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

Recapped by Tippi Blevins · Aired 2010-10-29

A snazzy red convertible speeds down the road, toward a scenic range of misty mountains. Clark is at the wheel and Lois sits beside him. After their mutual revelations last week, a few things have suddenly started to become very clear to Lois. She names a few incidents of the past for Clark. "Our Twilight Zone acid trip to the phantom prison," she recalls. "That place was...?" She trails off, letting Clark finish with "Kryptonian" as confirmation. She nods and studies his profile while he drives. She also mentions the "horny toad" that crashed Chloe and Jimmy's wedding, which Clark also admits was Kryptonian. What about that spaceship she found? "Also Kryptonian," Clark says, "but that wasn't mine, it was my cousin's." He gives her a lambish look. (It's not quite sheepish yet.) She studies him some more and then apologizes for all the questions. "It's just not every week that a girl learns her boyfriend's an--" "Alien?" Clark finishes with a goofy smile. He wants to be sure she's okay with that. She gets googly eyed and likens it to dating a god... or Bono. Clark seems quite pleased with those comparisons. They grin at each as they drive past lush, green mountains. Ah, Kansas. What hidden geographical treasures do you hold?

Lois is glad they're out on a story where Cat can't snoop. Clark looks slightly uncomfortable and says, "It's lucky Tess sent us out here to cover the cherry festival." Lois gives him a suspicious look. "Clark Kent doesn't believe in luck," she says. Are you kidding? Luck saves his ass all the time! He damn well better believe in it. She presses him and he admits he got them on this assignment because he didn't want Lois in the middle of the anti-hero protest that's going in in Metropolis. Lois is a bit miffed because it should have been her story, but Clark was trying to protect her. She teases him for treating her like a damsel in distress. "Clark, I love that an intergalactic powerhouse wants to protect me," she says, "but this Earth girl can take care of herself." Except for when you get kidnapped practically every other week.

At this point, the universe decides to prove her wrong and their car suddenly hits something in the road. Clark pulls off to the side of a road that stretches for miles in either direction with nary another soul in sight. They get out and have a look at the car. "Two flats and only one spare," Lois says. "Looks like a job for... AAA." The Superman theme tootles quietly at the almost-reference. Unfortunately for our intrepid reporters, there's no cellphone signal so they can't call for help. Here's the point at which he should have zipped off with the phone to some more populous area with a signal, or to a tire shop. Or he could just pick up Lois and the car and whoosh all of their asses down the road. Instead, he replaces one of the busted tires with the spare, using his own hands as a carjack while Lois giggles. "Oh, praise the Lord!" a girlish voice says behind them. "You're okay!" They turn and see a little girl running up to them from a horse-drawn buggy parked a few yards away. She's wearing a kapp to cover her hair and a dress she borrowed from Laura Ingalls Wilder. Clark asks if there's a mechanic nearby and the little girl helpfully tells him to go up the road a bit. Clark invites Lois to come with him, but Lois decides to give him a hard time, calling herself a "delicate little flower" that can't withstand the heat. She decides to stay with the girl, who politely introduces herself as "Charlotte, ma'am" and offers Lois some lemonade. "Ah, lovely!" Lois says with too much enthusiasm. "So we will have a big glass as we damsels in distress wait for Clark to come rescue us." She turns to Clark with a big grin. When Charlotte flits off to fetch the lemonade, Clark warns Lois that she's in the middle of nowhere. Lois scoffs at the idea she might be in any danger. Clark reluctantly trudges down the road, busted tire in hand.

By Tippi Blevins

Time passes, as evidenced by the clouds that skid across the sky at a sped-up pace. Clark returns at super-speed, fixed tire in hand, but finds the snazzy red convertible abandoned. Lois, the little girl and the cart of (probably) evil lemonade are nowhere to be seen. "Lois?" Clark calls out. The empty road stretches into the mountains. He gets no answer. Somebody save us from seemingly polite little children! Seriously, trusting any kid is an iffy prospect, but the angelically nice ones? Shudder.

