Covenant
From Smallville Wiki
| Covenant | |
|---|---|
| |
| Series | 3x22 |
| Episode | 66 |
| Writer | Alfred Gough & Miles Millar |
| Director | Greg Beeman |
| Broadcast Date | May 19, 2004 |
| Production Code | 176222 |
| Navigation | |
| Previous Episode: Forsaken
Next Episode: Crusade | |
Contents |
[edit] Summary
Kara comes to entice Clark to return to Jor-El. Jonathan reveals the deal he made with Jor-El. Lionel helps Clark discover Lex's room of obsession, and Lana leaves for Paris. Meanwhile, Lionel fails to make bail, but Chloe and her father are killed in an explosion.
[edit] Recap
A young woman walks out of the woods naked and uses super-strength to total a car, killing the passengers. She then walks to the Kent Farm and greets Clark by name, introducing herself as "Kara from Krypton."
She claims to have come from the caves and tells the Kents she's here to take Kal-El home to answer all his questions. She becomes angry when Jonathan enters the conversation and disappears when Lex arrives. Clark offers to testify at Lionel's bond hearing that he ordered the doctor to increase the voltage even when the doctor warned that it could have injured Lex. Lex guesses that Clark hid the knowledge of Lionel's murder of his parents. Clark explains he was concerned for Lex's fate and Lex accepts that.
Kara takes Clark flying to the cave and says that she's been in the cave since the meteor shower, waiting until the time is right. Clark declines her offer to enter a passage to find out everything. The next day she tells Jonathan that he "broke the covenant" and reveals that in return for the power he received to bring back Clark, he promised to return Clark to his father Jor-El. Clark and Martha are appalled and Jonathan stammers that he didn't believe it would be so soon. As Loder listens in, Kara senses him and kills him by turning his car and everything in it to dust. Martha is upset that Jonathan made the deal and kept it secret from her.
Jonathan takes a tea cup to Chloe and asks to run Kara's fingerprints, while Lana arrives at the farm and asks Clark to take her to the airport the next day. She asks him to tell her whatever he has to tell her before she's gone. She sees Kara and Clark explains that she is his cousin from California. Lana suggests that she should find someone else to drive her if he has visitors, but Clark assures her that even though it will be hard for him to see her go, he wants to be there for her. She seems pleased and he promises that they will talk in the car on the way to the airport. Kara warns him again that even though she loves him, their love is not meant to be. Everyone he knows will eventually betray him, but the love that they will know will be like nothing else. They are the last Kryptonians, and they must preserve their race.
Clark receives a package from Lionel with a key-– he confronts Lionel who sends him to the room Lex has been using for his investigation of Clark. Lex tries to explain that this room is about him and his countless brushes with death, but Clark is extremely upset. He doesn't believe him and leaves, convinced that Lex has been his friend all this time just so he can investigate him. Clark goes home to his loft where he complains to his mother about Lex's betrayal. He is considering going with Kara when he suddenly remembers Lana. She took a shuttle to the airport and Clark arrives just in time to see her saying goodbye to Lex. Lana sees him and crosses the street to him, but he disappears without saying goodbye, and Lana finds the flower he was going to give her. Clark is late arriving at the courthouse and Lex worries that he has changed his mind, but he arrives just in time. Lionel is denied bail, but Clark tells Lex that their friendship is over.
Martha runs outside to see a Kryptonian symbol burned into the fields; the Sullivans enter protective custody only to have their new house blow up as soon as they enter. Lionel has his head shaved bald, Lex chokes after drinking a glass of brandy, and Jonathan remains unconscious on the floor of the cave while Clark floats in a void and Jor-El promises his son that he "shall be reborn."
[edit] Recurring Roles
- Terence Stamp as the Voice of Jor-El
- Gary Hudson as FBI Agent Frank Loder
- Robert Wisden as Gabe Sullivan
[edit] Guest Cast
- Adrianne Palicki as Lindsey Harrison/Kara
[edit] Featured Music
- "One Moment More (acoustic)" - Mindy Smith
- "Messa Da Requiem (Sequentia Lacrimosa)" by Mozart
[edit] Episode Title
- A covenant is a deal by mutual agreement. During the episode, Lindsey Harrison reminds Jonathan Kent of his covenant with Jor-El, which was made nine months ago in Exile.
- Lex Luthor and FBI agent Frank Loder also made a deal: Lex promised Loder to turn over his father to the FBI and in return, Loder spied on Clark and guaranteed Lex exemption from punishment.
[edit] Notes
- The scene in which Clark and Kara fly together is highly reminiscent of the scene in which Superman and Lois first fly together in the Superman film.
