Smallville TV Show - Pandora - Smallville Recaps, Smallville Reviews, Smallville Episodes | TWoP

Recapped by Tippi Blevins · Aired 2009-11-20

Previously on Smallville: Tess accused a confused Lois of stealing her alien orb and then they got into a fight about it. Lois found the Legion ring and traveled a year into the future, then came back to the present with an alien assassin on her tail. Lois only remembered her trip to the future in sporadic visions and weird dreams, which she told her therapist. Zod and his soldiers don't have any powers under the yellow sun. Tess plotted to build a solar tower. Alia the alien assassin attacked Clark, accusing him of destroying the world. Lois kissed Clark and then had a seizure filled with futuristic visions and passed out.

LuthorCorp. Oliver is pacing in his office. Doesn't Queen Industries have their own office building? He's on the phone barking orders to someone about getting a "Dr. Weiss" the Metropolis General to treat Lois. Remember when Lex used to fly in specialists all the time for his friends? Those were the days. He's just hanging up when Clark comes in to tell him that Lois is missing. Oliver's all, "What do you mean 'missing'? You took her to the hospital! You've been with her all night! How did someone with superhearing and superstrength and superspeed let such a thing happen?" He didn't say the last part, but I think it's implied. Clark's explanation is that he stepped out to check his cell phone and when he got back to the room, she was gone. This... this pains me with stupidity. Not that it was (very) stupid of Clark to step out for a moment, but it's a stupid, flimsy way of moving the kidnapping plot forward. Clark is panicky and hands over Lois's charts to show Oliver that no one signed her out. Oliver tells him that Emil requested a copy of Lois's medical records. "Why would Emil care about Lois?" Clark asks. Well, off the top of my head, there's the fact that he's a doctor and he works at the hospital where she's been admitted. But there I go with the crazy logic talk. Oliver says Emil wouldn't care: "But maybe the person he's working for would." "Chloe," Clark says, looking like he just tasted a little nugget of hot, bitter barf in the back of his throat.

Unknown dark hallway. Two uniformed men are dragging an unconscious Lois between them, her bare feet sliding along the floor. They carried her out of the hospital like that? No stretcher? How very cumbersome. That just makes it especially stupid that Clark didn't know any of this was happening. They drag her through some double doors into some kind of exam room. The shot is of her lying on a clear plastic table with some glowing green sensors and wires attached to her temples. Stuart enters the room, wheeling in a big tank of all-purpose kryptonite liquid. He says to the room's other, unseen occupant: "Spying on Lois's computers and hacking into her therapist's files... did you really need to escalate to kidnapping from a coma ward?" We're meant to suspect he's speaking to Chloe, but as the camera pans over, we see that it's Tess. Which, you know, duh. Tess says this is her chance to solve the mystery surrounding Lois. Good luck with that. I'm still trying to figure out why she's on this show. Stuart wonders if it has something to do with Lois's futuristic visions, causing Tess to give him a death stare. He's all, "What, I can't hack into these files and not read them!" She lectures him about boundaries, which I wish they'd played for a little humor, because someone who kidnaps people isn't really the patron saint of boundaries. Stuart hooks Lois up to a computer. A few grainy images flash on the monitor. Tess bitches about the reception until she sees an image of Zod's solar towers. "The plans haven't even gone public yet," Tess says, realizing this means Lois really did go to the future. Stuart tappity-taps at the computer and says Lois is remembering something.