Clark is still calling out to Lois after Remy Zero have finished making their pleas. He checks his phone. Still no signal. Clark struggles to get the tire into the trunk. He cuts his hand on the rim and stares down at the wound in shock. At the same moment, a young deputy pulls up in a patrol car and offers to help. "My girlfriend, she's missing," Clark says. He says they had a bit of an argument before he went into town to get a flat tire fixed. Now he can't find her. The deputy, who doesn't introduce himself but wears a tag that says "S. Ellis," sees Clark's bloody hand and offers him a hanky. Still looking at the wound, Ellis asks, "How bad was your little argument?" Clark, seeing where this is going, explains he cut his hand on the tire rim. He describes Charlotte and her cart, but Ellis scoffs at the idea of little girls showing up in the middle of nowhere. Clark insists he knows what he saw. Ellis suggests they go to the station, but Clark doesn't want to go anywhere without Lois. Clark looks around and finds a nail-studded chunk of wood lying in the road. "This must be what we ran over," he says. "Now, if our blowout wasn't an accident, someone could have done this on purpose." Well, yes, that would be the opposite of an accident. Ellis tries again to get Clark to hit the road, but Clark finds a fresh set of wheel tracks leading off a logging road. Suspicious! Ellis agrees to help him find Lois.

By Tippi Blevins

Charlotte and Lois are taking a horse-powered tour through a lush green valley. "Look at you drive that horse," Lois says. "At your age, the best I could do was drive my dad crazy." Charlotte chuckles politely. They ride into a rustic little town nestled amongst towering pines and mounds of ferny undergrowth. Charlotte says her father will take Lois the rest of the way to the train station in town. "As long as I can make the express back to cover the rally, I'm happy," Lois says. "I am not gonna miss out on a front page story just because he thinks I can't take care of myself." Another polite chuckle from Charlotte as she looks forward to Lois's demise. As for the town, it's populated by a congregation calling themselves "Believers" who moved from Idaho. The potatoes were just too impertinent, with all those eyes of theirs. As the ladies slow to a stop and hop down from the buggy, Lois notes that the town seems to be getting ready for something. It's the Harvest Festival, Charlotte tells her. A matronly woman sees them from her front porch and hurries down to greet them. "Bless us, child!" she says. "Did you bring a guest to our home unannounced, when we're unprepared to welcome them?" So they're "Believers" in passive-aggressiveness. I have an immediate distrust of this woman because she just looks like someone who would commit ritualistic murder. She's Ruth Cavanaugh, and she promises that her husband will take Lois to the train station after dinner. Lois, trying hard to be polite, offers to walk there if someone could just point her in the right direction. Ruth insists Lois stay, and Lois, sensing no impending murder, finally relents.

By Tippi Blevins

As Ruth leads Lois into her house, little Charlotte bounds over to her father. "Did you see her, Father?" Her father, duded up like an Amish man minus the Abe Lincoln beard, touches his daughter's face. "Good work, Child," he says. "You've saved us all." Charlotte's cheeks are rosy with murderous pride.

Luthor Mansion. It's Alexander's birthday. Children sit around a table bedecked in purple finery and pretzels, cheering as Tess brings out a cake lit up with thirteen candles. (Did Tess order those kids out of a catalog? It's not like Alexander would have any real friends.) Alexander, now being played once more by Connor Stanhope, blows out all the candles and gives Tess a tight hug. She closes her eyes for a moment, overwhelmed. "Thank you," he says. "This is the best party ever!" [Does he really have a lot to compare it to, since he lived in a lab before last week? - Zach] Tess excuses herself, promising to be back later for cake, and leaves the room. The children talk amongst themselves, ignoring Alexander. He doesn't notice, though, because he's become fixated on the red candle he's just plucked from his cake.

