| Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman | |
| Season 2, Episode 4 | |
 | |
| Air date | October 9, 1994 |
| Written by | Grant Rosenberg |
| Directed by | James Hayman |
| Episode Guide | |
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Clark has to look out for Lois' safety when someone begins sending her booby trapped gifts. It turns out that the culprit is an ex-con, known as the Prankster, out for revenge against Lois, whose investigative reporting led to him being incarcerated for five years.
Plot[]
While The Daily Planet staff are at an art museum, Lois receives a wrapped present and romantic card signed from a secret admirer. The present is a jack-in-the-box in which the "jack" is a Luciano Pavarotti doll which sings at a volume and pitch that shatters glass, enabling two men wearing earplugs to make off with a large diamond.
The next day at work, Lois gets a follow-up card and present: an extremely valuable diamond ring, but one which is too tight for Lois to remove after putting on and causes her finger to itch. Clark breaks it off (claiming it had a cheap setting) and finds discoloration indicating it was dipped in a chemical to produce the allergic reaction.
Lois comes up with a suspect: Randall Loomis, a "computer nerd" who she says followed her around for a year at college. However, when they visit Randall they find he is married, and doesn't even recognize Lois until she introduces herself. After leaving they run into a chemical slick which the men from the art museum used to disable a Stanton Electronics van and replace two of the computer chips inside with altered ones. To stop their car from sliding into a crash, Clark opens the door and sticks his foot onto the street, grinding the car to a halt. He then runs off to change into Superman, and uses Heat Vision to vaporize the chemical.
One of the altered computer chips goes to the Metropolis stadium scoreboard, replacing the display with another "secret admirer" message to Lois. The press dubs Lois's admirer "The Prankster". Clark talks to the stadium manager, putting him on the track of the stolen computer chips. He also checks into the art museum and learns about the missing diamond; a jeweler confirms that Lois's ring was cut from the stolen diamond.
The Prankster cuts into television broadcasts to announce a bomb which he says will show "the explosive nature of my love for Lois Lane." Lois does not recognize his voice. Superman arrives too late, but the bomb is a fake. With Whitmore Scientific Labs evacuated for the bomb scare, the Prankster steals some titanium and cesium.
An informant says he spent a lot of time with the Prankster and will tell his secret identity for $10,000. Before Lois can negotiate to a more sane price, the informant is killed by electrocution when he answers a phone call. The informant was registered as Mick Barrows, who was recently released from prison. Deducing that the Prankster was likely Barrows's cellmate, they check prison records, and Lois recognizes the name Kyle Griffin. Griffin designed high tech weaponry which was sold to third world countries, and was one of 12 people arrested five years ago when Lois wrote an expose on the illegal arms trade.
Lois becomes anxious that Griffin may want to do worse than simply prank her for his revenge. Her fears manifest when Griffin calls her that evening at her apartment and delivers a death threat. Terrified, she goes to Clark's apartment with pizza and Lethal Weapon tapes, claiming she wants to have a movie night. Clark gradually coaxes her to reveal the real reason she came over, and tells her he would feel better if she spent the night at his place. Calmed by his gentle protectiveness, Lois falls asleep watching Lethal Weapon with him.
The next morning they learn from Griffin's parole officer that Griffin's last known address was with his father Edwin, a retired nuclear physicist who now runs a toy store. Edwin claims he hasn't seen Kyle since he got out of prison. When they ask if Kyle could be making a weapon out of the components he stole (diamond, a computer chip, titanium, and cesium), Edwin says he would still need plutonium for a power source, which is available in Metropolis from two sources: the toxic depository and the heavy metals processing plant. When they split up to check them both out, Edwin calls to alert Kyle. Kyle and his partner, Victor, use nitrous oxide to overwhelm the plant's personnel and Lois, then make off with both the plutonium and Lois.
Investigating the scene, Clark finds red clay which is found only at Edwin's toy store and realizes it must have been tracked in by Griffin, since the plant staff all wear special footwear to avoid tracking plutonium. The Prankster completes his weapon and fires it at The Daily Planet building as a demonstration for the terrorists he is trying to get to fund him, but Superman flies into the path of the beam, shielding the building. Fearing that the weapon may eventually destroy even Superman, Lois attacks her distracted captors, defeating both Victor and Griffin.
Jimmy Olsen has been feeling inadequate against Lois and Clark's displays of investigative thinking. Thinking over the fact that Griffin was expecting Lois at the plant, he realizes Edwin must have been in on it, since he was the only other one who knew she was headed there. Realizing that this modest display of reasoning is a step forward for Jimmy, Lois, Clark, and Perry White congratulate him. Clark has some yellow (for friendship) roses delivered to Lois anonymously, but she assumes they are a last prank from Griffin and disposes of them.
Cast[]
Main cast[]
- Dean Cain as Clark Kent/Superman
- Teri Hatcher as Lois Lane
- Lane Smith as Perry White
- Justin Whalin as Jimmy Olsen
- K Callan as Martha Kent
- Eddie Jones as Jonathan Kent
Guest starring[]
- Bronson Pinchot as Kyle Griffin/Prankster
- Harold Gould as Edwin Griffin
- Rick Overton as Victor
- Leonard Termo as Pete
Production details[]
- The person Lois and Clark investigate early on is named Randall Loomis, a nod to the name of the comic version of the Prankster, Oswald Loomis.
- The song playing on the radio which Victor sings along to as he works on a car is T-Bone Walker's "Call It Stormy Monday (But Tuesday Is Just as Bad)".
Quotes[]
Victor: "So how did your meeting go with the terrorists?"
Kyle: "Don't ever call them that. They like to be called freedom fighters. And they want a little demonstration before they'll advance us any money."
Victor: "They don't trust us?"
Kyle: "Victor! We're the kind of people that deal with terrorists! Why would anybody trust us?"