Who is Seth? Chloe and Lana are spending "girl's day out" at the county fair. Lana's lab partner Seth works there. After a dispute, a big guy hits Seth in the head with a snow globe containing meteor rocks. As he gets checked out in the hospital's MRI, the magnetic field zaps him. Lana rushes in to see if he's OK. Seth touches her hand and she suddenly feels attracted to him.

While recovering in the hospital, Seth realizes he has some magnetic powers. Lana and Clark visit him. Seth asks Lana for a date right in front of Clark. She refuses at first. Seth takes her hand and she agrees. Clark is a little jealous that Lana accepted. Later Lana admits to Clark that she's not that into Seth. Clark tells her she shouldn't lead him on. She tries to break the date. Seth touches her shoulder and she agrees to go with him.

They go to the fair, which is closed. Seth tells Lana about his magnetic powers since the accident. He uses his powers to turn on the lights and start the rides. Clark is following them. While Seth and Lana ride the ferris wheel, Seth touches Lana with his magnetic power. They kiss. The ride stops. Lana is alarmed and screams. Clark brings the ride down. Not expecting to see Clark there, Lana asks if he's stalking her.

What's up with Clark? Clark realizes that Seth has magnetic powers, explaining Lana's attraction. Clark confronts Seth at school, warning him to stay away from Lana. Chole and Clark snoop in the hospital records for info on Seth. They get the info, but are caught by a doctor in the file room. Quick-thinking Chloe jumps on Clark, kissing him, so the doctor will think they were just making out and not turn them in.

What's up with Lana? Lana is inexplicably attracted to Seth. She ignores Clark's warnings and tells Clark to let her go, not to tell her who she can date.

Later, as they make out at the Talon, Seth, using his powers over her, tells Lana they should leave Smallville together. He says they'll need money. Lana cleans out the cash drawer in front of Lex. She tells Lex she's leaving. Lex tells her she's making a serious mistake.

What's up with Lex? Lex discovers Chloe has been digging into Lionel's past. He gives her a warning.

What's up with Chloe? At the Torch office, Chloe finds the place has been ransacked. The Luthor's private investigator takes her computer. She confronts Lex about the incident. Lex takes her to the morgue to see the body of the dead investigator. Lex warns Chloe again, saying he can protect her.

Chloe admits to Lex that she does need his help. She tells Lex what Lionel wanted...information on the wall of the weird and on Clark. Lionel threatened Chloe with the loss of her father's job for information. Chloe admits to Lex that she was digging into Lionel's past for information to blackmail him so he'd leave her and her family alone. She reveals to Lex that crime boss Morgan Edge was Lionel's closest childhood friend.

Kevin Zegers guest stars as Seth Nelson. Acting since age 6, Kevin has been in over 30 commercials and has had roles in many movies, including the Air Bud films in 1997, 1998, 2000 and 2002 as "Josh."

How it ends: To stop Seth and Lana from leaving town, Clark melts the asphalt in the road with his heat vision. Their car gets stuck. The Sheriff approaches. As a truck goes by in the other direction, Seth kisses Lana good-bye, then jumps out of the car, escaping by "magnetizing" himself to the back of the truck.

Lana gets caught and ends up in jail. She lies to Clark to throw him off Seth's track. Seth breaks into the jail and gets Lana out. Clark uses a compass to trace Seth's magnetic pull. He finds them hiding at the closed fair. In a fight between Clark and Seth, Seth shoots at Clark with the gun taken from the jail break. Clark electrifies a ride cart. Seth comes after him, grabbing the cart. Seth gets knocked off his feet and into a coma.

Lex's attorneys get Lana off easy with community service. She gets her old job back at the Talon.

Lana thanks Clark for saving her from Seth. She asks Clark if he's still sure he doesn't want to be with her. She admired Seth's courage to be honest with her. She was happy caring for someone and having her feelings returned. Lana tells Clark, "One of these days, someone is going to come along who is right for me, and I'm going to want to be with that person...and you're going to have to deal with that."
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Last week we flashed back to 1961. This time, we go back two years to Season One with a Krypto-Freak-'o-the-Week who has a crush on Lana. This kid gets a snow globe to the skull at a town carnival (only instead of snow, the globe has meteor rocks flying around in it). One MRI later, the kid's got magnetic powers. Mag-Neato! But not only can he bend the simple will of metal to his doing, he can also influence people's attraction to him. Because he's got magnetism. Get it? Get it? Ah ha ha ha ha ha (kill me now). Of all the people in the world he could influence, though, he chooses Lana, turning her into a needy bad girl who disregards Clark's feelings to start dating her new metallurgist friend. Clark, of course, is all bent out of shape, and he's not even metal. Much agonizing about Clark being jealous despite making it clear he doesn't want to date Lana. How I hate this clumsy dance of delusion. Long story short, the magnetic kid goes on a power trip and goes bad; Clark electrocutes the crap out of him; and Lana ends up with a mop in her hand doing community service for stealing money from The Talon. (You can tell because her blue jumpsuit says "COMMUNITY SERVICE" on the back.) Even seeing Lana mopping no longer gives me a thrill. Meanwhile, Lex finds out that Chloe's been investigating his family and gets her to spill her guts about her findings. If this means more Chloe and Lex scenes, I'm down with that. Boy, the episodes hit a rut early this season.
By: Omar L. Gallaga (TWoP)

