Key
From Smallville Wiki
This article is about Clark Kent's octagonal disc. For information about the Veritas keys, please see Veritas Society.
The key is an octagonal disc that opens and accesses Kryptonian devices designed by Jor-El and the House of El. The key carries three phrases on its edges written in Kryptonian symbols, one of the phrases being "hope". [1]
Clark used to keep the key wrapped in a shop rag hidden in his father's toolbox in the barn. Now he keeps it in a desk drawer in his loft. It is hidden inside a book-- a copy of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, which has a specially-shaped slot in the pages to hide it. [2] Apparently Clark does not simply superspeed to the Fortress, but instead routinely uses the key to transport himself.[3]
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[edit] Powers and Abilities
The key carries Jor-El's essence as an artificial entity, which is later transferred into the Kawatche Caves and then into the Fortress of Solitude. The key can activate Clark's ship, unlock information hidden in the Kawatche Caves, and, in the inner chamber of the Caves, establish communication between Clark Kent and Jor-El. When placed in a slot in the altar, the key can also be used to teleport a person to the Fortress of Solitude.
The key could serve as a Kryptonian beacon and initially beckoned Clark with a sharp, piercing whine. The key's shape complements the slot in the cave wall.
The key is also capable of reading Clark's mind when he holds the key in his hand (Apocalypse).
[edit] History
Jor-El used the key to open a chamber in the Kawatche Caves in which he stored his memory pendant. Years later, he included the key in the design of the ship which brought his son to Earth.
When Clark's ship first arrived on Earth, the key fell out and for twelve years it lay in Miller's field. Eventually Eddie Cole told Lex Luthor that he saw a ship during the meteor shower, and Lex ordered an excavation of that field. During that excavation, Dr. Steven Hamilton found the key.
Lex kept the key on his desk like a paperweight where Clark saw it. He immediately realized it was the missing piece of the ship. The reporter Roger Nixon had bugged the Kents' and heard the location of both the key and the ship. He then went to Lex's mansion and stole the key, took it to the Kents' storm cellar and activated the ship. It released a healing ray which cured Martha's infertility. The ship flew out of the storm cellar and the key once again fell out.
Lionel Luthor gained possession of the key after this and had it in his Metropolis vault. During an attempted robbery (foiled by Clark), Martha managed to take the key from the robbers without anyone, including Lionel's, knowledge. She hid it in a flour container under the sink, but then moved it to the cellar where she displaced kryptonite-contaminated spores and became ill. In the following DCA investigation, the key was discovered and confiscated. When Clark became ill as well, Jonathan infiltrated the DCA facility to get it back. He and Clark placed it in the ship just in time to heal Martha and Clark from the spores' effects.
Clark had the key from this point until he placed it into the Kawatche Cave wall. It flew out and embedded itself another part of the cave wall. It was discovered by Dr. Frederick Walden who also put it in the cave wall, resulting in a blast of energy that put him into a catatonic state. Clark collected the key from Walden's unconscious body and the Kents hid it until Jonathan used it to contact Jor-El in an effort to bring Clark home. Later, Jonathan was strangely drawn to take the key back to the caves, but he was interrupted by Lionel Luthor. They fought over the key, but it was absorbed by the wall of the cave. Inexplicably, it turned up in the possession of Dr. Virgil Swann. Nobody knew where the key was until he died and returned it to Clark.
After hearing Clark and Chloe’s complaints through the Key, Jor-El sent Clark to an alternate universe.
[edit] Appearances
This is a list of episodes important to the story arc of the key.
Season One
- Obscura: Lex finds the key in Miller's Field
- Tempest: Roger Nixon steals the key from Lex and activates Clark's ship.
Season Two
- Vortex: The key falls out of the ship.
- Duplicity: Lionel learns about the ship.
- Skinwalker: Lex notices the octagonal keyhole in the Kawatche Caves.
- Insurgence: The key turns up in Lionel's vault. Martha steals it and hides it in the flour can.
- Fever: DCA finds the key in the storm cellar. Jonathan steals it back.
- Rosetta: Clark uses the key to learn Kryptonian. He accidentally leaves the key in the cave where Frederick Walden finds it. After he uses it, Clark finds it again.
- Calling: Dr. Walden steals the key, but Clark retrieves it from his burned hand.
- Exodus: Clark steals the kryptonite key from Lionel and destroys the ship.
Season Three
- Exile: Jonathan takes the key to the cave and asks Jor-El to help him retrieve Clark.
- Relic: Jor-El uses the key to open a space to stash the memory pendant.
- Legacy: Jonathan tries to use the key at the Kawatche caves, but it disappears when Lionel interferes. Somehow, Virgil Swann has the key.
Season Four
- Sacred: Clark receives one last letter from Virgil Swann before he died. Along with it was the Key. Clark then uses it to go to the cave to speak to Jor-El.
- Commencement: Hours before the Second Meteor Shower, Clark uses the key to go to the Cave to speak with Jor-El
Season Five
- Solitude: Clark uses the key to transport himself and Milton Fine to the Fortress of Solitude. Later, Chloe uses the key to get to the Fortress.
- Reckoning: Clark uses the key to transport himself and Lana to the Fortress of Solitude
- Vessel: Clark uses the key to transport to the Fortress of Solitude
Season Seven
- Blue: Clark keeps the key in a book at his barn which he uses the portal at the Kawatche Caves to get to the Fortress of Solitude.
- Traveler: Clark was going to use it before Pierce and his reinforcements took him away. Chloe used it to get herself and Kara Kent to the Fortress of Solitude to plead with Jor-El to restore Kara's powers.
- Sleeper: Clark used it to go to the Fortress to ask about the missing Kara and a mention of Lana in one of Jor-El's transmissions in the Swann's journal.
- Apocalypse: Jor-El used the key to hear Clark say that the world would be better if he had never existed, then used the key to show Clark an alternative universe.
[edit] Quotes
- Jor-El: (to Clark) The disc in your hand revealed your misguided intentions. I was forced to show you the error of your ways. I sent you to Earth for a purpose, Kal-El, one that cannot be taken lightly.
- Season Seven, Apocalypse
[edit] References
- ↑ One symbol is identical to the symbol Virgil Swann sent to Clark in an email in Rosetta, which Clark translated to mean "hope".
- ↑ Clark is seen taking it out of the toolbox in Rosetta and Legacy. The book hiding spot can be seen in Blue
- ↑ Clark is seen using it to travel to the Fortress in multiple episodes-- Reckoning, Vessel, Blue, Sleeper. Chloe notices he left it behind in Solitude and she and Lana deduce that because the key is still in its place in Traveler, he never made it to the Fortress.
[edit] See Also
- Clark's ship
- Jor-El
- Kryptonite key - a copy of the real key that Lionel made from meteor rock and a burned indentation on the hand of Frederick Walden's corpse.
