The episode begins with Grant and Lois making out. When they come up for air, she tells him to stop telling people she’s writing a Lex expose. Partially because she wants to make sure their relationship isn’t discovered, and that people think she’s sleeping her way into a story. Grant says that Lex asked for her specifically, so it had nothing to do with their relationship.
Back on the newsfloor, Chloe tries to call Clark. She wants to know where he’s been for the past two weeks. Lana told her that he had gone to the Fortress, but there has been no word since then. She is either really mad at him, or terribly worried. Lois comes over, and she is also wondering where Clark has been – because he was supposed to fix their satellite dish. Chloe covers for him, saying he’s in Minnesota with Kara for the holidays. Chloe gives Lois her files on Lex and tells Lois to thank her for convincing her to break things off with Grant so no one could claim she didn’t earn this story. Lois at least has the grace to look sheepish.
Lois then gets a call from a cell phone sitting in the desk. It is someone who has been trying to get her attention about Luthorcorp – a someone that she had chosen to blow off. He says he is a clone from Luthorcorp and he wants her to write a story about him. She says there are a lot of crazies involved and who are easily ignored. He responds by telling her that Chloe has a bomb on her, and asks if he has her attention now?
We cut away to see Lex and Grant fencing, and of course, Lex wins. Grant wants him to ask for a different reporter for the expose, since Lois has a knack for finding much more than what she was looking for. Lex says he has nothing to hide – and asks if Grant is really just scared that she’ll discover his secret? He then prods Grant about whether or not he has actually broken things off with Lois. We cut to Lois on the phone with her mysterious informant “Adrian”. He claims he’ll be dead soon. While she is talking to him, Lois tries e-mailing Chloe to warn her about the bomb, but then she sees that the wire has been cut to her computer. Adrian calls back, telling Lois that he covered his bases and that she is not to try anything cute. Lois looks around the newsroom to see if she can figure out who is calling her. She thinks that she pinpoints a delivery guy. She follows him and ambushes him, but he is, of course, innocent, and Lois embarrasses herself. He leaves, but stumbles back moments in with a pair of scissors sticking out of his back. Adrian then calls back and tells her to keep her mouth shut, walk out of there and finish the story, and that if she doesn’t, the next person he kills will be Chloe.
Over on the Kent farm, Lana is tending the horses when Clark turns back up. Lana asks if he’s been at the Fortress this whole time. He says he has, and that time flows differently there, which is why he’s been gone so long. He says that he has no clue where Kara might be, but he’s just glad to see Lana again. Lana tells him that she has dropped her fixation on Lex, only for Clark to say that he wants her to share what information she has about Lex and Project Scion, and that they can take him down together.
Lois jots a note to Chloe warning her that there’s a bomb on her, and puts it in the inter-office mail. The mail package gets to Chloe just as she’s on her way out to see Clark. Chloe chats with Lois for a few moments, still not having seen the note. Lois considers just warning her about the bomb, but she then gets a text message saying the bomb will go off if she does anything. Chloe leaves, ignorant about her impending doom.
Lana shows Clark the key information she currently has about Project Scion – Casey Brock, a Luthorcop lab tech was found in an alley with toxic levels of poisoning. Viewers of the show may recognize Casey as the girl who was infected by the black liquid left over from Project Scion. Lana’s people found her and brought her to a hidden location, where overnight, Casey had most of the minerals in her body leeched out. Since being found, Casey has been muttering the same phrase over and over, which no one has been able to understand. Clark immediately knows why - Casey is muttering in Kryptonian.
Chloe gets on the elevator to leave. Just before the doors close Jimmy gets on as well. Seeing that they would be alone on the elevator he tries to excuse himself, clearly uncomfortable being alone with her. Finally, he gets on the elevator but the two stand as far apart from each other as they can. They eventually begin talking, which leads to them talking about their failed relationship. In a moment of awkwardness, Chloe looks at the mail in her hand, and sees the note about the bomb. She shows the note to Jimmy, and just then the elevator screeches to a stop.
Lois is still in the news room, still trying to find Adrian. She wanders into a supply room where he shows up himself. Adrian looks terrible, like he’s dying. He tells her that if she does anything attention getting, he’ll blow Chloe up. And now he wants his story.
Locked on the elevator, Chloe and Jimmy search through Chloe’s purse looking for the bomb. And they find it in her “Secret Santa” present, but not before Jimmy sees that Chloe is still carrying pictures of the two of them in her purse.
Adrian is looking at Lois’ story, and seems more or less content with it. Adrian says he’ll be dead by Christmas and reflects on his memories – memories he knows he can’t actually have. Lois says that tomorrow morning everyone will know what Lex did, and that Adrian should let Chloe go. He says he needs her to get Lex to confess first.
Jimmy has boosted Chloe onto his shoulders in the hope that it will give them good enough reception to get a call out of the elevator. Chloe is calling Clark of course, which upsets Jimmy enough that he shifts and Chloe drops the phone – shattering it. Jimmy wants to know why she called Clark instead of the cops, to which Chloe says that since Lois warned her via a note, she is clearly being watched. If this is true, cops would only cause suspicion, something that won’t happen if Clark comes to the Planet. A flimsy lie, sure, but it was probably a better choice than telling Jimmy the truth.
