Smallville Season 9: “Metallo”

Brian Austin Green as John Corben/Metallo in "Smallville" -- Image via CWTV.com

John Corben (Brian Austin Green) is the newest reporter at the Daily Planet and the first story he wants to break is to expose the Red Blue Blur as a vigilante and not a hero. On the other hand, Lois Lane (Erica Durance) wants to know the person behind the hero. It’s only the second episode of the season and I love how this season is shaping up to be reminiscent of “Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman” in terms of the dynamic between Lois and Clark. Also we are beginning to see the Lois/Clark/Superman love triangle unfold as Lois’s budding crush on the Red Blue Blur is starting to surface.

**SPOILERS AHEAD**

Image via CWTV.com

The episode starts with Lois going to Clark’s house and notices that no one is there but someone is feeding the dog. She says to the dog “Smallville is not the same without Smallville”. John Corben then calls her about a “Blur” story and Lois tells him that he take the story. Afterward he shares with her that he doesn’t believe that the Blur is a hero and Lois scolds him for his cynical views. Corben then looks at a picture of a girl in his wallet, then all of a sudden the picture flies away and when he goes to pick up the picture he gets hit by a bus. Corben goes in and out of consciousness and wakes up as a cyborg better known as Metallo!

Chloe visits Lois at her apartment and she finds that Lois has dog napped Clark’s dog and Chloe asks/jokes that if this is her way of smoking out Clark’s whereabouts or if she misses Clark. Lois shrugs Chloe’s comment(s) and says that she was afraid the dog was left alone so she brought the dog back with her but yet she was intrigued by the fact that the dog was being fed somehow in Clark’s absence. Chloe then covers for Clark and tells Lois that she has been on dog feeding duties. During Chloe’s visit, Lois accidentally lets it slip that she has talked to the Blur again and Chloe sounds surprised. Lois goes on and says that the last time she talked to the Blur she felt that he sounded sad almost if she was the only one he could turn to. Later on Chloe brings Clark’s dog back as Clark enters (in his black trench coat outfit) and she says that he needs to be careful because if she were Lois and saw him in that outfit, that she would be able to piece together that he was the Blur. Also Chloe calls him out on talking to Lois again. She tells him that he needs to commit to his training.

Here is how the rest of the episode pans out:

• Corben goes to the hospital and Dr. Hamilton treats him and says that his heart has been removed and that the meteor rock (aka kryptonite) is the only thing keeping him alive. Someone tries to give Corben a sedative and he freaks out and throws them across the room.
• At the Luthor mansion, Tess is going all kung fu on a punching bag when Lois drops by. At the end of Season 8, before Lois pops into the future both her and Tess were fighting like if they were in a cage match with no cage. Lois has a theory on her disappearance and shares it with Tess, she thinks that Tess clocked her on the head and somehow hid her away. Tess is surprised to hear that Lois doesn’t remember where she has been for the last few weeks and tells her that once she awoke from the fight – Lois was long gone. Anyway, Lois came to see Tess in order to get her job back at the Daily Planet and threatens Tess that she might use her connections at the Inquisitor (tabloid newspaper) to paint Tess in a not so favorable way.
• Clark drops by the hospital and talks to Dr. Hamilton about the “meteor” patient incident. Dr. Hamilton shares that the meteor rock is the only thing keeping him (Corben) alive and that it is poisoning his mind. Clark asks if he had any idea on the identity of the patient and the only clue that Dr. Hamilton had is that the patient dropped his keys which had a Daily Planet key chain on them.
• Now we find Corben walking around the city and it seems he is hearing voices or rather replaying people’s words in his mind. He stops and finds the picture he lost before his accident and we find out that this is a picture of his sister Becca who was murdered. He takes the picture to this dark basement and places it on a wall of newspaper clippings about the Blur. He talks to himself and says that his agenda has changed and that he no longer wants to expose the Blur but he wants to kill him instead.
• Back at the Planet, Lois is at her computer and she has been officially reinstated and her first story is to cover the hospital incident which was suppose to Corben’s story but he seems to be “missing”. Clark then calls Lois as the Blur and talks about the Daily Planet keys he found (belonging to the hospital patient) and Lois jumps on the chance to do some investigating in order to see who lost their keys. Clark tells her that he doesn’t want her to get hurt and to be careful and wary of such a person and if she hears of someone losing their keys to tell him. They make a “phone” date and he tells her he’ll call “their” phone booth at 7 p.m. While Lois finishes her call she finds that Chloe is on her computer when Chloe has just detected spyware on Lois’s computer.
• Tess and a few of her workers have been keeping tabs on Zod and his platoon (as best as they can) and it leads them to a warehouse with a lot Luthor Corp technology. They find plans of a heart powered by kryptonite and they came to the conclusion that Zod and his crew have been performing experiments perhaps in the effort of gaining “powers”.
• Back at the Planet, Lois has spent almost the entire day trying to figure out who lost their keys and she finds Corben has reappeared in a disheveled state and makes a comment about his appearance. Corben vaguely asks for some information and Lois mentions that the information he is looking for is in the archives and he needs to use his keys to get into the archive room. Corben then asks to borrow Lois’s keys (::Ding Ding!::). Lois puts the pieces together and she casually lends her keys to Corben and tells him to return them to her in the morning. Lois takes a look at the time and it is almost 7 p.m. and she runs to the “usual” phone booth as Clark calls (as the Blur). Lois tells the Blur that she has figured out that the hospital patient they were looking for is John Corben! All of a sudden Clark hears a struggle over the phone and Lois appears doesn’t seem to be on the line anymore. Clark super speeds to the phone booth and Lois is gone! Oh no!
• Clark heads to the watchtower (aka Chloe’s apartment) and seeks Chloe’s help because Lois is missing and shares info about their new kryptonite toting foe. Chloe sort of berates Clark for not coming to her first because Lois does not have experience in the whole hero sidekick thing. Clark then reveals that talking to Lois just “felt right”. Chloe pulls up a home video that was made to Corben which was for his sister Becca telling her that she should be careful living in the big city. Chloe then finds some information that said that Corben’s sister was killed while Corben was overseas and that Corben recently purchased the apartment building where she use to live in. They figure out that he must be keeping Lois in that building. Chloe then asks how Clark is going to get close to Corben since he is going to be weakened by the kryptonite. Clark mentions that he has obtained an EMP (Electromagnetic Pulse) device from Dr. Hamilton which he hopes that he can use against Corben since he is part machine and that it should power him down.


