Morgan Edge reappears: Morgan Edge did not die at the docks and has changed his physical identity. Lex discovers this when he finds Edge and confronts him with evidence that shows Edge and Lionel conspired in the explosion that killed Lex's grandparents. Their motive was to split the insurance money. Lex prompts Edge to reveal the truth in a confession so Lex can have his father convicted.

What's up with Lex? A masked gunman gets into the library to assassinate Lex. Lex sees his security guard get shot. Running away, Lex escapes by jumping out the window.

Lex suspects his father or Morgan Edge hired the gunman to kill him. He asks Clark to retrieve the video confession by Edge, stored in the library safe so it can go to the authorities.

With his behavior swaying between normalcy and angry ravings, Lex says that everyone is trying to put him away to dismiss what he knows about Lionel and Edge. Lex claims he has been drugged.

What's up with Lionel? Lionel tells Clark and the Kents that Lex is missing and seriously ill, suffering a psychotic break with paranoid delusions. He asks Clark to help Lex get care.

Later when Lex confronts Lionel at gunpoint at LuthorCorp, Lionel tries to calm him down, denying wrongdoing. Lionel claims the slumlord hired Edge to cause the fire in the tenement that killed Lionel's parents. Seeing how disturbed Lex is, Lionel comments that his baby brother Julian's death was not Lex's fault. Lex demands to know the whereabouts of Morgan Edge.

What's up with Clark? Clark wants to help Lex, but isn't sure what the truth is. At the mansion, Clark finds the safe empty and the window repaired. Everything looks normal, except that Clark finds a chard of broken glass, which makes him think Lex's story is true. After Lionel's plea for help, Clark finds Lex back in the barn, cradling an imaginary baby, his brother Julian who died in infancy.

Lex knows his sanity is in doubt and wants to prove he's not paranoid. Clark accompanies Lex to the warehouse where he said he found Edge yesterday. The warehouse is a sweatshop, busy with seamstresses. Lex thinks its a cover-up and is enraged, threatening the sweatshop boss to get answers.

Back at the mansion, the security guard Lex thought was dead is alive. Lex's psychiatrist explains the broken glass, saying he threw a vase through a window in anger during a session.

Later Clark gets Lex's security guard Darius to admit to drugging Lex's Scotch. Darius got his orders by an unknown person over the phone.

What's up with Lana? At Clark's request, Lana brings food and drinks to a horse barn where Clark is hiding Lex. Lana stands watch while Clark meets Chloe to do more checking. Chloe explains to Clark that Lex's past reveals past delusions related to the death of his infant brother.

Meanwhile, Lex believes that Lana is trying to drug him when she serves him some chamomile tea to calm him. Lex storms out, pushing Lana aside into a horse's stall. The horse tramples Lana. Clark finds her unconscious.

Later at the hospital when she awakens, Lana tells Clark that she almost died from the accident. She tells Clark she must stay away from him. She realizes that being near him is too dangerous.

How it ends: Lex finds the transformed Morgan Edge and threatens him at gunpoint. Edge tells Lex he was drugged. Lionel's ideas and details were designed to put Lex over the edge of reality. Clark arrives and steps in to stop Lex from shooting. Edge punches Clark, holding a fistful of green kryptonite beads. Lex shoots Edge, then turns the gun on Clark, thinking Clark is part of the conspiracy. Edge tries to drive away while Lex shoots. Clark pushes Lex out of the way, crushing the car, pushing it aside. Lex witnesses it all. The sight sends Lex over the edge of a breakdown as the psychiatrist pulls up and they take Lex away as he babbles on about Clark and the car. Clark has disappeared before they arrived.

Lex is committed to a sanitarium. He'll have no short term memory after treatment. Lionel observes his son in a straight jacket and padded room.
[back to top]

Wow. Damn. Bravo. Now I see why we've had to endure all the bad episodes lately. They were saving the magic for this one bravura hour. Lex confronts crime boss Morgan Edge, who is still alive and, through the magic of plastic surgery, no longer looks like Rutger Hauer. Lex has figured out that Papa Luthor and The Edge killed Lex's grandparents and split the insurance money. Lex is later ambushed in his home by trained assassins and barely escapes, hiding out in the Kent barn with Clark. (Hay-rolling fanfic fantasy follows.) Here's when things start to get screwy: Lex starts displaying signs of a troubled mind (singing a lullaby to a blankie, for instance) and Papa Luthor comes looking for his son, telling Clark that Lex has had a psychotic relapse of the kind he had on that island. Clark really wants to believe Lex, because who wants a crazy-ass boyfriend? But as Lex lashes out more and more violently (at his psychiatrist and at his guard "Darius," former Hootie and the Blowfish lead singer), Clark finally acknowledges that Lex may be losing it. Lana tries to help and gets trampled by a horse (the horse will forevermore be known by show fans as "The Savior"), ending up in the hospital, which prompts her to decide that maybe she should stay away from Clark after all. Wow, Lana, you can take a hint! Clark tries to help Lex investigate the grandparent murders in the hopes that he'll be able to prove that Lex is sane, but Lex just gets more and more unhinged. Clark figures out that Darius was drugging Lex's scotch, and that leads them back to The Edge, who claims that Papa Luthor was in on the drugging and tried to make Lex go crazy. Clark steps in, but is beaten up by The Edge, who now carries around a Kryptonite rosary. Edge tries to escape; Lex stands in front of his speeding car firing his gun; Clark pushes Lex away, and one smashed front-end later, Lex has discovered what he suspected all along: that farm boy is damn sexy! Also, he has superpowers. Unfortunately for Lex, that doesn't stop the doctors from taking him away and putting him in a mental ward. In the final scene, Johnny Cash's version of "Hurt" plays as Papa Luthor watches Lex, loopy and in a straightjacket, amid padded walls. Papa Luthor sheds a tear as he watches his son, who's due to have his short-term memory wiped out by therapeutic drugs. It's powerful, wrenching, dark, wonderful, an all-time highlight for this show. It's everything Smallville can and should be every week. Let's hope they don't squander our renewed faith.
By: Omar L. Gallaga (TWoP)

