Clark is wracked with haunting visions when he meets an old woman, Cassandra Carpenter, who can see the future. Lex schemes to use Cassandra's gift to glimpse his own destiny and learn more about Clark's secret. Meanwhile, a bitter old man, Harry Bollston, discovers a "fountain of youth" and reverts to a teenager. He then seeks revenge on the descendants of jurors who put him in jail decades ago.

At the Kent Farm, Clark tells his parents about Cassandra's prediction, but Jonathan and Martha are unimpressed. Later, Young Harry is at the Beanery, flirting with a cute waitress, Zoe. Clark, Lana, and Chloe enter, discussing Harry's mysterious disappearance from the retirement center. Harry can't help but butt in to their conversation. "Good luck finding your missing old person," he offers as he leaves. Back at the retirement center, Harry demonstrates his abilities as a concert-level pianist. Cassandra is listening and is impressed. Harry tells her that he was supposed to attend the Metropolis Conservatory. Cassandra, sensing something unusual about this young man, tries to get Harry to take her hand so she can see his future. Harry, however, declines: "...I already know my future." Meanwhile, Clark tells Lex about Cassandra's warning. Lex, too, is unimpressed, but Clark is worries about her ominous prediction. That night, Clark arrives at the retirement center to find Lana already there. She's examining "Young & Old" photos of the retirement center residents, noting that Harry's "young" photo is missing. She also informs Clark that it turns out Harry was a murderer who changed his name after being released from prison. When his piano teacher recommended someone else for a scholarship to the Metropolis Conservatory, Harry killed his teacher's son. Meanwhile, Harry impersonates a utilities worker to gain entrance to Jim Gage's home. After making sure that Jim is the son of Randolph Gage, Harry kills him. Back at the retirement center, Clark approaches Cassandra, wanting to know more about his future. Cassandra takes Clark's hand and they see a vision of his future: Clark in a rainy graveyard, Martha and Jonathan's gravestones, gravestones radiating out in every direction for as far as the eye can see. They snap out of the vision, horrified. Clark speeds off.

At home, Clark tells his parents about the vision Cassandra gave him, and reminds his parents that Cassandra lost her sight in the meteor shower. His parents try to convince Clark that only he controls his destiny. Later, Lex visits Cassandra, wanting to know what she saw about Clark, but Cassandra is unwilling to tell, even when Lex offers to pay her. Instead she tries to goad Lex into letting her see his future, but Lex feigns disinterest. Later, in Clark's loft, Pete and Chloe fill Clark in on Jim Gage's murder. They also show Clark a photo of Harry from the '40s-he looks just like the kid they saw at the Beanery. They go to the retirement center, and while Chloe and Pete check out Harry's room, Clark visits Cassandra. Cassandra is surprised that Clark was able to see the vision of his future; normally, only Cassandra can see the visions. She knows Clark is different and that he has a special purpose. She takes his hand and Clark again has a vision of the future: a woman, wearing a tiny unicorn necklace, being attacked. Clark then catches up with Chloe and Pete who have discovered some newspaper clippings in Harry's room. One of them features the Beanery waitress, Zoe, and her unicorn necklace. Clark races off. Meanwhile, Harry and Zoe are alone at the Beanery. Harry reveals that he intends to kill Zoe because her grandmother helped destroy his future. Clark arrives just in time to save Zoe from an oncoming truck. Harry then tries to stab Clark, but the knife blade shatters on Clark's chest. Clark hurls Harry into a dumpster.