Out in the hall, Tess is met by a woman in a dark suit. "My team is still searching for a remedy," the woman says, "but I don't want to make any false promises." She says that Alexander's condition appears to be irreversible. The rapid growth will cause his body to eventually "give out." Tess, her voice cracking, says that's not good enough. He's already aged four years in two weeks. [Did they choose the number of candles on the cake based on his estimated biological age? Will he have his 15th birthday party week, with all-new kids? - Zach] Tess still insists on keeping him at home, instead of at a research facility, because she wants him to believe he's a normal boy. He's not normal and he never will be, the doctor insists. "I just want to protect him," Tess says. "I want to give him a second chance." Inside the room, the birthday boy is frantically using the red crayon to draw something on a paper plate. In the hall: "Dr. Lamell, I know that you had a hand in the horrors that Lex Luthor committed in his labs over the years," Tess says. She's not blackmailing this woman, but trying to appeal to her desire for redemption. Lamell does want to make things right. Tess promises not to let Alexander become Lex. Their discussion is interrupted when a scream comes from the party. Tess rushes in and finds Alexander twitching on the floor. As Lamell tends to Alexander, Tess catches sight of the boy's paper plate drawing. She's horrified to see Clark's S-shield symbol scrawled in red.

By Tippi Blevins

Valley of the Damned. Clark and Deputy Ellis continue their search for Lois. They come to a ramshackle old house at the edge of a pond. Ellis tries to convince Clark that the tracks they're following were probably left by hunters. Clark is unconvinced, namely because of the spikes they ran over. "Look, it's only natural for you to be worried about your girlfriend," Ellis says. Clark stops looking around and turns to Ellis. "She's the most important thing in my life." Ellis thinks she was just upset and got a ride back to Metropolis. His smile is easy and friendly, but the ominous music is sort of giving him away. Clark catches sight of a water trough near a well. The sediment in the trough is laced with bright blue specks. "Meteor shower of '89," Ellis explains like the helpful sort he is. "Couple of meteors hit the spring." He also tells Clark with unsettling cheer that the meteors destroyed the crops and killed a local person. "But it did give us a gift," he says, and helps himself to some of the crisp, clean, irradiated water from the well. He pronounces it the "best drinkin' water in the county" thanks to meteor purification. [Is that a thing? - Z] Clark is skeptical, seeing as how he's from Smallville and the green meteor rock has been causing all sorts of harm. Ellis chuckles and says he's never had so much as a common cold. Your insurance company must love you. A church bell rings in the distance and Clark's ears go up like an inquisitive terrier's. "If there's nothing out here, then what was that?" he asks. "Something I wish you hadn't heard," Ellis says. Clark turns to look at him just in time to get the butt of a rifle in his face. He falls to the ground, unconscious. Ellis's cheery facade never breaks.

By Tippi Blevins

Luthor Mansion. Alexander ponders an ornate chess set in his bedroom. The door unlocks and Tess walks in with a handful of papers. Without turning to look at her, Alexander apologizes for ruining the party. "I know that something's wrong with me," he says. "I'm a freak!" Tess gathers him up in her arms. "No, no you're not," she says. "You're a beautiful little boy, and I promise you that I'm going to make everything okay." While she's hugging him, he reaches into her sweater pocket and palms the key to the door. Pulling away to look into his face, Tess asks him about the symbol he was drawing at the party. Alexander tries to make it seem unimportant, but Tess shows him other drawings of the symbol that she found in his closet. "Please tell me what they mean to you," she says. "It's the symbol of the bad man," Alexander says. "He comes into my dreams to hurt me." Tess's subsequent promise to never let anyone hurt him means little to Alexander, because the bad man can't be stopped. "He's the strongest man in the whole world! You can't protect me!" Tess again promises to protect him, but this only enrages Alexander. He picks up one of his toys and hurls it across the room, shouting, "He wants to kill me!" Tess, near tears, turns away and busies herself with picking up the toy. She tries to calm Alexander, but the boy is running out of the room and locking the door behind him. Tess rushes to the door, calling his name repeatedly, her voice rising with panic.

