DC COMIC VILLIAN MXYZPTLK TRIPS UP SMALLVILLE - Chloe (Allison Mack) is drawn into an underground gambling ring at school run by foreign exchange student Mikail Mxyzptlk (guest star Trent Ford) and loses her savings on a football game after Mxyzptlk uses his powers to control all the players – including Clark (Tom Welling). When Chloe discovers Mxyzptlk’s secret, he kidnaps her and threatens to kill her unless Clark throws the championship game. Meanwhile, Lex (Michael Rosenbaum) threatens Mxyzptlk with deportation unless he uses his powers for Lex’s benefit.
Kristin Kreuk, John Glover, Jensen Ackles, Annette O’Toole and John Schneider also star. Paul Shapiro directed the episode written by Mark Warshaw

Mikail meets with Lex, who reveals Lionel brought him over and awarded a scholarship despite his poor grades. Mikail then visits Chloe and offers her a personal view of his involvement in the gambling circuit for an article she's working on. He offers to take her to a game in Metropolis and get her some money. Meanwhile, Jonathan is concerned about Clark's apparent lack of control and Clark prepares to resign from the team. When he goes to the victory party he is lauded and can't bring himself to quit. Chloe does well and Mikail tries to stall her then forces her to kiss him with his ability to control others, then get her to drop the article.

Clark works on his game without his powers (weakening himself with a bit of kryptonite), but Martha insists he investigate what is going on. Reviewing the tape, he connects with Chloe and they put two and two together. They do a web search and find a reference to Kltpzyxm (Mikail's last name spelled backward), a bloodline of people who can control luck and were driven out by a horde of locust. Clark goes to Lex who reluctantly agrees to check it out, while Jason reveals he lied to the head coach about Clark passing a drug test.

Lex tells Mikail his visa is being revoked and Mikail offers a wager – a bet on Clark's next game. Mikail will reveal his power if Clark wins, and Lex will set him up with a million if Clark loses. Mikail visits Clark and threatens him with his power so he'll go on the field and avoid warning anyone. if he goes on the field or warns anyone.

Chloe figures out that locust emit a low-grade energy wave and Mikail's powers may be on the same frequency. Clark is forced to take the field over Jonathan's initial objections while Chloe sneaks into the sound equipment room and uses a frequency jammer to scramble his powers. Clark does great but Mikail figures out the source of the signal and confronts Chloe. He overpowers her and threatens to kill her if he doesn't throw the game on the last play. Clark uses his x-ray vision to spot where Chloe is, makes a winning pass, then superspeeds to her rescue, knocks out Mikail, then gets back in less then an eye blink. Mikail is arrested and Clark and Chloe reconcile.

Mikail is turned over to Lex who takes him to a mysterious level 33.1 beneath the Metropolis LuthorCorp building and tells him, "He's not alone." Clark gets his scholarship but Jason is fired. Clark meets with Lex, believing he got Jason fired. Lex did, but just smiles when Clark asks him why he did it . . .

Chloe (to Mikhail): Yeah, well as much as I hate to admit it, I never bet against Clark Kent.

Jason (to Clark): I can't figure out how you can pummel a guy who outweighs you by a hundred pounds.

Mikhail: I always get what I want.
Chloe: On looks apparently, 'cause your charm just ran out.

Martha (to Clark): Something happened to you out there and if you want to play on Saturday, you better figure out what happened.

Chloe: Clark, he's the biggest bookie in the school.
Clark: The power to control the odds.

Clark (to Lex): I guess the whole 'if you love them, let them go' thing backfired.

Lana (to Jason): Nobody took me from Clark. I left.

Clark: I thought you'd be halfway back to the Village of the Damned by now.
Mikhail: I'm not cursed. I'm lucky.

Chloe (to Clark): Last time I checked, they weren't selling plagues on eBay.

Clark: No matter how hard you try, you can't understand that. That's why it's my decision, not yours.
Jonathan: You're starting to sound more and more like your father.
Clark: I hope so, Dad.

