Smallville S3 E16 – Crisis

Welcome to Smallville Reviews! I’m your guide through the highs, the lows, and the plaid-filled fields of Kansas. We are diving back into Season 3, an era where the show really started to find its footing by leaning into some darker, more high-stakes storytelling. Today, we’re looking at “Crisis,” an episode that feels like a supernatural thriller mixed with a race against the clock.

Preview

Clark Kent usually spends his time worrying about midterms or why Lana Lang is looking at him weirdly, but this week he’s got a much bigger problem: a phone call from the future. When Clark hears a frantic Lana on the other end of a static-filled line claiming she’s about to be killed, he rushes to her side—only to find her perfectly safe and sound at the Talon. It turns out a Kryptonite-laced lightning strike has turned a phone line into a temporal bridge, and Clark has exactly one day to figure out where the threat is coming from before Lana’s “future” becomes a very permanent reality.

Meanwhile, the drama at the Luthor mansion reaches a boiling point as Lionel’s health continues to decline and Lex begins to suspect that his father’s “rehabilitation” of Adam Knight involves more than just good intentions. As the clock ticks down toward the moment Lana is destined to be shot, Clark must team up with Chloe to track down a desperate, dying Adam Knight who has nothing left to lose. It’s a literal life-and-death struggle where every second counts, and the secret of Clark’s powers might be the only thing that can rewrite destiny.

Episode Review

“Crisis” is one of those episodes that reminds you why Smallville worked so well when it stepped away from the “Kryptonite-monster-of-the-week” formula and tried something a bit more conceptual. The “future phone call” trope is a classic sci-fi staple, but applying it to the Clark/Lana dynamic adds a layer of genuine dread. It’s a high-tension episode that moves fast, even if you have to ignore the somewhat shaky logic of how Kryptonite + electricity = time travel.

The episode does a great job of juggling multiple plot threads. We have the thriller aspect with Adam Knight, the ongoing Luthor family Shakespearean drama, and the subtle hints that Jonathan Kent’s deal with Jor-El is starting to take a physical toll on him. The pacing is tight, and for a show that sometimes meanders in the middle of the season, “Crisis” feels like a sprint to the finish line.

Starring: Tom Welling, Kristin Kreuk, Michael Rosenbaum, Sam Jones III, Allison Mack, John Glover, and Annette O’Toole.

Guest Stars & Freak of the Week: Our “Freak of the Week” isn’t exactly a freak, but he is definitely our antagonist: Adam Knight, played by a pre-Vampire Diaries Ian Somerhalder. Adam isn’t your typical meteor-infected teen; he’s a guy who was brought back from the dead via a Luthor-funded serum made from Clark’s blood (though he doesn’t know that yet). Somerhalder plays Adam with a fantastic, twitchy desperation. He’s not a mustache-twirling villain; he’s a guy who is literally melting away and will kill anyone to get the medicine that keeps him alive.

Special Effects:

This episode relies heavily on atmospheric effects—lots of rain and mood lighting. The “bullet time” sequence where Clark has to catch the bullet intended for Lana is the standout. While Smallville pioneered this look on TV, looking back, the CGI on the actual bullet looks a bit like a shiny gray grape. However, the sequence where Clark is running through the raindrops is still visually impressive for 2004 television. The “temporal distortion” effects on the phone lines are a bit dated (just some shaky camera and static), but they get the job done without being too distracting.

Music:

The soundtrack for this episode is peak early-2000s angst.

• “Life for Rent” by Dido – Plays during the emotional beats.
• “I Believe” by Josh Kelley – Sets the mood for the teenage longing we all know and love.

Rating: 4 out of 5 Stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Synopsis and Plot Breakdown

The episode kicks off with Clark at the Torch office during a massive storm. He receives a call from Lana, who is screaming for help as a gunshot rings out. Clark speeds to the Talon, but Lana is totally fine, serving coffee and wondering why Clark looks like he’s seen a ghost. After some digging by the ever-reliable Chloe Sullivan, they realize the call came from a specific research facility—but the call hasn’t happened yet.

It turns out that a power line fell into a vat of “refined” Kryptonite during the storm, creating a temporal glitch. Clark realizes he’s heard a murder that is scheduled to happen in the future. The mystery leads them to Adam Knight, who has escaped from the Luthor-funded lab. Adam is dying because Lionel Luthor cut off his supply of the life-saving serum (which we later learn is derived from Clark’s DNA).

