Post Game: Smallville 8.15 - "Infamous"

After a break for several weeks, Smallville bounced back after a brief storyline made the show tolerable at best. All due respect to Kristin Kreuk, the Lana Lang character set Clark Kent back to a navel-gazing level that should've been abandoned back in Season 2. Now that she is conceivably out of the picture (I would guess for this season for sure), our farm-bred Kal-El can once again get on track to becoming the Man of Steel. While succinct in nature, in terms of working with a big concept within 45 minutes of showtime, "Infamous" was a great way for Smallville's more recent creative direction to return to form.

Things kick off in Metropolis where Clark botches an airport pickup for Lois Lane (welcome back, Erica Durance!) in a rain-soaked scene. Clark's so busy working overtime in Metropolis as the "Red-Blue Blur" that he blows it picking her up. Two questions: 1) What does Clark drive in the big city, and 2) how does anyone wait in the rain for 3 hours before opting for a cab or public transit? But Lois blows off Clark in a huff and before he can do anything he is approached Linda Lake (Tori Spelling, previously seen in the "Hydro" episode) with an "offer" to write all of the Red-Blue Blur's exclusives. For those out of the loop, her ability to morph into water allowed her a couple of seasons ago to discover Clark's true identity as a superpowered Kryptonian. If Clark says no, she will publish an exposé on his life story. All of it. Uh oh!

After credits, back at the Kent farm, Chloe shows up and Clark tells her Linda Lake's blackmail scheme. Before Chloe can even offer a solution Clark declares that he wants to go public. Chloe has a lot of doubts, and for good reason, as we find. Even if it's not the best decision, fresh off his latest breakup with Lana, Clark is already more confident and assertive. That's the last time I rail against Lana Lang in this article, so you know. At the Metropolis General Hospital, another dormant character returns to the show. Paramedic Davis Bloome (Doomsday to you and me) is caught in a medical supply room stocking up on anti-psychotic meds. Having apparently been away for a few weeks (gestating in the Fortress of Solitude), he manages to talk his way out of the situation with the female doctor.

Later, at the Daily Planet, Clark approaches Lois but she is ignoring him still over the airport snub. He cheers her up by asking her to write his story. She of course assumes he's full of it, but he proves himself to her in convincing fashion in the supply room (heh, not in THAT way). Coming clean on everything , he also tells Lois that Lana and Chloe have known for years, which is a tough pill for her to swallow at first. He lays out his powers -- she of course pauses at X-ray vision -- though we get nothing like Margot Kidder asking Christopher Reeve what color's her underwear. She also assumes it's meteor infection, and he corrects her on the fact that his abilities are factory originals from a galaxy far, far away.