Previously on Smallville: Lex went to Zurich and found the magic Kryptonian compass that will lead him to the Fortress of Solitude (I'm guessing). Clark spent the whole time worrying about Kara instead of worrying about the fact that a megalomaniacal billionaire was close to finding the secret to have total control over Clark.

Clark (Tom Welling, who also directed this special 150th episode) pours of Dr. Swann's Krypto-Journal with messages from Kara on Krypton in the past. He's distracted by a photo of Lana, but Chloe (Allison Mack) arrives to pep him up about the fact that he should make the quantum leap in time back to Krypton to stop Brainiac from destroying the ship with baby Kal-El. I guess Brainiac got his hands on the Master's Paradox Machine.

Clark doesn't want to go back because he's throwing himself a pity party over how the world would be better if he never came to Earth. Chloe begs him to go, but he refuses, grabbing the magic octagon and saying the planet would be better if he never existed.

Let's find out, because Clark is zapped into a world where he never existed. He wakes up in the Kent barn and meets some punk kid who tells the stranger to get out of his barn, because his name is Chris Kent. Clark runs into the house and starts ranting and Chris has the right response: annoyance. Clark learns his dad is alive, but on a cruise.

Clark goes in search of his friends and bumps into Chloe. Clark tries to pretend that he's real and Chloe goes with it. She doesn't know where Lana is, but Chloe is preoccupied because she's getting married.

The next stop is the Daily Planet, where Jimmy Olsen (Aaron Ashmore) is wearing a bowtie. Clark flatters him to get some help tracking down Lana. A quick Google search reveals Lana (Kristin Kreuk) is married to some French dude and has two kids. Clark tries to leave, but bumps into Lois Lane (Erica Durance) who is instantly smitten with Clark. The feds, led by a button-ed down Kara (Laura Vandervoort) bust in and arrest Lois. They're part of the Department of Domestic Security, a new branch founded by President Lex Luthor. A commercial break lets that comically absurd premise set in.

Proving he didn't pass his civics class, Clark doesn't question the fact that Lex is certainly under 35. Instead, he learns Lex saved the day when the meteors fell, and Jimmy tells him Lois was meeting some guy at the Ace of Clubs bar. He meets the not-dead Sheriff Adams from way back when, and Adams is now a part of Lex's government who is leaking information to Lois. Clark persists and Adams tells him where Lois is. Clark super speeds in and knocks down the feds, sweeping Lois off her feet, literally.

Lois calls Clark a meteor freak and reveals she has evidence of Lex's corruption. Lex, wearing an all-white suit, says he has to launch some nukes at a fake enemy. Lois wonders why Lex would want to destroy the world, but Clark knows the answer when he sees that Lex's chief of staff is Milton Fine. Not to get too political, but I'd say an alien computer who wants to destroy the world is still better than Karl Rove.

Clark wants to rush in, but Lois thinks he needs a disguise. He speedily puts on a suit, preventing Lois (and us) from spying on his half-naked form. She completes the ensemble with a pair of glasses to create the well-known Clark Kent look. At President Lex's press conference, Kara warns him about Fine's dangerousness, but Lex (Michael Rosenbaum) ignores it, chastising Kara for being ungrateful for the way he and his father protected her once they discovered her spaceship.

When Lex leaves to give his speech, Kara bumps into Clark, who tells her that he's her cousin Kal-El, but she was sent there to kill him. Clark can't explain how this time travel paradox is working, probably because the Smallville writers can't either. Clark tells her that Fine is Brainiac, and she decides to help Clark stop Brainiac and Lex.

The bright idea is for Clark and Kara to bust into the Oval Office and try to reason with President Lex. It goes horribly wrong when Lex shoots Clark with two Krypto-Bullets and Kara with another. Brainiac arrives with the nuclear launch codes, and President Lex orders the launch. He flees while Brainiac stays behind to explain his evil plan before putting a Krypto-Bullet into Clark's head.

Clark transports to a weird vortex where Jor-El tells him this was a lesson about Clark's importance on Earth, so he goes back to where he started with a newfound desire to go back in time to Krypton to save himself as a baby.

On Krypton, Brainiac prepares to kill baby Kal-El, but gets set back by Kara. This gives Clark time to show up and save himself. Brainiac gets the upper hand, but is stabbed by Kara, giving Clark time to put his baby self on the ship. Kara goes a bit insane, killing Brainiac with a little too much enthusiasm. Baby Kal-El flies away, Brainiac is “destroyed” and Clark and Kara take the portal back to present-day Earth.

Kara and Clark share a tender moment in which they realize they can't change the past, only the future. Clark heads upstairs in the barn to find Lex, who wants to help Lana. Lex tells Clark her state is irreversible because it's alien, but Lex has hope if they can find the cause. Clark chooses to keep his secret over saving Lana.

Clark visits the Daily Planet to search through Jimmy's database, and Lois finds him, calling him a “mild-mannered reporter.” They have a tender moment, and she offers to buy him a beer, just like she did in the alternate universe. Goodbye Lana, hello the new New Adventures of Lois and Clark.

Late at night, Kara gets some milk, but things go kablamo in her head. Looks like someone may have control over at least one Traveler.

Next week on Smallville: An old monk is happy to serve the Traveler.


-John Kubicek, BuddyTV Senior Writer
(Image courtesy of the CW)