"Action" is the fifth episode in the seventh season of Smallville, and the one hundred-thirty-seventh episode overall. It aired on October 25, 2007.

Summary

Clark allows a Warrior Angel movie to be filmed on the Kent Farm, but when two attempts are made on the lead actress' life, Clark is caught saving her by an obsessed "Warrior Angel" fan. The fan then decides that Clark is a real superhero and is being held back from his destiny by his relationship with Lana. Meanwhile, Lionel's fate is revealed.

Recap

→ see also Category:Screencaps from episode 7x05

At the Kent Farm, a movie crew from Hollywood is rehearsing a scene in which a masked and caped figure flies in a stunt harness. Chloe Sullivan and Clark Kent are watching from the sidelines. Chloe says it is exciting that they are making a Warrior Angel movie in Smallville; she also tells Clark that since she and Jimmy broke up, she's had time to create a fake identity for Kara. The film's leading lady, Rachel Davenport, who doesn't grant press interviews, walks by. Clark and Chloe watch her doing a scene in which she drives away; however, the brakes of her car have been cut. She can't stop and is almost killed but Clark super speeds to the rescue and catches her. Rachel is impressed.

The day after, Lana Lang congratulates Clark for saving Rachel. One of the film's production assistants, Ben Meyers, arrives to tell Clark that Rachel wants to meet with him at the Talon. Clark asks Rachel to grant his friend Chloe an interview and she agrees. Chloe arrives but explains that before she can interview Rachel, Rachel must talk to the police because the investigation of her car indicates that the brake cables of the car were, in fact, cut and the accident was no accident.

At the Daily Planet, Lois Lane is on the phone working on a story when Grant Gabriel confronts her about not going after the story about Rachel. He is annoyed that the Smallville Ledger got the scoop. Lois prefers to go after the story about Lex buying land near the dam even though there's nothing on it but a cabin. Grant tells her to drop it.

Lionel Luthor wakes up in a cabin and sees a woman who introduces herself as Marilyn. He asks for water. He then sees a bear trap-like mechanism locked on his right hand. Marilyn then goes into the other room and makes a call saying that he is "awake."

Rachel is in the Kent barn rehearsing scenes with Clark for her movie. The "scene" gets romantic and Lana appears just as Rachel is leaning in towards a reluctant Clark for a kiss. Rachel exits and Lana explains to Clark that the fans aren't happy because in the movie, Warrior Angel's girlfriend lives, but in the comics, she is supposed to die. This might be why a fan is trying to kill Rachel.

Lex is talking to one of his assistants about Kara's identity. Clark arrives at the Luthor Mansion to ask him about the Warrior Angel storyline. Lex claims he hasn't read an issue since he and Clark were friends, but produces a perfectly-preserved copy of the issue in question. He shows Clark the comic, in which the evil villain Devilicus shoots Warrior Angel's girlfriend Penelope, and she dies in his arms. Clark leaves to go back to the movie set.

On set, Rachel is about to do a scene. However, Ben puts a real bullet in the prop gun. Clark, watching the scene, X-rays the gun and sees the real bullet in it. He super speeds and catches it, but Ben sees him. Lois sneaks into LuthorCorp as an employee. She heads to Lex's office and tries to hack into his computer but is caught by Lex. He tells her he has no more secrets left. He denies having purchased any land near the dam and is surprised that the initials "LL" are on the authorization. He then gets his man to escort Lois out of the building.

With Marilyn in the other room, Lionel frees himself by pulling the bear trap off his hand. He then throws a glass on the ground. It breaks and Marilyn comes in. He then apologizes for being rude earlier and when she picks up the glass, he knocks her out and runs out the door.

Clark arrives home and the press is there taking pictures of him and asking questions. He is unnerved, but when he gets inside, Rachel is unconcerned; she's getting a massage and reading. He explains that he allowed her to stay on the farm for her safety, but if the paparazzi know she is there, the killer will know, too. He then sees an envelope addressed to him. It is an issue of "Warrior Angel" and a message telling him that the writer knows about his powers and asks him why hasn't he saved the world yet.

Marilyn is chasing Lionel through the woods when he is hit in the head by a shovel. It is revealed that Lana is paying Marilyn to keep him captive. She is furious and berates Marilyn for letting Lionel escape, but she is interrupted when Clark calls, asking her to pick up Rachel. She sweetly agrees.

Clark and Chloe try to find out who the stalker is. Chloe manages to trace the comic book purchase to Ben. Clark then goes to Ben's apartment, but only finds a computer attached to a camera. It is a recorded message to Clark from Ben, telling him that he should be the hero he is destined to be and start saving the world.

