Smallville, season 3

22 episodes · 7 kept in The Essentials

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Season 3 recap Spoilers — open after watching

This recap reveals the events of season 3.

Three months of Kal in Metropolis, and the year Lionel Luthor becomes the show's true villain.

Clark's red-rock summer - robbing ATMs in a leather jacket while his parents grieve - ends when Jonathan takes a temporary gift of power from Jor-El and drags his son home. The cost lands all season: Jonathan's heart, the Kents' finances, and Clark's guilt, which the show finally lets be as heavy as it should be.

The year belongs to the Luthors. Lex survives a plane crash on a desert island and comes home to a father busy declaring him insane - electroshock, a asylum, memories burned away precisely where they touched Clark's secret. Lionel's crimes get a name and a witness: the murder of his own parents, and Chloe, cornered into being his informant and spending the season clawing her way back out.

Kara - or something wearing that name - walks out of the caves with Kryptonian powers and Jor-El's agenda; Pete carries Clark's secret until carrying it nearly gets him killed, and leaves town rather than keep weighing it.

It ends in a triple blackout: Chloe's safe house exploding with her inside, Lex poisoned over a decanter of brandy, and Clark - given a choice between the caves' summons and Lana's departure - taken by Jor-El into the light.