Village of the Damned. Lois sits at the dinner table with the Cavanaughs. Gas lamps hang from the walls and beeswax candles light the table, but the room is otherwise dark. Lois picks at her ham in silence for a while. "Yummy," she says, trying to start a conversation. "And to think you fixed all this without a KitchenAid or a Costco." Mr. Cavanaugh says they live a simple life and keep away from modern technology and temptation. "Helps us stay on the righteous path," he says. Lois tries to segue into discussing other paths, like the one they should be taking to the train station. Instead, he talks about their teachings and spending time with one's fellow man. Lois remembers Sunday school from living on military bases. "You should finish your dinner," Mr. Cavanaugh says with a note of finality. Ruth turns the discussion to the Harvest Festival, which Lois would like to see someday. "Bet that's a lot of fun," she says. Charlotte stares down at her plate, saying nothing. Mr. Cavanaugh is aghast at the very idea of fun. "We glorify the day we were shown the Lord's sign," he says. He and the missus recall the day that fires rained down from the heavens, destroying the village and killing their daughter Esther as she was ringing the town bell. Lois is sincerely sorry for their loss. Mrs. Cavanaugh looks at her with tears in her eyes. "Before that, we suffered terrible drought, and years of bad crops," Mr. Cavanaugh says. He describes a hungry and sick people. "But our daughter gave her life so that we could prosper." Charlotte adds that now their people never get sick and their crops are always bountiful. Mr. Cavanaugh goes on to say that they offer the Lord a sacrifice every year. Lois is mightily disturbed, although she tries to remain as calm and polite as possible instead of denouncing them as the whackjobs they clearly are.

By Tippi Blevins

When the grownups clear the table, Lois turns to Charlotte. "I'm a little squeamish when it comes to the slaughtering of the fatted calf," she says, asking Charlotte to thank her parents for her. She gets up from the table to beat a hasty retreat, but polite little Charlotte calls after her. "We'll never let you leave," she says. "You've been chosen, just like my sister." Lois, finally realizing her role in the Harvest Festival, flees through the door but finds a torch-wielding mob awaiting her. Mr. Cavanaugh raises his arms to the heavens. "Rejoice, my people! We have our sacrifice!" Choruses of "praise the Lord!" go up among the gathering. Lois, finally at the end of her politically correct rope, shouts, "What is wrong with you people!?" as the mob forces her to the ground.

Later, Clark wakes up on the floor of the Cavanaugh house. Lois is kneeling over him, dressed in a modest cotton gown and kapp. Her face looks freshly scrubbed. Relieved to have found her, he clambers up to his feet and hugs her. She explains she was mad at him for keeping her from the rally. "I'm just glad you're okay," he says. "Not for long," she says, telling him of the villagers' plans to sacrifice her. She wants him to super-speed them both away, but he says he's powerless because of all the blue Kryptonite that has infected the people's bodies. "I've got to get far enough away from them so that my powers can come back." Lois remembers Clark healing after she pulled the blue dagger out of him. He's quite awed that she saved his life, mostly so the episode can have the parallel of both of them needing to be saved now and then. Or all the time. They try to find a way out, but the place is surrounded by villagers with a hankerin' for sacrifice. Lois steps on a creaky board that they discover leads to a cellar. It's locked tight, but Lois just happens to have a hairpin that she uses to pick it. See? Another reason Clark Kent should believe in luck! "Whenever the General grounded me, I always found a way to escape," she says as she gets to work on the lock. She tells Clark to change his clothes so he blends in. Girl, these inbred townsfolk see each other every day. I don't care what Clark is wearing, they're gonna notice the sudden appearance of a 6'4" hunk of man in their midst. Lois stops picking the lock long enough to admire Clark's naked back as he takes off his shirt. She sighs dreamily. "Why are we never someplace romantic when he takes off his shirt?" Less gawking, more escaping!