- Lindsey Harrison as Kara is an homage to Supergirl in the Superman comics. However, she is not really Kara. Clark meets the real Kara in Season 7, who is, in fact, his Kryptonian cousin. When Lana is talking to Clark at the Kent farm and notices "Kara", Clark identifies her as his cousin who is visiting from California. In some comics, Supergirl is Superman's cousin, Kara Zor-El. Her father, Zor-El, is Jor-El's younger brother.
- Lionel describes his struggle with Lex as "Oedipal", a misuse of the term. Oedipus killed his father and married his mother; the term usually describes a son's romantic love towards his mother and subsequent jealousy towards his father. Since Lex's mother is dead, she no longer factors into his relationship with his father. However, the longing that Lex feels for his dead mother and the resultant blame he lays upon his father for her death could be construed as Oedipal quite easily.
- The image of Clark trapped in the pocket dimension is a reference to the frequently-seen pentagon shape of the Superman shield. Clark's body forms an S-shape to complete the design.
- Kara blasts heat from her hands, an ability that neither Clark nor any other known Kryptonian has been shown to possess. Only the Martian Manhunter has yet displayed a similar ability when he fried the alien Aldar with a blast of heat.
- One can read an article in the Smallville Ledger about Lana's departure for Paris here on the cover of the now-defunct Smallville Ledger website at Warnerbros.com.
- When Martha and Jonathan can't find Clark, Jonathan suggests that Martha call the Talon, which has been closed for several episodes.
- Lex tells Lionel that his speech might have affected him if Barber's Requiem were playing in the back. Presumably, he means Samuel Barber's Adagio for Strings , a very melancholy piece. Mozart's Requiem, however, is playing during the scene in which Lionel's head is shaved.
- John Glover submitted himself the idea of being shaved for real.
- Pete Ross does not appear in this episode.
- This episode marks the first time that Jonathan Kent visits Chloe at The Torch and asks for help.
[edit] Continuity
- Kara reveals the deal that Jonathan made with Jor-El in Exile.
- This is Clark's first attempt to tell Lana his secret, to keep her from leaving Smallville. He tries again in Reckoning and Promise and finally succeeds three years later in Phantom.
- Clark admits to Lex that he heard Lionel order his shock treatment, which occurred in Asylum. (Although in fact, Clark didn't arrive until after the shock treatment was completed.)
- The symbol burned into the Kents' field means "crusade", most likely in reference to the next episode, also called Crusade.
- The third floor wing of Luthor Mansion contains Lex's obsessive collection of things including photographs of the Kents and the Kawatche Caves and several items that are references to past episodes:
- a study of what happens to a bullet when it impacts a solid object, several flattened bullets hanging from strings, presumably from Red when Clark shot himself in the palm several times and left the bullets on the floor of the mansion.
- an image of the octagonal key which was briefly in Lex's possession in Obscura.
- one of the adrenaline parasites from Rush in a glass jar.
- a study of the car crash that nearly killed Lex in the Pilot.
- Clark's family tree on which he scribbled in Kryptonian in Rosetta.
- A piece of kryptonite encased in a tube
[edit] Quotes
- Kara: You shouldn't involve yourself in their problems.
- Clark: Lex is my friend. I want to help him.
- Kara: You can't trust him.
- Clark: You don't know him.
- Kara: I don't have to. It's human nature. It's just who they are.
- Clark: They happen to be the people that I care about.
- Kara: Which is why it'll be that much harder when they all betray you. I can understand why you're scared. This is all you know. But you're not meant for this world, Kal-El. You were meant for mine.
- Clark: I can't fly.
- Kara: Not yet. This is just the beginning, Kal-El. You have no idea how powerful you'll become.
- Lex: Orange is a good color for you, Dad. Although it might get a little old after 25 to life.
- Jonathan: Clark this is Smallville; the meteor rocks have given a lot of people special abilities.
- Jor-El: Go with Kara, Kal-El.
- Clark: (shouting) I'm not going anywhere! I'll never be who you want me to be!
- Martha: She killed a man, Jonathan. We have to call the sheriff.
- Jonathan: What are we gonna tell the sheriff, Sweetheart, that a Kryptonian girl vaporized a federal agent?
- Lex: There's so much of my own life I can't explain. I've survived countless brushes with death, and it all started with this car crash. If I'm guilty of anything, it's that I've inherited my father's eccentric curiosity for the unexplained.
- Clark: You've inherited his dishonesty.
- Lex: Clark, look me in the eye and tell me you don't have any hidden places of your own where you keep your deep, dark secrets.
- Clark: Ever since I've met you, I've been defending you, making excuses for you to people like Pete, like my parents. Telling them, "You can trust Lex Luthor. He's a good guy. He's nothing like his father." I was wrong.
- Lex: Clark, thanks for showing up. It means a lot to me.
- Clark: I didn't come here for you, Lex. I came here because it's the right thing to do. This friendship is over.
[edit] External Links
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