Smallville 3.11 - Delete

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This episode features the return of Adam Knight, played by Ian Somerhalder, who we first saw two weeks ago in the episode "Asylum". His relationship with Lana Lang is simmering, but hasn't yet become serious.

Chloe is packing up her personal items to leave the Daily Planet. Her editor, Max Taylor, remarks that she must have enemies in high places to be thrown out so soon. Her enemy is Lionel Luthor, of course, so high that he can influence the Daily Planet, but Chloe doesn't admit it to him. She wants some stories that she's written to be published after she leaves. Max says it isn't possible, but Chloe suggests they should be published using a pseudonym, such as the name of her cousin, Lois Lane.

Chloe Sullivan isn't someone who ever appeared in DC comics, but this links her to the Superman universe.

Lex is working late at Luthorcorp and needs help with his computer. A girl called Molly says she's the late night tech support guy. She gives him a CD with a program to scan for viruses. When Lex leaves we see that she's taking the hard drive out of Chloe's computer.

Back at Smallville High School, Chloe finds that all the computers donated by Luthorcorp have been confiscated. She leaves, and a truck almost runs her over. It's Clark Kent driving. He can't remember what happened or even how he arrived at the school. Sheriff Nancy Adams gives him a breathalyser test. Chloe covers for him by saying he lost control of the car.

The next day Chloe visits Clark to ask him if he's remembered anything. He says he was writing a school essay on his laptop. She checks his laptop and finds that he stopped writing in the middle of a sentence. The last thing that happened was that he received an email from someone called Brainwave. The email can't be opened a second time.

A short while later Lana is showing Adam around her school. That's a strange thing to do. She receives an email on her mobile phone, and when she opens it she sees flashing green lights. She looks for Chloe, and she attacks her. It's a vicious fight scene, in which Lana knocks Chloe down the stairs, then from room to room. Lana even attacks Chloe with an axe.

There's something that doesn't make sense. We already know that Lana is a skilled fighter, but why is Chloe able to defend herself? We've never seen her use any fighting skills.

Lana knocks Chloe into the girls' locker room, then into the showers. Finally Adam arrives and overcomes Lana with impressive martial arts skills. In the girls' shower? I hope he got a good view.

The email received by Lana also came from Brainwave, but she can't read it again. Adam says that he can trace the IP address of the sender. He finds that they were sent from Chloe's computer at a Luthorcorp IP address.

Adam tells Lana he wants to stay in Smallville. She offers to rent him the apartment above the Talon which used to be the projectionist's booth. I thought that she still showed films. She's suspicious how Adam knows so much about computers and fighting. He says that he learnt everything from reading books while he was in hospital. And she believed him? Nobody can learn martial arts from books. Nobody.

Lex is told that there's no Molly who works at Luthorcorp. He looks at security camara footage and makes a photo of her, which he gives to Clark. Clark shows the photo to Chloe, and she recognises Molly as a brilliant computer programmer who spent time in Summerholt Institute after a mental breakdown. The institute is under the control of Lawrence Gardner, a devious doctor that we saw in the episode "Ryan". One of articles Chloe gave to her editor was about Dr. Gardner's malpractices. It all fits together. Molly found the article on Chloe's computer, and she's trying to kill Chloe to defend Dr. Gardner. After finding out that Max Taylor also has a copy of the article, she sends someone to kill him as well. When Clark and Lex challenge her, she gives up without a fight.

Lex returns the computers to the Torch office. Chloe is happy again.

In the final scene Lex approaches Dr. Gardner and asks for his help. He wants to be treated so that he can remember the seven weeks that were wiped from his memory.

In the podcast Michael Rosenbaum says that he finds the whole episode ridiculous. He shouts the word. I agree with him. "Delete" is the weakest of the 55 episodes so far. Emails that hypnotise people? Emails that can only be read once? And even if it were technically possible, why restrict it so a single reading? If a person didn't succeed in killing Chloe, reading the email would make him try again.

Tom Welling says that he's known Ian Somerhalder since he was 19. They met in Barcelona when they were modelling. They didn't meet again for a few years, until Ian suddenly appeared on the set of "Smallville". It's a small world.

There's not much more I can write about the podcast. It was mostly Michael, Tom and Ryan complaining about the episode. The only part they appreciated was the fight scene.

Always hold on to Smallville

and...

Bring back the Blu-rays.