Freak of the week

From Smallville Wiki

A Freak of the week (or FOTW) refers to a metahuman villain who is prominently featured in a Smallville episode, typically appearing only in a single episode.  A FOTW villain is often a "meteor freak", or temporarily metahuman as a result of kryptonite-inspired powers.   The "freak of the week" formula was heavily used in Season One.

See: Freak of the Week Episodes.

Contents 1 Formula 2 Season One 3 Season Two 4 Season Three 5 Season Four 6 Season Five 7 Season Six 8 Season Seven 9 Season Eight 10 Season Nine 11 Notes 12 External Links

[edit] Formula

The typical formula for a "freak of the week" episode has three key elements:

• The freak of the week gains kryptonite-inspired powers (either from the meteor shower or from a more recent exposure to kryptonite).
• They become psychotic and use their powers to attempt to somehow hurt or terrorize someone else.
• The freak of the week is eventually subdued by a hero (usually Clark Kent), and either end up somehow dying or alternatively, are institutionalized in Belle Reve. Occasionally they lose their superpowers, and go back to being normal human beings.

[edit] Season One

• Pilot - Jeremy Creek, a metahuman with the ability to manipulate electricity
• Metamorphosis - Greg Arkin, a metahuman with the powers of a insect
• Hothead - Coach Walt Arnold, a metahuman who can control fire
• X-Ray - Tina Greer, a metahuman who can assume any form
• Cool - Sean Kelvin, a metahuman who can drain body heat
• Hourglass - Harry Volk, a metahuman who could regain his youth. Also featured was Cassandra Carver, a metahuman with tactile precognition.
• Craving - Jodi Melville, a metahuman who could suck the fat out of other people
• Jitters - Earl Jenkins had developed the "jitters" from kryptonite exposure
• Shimmer - Jeff Palmer became temporarily metahuman (and invisible) when he used a kryptonite cream
• Hug - Bob Rickman, a metahuman who could convince people with his handshake. His business partner Kyle Tippet also had the same abilities.
• Leech - Eric Summers became temporarily metahuman after leeching Clark Kent's powers
• Kinetic - Wade Mahaney, Derek Fox and Scott Bowman became temporarily metahuman after they used kryptonite tattoos to become intangible.
• Reaper - Tyler Randall, a metahuman who could turn humans into ash
• Drone - Sasha Woodman, a metahuman who could command swarms of bees
• Crush - Justin Gaines, a metahuman who had telekinetic powers

[edit] Season Two

• Heat - Desirée Atkins, a metahuman who could use pheromones to manipulate human males
• Nocturne - Byron Moore, a metahuman who got superstrength in sunlight
• Redux - Chrissy Parker, a metahuman who could suck youth out of humans to be forever young
• Dichotic - Ian Randall, a metahuman who could split into two different Ians
• Skinwalker - Kyla Willowbrook, a metahuman who can transform into a white wolf
• Witness - Eric Marsh, a metahuman who gained superstrength from a kryptonite inhaler
• Accelerate - Emily Dinsmore, a metahuman clone who had superspeed, kinetic powers and could vibrate so fast she could walk through solid walls

[edit] Season Three

• Extinction - Jake Pollen, a metahuman with amphibious abilities.
• Slumber - Sarah Conroy, a metahuman who can manipulate dreams.
• Magnetic - Seth Nelson, a metahuman who developed magnetic control over metal and mind
• Obsession - Alicia Baker, a metahuman who could teleport
• Truth - Chloe Sullivan, had the ability to make anyone but Clark tell the truth temporarily.
• Talisman - Jeremiah Holdsclaw became temporarily metahuman when he held a Kawatche knife

[edit] Season Four

• Façade - Abigail Fine, a metahuman who caused violent hallucinations after being exposed to her mother's kryptonite-powered plastic surgery
• Jinx - Mikhail Mxyzptlk, a metahuman who could control other people
• Pariah - Tim Westcott, a metahuman who can dissolve his body and the clothing he is wearing into sand
• Recruit - Geoff Johns, a metahuman who can paralyze people
• Spirit - Dawn Stiles, a metahuman spirit who can possess others
• Forever - Brendan Nash, a metahuman who can turn people into wax

[edit] Season Five

• Mortal - Tommy Lee, a metahuman with the power to control electricity, and the Twins, metahumans who can generate a forcefield
• Thirst - Buffy Sanders, a metahuman with vampiric abilities
• Fade- Graham Garrett, a metahuman with the power to disappear at will.

[edit] Season Six

• Reunion - Duncan Allenmeyer, a metahuman who can astral project and use psychokinesis
• Subterranean - Jed McNally, a metahuman with the ability to tunnel underground
• Hydro - Linda Lake, a metahuman with the ability to turn herself into water

[edit] Season Seven

• Fierce - Weather Girls, three metahumans with the ability to control the elements
• Wrath - Lana Lang, Lana temporarily gets Clark's powers through Kryptonite.
• Cure -Curtis Knox has the ability to live forever, although it is unclear where his powers came from.

[edit] Season Eight

• Plastique - Bette Sans Souci, a metahuman who creates explosions.
• Identity - Sebastian Kane, a metahuman with the ability of memory control.

[edit] Season Nine

• Metallo - John Corben, a cyborg powered by a kryptonite heart after Zod and his Kryptonian army operated on Corben after he was hit by a bus.

[edit] Notes

• In Season One, only Rogue, Zero, Nicodemus, Obscura, Stray, and Tempest did not feature a freak of the week villain.
• Freak of the week alumni sometimes show up in future episodes. Notable examples include Tina Greer (Visage) , Emily Dinsmore (Forsaken), Alicia Baker (Obsession), and Sasha Woodman (Cure).
• Freak of the week alumni sometimes also team up in future episodes. A notable example is Eric Summers and Ian Randall teaming up with Van McNulty (Asylum).
• Season Six features Clark tracking down alien prisoners of the Phantom Zone. Several of these prisoners (Gloria, Baern, Titan, Aldar, and Dr. Hudson) appear in only one episode in a format that is evocative of the freak of the week formula.
• Four series regulars have had FOTW-style episodes where they temporarily become metahuman and then follow the freak of the week formula. These include Whitney Fordman in Season 1 (he gains intangibility powers from kryptonite tattoos), Chloe Sullivan in Season 3 (she gain truth powers from kryptonite-based truth gas), Lana Lang in Season 5 and Season 7 (in Season 5, she becomes a vampire after being bitten by a metahuman vampire, and in Season 7 she gains Clark's powers after being struck by lightning while holding kryptonite), and Pete Ross in Season 7 (he gains elasticity powers from kryptonite-contaminated chewing gum). All of their personalities change while possessing powers, and all of them revert back after losing or giving up their powers.
• In Season Eight, although the freak of the week formula is used in Identity, this is used for the B-plot, while the A-plot focuses on Clark trying to hide his identity

[edit] External Links

• Villain of the week - Wikipedia link