By Tippi Blevins

Kent Farm. Tess finds Alexander in the hayloft. He's sitting on the old sofa, looking through Clark's old yearbook. "This barn is just like I remember," he says. "But you've never been here before," Tess says. Alexander points to a picture of Clark at his freshman dance. "You see his bow tie? It was the first one he ever wore, and I tied it for him, here." Back when Lex and Clark were still in love, love, love! Tess, freaking out a little, tries to convince Alexander that it must have been a dream, but he's adamant. He remembers Clark telling him they'd be friends forever. "And at the window? I told him that our friendship would be the thing of legend." He goes to said window and gazes out at the night sky, blue eyes big and sad. Tess says Alexander can make that happen. He says he can't trust Clark. "He made my father hate me," he says. "He took away everything that I ever cared about." He asked Clark for the truth, but Clark denied it. Tess tearfully tries to explain to him that Clark isn't the Bad Man, that Lex is. He used them both. "You don't have to buy into his memories," she says. She promises to help him, but this only angers him, because he sees it as her way to "exorcise [her] demons," to save the world so she can redeem the evil inside her. She asks him to stop, but he goes on, spitting out accusations of her "clinging to powerful men" to accomplish her goals. "First Oliver Queen, then me, then Zod, and now Clark Kent." She backhands him across the face, and he stumbles back with the force of the blow. Tess is horrified and rushes to comfort him, to assure him that she can save him, but he pushes her away. "How can you save me when there's so much you don't even know about yourself?" he asks. She looks at him, wide-eyed. "Please, please, Alexander," she pleads. He chafes at that name. "My name is Lex," he says. Tess's expression grows steely.

By Tippi Blevins

Village of the Damned. Villagers are making a right purty altar out of the town bell, surrounding it with dried cornstalks and candles. Clark and Lois try to walk through the crowd unnoticed, but a woman approaches Lois and offers her a bouquet of flowers for the festival. Lois, her face covered by a cloak, reaches for the flowers, but her scarlet nails give her away. The woman grabs her wrist, shouting, "It's you!" Lois punches her. Clark and Lois run. The torch-bearing mob chases after them, as torch-bearing mobs are wont to do. Lois trips and falls. Clark helps her up but a black horse rears up in front of them, blocking their path out of town. The horse's rider wears a creepy burlap mask reminiscent of Scarecrow's headgear of choice. More villagers close in on them. Several others wear similar masks. One of them steps forward, removing his mask. It's Mr. Cavanaugh. "You will be offered up tonight," he says. Clark gets between them. Cavanaugh, invoking the Lord's will, whips out a sickle and slices Clark in the gut. Clark falls to the ground as Lois is carried away, screaming and struggling to no avail.

The villagers tie Lois up at their makeshift altar. Above her, the bell is upended and filled with burning blue Kryptonite. I have to say, I'm impressed they went with a realistically modest gown for Lois. I fully expected them to strip her to her undies or at least stick her in something transparent, given the show's tendency to tart up their heroine whenever possible. Cavanaugh approaches, wearing a beatific smile. "You didn't have to kill him," Lois sobs. Cavanaugh disagrees: "He would have told others about us; no one can keep us from our holy task." He pets Lois's hair in a way that's both soothing and very, very wrong. Lois calls him a murderer. "Whatever happened to 'Thou shalt not kill'?" she asks. Cavanaugh says they're only doing what God did, sacrificing a young woman with "fire from above," just as their daughter was. Lois tries to reason with him, sympathize with the pain of losing his daughter, but pointing out that Esther would be ashamed. Cavanaugh accuses her of being faithless. "Faith has nothing to do with following this misguided messiah," she says, trying to appeal to whatever common sense these village folk might still have. She and Cavanaugh argue back and forth over right and wrong, vying for the hearts of the flock. Cavanaugh makes the winning argument by promising that a vengeful God will take one of their daughters . Lois pleads once more, quietly, intensely for sanity to prevail, but Cavanaugh shushes her with a finger to her lips. She pushes his hand away. I would have bitten that thing off.

By Tippi Blevins

In a nearby field, Deputy Ellis and a villager woman are just finishing up the gargantuan task of burying Clark. The woman worries that he was alive when they buried him. Ellis is pretty sure the burying finished him off. As they leave to join the ceremony, the ground begins to glow for some reason. The effects of the blue K wearing off? Glow worm mating rituals? Clark's hand suddenly thrusts up through the soil like he thinks Amy Irving has come to visit him.

