| Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman | |
| Season 1, Episode 9 | |
 | |
| Air date | November 14, 1993 |
| Written by | Bryce Zabel |
| Directed by | Les Landau |
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An EPA report goes out for Smallville, and Lois and Clark travel to Clark's home town to investigate. They discover that Bureau 39 is on the site, searching for a meteorite they think could kill Superman. This episode has a number of significant firsts for the series: the first appearance of kryptonite, the first look at Smallville beyond the Kent homestead, the first time a villain learns Superman's secret identity, and the first meeting of Lois Lane with Martha and Jonathan Kent. It is also unusual in that Superman only appears in costume during the episode's cold open and opening credits, never within the main story.
Plot summary[]
Martha and Jonathan Kent's neighbor Wayne Irig entrusts Jonathan with a strange glowing green rock which he found on his property after a storm uprooted a massive oak tree. He explains that after he sent a small piece of it to the lab for analysis, federal agents came with bulldozers to tear up his property, ostensibly to look for pesticides Wayne used during the 1960s. The Kents mention this to Clark, who convinces Perry White that the story is hot enough to send him and Lois out to Smallville to investigate.
Jimmy Olsen has a prototype watch from S.T.A.R. Labs which emits a hypersonic signal undetectable to human ears. Jimmy hypothesizes that they might use it to signal Superman. Clark is irritated by the hypersonic tone and suggests to Jimmy that he only use it in an actual emergency.
Lois is unhappy at the Smallville assignment, despising rural life, while Clark is pleased that they'll be arriving during the corn festival. On the Irig property they meet public liaison Carol Sherman, who tells them the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is concerned Irig's pesticides may have seeped into the local groundwater, and that Irig was given relocation money and didn't say where he went. After they leave, Sherman finds that the search is actually being conducted by Bureau 39, not the EPA, and that Irig has not been relocated but is being interrogated by Bureau 39 head Jason Trask in a tent on his property. Trask is demanding the location of the rest of the green rock, while Irig insists that the sample he sent to the lab was all there was. Sherman says she won't be party to interrogation, especially not by an agency whose purpose is on a "need to know" basis, but Trask threatens to harm her daughter if she backs out.
At the corn festival Lois is introduced to Clark's parents and to Sheriff Rachel Harris, who was Clark's date at the senior prom and is pleased when Lois says her relationship with Clark is strictly professional. Lois repeatedly puts her foot in her mouth, calling Jonathan a cross-dresser before she knew who he was and condescendingly explaining fax machines to Martha before Martha reveals they already have one in the home. She is also humiliated at the presumption that she is Clark's girlfriend, with Martha even inquiring whether they want to share a bed for the night, and at the discovery that everyone in town knows about her novel, with Clark having inadvertently spread the gossip.
Jonathan shows the green rock to Clark, telling him Wayne's story and that the lab's preliminary analysis showed it is some sort of meteorite, meaning it could be from Clark's home planet. As soon as Jonathan opens the box with the green rock Clark starts to feel ill and collapses. The Kents realize that exposure to the rock caused the effect. Clark regains consciousness but still feels unwell, for the first time in his life, and his superpowers are not working. They explain the illness to Lois as seasonal allergies.
Sherman presses Trask for an explanation of what she's getting into. He reveals to her that he has also deduced that the green rock is probably from Superman's home planet, and has found that it emits a radiation with no effect on humans. He hypothesizes that it might have a lethal effect on natives of Superman's planet.
Clark is finding that he enjoys being normal and is glad his powers are gone. Lois likes the change in him and they both wind up greatly enjoying themselves at the corn festival. Lois is still determined to get the story on the Irig property, and despite Clark's efforts to forestall her (since he doesn't want anyone else to find out about the green rock), she tells Perry that the story is looking big. With all his regular photographers unavailable, Perry agrees to give Jimmy a shot and sends him to Smallville.
Lois and Clark try snooping on the "EPA" operation but are captured and brought before Trask. Trask reveals that after his interrogation of Wayne Irig failed, he let Irig go and had him followed to the Kent homestead. Wayne tells Jonathan about Bureau 39, and Jonathan resolves that they need to destroy the green rock so it can't be used to harm Clark, but Trask and his men arrive, abduct Irig and the Kents, and seize the green rock. Trask threatens to kill Clark's parents if he doesn't tell him where Superman is. Clark tells him he is Superman, but Trask doesn't believe him, especially after Clark screams in terror when a gun is pointed at him.
Jimmy stumbles upon the Bureau 39 agents escorting captives and takes photos. He alerts Sheriff Harris, who takes him with her. Sherman, having gradually come to realize that Trask is operating outside the law and she will be culpable as an accessory, unties Lois when no one else is around and informs her about the green rock and Trask's plan to make it look like the Kents died in an accidental fire unless Clark tells him where to find Superman.
Lois calls Sheriff Harris and tells her and Jimmy to get to the Kent home and try to warn Superman. Jimmy turns on the hypersonic signal, which restores Clark's powers. He uses them to break free of his bonds and extinguish the fire intended to kill Irig and his parents. Observing this, Trask realizes his secret identity. He tries to use the green rock to kill him, but Clark overcomes the pain and throws the rock against a boulder, destroying it. Undeterred, Trask engages the again powerless Clark in hand-to-hand combat. Clark defeats him, but is distracted by the arrival of Lois and Sheriff Harris, and Trask moves to shoot him in the back. Sheriff Harris fatally shoots Trask.
The story is written up by Lois; Clark declines a byline, saying he is too close to the events (and likely uncomfortable with having to outright lie in order to avoid revealing his identity as Superman). Lois is not only unconvinced that the green rock could hurt Superman, she doubts that it even exists outside of Trask's delusional mind, since even the sample Irig sent to the lab has mysteriously gone missing. Perry nonetheless says that the copy will read better if the rock has a name, so Lois and Clark come up with kryptonite.
Cast[]
Main cast[]
- Dean Cain as Clark Kent/Superman
- Teri Hatcher as Lois Lane
- Lane Smith as Perry White
- Tracy Scoggins as Cat Grant
- Michael Landes as Jimmy Olsen
- K Callan as Martha Kent
- Eddie Jones as Jonathan Kent
- John Shea as Lex Luthor (opening credits only)
Recurring cast[]
- Terrence Knox as Jason Trask
Guest starring[]
- Joleen Lutz as Sheriff Rachel Harris
- L. Scott Caldwell as Carol Sherman
- Jerry Hardin as Wayne Irig
- Sharon Thomas as Maisie
Production details[]
- This is the first appearance of kryptonite in the show. It appears to drain Clark's superpowers for a longer period of time than it did later in the series: he is exposed to the kryptonite as they are getting ready for bed, and remains powerless for the better part of the following day. This may be due to it being Clark's first time being exposed to it. Another possibility is that the longer period of powerlessness was psychosomatic, perhaps related to Clark's stated desire to be normal. This would also explain why the hypersonic signal restored Clark's powers; if his powerlessness were caused directly by the kryptonite, the most logical theory is that he would be unable to even hear the signal. Finally, there is the most obvious explanation: In this episode he is exposed to a much larger chunk of kryptonite than in later episodes, in which he deals only with the sample piece which Wayne Irig sent out for analysis.
- Sharon Thomas is Dean Cain's mom.
- At approximately ten minutes into the episode, Lois can briefly be seen admiring the country dress which she wears the following day.