Episode Report Card Tippi Blevins: B+ | 1 USERS: A+ YOU GRADE IT (Almost) Everybody Loves a Hero
By Tippi Blevins | Season 10 | Episode 13 | Aired on 02.11.2011
She turns to go, but Alexander is right behind her. He whacks her across the face with the butt of a gun. She falls to the floor with a grunt. Lionel is horrified. He'll never get a date with her now! "Is that true?" Alexander asks. "You abandoned me in this world and wanted me dead in the next?" Lionel ignores the question and rushes to Martha's side. He gently touches Martha's hair. "Son, what have you done?" Alexander is made even more furious to hear Lionel call him that. He aims his gun at Lionel. Lionel chose someone else over him, twice. "You loved her son," he says. Lionel tries to smooth-talk his way out of this mess, but everything he says just pisses off Alexander even more. He starts throwing whiskey bottles at the wall. He says he knows he's dying, aging too quickly. He also has Lex's memories: "He despised every single one of you." Lionel tries another approach, telling Alexander that his hate can make him strong if he masters it. Alexander's not buying this Return of the Jedi crap and cracks Lionel across the face with his gun. Lionel falls back, unconscious. Alexander calmly pours whiskey all around the room. He pauses when he comes to Martha. He says he's taking pity on her: "I know how much it would kill you to watch your son die." You know what would also kill her? Actually killing her. He hurls the rest of the whiskey into the fire with a high-pitched "AAAAAAAAH!" that is unintentionally kind of funny.
Fortress of Barnitude. Tess is rifling around in Clark's trunks, although not in the fun way. She's looking for something amid all his notebooks and high school memorabilia. Clark whooshes up behind her. "I was halfway to the Fortress when I realized what you meant by 'taking care of the Luthors' another way," he says. He shuts the lid on the trunk and asks her if she's looking for the Phantom Zone crystal. She quite logically points out that Clark sent Slade there. Clark says the VRA didn't leave him any choice and promises to bring Slade back once the justice system isn't so effed up. Couldn't you send Lionel there until you figure out a way to send him back to his own world? Tess doesn't call him an idiot. Instead, she asks, "How can you be so good, Clark?" "Because no one taught him to hate," Alexander says behind them. He was probably hiding in the shadows the whole time, waiting for a good line to come in on. He says he's taken care of his father, and Martha, too. When Clark makes a move toward him, Alexander raises his gun. The kryptonite bullets glow green and Clark drops to the floor like a bag of rocks. Alexander starts to speechify about letting go of one's parents and growing up and Clark rolls around on the floor in pain. It's probably only partly because of the kryptonite. Clark and Tess both try to talk him back over to the good side, telling him it's not too late and he's not a killer yet. This just seems to make Alexander madder. He points the gun at Clark. "Always making yourself look better by making me look like some kind of monster!" Tess is like, "Dude, you're the one with the gun." She takes a step toward him. She tells him she knows how he feels. "After living in the darkness for so long, you feel like you can't step into the light, because it makes you feel ashamed." Also, because your eyes haven't adjusted and everything looks all glarey. Tess says Clark changed everything for her, and he can do the same for Alexander. Alexander looks like he has a headache. All... this... talking! It's overloading the exposition center of his brain! He doesn't understand why Clark would be willing to help his enemy. Clark says Alexander, unlike Lex, has Tess. Tess says she loves him, promises to always be there for him. His grip on the gun loosens and she takes it from his hand. She throws the gun across the room and Clark, quickly rebounding, whooshes away.