Meanwhile, back at the impending roast, Cavanaugh leads his flock in a prayer. Lois gazes heavenward, or, rather, at the flaming hot space rocks about to rain down upon her. Just as Cavanaugh goes to flip the bell over, a rifle shot rings out. The crowd parts. Clark is standing there, readying another shot. "Get away from her!" Lois almost can't believe her eyes. Cavanaugh doesn't let a silly little thing like resurrection get in the way of the sacrifice, though. He dumps out the bucket of blue K. Clark, once again without powers, runs at normal speed toward Lois. He shields her body with his, letting the molten meteorite sear his back. He goes "AHHHHH!" and shakes his fist with the pain. His back is one big, bloody, open wound, but he gets to his feet and turns toward the crowd. The villagers are stunned. Deputy Ellis thinks it's a sign. The villagers back away and Clark's back instantly heals. Shouldn't there be meteorite in his skin still? Oh, well. Lois, speaking like she's auditioning for the part of Moses in The Ten Commandments, tells the villagers to move back. "You are not worthy to be in his presence!" Cavanaugh picks up his gun and aims at them. "Drop your weapon," Lois says, "and beg for forgiveness!" Girl, quit while you're ahead and get the hell out of there. But she goes on about how Clark is a "messenger sent from the heavens." "He will strike down upon thee with great vengeance and furious anger!" ["Does Clark Kent look like a bitch to you? Then why'd you try to bury him like a bitch?" - Z] Lois, starting to sound a little maniacal herself, threatens the village with Clark's heat-vision and super-breath. "Amen," Clark chimes in. "What do you say you speed us away from these children of the corn?" Lois asks. He scoops her up and zips them both away as the stunned villagers fall to their knees. Clark must be counting on nobody believing a bunch of crazy cultists who think they saw a man with godly powers.

By Tippi Blevins

Luthor Mansion. Tess regards a vial of purplish fluid she holds in her hand. A cozy fire burns in the fireplace, but Tess doesn't seem comforted. "Is this all you were able to make?" she asks. Dr. Lamell is standing behind her. "Considering we only just found the research," she says, "we were only able to synthesize a small amount." She promises it's just a start. Tess looks thoughtful and drinks some whiskey. She thought Alexander's condition was supposed to be irreversible. Lamell mentions "scouring the LuthorCorp database" and finding Peter Dinsmore's work. She should have just looked it up in the Smallville recap archives like I did. "He cloned his own daughter," Lamell says. "And encountered the same accelerated mitosis complication." Damn, Emily Dinsmore was creepy. Remember that tea party she had with that bunny and Lionel Luthor? Shudder. Tess pours herself some more booze and contemplates saving Alexander. "This could be the redemption we've both been praying for," Lamell says. Tess walks to the fire, tells Lamell of how badly she wanted to save Alexander. Her eyes brim with tears. She wipes them away with an agitated flick of her hand. Then, to Lamell's horror, Tess throws the vial of serum into the fire. "Destroy all of your research," Tess tells her. "And in the morning, he'll be locked up again for everyone's safety." Why wait till morning? If you're convinced he's irredeemably evil, why would you wait? Lamell argues that Alexander will be dead within six weeks without the cure. "That's the point," Tess says. "Because he's not just a clone, he is Lex Luthor." Yeah, but... you have a cure! If you stop the accelerated growth, you have more time to show him life's not so bad! There's no need to become a supervillain! Also, Clark's less of an asshole this time around! He probably wouldn't jerk you around so much! Alas, I am in the real world and they are on TV, so they don't hear my silly words of logic or see my many exclamation points of persuasion.

