Blank (Episode) - SirJeffCena

"**Blank**" is the nineteenth episode in the fourth season of *Smallville*, and eighty-fifth episode overall. It aired on April 27, 2005.

## Summary

Kevin, a boy who can cause people to temporarily lose their memory, turns his powers on Clark and causes him to have total amnesia. Chloe looks after him and teaches him about his superpowers while simultaneously trying to keep them secret. On his trip down memory lane, Clark meets Lana and falls in love all over again. Lex takes advantage of the situation and tries to convince Clark to tell him about a secret room behind the back wall in the cave.

## Recap

During morning coffee rush at the Talon, Lois is working when Kevin Grady steals a muffin and a handful of cash out of the cash register. He blasts her with a green flash of light. Instantly, Lois has forgotten the incident and Kevin strolls away casually. Clark and Chloe walk in - they are discussing Clark's possible acceptance to the University of Miami. Clark says he feels guilty for leaving his parents to run the farm alone and Chloe vaguely remarks that it will be hard to replace him, given his "skills". Before Clark can reply, she changes the subject by giving Lois her order. Lois announces they've been robbed.

Clark notices the back door swinging and goes into the alley to try and catch the thief. He stops Kevin's car just as he is about to drive away, and Kevin blasts Clark with a green flash of light. He is knocked back and, in a flash, Clark's memories zoom past. Chloe finds Clark in a daze and when she asks if he's all right, he merely says, "Who's Clark?"

Chloe takes Clark home, where he stares confused at the house he has grown up, and accidentally tears up the locked door. Lois is home and she tells Chloe that Jonathan and Martha are in Metropolis for a cardiologist's appointment and won't be back today. Chloe and Lois realize that the boy who robbed the Talon probably also wiped Clark's memory. Chloe decides to go to the Torch' office to see if she can find out what's causing Clark's amnesia, but then realizes that Clark would probably reveal his secret if left alone, so she takes him to his loft.

Jason gets upset with Lana when she announces that she is no longer going to enroll at CKU with him and that she's probably not going to college at all. She also states that their relationship has changed outside of Paris. Angry, Jason yells that he has done so much to protect her.

Chloe explains Clark's own powers to him by telling him her theory: that he was affected by the meteor shower and has super powers. She tells him that he's saved many lives, including herself several times, and has self-appointed himself Smallville's hero. Clark says he and Chloe must have been close friends for him to have trusted Chloe with such a secret and she reluctantly admits that he didn't. But even without his memory, Clark knows that Chloe wouldn't betray him.

She takes him back to the Talon, where he uses his X-ray vision to find a card under a floor mat and Chloe is slightly disturbed by this new ability. He muses why he just doesn't tell everybody what he can do and says he doesn't want to go back to a life of lying to everyone and not being himself. Chloe asks him to please reconsider "coming out", at least until his parents get back. Just then, Lana exits her apartment and Clark falls in love with her all over again, setting a lamp on fire with his heat vision, and Chloe hurriedly puts it out. Staring at Lana in wonder, he breathlessly asking who she is and Chloe sadly informs him that Lana Lang is the love of his life. That night, Lois goes to visit Clark in his loft, who is looking at pictures of Lana and studying drawings of the caves, and he correctly guesses that they don't get along.

The next day at school, Clark approaches Lana and asks her what happened to their relationship. She says she doesn't know and Clark sadly realizes it was something he did. Clark says that this time will be different. Lana is uncomfortable with his implication, but they agree to meet later to talk about it. Lois and Chloe track him down and inform him that they found out who the card belonged to: a boy named Kevin Grady.

At the Grady residence, Kevin is packing his bag when his father finds him. Kevin explains that wherever he was, they turned him into a freak and he knows that he can't stay because of what he did, so he is leaving for good. He zaps his father's memory and leaves. When Clark, Lois, and Chloe show up, Dr. Grady admits that Kevin was at the Summerholt Institute for memory treatment. He told them that Kevin had accidentally killed his brother Dillon while hunting, and that he was trying to get the tragedy erased from Kevin's memory.

They go to visit Lex, who also had memory treatment at Summerholt. Lex gets Clark alone, but Chloe is worried and whispers to Clark to be careful and he hears her just as Lex starts to ask about the Kawatche Caves. They go to the caves and Clark begins to explain the secret area. Lex heavily suggests that Clark show him the drawings. Remembering Chloe's warning, Clark avoids it by saying he needs to get back home.

Chloe sneaks into the Summerholt Institute and finds video files of Kevin's treatment. Just after she emails them to the *Torch*, a hand grabs her from behind. Clark goes to the *Torch* to find her, but only Lois is there, viewing the videos which showed that Kevin did not kill his brother, but someone let him believe he did. He leaves to find Kevin and tell him the truth.

He finds him in the woods where his brother died. Kevin seems a bit guilty that *all* of Clark's memories are gone. Clark encourages Kevin to remember what really happened. Emotional, Kevin realizes that it was his father that shot his brother, not him. Near tears, he asks Clark why he's helping him and wishes he could return the favor. The two decide to break into Summerholt to see if they can find a cure for Clark's amnesia.

Lois and Sheriff Adams are already there, since Lois can't get in touch with Chloe. Chloe is strapped down, begging to be let go and promising not to tell anybody what really happened. Dr. Grady is ready to wipe her memory clean. Clark and Kevin break into the building through a trap door and come into a room filled with jars of kryptonite. Clark is incapacitated for a time and tells Kevin to go on without him.