By Tippi Blevins

A close-up on Lois's unconscious face takes us to a flashback of her fighting with Tess and then picking up the Legion ring. thing she knows, there's a flash of light and she's lying facedown on the floor. Also, the ring is completely on her finger now even though we just saw her barely pick it up. She struggles to stand up. Everything around her is bathed in red light. She calls out: "Where are you, Tess? Don't start what you can't finish!" She drops the bravado long enough to have a good look at her surroundings. The once-familiar Daily Planet office is a shambles. A desk that she touches is covered in dust. She looks up at the window where red light is streaming through the broken stained glass. Wandering out of the lobby and into the street beyond, she passes several flyers that show an image of a fist with the words "For Our World" underneath. Outside, the buildings are in ruins. Lois has her first look at the gigantic -- and I mean gigantic -- red sun where our pert little yellow sun used to be. She hears a whooshing sound behind her and turns around. She sees Tess and Zod's solar tower, one side of which looks to be pretty wrecked for some reason, while the other side is shooting some kind of radiation up at the sky. Something flies out of the tower and, oh Lordy, I have it paused on a frame while I write this, and the CGI is terrible. You can see the sloppy outline of where the image was cut out and applied to the background. Anyway, it turns out to be one of Zod's soldiers, wearing a Z-symbol shirt and a long black leather coat. The silhouette of this shot in Lois's visions made it look like Clark, by the way, but I don't know whether it's a retcon now or if it was a red herring then. Either way: boo! He asks Lois why she's out of uniform. "Maybe because I dropped out of Girl Scouts years ago," she sasses. At this point, he notices she's bleeding from a wound on her temple, which means she's one of those filthy, filthy humans. He tells her this area's off limits to humans. Lois, thinking she's dreaming, wonders why he's got such an attitude. "It's not your place to ask questions," he says. Lois: "I'm a reporter, asking questions is in my blood." Man, look around. I don't think being a reporter is going to get you much pull around here. He makes a threat about spilling that question-laden blood and Lois has the sense to run for it. He zips in front of her, cutting her off. "The Red-Blue Blur will stop you," she says. He points out that the Blur is powerless under a red sun. "Look around you," he says. "Your Blur is dead." He glances up at something and Lois follows his gaze to the Blur's tattered black shirt hanging from a broken beam like a warning flag. The red sun blazes behind it. Somebody save the sun!

By Tippi Blevins

After the commercials, we find ourselves at Belle Reve Sanitarium, as an ominous-looking sign on a chain link fence tells us. If you weren't already crazy before you went in there, you'd be crazy when you came out. Inside, in the exam room where Lois is being held, Stuart is inserting a pair of glowing green sensors into Tess's temples. The metal prongs going into her skull are like an inch long, which seems... ill-advised. Stuart agrees with me: "Tuning the TV to channel Lois is one thing, but synching your brainwaves to hers?" Tess thinks it's necessary to see more than jumbled images. Stuart wants to at least call in someone from Summerholt to help, but Tess pays him no mind. Zod said the solar tower would change the world and Tess thinks Lois's visions will show her how. Stuart, whose name must mean "easily persuaded" in Scottish, taps a few keys at the computer and links Tess and Lois's brains together.

