The episode begins in Detroit in an auto dump, where Lois is following an armed Lex, who is tracking Kara via a GPS. Lex apparently already knows that she has amnesia, somehow. Lois marches off, angry at Lex’s methods, and no sooner than she does that then Lex sees Kara’s bracelet on the ground. But Lois seems to have had better luck, as she nearly immediately finds Kara.
Rushing over to Kara, the intrepid reporter calls her name, prompting Kara to ask “You know me?” Kara says she had been locked in by Finley. Lois turns to find a way to open the door and turns into the barrel of Finley’s gun. Lex arrives, pointing his own gun at Finley, who then tries to take Lois as a hostage. Bad move, as Lois tries to fight back, and does get away from him, allowing Lex to fire on Finley. Unfortunately for Lex, Finley fires at the same time, and with better accuracy. Where Finley got hit in the shoulder, Lex takes a more deadly shot and falls to the ground. Kara screams out for Lex, as the millionaire collapses. It’s also worth noting that while all this is going on, when Finley refers to Kara, he calls her “Linda” – which is presumably the name she’s been going under while suffering from her amnesia.
Finley locks both Lois and Kara back inside the dump. Lois gets the short story from Kara about how she ended up here, and Kara relates that she came into the diner a month ago, and Finely treated her like a sister. Lois callously points out that Finley now seems to want more than that from Kara. In turn, Lois tells Kara that she is actually Kara Kent. Kara seems distraught about the fact that Lex is “dead,” leaving the viewer to wonder how she now knows Lex. Lois, practical as always, points out that if they don’t escape, they might soon join the young Mr. Luthor.
Clark rushes into a Metropolis hospital where Lionel is looking over Lex’s body. Lex is now comatose, and has apparently been med-evacced to Metropolis. Chloe says that every cop in Detroit is on the case, but they wonder how it is that no one saw anything. Lionel shows Clark a phone that has a picture of Lex and Kara in a diner, that was given to him by a Detroit cop. Important clues that are revealed include the fact that Kara has a bandage on, which makes Clark think she has no powers. Also, the phone belonged to Lois, so Clark and Chloe now know about as much as the viewers do about what was going on there.
Chloe suggests that she can use her healing powers to get Lex out of the coma, since that may be the only way to get the knowledge of what happened in Detroit. Clark is unwilling to let this happen, since the last time Chloe used her powers on someone so severely wounded, she woke up in a morgue. For her part, Chloe states that nothing bad happened when she used her powers on Jimmy, so perhaps it was just “growing pains.” In either case, it’s not like Clark has a better suggestion for how to get the information.
Or does he? Clark and Chloe go off to Lana, who has become quite the little hacker and intelligence agent, who says that while she doesn’t know why Lex was in Detroit, she may have something. A military project developed by Luthorcorp that would allow someone to link up to someone else’s brain. It was developed for interrogation, but Lana suggests that it could be used to go into Lex’s head. Chloe points out that the project was abandoned because several of the interrogators died while inside the subject’s head.
Clark, Chloe, Lana and Lionel go to Luthorcorp to get the equipment, preparing for Clark to go into Lex’s head. Lana points out the danger that while Clark’s body is invulnerable, his mind may not be. Nonetheless, they prepare the machine for the procedure, and they tell Clark that if things go bad, they will try to bring him out, but that he should look for a red door as a means to unlock from Lex’s mind.
Incidentally, isn’t it terribly hypocritical of Clark to say “we can’t use your powers, because you might die” to Chloe, but the procedure they end up doing is more likely to kill Clark than Chloe was likely to die from her power use?
The procedure begins, and Clark finds himself in a corridor that represents Lex’s psyche. Fortunately, the red door is still there. Walking through the halls, Clark peers through one broken window and sees a floating, ethereal figure that vaguely resembles Kara, but may be Lex’s mother. After Clark walks on by, we see another person peering through the broken glass.
