This week’s opening scene made me think, “Yes! Finally….Oh, but this is too good to be true, it must be some kind of dream sequence!”

Alas, it was a dream sequence of sorts, but it was good while it lasted. It turns out that this dream was Jason’s worst fear. What is it? Glad you asked. Lana runs to Clark telling him that she has always been in love with him and that Jason is kind of whacko for following her to Smallville and getting a job at the school. The lovely dream is interrupted by Jason falling on a table at The Talon.

The rest of the show is about learning the characters’ deepest fears and gaining some more insight into the heart and soul of Lex Luthor. It helped add more color to the characters that lately seem to be stagnating. And it was definitely a nice change from all that nonsense about the Countess and Lex’s philandering.

Jason is taken to the hospital and things don’t look good. His heart rate is too high and if the doctors cannot bring it down he’ll suffer a heart attack. Of course, the doctors have no idea what is causing this or how to put an end to it.

Chloe and Clark snoop around in Jason’s apartment and discover that earlier that day he had an appointment with HR at Luthorcorp. The two head over to Luthorcorp where they find the place rather unpopulated and Lex very anxious to get rid of Clark. Chloe goes to snoop around and here we see her worst fear. She’s afraid to go insane like her mother. Yeah, whatever... NEXT!

So why is everyone getting infected? Before Lionel went to jail he negotiated a contract with the military to develop a toxin that would cause a person to halucinate his worst fears and then go into a coma. Unfortunately, a pipe burst and a cloud of toxin was released into the air. The first attempt at an antidote did not work when tested on one of the infected employees.

With Chloe and Jason in the hospital, Clark and Lana check out an internet weather report and see the cloud appear and disperse right over Luthorcorp. Sadly though, by this time Lana has also become infected. She finds herself in what appears to be a morgue. All around her are bodies on tables covered by sheets. Under the sheets she finds her mother, her father, Chloe, Jason and a very scary zombie version of herself. The zombie tells her that they’re all going to leave her and she’ll be left all alone.

Why wasn’t Clark there? Because she feels that he already left her a long time ago? Because she knows deep down that Clark is beyond harm? At any rate, it seems appropriate that Lana would have abandonment issues since everyone in her life leaves her one way or another.

Clark takes her to the hospital where he too becomes affected. His worst fear, of course, is the meteor rocks along with Lana discovering his secret and blaming her parents’ death on him. Oh, and killing him with a dagger shaped piece of Kryptonite. I suppose this scene was to show how much Clark loves Lana and still cares about her, but he should have had a better worst fear. Maybe it would have been more interesting if everyone found out his secret and turned on him or if he ended up in a lab where they did tests on him.

Of course, he snaps out of it and goes to Luthorcorp where they are waiting for the antidote to be ready. The problem is the solution has to be heated to 1000 Kelvins or it’s useless. This would take more time than they have and Clark offers to let them run tests on him to see what it was that made him snap out of it. Lex isn’t willing to do that so Clark uses his heat vision to warm up the antidote to the right temperature. Lex, who knows he was exposed to the toxin, decides to test the antidote on himself. And they definitely saved the best for last.

As the antidote takes effect, Lex begins to see his worst fear. He’s president of the United States and he’s responsible for the annihilation of the world. Missiles fly across the sky and Lex looks around smiling, surrounded by death and complete destruction. (A scene played once before in the first season...then, it was his destiny.)

Throughout the episode Lex was incredibly worried about the lives he was endangering and was doing everything within his power to save them. I’m very curious to see what exactly happens to turn him evil. I thought it would be a slow gradual change that we could see over the course of the seasons, but if anything, Lex is a better and more noble person now than at the start of the show.

In other news, Jason leaves Lana because he doesn’t like who he has become in Smallville. In other more exciting news, Lionel Luthor is released from jail. It is uncertain who was able to overturn his conviction, but it was definitely someone more powerful than him. I’m very anxious to see more of Lionel and his future interaction with Lex, especially now that he’s a changed man.

Honda Dimitriu