By Tippi Blevins

Immediately, we're taken to another flashback. This time it's of the Kent farm underneath that gigantimous red sun. The grass is still as green and pretty as can be, by the way. Inside the barn, Lois wakes up on the floor to a rat. To her credit, she doesn't freak out and the rat moseys along. The barn has been converted into a prison camp. Kandorian soldiers keep watch over a couple dozen or so people who huddle together to hay bales. Barbed wire crisscrosses the windows. A skittish woman gathers up two young children to go get whatever meager food the soldiers are giving out. That sort of four-diamond symbol that was on the orb is on a red flag that hangs from the loft railing. Alia walks through the crowd, holding one of the male prisoners by the throat. "Stealing will not go unpunished!" she says in what I suspect is supposed to be a stern tone, but sounds horribly wooden. She tosses this poor sap to the ground and uses her heat vision to burn a Z onto his back. His skin sizzles like bacon. Alia sees that Lois has been watching this display and approaches her. Lois backs up, claiming she was just looking for food. Alia demands a trade. Just then, Clark walks up between them, proffering Jonathan Kent's watch. He's handsomely scruffy and his skin has never looked dewier. I'd say life as human cattle is agreeing with him. Lois is surprised to see him. Alia takes the watch and leaves them alone. Clark hugs Lois and whispers, "I thought I'd lost you forever." She still thinks she's dreaming, but Clark breaks the news to her that it's real. "Since when the Kent farm become a prison and why would you give away the one thing of your dad's that meant so much to you?" Girl, he did it to get you some food. You were right there when that transaction went down. "I did it for you," he says quietly. I guess absence really does make the heart grow fonder, because I don't think he was quite this taken with her last May, which would have been the last time he saw her. Lois steers the conversation back around to the "Wicked Witch" and the "flying freaks." Huh. Second week in a row for a Wizard of Oz reference. Think it means anything? Clark tells her they've been invaded by aliens. This connects the dots for Lois, who remembers Tess spouting off about an alien orb before their fight. "Tess knew about this," Lois says, her tone accusatory. Clark tells her he tried to fight the aliens' leader, Zod. "But I made all the wrong choices and people died." Lois begs him to tell her Chloe wasn't one of them, but Clark says he doesn't know, because the big dipwad left everyone behind after he thought he'd lost Lois. He hasn't heard from her in months. This makes Lois realize she's not in the present anymore. Er, the past. Whatever. Clark figures out she has the Legion ring and tells her to guard it when the Kandorian soldier from earlier shows up to take her to Zod. Clark stupidly throws a punch at the super-powered alien soldier, which turns out to be about as effective as a mouse fart against a lion. The soldier tosses him thirty feet into a makeshift table where all the prisoners' food was. I bet the prisoners are gonna be piiiisssed. The soldier drags Lois away.

By Tippi Blevins

Watchtower, present day. Chloe is studying Lois's medical reports when Clark whooshes in with an accusing, "Where's Lois?" "Last I heard, you dropped her at the hospital," she says. His tone gets angrier as he says he knows Chloe had Emil look into Lois's records. Chloe's like, "She's my cousin!" Yeah, dumbass. Clark leans across the table, getting all up in her grill about how she's been hiding things from him for months. "Now I think you're hiding Lois." Chloe looks up at him with an expression of pure what-the-fuckery and slowly gets up from her chair. "Right accusation, wrong girl," she says slowly. Someone's been up to this secret shit a lot longer than she has. Clark straightens up, realizing Tess is the guilty party. Chloe: "We can work on your apology later." Raise your hand if you actually believed we were going to see Clark apologize at some point in this episode. Sucker! Chloe maid-and-butlers about how they both know Tess is so obsessed with Lois's missing three weeks. Thank goodness for these expository bits, because I don't remember that much about Tess being obsessed with Lois, except in the sexy way. Clark, very slowly putting the pieces together, realizes Lois's kidnapping has something to do with her trip to the future. Chloe hands him the hospital workups that Emil got for her. They try to inject some suspense and drama into the storyline by talking about how every time Lois has a memory, her body relives the trauma, and her heart can't take it. But how to find her? Chloe calls her "guy on the inside" who, of course, is Stuart.

By Tippi Blevins

At the Belle Reve exam room, we see Stuart's cell phone ringing, the display helpfully identifying Chloe as the caller. Yeah, Stuart's one awesome super secret hacker. Stuart ignores the phone because he's got his hands full with Tess and Lois, who have started to convulse on their respective tables. Stuart, in a panic, goes to the computer. I think they used the exact same brain image for both Lois and Tess except Tess's looks a little bigger. We flash forward to the future. A shackled Lois is standing in the all-purpose office at the Luthor mansion which can add "Kandorian Military Headquarters" to its list of purposes. There are a bunch of banners with the Zod symbol. Lois sees a tray of fruit and candies and is about ready to tuck in when Zod's voice from the balcony level advises her to try the truffles. "They're my favorite," he says. If I had to be a human prisoner, I'd want to be the one who makes the candy. But as soon as Lois can get her hands on a piece of sweet, sweet candy, Zod has appeared at her side to snatch it away. He eats it in front of her, then leans in way too close to either make a pass at her or torture her with his cocoa-breath. "I'm General Zod," he says. He offers her the food in exchange for telling him who snuck her into the restricted zone. "My dad's a general, too, and he couldn't get me to spill about how I got an M-1 Abrams tank to take me to prom." By the end of this series, Lois will have amassed no fewer than a dozen different prom stories. He grabs her and pulls her right up against himself, whispering about how the "resistance fighters" will never take down his tower. It should be very creepy and intimidating, but the lip-flapping thing he does is in full force and quite comical. He jams his fingers down the front pocket of her jeans and fishes out the Legion ring. He wants to know what it is, but before Lois can say anything Tess walks into the room wearing a soldier's fatigues. She's surprised to see Lois, who greets her by calling her a redheaded witch and a traitor. Lois backhands her. You're probably just turning her on, Lois. Tess says she helped Zod take power to help save the Earth. They really need to show more of why Tess thinks those two things go hand-in-hand, because it's not really making any sense. Not that many things on this show make sense, but, you know.

