Who is Cyrus Krupp? A loner transfer student becomes a target for school bully Kyle and the other tough guys at Smallville High. They rough the kid Cyrus up in electronics lab class, labeling him a creep when they discover he listens to static on his headphones. Clark tries to calm the confrontation, but the bullying causes Cyrus to react, mysteriously setting the tool wall on fire while standing several feet away. Cyrus is suspended from school. Chloe tells Clark that Cyrus told kids at his previous school that he's an alien. She also learns he has been institutionalized.
Cyrus lives with foster parents. He fears ridicule when Clark questions him. Cyrus confides in Clark, showing him his shed full of equipment and telling Clark of his efforts to contact his home planet. Cyrus tells Clark he came to Earth on the day of the meteor shower and was found and adopted by an elderly couple.
What's up with Lana? Whitney's beloved horse hasn't been doing well. Sensing her concern, Clark offers to board the horse at the Kent farm. In the evening when she brings the horse over to settle in, he collapses. Cyrus shows up, accusing Clark of telling Chloe about him. Seeing the horse suffering, Cyrus puts his hands on the horse. A glowing energy is emitted. With Lana and Clark witnessing, the horse stands up and is fine, healed. Clark tells his parents Cyrus' alien story. They are skeptical. Clark is hopeful that if Cyrus is an alien, he will no longer be alone.
What's up with Martha? Martha is apprehensive about her pregnancy and wants a second medical opinion from Dr. Helen Bryce. Jonathan discourages her, afraid the family secret will become pillow talk between Helen and Lex. Despite Jonathan's objection, Martha secretly keeps an appointment with Dr. Bryce. The doctor reassures Martha when she questions her confidentiality. She tells Martha she still does not understand Clark's blood tests and Martha's miraculous recovery. Dr. Bryce insists on truth if she can really help her.
What's up with Helen? Helen seems reluctant to move in with Lex. People in town are avoiding her now that she's romantically linked to Lex. When Lex gives her reassurances of his feelings, she quickly agrees to move in. At the mansion, Helen finds a locked door that can't be opened with a master key. She confronts Lex about the room, explaining that she doesn't want any secrets between them. At last Lex takes Helen into the locked room, revealing his obsessive research on Clark and the Kents.
What's up with Clark? Chloe tells Clark that Cyrus wired the wall and used a handheld detonator to start the flames in the electronics lab. When Clark goes to Cyrus' shed, he finds Lex there snooping. Clark had told Lex about a mysterious friend who thought he was an alien, and Lex linked Cyrus. After Lex leaves, Cyrus appears and admits to Clark that he rigged the fire. Clark tells Cyrus he believes his story. Now trusting Clark, Cyrus shows him a communication tower he has built to contact his parents and his home planet. Cyrus insists he must transmit a message soon, but can't since his transmitter was confiscated at school. Clark sees Cyrus' drawings of his spaceship in Cyrus' shed. Clark helps Cyrus get the transmitter from the school lock up. Outside school, Kyle and the other bullies threaten Cyrus and Clark. Clark uses his heat vision to set one of their trucks on fire. The guys freak and quickly leave in the other truck. Cyrus realizes that Clark is an alien.
The next day Clark finds out that Cyrus has been sent to Smallville Medical Center for psychiatric assessment, committed by his foster parents. At the hospital, Cyrus pleads with Clark to help him out so he can make his midnight appointment and transmit his message to the home planet.
What's up with Chloe? Chloe tells Clark that Cyrus' parents were farmers who were killed during the meteor shower. Cyrus, then a toddler, survived. The elderly couple who adopted him were neighbors of his natural parents.
How it ends: That night as Cyrus climbs his communication tower to activate it with the transmitter, Kyle and the bullies show up for revenge. Kyle attaches a chain to the tower and instructs his friends to pull it down with the truck. Clark is hiding on the other side, pulling the tower, trying to prevent it from falling. Kyle falls and breaks his neck. Although Cyrus still believes his transmission to his home planet is crucial, Clark convinces Cyrus to heal Kyle. Cyrus does heal Kyle, then collapses.
The next day Clark tells his parents that Cyrus has had a complete mental breakdown and may not recover.
That night in the barn, Lana visits Clark. He asks her how she'd feel about Cyrus if she knew he was truly an alien. She says she'd keep an open mind, but admits she'd be a little freaked out.
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We start the new episode (it's called "Visitor," which is what many longtime viewers will be if the rest of the season doesn't match the peak of February's "Rosetta") in typical show fashion. We're at Smallville High in some sort of class where, of course, there's no teacher supervision. (Oh, and by the way, what was up with that "six new episodes" promo before the show? Lana's taking up boxing now? The only boxing I want Lana to partake of is making a home within a huge cardboard one and taping it from the inside.) This looks like a shop class, but it's specialized shop. Two crudely drawn batteries on a chalkboard are supposed to clue us in that we're in an electronics class. My dad totally wanted me to take this in high school. He thought this whole writing thing was fine and all, but he really thought I needed to be an engineer. He was plenty pissed when I took acting and newspaper electives instead. But enough about me. Let's talk about faceless extras tapping on buttons and playing with cathode tubes and blacklight stuff you'd find in the bargain bin at Spencer Gifts. There seem to be as many girls in the class as boys, which seems great to me. In fact, Chloe is there. She walks up to those hapless boys, Clark and Pete, and greets them. She doesn't seem to be doing any kind of electronics work of her own, but that's okay because her flippy hair carries its own alternating current. Chloe is wearing a camouflage top with the sleeves cut off. And her hair is sadly flat this week. Chloe examines some sort of clothes-hanger contraption with oranges stuck to it. She asks what they're doing. Clark fills her in that the citrus has enough acid in it to act as a battery. Wait, isn't that like a third-grade electronics project -- the kind they make you do because they don't trust you with power outlets? You're from another planet, Clark. Even for you, this is pretty lame. Chloe says that's very Survivor of them. Try I'm a Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here! Chloe asks if they're calling it "A Clockwork Orange." Pete says he bets Chloe wishes she were the first one to think of that, but he mumbles it all to hell. Pete is just surrounded by an aura of lameness. I used to think he was cool, but I was younger and stupider then.

