By Brandon Nolta
It’s been more than a month since our last new episode of SMALLVILLE, so let’s recap. The whiny-ass chief editor of the Daily Planet (Michael Cassidy) turned out to be a clone of Lex’s (Michael Rosenbaum) long-lost little brother. Lex bought the Daily Planet. Clark (Tom Welling) is frozen inside a crystal in the Fortress of Solitude, while the Bizarro clone is making time with Lana (Kristin Kreuk). Chloe (Allison Mack) and Jimmy (Aaron Ashmore) are reconciling, after a bomb scare in an elevator and Chloe’s revelation about her powers. All up to speed? Good.
As I mentioned, Bizarro and Lana have been making time, and Bizarro’s pretty good at playing Clark, because nobody seems to have twigged to it yet. Meanwhile, Grant/Julian goes to Lionel (John Glover) and gives him the full skinny. Lionel accepts him, but with the same warmth used for IRS agents. Bizarro visits Lana at the foundation and ends up discussing a spate of murders that Lana attributes to Brainiac (James Marsters), as the victims are missing certain metals.
Surprise; her suspicion is correct, and Bizarro manages to find Brainiac, who recognizes Bizarro for what he is. However, Bizarro didn’t seek out the former Professor Fine for altruistic reasons; turns out that sunlight is slowly transforming Bizarro into stone, so he sought Brainiac’s help. Brainiac’s not impressed with Bizarro, but points him to Dax-Ur (Marc McClure, the Jimmy Olsen to Christopher Reeves’ Superman), a Kryptonian scientist living quietly on Earth. Meanwhile, Chloe’s getting suspicious of Bizarro, and the Luthors have a minor throwdown over Grant/Julian. Hold on, I need to get out my scorecard to keep the plot threads straight.
Finding Dax-Ur requires one of those funky little shields, so Bizarro heads to the Fortress to find one. The Fortress doesn’t dig having Bizarro around, so after stone-face boy zooms out, the real Clark is sprung from his crystal prison. This leads to an uncomfortable talk between Lana and Clark. Meanwhile, Lionel—in his role as Jor-El’s emissary—directs Clark to him in order to snag some blue kryptonite. Clark finds Dax-Ur, who gives Clark some blue K, and since Bizarro and Lana are together, Clark’s in a hurry to get back. Soon enough, it’s a showdown between Clark, Bizarro, and Lana. Whee!
Finally, Grant/Julian gets his ass fired from the Planet. Is anybody surprised when a mugger later shoots and kills Grant/Julian on Lex’s orders? Meanwhile, Brainiac—who seems pretty damaged—finds Dax-Ur and demands the info needed to fix himself. Dax-Ur refuses, so Brainiac gets what he wants the hard way. We end on Clark and Lana in bed together, looking sad and definitely not enjoying each other as a storm rages outside.
Damn good episode; I’d almost forgotten how much I enjoyed this show. Welling carries off the dual role nicely, and thanks to Ms. Kreuk, Lana has become a far more complex and interesting character; she’s done a great job working with the multiple shadings of Lana that being with Lex and Clark might cause. We may not be getting a full season this year, but SMALLVILLE’s strong enough to survive, and I for one appreciate whatever we the viewers get.