Later, with Harry is in the hospital, Clark visits Lex. Lex shows Clark the ruined Porsche Clark rescued him from the day they met. Lex says that no one can explain how he was rescued from the Porsche. Clark does his best to avoid the issue, but it's clear that Lex is suspicious. Meanwhile, at the hospital, a deputy arrives to take Harry to jail, only to find an old man in his hospital bed. It seems the effects of the fountain-of-youth koi pond have worn off. Not realizing that Young Harry and Old Harry are the same person, the police return Old Harry to the retirement center. Clark, however, suspects the truth and goes to Harry's room to confront him, but Harry admits nothing. After Clark leaves, Harry returns to the koi pond. At the Torch office, Clark, Chloe, and Pete are discussing the situation when Lana arrives. She tells them that Harry is missing. Clark and Chloe then realize that Harry is killing the descendents of the jurors who convicted him-and juror number 11 was Hiram Kent, Clark's grandfather! At the Kent Farm, Martha Kent opens the front door to find Young Harry, there to inspect a "gas leak."

Martha is incredulous and quickly deduces that Harry is not from the gas company. Harry confronts her, but Martha escapes from the house and hides out in an empty grain silo. As headlights cross the silo grate, Harry's knife shoots through, almost cutting Martha. Harry enters the silo. As Martha backs away she pulls a dangling cord, releasing a torrent a grain from above. Both Martha and Harry are being quickly buried alive. Outside, Jonathan and Clark arrive at the same time. Clark uses his x-ray vision to locate Martha and Harry. He rips a panel off the silo and digs Martha out. Jonathan begins CPR and soon, Martha is revived. The next day, Lex visits Cassandra, ready to know his future. Cassandra takes Lex's hand and his vision begins. Lex is in the Oval Office, dressed in a white suit. He steps outside into an endless field of sunflowers. Reaching down with a gloved hand, Lex touches one of the flowers. The flower wilts and dies, the rest of the flowers then follow suit. A drop of red falls from the darkened sky, staining Lex's suit, then another. A torrent of blood falls from the sky. The vision ends and Lex, who did not see it, asks Cassandra what she saw. But Cassandra is dead, the shock of Lex's future having killed her. Backing out of the room, Lex calls for help. A nurse enters, followed by Clark, but it's too late. The person close to Clark who was to die was Cassandra.

Clark: It's not your fault, Lana.
Lana: Do you know anyone else who's lost an entire old person in a wheelchair?

Clark: You might consider rounding those curves at a speed that won't actually break the sound barrier.
Lex: Hey, where's the fun in that?
Chloe: Yep, that's impressive, even for Smallville.

Lex: Life's a journey, Clark; I don't wanna go through it following a roadmap.
Clark: It still wouldn't kill you to drive more slowly.

Young Harry: (smells burger) God, I haven't been able to eat one of these in years ... I mean not since the bypass. That was a joke.
Zoe: You're a riot.

Cassandra: Do those expensive shoes come with a name?
Lex: Lex Luthor.
Cassandra: Huh. Of Luthor...Everything Incorporated?
Lex: More or less.

Lana: Maybe I should just accept my destiny - all I'm ever going to be is a little girl in a fairy princess costume who lost her parents.
Clark: I don't see you that way.
Lana: I know you don't, Clark. You're the only one who doesn't.

Lana: I'm up there with the three-headed calf and the monster from Crater Lake.

Lana: Maybe I should just accept my destiny - all I'm ever going to be is a little girl in a fairy princess costume who lost her parents.
Clark: I don't see you that way.
Lana: I know you don't, Clark. You're the only one who doesn't.

Lex: I once read about a rich man who survived a hotel fire. He hung onto the ledge for an hour before the fire department rescued him. Afterwards he bought the hotel...always stayed in the room. When they asked him why, he said he figured Fate couldn't find him twice.

Young Harry: Come on, Mrs. Kent. I'm too old for hide and seek.

Lex: I come bearing gifts.
Cassandra: So did the Greeks.

Lex: You see, I don't want to do good things. I want to do great things.

Clark: She saw it.
Nurse: Saw what?
Clark: Her future.

The ending killed me. I don't think I've seen a better ending on a television program. I should have seen the ending coming. "Someone close to you will die." meant the usual logical trick you see in a television program to me... it would be someone nearby, in a relative sense, or the villain. Thus, when I saw the villain bite the big one in the Kent silo, I assumed, with reason, that the prophecy had been fulfilled. I also assumed, with reason, that when Lex walked away from his future, he would not return to revisit it. Lex is a decisive, fate mocking man. When he came back, when the prophecy hit us, this knocked me out of my chair.