By Tippi Blevins

Zod, changing the subject, says, "I understand you were seen talking to Clark Kent. It was only a matter of time before the resistance got to him." So I guess he thinks Lois is part of the resistance? The dialogue on this show is so awful. How can they exposit so much while explaining so little? Lois disavows any knowledge of a resistance and says Clark would back her up if he were there. "The only reason Clark is still alive is because I had hoped he would join us, to bridge the gap between our people," Zod lip-flaps. Lois looks at him like he's crazy, which he kind of is, God love 'im. Tess joins the conversation by saying she's tried to get Clark to join them and see all the good work they're doing, but he isn't going to come around. "Which is why neither of you is any good to me alive," Zod says to Lois, getting up in her face. He orders a double execution to send a message to those who would defy him. Lois's chin quivers. Even Tess seems a little shocked. A single tear falls down Lois's cheek.

After the commercials, the festivities have moved to the terrace outside the all-purpose office. That female soldier who isn't Alia has joined Tess, Zod, and Lois, along with a nondescript male soldier. These characters really need names, damn it. Tess poses in a Kandorian kneel in front of Zod. He says, "Today, as two lives end, another begins." He gifts her with a Kandorian dog tag, which he places around her neck. "Rise, soldier," he tells her, and she does, looking quite proud of herself. Lois fidgets with rage. Then, for some damn reason, they all head down the hall and back into the all-purpose office. I guess it was so Lois could walk in and see Clark being held under guard by four soldiers. Clark: "Take my life and let her live!" Does that ever work? Zod commends Clark for his bravery, but Clark's defiance has forced Zod's hand. Clark is pushed to his knees by the soldiers. Zod unsheathes a long, shiny sword. "I wanted you to join me on this new Earth," he whispers. "But now I must bury you beneath it." Ugh. I hope you didn't spend a lot of time coming up with that, Zoddy Poo, because that was terrible. He raises the sword, but before he can bring it down again, a glowing green arrow shoots through the window and hits one of the soldiers square in the chest. Clark takes advantage of the distraction and grabs Lois. Black-clad and masked resistance fighters break through the overhead windows and rappel into the room. They all have crossbows equipped with kryptonite arrows. Another soldier is shot and drops. The non-Alia female soldier leads Zod out of the room to get him away from the kryptonite. He resists with a long, hateful look back at Clark, but eventually superzips away with her. One of the fighters slits a soldier's throat with a kryptonite blade; even though only his eyes are visible, you can tell the fighter is Oliver. He throws a knife into the last soldier's chest. The room now secure, he removes his mask. He removes Lois's cuffs and they hug each other. "Am I glad to see you and your band of merry men," she sighs. "It's not my band," Oliver corrects her. "It's hers." He looks over his shoulder to where Chloe is just removing her hat and mask. Lois hugs her. Chloe's manner seems strangely distant. The whole reunion has an air of awkwardness. Luckily, the sound of a woman whimpering in pain grabs Oliver's attention, or they'd probably be standing there forever trying to find something to say.

