From the first season of Superboy, starring John Haymes Newton as Clark Kent / Superboy, Stacy Haiduk as Lana Lang, and Jim Calvert as T.J.White, comes this second episode that began with The Alien Solution and continued with Revenge of the Alien, part 1.  The previous episode ended with the alien having got into the head of Clark’s father (played for the third time by veteran actor Stuart Whitman), and Superboy not feeling his best having been temporarily knocked unconscious.

The episode begins with a recap of the previous two episodes –

Still remember it?  Oh, good…

REVENGE OF THE ALIEN, PART 2

Professor Peterson gives Superboy a clean bill of health, even though he can’t use X-Rays to check him out.  The professor wants to spend more time examining Superboy, to discover the line between his recent black out and his invulnerability, while also determining the link between Superboy and the green space rocks.  However, Superboy has places to be…

At the Shuster Herald office, Lana is trying to find out where Clark went while Pa Kent is behaving very strangely – calling Clark an idle bum to everyone who’ll listen.

When Clark turns up, his father tells him that Superboy should turn in his cape. He might have survived but the police officer didn’t.  The words affect Clark, even though Lana reminds them that it was the officer who blew himself up.

When his father complains of a headache, Clark offers to take him back to the dorm but his father is quick to make Lana take him.  Feeling rejected and guilty, Clark can only accept the situation.

After they’ve left, Sgt Harris arrives to ask Clark to contact Superboy so that he can talk to him about the incident.  As coincidence would have it, outside Superboy wants to speak with the police.

The police can’t understand why Sgt Johnson went off the rails and attacked the Agriculture Center, and Superboy has nothing to offer until he’s told that Johnson was involved in stopping the thief who stole from the cryogenics lab.

Fearing the worst, Superboy heads to the lab.  Sure enough, the bottle has gone.

On the road, Pa Kent gives Lana new directions on the pretence of getting a surprise for Clark.  Lana turns off the road and becomes suspicious when Kent contemplates how terrible it would be for Clark if something happened to her.

Kent forces Lana to stop the jeep, deep in the scrub.  Lana makes a run for it, but the surprisingly agile Pa Kent wrestles her to the ground.

Lana asks what the old man wants, and he directs her to a stash of weapons while growling, “Revenge!”

Clark returns to his room, only to find his friends glued to the television set and T.J. on his way out.  The TV shows a news report of a man holding a girl hostage on the rooftop.

The man starts shooting, and everyone recognises Clark’s father and Lana. T.J. clears everyone out of the room and tries to comfort his friend.

Clark sends T.J. off to cover the story, but with ulterior motives.  He telephones Professor Peterson, the only person who can help Superboy defeat the alien.

The police try to talk some sense into “Mr Kent”, but he’s waiting for someone.

Superboy arrives, and the alien warns him off using his heat vision because it would trigger the explosives strapped to the body of Kent.  The alien tells Superboy that killing those he loves will be his revenge for what Superboy did to it.  Superboy volunteers to let the alien take his body, if he lets the others go.

The alien agrees, and release Lana.  Superboy tells the alien that Kent’s body is frail and may die when the alien leaves.  To be sure that he’s safe, he wants the transfer to take place where there are medical facilities.  He makes a promise to let the alien in his body, so long as Kent is safe.

In Peterson’s lab, the transfer takes place and Pa Kent collapses.

With the alien inside him, a mental battle takes place.

While the alien acclimatises to the new super powers, Superboy gives Peterson the word.  The Professor turns on the green rock radiation machine.

The alien tries to turn off the device, knocking the Professor out cold, but the radiation weakens Superboy’s invulnerability.

Pa Kent recovers, and the alien attacks him.

In his weakened state, Superboy is no match for Pa Kent’s handy fists.

The fight continues…

Physically defeated, Clark asks his father to help him into the cryogenic freezer unit and lock the door.

Recovering, Professor Peterson turns off the radiation device.

With Superboy dying, the alien entity has no choice but to leave.  The near absolute zero temperatures freezes the alien.

The alien freezes and then shatters.

With his strength returning, Superboy warms up with the help of the Professor and his father.

Later, Kent apologises to Lana for doing whatever it was that he can’t remember and Lana tells him that it wasn’t him.

Funniest line of the series goes to T.J. White.
Pa Kent: “T.J. Nice meeting you.”
T.J. White: “Yeah… we got to stop having these long conversations, huh?”

Lana and T.J. wave goodbye as Clark drives his father to the airport.

How many other people can say they got to whip Superboy’s butt? That’s Pa Kent (Stuart Whitman) for you.

The story progresses in a natural way in this second episode, and the resolution neatly ties everything up while using the Chekhov’s gun which, effectively, was a gun.  The alien is defeated at last.

This story brings together elements from several previous episodes.  The alien from The Alien Solution, Pa Kent from Troubled Waters, and Kryptonite from Kryptonite Kills, thus rewarding the loyal viewer.

Stuart Whitman gets the kudos for this episode, both when playing “possessed” and also during the tremendous fight sequence.  He still doesn’t look too comfortable when in a scene with the younger cast, but that’s only for a short amount of time.

This story raises the first of some interesting questions regarding Superboy’s origins, and how invulnerable he really is.  This isn’t just a “super-power of the week” series, which is how Smallville began.

It’s also great that Jim Calvert got to say the “we’ve got to stop having these long conversations” – an on-screen acknowledgement of how little he gets to do in these adventures.  Fortunately for all Calvert fans, there’s a fantastic T.J. White episode not too far around the corner