Lex locates Morgan Edge and gets him to admit to dirty dealings with Lionel, but before Lex can take it to the authorities, someone tries to kill him at the mansion. Barely surviving, Lex flees and asks Clark for help. However, when Clark returns to the mansion to investigate he finds nothing amiss, and begins to wonder if it really happened, especially after Lionel announces Lex has had a psychotic break and must be institutionalized. Kristin Kreuk, Allison Mack, Sam Jones III, Annette O'Toole and John Schneider also star.

Clark (to Chloe): I'm not going to leave you alone. Grab your laptop and lets go.

Lex: You're all watching me.

Lex: You're either with or against me Clark. Choose now.

ClarK: Lex, i've got your back. That's why i'm here.

Lex (to Clark): As long as the world thinks i'm crazy, no one will beleive what iI know about my father and Morgan edge. It's the perfect plan.

Clark (to Lana): ...and I promised myself i'd never put you in that position again.

Clark (to Lana): Be careful. He's not himself.

Darius: They'll kill you
Clark: I'll take my chances

Lex (to Lionel): Why not do this on Oprah?

Lionel (to Lex): I know deep down, you don't want to kill me.

Lionel: I can't bear to lose another child.

Clark: Don't underestimate farm boys – baling hay can make you pretty strong.

Lionel: How'd you get in here, Lex?
Lex: Well, uh, when people think you're insane and you're holding a rifle to their head, they, uh, tend to do what you ask.

Lex: I knew I wasn;t crazy.

Lex (to Clark): Don't thank me. You're a part of this... O have to kill you.

Lex: I was right about you all along Clark. You're not even human.

Lana: I almost died Clark.
Clark: I know.
Lana: I always thought you were being paranoid... but you're right. I thibk I have to stay away from you.

Dr. Foster (to Lionel): By the time he finishes his treatment, he won't have any short-term memory. Isn't that what you wanted?

This show reminded me of The Game, an underrated flick, largely because it has a poseur big name in it, Michael Douglas. And I dig that, but hey, the twists, the turns, it was at least interesting. And this story, while a bit all over the place, was at least internally consistent. The two flaws I found to Lex's insanity, which I'm presuming to be false, are the fact that Foster said he threw a bottle through a window, and we know Foster wouldn't lie... she's a good character down the line in comics... and the fact that Lex held the blanket baby and sang to it in Junior High, was it? But that's easily fixed... Chloe's records source was bribed by Lionel Luthor.

I am very frustrated by the fact that the last five minutes was as trumped up as it was, and turned out to be another moment like in Slumber. See, it's the same basic theory. This is the COOLEST Lex Luthor scene put to film with Clark Kent/Superman, IF they have the Nutty Buddies to make it real and not something erased in the short-term memory. My bet is that it's gone. That stinks. It ruins the whole episode for me in ways. Couldn't they have thrown in that line in 8 weeks, when they show the next new episode?

I'll buy that Morgan Edge looks different, but it's harder for me to buy that his voice changed. And that guy from Sleeping with the Enemy! Creepy! This is a good time to ask if anyone knows the name of what I consider that guy's theme song, the classical music number they also used in The Shining? Well, anyway. That's tangential. But man, that's the kind of guy you never want to meet, much less have as the Morgan Edge to your Superman. Rutger played it well, perhaps better than this guy, but I kept expecting Hauer to give his final thought, and for Lana to grab the Mike from him and scream "That's not yo baby!" I like the Kryptonite worry beads. That's kind of neat. But he broke them! You'd think the fool would hold them out with one hand and punch with the other instead of busting his only defense against the most powerful alien on Earth (we can only assume). And then he goes and drives straight for a man who's already pumped bullets into him. You'd think further that Morgan Edge, if he wants to survive to foible Superman, would stop running into multiple bullets. (more...)
By Neal Bailey