In a revelation to no one but his boyfriend Clark, we find out that Lex likes the ladies. He has frequent one-night stands with women whose names and faces he barely remembers. But one morning, one of them is dead in his hotel bed. So we have a murder mystery on our hands. Sounds promising. But, no…
Clark and Chloe do their Mystery, Inc. shtick with Chloe having way too many resources for a high school student and making way too many leaps in logic – missing earring? Must be a different woman. Uh, OK. Of course, she’s right because there’s no time for anything more.
Meanwhile, Lana is dreaming, and it’s not about Clark – no, she’s having flashbacks to clips of her bad acting as the witch Isobel, but this time she sees Dr. Quinn, Medicine Witch Doctor, that is, Jane Seymour (a former co-star of Christopher Reeve’s in
Somewhere in Time). The weird thing is the woman in the dream is …. Jason’s mother, kicking Lana’s subplot back into high gear as it becomes apparent that Lana and Jason being together has been arranged. Ooh….sorry, still not interesting.
And who wants to help Lex, besides Clark, that is? Lionel, who apparently wasn’t lying when he said he was a changed man at the end of the body-switching episode. Lionel is filled with good and wants to atone for all of his past evil deeds. In addition, he can see the dark in people, and now he sees it in Lex. And in case that wasn’t enough for ya, you get the scene near the end where Lex is standing in darkness, while Lionel is bathed in light.
It makes sense of course that Lionel has had a miraculous reformation. It’s hard to see Lex as bad when there’s someone worse than him. You had a lot of sympathy for the guy because of his father. But now, Lex is the worst of the two. And, he has casual sex!
So Lionel gives Clark a valuable clue which leads Clark to the victim’s house, where Lex is burning photos/evidence. And Clark helps him. Oh, Clark, when will you learn?
Of course, Lex isn’t guilty of this (or another) murder in this episode. He’s much slicker than that. It was an obvious frame. But Clark learns once again that Lex can’t be trusted, and there’s more wink, wink, nudge, nudge references to their destiny as enemies. Only Lionel’s character arc was interesting this episode.
And hey, doesn’t anyone use a phone in this town? Ever notice how Clark and Lex keep showing up at each other’s places unannounced? Man, call first. No one likes the pop-over.
