Accelerate

## "Accelerate"Season 02, Episode 21

**"Accelerate"** is the twenty-first episode of Season Two of The CW's *Smallville*. It was written by Todd Slavkin & Darren Swimmer and the teleplay by Brian Peterson & Kelly Souders. It is the fourty-second episode of the series overall, and premiered on May 6, 2003.

## Synopsis

Lana is haunted by the ghost of a dead friend, Emily, but the "spirit" has connections to Lionel Luthor, who is also scheming to get control of the Indian caves and "help" Lex with his wedding.

## Recap

Pete, Clark, Lana, and Chloe are at the Talon watching an old horror movie. Pete keeps talking during the movie, and Lana grabs Clark's hand whenever she gets scared. Chloe is upset when she sees Lana wringing Clark's hand. After the movie, Lana is cleaning up when the theater lights suddenly go dark. An old home movie of Lana and her childhood friend Emily Dinsmore starts playing on the screen. They are about ten years old in the film and are having a tea party. From out of nowhere, Emily is standing in the aisle, still ten years old. Scared, Lana turns to run out and finds Emily suddenly in front of her. Clark arrives and asks Lana what happened, but Emily has disappeared.

Lana is sitting in her bedroom, looking at photos of herself and Emily when they were ten years old. Emily appears again and frightens Lana, who thinks Emily isn't real. She tells Emily that she died six years ago. When Clark enters, Emily is gone, and Lana is convinced she's seen her ghost. Lana takes Clark to a bridge over a river where she and Emily used to play together. According to Lana, Emily slipped off the bridge and drowned. Clark suggests they visit Emily's parents, reasoning that if she really is a ghost, she might be visiting them too.

Clark and Lana find Mr. Dinsmore at his home in Granville. He is not happy to see them, and less happy to hear that they have seen Emily. He leaves abruptly, letting them think they've depressed him by stirring up painful memories of his deceased daughter.

At the Luthor Mansion, Lex is trying to decide which cake to serve at his wedding. Helen isn't there, and it's only three weeks until the wedding. Lionel arrives to give Lex his wedding gift in person, since it's obvious he won't be invited to the wedding. Lex reminds him that he offered Helen $100,000 to leave him, but Lionel claims it was just a test of loyalty. The wedding gift is a Caribbean honeymoon on a private island, but Lex remains doubtful of Lionel's good intentions.

Meanwhile, Clark uses the school computers in the Torch office for research to determine what phenomenon Lana may have observed. When Chloe arrives, Clark explains the situation, but Chloe informs him that Lana has had a difficult life and may simply be imagining things.

Mr. Dinsmore finds Emily outside of their old house in Smallville. She is upset that the bunnies are gone. She asks her daddy to explain why Lana said that she died, but her father is apprehensive and doesn't explain it to her. He urgently tells her to get in the car, but Emily refuses, as she's tired of being locked up. When he tries to instruct her again, she super speeds away and stabs him with a rusted metal pinwheel.

Clark and Pete go to the cemetery to make sure that Emily's body is still buried in her coffin, they see Emily in the cemetery to. When she tries to run away, Clark uses his super speed to keep up with her and realizes that is how she is able to appear from out of nowhere. She gets away, but she leaves her necklace behind. At the Talon, Lana is locking up when Emily arrives and scares her again. By the time Clark enters, again Emily is gone. Clark shows Lana the necklace, reassuring her that she's not crazy.

At Smallville Medical Center, Lionel is visiting Mr. Dinsmore. Lex arrives to find out why he's spending so much time in Smallville. Lionel insists he's just trying to be a good father. When Lex goes into Mr. Dinsmore's room, he finds Emily in the room with him, seated near the door. She tells Lex that Lionel took the bunnies away. Lex turns around for a few seconds, and turns back and finds Emily gone.

Clark and Lana decide to search around Mr. Dinsmore's house, and they find a little girl's room with home movies and talking dolls. They also find Emily's diary, with the most recent entry stating that she and Lana are going to the river tomorrow. Clark x-rays the wall and sees an entrance which leads to a secret cloning laboratory behind the bookshelves. Inside the lab, they find two more clones of Emily, each about ten years old, locked inside glass coffins with monitors and breathing tubes. One of them appears asleep; the other opens her eyes as if she is conscious. Lana accidentally spills some green fluid that makes Clark sick, and they decide to make a hasty exit.

At the Kent Farm, Clark and Lana tell Mr. and Mrs. Kent the story of the clones. Sheriff Adams arrives to report that they went out to look for the lab, but there was nothing there. Clark goes back to the house, only to find the lab gone from the basement. He also finds Emily there, reading her diary. She asks why the sleeping girls look like her. Clark tries to explain, but Emily super speeds away when Lex arrives. Lex explains that Mr. Dinsmore was working on a way to accelerate cell growth. He could incubate a rabbit embryo to adulthood in a matter of days.

Lana finds Emily with her at the Kent Farm, and wants to go to the river. Lana doesn't want to go, but when Emily runs away, Lana can't help but follow her. Lex visits Mr. Dinsmore and offers to protect Emily. He learns that Emily is very dangerous because she has no moral conscience; no concept of right and wrong. Clark arrives home, but he can't find Lana. Instead, he finds the picture Emily drew of the two of them at the river. At the river, Lana tells Emily how she died. Emily is angry at Lana for not saving her, and she pushes her off the bridge into the river. The current is so strong, it holds Lana under. She loses consciousness, but Clark arrives just in time and rescues her. He pulls her out and resuscitates her.

At the mansion, Lex confronts Lionel about the Dinsmore project. He accuses him of continuing the Level Three projects, even though the project was thought to be abandoned. Lionel tries to deflect him, but when that fails, he confronts him with the fact that the state has placed the conservatorship of the Kawatche Caves under the control of LuthorCorp. LexCorp had a five year contract, but since there have been some accidents and even deaths, the governor has given control to LuthorCorp.

Jonathan is showing Clark the crib he's made for the new baby when Lana shows up. She takes Clark up to his loft and thanks him for believing in her when she thought she was going crazy.

Lionel tells Pete Dinsmore that he can't work on the Emily Project any longer since he is too emotionally attached. Emily has been relocated to a new lab, and Lionel promises her that he will take good care of her.

## Cast

* Kristin Kreuk as Lana Lang
* Michael Rosenbaum as Lex Luthor
* Sam Jones III as Pete Ross
* Allison Mack as Chloe Sullivan
* John Glover as Lionel Luthor
* Annette O'Toole as Martha Kent
* John Schneider as Jonathan Kent
* Jodelle Micah Ferland as Emily Dinsmore
* Camille Mitchell as Sheriff Nancy Adams

Co-Starring* Jade Unterman as Young Lana Lang
* Ingrid Torrance as Wedding Planner

## Trivia

### Production Notes

* Emily Dinsmore was born on January 20, 1986 and died on April 14, 1996.

### Goofs

* As Clark and Lana enter the room with the tubes containing the Emily clones, a long shot shows three large glass beakers in the foreground, which are all empty. The beakers are on a stand near the farthest tube from Clark and Lana. A few shots later, Lana peers into this tube and is startled when the clone opens her eyes, causing Lana to jump back into the stand, thus knocking over the beakers, which all now contain green liquid Kryptonite.

## References

1. ↑ http://www.pogdesign.co.uk/cat/Smallville/Season-2/Episode-21