By Tippi Blevins

It's Tess. She's been skewered by one of the arrows. Oliver goes to her, cradling her head in the crook of his elbow. "You always were a good shot," she says shakily, tears streaming down her face. He rocks her gently and says didn't do this to her. "I know I did this to myself," she says. She knows choosing to side with Zod was a risk, but she thought she was saving the Earth. How does siding with a genocidal maniac save the Earth? How? Explain, show! Oliver caresses her cheek as she gives one last sigh and goes limp in his arms. He cries a little and kisses her forehead. Good acting all around, marred only by the flimsy character motivations leading up to this moment. Oliver slowly becomes aware that someone is standing behind up. He looks up at Chloe. "I had the shot," she says coldly. "I had to take it." She walks away, leaving him still rocking Tess's rapidly cooling corpse.

The shot is of Tess's face, eyes closed, and tastefully made up. As the camera pulls back, we see that she's lying in a shallow grave. While Lois watches, Oliver drops a big shovelful of dirt right on Tess's face. It's quite a shocking thing to see, and shocking to Tess, too, apparently, because she awakes with a start in the present day. She starts yanking the sensors out of her temples with pained grunts. "Chloe kills me," she says. Stuart helpfully reminds her she's still alive. Tess, speaking in a panicked, sobbing jumble, orders him to use the equipment to wipe Lois's memory of the future because it's too dangerous for Lois to know the things that Tess just saw. Stuart protests because Lois could end up catatonic. "Don't argue with me, Stuart." She gives him the death-eyes again and he takes a few stilted steps toward the computer. He sighs and thinks and sighs some more. Finally, he says he won't do it. Tess can't quite believe what she's hearing. time when you hire an evil minion, make sure they're actually evil. He turns back to the computer to end the procedure. Tess shoots him in the back of the head and he drops to the floor. She goes to wipe Lois's memory herself but Clark's whooshing into the room interrupts her. He immediately starts feeling woozy because of all the kryptonite. Tess tries to cover her ass by blaming everything on Stuart. Clark shoves her into a metal cart and knocks her unconscious. Clark pulls one of the sensor prongs out of Lois's temple and accidentally jabs himself in the hand. I guess Kryptonian brains are located not in their skulls but in their hands, because Clark immediately starts seeing Lois's visions.

By Tippi Blevins

A flash takes him to the resistance headquarters. That defiant fist sign from earlier is duplicated on a big cloth banner here. Chloe leads Lois and Clark to a table where she spreads out a map to plan their steps. Clark wants to take a stand against Zod. He tells Chloe about the Legion ring that brought Lois a year into the future and thinks she can use it to go back in time and keep Zod from building the tower. Only problem is, Zod has the ring now. Chloe thinks it's not a bad plan, but: "Why should I trust you now? You already left us once to fight on your own." She's all hard-edged and unforgiving, unlike the Chloe of the present day. Clark looks abashed. Oliver joins the group to add his accusations of abandonment to Chloe's. Clark admits he was wrong for trying to take Zod on by himself. "But I'm here now." Chloe doesn't look too impressed. Lois sticks up for Clark, even though she can't understand why Clark would try to take on Zod. She reminds them they're all in this together. Clark tells them that if they can shut down the tower and bring back the yellow sun, he'll be able to get the ring back. "Maybe," Chloe admits. "But I still don't trust you." Chloe and Oliver techno-magic-babble about how the towers collect the sun's radiation, turns it red, beam it back to the LuthorCorp satellites, and then the radiation is beamed back to Earth, giving the Kandorians their powers. The very small part of my brain that has a tiny grasp on physics just kaploded. Lois points out that they're outnumbered and have no chance of reaching the tower. Chloe says they don't have to, because they have the Watchtower, which she powered down so that the Kandorians couldn't find it. They couldn't find the huge brick penis jutting up into the Metropolis skyline? Huh. Anyway, Chloe says she can go back there now and use the computers to upload a virus that will shut down Zod's tower. And y'all are waiting till just now to do this? Clark tells them that if they bring back the yellow sun, he'll do the rest. Lois, for once, asks a very sensible question: "How does turning the sun yellow make Clark our number one draft pick for taking on this Zod guy?" Chloe, Clark, and Oliver all exchange secretive looks but don't tell her the truth. The truth could only help her when she goes back to the past, but for the sake of silly drama, they all remain mum. All Clark says is, "Zod and I have a history." What, did the two of you date for a while? His explanation makes as much sense to Lois as it does to me, judging by the expression on her face,

