Combat

"Combat" is the seventeenth episode in the sixth season of Smallville, and the one hundred-twenty-seventh episode overall. It aired on March 22, 2007.

Summary[]

Clark and Chloe discover Titan, a Zoner, who is the star of a secret underground fight club whose bloody battles to the death are broadcast on the internet. Lois needs a story and decides to investigate the fight club by herself, but is captured and forced to participate in the fights with Clark as her first opponent. Lana has pregnancy pain and is rushed to the hospital, and it is revealed that she miscarried the baby.

Recap[]

In a hangar, an underground fight is held. The announcer, Richter Maddox, lines up the fights while in a locker room, a man approaches a woman dressing for the match: Athena. They talk about the "big guy" until Athena tells him to leave. An alarm goes off and they grab guns and go out to see the "big guy," Titan, going berserk. They run away as Titan fights with... Clark Kent.

46 Hours Earlier

Clark is talking to Oliver Queen on the phone when Martha comes in to mention that Clark has secretly been capturing criminals in Metropolis. Clark is upset in the aftermath of Lex and Lana's wedding and releasing his frustrations on any krypto-mutants who get in his way, despite Martha's warnings. Through Oliver, Clark gets word of an underground fight circuit being broadcast over the Internet, and he and Chloe watch on the computer as the main fighter, Titan, battles a man who can project energy from his hand; Titan is unfazed by the blast and kills the man with a spike that extends from his hand. Chloe can't track the signal or get past the security. They do freeze the frame on Titan and see he has a Kryptonian prison tattoo.

Combat0166 — Lex thinks Lana's pulling away from him.

At the manor, Lana and Lex share a non-alcoholic drink and Lex comments on how Lana has been pulling away from him. Lex assures her he'll give her time and figures things will be different once the baby is born.

A short-tempered Clark arrives at Chloe's apartment and she's discovered the previous password has been changed. Chloe has identified one of the fighters, a krypto-mutant who was killed and returned to where he was kept at Belle Reve. Lois comes in and is desperate for a story for the Inquisitor, and Clark and Chloe quickly hush up their investigation. However, after they leave Lois spots the screen capture of the fight and recognizes the setting as an Air Force hangar.

Lois goes to the hangar and claims to be a dancer from a nearby strip club and needs some help. She gets by Athena and takes some photos for her story, but Athena comes back and sees her taking photos and tries to capture her at gunpoint. Lois attacks her and takes her down, but Maddox pulls a gun on her and she is captured.

Chloe has identified Maddox as the director of Belle Reve and Clark decides to talk his way into the ring to find Titan. Meanwhile, at the manor, Lex discovers that his facility in Corto Maltese is compromised... by Green Arrow. He goes to talk to Lana, who is lying on the floor in pain. Lex has her taken to the medical center and Lex is forced to tell her that she's lost the baby due to complications. Lana starts to cry devastated.

Combat0388 — Lex tells Lana they lost the baby.

Clark breaks into Belle Reve and confronts Maddox as he leaves for the night. Clark demands a fight and demonstrates his powers to Maddox to convince him. Maddox agrees to let him fight and takes him to the hangar, where Clark's first opponent is Lois. They're forced to fake a fight and Clark uses his heat vision to destroy the equipment. Titan spots him and comes out to fight, killing Maddox when he gets in the way. Clark tells Lois to run right before Titan punches him with all his strength and Lois tries to run interference, without much luck and in the midst of this, Lois gets unconscious after been thrown by Titan.

Clark comes back for more and the hangar is torn apart in the ensuing battle. Titan knocks Clark down and prepares to stab him with his hand-spike, but Clark regroups and inadvertently knocks him back onto his own spike. Titan congratulates him on a good fight... and then dies. Clark gets Lois out.

Lex's man reports that they found the fight club, but Titan was killed and they don't know who did it. Further, the autopsy reveals that Titan wasn't human.

At the Kent Farm, Clark is going over photos and realizes there are probably more Phantom Zone prisoners. Since he doesn't know how to return them, the only way he can deal with them is to kill them. He confesses to Martha that he isn't sure if Titan's death was an accident and she tries to comfort him and reassure him his feelings mean he's human. Finally, he admits his anger is over Lana and he thinks someone forced her to marry Lex, but Martha says at some point he has to let go.

