This week on Smallville, Lana finally gets an answer to one of her oldest family tragedies, thanks to her great-uncle Dexter McCallum, who’s currently serving time for murdering his wife, Louise, four decades ago. Dexter calls Lana out of the blue to show her a picture of the real killer: a drifter who arrived in Smallville back in 1961. The twist? That drifter is the spitting image of Clark Kent! Naturally, Clark gets involved, figuring out that the mysterious, leather-jacket-clad stranger is none other than his biological father, Jor-El. Get ready for some serious family drama, 1960s style, as the secrets of the House of El and the Lang family are tied together in a scandalous and ultimately tragic knot.
Using a Kryptonian medallion recovered from the Kawatche Caves, Clark is hit with a serious dose of psychometry, giving him trippy visions of his father’s time on Earth. We get to see Tom Welling and Kristin Kreuk in vintage threads, playing star-crossed lovers Jor-El (or “Joe,” as he was known) and Louise McCallum. Watch as the seemingly innocent quest to prove Dexter’s innocence unravels a murder plot involving Lex Luthor’s grandfather and a shocking local conspiracy involving a character we all know now as Mayor Tate. This isn’t just a murder mystery; it’s a history lesson showing us that the El, Lang, and Luthor families have been destined to collide for generations. Oh, and keep an eye out for a young Hiram Kent, because apparently, helping out the “Man of Steel’s” dad is a family tradition!
Episode Review
“Relic” is one of those great episodes that pulls back the curtain on the show’s mythology, proving that Smallville wasn’t afraid to take big swings with Superman lore. The idea that Jor-El came to Earth long before Clark and even shacked up in the Kent barn for a bit is a wild, fun piece of retconning. It also ties the Jor-El/Louise tragedy directly into the Clark/Lana destiny theme, which, depending on how you feel about the ‘Clana’ pairing, is either heartbreakingly romantic or just a little too convenient. For us, it’s a brilliant way to justify all that romantic angst by establishing that their families are cosmically linked. The script is solid, the mystery is genuinely engaging, and the emotional stakes are high, especially when you see the parallel tragedies suffered by both the father and the son.
Stars and the “Freak of the Week”
The main cast is great, particularly Tom Welling (Clark Kent/Jor-El) and Kristin Kreuk (Lana Lang/Louise McCallum), who pull double duty. They genuinely sell the 1961 aesthetic and the forbidden romance between the mysterious drifter “Joe” and the unhappy housewife Louise.
Our “Freak of the Week” isn’t a meteor-infected person this time, but an old-school corrupt official: William B. Davis (Mayor Tate/Deputy Tate). He’s best known to sci-fi fans as the iconic Cigarette Smoking Man from The X-Files, so having him play the ultimate institutional corruption in Smallville’s past is a perfect casting choice. His calm, menacing presence adds gravitas to the role of the jealous deputy turned mayor who orchestrated the original cover-up. The man wrongfully convicted, Dexter McCallum, is played in the present by Tom Heaton.
Special Effects
The effects for the flashback sequences are more about style and cinematography than digital wizardry. The show uses a sepia-toned, high-contrast filter to give the 1961 scenes a nostalgic, slightly faded look, which is effective. The one true effect we get is the psychometry vision Clark experiences when touching the medallion or other relics. These quick-cut flashes can be a little jarring, but they successfully convey the rush of historical information flooding Clark’s mind. The actual super-power moment—where Jor-El shields himself from bullets and one ricochets, tragically hitting Louise—is well-handled, showing the devastating, unintended consequences of Kryptonian powers in a human world.
Music (Track Listing)
The music perfectly captures the early 60s rockabilly/doo-wop vibe, setting the mood for the flashbacks:
- “Matchbox” – Carl Perkins
- “I Only Have Eyes For You” – The Flamingos
- “Earth Angel (Will You Be Mine)” – The Penguins
Rating
★★★★☆ (4/5 Stars)
This episode is a must-watch for the deep-cut mythology alone. The plot is tight, the performances are compelling, and it gives us some much-needed backstory that shapes Clark’s perception of his Kryptonian heritage. It loses one star only because the constant implication that Clark and Lana are destined to be together (via Jor-El and Louise) can feel a little heavy-handed.
Synopsis and Plot Breakdown
Introduction to the Mystery: The episode begins with Lana visiting Dexter McCallum, her great-uncle, in prison. Dexter, convicted 40 years prior (1961) for the murder of his wife, Louise, tells Lana he was framed. He shows her a sketch of the real culprit, a drifter who resembles Clark. Lana, immediately convinced, enlists Clark’s help to clear Dexter’s name.
The Kryptonian Connection: Clark recognizes a symbol on the drifter’s necklace in the sketch—it’s the House of El Kryptonian glyph. He heads to the Kawatche Caves and touches the symbol on the wall, triggering a vision. He finds a Kryptonian medallion buried behind the symbol, and when he touches it, he is granted psychometry—the ability to relive the past moments of his father, Jor-El (who called himself “Joe”), when Joe touched the object or person.
