With his hopes of a college scholarship dashed, Clark has to go back to doing what the rest of us poor souls do when the recruiters and the boosters aren't knocking on our door, namely fill out applications, write essays, and go to alumni interviews. Clark is busy with his applications when he gets a package from Dr. Swann. At that same moment, Jonathan turns on the TV, where they are announcing Dr. Swann's death. Clark is stunned, as they had spoken just days earlier, and there was still so much that he had to learn. Opening the package, Clark found that Dr. Swann returned another octagonal piece of the spaceship he crashed to earth in, with further instructions about his father Jor-El, and Clark's legacy.

Whenever you talk about Clark's legacy, you have to think about the caves. I wonder how long it is going to take for Clark to learn these caves don't have a lot of privacy and move his setup to the arctic. Clark places the piece of the ship inside a piece of the rock, and his dad appears to him as a disembodied voice. Usually when Jor-el has appeared, it has not been good news. He is either making Clark go crazy or trying to kill Jonathan somehow. This time, there is nothing to worry about. Jor-el gives us a little explanation of the stones. They are the stones of knowledge, and when he collects them all, he will be able to harness all of the power of his ancestors. Oh, and he needs to get them before any humans do, because they will use them to destroy the earth. No problem, it's just the fate of an entire civilization on his hands. Clark is probably more worried about finding a senior prom date (although I am guessing he will just take the copout and go with Lois).

So, Clark needs to find out more about the stones. Hmm, why not start with the girl who has a Krypton symbol magically tattooed on her back? When he gets to Lana's apartment, she is visibly upset. She had spoken to Jason earlier and he said he was in Metropolis, but she was later called to the Luthor mansion by Lionel and told that he was actually in Shanghai. Lionel then went on to tell Lana a little bit more about Countess Isabelle Thoreau and her arch rival the Dutchess Gertrude. The Dutchess was obsessed with the three stones as well, and she used her wealth to search for them all over the globe. One of her ships came back from China with a map, which the Countess stole and had hidden. For her crime, the Countess was burned at the stake, but before she died, she promised to exact revenge on Gertrude. Jason and his mother are direct descendants of Gertrude, and Lana is a direct descendant of Isabelle. If ever there was an example for the term "star-crossed lovers", Lana and Jason would be it.

Although Lionel isn't directly searching for the stones anymore, he knows that his son is, and he knows that he can passive-aggressively get other people to do some of his work as well. For instance, tell Lana her boyfriend is in Shanghai, give her the same map that he has, then offer to fly her to Shanghai. Lana is packing for her little expedition when Clark comes along. He knows that it has something to do with one of the stones, so he offers to come along with her. And to be honest, even though they are not a couple, he isn't going to let her face all of those horrible communists without any help. And although I have serious doubts that the Luthorcorp jet has the range to make it to China from Kansas (maybe with a stop at LAX), it is not a bad way to travel. But come on Lex, any billionaire worth his salt has a BBJ to fly him around.

Jason was not the only person who was in China from Smallville. As it turns out, Lex had followed him (very conveniently leaving the Luthorcorp jet at home so his dad could let Lana and Clark use it later). Lex knew that he couldn't completely trust Jason, so he followed him to China, perhaps thinking that his father or Jason's mother might have told him something to help him find the stone they are looking for. All they need to do is lay low, and make their way up to the temple on the map. Unfortunately for them, two tall white guys tend to attract a lot of attention, including that of the People's Army, who chase them through the streets for a little while before capturing them, driving off (apparently China buys surplus American Hummers for the use of their army), and taking them to a cell.

Posted by J-Unit on February 24, 2005 12:23 PM