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Insurgence

Insurgence
Smallville212 200.jpg
Series 2x12
Episode 33
Writer Jeph Loeb & Kenneth Biller
Director James Marshall
Broadcast Date January 21, 2003
Production Code 175062
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Previous Episode: Visage

Next Episode: Suspect

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SummaryEdit

After Lex discovers that Lionel installed cameras in the mansion, he hires some thugs to bug Lionel's office, but things get out of control when Lionel and Martha surprise the thugs and are taken hostage. Clark must figure out a way to save his mother without exposing his powers and sees his chance on an adjacent tall building - if only he could make the leap in a single bound.

RecapEdit

At the Luthor Mansion, Lex is berating one of his lawyers for leaking information which has lost him a 150-million dollar contract to Lionel. The next day, Clark arrives to find Lex tearing his place apart looking for high tech listening devices. Clark helps him find a tiny video camera in the stereo. When Lex confronts his father about the listening devices, Lionel denies everything. When Lionel leaves, Lex places a call to a team he has hired to place bugs in LuthorCorp Headquarters.

Lionel and Martha are taken hostage.

Jonathan Kent is preparing a picnic for his wife, but Martha has to go to work in Metropolis. Clark looks uneasy as his parents argue. Lana Lang arrives at the loft to talk with Clark just before her big date with Jennifer Small, Henry Small's wife. She's very nervous and excited about it, but Clark confides that even with a family, not every day is a picnic. He confides that his parents aren't getting along right now because they disagree on Martha's job with Lionel. Clark goes to the mansion to ask Lex for help putting together a romantic evening for his parents in Metropolis. When Lex realizes that Lionel and Martha are at headquarters, he calls his team to call off the operation, but unknown to Lex, the team has decided to become burglars.

Jennifer and Henry Small meet with Lana at the Talon.

Lionel and Martha are working in another office at LuthorCorp Plaza. Lionel gives Martha a beautiful watch and tells her that she has been promoted and she has her own office here in Metropolis. Martha is flattered, but admits that her job is already putting too much strain on her family. Before she can properly turn down the promotion, a member of the team enters the room with a gun.

Back in Smallville, Clark and Lex have arrived at the Kent Farm with a helicopter to take Jonathan to Metropolis to have dinner with Martha, but he is offended at the intrusion. When they hear the news report that Lionel and Martha being held hostage in Metropolis, they drive to the city. Clark encourages Jonathan to ask Lex for the helicopter ride, which he does, with great difficulty. Lex talks on the phone with one of the team members, Pine, but Pine isn't taking orders from Lex.

In Metropolis, the team discovers that Lionel has already called the police with a panic button. They argue a good deal and Pine shoots and kills Kern.

At the Talon, Jennifer Small tells Lana that she doesn't want her to spend a lot of time with Henry Small. Lana assumes she is jealous and doesn't want to share her husband with another daughter, but Jennifer explains that Henry loses interest in things easily and she doesn't want Lana to get hurt when he loses interest in her.

Clark takes a flying leap.
Kal-ELAdded by Kal-EL

When Clark arrives in Metropolis, his efforts to enter the building are thwarted by the tenacious Captain Maggie Sawyer. Lionel and Martha talk about how each of them shared harsh words with the their loved ones the last time they saw them. When Jonathan arrives in Metropolis, Clark tells him he has a plan to enter Luthor Tower by jumping from the roof of the Daily Planet building.

Kryptonite bars in Lionel's vault.
Kal-ELAdded by Kal-EL

When the burglars finally get the vault open, they find a pallet stacked with bricks of kryptonite, files on Clark Kent and the key. The burglars are very disappointed, but Martha is appalled. Pine gets on the phone with Lex and tells him what he found in the vault. Lex offers him a million dollars for the contents of the vault, but Lionel offers him two million dollars. Then Clark comes crashing through the window. When he reaches the room in where his mother is being held, he is overcome by the kryptonite in the room. Martha pushes the kryptonite into the vault and closes the door. Clark burns up the files, and Martha pockets the key.

When the police arrive, Captain Sawyer is not happy to see that Clark has been playing hero. Lex tries to assure his father that he did everything he could to help him, but Lionel has already guessed that it was Lex that sent the team in there in the first place.

The next day, Martha has prepared her letter of resignation, but Jonathan suggests that if it weren't for Martha's job, they never would have known about the contents of Lionel's vault. It might be a good idea for her to stick with him a while more. After Jonathan and Clark leave the room, Martha puts the key in a can of flour and then hides the can under the sink.

