Season 5, Episode 3: Hidden

"Hidden"

Episode 3

Air Date: October 13th, 2005

Well, Hidden is unfortunately epic yet tragic end of this happy good feel of the season so far after such a disastrous event of the second meteor shower bring new found joy for our future Man of Steel.  But before this season begins its hard hitting story arc of impending doom and loss, we get one of the series' most intense and suspenseful episodes on a scope that is continuing to show how much of a HUGE budget the show had during its run.  Also, there is a lot of graphic imagery here with Gabriel being our main baddie and shooting anyone who gets in his way of literally annihilating the town of Smallville.  Has there ever been that much blood shown on this show at this point??? But before we get into that, let's just dive in head first into one of the show's most hilarious moments as Clark and Lana wake up....the morning after at the Kent house of all places as Clark tries to sneak Lana out....only to be caught by his parents!  Jesus, they must have been really quit if they had sex when Clark's parents were there! No wonder Martha was at a complete loss for words while Jonathan was ready knock Clark out for even having sex in the first place, let alone in their own home.  Then Chloe shows up and the awkwardness gets even more hilarious! Awww I wish the show would continue to be more upbeat and cheeky like this before things morally go to hell for Clark as well as the tone of this season but oh well.

Luckily, Gabriel was a former photographer at the Torch (Jesus, are they just ALL insane??? O_O See Forever) contacted Chloe about Smallville being gone in an hour as Clark assists in investigating what he is up too while Sheriff Adams is leading a search mission with the military to find out where the signal of a nuclear missile is coming from in the county.  Yes, apparently during the Cold War, multiple missile stations were built by the government in Smallville and Gabriel's Dad was the appointed Colonel of that operation and secretly working to restart the program thanks to abnormal recurrences of the meteor infected in Smallville.  Seems the Colonel was tragically turned into one of them thanks to the second meteor shower; begging his son to kill him and now Gabriel is set to finish his personal vendetta against the freaks of the town or anymore that will pop up thanks to the second shower by blowing the whole town up! Honestly, it reminds me of Van and his dad from Extinction but on a much grander, terrifying scale.  Guest star Johnny Lewis is a bit too good in the role completely capturing the unhinged urgency of Gabriel's insane mission to bomb a whole town of innocent people just to get read of more meteor infected, Jesus! O_o Also, the shocking and heart stopping moment of him shooting Clark is still show heartbreaking to watch, especially Chloe's frantic reaction to help him while Gabriel takes him away.  Then there's the moment when the missile finally takes off as Chloe and Gabriel fight for the gun but surprisingly Gabriel accidentally getting killed by the gunfire.   

Clark's whole injury turning to his horrific death is just so emotionally charged and gripping, especially when Lana goes to check on him but he dies while the doctor and her nurses try so hard to save him.  Ehhhh, even the sight of Martha realizing the truth when she sees Lana devastated in the hallway was too much for me to bare.  Ehhhhhh!!! :_(  But of course, our future Superman isn't done yet as a comatose Lionel escapes from his asylum confines and superspeeds to get his son to bring him back to the Fortress.  We get a visually stunning sequence reminiscent of the original Superman film as Clark awakens alive and returned of all his powers thanks to Jor-El possessing Lionel's body.  Apparently the stone has turned him into Jor-El's vessel aka an Oracle of Kryptonian knowledge to come to Clark when he can.  Oh that's nice, if not a bit creepy seeing Lionel in the Fortress and being so fatherly to Clark.  John Glover definitely pulls off the essence of Jor-El but still....weird! Of course with Jor-El, there is always a price as he tells him Clark's resurrection as a Kryptonian again means that some close to him aka he loves will be taken in exchange.... Sigh.....always something bad to look forward to on this show! LOL I mean Clark did hesitate to return to Jor-El but how is this gonna force Clark to finally listen to you Jor??? Seriously, the relationship between A.I. Jor-El and Clark is already strained by him not trusting his father's otherworldly guide of himself while Jor-El always seems to force Clark to lose something to push him toward his destiny....I just don't get it! O_o

But despite that, we soon get one of the most expensive looking save sequences of the series as Clark superspeeds back into action to stop the missile taking off in Smallville.  It's a moment straight out of the comics as Clark superleaps onto the rocket as it heads into space and manual disarms the missile with his powers by throwing it into the vastness of space before hurling back to Earth.  My god, this show really knew how to sell those effects heavy action sequences better than some of the most recent Arrowverse stuff looking back.  Tho I wonder why Lana so casually ran to Clark after she saw he was alive again...but horribly charred and dirty with his clothes all ripped up and torn??? O_O Well he did die not too long ago and came back to life so I'm sure she was just glad to see him but still....that part always bugged me.  Also, Lex continues to become more intense and serious scary as he tries desperately to get that ship open but discovers the symbol for Zod instead.  Lana and Lex are now at odds with him trying to manipulate her away from Clark and getting her to trust him again but so far, Team Clark is all she's about.  I love how Lex keeps getting debunked about their being anything abnormal about Clark with so much proof he isn't.  Thos power losses ALWAYS seem to come when Lex is so close to finding out the truth, it's becoming a joke; as the characters keep showing in his face that "Clark is just like the rest of us!" Oh Lana! Also Lionel's miraculous return after Lex confronted him about the Zod symbol at Belle Reeve is equally hilarious especially how John plays Lionel so casually dismissing what happened and getting things back to normal between them.  But clearly Lex is just playing along as he knows something is up.  Hidden is a stellar standout for the show in terms of stakes, action, violence (seriously, so much blood! O_O) and setting up the darkest arc for the show as Clark must carry the heaviest of weights on his shoulders now that he must await the loss of a loved one without even telling Chloe or even his parents about it! Oh Clark....are you becoming the infamous BDA already??? :P

Final Kryptonite: A