The futures of Clark and Lex never surprised me... we've known them from the comics for some time. Lex gets to be the bad guy, Clark the good guy. What the future foretold, however, proved in shocking, intriguing fashion the more negative, frightening aspects of both of their lives. Clark sees his essential immortality, the undeniable sadness he will face long from now when he is the last remaining human being because of his super powers. Lex sees shattered dreams of presidential idealisms that end in rains of blood. The imagery is not the kind of thing you expect TV to have the gall to show, and I applaud this.

Lana is still progressing, something that surprised me. I expected her character to stagnate as the love interest and shallow backdrop character for the hero to pine for. She's getting better. I like this. She realizes, and thus we realize that even cheerleaders can belong, justified, in the center of the Wall of Weird.

This episode avoided the pitfalls that have plagued the previous shows... the villain is not cookie-cutter. He isn't elemental in origin. He doesn't go after Lana. And more important, he's not the focus of the episode's momentum. The main characters and their choices are.

More avoided pratfalls include Clark's heroics not having any consequence-here we see saving Lex coming back to haunt him, and the driver of the semi threatening to expose Clark. I am bothered that Zoe witnessed the super-powers with no consequence, but we can assume that she will not say anything in gratitude, so the issue more or less irons itself out.

The dialogue and writing remain exemplary. I missed the repeating dialogic themes in the last two episodes, but they returned in this one, with the ending's "Are you afraid of what you might see?" Excellent work and a very tight, very disturbing story. TV doesn't move me. This show did. I'm still struck by the power of this work. (more...)
By Neal Bailey

Lana Lang now works at the Smallville Retirement Center, and her charge is Harry Volk. Lana takes him out for a walk, and leaves him alone for a while. His wheelchair accidentally tips into a pond filled with kryptonite. This transforms him into a young version of himself and he leaves the retirement home. It turns out that, when he was young, Harry killed his piano teacher because she decided not to recommend him for a scholarship to the Metropolis Conservatory. Harry was then convicted by a jury.

Young-again Harry is now determined to take revenge on the descendents of all the families of the jurors. He first kills a juror Gage's son Jim, and also starts talking to "The Beanery" waitress Zoë, whose grandmother was also a juror.

Meanwhile, Clark Kent, Pete Ross and Chloe Sullivan try helping Lana find Harry. They meant Cassandra Carver, another resident of the retirement center. She was blinded by the meteor shower of 1989, and is now able to tell a person's future by touching their hand. Her first vision of Clark's future is that of someone close to him dying. Her second vision, which Clark also sees, is of him standing in a graveyard looking at his parent's graves. Clark tells Lex Luthor about Cassandra, and Lex visits her at the center, however she refuses to tell him what vision she had of Clark's future. Lex refuses to have his future read.

Chloe and Pete find out too late about Jim Gage, but realizing who Zoë is, Clark runs to "The Beanery". He saves Zoë and fights with Harry, who is sent to hospital. While in the hospital, Harry's "youth" wears off, and as the police enter his room to question a young Harry, they find Old Harry. They do not understand, and send Harry back to the retirement center. Old Harry returns to the pond, falls into it and emerges young again. A while later, just as Lana informs her friends that Harry has gone missing again, young-again Harry shows up at the Kent's farm, and Martha Kent opens the door, thinking he is a gas repairman. Clark, Chloe and Pete figure out Harry's past just in time to realize that another one of the jurors was Hiram Kent, Clark's grandfather.

Martha realizes Harry is not from the gas company, confronts him, and they fight. Martha hides in an empty silo, Harry finds her and the fight continues there. Martha pulls a cord, and the grain starts falling into the silo, burying them both. Jonathan Kent and Clark find Martha and save her.