Clark is suspicious when Lana suddenly becomes attracted to a fellow student and begins to act rebelliously, which eventually lands her in jail. Clark's suspicions are confirmed when he discovers Lana's new boyfriend has magnetic powers that can move objects and alter human emotions, but when he tries to free Lana from the paranormal hold that is controlling her, she tries to kill him. Meanwhile, Lex discovers Chloe has been delving into Lionel's past and tries to get her to join forces against his dad. Sam Jones III, Annette O'Toole and John Schneider also star.

Lana (to Seth): Chloe was right. You are really cute.

Lana (to Clark): The last time I checked, we were just friends.

Clark (to his parents about Lana): She said yes so fast it gave me whiplash.

Clark: Did I make the right decision pushing her away?
Martha: I don't know.

Set (after kissing Lana): I'm sorry. I'm moving to fast.

Lana: Did you follow us here? Are you stalking me?
Seth: You better find a new hobby Clark.

Clark: I'm warning you Seth, leave Lana alone.

Seth: I hate to poke a hole in your theory, Clark, but Lana's not made out of steel.

Chloe (after kiss Clark): A good reporter always thinks on her feet.

Lana (about Seth): He's been completely honest about his abilities and I think it's great.

Lana (to Seth): I'd go anywhere with you.

Chloe: You're a Luthor so it's a given that you're unscrupulous, but I really thought petty larceny was beneath you, Lex.
Lex: Could you be a little more specific with the charge?

Lex: (to Chloe) I admire your take-charge attitude - barging in here and accusing me took guts...or sheer stupidity.

Lex: What good are lawyers if they can't jump through hoops?

Lana: For the first time in a long time, I don't feel alone.

Lex: Lana, you're making a serious mistake.
Lana: Have a nice life Lex.

Lana: Clark. Thank You.

Lex (to Chloe): I'm the only choice you have.

Lex (to Chloe): I'll protect you Chloe. You have my word.

Seth: Face it Clark, you can't beat physics.
Clark: Neither can you

Clark (to Lana): I don't expect you to wait forever for me.

Half of "Magnetic" played like an episode from S1; the characters backtracked on development they've already made, rehashed situations we've already seen, and poorly revived formats better left in the past. There's a reason for that, however, but it's mostly metatextual- if you prefer to try to understand the events of an episode from an intratextual perspective, this review isn't going to help, I'm afraid.

A kryptomutant, another Lana love story, Clark's uberknowledge of a situation being mistaken for rabid jealousy- how could this happen again? It happened because Holly Harold is a freelancer who was lucky enough to get her script to screen. While most episodes throughout the year are written by the usual stable of writers (minimum and maximum numbers per author usually set by contract,) two episodes are left free to allow for guest writers.

These spots are commonly given to big name authors as "stunt" writers, like when The X-Files brought in Stephen King to write the episode "Chinga." Often, freelance spots are given to cast members who wish to try their hand at writing an episode of their own show- for example, Yaphet Kotto wrote several episodes of Homicide: Life on the Street during his tenture performing the character Lt. Giardello. However, most frequently, these freelance spots are offered to interns and story editors on staff, both as a reward for their hard work, and an opportunity to prove their craft.

Though this merit system is a wonderful way to earn WGA points and experience, sometimes the results are less than stellar on the screen. This particular script suffers from truly schizophrenic plotting and characterization: Lex and Chloe are fully engaged in the intrigue of Season Three, whereas Clark and Lana are mired back in Season One. Though I can't say for absolute certain, I suspect that's because "Magnetic" was originally written in S1 or S2, and only the B line with Lex and Chloe was fully rewritten to reflect the current continuity.

Because freelance spots are an open field, scripts for them don't tend to stray from the most basic formulae for a show. Since mythology for a series changes so quickly, a spec script is written in the hopes that an author can get a year out of it- a year to try to sell it, a year to submit it to agents, a year to enter it in contests- before it's jossed. That means avoiding the deeper character examinations, and deeply twisted mythology plots in Smallville, and returning to MotWs. A kryptomutant can wreak havoc regardless of what season it is. (more...)
By Hope