By Tippi Blevins

There's a blood-red full moon hanging in the night sky. Seems like it would be pinkish instead of red, but that physics part of my brain is still dead, so what do I know? Clark is in the shambles of a building we saw in Lois's opening vision last week. Shirtless, he bends over a basin of water to wash his face. Lois opens the door and peeks inside, looking uncharacteristically timid. He asks if she's OK. She lists all the unbelievable things she's experienced that day, the most unbelievable of which is that Clark and Chloe are no longer friends. She lets herself into the room and closes the door behind her. "It's not her fault; I turned my back on her," Clark says. He turns his back to Lois in classic soap confessional fashion. "After you disappeared, I couldn't be around Oliver or Chloe. They reminded me of you and that hurt too much." This would be so much better if I could buy this level of passion and drama from the stage their relationship was in last May. Lois looks touched. Clark says he left to train himself to fight Zod. She wants to know what he meant by having a "history" with him. For no good reason, he still doesn't tell her the truth. "Let's just say I made some mistakes." Lois walks up to him, teary-eyed, and tells him to stop beating himself up. They could all die tomorrow, she says. "Lois, I died when you left," Clark says. Oy. Don't oversell it, show. They kiss and he unbuttons her shirt. They fall back onto the bed and then there are a series of slo-mo, red-tinged shots of them having sex while sad orchestral music plays. Echoing the scene from last week, Clark's voice says, "I wish we had more time," but this is a 41-minute episode and there are commercials yet to air.

By Tippi Blevins

Belle Reve. Emil is shining a light into an unconscious Clark's eyes, trying to get his attention. He remains unresponsive. Chloe walks into the room behind him, saying that an ambulance is on the way. She also says some crazy shit about Stuart losing a lot of blood, but still being alive, and from the complete lack of panic in her voice you'd think he suffered a flesh wound when we just saw the back of his head get damn near blown off. Tess is OK, too, but she's been relegated to some off-screen place. Why do they not turn her in to the police is beyond me. Emil thinks he can pull Lois and Clark out of their locked brains but Chloe wants to leave them plugged in for a while. Emil's all, "But it's putting their lives in danger!" Chloe tells him if he pulls Clark out now, more people's lives will be at stake. This is his chance to find out why Alia came back from the future to tell him he would destroy the world. Clark twitches on the floor between them and a flash of light takes us to...

...the Watchtower of the future. Techno-rock music plays to let us know some badassery is about to take place. Oliver, Chloe, and Lois strut through the doors. Lois tends to some random wounds on her hands and Oliver goes to fetch his extra-special compound bow, greeting it like a long-lost lover. Chloe flips the lights on and Lois sees the full scale of the place for the first time. She's awed. "OK, remember when I kicked you out of my clubhouse for spilling soda and you said you'd just build a cooler one? You win." Chloe has no time for banter, though, and goes to one of the computers. Surveillance footage of the city (the world?) shows the place in ruins. "So this is what happens when there's no Blur," Lois says. Oliver walks into the room, having fully changed into his Green Arrow leathers in ten seconds. He gives Lois a lead-sheathed knife made of kryptonite, although he calls it "meteor rock" for her benefit. I guess. Chloe is just uploading the virus to the tower's command center. The techno music has given way to heroic orchestral music. Oliver warns them the Kandorians are coming. He and Lois head out and Chloe promises to catch up to them, which is almost always a sign that you're about to be dead.