Lex follows Lois' story and arrives at the cabin filled with various plants, some appearing to be over 10,000 dollars worth of marijuana and other weeds and sees his father tied to a bed. He goes over to free him, but Marilyn points a gun at him. However, Lionel knocks her out cold again and starts to hit her in the head with the bear trap many times. Lex is horrified and calls out to him to stop.

Lana takes Rachel to Queen Tower for safety. Ben has tracked them down and he tasers Rachel unconscious. Lana tries to escape, but he tasers her as well.

Clark takes Ben's hard drive to Chloe and tries to figure out what Ben's up to. They realize that Ben is going after Lana. At the Queen Tower, Ben carries Lana over the edge of the building and tells her she needs to die in order for Clark to save the world. He tosses her over, but Clark arrives just in time to jump after her and catch her.

The next day, Grant is not impressed with Lois' story, but invites her to a dinner. She declines.

Lionel is back on his feet. He confronts Lana in the loft and tells her he knows it was her that held him in that cabin and warns her about this dangerous game she is playing.

Ben has been put in Belle Reve. Lex goes to visit and tries to bribe Ben into talking by offering him dozens of the rarest "Warrior Angel" comics. He says he's there to hear whatever Ben has to say about what he saw. Ben tells Lex nothing.

Rachel arrives at the Kent farm to give Clark a gift before she heads back to Hollywood. As she leaves, Lana muses that she doesn't want to be the person holding Clark back from doing great things. Clark assures her that he has everything he's ever wanted on the farm with her. When Lana leaves, Clark opens up the gift Rachel gave him. It is a red cape. Clark dismissively hangs it on the fence and follows Lana into the house.

Cast

Starring

• Tom Welling as Clark Kent
• Michael Rosenbaum as Lex Luthor
• Kristin Kreuk as Lana Lang
• Allison Mack as Chloe Sullivan
• Erica Durance as Lois Lane
• Aaron Ashmore as Jimmy Olsen (credit only)
• Laura Vandervoort as Kara Kent (credit only)
• John Glover as Lionel Luthor

Special Guest Star

• Christina Millian as Rachel Davenport

Guest Starring

• Michael Cassidy as Grant Gabriel
• Christopher Jacot as Ben Meyers
• Nancy Sivak as Marilyn

Co-Starring

• David Richmond-Peck as Director Reed
• Morgan Brayton as Assistant Director
• Georgia Mae Hacche as Stylist
• Anna Galvin as Gina
• Rob Daly as "Devilicus"
• Christina Schild as Reporter #1
• Karen Holness as Reporter #2
• Andre Danke as "Warrior Angel"

Characters

• Clark Kent
• Lana Lang
• Lex Luthor
• Lois Lane
• Chloe Sullivan
• Lionel Luthor
• Rachel Davenport
• Grant Gabriel
• Ben Meyers
• Marilyn
• Director Reed
• Assistant Director
• Stylist
• Gina
• "Devilicus"
• Reporter #1
• Reporter #2
• "Warrior Angel"
• Nell Potter (Mentioned only)

Sentient Species

• Kryptonians
• Humans
• Metahumans

Vehicles

TBA

Objects

• Warrior Angel comic books
• Red cape

Concepts

TBA

Featured Music

• "Dirty Little Rockstar" - The Cult

Title

• Action references the phrase "Lights, camera, action!" which is often called out when filming a movie scene.
• The episode features a movie being made on the Kent Farm and Clark saving the the lead actress of it.
• Action Comics is the name of the comic responsible for the original appearance of Superman, and the longest ongoing Superman comic series.