Image via CWTV.com

• Corben questions Lois on the identity of the Blur and she tells him that she doesn’t know who he is. Corben doesn’t believe her because he followed and overheard her talking to the Blur over the phone. Corben gets angry and hits Lois.


Image via CWTV.com

• Suddenly Clark super speeds in and Corben shares his issues with him. Corben tells him that he holds the Blur responsible for his sister’s death and further asks what gives him (Clark) the right to meddle in peoples’ lives. Clark is sorry for Corben’s lost, but Corben is still full of rage and goes after Lois because he wants the Blur to feel the same pain of losing someone you care about. Clark then throws the EMP device and it works, Corben is immobilized and falls to the ground.
• Clarks goes to check on Lois but all of a sudden Corben is back on his feet again and throws Clark across the room. Clark starts to weaken and turns and finds a piece of lead on the floor. He heats it up with his heat vision and runs at Corben and throws it on his chest which binds to him. Corben figures out that the meteor rock weakens the Blur and he pulls the lead away from his chest which also pulls the kryptonite out of his chest and Corben falls to the ground.


Image via CWTV.com

• Clark goes to Lois and he brushes her hair slightly away from her face and tells her that she is safe. Lois wakes up and she sees a figure in the shadow who she deduces as the Blur who has saved her. She asks if she could see his face and Clark takes a step forward but still remains in the shadows and super speeds away.
• Back at the watchtower Chloe gets off the phone with Lois and Clark is there and they have a heart to heart chat. They discuss how much they both miss Jimmy and Clark shares that he should’ve been there for Chloe in order to help her through her difficult time. Chloe said she understood and Clark adds that he listens to people from the rooftops in order to fill the void of leaving people behind and that he lost sense on how to live life. Chloe says that maybe Clark shouldn’t stay away from people or Lois and adds “Lois means something to you, something more.” (Aww!)
• Chloe suggest that it is time for Kal-El to use his human disguise in order help protect Lois and Chloe shares that she has discovered that Tess put spyware on Lois’s computer in effort to find out where Lois was when she was missing for 3 weeks. Clark realizes that he must come out of hiding and go back to the Daily Planet.
• At the Planet, Lois throws Corben’s name plate in the garbage and pulls out Clark’s name plate that she kept in her desk drawer and looks at it longingly. Clark appears in the doorway and sees Lois holding his name plate. He calls out to Lois saying that he will be needing his name plate and Lois turns around and is excited to see Clark and hugs him. (Aww!) Clark says to Lois it seems like that she missed him and in true Lois fashion she puts on her tough face and says that the person (Corben) they got [to replace Clark] was a maniac and begins telling Clark about how she helped the Blur stop Corben. Clark smiles and says that he really wanted to hear the whole story and Lois dives right into it.
• At the Luthor mansion Tess’s people found Corben and she asks if he can be revived and they say that his vital signs are offline and he would be more machine than man if brought back. Also she wants them to find Zod and his people. In other news they discovered the day that Zod and his people arrived there were kryptonian symbol(s) ditches (think of the movie “Signs”) that appeared around the world and the translation of the symbols were blood, nobility, and family. Then there is one that is the Superman “S” and when they zoomed in on the picture, there looks to be a person lying in the ditch. (intriguing…)

Next week’s episode is called “Rabid” and now Lois and Clark are back in action. It should be fun and the preview looks like there is going to be some good Clois (Clark + Lois) moments. Check out the episode preview here.