By Tippi Blevins

Kent Farm. A new day dawns through the hayloft window. Clark, for some reason, is studying what appear to be the remains of his scorched shirt. Lois walks up the steps, greeting him with that morning's Daily Planet. "Rural Cultists Arrested for Murder," the headline reads. "It seems our 'Stephen King's romp in the backwoods' bumped Cat Grant's anti-hero crusade from column one." She gives him a big smile. Clark returns her smile. "Leave it to Lois and Clark to turn a quiet day in the country into a major scoop." The cherry festival people are probably pissed to have missed out on the publicity. Clark turns pensive, wishing they could have found the Believers earlier and saved more lives. He doesn't understand how the Believers' faith led them down such a dark path. Lois thinks maybe people were looking for something that will give them hope in the midst of chaos. "Now more than ever, the world needs someone to believe in," she says. Given that these people eschewed contact with the outside world, they probably would never hear of the Blur, or, later, Superman. Or if they did, they'd think he was a false god, or at least wicked for wearing bright red panties with such blatant pride. Clark is a little leery of what Lois is getting at, but she asks him to hear her out. "I wasn't a big fan of Oliver's coming out party, and I used to think it was best for you to stay in the shadows, too, but maybe someday soon you'll have to step into the light." May 2011, anyone? Lois tells him he can be a symbol to inspire people. "I'm not sure anyone's ready to believe in a stranger from a strange land," he says. She steps toward him. "If they know the real Clark Kent, then I'm sure that the rest of the world will believe in you as much as I do." He apologizes for being overprotective of her, but she realizes she needed his help. "Damn right you did!" he says in my mind. On my TV, the new, less-assholey Clark is all about sharing credit. Lois saved his life, too. They promise to always be there for each other. Clark, moved, gives her his diary of Kryptonian recipes and whatnots. "I want you to know me completely with no secrets," he says, taking her face in his hands. "'Cause you're the one. Always will be." Strummy guitar music starts playing. You know what's coming, right? Some serious grokking, that's what. They kiss and kiss and the diary, now forgotten, slips from Lois's hands.

By Tippi Blevins

They move to the bedroom. At some point, they fetched an impressive assortment of candles. (It's times like this that it must be handy to have a super-speedy boyfriend, who can redecorate the boudoir before the moment's gone.) Clark falls back onto the bed, sans shirt, with Lois on top of him. It's all slow motion and tastefully done, with closeups of their backs and hands clasping, but I'm not going to write down a play-by-play. The amount of rewatching and pausing involved makes one feel a tad voyeuristic. At the end, the camera pans modestly toward the floor and the scene fades to black.

The lights come up again in Li'l Lex's bedroom. The floor is littered with his frantically scribbled drawings of Clark's S-shield. We follow the pages like stepping stones and wind up at Li'l Lex's feet. Locks of his bright red hair lie on the floor, and more drift down like the molted feathers of a baby bird. An electric shaver falls from his hand. He stands before a mirror, stark bald. For a long while, he stares at the floor, then slowly lifts his gaze to see his reflection. His mouth quirks in a small, satisfied smile. The camera shrinks away so that we can see his newly Lexian silhouette framed against the bedroom window. Poor Connor Stanhope. Did he have to shave his head again for this role? An eerie hum of music and the screen fading to black sees us off for the week.

This recap turned out a bit shorter than past recaps. Why? There was less dialog. The whole show wasn't made up of people just standing around in pairs, gabbing at each other endlessly. Stuff actually happened. There was action! By that, I don't mean the fistfight kind, but the kind where characters are actually moving the story and moving through the story. Because of that, the momentum and pacing were good. It was a nice change of pace to see people interacting in groups, even if they were groups of crazy cultists. More of this would be most welcome. Tune in week to see if this continues. In the meanwhile, take the poll to the right or let me know what you thought of the episode via Twitter or email.

By Tippi Blevins

Discuss this episode in our forums, then see what other superbeings have crossed Clark in our guide to the Heroes and Villains of Smallville ! And see what our vlogger thinks about the show, below.

Want to immediately access TWoP content no matter where you are online? Download the free TWoP toolbar for your web browser. Already have a customized toolbar? Then just add our free toolbar app to get updated on our content as soon it's published.

Tippi Blevins never accepts rides from nice little girls. You can reach her at b_tippi@yahoo.com or http://twitter.com/tippib.