- Title: Smallville – Kinetic
- wiki: link
Superman Saturday takes us back to Smallville, Kansas, and the time Clark Kent (Tom Welling) fought criminals who could walk through walls. In terms of all parts of the episode being tied together and progressing both the individual episode and season-long arcs, “Kinetic” is one of the best designed episodes of the show’s First Season. We start with Kryptonite-tattooed goons (David Lovgren, Kavan Smith, and David Coles) stealing from Lex and injuring Chloe (Allison Mack) in the opening scene. With a damaging disc being included in the theft, Lex isn’t in any hurry to report details of what was taken to the police.
Revealed to be former high school athletes, that story weaves into that of the recently disillusioned Whitney (Eric Johnson) who has lost his college scholarship, and, without knowing what the group is about, gets pulled into their plan to blackmail and kill Lex. Realizing his mistake, Whitney partners with Clark (Tom Welling) to take the crooks down. Playing on the effect of Kryptonite, when the tattoos are active, they weaken Clark allowing the gang to get the best of him, but after the limited effect wears off so does their advantage.
With that weakness, and his inability to save Chloe from a fall that will her hospitalized until the end of the episode, Clark blames himself despite others, including Chloe, letting him know it isn’t his fault and no one can save everyone. The final thread of the episode also involves Lex as Lana (Kristin Kreuk) convinces the new owner of the Talon not to bulldoze it for a parking lot but instead turn it into a coffee shop and venue. Lex’s acceptance sets up something for Lana to do on the show outside of high school and creates a partnership between the pair (the potential ramifications of which Lana becomes vaguely aware of in the episode’s closing seconds).
