good guy, though it may mean his time on this planet is nearing an end. At least his sage wisdom is more believable than a teenager who seems to be a combination of Encyclopedia Brown and The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes. The show really needs to get away from Chloe the organic Swiss Army knife and have Clark reach some epiphany of his future that has nothing to do with being pushed, commanded or guilted into becoming a hero.

Next week, the finale and a vacation for me.

Zoom

Back