| Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman | |
| Season 2, Episode 14 | |
 | |
| Air date | February 19, 1995 |
| Written by | John McNamara |
| Directed by | Randall Zisk |
| Episode Guide | |
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When investigative journalist and Intergang assassin Diana Stride discovers Superman's secret identity and kisses him while wearing kryptonite lipstick, Superman is rushed to hospital, leaving Jonathan and Martha to come up with a means of preserving their son's double life.
Plot[]
TV personality Diana Stride, an investigative reporter for Top Copy, is planning an expose on Superman. She contrives to be saved by Superman by setting the top floor of a skyscraper on fire and jumping off. When he saves her, she flirts with him and rubs his neck, rubbing a traceable compound on him.
To save Stride, Clark ran off in the middle of a serious discussion with Lois about their dating, with no more excuse than that he needed to return a rental videotape. Clark tries to apologize for the faux pas, but since he is unwilling to tell Lois his secret identity, he can't give a satisfactory explanation. Lois begins giving him the cold shoulder treatment.
Stride enters the Daily Planet building and confirms Superman is there with a short-range tracking device. With Super Hearing Clark overhears Stride and her cameraman, Rolf, plotting to locate him in his civilian identity and get him on film, so he finds a hiding place and changes to Superman. When she sees him in costume, Stride claims she is there to interview Daily Planet staff so Top Copy can do a tribute to Superman. Superman burns the tracking device with Heat Vision.
Diana Stride, tracking device in hand, meets Superman in the Daily Planet newsroom.
A top Intergang agent referred to in press releases only as "Mr. X" is arrested, and rumor has it he is going to finger Intergang's top assassin in order to get a deal. Lois and Clark contact deputy district attorney Mayson Drake for info, but she is under strict orders to reveal nothing about Mr. X or his planned testimony. Lois steals Mayson's beeper during the interview, allowing them to trace the phone number for Mr. X's safe house.
Intergang agent Mr. Darryl contacts Stride. Stride is no longer interested in being an assassin, but Darryl reminds her that Intergang got her her position as a famous journalist in the first place so she could get close to world leaders and kill them, and tells her that Mr. X is her former partner, Michael DeSanto. Lois, Clark, and Jimmy Olsen spy on the safe house but are caught by federal agents. Meanwhile, Stride takes out a guard and fires a rocket launcher at the safe house, flushing out DeSanto. She shoots him. In the chaos Clark changes to Superman, then flies DeSanto to a hospital. He publicly declares that DeSanto is under his protection, so Stride has Darryl procure her some Green Kryptonite melted down to paste form.
Mayson demands Lois and Clark tell her how they located DeSanto, threatening to subpoena them as witnesses if they don't give an answer in 24 hours. Having found a necklace worn by Stride at the scene of the attempted hit, Lois begins to suspect Stride is the Intergang assassin. Clark visits his parents, and Martha shows him a hologram sculpture she has been making in art class.
Stride invites Superman to dinner. He shows up and tells her to call off her expose on him. She delivers a feigned confessional, telling Superman she despises herself for the attempted expose, but fears she will lose the career she worked so hard for her if she gives it up. Moved to sympathy, Superman tells her there is some good in her, and allows her to kiss him. She uses her tongue to smear the kryptonite paste inside his mouth and make him swallow it. Due to the small amount, the kryptonite only mildly incapacitates him, but Stride estimates he will die a lingering death in approximately 24 hours.
The next day, Lois is forced to admit they still have no evidence Stride is the assassin, and without that to appease Mayson she has no choice but to confess to stealing the beeper. She admits the theft was partially motivated by dislike for Mayson, upon which Mayson confesses that she also dislikes Lois, which makes her feel better.
Using a radiation tracker, Stride traces the swallowed kryptonite to Clark's apartment. She sees him change into his Superman suit to go to the hospital, but Rolf's camera battery dies before they can get it on tape. After Lois takes Superman to the hospital, Diana and Rolf find the section in his closet where he hides his suits and film it.
When a doctor says the kryptonite is spreading inside his body like a cancer, Superman is inspired to try an extreme form of chemotherapy: locking himself inside the reactor core of the Metropolis nuclear power plant. Stride enters the hospital disguised as a police officer and releases gas into the ventilation ducts, knocking out all DeSanto's guards. She then switches to a nurse disguise so she can give DeSanto a lethal injection. Lois, having held her breath when she saw the gas, runs to DeSanto's room and saves him, driving Stride to flee. Mayson thanks Lois for her help.
Stride's expose on Superman airs. Cured of the kryptonite, Clark calls a press conference at which Martha uses her projector to create a hologram of Superman, making the citizens of Metropolis think they are seeing Clark and Superman together. Superman claims that he doesn't have his own washing machine, so Clark washes his suits for him and keeps them in his closet. DeSanto's testimony exposes Stride, and Superman catches her before she can flee the country. Clark and Lois go up to the office to finish a chess match they started at the beginning of the episode, and Lois asks if he has ever considered contacts.
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
Special guest star[]
- Raquel Welch as Diana Stride
Guest Starring[]
- Robert Culp as Mr. Darryl
- Wayne Pére as Rolf
- Tom Virtue as Michael DeSanto (Mr. X)
- And Farrah Forke as Mayson Drake
Quotes[]
Jimmy: "I'm too young and boyish to go to jail."
Lois: "You went after a professional killer? By yourself? Clark!"
Clark: "Come on, Lois. It wasn't that danger... Well... No, I guess you're right. I guess I could have been killed, and then we never would have settled things. Maybe this is fate giving us a second chance."
Lois: "Nice. You rehearse that one?"
Clark: "Improvised on the spot!"
Superman: "I know your story isn't a tribute. It's an attempt to expose me."
Stride: "Expose you? Do you have something to hide?"
Superman: "We all have something to hide, Ms. Stride. Some of us for the good of others and some of us for their own gain."
Superman: "Diana, you ought to come with a surgeon general's warning."