What's up with Lucas? Lucas Luthor, Lionel's illegitimate love child who was given up for adoption, is found in Edge City by Lex. Lionel had told Lex that Lucas was dead, but Lex found him after searching for seven months. Lex saves Lucas in a narrow escape from some bad guys he had been cheating at cards. Lex brings Lucas to LuthorCorp to meet Lionel. After an embrace, Lionel dismisses Lucas to the dining room so Lex and Lionel can talk. Now Lionel accuses Lex of staging a coup by bringing 18-year-old Lucas, the youngest heir to the Luthor fortune into the picture.

Guest-star Paul Wasilewski portrays Lucas Luthor. Daytime soap viewers may recognize him from past appearances on "Another World" and "The Guiding Light." Paul has also appeared in a few other TV series, most notably as Tommy on Everwood and as Donnie on The O.C.

What's up with Lex? Lionel has frozen Lex's accounts. All of Lex's assets belong to Lionel due to his takeover of LexCorp. The coup that Lex has tried to orchestrate by bringing Lucas to Smallville has backfired and Lionel tosses him out of the mansion.
Lex appears at the doorstep of the Kents, explaining what happened and asking if he can stay awhile. They take him in, but Lionel warns Clark not to leave him alone on the farm. Lex finds himself in the barn doing chores.
What's up with Lionel? Back at the mansion, Lucas wants more than the $10 million Lionel promised him to sign over his shares. Lucas has bitter feelings about what he sees as his abandonment by Lionel. Through observation Lucas realizes Lionel is not totally blind.
What's up with Clark? Clark gets info on Lucas from Chloe. Clark and Lex discover that Lionel got to Lucas before Lex did, wanting to use him for the corporate raid.
Clark gets a job at the Talon to be close to Lana. With the situation of Lex's assets and Lionel's wrath, Lucas is given all of Lex's assets, and announces the Talon now belongs to him. He threatens to close the business based on his anger with Clark's discovery of the truth. As Lucas leaves through the Talon's backdoor, a bad guy on a motorcycle speeds out of the darkness, shooting at Lucas. Clark jumps in to stop the would-be assassin and speeding bullets, saving Lucas.
How it ends: Back at the mansion, Lionel tells Lucas it was Lex who put the Edge City bad guy on Lucas' trail. Lex has already told Lucas that Lionel pointed the shooter towards Lucas. The shooter died in police custody. Lionel gives Lucas a reverse-psychology pep talk aimed at alienating Lucas and Lex.
Lucas surprises Lex at the Kent barn by knocking Jonathan out and taking Lex to LuthorCorp offices in Metropolis. When Lionel arrives, Lex is tied up. Lucas puts a gun to Lex's head and Lex realizes by Lionel reaction that Lionel is not blind. Lionel insists Lucas back down. Lucas puts the gun in Lionel's hand, pointed at Lex, and holds a gun to Lionel's head. Lucas tells Lionel to kill Lex. Lionel objects, saying he can't kill his own son. Lex tells Lionel that Lucas wants to kill them both and inherit everything.
Clark arrives at LuthorCorp, and sees the tense situation through the walls using his x-ray vision. So as not to be seen, he climbs through the air conditioning ducts until he is above them. Using his heat vision, Clark transfers heat to the gun Lucas holds, causing a distraction as Lucas drops the gun. Lionel gains the advantage, and uses the gun he held to shoot to kill Lucas. Both guns are loaded with blanks. Lucas was testing Lionel. Lex and Lucas leave together. Lex later tells Clark that Lucas is safely away, under his protection.
Later Lionel admits to Lex that he has been able to see for a few weeks. Lionel now wants to ease the rift between himself and Lex. Lionel offers Lex the ownership of LexCorp back.
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We open on the set of The Young Big Trouble in Little China Chronicles. A comely Asian waitress comes down some stairs carrying drinks past a large Asian man in a leather jacket. He also happens to be carrying an Uzi. Cool exotic music is playing. It's a Chinese casino. There's roulette and poker. Where are all the slots? I wanna play Winning Streak! At a table where a hand of poker is being dealt, a young white guy with spikish blonde hair is looking at his cards. His opponent? A grizzled guy in a peppered beard who could have been the guy who sold Hoyt Axton his Mogwai in Gremlins. Wow, that cataract surgery did wonders for him. A big fake-gold-looking cat statue is nearby, and we peek inside its glass eye. There's a camera in there, monitoring the poker action.