As Pete and Clark work on their Florida Orange Growers kickback project, somebody plugs into their cheap extension cord. It's a guy with crazy, broody eyes in a grey hood. He's doing Eminem from 8 Mile. I certainly would rather see him do Eminem than that skeeza' Brittany Murphy. My eyes need a saline wash just looking at her. Clark, taken aback, says the guy can use their outlet. "Thanks," Marshall Mouthers says, and walks away quickly. (It may not be evident yet, but I'm calling him that because he's got amazingly huge lips. And he's pretty mouthy in that he can't keep a damn secret. Hence: Marshall Mouthers.) Chloe says that Marshall is actually named "Cyrus Krup," which makes him some sort of German coffee machine. She says he just transferred in. She was asked to give the guy a tour, but he told her he wouldn't be around long enough to need it. Clark says maybe that's why he's trying so hard to win friends and influence people. WB characters are not allowed to make references to books that predate my parents' birth and that aren't used in class studies. Chloe leaves, but not before putting a hand on Clark's back for no good reason. This whole scene is pretty sloppily put together. (more...)
-- Omar G (TWoP)

After a schoolmate claims to be an alien and seemingly backs it up by using heat vision, Clark investigates and begins to believe that the guy is from his planet Krypton. Meanwhile, after Helen discovers a locked room in the mansion she demands to know what is behind it, forcing Lex to come clean about his investigation of Clark. Kristin Kreuk, Allison Mack, Sam Jones III, John Glover, Annette O'Toole and John Schneider also star.

Chloe: Compared to most people, aliens would be a step up.

Lex: I never figured you for having an identity crisis, Clark.
Clark: It's for a friend.
Lex: I haven't heard that one before.

Lex: Do you believe there are aliens among us, Clark?

Clark: Lex, what are you doing here?
Lex: I always wanted to meet an alien.

Helen: Lex, we need to talk.
Lex: Is this a closet space issue? Because I can use the walk-in across the hall.

Lex: Montaigne said obsession was the wellspring of genius and madness.

Helen: There's a lot here about the Kents.
Lex: Yeah, they're an interesting family – don't you think?

This season's been far better about using and abusing the Kryptonite-Teen-Villain-of-the-Week schtick, though this episode skirts dangerously close to reusing the rehashed tactic. (more...)
By Chuck Wendig