Kevin finds Chloe and confronts his father. Dr. Grady knocks him out and begins the treatment on Chloe. As a beam of energy is fired at her, Clark arrives and gets between it and Chloe. Another beam knocks out Mr. Grady. Clark's memory is restored, but the machine is overloaded and starts to collapse. Lois and Sheriff Adams arrive just in time to see Clark catch and toss away two large electrical columns before they crush Chloe. Kevin wakes up just then and blasts all three women. Lois and Sheriff Adams forget what they saw and Chloe forgets the treatment. Clark says to Kevin he owned him a favor, but Kevin tells him they were even and disappears. Dr. Grady is taken into custody by the police.

Lex visits Clark at the farm, but with his memory restored, he doesn't give him any new information, only that he can't remember anything that happened in the past 24 hours. Lex lies that he just wanted to share his own amnesia experience. They act friendly, but Clark seems suspicious of Lex's motives and Lex seems disappointed that Clark's memory is restored. He leaves and it is revealed that he stole one of Clark's cave map drawings from his loft. Lana arrives and Clark doesn't understand why she's there. She vaguely alludes to the possibility that they had "date-kind-of-plans", but seems embarrassed and leaves. Clark calls her back and repeats that "this time will be different".

Clark goes to see Chloe and thanks her for looking after him. She says she never realized how complicated his life was. Clark looks worried, asking if he did anything unusual. He even pleads with her to be completely honest. Chloe simply says he only did one thing different - he trusted her. She leaves him to think about that.

## Cast

### Starring

* Clark Kent
* Lana Lang
* Lex Luthor
* Jason Teague
* Chloe Sullivan

### Guest Starring

* Kevin Grady
* Lawrence Grady
* Sheriff Nancy Adams

### Co-Starring

* Erica Poss
* Dillon Grady

## Notes

* Antagonist: Lawrence Grady
* The very fact that Clark's entire memory was erased by Kevin Grady's ability hints that a Kryptonian's brain can store vast amounts of information within a volume in which a human brain can just store the impressions of several minutes.
* Chloe's e-mail address is displayed as *chloetorch@thedigitalwave.com*, a fictional email service.
* In this episode, Chloe finds out about the rest of Clark's abilities (X-ray vision, super hearing, and heat vision). With this Clark rediscovers his abilities in a similar manner as when he initially discovered them.
* Lionel Luthor does not appear in this episode. Neither do Jonathan and Martha Kent, but they do appear in a deleted scene. Consequently, this is the first episode in which Martha Kent does not appear as such because she is not seen in the scenes shown in the episode. Furthermore, this is the first episode in Season 4 which not feature Jonathan Kent.
* This is the second time that Lois learns Clark's secret. The first time was in *Spell*.
* The way Clark saves Chloe near the end of this episode is strongly reminiscent of the rescue in *Onyx*, two episodes prior. Both times Clark catches two identical objects (previously two large pieces of concrete), one with each hand, shielding Chloe, who is immobile, under him. Both rescues are witnessed by a main character (Lex in *Onyx*) but they forget it soon afterwards.
* Sheriff Adams and the Smallville Sheriff's Department handle the arrest of Dr. Lawrence Grady, even though they shouldn't be able to since Summerholt is in Metropolis.

## Trivia

* Jonathan Bennett has also worked alongside Tom Welling in 2005's Cheaper by the Dozen 2.
* Jonathan Bennett also played the role of Bo Duke in the 2007 direct-to-DVD prequel The Dukes of Hazzard: The Beginning, a role that was originally played by John Schneider in the original series. Unfortunately, the two of them don't share a scene together this episode since Schneider and Annette O'Tool's appearance were both cut.

## Continuity

* Lois' remark that Clark has amnesia again but with clothes on this time is a reference to their first meeting in *Crusade*, when he was Kal-El, standing naked in a corn field.
* Kevin was being treated at the Summerholt Institute, the facility formerly run by Dr. Lawrence Garner where Ryan James was being held captive in *Ryan* and Lex Luthor went to recover lost memories in *Memoria*.
* Lex remarks that he and Clark dropped the formalities the day he ran Clark off a bridge, which occurred in the *Pilot*.
* When Kevin Grady erases Clark's entire memory, glimpses from all previous episodes of the show appear on screen, including Clark's journey to Earth and his last moment on Krypton.
* Lex tries to get Clark to reveal the truth about the caves, which he discovered in *Skinwalker*.

## Spoilers

* When Clark reveals to Chloe that he's got X-ray vision, she covers her chest area. Lois did the same thing in *Infamous* when Clark revealed his powers to her.

## Allusions

* Chloe calls Clark's powers "super-abilities", a reference to the General Mills breakfast cereal, famously nicknamed the "Breakfast of Champions" and associated with excellence in sports since it was introduced in 1924.

## Quotes

**Chloe**: Clark has amnesia.
**Lois**: (*to Clark*) Again? Well, at least you've got your clothes on this time.

**Chloe**: Premature combustion. That's one I didn't need to know about.

**Clark**: Who is that?
**Chloe**: That... is Lana Lang. The love of your life.

**Lois**: You may not remember all the players on the board, but you can still play the game.

**Lois**: Trust your gut. Like, what's it say about me?
**Clark**: That we don't like each other very much?
**Lois**: *(smiles)* You're on the right track. Keep it up, Smallville.

**Clark**: I can't believe I've been friends with a billionaire.
**Lex**: Funny, you never seemed that impressed before.
**Clark**: Mr. Luthor?
**Lex**: Lex. I'm guessing you don't remember it, but we kinda dropped the formalities the day I ran you off a bridge.

**Lois**: Guess I shouldn't call you Smallville any more. (*Kevin wipes her memories*) Clark, what are you doing? Are you just going to stand there all day or you are going to untie her?

**Clark**: Chloe, I need you to be completely honest with me.
**Chloe**: Honest, huh?
**Clark**: What'd I do?
**Chloe**: You trusted me.