Smallville - Season 5 Overview

If Season Four of TV's Smallville seemed muddled in the tedious saga of the Teagues (Jason and Genevie) and the X-Files like mystery of the fragments, Season Five got off to a fresh and clean start with the blossoming of a romance between Clark and Lana and the creation of the Fortress of Solitude, Superman's home on Earth.

Indeed Season Five truly begins the evolution of Clark Kent into Superman. The overarching stories of Season Five deal with an ongoing plot by General Zod and his minions to invade Earth, pitting Clark for the first time against true Kryptonian foes. Clark finally gets Lana and has to give her up and at the same time loses his father, a fundamental step in the Superman mythos that marks his forced transformation from a boy into a man and from Clark Kent into a superhero. And Clark encounters more of the superheroes who will become the members of a trimmed down Justice League, including Acquaman.

In Season Five, Clark is forced to make great sacrifices, giving up much of the life had he hoped to have, losing his human life, the love of his life and finally his father-- all for the sake others. Lex Luthor meanwhile increasingly begins to show his evil side, torturing Aquaman and deploying weapons of mass destruction while pursuing his campaign to gain access to Kryptonian technology, culminating in his attainment of superpowers as he becomes a dupe for Brainiac and a vessel for Zod.

Smallville Season Five

Arrival

With the Fortress of Solitude in place, Clark faces a choice between saving Chloe and saving the world by remaining behind to be trained by his Kryptonian father, Jor-El, for the coming battle against General Zod's minions. Choosing to save Chloe, Clark endangers the world. Lana's world is changed by an encounter with the Kryptonian invaders. "Arrival" sets a path that leads to the loss of Clark's powers and the terrible price he must pay to regain them, to Lana's relationship with Lex and Lex Luthor's transformation into Zod. All this ultimately stems from the events in the Season Five opener.

Mortal

With his powers gone, Clark gets back to his normal life and his long dreamed of relationship with Lana Lang. As in "Superman II" a mortal Clark faces the problem of how to fight superpowered enemies with his own powers gone. Clark however handles the situation far better and manages to outmaneuver the attackers who have taken his family hostage.

Hidden

A high school colleague of Chloe's, Gabriel, embraces a scorched earth solution to the Krypto-freak problem by using his father's nuclear codes -- the "Lighthouse Keeper" of Smallville's nuclear missile silos -- to detonate a nuclear missile over Smallville and killing everyone in the area, both the infected and the uninfected.

Without his powers, Clark tries to help Lana stop Gabriel, but winds up shot and killed instead. His powers returned by Jor El, who warns him that someone close to him will die as the price for it, Clark flies up to stop the missile and reaches orbit before returning to earth again.

Aqua

Aquaman comes to Smallville, flirts with Lois and works to sabotage a weapons project by Lexcorp that would drastically endanger underwater marine life. Captured and tortured by Lex who denies him water, Clark helps save him and sabotage Lexcorp's weapons project.

Thirst

In a throwback to the more magical storylines of Seasons 4 and 3, "Thirst" features "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" in-jokes in an episode that features vampires at a Metropolis University Sorority out after Clark and Lana.

Exposed

"Exposed" featured the reunion of the "Dukes of Hazzard" with a guest starring appearance by John Schneider's Dukes costar, Tom Wopat. This episode features Lois Lana as gratuitous eye candy when she goes undercover as a stripped and begins the storyline that has Jonathan Kent running for the State Senate.

Splinter

"Splinter" shows us Silver Kryptonite for the first time on the series which infects Clark with paranoid hallucinatory delusions that turn him against his friends and family -- until the intervention of Professor Fine.

Solitude

Professor Fine causes Martha Kent's illness as part of a plot to trick Clark into destroying the Fortress of Solitude. Fine convinces Clark that Jor El was a brutal dictator and that Zod was a liberator and freedom fighter against his rule. Fine appears to be destroyed at the end of the episode.

Lexmas

Lex Luthor's very own form of "A Christmas Carol" takes place when he is shot while plotting a smear campaign against Jonathan Kent in the race for the State Senate. Lex experiences a vision of the path his life can take if he chooses to abandon the corporate life and his ruthless ways. Guided by his mother's spirit, Lex makes the choice that will define the rest of his life.

Fanatic

An assassination attempts against Jonathan Kent during the heated race for the State Senate, causes suspicion to fall on Lex Luthor-- but the real culprit proves to be a fanatical follower of Lex Luthor on his campaign staff.

Lockdown

Two police officers who saw the crash landing of the spaceship carrying Zod's minions and Milton Fine takes Lana, the only other witness hostage, to force Lex Luthor to reveal the location of the spaceship. In the process they kill the Smallville Sheriff and Lana's misdirection of them nearly leads to her death before she is saved by Clark.

Reckoning

In Smallville's 100th episode, two alternate futures are played out as Clark reveals his identity to Lana and proposes to her, only to have her die in an accident caused by Lex. With the promise made by Jor-El fulfilled, Clark pleads for another chance, resulting in a rerun of the day that only leads to the death of Jonathan Kent, who had just won his election to the State Senate.

Vengeance

Bitter and driven to find his late father's watch, which his,mother was mugged for Clark encounters a superhero-- or rather superheroine, who fights crime in the city with ruthless measures. Clark must restrain her from her path of vengeance against Lionel Luthor.

Tomb

The ghost of murdered girl buried in the Talon's walls, where Lana lives, seeks justice employing Chloe and Lana.

Cyborg

Lex's experiments on humans have continued with Victor Stone, a sports athlete who had been supposedly killed in an accident, but had actually been transformed into a Cyborg by Lexcorp. Clark and Lana try to help Victor, as Lex hunts for him.

Hypnotic

Clark once again encounters a woman who can control him and intends to use him to destroy Lex Luthor.

Void

Lana Lang, distraught after her break up with Clark, seeks solace by experimenting with a Kryptonite infused serum that allows her to flatline and reach the next world. This is similar to the plot of the movie "Flatliners".

Fragile

A mysterious little girl brings danger into the life of Martha Kent, even as Lana and Lex's secret becomes exposed.

Mercy

Martha Kent attempts to confront Lionel Kent, but is instead trapped together with him by their abductor.

Fade

Clark saves the life of an assassin who can turn invisible at will -- and decides to repay him by getting Lana back from -- by murdering Lex Luthor-- unless Clark stops him first.

Oracle

Fine poses as Jonathan Kent to convince Clark to murder Lionel Luthor. Meanwhile Fine's plan for Lex continues as with the development of the serum complete, Fine forcibly uses it on Lex Luthor before destroying the rest of the laboratory.

Vessel

The execution of Zod's plan is at hand as Jor El and Lionel Luthor demand that Clark kill Lex before Zod can take him over. Fine infects the world with a massive virus and Clark refuses to kill Lex, instead choosing to strike at Fine, which unleashes Zod on the world.