Starkville’s House of El Podcast

In the teaser, we see that Lois has disguised herself as a lab tech, grabbing camera footage for The Blur, or at least who SHE thinks is the Blur. She has snuck into a secret project run by Tess involving a cybertronic self-sustaining heart. When the security guard busts her because she doesn’t look like someone named Hank Wu, as indicated on her badge, the fight causes enough commotion that someone slips away. The fight causes a huge explosion that sends Lois soaring down an elevator shaft. However, she is caught by the man who needed the upgrade: John Corben aka Metallo!

Lois wakes up in bed by Clark, who just got there. She is not sure what happened but covers it up so Clark doesn’t worry. He notices a scratch on her arm, which she says came from opening The Hangover dvd with a Swiss army knife. I know how she feels! Clark is persistant, saying that there isn’t a need for this much mystery in their relationship, as he hasn’t seen her in a week. Lois tries her charms on him, but it’s put aside quickly when she gets a call from “the Blur”. Clark leaves as Lois fills Zod in on the events of the previous night, thanking him for the rescue.

Leaving the Talon’s apartment, she hears some noises coming from the basement. She goes in and finds John Corben in a weakened state. She is ready to turn him over to the authorities but he pleads with her that his mind is almost normal except for the upgrade he got: a chip implanted in the back of his neck which would have controlled him if Lois didn’t save him. But his electronic heart is in need of meteor rock for fuel. They take off in Lois’s car.

Meanwhile, Clark is trying to figure out what Lois was up to the night before. Chloe is helping from Watchtower but calls him on their trust issues, citing the lowjacked keychain they are tracing. The signal leads Clark to underground to the lab, where he discovers some red meteor rock in a mist. Back at Watchtower, Clark is doing some computer searching. Chloe comes in and jokes that she might not be needed. Clark tells her he was tired of waiting for her.

Clark shows Chloe what he’s discovered: that Tess has been stockpiling kryptonite across the country. Chloe confesses that it was really her and Oliver behind it. Clark’s eyes blaze red as they begin to argue. Chloe pleads that it was to protect them from a possible war with the Kryptonians. He bellows that he is Kryptonian and even goes as far as to push Chloe onto the ground. “There is a war, Chloe, right now, and you’re about to lose it.” He brands the Watchtower with his shield and leaves.

John Corben is inside one of these stockpiles. Inside a tractor trailer, he doses himself with a meteor rock. When he comes out, Clark is there. He winces at the light of the green rock, but then a couple bolts of fire destroy the trailer. From the sky, Zod swoops in, looks at Clark and then speeds away. Clark is learning that everyone is lying to him at the wrong time!

Lois arrives at the scene. She finds Corben naked. He tells her they need to get out of there in case the Blur decides to wreak more havoc. She surprised the Blur was involved. At the ruined lab, Chloe tries to discover what Clark got into. Tess steps out of the shadows and the two exchange barbs for a bit before Chloe finds the red meteor rock. Chloe tells Tess that if she wants to protect her alien pet project, she should help her find Clark.

Meanwhile, Zod is unsheathing a glowing green sword, which must mean goblins nearby. Clark shows up and, after coercing Zod, finds out that Zod got his powers from Clark’s blood. Zod asks him to join him because of the lies that Chloe told him. Red-K-infused Clark has no problem sealing the deal with the super-cool forearm-clasping handshake.

Lois and Corben are getting settled on a bus, but he wants her to go. She tells him she won’t leave him until he is at the military base in South Dakota getting help from the General’s friend, Dr. Hale. Corben notices that a lady is having trouble securing her bag in the overhead, so he gets up to help her. With his back turned, she places an emotion chip onto the implant in the back of his neck. He immediately starts to leave the bus. Lois gets up to protest but gets injected with a sedative and left on the bus.

Meanwhile, Clark and Zod are proving that walking away from flames is still cool. Their conversation drifts to Jor-El and Zod says they were like opposite sides of the same coin. Clark admits he had a friendship like that once (Lex), and declares that it’s time to live a little. At the Space Needle in Seattle, Zod wishes Jor-El could see them now. Clark says that he can, but first gives the city an unexpected wintery blast with his super cold breath.

