Pilot

## "Pilot"Season 01, Episode 01

"*So what are you: Man or Superman?*"
—Lana Lang to Clark Kent

**"Pilot"** is the first episode of Season One of The CW's *Smallville*. It was written by Alfred Gough & Miles Millar and directed by David Nutter. It is the first episode of the series overall, and premiered on October 16, 2001.

## Synopsis

The first episode tells the story of the meteor shower that hit Smallville and changed life in the Kansas town forever. Clark Kent meets Lex Luthor for the first time and encounters the first in a long line of humans mutated by the strange green meteor rocks that accompanied him on his journey to Earth.

## Recap

On October 7, 1989, young Smallville couple Jonathan and Martha Kent take a trip into town, visiting florist shop owner and friend Nell Potter and her three-year old niece Lana Lang.

Meanwhile, rich businessman Lionel Luthor and his son are flying in their helicopter to a factory in Smallville. Nine-year-old Lex Luthor is scolded by his father for expressing his fear during the flight, later finding relief when they land. While Lionel Luthor makes an unknown business deal, young Lex Luthor wanders off into Riley Corn Field.  After hearing someone whisper "help me", he runs in a panic, stumbling to the ground where he is called upon by fourteen-year-old Jeremy Creek who is without clothing and tied to a cross with an "S" painted on his chest.

As meteors begin to befall the town, Lana Lang witnesses a fatal meteor fall on her parents, Lewis and Laura Lang.  A collision in the cornfield creates a shockwave, bringing with it the debris that seemingly swallows Jeremy Creek and Lex Luthor. Lionel later finds Lex laying in the cornfield, with only a small patch of red hair remaining on his head. On a dirt road outside of the cornfield, Jonathan and Martha Kent are overturned in their pickup truck by a meteor. While hanging upside down in their vehicle, they are approached by a young boy without clothes or parents. Near by, a black spaceship lays in the wreckage, making certain the young Clark Kent was not of this planet.

12 Years later, 2001, in Smallville, "The Meteor Capital of the World, population 45,001" teenage Clark Kent tries to convince his parents to allow him to play high school football. Overly cautious of his known abilities, Jonathan Kent disappoints Clark and refuses to sign the permission slip. Leaving the Kent farm a moment too late, Clark misses his bus to Smallville High, having to use his super speed through a corn field short cut. His best friends Pete Ross and Chloe Sullivan discuss going to the school dance. Pete suggests that Chloe should go with Clark Kent and she insists she does not have a crush on him. Pete explains that he and Clark want to join the football team in order to avoid becoming the "Scarecrow". Every year the Smallville High football team chooses a freshman male who they leave in his underwear tied to a cross in a cornfield, like a scarecrow. Clark has a crush on Lana Lang, but becomes physically ill whenever he approaches her. Lana wears a necklace made from the meteor that killed her parents.

At football tryouts, Clark watches Lana practicing with the other cheerleaders. He daydreams about being the star quarterback and winning the game. Then he walks home at normal speed to think and mope. Jeremy Creek (looking exactly as he did twelve years ago) is skulking around the school. He gazes at the football trophy case, then breaks it and takes a picture of three smiling football players. At Frank's auto shop, Jeremy Creek electrocutes Frank, one of the former football players that put him out in the cornfield twelve years ago. Twenty-one year old Lex Luthor arrives in Smallville to assume management of the Smallville branch of his father's company, a fertilizer plant. Lex is driving quickly when his cell phone rings. Distracted, he doesn't notice something blocking the road ahead. He swerves and sees Clark moments before the car hits him. Both, Clark and Lex in his car go over the Loeb Bridge into Elbow River. The impact knocks Lex unconscious, but Clark swims towards him, rips the top off of his car, and pulls him out. He resuscitates Lex, who is sure he actually hit Clark, but Clark brushes him off. When Clark's father arrives at the scene, he is very unhappy with Lex.

Later that night, Clark is in the loft of his parents' barn. He spies on his neighbor, Lana. She is talking to her boyfriend, Whitney Fordman, a senior and quarterback of the football team. Lana gives him her necklace for good luck in the homecoming game. The next day, Clark receives a brand new truck as a gift from Lex for saving his life, but his father won't let him keep it. Jonathan's animosity towards the Luthors is revealed when he tells Clark that LuthorCorp evicted their neighbors to make the money that bought that truck. When Jonathan says that it's normal for Clark to be upset, Clark turns on the wood chipper and sticks his hand inside to demonstrate that he is not "normal", leaving Jonathan stunned.

