Plot summary: When Clark learns his ex-girlfriend Lana Lang is dating Lex Luthor things get incredibly messy incredibly fast.
Notes and Trivia
Episode: 11 (S1.E11)
Original Air Date: November 23rd, 1996
Directed: Yuichiro Yano (1)
Written: Hilary J. Bader (2)
Animation: TMS-Kyokuichi Corporation (4)
Music: Lolita Ritmanis (3)
While the term Amazon is used by Lana when talking about Big Susan, at this point in the DCAU the Amazons are thought to merely be the stuff of Greek myth, as Wonder Woman will not reveal herself to the world until the start of Justice League.
Lex tries to send Superman to Central City to distract him. This is of course where The Flash hails from.
Lana apparently has some latent superpowers herself, as Superman is still covered in molten lead when he grabs her at the end but she shows zero ill effects.
Recap
At a Metropolis fashion event Lex Luthor arrives with his new girlfriend, the trendy designer ‘LL’, who Clark is furious to learn is his ex-girlfriend from Smallville, Lana Lang.
He’s even less happy when he discovers she’s been kidnapped backstage by a pair of ostensible jewel thieves, but swoops into action as Superman to save her and capture them.
Lana drops the bombshell she’s fully aware he’s Clark Kent, later explaining she remembers his superhuman feats from Episode 2, and that she noticed Superman’s arrival coinciding with him leaving for Metropolis.
Clark tries to warn her about Lex, stating he was spotted talking to an arms dealer at the fashion show, but she brushes it off and flirts with him. He flies away but Mercy Graves (remember her?) spots him leaving…
Lex grills her the next day but she’s able to talk him round, so much so that when Mercy spots her eavesdrop on his meeting with the arms dealer Lex tells his assistant there’s nothing to worry about.
More fool him though, as Lana calls Clark, who intervenes in the deal. Unfortunately one of the dealers is smart and takes out a rail bridge, forcing Supes to allow him to escape so he can prevent a disaster.
Lana wants to continue working together, going as far as asking to be ‘his Batgirl’, but Clark knows the dangers and refuses… so she plants one on him, unaware Lex and Mercy are watching from afar.
Thus when Lana tries to run the exact same play later by passing tips on to Clark, she finds herself taken hostage by Lex’s arms dealer contact and left to die in molten lead at an automated metalworks plant.
Superman rescues her again, and the dealer ends up being a huge dumbass, almost killing himself in his effort to bury The Man of Steel in liquid metal. Supes barely manages to get everybody out before the entire place blows up.
Lana later says goodbye to Clark as she’s headed to Paris for her latest fashion show. She gives it one more try but he firmly rejects her as his heart belongs to another…
Best Performance
Joely Fisher takes over as the adult Lana Lang from Kelly Schmidt and fully understands the brief for their version of Lana: Outrageously coquettish. She runs circles around our two male leads, flirting and kissing her way out of multiple awkward situations, but with enough sincerity to ground it all. She truly still loves Clark all these years later and seems to want to do good for the world, and Fisher is good at this side of things too.
It’s also another great outing for Clancy Brown, softening Lex up the tiniest bit as he’s fully under Lana’s spell. He never stops being an evil arms dealer of course, but he’s legitimately gaga for her, and it’s an entirely different kind of anger when he tells Mercy he’s “seen enough” after witnessing his beau smooching his sworn enemy. By contrast it’s a surprisingly weak outing for Tim Daly, especially given this is meant to be a huge emotional reunion for Clark.
Dana Delany is so good even in short appearances. Lois’ love for gossip is so powerful she doesn’t even pause to wolf down canapés, which could be gross but ends up being pretty charming. Likewise the final joke is a delight with Lana saying how Clark needs someone caring and kind, only for Lois to scream at him impatiently from across the room. It can be a tall order to do this stuff without certain sectors of the internet labelling you a nag, but Delany is real good.