Notes

• Antagonists: Ben Meyers and Marilyn
• Clark’s Abilities: Super-Hearing, Super-Speed, Superhuman Strength, X-Ray Vision, Telescopic vision, Accelerated Vision, Flight
• Kara Kent and Jimmy Olsen do not appear in this episode. This is the first Season Seven episode in which Kara does not appear.
• This is the first episode of the entire series featuring Clark saving Lana using his powers while she is conscious and aware of being saved.
• Lex's comment to Clark that "in the comic book world, when you're destined to save mankind, you're destined to be alone" is remarkably similar to incidences from Season One's Hourglass. Clark saw Cassandra's vision of him being alone, having outlived his friends and family.
• There may be a continuity error in the numbering of the Warrior Angel comics. In this episode, Devilicus is "the arch-rival" in issue #5; but in Ryan, Lex says that Devilicus turns against Warrior Angel in issue #66 which, chronologically, most likely would have been written after issue #5. However, since Warrior Angel's girlfriend is threatening to expose Devilicus for who he really is, this may mean that Warrior Angel still thinks Devilicus is a friend and doesn't realize that he is evil. If this is the case, the numbering makes sense. Yet another option lies in the assumption that the story in #5 speaks of the 'present day' while #66, and other issues surrounding it involve a flashback to the day when they were still friends (much like Smallville acts as a prequel to earlier incarnations of Superman).
• Wonder Woman's logo can be seen on different items used on the set of Warrior Angel, like the loudspeaker and the hat of the production assistant. It is most likely used as Warrior Angel's logo.
• Chloe helped Clark find Ben through a Warrior Angel comic book that was being tracked by a collector who tracks the sales of "all" Warrior Angel comics. However, unless everyone pays for their comics through checks and credit cards, it would be impossible to figure out who purchased a certain comic book.
• The final line of the note sent to Clark by Ben Meyers is "Save the World." ^{[picture needed]} The "S" in "Save" looks strikingly similar to the iconic Superman logo.
• Lois' article about Lionel's survival also contains information about the 2005 meteor shower. Among the details for the event is the sentence; "Among the dead were the Metropolis socialite Genevieve League and her son Jason League." "League" is a spelling error. This is one of the many nods to Lois' bad spelling in the show and in the comics.
• The lines that Clark helps Rachel run sound eerily similar to those of actual conversations he had in the past with Lana.
• When Clark and Rachel are running lines in the barn, the script pages are colored red which would seem to reinforce Chloe's statement that it's a very big-budget film. Printing scripts on red pages makes them impossible to photocopy and is a common real-world method to prevent script leaks.
• Discussing the episode on the Talk Ville podcast in 2025, Michael Rosenbaum criticized the scene where Lionel is being held captive by Marilyn and has a bear trap caught in his arm as he didn't feel enough pain upon waking up. However, there's no single timeframe for when an unconscious person feels pain after waking up; the experience is highly individual and depends on the person's recovery of consciousness, the severity of their injury, and their personal pain perception.
  • Also, from the same podcast, Tom Welling mentioned that he did not like the scene where Lana and Rachel were tasered by Ben as Lana went straight to sleep. In real life, when a person is tasered, the body goes through involuntary muscle spasms, intense pain, which lead to a sudden fall or loss of balance. Prolonged electrical shock from a taser may cause unconsciousness.

In Other Media

• When Ben Meyers' apartment is shown, one can see figurines of several other DC Comics characters, including Hawkman, Hourman, Doctor Mid-Nite, Sandman, Starman, Mr. Freeze, Parallax (Hal Jordan), Black Canary, Robin, and others.
  • It is interesting to note that Hawkman, Dr. Mid-Nite, Starman, Mr. Freeze, Sandman, Hal Jordan, and Black Canary are later revealed to exist as real people in the universe of Smallville.
• One of the action figures visible in the above scene (to the right of Black Canary) is Steel. In the comics, Steel is an ordinary man inspired to super-heroism after Superman saves his life.

• The false name on Lois' LuthorCorp nametag, Sadie Blodgett, is a false name used by Lois Lane in the comics series Superman's Girl Friend, Lois Lane.^[1]
• Meyers' motivations are the same as those of a Flash villain called Zoom, who believes causing personal tragedy can motivate heroes to be better.
• The story of Warrior Angel's girlfriend getting killed by his archenemy resembles in broad strokes the story of Spider-Man's girlfriend Gwen Stacy getting killed by his archenemy the Green Goblin, which happened in The Amazing Spider-Man # 121. Gwen's death, like the death of Warrior Angel's girlfriend, is regarded as a defining moment in that hero's career.
• The film version of Warrior Angel has him rescue his girlfriend from the way Devilicious tried to kill her in the comics. This also resembles in broad strokes the film adaptation of Spider-Man (2002), where the Green Goblin tries to kill Spider-Man's girlfriend the same way he killed his girlfriend in the comics only for Spider-Man to save her (though in the Spider-Man movie, the girlfriend isn't Gwen). 
• The scene of Warrior Angel's girlfriend dying, as shown in the comic, has the Angel holding her body and shouting, much like Superman did in the 1978 movie, and Clark himself did in Pariah and Reckoning. 
• Lionel's kidnapping is similar to the Stephen King's Misery, which is about an author being saved by someone eager to do so (in the author's case, an obsessive fan) who turns on the captive after feeling little gratitude.