Trying to explain Clark's origins, he shows him the spaceship, which they have hidden in the storm cellar. He tells Clark that he arrived in it during the meteor shower. Clark is angry and says he should've been told before. He runs away to think and meets Lana in Smallville Cemetery. She confesses that she goes there to talk to her late parents. She and Clark have their first real conversation. Clark walks Lana home and she asks if he's going to the dance. He says that he is going to sit it out. She says if he changes his mind, she'll save him a dance, and then kisses him on the cheek. Whitney watches from the shadows. Clark goes to Lex's
mansion and explains to Lex that he can't keep the truck. Lex realizes it's because Clark's father doesn't like him. Lex says he doesn't want anything to stand in the way of their friendship. Pete and Chloe are at the scene of a crime. Another former football player has been found in a coma. They see

Jeremy Creek and snap his picture. Chloe is editor of the school newspaper, the Template:Smallville Torch and, with Pete and Clark's help, the three report on school events, but Chloe is keenly interested on abnormal events. They take Jeremy's photo to the office of the *Torch* and find him in a twelve-year-old yearbook. They realize he has been in a coma since the meteor shower and hasn't aged a day because he was suffering from an electrolyte imbalance. He escaped from the hospital during an electrical storm and is now prowling around Smallville electrocuting jocks for revenge. Chloe shows Clark her "Wall of Weird" - a collection of articles about the strange goings-on in Smallville since the meteor shower. Clark is upset by the mural because he believes that he is to blame.

As Clark is leaving the school, Whitney picks him to be the next scarecrow. Clark tries to fight back but Whitney is wearing Lana's necklace. When Clark notices the necklace, Whitney puts it on Clark which renders him helpless. Whitney and his fellow football players throw him in the back of a pickup truck and string him up in a field on a cross with an "S" painted on his chest. Jeremy finds him but refuses to help, telling Clark that he'll be safer where he is. Jeremy then goes to the homecoming dance to electrocute everyone there. Lex drives by as Jeremy jumps the fence. Lex recognizes Jeremy from twelve years ago and gets out of the car to investigate. Jeremy slips away but Lex finds Clark and frees him. Lana's necklace falls off and as Clark runs away, Lex picks up the necklace.

At the dance, Jeremy is about to set off the sprinkler system when Clark shows up. They fight and Jeremy tries to run Clark down with a car when he crashes into a water main. As the cab fills with water, he short-circuits himself. His powers are gone. He has
no memory of Clark and just wants to go home.

Clark watches Lana and Whitney dance and leaves in frustration. When he sees Whitney's truck, he pauses. After the dance, the students are astonished to see three trucks belonging to the football players stacked one on top of the other. Jonathan comes to the loft to talk to Clark. Clark is no longer angry and says he is glad the Kents are the ones that found him. Jonathan says it was Clark who found them. Clark daydreams that Lana stops by and gives him the dance she promised him. As they dance, she asks him if everything is alright, and he responds that it's perfect. The sound of a car horn jolts him back to reality, as he watches Lana being dropped off by classmates. He gazes at her and whispers, "Thanks for the dance, Lana." She turns, almost as if she heard him, then smiles to herself, and walks into her house. Clark remains looking out the window.

## Cast

* Kristin Kreuk as Lana Lang
* Michael Rosenbaum as Lex Luthor
* Eric Johnson as Whitney Fordman
* Sam Jones III as Pete Ross
* Allison Mack as Chloe Sullivan
* Annette O'Toole as Martha Kent
* John Schneider as Jonathan Kent

Special Guest Star* John Glover as Lionel Luthor

Guest Starring* Sarah Jane Redmond as Nell Potter
* Jade Unterman as Young Lana Lang
* Malkolm Alburquenque as Young Clark Kent
* Matthew Munn as Young Lex Luthor
* Dee Jay Jackson as Bill Ross
* Alvin Sanders as Dale Ross
* Steve Bacic as Frank
* Justin Chatwin as Teen Jostled by Whitney
* Wendy Chmelauskas as Laura Lang
* Ben Odberg as Lewis Lang
* Jay Kirby as Former Jock #2
* Amy Esterle as Heike

## Trivia

### Episode Connections

* The reason why Lionel Luthor visited Smallville the day of the meteor shower is revealed in Season Seven's "Descent".
* Lex talks about the history of the Luthor mansion, which is supposed to be his ancestral home and was "shipped over from Scotland stone by stone". Lionel's reasons to actually do so is explained later on in Season Seven's "Quest".