Clark resumes his walking, and the viewer sees someone sneaking behind him, though Clark does not. Apparently he doesn’t have his powers inside of Lex’s brain, otherwise he’d have heard that someone was following him. We see that Clark’s spy is a young boy. Clark chooses a door and walks inside, and a tech tells Lionel that Clark is going deeper into Lex’s cerebral cortex.
In the memory, Clark sees Kara talking to Finley in the diner. She walks away from Finley to see Lex sitting down in the diner. Lex and Kara make small talk, where Lex hints to her that he knows her real name, and that this isn’t where Kara (or “Linda” as she called herself) belongs. Kara recognizes Lex, and comments that she’s seen him more than some of the regulars. She sits down to talk to him, and Finley gazes at her with jealousy. Lex offers to help Kara regain her memory, but before Clark can learn more, he is pulled out of the memory by Lex.
Lex threatens Clark, and demands that he get out of his head. The dream-Lex begins to strangle Clark, raising him into the air, in a nice twist where Lex has the power, and Clark is effectively powerless. It’s also worth nothing that Lex is wearing the white suit that he wore in the dream/nightmare vision of Lex as President of the United States back in Season One. Before Lex can do too much harm to Clark, he is clubbed over the head by the young boy that was following Clark earlier, who is actually a younger version of Lex, and the “good” part of him. Alexander, as the boy calls himself, says that Lex had tried to kill him earlier, saying that he made Lex weak. Alex leads Clark through the corridors to a place where he says “Lex never goes”, so that Clark should be safe there. It’s either true, or “Alexaner” is setting a trap for Clark, and based on the creepy way that the boy says that he is “Clark’s best friend”, I’m not inclined to trust his intentions.
In the memory Clark goes into, Alexander is painting warrior figures, when Lionel barges in, angry that Lex had opened his briefcase. Lex denies opening the briefcase, and Lionel throws Lex into his models, breaking them. Lionel demands to know, if Lex didn’t open the briefcase, who did? Lex says it was his mom, who then shows up to rescue her son. Lionel remains insistent that neither Lex nor Lily should be looking at the contents of his briefcase, screaming that “Veritas is none of your concern,” and he hits his wife in front of the young Lex. When Lex tries to apologize to his mother, she scolds him for having told Lionel that it was she that opened the briefcase.
Clark finds himself back in the corridors of Lex’s mind and chooses another door at random. Doing so, he finds Lex in the diner again, talking to Kara and giving her a necklace. (The same necklace that he was using to track her at the beginning of the episode.) Kara reveals that she knows who Lex is – as a humanitarian. Lex tells her that his jet is on standby to take her to get the help she needs. Kara walks away from Lex to say goodbye, and while Kara is gone, Lois comes into the diner to confront Lex about what he’s doing there. Lex insists that he’s helping Kara, but Lois is skeptical. She shows that she has taken a picture of Lex and Kara talking. Lex takes her phone, and then there is a disturbance from off camera, presumably with Kara.
We go back to the “real” world, where the tech is talking to Lionel, telling him that Clark has gone in too deep, and that they’ve never gotten anyone back from this point. Lionel says to end the procedure and get Clark back, but the tech says that at this point, it’s up to Clark to exit via the red door – they can’t pull him out safely.
Clark is back in the corridors again, having been pulled out of that particular memory, when dream Lex grabs him again, accusing him of being a voyeur. He then says that he’s been a terrible host, and should give Clark the grand tour. Lex pulls Clark into the memory of the first time that he and Lana made love, enjoying Clark’s discomfort.
Clark pulls away, and runs back into the corridor, where Alexander tells Clark that he has found his friends. Clark is now able to see the events of the opening scene, and now knows where Kara and Lois are. Clark rushes back to the red door, but sees that Lex has captured Alexander. Alexander is in fear for his life, and Clark chooses to try to save Alexander rather than leaving.