By Tippi Blevins

Lois runs through the streets and ducks behind a wrecked truck as if it's any kind of protection against a super-powered alien. A second later, Chloe is seen running into the street. She's out in the open. Lois shouts for her cousin to join her behind the miraculous shelter of the truck. Chloe runs and runs. A Kandorian whooshes through the sky toward them. The show tries to create suspense by having Lois shout out to Chloe with increasing urgency but this whole setup is just so bad. Chloe runs until she runs up against Alia, who draws a sword and promptly skewers her with it. Chloe falls in slow motion to her knees and then topples forward to the concrete. Oliver shows up to scare off Alia with the threat of his kryptonite arrows. Lois runs out from behind the truck to cradle her cousin as she dies. Oliver lays a hand on Lois's shoulder. "The best way to avenge her death is to get that ring." Lois, in tears, says she won't leave Chloe. Oliver reminds her she's still alive in the past. If Lois can make sure this future never happens, then she'll save Chloe and the rest of them. Reluctantly, Lois nods and kisses Chloe on the forehead. Oliver tells her to meet Clark at the tower. "I'll cover you," he says. Lois runs off down the street. A second later, Oliver turns toward a thunderous whooshing sound, bow raised and arrow at the ready. Thousands of bees fly out from the tower and swarm him! Killer bees everywhere! I'm pretty sure they're supposed to be Kandorians, but what they look like is a lot of badly animated black blobs.

Elsewhere on the streets of a decimated Metropolis, Zod is dragging Clark around by the ankle like he thinks he's Adam Lambert. The sun above them is still red. Clark really should waited to go to the tower until after the yellow sun came back.

By Tippi Blevins

Zod converses with Clark despite the fact that the latter is barely conscious. "I should have known you'd come after me. All to save a doomed race. When faced with a crumblin' world, these humans would rather die than unite under a single leader!" This can't possibly come as a shock to him, I mean, has he read nothing of human politics of the past few millennia? He finally decides he's dragged Clark around enough and stops to speechify some more about stupid humans. They really need to stop writing these overly dramatic, contempt-filled speeches, because Callum Blue's delivery is just comically petulant. He does so much better with subtle menace. Lois, unseen by Zod, scampers behind a car and makes eye contact with Clark. He shakily gets up on his knees, defiantly telling Zod that humanity will never lose its spirit. Zod knocks him back down with his fingertips. Zod turns his back and walks a few steps away for absolutely no reason, but it allows Lois a chance to slide the (stupidly still sheathed) kryptonite knife over to Clark. Just as Clark reaches for it, Zod steps on his hand. "Goodbye, son of Ja-Welle," Zod says, and kicks Clark into a pile of concrete rubble. Lois runs out from behind the car, calling his name. Zod steps in front of her. He grabs her, but lets her go when he notices his beloved tower is suddenly acting wonky. Sparks shoot out of the top and the red skies give way to blue. The red sun turns yellow. Yes, just like that. Clark, now restored to his super self, calls out, "Your reign of terror is over, Zod!" Oy, this dialogue. He tells Zod he's sending Lois back to the past to stop the tower being built. Zod explodes in a rage. "You chose to fight me! You forced me to unleash my power!" Oh man. This dialogue! It's like flames... flames on the side of my face! Clark, telling Zod that he never gave humanity a chance, takes the ring from his pocket. He pauses for ages to look at the ring, giving Zod a chance get off one more line about humanity making Clark weak before stabbing him with the kryptonite knife. You can totally see the outline of the blood pack under Tom Welling's shirt. Clark, using a last bit of strength, tosses Zod into the side of a nearby van. Zod falls. Clark falls. Lois runs over to him. He tells her to take the ring and go back to the past, but she's worried she won't see him again. Girl, you are going to the past. He exists there. They kiss goodbye. Just as Clark slips the ring onto Lois's finger, Alia shows up and, despite the fact that the sun is yellow and she should have no powers (hmmm...), she superzips over to Lois and grabs her hand. Both of them are transported to the past in a flash of pink light.