Adrian has hooked Lois up to a wire so that he can watch and communicate with her as she interviews Lex. He once more warns her that if she warns anyone, or fails to get the confession, Chloe dies. As this is going on Clark and Lana arrive at the Planet to talk to Chloe. Clark tells Lana that the babbling is a Kryptonian code, and that maybe they could get Chloe to decode it.
In Grant’s office Lex and Grant are waiting for Lois. She comes in, clearly nervous, but starts the interview. Over her microphone Adrian prompts her to ask Lex about Project: Gemini, and starts to provide lots of details of the program. Lex tries to deny knowing anything, at which point Adrian forces Lois to pull out a gun from her briefcase and aim it at Grant to force Lex to tell the truth. Lois then starts relating the information about Adrian’s “memories”, and while she is babbling, Lex clubs her upside the head. It turns out that Adrian’s “memories” are the same that Grant has. Adrian then comes in to the room to tell Grant that they’re the same – the only difference being that Grant was a successful clone, while Adrian wasn’t. Adrian and Grant then verbally team up, as they tear into Lex for manipulating their lives and memories. Lex snaps and shoots Adrian with the gun that Lois brought. When Adrian dies, he drops the detonator, starting the countdown for the bomb in Chloe’s purse. Chloe and Jimmy see that the bomb starts to count down, and begin banging on the walls to attract help. After a few moments of this, Chloe decides they’re not going to make it, and confesses to Jimmy that she didn’t pull away from him because of flaws in their relationship, but because she’s a meteor freak. There is an awkward silence between them, prompting Chloe to ask Jimmy to react. His reaction is to kiss her.
Clark and Lana try calling Chloe while standing at the desk she and Lois share, and get her voice mail. Lana then discovers the e-mail that Lois was trying to send to Chloe about the bomb. Clark listens for Chloe with his super-hearing, and hears her and Jimmy in the elevator. He rushes off at super-speed to the elevator to rescue her and Jimmy, and is greeted with the sight of them frantically making out. He gawks at them for a moment, then rushes outside of the Planet building with the bomb in tow, just in time for it to explode. His rushing off leaves Jimmy and Chloe with no bomb, but with a suddenly opened elevator door and the Planet staff watching them make out.
Lois wakes up in Grant’s office and asks Lex about Chloe and Grant. Lex tells her that Chloe is safe, that Adrian escaped and Grant is off trying to get her a medic. Lois then threatens Lex with exposure of his cloning program. He says she has no evidence, and she is no longer writing the expose on his life. Lois chuckles and says that he’ll have to take it up with his boss, at which point Lex drops the bombshell that he is her boss. Yes, Lex Luthor has just bought the Daily Planet.
Chloe and Jimmy have a talk about their kiss and the end of the relationship. Jimmy wishes that Chloe would have been willing to tell him her secret without their lives being at stake. Chloe apologizes, and shows him what her power is as she heals a cut on his hand. Chloe asks that he keep her powers a secret, and Jimmy agrees. They hug, which doesn’t quite mean they’re back together, but is certainly a start.
Cutting over to Lex’s mansion, we see Lex talking to a redheaded woman. They’re going over the acquisition documents for the Daily Planet. Grant storms in and tells Lex off for taking control of one more piece of his life – including his creation. Lex says that he can’t believe Grant believed Adrian, but Grant isn’t buying Lex’s lies. Finally, Lex admits that he created Grant, but that he did it out of love for his brother. Grant says that his existence is proof that Lex can’t love – and further demands that Lex stay out of his life.
Grant then goes over to Lois’s apartment. Lois is glad to see Grant, and jokes that she has just finished her resume. Grant says that she isn’t fired, but he then tells Lois that they need to break up. As he puts it, today was proof of why their being together is too risky. Grant says that whoe ver she ends up with will be a lucky guy, though Lois says that whoever he is, it won’t be someone she works with. (I thought that was a rather cute nod to the future relationship with Clark we all know she is destined for.)
For the final scenes of the episode, we return to the Kent farmhouse. Chloe is with Clark telling him that she cracked the code, and that it’s an error message for a high-tech machine. Clark verbally puts together what the fans already have – that whatever is inside Casey Brock is actually Braniac, and that he is trying to reboot himself. Lana comes in with coffee and danishes, and Chloe heads out. Clark and Lana have a pleasant moment about their being back together, with both acknowledging that their time apart has been good for them to reflect on their feelings for one another. They both realized that they needed the other in their life, and they embrace. This was possibly the first romantic moment between these two in the last three seasons that hasn’t made me want to vomit. Sadly, the moment is ruined as while they embrace, we see Clark’s face flash to the cracked, broken appearance of Bizarro! The camera cuts to reveal that the real Clark is stuck inside a crystal in the Fortress.
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