But as this is happening in the dreamscape, Lex begins to die in the real world, which will apparently kill Clark as well. They try to revive Lex, but are unsuccessful. Chloe barges in while this is going on, demanding to know why this is taking so long. She sees the distress that Clark and Lex are in physically, and Lionel brings her up to speed. She tells Lionel that she can save Lex, if he is willing to trust her.
Chloe approaches the unconscious duo of Clark and Lex and we cut back to the dreamscape, where Lex is preparing to kill Alexander. Clark rushes in to save Alexander as Chloe uses her power to save Lexs life. Clark attacks Lex and tells Alexander to run and save himself. Lex laughs maniacally as Clark punches him. Clark then runs away to the door, but is stopped by Alexander, who doesn’t want Clark to leave. Clark makes Alexander promise that they will see each other again, and that Alexander won’t stop fighting the demonic side to Lex’s personality. He says that, now that he knows that Alexander is here, he won’t ever stop fighting for Alexander and looking for him in Lex’s behavior. The two separate and Clark reverts to the real world.
Clark knows where Lois and Kara are, and is about to rush off to save them when he notices that Chloe is unconscious. Lionel is concerned about Chloe, but Clark tells the older Luthor to just get her back to her apartment to let her rest.
Back in the auto-yard, Lois has picked the lock, allowing her and Kara to escape. They start to flee when Findley returns, still armed. He isn’t willing to let “Linda” leave, and threatens both women. Kara finds a bit of her backbone and tells Findley that if he wants to hurt Lois, he’ll have to shoot her first. Before we can find out what Findley would have done, a tower of cars topples over, separating Findley from his victims. While separated, Clark arrives and knocks Findley unconscious. Lois and Kara come around and see that Findley is now no longer a threat, though they have no explanation for why.
Back in Smallville hospital, Lex is wondering how it is that he was admitted with a bullet to the head, but now he is fine. Lionel lies, saying that it was due to the healing serum that Oliver Queen developed. He had salvaged a single dose for himself, but chose to use it for Lex. Lex is skeptical that Lionel would do such a thing for him. Lionel then says that today he was afraid that he wouldn’t be able to say something important to Lex one last time. Lex asks what that is, and Lionel tells him that he loves him. Lex walks out of the room without responding.
Clark meets up with Chloe in her room above the Talon. Chloe is wondering if Lois saw her “dead” this time. Clark tells her that she did not, but warns her that this time she was dead for eighteen hours. Clark is trying to tell Chloe that her using her powers is far too dangerous, and will end up killing her eventually, but Chloe doesn’t want to hear it. She says that she has the power to save people, and that it is her right to use it when she chooses, but relents and says that perhaps she and Clark both have the responsibility to stay alive in order to use their abilities responsibility. Chloe is clearly overwhelmed with having the responsibility of knowing that she can bring someone else back from the dead, at risk to herself.
Lex goes home to the mansion to see Clark waiting for him. Clark wants to know why Lex was with Kara, and how he knew that she had amnesia. He also wants to know why Lex didn’t call him. Lex, lying, says that he did call, twice, but that Lana hung up on him. Clark, in turn, wonders if Lex even knows when he’s lying any more. Lex tries to brush off Clark’s accusations, stating that he no longer cares if Clark believes him or not, so why does Clark care? Clark, trying to reach Alexander, states that he does care, and that the voice who tells Lex when he’s doing something wrong isn’t Clark, but it’s a part of Lex’s own self.
Once more, we return to the Talon where Kara is listening to her iPod, trying to jog her memories when Lex comes in with a cup of coffee. Kara’s memories are still completely gone, and she is clearly smitten with Lex. Kara opens up to Lex, and explains that while her cousin Clark seems like a nice guy, she feels like he is hiding something from her. Lex says that he understands, being Clark’s former best friend. Kara asks why their friendship ended, and Lex says that it’s because he grew up. Lex then says that the treatment he wants her to undertake will get her memories back, and reveal the truth. By the way he says it, he is clearly referring to more than the truth about her memories, and is actually referring to the strange secret that the Kent family seems to be keeping.
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