The 1961 Flashbacks: Clark’s visions piece together Jor-El’s time in Smallville. Jor-El, using his powers to save Louise from a mugging (perpetrated by Lachlan Luthor, Lex’s grandfather), begins a passionate affair with her. Louise confesses she is unhappy in her marriage to Dexter and wishes to leave Smallville to pursue acting in Hollywood. Jor-El is conflicted, admitting to Louise that he is from a different world and cannot stay, knowing his father (the AI voice) would disapprove of his human emotional attachments.
Lex and Lionel’s History: Meanwhile, Clark’s investigation inadvertently causes Chloe to discover that Lachlan Luthor was arrested for a crime in 1961. When Lex confronts Lionel, Lionel confesses he re-wrote the Luthor family history, fabricating a better past for them. He reveals Lachlan Luthor (his grandfather) was actually a hoodlum who died in a tenement fire orchestrated by Lionel’s father to collect insurance money—another layer of Luthor corruption revealed.
The Murder Revealed: Clark and Lana realize the person who originally arrested Dexter was Deputy Tate. Clark touches Deputy Tate (now Smallville’s Mayor Tate) and sees a new vision: Tate was secretly in love with Louise. When he saw her making plans to run away with Joe/Jor-El, he hired Lachlan Luthor to kill the drifter. When Lachlan shoots at Jor-El, the bullets harmlessly deflect off the Kryptonian. Tragically, one deflected bullet hits Louise, killing her instantly.
Justice and Revelation: Clark, now aware of the true sequence of events, puts on Jor-El’s leather jacket and confronts Mayor Tate at his home, using his own super-speed and super-strength to impersonate the ghost of “Joe.” Tate, believing he is being haunted, confesses to the crime, leading to his arrest and the release of an innocent Dexter McCallum. The episode concludes with Clark realizing that Jor-El had been helped by his grandfather, Hiram Kent, during his time on Earth, which is why Jor-El “chose” the Kent farm as the landing spot for his son’s ship, making Clark’s arrival not an accident, but a pre-ordained destiny.
Lessons Learned and Road to Superman
This episode is a massive turning point for Clark’s understanding of his own history and destiny.
The Key Lesson Learned: The central lesson Clark learns is that destiny and free will are intertwined, and his past on Earth is not random. For the first time, he sees his biological father, Jor-El, not as a cold, disembodied voice in the caves, but as a young man who was capable of deep love, human passion, and, ultimately, human error. This experience humanizes Jor-El and helps Clark reconcile his two identities. He realizes that his family—the Kents—were chosen because Hiram Kent showed kindness to Jor-El when he was a stranger in a strange land. This elevates the Kents from simply finding Clark’s ship to being an active part of his pre-ordained path.
Road to Superman:
- Acceptance of Heritage: By seeing Jor-El (played by himself) and understanding his father’s struggle between duty and desire, Clark gains a deeper, more personal insight into his Kryptonian nature. This helps him move past simply being angry at the cave AI and start accepting his alien identity as something that comes with a loving, if complicated, history.
- The Price of Secrecy (and Powers): Jor-El’s secret identity and powers directly caused the death of the woman he loved. The deflected bullet is a powerful, tragic metaphor for the unintended damage his powers can inflict. This deepens Clark’s own fear of hurting Lana or others, reinforcing his commitment to keeping his secret as a way to protect those he cares about.
- Luthor vs. El – A Legacy of Conflict: The revelation that a Luthor (Lachlan) was involved in the murder, at the behest of a corrupt Smallville official (Tate), establishes that the conflict between the El and Luthor families is truly generational. It solidifies that the tragedy and darkness associated with the Luthors are an inherent part of Smallville’s history, a legacy Clark is now destined to confront.
Review Notes
“It’s not like you just fell out of the sky” Lana being hilarious as usual
Tom Welling and Kristen Kreuk do surprisingly well in the dual roles. Except for the death scene, that was NOT well done.
Im watching this late at night after work and it feels just a little heavy handed… still great, just almost too much romance which for Clark/Tom? leads to very bad things most of the time.
Here is my alien family crest, think I will wear it and show it off.
dundundun Tate… cigarette smoking man I swear this show LOVES stunt casting….
ummm flying, technically not Clark, but still.
This kind of screws with the Jor-El bad storyline as he loved Earth in 1961 and obviously didn’t want to rule it…?? Imposter? Grandfather? If Jor-El chose the Kents because he knew they were good how does that fit into the narrative we were given…. I am starting to think what we think is Jor-El is not him.
Hiram (PawPaw) Kent helps Joe
Clark goes all ghost of Christmas past to get cigarette smoking man LOL
Interesting backstory with Luthor’s… Kids sure like to kill dads…. foreshadowing?
Next week E7 Magnetic – No idea, magnetic personality? or actually magnetic person?
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