Utilising elements from Christopher Reeve’s first outing in Superman – The Movie, Kryptonite Kills sees Lex Luthor get his hands on the only thing that can kill Superboy. Scott James Wells is back as more of a “Lex-like” Lex Luthor a step-up from the school bully that he was in The Fixer.
In a desert in a distant land (ok, Addis Ababa), a meteorite crashes to Earth right in front of some eager boys. It glows an alien green colour.
Later, at Shuster, T.J., Clark, Lana, Lex, and Leo, are attending a Gemology class, although the only gem that T.J. has eyes for is the one attached to Lex’s arm (and I’m not talking about Leo!). The professor brings in a box containing the mysterious crystal from Addis Ababa.
When he opens the box, Clark suddenly feels very queasy. The professor talks about the energy radiating crystal and that it may have come from an alien world.
Clark collapses to the ground, unmoving. With everyone distracted, Lex steals a piece of the alien rock.
When the box is removed, Clark begins to recover. Later, Lex gets the college geeks to set up a device in his room. The device is only wanting for power, and Lex tries out the stolen crystal.
With the device aimed at the stereo, the volume increases louder and louder … until the speakers explode. Lex laughs maniacally. He has a plan to use the gadget to overload Smallville’s power plants. In the blackout, his people will initiate the biggest crime spree of the century.
When the lights go out, Superboy takes to the skies. He sees the overload happening and quickly grounds the troublesome lines.
T.J. turns up to take some photos but he gets dangerously close, and gets knock on the floor for his trouble.
When Lex hears of Superboy’s involvement, he cancels the crime spree. He doesn’t care for the device, he only wants the crystal back. He needs to hide it until the trouble dies down and he can think of only one place that it would be safe – right under everyone’s noses.
T.J. asks Veronica out, but his thunder is stolen when Lex turns up with the crystal in a necklace. Or, in T.J.’s words, he just got stepped on by Tyrannosaurus Lex.
At dinner, Lex is more attracted to the necklace than to the girl but his day goes from bad to worse when he receives a phonecall that the geek’s device has been found by the police.
Lex’s anger rises and he takes it out on dinner, including the Chicken Flambé that then sets light to the room.
They’re trapped inside until Superboy clears the burning beam from the doorway. Then he collapses in sight of the necklace.
Lex takes his chance to leave, and refuses to help Veronica when she stays to help Superboy.
Outside, Lex realises that he’s left the rock inside. He tells Leo to go and fetch it. Inside, Leo finds Superboy and Veronica unconscious. He does the right thing and takes the girl to safety.
With the necklace gone, Superboy recovers quickly. He uses his super breath to put out the fire.
Outside, Lex shows his true feelings when he wants the necklace, not the girl. Veronica breaks off their relationship in no uncertain terms.
Lex won’t let her leave with the necklace, so she takes it off and throws it on the ground. It lands in a pool of water from the fire hoses, and scoots off down the drain.
Lex wants it back but, despite what he says, things like this can happen to Lex Luthor! When the fire alarm hit, T.J. was in the shower – but he stopped just long enough to get a towel and his camera to take photos of Lex in his humiliation.
Realising that the rock caused his downfall, Superboy visits the professor who is prepared to sacrifice the good that might come of the crystal for the good that Superboy does and will perform. Superboy disposes of every last crystal, but he’s not sure if it was every last piece…
Can you believe that we’re a dozen episodes into the season, almost half-way through the first year, and this is the first time that Kryptonite has turned up? Not every episode needs to be about either Kryptonite or Lex Luthor. Even here, the green rock isn’t given a name and no one knows where it came from. The word “Kryptonite” is only used in the title. It could have been any old rock.
The episode is another low-key one, but Scott James Wells is really throwing himself into the role of Lex now. He parades around like a veritable peacock, bearing his arrogance and self-entitlement around like they’re weapons of choice. His utter arrogance leads perfectly towards his over-the-top tirade that results in the fire. And, at the end, he’s perfectly in-character when he says “This can’t happen to Lex Luthor!” while scrabbling about on the floor with his arm down the drain. This truly is a great Lex Luthor episode.
Lana Lang doesn’t do a lot, and T.J. is limited to his attraction to Veronica (something that was probably added to give Lex’s girl more of a character as much as to give Jim Calvert more screentime).
The “Addis Ababa” locale is a direct link to the first Christopher Reeve Superman movie. There’s not too much in the way of super-powers on display, but the effects around Superboy’s grounding of the overloaded line is first rate.
In short, this is a fun low-key episode and is well worth watching before the series moves away from these low-key adventures (as it does largely by season 3).
You must be logged in to post a comment.