Chloe and Tess are still at the lab when Chloe finds a weather alert for Seattle. UUsing satellite imagery, she catches a shot of Clark and Zod atop the Needle. They wonder about the sudden bromance, when Corben returns.

At the Fortress, Clark welcomes home his new brother, but is frustrated that Jor-El is silent. He announces that he is done with constant lectures and mindgames anyway. Zod asks him if he would like the answers to everything in the universe. He tells Clark that on Krypton, they revered the red sun god, Rao. To them, religion is science, but their bible, the Book of Rao is on Earth. He states that “With the Fortress and the Book there are no limits to what we can achieve.”

Chloe watches Corben’s GPS feed at the lab, but stops it so Tess doesn’t see where he’s going. Chloe hears movement in the lab and hides just as Lois shows up, cracking that this is the “least secret secret lab I’ve been in twice.” She tells Tess that she can’t cover up what she did to Corben, just as Chloe chloroforms her. Lois was talking about The Hangover earlier. I can imagine with that much sedative in her system; she may wake up with a tiger in her bathroom, too.

Back at the Fortress, we realize as Corben arrives through the portal that Chloe must have sent him to the Caves. Clark and Zod are baffled at this sudden arrival, but when he comes at them, they make a good team. Zod zips around him, and when he turns, Clark blasts some ice from the ceiling to rain down on him. This knocks the chip off. He remarks, “I sure like what you’ve done with the place” and starts to advance on Clark. But he is caught in a tornado of freeze breath as Zod and Clark turn him into a block of ice.

But Corben is not beaten yet. He breaks free and tries to make a field goal with Zod. He tells Clark that he is here to save him before he plunges a sharp kryptonite rock into him. The red K in his body is cured and Corben tells Clark to thank me another time before putting the key into the crystals and disappearing. You can see that Clark realizes he has made a mistake, but now Zod is gone.

Lois is stopped on street by Corben. She hands him the cybertronic self-sustaining heart, which makes Corben even more enamored with her. He declares that she is his hero and asks her to come away with him. Lois lets him down easy and tells him she is seeing someone who “is it for me.” Corben tells her, “You are a real dame, Lois Lane.”

Zod is drinking in his lair when he finds pictures of him and Clark on the Space Needle. Tess is there and worried he may be backing out of their arrangement. She tells him that he can’t bet on someone who so quickly switches allegiances. To further her cause, she reveals that she has discovered a secret rebellion of Kandorians that answer to Clark. She shows Clark pictures from the episode Conspiracy where Clark was giving Faora and Vala their identities.

At Watchtower, Clark remarks that an apology on video would save him some time. He isn’t mad that she lied to him, because in the future, her weapons saved the Earth.  He admits that what happened with him and Zod was partly due to the red K, but also could be attributed to wish fulfillment, as he feels that Zod is the only one that can really understand him, and that he feels close to him, like a brother. At the Fortress, Zod has assembled a small group to drink his blood and gain powers. He raises the blood to the heavens as we fade to black.

I’d like to say thanks for all the feedback last week as most of you figured as I did that the Red Queen is probably Martha. It’s so strange how Elseworlds this show can get because I just don’t see our Martha as this government puppetmaster that can hold her own against something like Checkmate. Then again, I never felt like John Corben was such an empathetic character until Smallville either.

There were a few “what in the Sam Hill?” moments for me, and maybe as a discussion this week, you can help me fill in the blanks that I seemed to have missed:

1.       We see Lois and Corben drive off after she found him in the basement of the Talon. Next thing you know, Lois is gone, and Corben is getting his Krypto fix before Clark and Zod show up. So where did Lois run off to and how the heck did either of them know about the stockpile?

2.       We see that Corben has the key when he disappears from the Fortress. Does the key stay in the caves or do you think Chloe actually directed Corben to go to Kent Farm, find the key, and then go to the Caves to use the shortcut to the North Pole? Or maybe Chloe carries the key in her purse?

3.       Lois gives Corben the (Cyberdyne) cybertronic self-sustaining heart. Do you think she stole it right under Tess’ nose before she got knocked out, or do you think Chloe gave it to her?

4.       Also, Brian Austin Green is awesome. Discuss.

Til next week…

This entry was posted on Monday, April 19th, 2010 at 12:27 pm and is filed under Reviews. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.