| Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman | |
| Season 1, Episode 11 | |
 | |
| Air date | November 28, 1993 |
| Written by | Deborah Joy LeVine |
| Directed by | Bill D'Elia |
| Episode Guide | |
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next → Honeymoon in Metropolis |
A scientist and ex-lover of Lex Luthor's sprays the staff of the Daily Planet with a chemical that induces sexual attraction. Clark, not affected by the chemical, tries to find the source while keeping Lois, who has fallen in love with him, at bay.
Plot[]
Due to a fruit fly infestation, all of Metropolis is being sprayed with an insecticide. The Daily Planet newsroom is being used as a backdrop to introduce a new fragrance, "Exclusive".
Chemist Miranda confronts Lex Luthor after he cuts off the funding for her project, a pheromone that would make whoever inhales it lose all their inhibitions. Luthor reminds her that it has been two years since her project started, and she promised him a working formula within six months. Miranda says that she has created a working formula, and tries to play off of their former sexual relationship, to no avail.
To prove to Lex that her pheromone works, Miranda enters the Daily Planet newsroom and, pretending to be giving out perfume samples as part of the fragrance event, sprays everyone she sees with the pheromone. A while later, Lois begins hitting on Clark, Perry White gropes The Daily Planet cleaning woman Rehalia, Jimmy Olsen tries putting the charm on celebrity model April Stevens, and Cat Grant makes out with a copy machine technician after he boasts that "I've always been good with my hands."
The next day, Miranda brings Lex to The Daily Planet building, where her love pheromone is still working full force: romantic decorations are everywhere, couples are happily gazing into each other's eyes, and Lois tells Lex that, while their dinner date for tomorrow is still on, the only man in the world for her is Clark. Those couples whose romantic advances are unwanted, like Perry and Jimmy, are undeterred by repeated rejections. After Perry follows Rehalia to her apartment, her husband punches him in the face, Rehalia files a sexual harassment lawsuit, and Alice throws him out of the house.
Clark alone is unaffected, and begins to suspect everyone is acting this way because of the perfume. That evening he flips through fashion magazines until he finds an ad with Miranda in it. Before he can follow up, Lois shows up at his apartment in a belly dancer outfit and attempts to seduce him. Clark realizes that Lois is not in her right mind and he should not take advantage of her, but he ultimately yields to temptation. By this time, however, the pheromone has worn off, and Lois is humiliated when she hears what she has been up to for the past day and a half.
Lois and Clark confront Miranda about her perfume, which she calls "Revenge". She denies it has any special effect, and while Lois presses her, Clark sneaks a bottle of it.
Impressed by Revenge's effectiveness, Luthor admits to Miranda that he was wrong and restores funding in exchange for a full partnership on Revenge. He is concerned by the 48 hour duration of the pheromone's effect, but Miranda assures him that she has only been using a 1% solution, and in pure form the effect is permanent. Miranda surreptitiously sprays him with Revenge, but even while under its influence he spurns her advances. As she leaves, she vows that everyone in Metropolis will know the pain of love spurned.
Lois's humiliation continues when analysis shows that Revenge only removes the subject's romantic inhibitions, and has no effect unless the subject is near someone they are already attracted to - implying that Lois is attracted to Clark.
During his dinner date with Lois, Lex is affected by the pheromone and showers her with embarrassingly flowery flattery. After Lois and Clark break the Revenge story, Rehalia drops the lawsuit and returns to work at the Daily Planet, and Alice lets Perry back in. Jimmy apologizes to April for his unwanted advances. In response, she admits that he is "kinda cute" and kisses him in front of the entire newsroom.
Deciding that "If I can't have Lex, nobody can," Miranda summons Lois for an interview, knocks her out, and begins lowering her into a vat of boiling liquid.
Having a faster than average metabolism, Lex recovers from the effects of Revenge the morning after his dinner date. He realizes that Miranda must have sprayed him and that her parting threat means she intends to spray all Metropolis with 100% concentrated Revenge. He goes to the Daily Planet looking for Lois, who is at her meeting with Miranda, so he instead tells Clark. Clark leaves to "find Superman", after which a remark by Jimmy makes Lex realize the scheduled pesticide spraying would be the ideal vehicle for Miranda's Revenge.
Hearing Lois's cries for help, Superman rescues her, then catches up to Miranda's personal plane. She sprays him with Revenge, but he inhales the spray, bends the exhausts to prevent further spraying, and exhales Revenge at Miranda, using a wide breath so that it is diluted enough to not affect her permanently. Her intellect overridden by her attraction to Superman, Miranda willingly follows him to the arriving police cars. Lex belatedly arrives to rescue Lois, and witnesses Superman tricking Lois into kissing him by pretending that Revenge has affected him.
His feelings brought to light by this incident, Lex confides to Nigel that he is in love with Lois.
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
Special guest star[]
- Morgan Fairchild as Miranda
Guest starring[]
- Tony Jay as Nigel
Co-starring[]
- Courtney Taylor as April Stevens
- Sophia Santi as Rehalia
- Jeff Austin as Phil
- Conrad Goode as Hans
Trivia[]
- In an effort to prevent Perry's sexual advances on Rehalia, Clark says "Elvis never cheated on Priscilla!" Clark is presumably playing off of Perry's idealistic notion of Elvis, since in reality, Elvis cheated on Priscilla Presley numerous times.
- Lex recites a part of John Keats's Ode to Melancholy to Lois.
- The title is a reference to the Raymond Chandler novel Farewell, My Lovely.
Quotes[]
Miranda: "You know, Lex, I, ah... I was hoping that this would be more than just a business relationship, more the way it was once between us."
Lex: "I think not, Miranda. I never mix business with other people's pleasure."