By Brandon Nolta

Apparently, if the writers of SMALLVILLE have their way, Kansas will be the home of the future Justice League, because every superpowered guy and girl in the region hangs out there. Within the first few minutes of this week’s episode, we see Clark (Tom Welling), Kara (Laura Vandervoort) and the Martian Manhunter (Phil Morris) swooping around. The fact that this doesn’t freak Lana (Kristin Kreuk) in the slightest tells you something about Kansas in this universe.

This week, Lex (Michael Rosenbaum) has found himself a new playmate, one Dr. Curtis Knox (Dean Cain), a brilliant neurosurgeon who has developed a cure for the meteor-infected that involves glowing tubes, old-fashioned surgical tools and kryptonite. Unfortunately, Dr. Knox also has a predilection for killing some of his patients and removing vital organs, a tendency Lex feels violates Lexcorp HR policy. After confronting Dr. Knox about this egregious practice, the bad doctor tells Lex to piss off, which Lex answers with a lead salad. Tough boss.


This, however, is where Lex discovers that Knox is immortal, and Knox answers Lex’s lead salad with a good old-fashioned skull-thumping. It turns out that Knox doesn’t like being immortal alone, and has decided to Frankenstein his beloved into eternal life using assorted meteor-infected spare parts. Chloe, who has heard about the procedure but not about Knox’s other activities, turns out to have the last piece: a meteor-infected heart. Ms. Sullivan has no interest in being a meteor freak any longer, so she’s all too willing to sign up until she finds out about the stuff Knox failed to mention.

Clark would normally be all over this, but he has a few problems of his own. First, it appears that Lana is holding out on him about some of her activities. Second, and more importantly, Kara and the Martian Manhunter do not get along; he thinks she’s untrustworthy, and she blames him for something unpleasant that happened to her family. In fact, it almost comes to blows, which doesn’t bode well for the future. Throw in an immortal nut (who is either an alien or the writers’ take on Vandal Savage) and having to talk with Lex, and Clark’s just having a fantastic day.


Gotta say, this was a more somber, subdued outing than I expected. Sure, there was a little superpowered violence, and a nice turn from Dean Cain as the loon du jour, but the appeal of this episode for this reviewer was the different emotional notes being played. For once, Clark’s problem is not that he’s hiding something, but that he’s stuck in the middle of clashing friends and loyalties. Lex is showing signs of a conscience, Lana’s showing signs of taking a few plays from the Luthor playbook, Chloe’s fears are driving Jimmy away and Clark finds himself with reasons to distrust family and friends alike. SMALLVILLE has always leaned toward angst, but the emotional complexities of being super are becoming more intricate as the characters slouch toward adulthood, which is why the show’s still worth watching in its seventh season. Damn good stuff.