While Clark plays detective, Lex is doing his own digging into Lionel’s activities. He finds out that his father has been keeping Adam as a guinea pig. Lionel, meanwhile, is facing his own mortality as his liver failure progresses, leading to a tense confrontation where he basically tells Lex that he’s disappointed in him as an heir.

The climax happens at the lab where the “future” call took place. Lana goes there looking for answers about Adam, only to be cornered by him. Adam is desperate for the serum and blames Lana for his predicament. As the events of the phone call start to play out in real-time, Clark arrives just as Adam fires his gun. In a classic “Super-Speed” moment, Clark intercepts the bullet, saving Lana without her seeing him. Adam, now out of time and out of medicine, finally dies, taking his secrets with him. The episode ends with a somber note as Clark realizes that while he saved Lana today, he can’t always protect everyone from their “destiny.”

Lessons and the Path to Superman

The Lesson: You can’t outrun fate, but you can certainly try to redirect it. This episode teaches Clark that having power isn’t just about strength; it’s about being in the right place at the right time. He learns that even with all his speed, he is still at the mercy of the clock.

Becoming Superman: This is a major stepping stone for Clark’s “Detective” skills. Superman isn’t just a muscle-bound flyer; he’s a guy who has to solve problems. In “Crisis,” Clark has to use logic, timing, and Chloe’s research skills to prevent a tragedy. Furthermore, the theme of “Saving one life at a time” is very Superman. He doesn’t stop a global invasion here; he stops one bullet from hitting one person. It reinforces the value he places on every single human life. We also see the darkening shadow of the Luthor legacy, which pushes Clark to realize that the world needs a protector against men like Lionel.

Notes

“Crisis” is Season 3, Episode 16 of Smallville, originally airing March 3, 2004, and centered on Clark receiving a phone call from the future in which Lana is shot by Adam Knight, forcing him into a time-bending race to prevent her death.

Basic info

• Season: 3, Episode: 16.
• Air date: March 3, 2004.
• Runtime: About 42 minutes.
• Key characters: Clark, Lana, Chloe, Pete, Lex, Lionel, Adam Knight.

Main plot

• Clark and Pete are working at a teen crisis hotline when Clark gets a frantic call from Lana, hears her being pursued and a gunshot, but then finds her alive—the call is from the following day.
• Investigating with Chloe and Pete, Clark traces the call to a stolen phone and realizes Adam is the one who will try to kill Lana, tying into the LuthorCorp experiments that kept Adam alive.

Adam and the Luthors

• Adam’s anti-death serum is failing, leaving him with only hours to live, and he becomes increasingly unstable and violent in his obsession with Lana and the missing vials of serum.
• Lex and Clark visit the LuthorCorp lab where Adam was held and find Dr. Teng and the staff murdered, which leads Lex to suspect Lionel is cleaning up the project as Lionel’s terminal liver disease is revealed.

Time-warp and climax

• A storm knocks down power lines near kryptonite by the hotline, creating a weird time-disruption that lets the future call reach Clark and later lets him reconnect to learn Lana’s location.​
• Clark super-speeds to the storage unit where Adam is holding Lana, stops the bullet in midair to save her, and covers the bullet damage so she does not see what he did, while Adam realizes Lionel sent him after Clark and vows to continue before his storyline effectively ends.

Thematic notes

• The crisis hotline setting plays off the episode’s title, contrasting the idea of people calling for help with Lionel’s near-suicide and Adam’s breakdown.
• The episode pushes forward several arcs at once: Lionel’s illness, Lex being positioned as scapegoat/project manager, and Clark’s pattern of repeatedly saving Lana while still keeping his powers

Links

https://dc.fandom.com/wiki/Smallville_(TV_Series)_Episode:_Crisis

https://smallville.fandom.com/wiki/Crisis

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0702942/

https://www.reddit.com/r/Smallville/comments/1ibovon/s03e16_crisis_episode_discussion/

https://www.rottentomatoes.com/tv/smallville/s03/e16

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ag5lJuDp-wo

https://www.supermanhomepage.com/tv/tv.php?topic=reviews%2Fsmallville3-ep16