Episode Report Card Omar G: B+ | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT Eggcelsior!
By Omar G | Season 8 | Episode 18 | Aired on 04.02.2009
In a hurry? Read the recaplet for a nutshell description! Finished? Click here to close.Tess Mercer finds an old Veritas journal full of drawings and an amazing amount of backstory. It belonged to Papa Luthor and told the story of two boys who fell to Earth, Clark the Traveler and Davis the Badass Destroyer. In flashback, we see that near the spot where Clark found Bo Duke and MamaKent during the meteor storm, a gnarly Kryptonian egg hatched a slimy yellow-green ooze that became the boy Davis Bloome. We discover with Tess that Papa Luthor sent out a team to retrieve The Traveler and got Davis instead. Davis, who can already run and speak English, plays at Luthor Manor briefly with a sad, lonely Lex Luthor. When Papa Luthor realizes that the boy he retrieved isn't The Traveler, he has one of his henchmen let Davis loose on the street. That doesn't work so well as Davis becomes a Mini Doomsday and kills the henchman.
In the present day, Davis is cooking dinner for Chloe and being her shoulder to cry on, which makes Clark suspicious and jealous. Chloe reveals that Jimmy won't talk to her and instead of being reasonable about their separation is telling Chloe not to contact him and responding to e-mails with curse words and hate. Why, that loveable Jimmy! Davis leaves Chloe and as he's preparing to dispose of another dead body, he's found by Tess Mercer, who has figured it all out with the help of a serial killer story Clark was trying to get published in The Daily Planet. She blows up his truck, but it doesn't kill him. Instead, he heals quickly under a bunch of bandages and gets to lie in bed and listen to Tess's theories about how he and Clark are meant to have a massive fight, which will spur Clark on to become the great savior of Earth. It just might work!
Clark and Chloe hear about the blown up vehicle belonging to Davis and when they go to investigate, Clark realizes that the car was parked in the field where his ship landed, and also that there are many dead skeletons buried in shallow graves. They figure out that Davis has been doing lots of killing lately and that Chloe trusted the wrong guy.
At Luthor Manor, Davis remembers his short playdate with Lex and notices a detail in this new memory: that he was struck with incredible pain when Lex showed him a Kryptonite rock. Davis decides to do something about his killing dilemma. He finds Chloe and asks her to kill him in a vat of liquid Kryptonite, courtesy of LuthorCorp. Tearfully, she struggles to try to grant Davis his death wish, but Clark tries to intervene, rationalizing that maybe they're not destined to kill each other and that Davis doesn't have to die. Clark is overruled. Chloe turns the Kryptonite shower on to save Clark and kill Davis. Clark mopes about it later, trying to imagine what life must have been like for poor Davis.
Tess comes to Clark to compare notes about everything that happened, but Clark continues to pretend he's just a normal farm boy without powers. Tess wonders if maybe getting rid of Davis has stifled the battle that would have pushed Clark into his savior destiny. She gets frustrated when Clark won't play along and begins to understand why it drove Lex crazy. Tess promises to be there for Clark when he decides to come to her for help. Clark is not thrilled and says it'll be a long wait. Tess, meanwhile, is still in possession of a Kryptonite crystal.
Chloe goes down to the Talon basement when she hears noises and finds Davis there. He tells her the Kryptonite only made him stronger, immortal even. Disgusted, Chloe tries to leave, but Davis tells her that being with her is the only thing that keeps away his killing urges. He asks her to stay with him. Chloe hesitates, but in the end locks the door so they can have some basement action. Wow! A character-driven episode that was well-acted, entertaining to watch and full of surprises? What show was I watching, exactly? And can I see it again on a regular basis?
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Want more? The full recap starts right below!Perhaps I'm being narcissistic in believing it to be so, but my birthday was on the Sunday after this episode aired, and it was the first episode in a while I haven't completely hated. So if it was some sort of emergency relief stimulus birthday gift, thanks Smallville. This was better than cake and candles.
We open with a low-to-the-ground panning shot across the Former Lair of Lex. The fireplace is going and Tess Mercer is curled up with a book. The large, rich Corinthian leather book has a fancy Veritas logo on the front. She's completely entranced. It must be one of those escapist John Grisham stories where there's one good lawyer or juror or baseball player fighting against a rapidly corrupting legal/baseball system. It's called The Designated. Tess is looking at an illustration inside the book that looks like a comic book-style blast. We zoom in on it and special effects take over. We are suddenly in space as flaming bits of space debris (and an alien ship) are hurtling toward Earth. Is it any surprise that Clark entered the world flaming? Have I made that joke before? It never stops being true. We cut to shots of fiery meteorites sailing above the Kansas landscape. The Smallville water tower is hit. A downtown building is destroyed and a truck is crushed. A dude in a letterman jacket dodges. Cars explode. The Smallville High sign is taken apart by more falling space rock. We see another rock take out a big chunk of cornfield. A red truck drives past the Welcome to Smallville sign, which is then obliterated by another blast. Bo and MamaKent (flash to the past!) are driving in the truck and the green screen effect is... not so good now that we see it again. And why the Hell is Bo Duke grinning as the world around him is seemingly ending? Does he dig that sort of thing? [If Dukes of Hazzard is the historical document I believe it to be, then yes. Yes, he does. - Zach] He hits the brakes as his truck enters into a smoky zone, and we hear a crash.
We see Papa Luthor running into the corn field looking for Lex. We see that cool shot where the camera pulls back to reveal Papa Luthor standing in a sea of flattened cornstalks. He pulls aside some stalks to find his son and instead of the original actor from the pilot, we see Li'l Lex from more recent episodes. He's got a few patches of reddish hair clinging to his scalp, but is mostly shaky and bare-headed. Papa Luthor leans back, looking at his son with horror. He's horrified it's not the same boy actor he remembered.