Recurring RolesEdit

Guest CastEdit

  • Kern - Byron Mann
  • Pine - Kevin Gage
  • Nicky - Colin Cunningham
  • Bishop - Karen Holness
  • Lex's Lackey - Paul McGillion
  • Newscaster - Dagmar Midcap

Featured MusicEdit

  • "Invisible Man" - Theory Of A Deadman
  • "Bittersweetheart" - Ed Harcourt
  • "Tomorrow" - SR-71

TitleEdit

  • Insurgence is the state or condition of being in revolt or insurrection, or an uprising.
  • In this episode, a team of thieves breaks into the LuthorCorp Plaza and revolt against Lex's orders.

NotesEdit

  • Antagonist: Insurgence team
  • Clark uses the following abilities in this episode: super strength, super speed, X-ray vision (off-screen), heat vision, and super leaping.
  • Pete Ross and Chloe Sullivan do not appear in this episode. This is the first episode to not feature Chloe.
  • This episode marks the first time the Daily Planet building has made a prominent appearance.
  • This episode mentions Clark has a fear of heights.
  • In this episode, Clark makes a super leap away from a building (the Daily Planet). This is probably a reference to the famous line about Superman, "leaps tall buildings in a single bound."
  • The opening scene in which Lex tears his office apart looking for bugs is a possible homage to the final scene of the 1974 film The Conversation, in which the character Harry Caul--played by Gene Hackman, who later played Lex Luthor in the first, second, and fourth Superman films--tears up his apartment in a fit of paranoia searching for listening devices.
  • This is the second episode where Lex is jealous of Clark's family after a kidnapping. It happens before in Jitters.
  • On the leather sofa, where Lionel and Martha whisper to one another as they are held hostage, Martha calls Lionel "Lion," both in the heat of drama as well as a reference to the meaning of Lionel's name.
  • This is the first and only episode in the series that gives Martha the most screentime.

In Other MediaEdit

  • The character Maggie Sawyer is from the DC Comics universe. In the comics, she is head of the Special Crimes Unit (which handles super-powered things) and a friend of Superman's.
  • Maggie Sawyer is the first DC Comics character, after the pilot, and the 7th DC Comics character overall, to be adapted into the series.

ContinuityEdit

  • The Luthor Mansion was bugged when Lionel came to spend some time with Lex in the mansion and moved the furniture around because of his "condition". (Red)
  • Jonathan references the time when Clark had a party on the Kent Farm and trashed the house a year prior in Jitters.
  • Metropolis Police Captain Maggie Sawyer also appears in Exile, Exposed, and Descent.
  • Henry Small was last seen in Skinwalker.
  • This episode marks the 4th appearance of Clark's Red jacket/Blue shirt outfit, which he will wear more frequently throughout the series until it becomes identified as his Red-Blue Blur attire in Season Eight. He previously wore this outfit in Vortex, Nocturne, and Visage.

TriviaEdit

  • The actor who plays Kern is also a Chinese officer in the episode Sacred. He also played Wesley in the 2003 Catwoman movie.

SpoilersEdit

  • Martha's strange decision to hide the key from Jonathan and Clark is later explained in Fever.
  • The deep voice that Lex Luthor uses when he is on the phone is similar to the one he has in Requiem.
  • In this episode, Lionel is able to shoot and kill one of the crooks despite supposedly being blind. We learn just three episodes later in Prodigal, that Lionel had regained his sight by Prodigal, but was still pretending to be blind untill that episode's end. This makes it likely that Lionel has regained his sight by this episode, hence his ability to fire a fatal shot.

LocationsEdit

QuotesEdit

Jonathan: Clark! I don't suppose you have any idea why there's a helicopter parked in our front yard, do you?

Jonathan: Look, I don't know how things work in your house, but around here, we think it's important to respect other people's privacy.
Clark: Dad...
Lex: It's all right, Clark... Mr. Kent, ever since the day I moved to Smallville, I've done nothing but try to be a friend to you. And in return, you do nothing but lecture me with sanctimonious platitudes. I'm done listening to them.

Lex: Mr. Kent, whatever I'm doing is in the best interests of your wife and my father, believe me.
Jonathan: If I find out you had anything to do with what's going on out there, you will pray to God that you never set foot in Smallville, you believe me.

Clark: Lex, what's going on?
Lex: (puts his finger to his lips; goes over to the stereo) Big brother is listening, or should I say "Big Daddy".

External LinksEdit


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