Smallville delivers an action packed episode as we reach the mid-way point of season two. The ongoing rivalry between Lex and Lionel is escalating as Lex finds out that his father has bugged his office in order to steal a lucrative business deal from him. In retaliation Lex decides to fight fire with fire and arranges for a crew to plant surveillance in Lionel’s Luthorcorp offices.
At the Kent farm, Jonathan is busy preparing an anniversary meal for Martha, however she has been called into an emergency meeting at work with Lionel. As you can imagine this does not sit well with Jonathan as he feels Martha is continuously putting her job above her family. Unbeknownst to Lex, Martha and Lionel turn up to work at Luthorcorp at the same time he has arranged for the offices to be bugged. When Clark goes to Lex to ask for help in making things right between his parents, Lex realises where his Dad is and tries to call the whole thing off. Unfortunately for him, the team he has hired goes rogue, and we discover their agenda was to empty the Luthorcorp vault and escape with the money.
In the ‘b’ story Lana has an uncomfortable first meeting with her birth father’s wife, Jennifer Small. Lana is worried about fitting in with Henry’s family but his wife Jennifer doesn’t think that Henry will stick around long enough to be a father figure to Lana. So she offers her a warning to not get too attached to Henry. I always found this story a bit odd and that the writers just needed Lana to have something to do as it doesn’t really fit in with the otherwise fast pace of this episode.
Martha is a little ticked off with Lionel for making her work on her day off, but it seems Lionel has an alternative agenda as well. He tells Martha he wants to promote her and give her an office at Luthorcorp, and he also gives her an engraved watch as a gift. It is clear Lionel is quite enamoured with Martha and thinks he can woo her with a title and expensive jewellery. It is quite amusing for me to know that it was John Glover’s idea to have Lionel get a bit closer to Martha in a way to humanise his character. As they are talking the robbers discover them and take them hostage. Lionel alerts the police by pressing a panic button and the hostage situation quickly makes the news. When Clark and Jonathan find out they make their way to Metropolis along with Lex, who is keen to resolve the situation without anyone getting hurt.
A very exciting part of the episode for me were the scenes shot outside of Luthorcorp where the standoff is taking place. Mainly because we get our first glimpse of the Daily Planet building, located across the street from Luthorcorp. Clark comes up with a plan to leap from the roof of the Daily Planet and into Luthorcorp in an effort to save his mother. It truly is Clark’s boldest move yet, as not only is he afraid of heights, but he has never tried to leap that far before.
When the robbers break into the vault they are disappointed to find no money inside, but very large quantities of meteor rocks. As they empty the vault of the contents Martha sees the extent of Lionel’s secrets, as not only does he have a file with Clark’s name on it, he also has the octagonal shaped disc that disappeared during the tornado. As the robbers try to negotiate a route out, Clark makes his move and jumps from the top of the Daily Planet to save the day. It was definitely one of the biggest moments in the show to date. When Clark takes out the power to the building and makes it to where Martha and Lionel are being held he is immediately knocked out by the meteor rocks, Martha takes action and pushes it back into the vault so Clark can regain his strength. Luckily for Clark, Lionel is still blind so he doesn’t witness Clark’s heroic rescue, while Martha sneakily steals the octagonal disc and tells Clark to burn all the files with his heat vision.
With the situation defused the police burst in to arrest the robbers. Lionel and Lex part ways on bad terms with Lionel saying he will be moving out of the mansion, having figured out it was Lex who orchestrated the whole attack in the first place. I do feel for Lex as it was not his intention for the situation to become violent and he is left standing alone watching Clark embrace his parents. These little moment really help us to understand how much Lex wants to have the life that Clark does. Back at home Martha shares with her family, all the evidence Lionel had on Clark stored in his vault, all except the octagonal disc which she mysteriously hides in her flour pot! Certainly not my first choice of a hiding place! Why has Martha decided to hide her discovery from Clark and Jonathan I wonder? Overall a thrilling episode with everything you could want from a superhero show.