Episode Ranking
After doing a lot of work to establish their world in the opening three parter, they’ve gradually expanded outward from there, with the last trio of episodes bringing aliens and space travel into the fold. So I thought it was pretty smart to take things back to the beginning by bringing a little piece of Clark’s past back into the fold in the form of Lana. It did seem pretty unlikely she’d just forget about his antics, so I’m glad she drew attention to that here. It serves to remind you that Smallville isn’t just a completed chapter never to be revisited and our hero came from a real place that still exists. Unfortunately all the writing here is concerned with Clark freaking out about his friend being in danger, and there’s never really a big emotional reckoning. It also might have been nice to see Lois get a little jealous of Lana to sew the seeds of where everything is going on that front.
Honestly my biggest takeaway from the episode is that they have nailed it where Superman’s power levels are concerned. The animation on the elevator stunt is a real flex, especially with the physics of tying the cable around a giant lamp post. So much of what Superman can do ends up feeling effortless, and while there’s no visible strain for him here, it does at least have a sense of weight and realism. Likewise the train scene, which DOES show how difficult it is for Clark to bear the full brunt of a moving train as it passes overhead. I like that they threw in a brief moment of the passengers freaking out over how bumpy the ride is to really hammer the point home. It’s never a bad idea to put a face to the stakes of an action sequence. Finally, he’s briefly buried under an enormous cauldron before deadlifting it triumphantly as the music swells, struggling all the while. Extremely good shit.
That being said this was a big of an ugly episode in places compared to the usually high standards of TMS. The big melodramatic set pieces look great, but there are more than a few rough edges in the smaller moments. They quit working on BTAS after a few episodes due to how difficult it was for how much they were being paid, but were coaxed back for STAS and TNBA thanks to the simpler art style (and being allowed to direct their own episodes and do pre-production work), but it’s possible they decided to not try as hard/devoted less resource to it. Although, weirdly the metalworks end up looking really unnecessarily good, with several more seconds than you’d expect devoted to demonstrating what awaits Lana, and the gradual destruction of the facility looking solid.
So yeah, overall it’s a nice episode for character development for Lex but a letdown on that front for Clark, a real mixed bag visually (high highs, low lows), and while it lacks a compelling villain (Lex is a pretty passive participant) it does have plenty of ‘civilians in trouble’ stuff to demonstrate the ways in which Superman is challenged day to day. There are definitely the makings of a great episode here, but it’s surprisingly lacking as an emotional story, with Clark so concerned about keeping Lana safe that they never really reconnect as human beings. Plus what was the deal with the duo grabbing Lana at the start? Were they truly just rando criminals after her jewels? The whole thing feels a little less than the sum of its parts, so ends up quite middle of the road to me.
Also not for nothing, but Lana’s got some serious hops, leaping from a desk to grab a hanging lamp that’s a considerable distance above her… in heels! Get this girl in The W!!!
- Fun and Games
- The Last Son of Krypton
- Stolen Memories
- The Main Man
- The Way of All Flesh
- My Girl (NEW ENTRY)
- A Little Piece of Home
- Feeding Time
Rogues Roundup
Lex Luthor (Clancy Brown) (sixth appearance)
Poor Lex? I mean, no. He’s still selling incredibly dangerous weapons to what are explicitly referred to as terrorists, but it doesn’t really seem like he did anything to mistreat Lana, who goes ahead and hurls herself at Superman. Not saying he deserves the love of a good woman given his many evils, but they do a good job of humanising him just a smidge here without detracting from his overall villainy. He sure does condemn his girlfriend to a horrifically painful death after he discovers her betrayal, and shoots the messenger by bellowing at Mercy.
You may be wondering what he has to do to make it to the top of the list. That’s not an unfair question. He’s been evil, he’s been insanely well written and performed, and they’ve made excellent use of him in a variety of situations. I think I’m just waiting for him to step up more as a truly diabolical mastermind. Like… I’d rank him higher as just a series regular than as a bad guy if that makes sense? Whatever, it’s my list.
Mercy Graves (Lisa Edelstein) (second appearance)
Welcome back, Miss Graves. No hints at her secret superhuman abilities this time as she simply spies on Lex’s girlfriend even when he tells her to stop. Some possible jealousy there, and in fairness she’s right on the money and gets yelled at for trying to protect her boss.
- Toyman
- Lex Luthor (–)
- Brainiac
- Metallo
- Lobo
- Parasite
- The Preserver
- Mercy Graves (–)
- Bruno Mannheim
The Matt Signal 
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