“Nicodemus”
Episode 1.15
Original airdate 03.19.2002
Review by Christopher Valin

Cast:
Tom Welling…Clark Kent
Michael Rosenbaum…Lex Luthor
Kristin Kreuk…Lana Lang
John Schneider…Jonathan Kent
Annette O'Toole…Martha Kent
Sam Jones III…Pete Ross
Allison Mack…Chloe Sullivan
Eric Johnson…Whitney Fordman

Guest Stars:
Hiro Kanagawa…Principal Kwan
Joe Morton…Dr. Hamilton

Directed by:
James Marshall

Story by:
Greg Walker

Teleplay by:
Michael Green

Review:

First and foremost, I must, of course, give kudos to whoever it was (probably either Greg Walker or Michael Green) that came up with the idea of Lana turning sexier than she already is (can I get a “hallelujah”?). The scene at the pool was almost enough for me to give this episode five stars on its own. But I’m getting ahead of myself…

As Jonathan rides along in his truck jamming out to the theme from The Dukes of Hazzard-for those young’uns out there, that was the show he was on twenty-some years ago-an employee of Luthorcorp gets so mad about a cell phone call to Lionel that he tries to run Jonathan off the road. Instead, he flips his own truck and Jonathan pulls him out just before it explodes (because that’s what crashed vehicles DO in TV and movies). At least Clark wasn’t the hero of this episode’s car-accident-of-the-week. Then a flower that had been sitting next to the guy in his truck shoots some spores at Jonathan, and hilarity ensues. Clark walks into the kitchen to find his parents making out, then his Pa acts even weirder by skipping his chores and (gasp!) drinking beer…generally in a great mood all around, until Lex shows up “to see if he’s okay” and Jonathan gets hostile, even threatening to sue him. But when the bank calls to tell him they’re turning down his loan, he really freaks out and stalks off to confront them with a shotgun. Clark tries to stop him, and he ends up shooting Clark, then passes out. The doctors at the hospital tell them he has the same symptoms as the guy they brought in from the accident…and that guy’s in a coma now.

At school, Pete tells Chloe just how much he hates Lex because the Luthors screwed his family out of a factory twelve years earlier. Chloe’s doing a survey on people’s deepest desires, and finds out that Lana’s is to climb this windmill that’s supposedly so high you can see the Metropolis skyline from it (which, I’m guessing, would have to make it at least as tall as the Sears Tower in Chicago, since it’s some three hours away). Chloe and Lana head out to the site of the accident to look for clues, and Lana ends up being shot by spores from the same flower, which we then find out from Dr. Hamilton (the crazy meteor guy secretly working for Lex) is a Nicodemus flower. It seems over a hundred years ago, there was a settlement where Smallville is now, but the people went crazy because of this flower and all died, so they burned the place to the ground and the flower became extinct. But Hamilton irradiated a dormant flower with-you guessed it-Kryptonite, and brought it back from extinction.

Lana shows up at school dressed like a hooker and breaks up with Whitney for “always making excuses,” then drags Clark to the school swimming pool to “distract” him from worrying about his dad. She strips down to her underwear, jumps in, then gets out and lays a huge kiss on him before shoving him into the pool. When he comes back up, Lana’s gone and Principal Kwan is standing in her place. Lana heads for the Talon, where she closes it early and flirts with Lex now, only to get mad and steal his Porsche. She drives out to (where else?) the windmill, which is actually pretty short, and tries to climb it. Clark shows up just in time to save her when she passes out and falls. Chloe sees Hamilton in the background of one of her photos from the accident scene and figures out that he has something to do with it. She also discovered that Lex checked out a book about it the Nicodemus flower from the library, but when Clark confronts him about it, he says he remembered that legend and was “grasping at straws.” Chloe and Pete go to Hamilton’s lab, but Pete knocks over a Nicodemus flower and is infected, so he grabs a gun, steals Chloe’s car, and goes off to kill Lex. As Hamilton shows Lex a Native American antidote in an old book, Pete shows up and starts shooting up the mansion. Clark comes in and saves Lex by pretending to believe Pete’s story about Dr. Hamilton being there (which he actually was) and knocking Pete out. When Jonathan, cured, wakes up in the hospital, he doesn’t remember anything he did. And neither does Lana, which she tells Clark as they sit atop the windmill and look at the Metropolis skyline.

I did have some small problems with this episode: the windmill thing (I know it’s nitpicking, but we, as viewers, shouldn’t be taken out of the show by thinking about these things), the use of Kryptonite to bring back the flower, and the fact that nobody remembered doing anything after they were cured. I think it would make it a lot more interesting for Jonathan and Lana to have to deal with the memories of what they did…especially shooting and kissing Clark, respectively. But these things are far outweighed by the positives in this week’s episode. For one thing, almost everyone really got to act, especially Jonathan, Lana, and (for once) Pete. But even those who had to react to their bizarre behavior got to take it up a notch: Clark at the pool, Martha in the hospital, and Chloe with Pete at the lab. And the self-referential thing with Jonathan listening to that song-and, if I’m not mistaken, that sounded like John Schneider’s version of it-was great.

One thing I enjoyed was seeing a reversal of the usual “Clark feels responsible for everything because of the meteors” when Lex told Clark he was sorry his dad was in the hospital and Clark said it wasn’t his fault. And Lex continued down his “slippery slope” into super-villain land by virtue of his lying to Clark about why he checked out the book and telling him flat out that he didn’t know Hamilton. These are the types of small things which will eventually add up and drag Lex down.

Oh, yeah…and didn’t I say last week it was about time Pete got more involved, preferably in a plotline involving what happened to his parents? Well, there you go. And Sam Jones III did a great job of it, too.

Quotes of the Week:

Jonathan (to bank lender): “I’m gonna come down there and you’re gonna have to turn down my loan to my face. That way I can see if you still have a pair, or if your wife keeps those in a drawer too.”

Lana: “I know you want me, Clark-stop holding back. You’re not made of steel…or are you?”

Rating: 4/5 Stars