Chloe (to Mikhail): Looks like someone's been broken. Kinda sucks when you have to play fair.

Jonathan (to Clark): Looks like championship quarterbacks have no curfew.

Chloe (to Clark): I don't know what it is about you. No matter how many times I put you in the penalty box, it never sticks.

Lex: Mikhail, if there's one thing I've learned, it's that anything lost can be found again.

Foreign exchange student Mikhail Mxyzptlk, attending Smallville High on a scholarship arranged by Lionel Luthor, allows Chloe to place a bet on the Crows’ game, not knowing that Chloe is doing her reporter thing and trying to get a story. He tells the running back to fumble on a play, which he does, but then Clark picks up the ball and Mikhail whispers ‘trip,’ at which point Clark does. But, not being an ordinary human, Clark trips into the defenseman and knocks him on his butt, shattering the guy’s collar bone. This causes Coach Quigley to suspect that Clark is using steroids, but Jason doesn’t test Clark like he’s supposed to because he ‘believes in Clark’ and…uh…oh, yeah, because Jason is a teacher dating a student and Clark knows about it. The Kents tell Clark he has to quit the team because someone else could get hurt, but when Clark tries to tell Coach at the victory party, everyone says how much they’re counting on him in the championship game and he can’t do it.

Meanwhile, Mikhail finds out what Chloe’s up to and first convinces her to leave his name out of the article (in exchange for some tips), then demands that she drop it altogether. When she refuses, he says he always gets what he wants and makes her kiss him, which scares her. Martha catches Clark trying to throw the football while holding Kryptonite, and after she tells Clark she’s never seen him trip, and that if he wants to play he better find out what caused it, Clark watches the tape over and over again. Chloe asks what’s up, they put two and two together, and realize it was Mikhail. Zip, bam, boom, it’s off for some Internet research, where they discover a legend about a family in the Balkans that can control the hand of luck, and that once the power’s been disrupted, it doesn’t come back. Mikhail finds out that Clark asked Lex to have him deported, and makes a bet with Lex: if the Crows win, Lex gets to find out why Lionel gave such a poor student a huge scholarship, and if they lose, Mikhail gets a million dollars and Lex has to pull strings to get him citizenship.

Then Mikhail visits Clark (maybe they should install a motion detector in the barn—or, wait, shouldn’t Clark be able to hear all these people constantly sneaking up on him?) and makes him choke on command. (more ....)

John Glover doesn't appear in this episode.

Clark appears to be building up a resistance to kryptonite as he grows older and stronger.

From the stands, Mikail’s gaze focuses on Clark as he says “Trip”. Suddenly Clark loses control and TRIPS unexpectedly. He falls onto the opposing player, Ditman, and you hear a “disturbing CRACK” as he hits the ground in the end zone.

It’s a touchdown as the announcer says “The Crows continue on to the State Championships”. The crowd goes wild but Lana, Chloe, Martha, Jonathan, and Clark look on with concern. Clark pushes through all his cheering teammates mobbing him to see Ditman lying motionless. He’s unconscious and Clark kneels and is horrified at what he’s done.

Meanwhile, Mikail continues to glare at Clark and is angered that the Crows won the game.

During possibly the Championship game, Mikail gets Clark’s attention by carrying Chloe’s press pass. Clark calls a timeout. Jason says “Are you out of your mind? You just blew our last time out.” Clark grabs Mikail and asks where Chloe is. Mikail threatens “If you want to see her alive you should make sure the Crows lose this game…You walk off this field, Chloe dies. You make touchdown and Chloe dies.”

Jason then calls Clark back to the game. Clark scans the crowd to see what Mikail’s done to Chloe. He then uses his superhearing and drowns out the crowd, band, etc. He hears her screaming for “Help” through her taped mouth. Then he uses his X-ray vision to see through some sort of metal. He calls for Crozer to help him make a play on the field.