Delete (Episode) - SirJeffCena

"**Delete**" is the eleventh episode in the third season of *Smallville*, and fifty-fifth episode overall. It aired on January 28, 2004.

## Summary

Clark and Lana each make an attempt on Chloe's life after receiving mysterious e-mail messages. Lex helps uncover the source of these emails and Lana rents the apartment above the Talon to Adam.

## Recap

Chloe is packing up her desk at the Daily Planet and saying goodbye to her editor, Max Taylor. He remarks that she must have enemies in high places to get blacklisted while still in high school. She gives him a couple of stories that she was working on and asks him to look them over. It is impossible for him to publish anything she has written so Chloe suggests a pseudonym: her cousin's name, Lois Lane.

Lex is working late at LuthorCorp and goes looking for the on-call tech guy. He finds Molly Griggs. He explains his problem and she gives him a disc which should scan for the viruses. After he leaves, Molly finishes removing the hard drive from Chloe's old computer. Chloe arrives at the Torch office and Pete tells her that someone came by and confiscated all the donated computers. She exits the school late at night and is run down by a familiar Dodge pickup. She has to dive under the pickup to avoid harm and is shocked when Clark climbs out of the truck. Clark looks equally surprised to see the wrecked truck and Chloe on the ground.

At the hospital, Sheriff Adams declares Clark to be stone sober and questions the two teens about the incident. Clark can't remember leaving the library. Chloe tells the sheriff it looked like Clark lost control of the truck. The sheriff dismisses Clark and he runs into Lana, who introduces him to Adam Knight, who just finished another session of physical therapy.

The next day, Lex tries to return Molly's disc and learns that no one named Molly works in the tech department and that all hard drives from the computers she was working on were wiped out.

At the Talon, Lana makes Adam a complicated cup of coffee, and Adam remarks on how uncomfortable she seemed around Clark last night. Lana explains that they have a lot of history. She knows that Clark still cares for her, and she can't control that, but he doesn't know what he wants.

Clark is examining the pickup when Chloe arrives at the Kent Farm. She informs him that there was no tampering done to the truck. She asked the mechanic. She starts to cry and says she can only apologize for investigating him so many times. Clark realizes that Chloe thinks he tried to run her over on purpose. He admits that he still isn't over her betrayal, and Chloe reminds him of his own recent bad judgments, but then they switch gears, and she asks him if he remembers anything after the library and he says the last thing he remembers is working on his laptop. Chloe examines the computer and learns that he downloaded an email from someone named "'Brainwave'" just before the accident. It is revealed that "'Brainwave'" is Molly Griggs' screen name as she prepares to send an email message to Lana Lang. Lana finishes showing Adam around the school when she receives an email message on a handheld device that Lex gave her. The message consists of flashing lights rather than words. Lana's eyes glow.

And after receiving the message, Lana immediately seeks out Chloe and bashes her head against the wall and throws her down the stairs. Lana follows her down the stairs and coolly states that she is trying to kill her. Lana kicks her in the chest and hits her across the face before Chloe starts to fight back and they fight violently and intensely down the stairs. Chloe rams Lana into a firehose case, and the latter grabs an ax. She chases Chloe down the hall, through the locker room, and into the shower. She knocks Chloe down and is about to bring the ax to her head when Adam intervenes with some impressive martial arts of his own. Lana finally stops trying to kill Chloe when Chloe trips her and she hits her head on the floor and asks what happened.

Later, at the Talon, Clark, Lana, Chloe, and Adam try to piece together why and how someone would want to kill Chloe. They realize that they both got suspicious e-mails just before the attacks. Clark guesses they were hypnotized. Adam helps them track down the IP address of the sender and they realize the messages came from the computers taken from the *Torch* office. Clark wonders how Adam knows so much about martial arts, computers, and the human brain.

He goes to Metropolis to ask Lex if Lionel is behind it. Lex realizes that the mysterious Molly probably was responsible. Lawrence Garner visits Molly in her loft apartment. He tells her that Max Taylor is questioning him about Chloe's scathing article on his dubious research.

Lana finds Adam preparing to leave the hospital. He mentions that he would rather stay in Smallville instead of return to Metropolis. He wants to get to know her better, but she questions his motives. He doesn't want to clean up the mess of her previous relationship, and he asks her to leave. Later, they have a real discussion about where their friendship is headed and she persuades him to stay. She offers to renovate the apartment above the Talon and rent it to him.

Chloe finds Clark at the *Torch* office. He tells her what he learned from Lex. She recognizes Molly Griggs' photo and says that Molly is a super-smart engineering prodigy who was being treated at the Summerholt Institute after a psychotic break. Chloe interviewed her for a story she was writing about Lawrence Garner, so they call Max Taylor to warn him. Unfortunately, Molly has already gotten to his secretary, who kills Max during their phone conversation.

Clark takes Chloe to the Luthor mansion for protection and she tells Lex what she knows about Lawrence Garner. Clark leaves to talk with Garner and Lex leaves to talk with the techs he put in charge of tracking Molly. When Clark arrives at the Institute, he confronts Garner with everything he knows, and Garner has security escort him out. Clark uses his super hearing to hear Garner make a call to Molly and overhears Garner give the name of the apartment building and number to the operator. When Clark arrives, he finds Lex is already there. Molly explains that she is defending Dr. Garner out of loyalty. He doesn't have the power to control her. She developed the program herself. Lex discovers that Molly sent another email, and Clark is horrified to realize it was to his mother. Just then, Chloe arrives at the Kent farm, in response to Martha's phone call. Martha comes at her with a sickle while Jonathan chains her to a post by her neck.

Chloe knocks Martha unconscious with a kick to the head. Clark arrives and pulls Jonathan off Chloe, but when he tries to help Chloe up, Jonathan comes at Clark with a meteor rock. He punches him several times before Chloe knocks out Jonathan by releasing several bales of hay stored on the upper level of the barn. They snap out of their trances.

The next day, Clark visits Chloe at the *Torch* and finds that Lex gave back the computers. She guesses he felt guilty about firing her dad. Chloe confesses that she feels like maybe she deserved what Molly did to her as penance for what she did to Clark. Clark assures her that he is partly to blame for pushing her away. He admits that Chloe found him at his weakest moment in Metropolis and she gave him a second chance, so he owes her the same. They agree that while they can't forget what has happened, Chloe will stop trying to add Clark up and take him as he is, and their friendship is renewed.

Lex approaches Dr. Garner and warns him against any further attempts on Chloe's life. He admits to having stashed Molly away somewhere safe. Then he blackmails him with Chloe's article. He threatens to have it published unless Dr. Garner helps him recover his seven weeks of missing memories.

## Cast

### Starring

* Clark Kent
* Lana Lang
* Lex Luthor
* Pete Ross
* Chloe Sullivan
* Martha Kent
* Jonathan Kent

### Guest Starring

* Adam Knight
* Nancy Adams
* Molly Griggs
* Dr. Lawrence Garner