Lex burning a Lana's medical records — Lex is burning Lana's medical records.

Lana hasn't left the nursery since they got back from the hospital, visibly depressed and upset. She tells Lex she's discovered that Dr. Langston was killed in a "car accident" the day of their wedding. Lex tries to reassure her without much luck and she wants to see Langston's files. Lex asks what he can do, but Lana has nothing to say. Later, Lex gets Lana's files from his family physician and burns them.

Cast[]

Co-Starring[]

Uncredited[]

Uncredited actor as Oliver Queen/Green Arrow
Uncredited actress as Ring Girl #1
Uncredited actress as Ring Girl #2

Mentioned[]

Title[]

Combat is a fight, struggle, or controversy.
This episode feature an underground fight club which broadcasts battles between metahumans and aliens.
The episode opens and ends with an epic fight between Clark and the alien Zoner, Titan.

Notes[]

Antagonist: Titan
Clark’s abilities: Super-Strength, Super-Speed, Invulnerability, Healing factor, Heat Vision.
When in the ring, Lois Lane is introduced as Vixen. DC Comics has a character by this name who is a member of the Justice League.
Lionel Luthor doesn't appear in this episode.
For the second time in two weeks, Clark is referred to as the "Man of Steel", one of Superman's nicknames.
When Chloe and Clark first watch Titan fight, he can be seen delivering a "choke slam" to his opponent. This is the finishing move of Kane (Glenn Jacobs), who plays Titan.
This episode has a deleted scene, in which Clark confronts Titan's next opponent in the locker room before their fight. The fighter reveals that Maddox promises them freedom from Belle Reve if they win the match, and Clark tries to warn him that all of Titan's opponents die. He knocks the fighter out and takes his chance to face Titan.
When it seemed that Clark was going to lose against Titan and decides to take a more aggressive stance by stating to Titan, "My turn", Clark performs a leaping punch which is commonly known in mixed martial arts and pro-wrestling as the "Superman Punch".
This is the second time in this season where WWE superstars make an appearance on the show, and the second episode to feature a WWE superstar playing a Phantom Zone prisoner. The first was Dave Bautista playing Aldar in the episode "Static".
Titan having a weapon that springs out from his wrist, and then being killed by falling upon his own weapon, are both similar to those of the villain in the 1976 film Marathon Man.
Maddox's "Fight or Die" superpowered fights in the arena are a similar format those of Roulette's casino "The House" where she captures heroes with teleporter technology, and pits them against each other. As the show introduced Roulette in Season 9 to help Oliver, this could be the shows version of "The House" as Roulette doesn't appear to own one in the show.
A clip of Lois kicking Athena was shown in Erica Durance's credit during the seventh and eighth season's opening credits. The former season's opening also included a clip of Clark delivering a punch to Titan.
Kane and Tom Welling were born ten years apart.

In Other Media[]

In the comic books, Titan was the name of one of the New Gods from the planet Apokolips, part of Darkseid's elite. Like Smallville's version, he was large, and a fierce fighter.
Titan also has some similarities to the Superman comics villain Doomsday, including the green clothes and the bone shards that protrude from his arms. Also, the wrestler Kane used the ring name "Doomzday" some time ago. However, Smallville's version of Doomsday appears later in Season Eight.
Titan is the 29th DC Comics character adapted into the series.
The fight between Clark and Titan is somewhat reminiscent of the final battle between Superman and Darkseid in Justice League. In both cases, a human (Lois/Batman) ineffectively attacks Titan/Darkseid and clings to their back before before being carelessly thrown aside. Titan/Darkseid also manages to knock Clark around a bit before the latter decides to go all out and finishes off with a shattering slow-motion shockwave punch. Significant damage to the surroundings is caused by both sides.

