To investigate, Clark spends some time in the Torch offices reviewing the play, when Chloe walks in. Surprisingly, Chloe doesn't kill him for what he did last week, which comes as sort of surprise. Clark mentions that he felt strange on that play, like his mind was saying one thing, but his body was doing another. Chloe knows exactly what he means. After she returned from watching the Shark's play the day before, she had bought herself some gifts (she is using the bulk of her savings for college tuition). Mikhail asked her if she enjoyed herself, and told her that if she held off on the article, he could show her more, and throws in some euro trash pickup lines just for good measure. When Chloe refuses to back down, he threatens her a little more strongly, and as a transparent display of his power, forces Chloe to kiss him. Chloe doesn't stop the article, but she does let Clark know that Mikhail is one of the biggest bookies in the school. While researching his name, they find no matches, but the search engine suggests looking the name up in reverse order. Now looking up "KLTPZYMX" (I'm not even going to try and pronounce it), they find an old Balkan legend about race of people who would terrorize a town because they could manipulate chance. They were only stopped by a plague of locusts. So while they had their solution, it looked like it was going to be difficult to pull off, but at least they didn't have to turn any rivers to blood or kill of all the first born.

Clark tries to take things into his own hands. He knows that Luthorcorp runs the foundation, and rats Mikhail out to Clark about Mikhail's side activities. Lex is curious as to why Clark is so interested, but combined with his earlier reservations about Mikhail, decides to go ahead and deport him. When Lex informs Mikhail of the plan, Mikhail convinces Lex to place a wager on the game. If the Smallville wins, Lex can have Mikhail deported. If they lose, Lex must set Mikhail free, and give him a million dollars. Lex agrees, and Mikhail plays a visit to Clark to make sure his plan goes through. He is unaware of Clark's powers, but knows that Clark is the only one who was able to recover from one of his mind control acts. Mikhail tells Clark he must throw the game, but can't sit out. To show he means business, Mikhail uses his ability to choke Clark, who can't do anything to stop it. He allows Clark to breathe, and leaves, thinking he can't be stopped.

Just before the game, Clark meets with Chloe. She did a little investigating (surprise!) about the locusts, and says that in order for locusts to not run into each other, they emit a high frequency noise. She thinks that if they can reproduce that noise, they should be able to stop Mikhail for good. Chloe even knows a way to reproduce that sound, and tells Clark to go ahead and play the game. Now, I am sure the producers were very proud of their little montage of Clark getting ready for the game. It was full of the generic images of somebody getting ready for a big game, it is them against the world, blah, blah, blah. What I didn't get was why they had all of a sudden turned the football game into a big commercial for Old Spice Red Zone deodorant. I mean, it was in Clark's locker when he was getting ready, which is no big deal, but during the climactic part of the montage where they are running out of the tunnel and back on the field, there is this big Red Zone banner across the entrance. They try not to be too obvious about it, but it is plain as day that they are trying to work it in to every shot possible. The other problem I had with the montage is that we got this image of Clark getting ready in the locker room. He puts on his pads, uniform, and helmet, and he is alone in the locker room. But when they cut to the shot of the team heading to the field, his is suddenly back with all of his teammates. And speaking of things that don't make sense, when he was talking with Lex about Mikhail the day before, Lex had no visible sign that he had been cut. I know Lex doesn't get sick that often, but god wouldn't he have a band-aid on it, if not some stitches?

Posted by J-Unit on November 4, 2004 8:53 AM