In another room, an Asian dude is watching the game on a laptop screen and it's divvied up into four viewing angles. This guy must be very popular at frat houses. He's doing this in what appears to be an outdoor fruit market at night. Gremlins Man, in subtitles, says, "I see you and raise you two thousand" to the young blond guy. He puts some bills on the table. On the laptop screen, a camera zooms in to reveal that somebody's got two aces. Laptop Guy dials into a cell phone with that information. Back at the game, adventurous white guy looks down at his ancient numeric pager and it reads, "09." Ahhh. "09." White Guy sees the two grand and raises another fifteen hundred. High stakes! The big guy on the stairs hears something crash upstairs and goes to investigate. He finds Laptop Guy trying to pack up his things. He was in the next room? Not exactly inconspicuous there, dude.

Leather Dude grabs Laptop Man and drags him downstairs just as the poker hands are about to be revealed. Gremlins Man has a pair of aces. Adventurous White Guy has three nines. I think the white boy won. Gremlins Man picks up a piece of seafood with chopsticks and says, "Very lucky tonight." He nibbles on the food. White Guy starts to take his winnings. But, what's this? Laptop Man is totally busted! "Who are you working with?" the fat man in leather demands. Laptop Man's eyes wander over to the smooth white boy with the fresh winnings. The lady dealer reaches for a gun strapped under the table. She points it at the white dude. He seems unfazed. He apologizes to his accomplice and flips over the table toward the dealer. He disarms another guy with a gun via spin kick and leaps down some stairs as the dealer and the fat man start firing their weapons. What show is this? I like it! White Dude tumbles down some stairs and lands into some boxes of fruit. Some poor businessman walks by just then, and the blond guy uses him as a human shield as gangsters upstairs fire. No exit wounds? (more...)
-- Omar G (TWoP)

Lex finds Lucas, the son Lionel gave up for adoption, and brings him home in the hope that the two of them can unite against Lionel. When Lionel's machinations end up putting all three of them in a dangerous situation, Lex is left to wonder whom he can really trust. Meanwhile, Clark decides to take a job at the Talon. Kristin Kreuk, Allison Mack, Sam Jones III, Annette O'Toole and John Schneider also star.

Lex: (to Clark) Just remember, my father may try to rule the world, but yours will inherit the Earth.

Lionel: Be careful, Lex. There are parables of many kinds to be found in the Good Book.

Clark: I thought (Lucas) was supposed to be dead.
Lex: Just buried by my father.

Chloe: Are you kidding? Bossing around Clark is the highlight of my day.

Martha: We can't turn our backs on Lex now.
Jonathan: I have no intent of turning my back on Lex while he's here.

Lex: While I've been playing checkers, my father's been playing chess.

Lex: You know, our family gene pool is a shark tank and our father just chummed the waters.

Lionel: You wouldn't be a Luthor if someone wasn't trying to kill you.

Lionel: Where do you think you are (Lucas) - Walton Mountain?

Chloe: Clark, I drink coffee - I do not serve it!

Lex: You know what they say about fish and house guests after three days.

Lionel: Your rescues are starting to become a Luthor family tradition.

Clark: Long as I live, I'm never going to understand your family.
Lex: Neither will I.

Plus, we have a couple of cool gimmes for the fans. Edge city, Metropolis. That was nice, even in passing.

I had a few awkward moments. Anyone else watch the beginning and think Indiana Luthor? I expected him to throw a flaming kabop into the poodle of some poor oriental goon, jump out a window while shielding his body with a gong, then hit the canvas awning, tell Short Round to put it in drive, then go find Lao-Tse airlines. But maybe that's me. I expected Luthor to be glib while getting into the limo:

Also, Clark and Luthor are just buddy buddy again, despite last week's madness. I am assured that Lex could just have realized the aliens were affecting his mind, but there would still need to be a resolution, or an apology. (more...)
By Neal Bailey