Continuity[]

This is the first time Green Arrow has been seen since "Justice". However, it is unknown whether or not he was actually played by Justin Hartley. Most likely, the security camera shot of the Green Arrow was reused footage from that episode.
Lois mentions her "killer stars-and-stripes routine", a reference to her awkward stripper dance number in "Exposed".
Lois was last seen in "Crimson".
Dr. Albright was also seen at Belle Reve in the Season 5 episode "Mortal", transferring patients on Lex's orders.
The 33.1 facilities that have not yet been taken out by Green Arrow and his team are Chicago, Sydney, Mumbai and Reeves Dam. Those that have been shut down are Corto Maltese, St. Martaan, Taipei, East Aurora, Vlatava, Havana, Middletown, and Tierra del Fuego.
Titan is the last corporeal Zoner that Clark has to encounter.
Clark finds out about Titan through a tip by Oliver. However, at the end of "Justice" Clark tells Oliver and the rest of the JLA that the reason he can't come with them is because he needed to take care of a problem he caused, yet he doesn't tell them what it is. Ironically, Oliver still ends up helping him anyway (with the tip) without even knowing about the escaped Phantom Zone prisoners.
At the beginning of this episode Clark tells his mom, "You know what's not right? It's staying up here and doing nothing when I could be out there making a difference." This is a direct result of two conversations Clark has had with Oliver. The first was in "Arrow" when Oliver told Clark that with all of his powers, he shouldn't just sit around waiting for people to come to him asking for help. The second conversation happened in "Justice" when Oliver was scolding Clark for "waiting for trouble to show up on his door step," instead of going out to save the world.
This episode marks the 53rd appearance of Clark's red jacket & blue shirt outfit, which he wears frequently throughout the series.

Spoiler[]

Grant Gabriel reveals to Lois that he hired her at the Daily Planet as a full fledged reporter due to her impressive article she wrote in the Metropolis Inquisitor about illegal underground fight clubs in "Blue".

Allusions[]

Chloe says Maddox is a "Vince McMahon wannabe," a reference to Vince McMahon, owner of WWE. Both Kane and former WWE Diva Ashley Massaro were wrestlers on fellow CW program WWE Smackdown! at the time this episode aired.

Locations[]

Smallville

Quotes[]

Chloe: Is that Kryptonian?

Clark: It's a prison tattoo. Chloe, Titan isn't meteor-infected. He's from the Phantom Zone.

Chloe: (looks away) Clark, he just killed that guy.

Clark: The tattoo on Titan's arm. From what I could tell, it said he was a warrior, enhanced for combat. Ever since he's been here, he's been looking for a fight.

Chloe: Then what better challenge for a brawl-loving Zoner than a rumble at a Krypto fight club?

Chloe: Clark, he can kill you!

Clark: Not if I kill him first.

Clark: I'm not going to punch you, Lois.

Lois: Fine. Then you take the dive. (she punches Clark in his stomach and hurts her hand.) That is not just a six-pack under your shirt! That's a steel kegger!

Richtor Maddox: You scared me. Where did you come from?

Clark: You wouldn't believe me if I told you.

Richtor Maddox: Uh, you must have me confused with someone else. It happens, I have that kind of face.

Clark: Come here. (he pushes Maddox against his car) I know about the fight club. I know you're not only using patients from Belle Reve. I want in.

Richtor Maddox: Ow. Okay, look. The only place I could get you into is a psychiatric facility.

Richtor Maddox: Hey, what do you think of the name, the "Man of Steel"?

Clark: "Man of Steel"?

Richtor Maddox: Yeah, I give all the fighters their monikers. Trust me, kid, it's a name that no one's ever going to forget.

Lois: Come on... help a girl out? I'll leave your name at the front door. You can watch my act. I do a killer Stars-and-Stripes routine.

Athena: I've always been a sucker for a girl in boots.

Lois: Lucky me.

Clark: You don't belong here.

Titan: You're the one that doesn't belong.

Chloe: I'm starting to think that, uh, super-sleuthing might be my latent krypto-power.

Clark: I wanted to kill him, Mom. I wanted to kill him with my bare hands. I've never felt rage like that before.

Martha: You were angry before you ever heard of Titan. We both know that's not what this is about.

Titan: (to Clark) Good fight. (falls down dead.)

Athena: Not bad, for a stripper.

Lois: My daddy is proud of me!

External links[]

TV.com(recap source)

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