Trivia

• To tie into Action, the 27th issue of Smallville Magazine featured a (fictitious) canon history for the character along with original pinup art by Zachary Baldus. Following the magazine’s cancellation, the writer of the piece, Derek Russell, included several Easter eggs and in-jokes for listeners of his House of El podcast. Following the magazine’s cancellation, he rereleased the article for free online to coincide with the season nine episode Warrior.^[2]
• Lionel's captivity echoes that of the Paul Sheldon character in the 1989 movie Misery.
• The director of Warrior Angel is played by David Richmond-Peck. He also played the meter maid assaulted by Lex in Season Two's Dichotic and Jonathan Kent's former campaign manager, March Sosnick, in Season Five's Fanatic.
• Christina Milian is billed as a special guest star.
• Cristina Milian is a huge comic book fan and lobbied for the role of Wonder Woman to director George Miller in Justice League: Mortal^[3], which fell in development hell and would have the live-action cinematic debut of the team. She also was reportedly unaware that the gift Rachel would give Clark was a red cape.^{[citation needed]}
• In this episode, the Warrior Angel film uses locations in Kansas, which is ironic since due to costs, Superman productions are never filmed there, even though the story is set there. The farm scenes in Superman (1978), as well as Smallville were filmed in Canada. Superman Returns was filmed in Australia and the Smallville scenes in Man of Steel were largely filmed in Illinois.
• One of Meyers' attempts to kill Rachel involves him loading a prop gun with real bullets, for the scene where her character's almost killed (and dies in the Warrior Angel comics). This might be an allusion to the death of Brandon Lee on the set of The Crow, as a result of the prop crew screwing up, which resulted in Lee getting shot for real.
• Fans being upset about changes being made from the comics to their film adaptations is a common real life occurrence especially for the big blockbusters.^{[citation needed]}

Continuity

• Lionel has been missing and presumed dead since Bizarro broke the dam in Bizarro.
• Lana takes Rachel to Oliver Queen's vacant penthouse Queen Tower, not seen since Progeny.
• This is the first episode since Noir that Lois appears in where she isn't in any physical danger.
• Grant Gabriel was last seen in Fierce.
• This episode marks the 62nd appearance of Clark's red jacket & blue shirt outfit, which he wears frequently throughout the series until it becomes identified as his Red-Blue Blur attire in Season Eight.

Spoilers

• Martha makes a colorized costume for Clark to use in public at the end of Season Nine, the cape she adds to this suit is apparently the same one Rachel gave Clark in this episode, only with a yellow 'S' insignia added.

Locations

• Kansas
  • Smallville
    • Kent Farm
    • Luthor Mansion
    • Talon
  • Metropolis
    • Queen Tower
    • LuthorCorp Plaza
    • Daily Planet
  • Belle Reve
  • Marilyn's cabin

Quotes

Lex: (to Clark) In the comic book world, when you're destined to save mankind, you're destined to be alone.

---

Rachel: I've only seen love like that once in my life.

Lana: What happened?

Rachel: The director yelled "Cut."

---

Lois: (to Grant) Oh, for the record, if I'd been your "plus one," you would have been my arm candy.

---

Lex: I never gave up on you.

Lionel: Lex, why did you do this?

Lex: But I see you've given up on me.

---

Chloe: In other words, I've had plenty of free time to create Kara's fake back story. Your cousin's secret identity is practically Google-proof.

---

Lex: I just read about your heroics in the paper. Who needs Warrior Angel when we've got our own Clark Kent?

Clark: Actually, that's why I'm here. I was wondering if you could help me with a reference. You're the biggest Warrior Angel fan I know.

Lex: Was a fan. I haven't picked up a comic since we were friends. Back when I saw life as black and white. When I realized good and evil was gray, the stories lost their magic. Though I have to admit, yours is the last nose I'd expect to find in a comic.

---

Lana: Lionel, I heard what happened. Are you okay?

Lionel: It's hardly reassuring to read your own obituary. But you should know that, I suppose, shouldn't you?

Lana: They said that you were being held captive by a crazy woman.

Lionel: (chuckles) Indeed I was. You.

Lana: I would never be involved in something like that.

Lionel: Oh, please. That line stopped working for you the day you faked your own death.

---

Lionel: (to Lana) You may have lost the Luthor name, but it's the Luthor instincts that keep those claws of yours sharp.

---

Clark: The fan stalking Rachel must have seen me catch that bullet. He's the only one who knew that it was real. Now he thinks I'm a superhero.

Chloe: Oh, my God, Clark! This guy's blog gets, like, 10,000 hits a day. One post, and all of sudden you're everyone's Boy Wonder.

Clark: Can you track this Warrior Angel comic to its owner?

Chloe: I'd be a pretty lame sidekick if I couldn't.

References

External links

• TV.com

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