By Tippi Blevins

There are flashes of images of the monorail fight from the season premiere, interspersed with images of Clark and Lois lying in the room at Belle Reve. Clark wakes up with a grunt and pulls himself up to his feet. Lois is still out of it on the table, but Chloe tells him she'll be fine, barring a headache. Emil babbles something about synapses and injections of chemical inhibitors, the upshot of which is that Lois's memories of the future are gone. Chloe presses Clark about what he saw in the future, but he just pants and gives her a scared look.

Daily Planet. Clark is giving Lois a donut (not a stolen one this time) and telling her she needs to take things easy. He watches her eat for a moment, then asks, "Lois, what are we doing?" She's like, "I'm eating a maple donut." She looks at him like he's nuts and she tells him he's invading her personal space. He clarifies that he wants to know what's going on with them as a couple. She freaks out slightly. Seriously, Clark. If she skipped town when you kissed her, how do you think she's going to react when you get all shmoopy-shippy on her? She calms down a little and says she still needs to get her feet under her. "Well, you can lean on me for strength," he says. "I feel stronger when you're around anyway." She's afraid she's done the whole dating thing wrong so many times, so Clark reassures her that they can take their time. The lightly comical music starts up. She takes his arm and leads him through the office to the elevator, rattling off a list of all the fun dating things they can do. She caps it off with, "And you will take me to a monster truck rally." They smile cutely at each other. They get into the elevator and clasp hands as the doors close.

Watchtower. A chipper Clark walks in to find Oliver doing paperwork at one of the desks. Oliver really doesn't have his own office, does he? Oliver remarks on how happy Clark looks, considering he was just exposed to massive amounts of kryptonite. "Well, the sun's shining and Lois is going to be all right," Clark says, going over to stand in the sunlight streaming through the stained glass window. Chloe walks into the scene to confirm that Lois is healthy and doesn't remember a thing: "Except, of course, the flowers that Clark sent to her room. But who could forget five dozen roses?" Oliver is impressed. Clark grins. Chloe, displaying more sense than both of them put together, doesn't understand why they're so happy when they're all about to die horribly. Clark thinks they can change the future. Oliver votes for taking Zod out now, but Clark says he tried fighting Zod in the future and that made things worse. Oliver's like, "You think you two can just hug it out?" Clark mentions Jor-El telling him to save Zod. "I think what he meant was to save Zod from himself." Clark wants to befriend Zod and show him a rip-roaring good time on Earth. Chloe thinks this would be a mistake. Once he gets his towers... "He will fly psychopathic circles around you." But Clark won't be persuaded, despite the fact that in the future he saw, part of the problem was that he didn't listen to his friends. Idiot.

By Tippi Blevins

Ubiquitous warehouse. Zod has assembled his soldiers to give them their battle plans. "This tower must be built," he says. He picks out one of the soldiers and tells him -- I kid you not -- to get into City Hall to "smooth over" any laws that might get in their way. Seriously. This soldier is assigned to the zoning commission. Zod tells another soldier to get into the power plant to get them the energy they need. He starts to give Alia her assignment, but Clark whooshes into the room, cutting him off. He's wearing his Emo Blur outfit. "I understand you've been looking for me," Clark says. Zod turns to him. "My brother and sister Kandorians, he has come," he says with something like reverence to the soldiers behind him. And then he tells them: "Kneel... before Kal-El." All of them (minus Zod) get down on one knee and salute him. Clark looks worried. Zod gives him a small but completely crazy smile. Clark looks even more worried. You should have listened to Oliver and Chloe, dude.

Grade: C. A good idea and mostly good acting, marred by a nonsensical plot and flimsy character motivation. In other words, about par for the course with this show.

Tippi Blevins is going to travel two months into the future to recap the episode. See you there! Or, you can reach her at b_tippi@yahoo.com.