Smallville 3.13 - Velocity

This episode was first broadcast on 11th February 2004.

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The episode begins on a melancholy note. Jonathan Schneider is in hospital after collapsing at the end of last week's episode. We find out that he had a heart attack, but this is strange because he'd been previously diagnosed as having the heart of a 20-year-old. (I've forgotten which episode this was. Does anyone remember?) Clark blames himself. He says that Jonathan's heart was strained after Jor-El gave him super powers in the episode "Exile". Jonathan needed the powers to stop Clark when he was out of control, high on red kryptonite.

On the way home, Martha's truck is almost hit by speeding cars. It's an illegal road race. Clark chases the cars, and he arrives in time to see his bet friend Pete Ross being congratulated on his victory. Pete has already shown signs of recklessly loving speed in the past. In "Skinwalker" he was riding a dirt bike, and in "Rush" he was performing stunts on his bike on the road outside the Talon. Now he's gone full "Fast and Furious" on us.

The similarity with the "Fast and Furious" films is obvious: the cars, the parties and the sexy girls. It's no coincidence. The episode is obviously an homage to "Fast and Furious", because the second film had only recently been released. It's interesting to hear Michael Rosenbaum's attitude to the Fast and Furious films. He's never watched any of them, because he has no interest in films about cars. In the podcast he says that the films are unrealistic, based on the trailers, but that's just an excuse. The first few films were realistic, it's only the later films that had over-the-top action sequences with cars driving out of planes, etc. Tom Welling and Ryan Tellez were fast to say that they've seen all the Fast and Furious films. Michael's missing out. He needs to get a new girlfriend who'll cuddle on the sofa with him watching good films.

Pete says he's been racing for three months. That's how long Clark has been neglecting his friend. Pete has fallen under the influence of a young man called Jason Dante. He's found a way to boost car speeds by using nitrous oxide laced with fluid meteor rocks. So Pete's car is the freak-of-the-week?

Clark tells Pete he needs to stop racing before he kills someone, but Pete can't stop. The rush is too strong for him to resist. That evening Pete arrives for his latest race, and Jason tells him he has to lose. Pete is the reigning champion and everyone expects him to win, but Jason has bet $20,000 on his opponent. At first Pete holds back, but he can't resist the temptation to press the green button and pass the finish line first. Jason tells Pete that he'll kill him and his family if Pete doesn't pay him back the $20,000 that he's lost.

Pete asks Clark for help. Clark goes to Jason's barn, which is filled with fast cars. Clark sees a collection of license plates. He goes to Chloe in the Torch, and he tells her what the license plates are. So he has super-memory as well? Chloe looks them up and finds that they all belong to stolen cars. Clark reports this to the police. Sheriff Nancy storms the barn with her deputies, but she finds nothing. As we later hear, he has an informant at the police station.

Clark goes to Lex and asks him for money. Lex refuses, saying that people who want money are never satisfied and will always come back asking for more. In the podcast Lex's attitude is criticised, because he's a multi-millionaire who wouldn't even notice giving away such a small sum. But Lex is right.

Lex has to leave fast. His helicopter is waiting, and he tells Clark to let himself out. Clark sees the keys to Lex's Porsche. He steals it and drives it to Pete. He tells Pete to challenge Jason to a race. If Jason wins he can keep the Porsche, but if Pete wins the debt is cancelled. Pete doesn't think he can win, but Clark says that he'll use his heat vision to sabotage Jason's car.

With his super-hearing, Clark hears that Jason has planted a bomb in Pete's car that will explode as soon as he exceeds 100  mph. Clark challenges Jason, but he's hit over the head with a tube holding the kryptonite mix. Clark is bundled into the trunk of Pete's car. He can't escape, because the tube has been attached next to him.

And they're off! One of the tropes of the Fast and Furious films is that the starting flag is always dropped by a beautiful woman. Clark is conscious, but too weak to escape. When Pete presses the button for the kryptonite booster, it flows into the engine and Clark regains his strength. He rips out the cables that supply the fuel tank. The fuel spills onto the road. Jason's car skids and crashes, killing him.

The police investigation isn't mentioned, but Clark returns Lex's Porsche. Lex had noticed it was missing, but he doesn't question Clark.

Now for the major subplot. Lana has found a newspaper article about a student called Chad Nash who died of a sudden liver illness. I assume she didn't find the article herself, it must have been Chloe's research. The student in the photo looks identical to Adam. He's evasive when answering her questions, and he becomes threatening when she says she'll talk to others. So she doesn't talk to anyone, but Chloe is still following up the investigation. She finds that Adam was visited in hospital twice a week by a doctor, a professor from Metropolis University. Chloe doesn't feel able to investigate further, so she asks Lex for help.

Lex is a major contributor to the university, so he has no trouble walking in to talk to Professor Lia Teng. She refuses to answer his questions, but she's obviously disturbed when Lex mentions Adam's name. She underestimates Lex's influence. The next day the university tells her it will no longer fund her. She visits Lex in his mansion. Lex says he knows that she's been carrying out illegal drug trials, but he'll double her funding if she tells him everything there is to know about Adam.

The episode ends on another melancholy note. Pete visits Clark and says that he wants everything to be as it was. He'll never participate in illegal races again, so now they can go back to playing basketball hoops as they used to. Clark refuses and walks away. Is this the end of a great friendship?

Michael and Tom greatly praise Sam Jones' performance as Pete Ross in this episode. They say he was always a great actor, but he was underused. He only remained in "Smallville" until the end of season three. Tom Welling says that he knows why Sam left, but he isn't willing to say why. He only says that the parting was on unfriendly terms. I'm disappointed. This is exactly what I expect from the podcast. We should be told about the drama behind the scenes. I'm hoping that Tom will change his mind in a future podcast. Better still, Sam himself can appear as a guest star and tell the story himself.

In the podcast Michael Rosenbaum is the main speaker, as always. He looks very fit for a 51-year-old. It must be the AG1 vitamin supplements that he takes every day. But notice that he's wearing a jacket advertising "Inside of You", his other podcast. As I've mentioned before, it's considered bad style for rock stars to wear their own shirts, and I expect it's the same etiquette for podcasters. I hope he's reading these words. He should wear an Austin 3:16 shirt.

Always hold on to Smallville

and...

Bring back the Blu-rays.