Krypto (Episode) - SirJeffCena

"**Krypto**" is the fourteenth episode in the fourth season of *Smallville*, and eightieth episode overall. It aired on February 16, 2005.

## Summary

Lois accidentally runs over a dog and brings it back to the farm to heal, but Clark quickly realizes it has super strength. He investigates and discovers it was part of an aborted LuthorCorp experiment... and that robbers are using the dogs to help them steal money. Meanwhile, Lana wonders what Jason is up to with his mother, and Jason is forced to ask Genevieve a few questions of his own.

## Recap

A small town grocer is robbed by two dogs: a black rottweiler and a golden retriever. One attacks the grocer, with the force to dent a steel door, while the other opens a safe and takes the money out. It is revealed that the dogs answer to two teens, Zack and Josh Greenfield. They collect the rottweiler, Hercules, and the money. But the retriever, whom they call Einstein, runs away into the night.

After getting kicked out of college, Lois Lane is on her way to move back in with the Kents. She hits something in the road and gets out of the car, horrified to see a dog. It seems injured so she collects the dog and takes it to the farm.

The Kents wake in the middle of the night to see that the dog has snapped its chain, and broken into the house and the refrigerator. Lois tries to explain that she was going to take him to a vet, but he seemed fine. She chained him up as she moved her things, but when they inspect the barn, they see a wooden post completely shattered. Highly allergic to the dog, Lois goes back to bed, and Clark reasons that he will stay up and do his farm chores so he can use his powers without Lois seeing. The dog observes Clark's super speed as he repairs the post in the barn.

The next morning, Chloe brings Lois' mail to her, meets Clark and sees the dog. Clark explains how they got the dog. She asks about Lois and him. Clark complains he can't be himself with Lois. Chloe notes that he can be himself with the dog now and mentions she is also here. Chloe goes to find Lois and Clark ties the dog to a tractor, but the dog pulls it through the fence into the front yard. Clark realizes there is something different about the dog and uses his X-ray vision to locate an identification chip under its skin. Lois and Chloe come out from the house and see tractor and dog. Lois is very surprised, Chloe puts on a show she is surprised too but tries to protect a secret whatever it might be, and after that goes away. Clark tells Lois that they can probably get the chip scanned at the vet. So after arguing over what to call him, they take the dog to the vet. The Greenfield brothers are running the shelter and Lois notices that the dog growls at them and is reluctant to go with the brothers. They scan the tag and the owner comes up as LuthorCorp. Zack muses that it must be some kind of lab dog and offers to return it. Clark doesn't want to leave the dog there so he asks Lois to take it back to the farm while he goes to talk to Lex, but the brothers make him leave his name and number. Zack reports that Einstein has been found and is at the Kent Farm. Hercules is locked in a cage and Josh antagonizes it. The brothers talk about how Josh used to work in a LuthorCorp lab, and used a kryptonite injection to make super-dogs. They make plans to get their dog back.

Clark goes to question Lex about LuthorCorp's experiments on dogs. They have an uneasy conversation in which Lex says that his father had a number of unsuccessful side projects. One of them did indeed involve making super-strength dogs with meteor rock injections, but he had the dogs humanely destroyed. He asks Clark if his dog is acting unusually, indirectly saying that if so, it would be a liability for Lex. Clark says that the dog is perfectly normal. Back at the farm, Martha and Jonathan argue over whether Clark should keep the dog, especially after it cracks the dining room table in half. Cleaning up that night, Jonathan is attacked by the super-strong Rottweiler. The golden retriever saves Jonathan and the two dogs growl at each other until the Rottweiler hears its calling whistle. It runs away and the retriever chases it away but returns to the farm.

Clark meets his parents at the hospital and he and Martha realize the dogs were responsible for the attack on the grocer. Lois points out that the only people who knew the dog was at the farm were Lex and the brothers at the vet. Jonathan warns Clark that he probably shouldn't get too attached to the golden retriever because if it did indeed attack the grocer, it will have to be put down. This upsets Clark, who insists that the retriever is a good dog and just needs a chance. Lois and Clark go to investigate the vet's office where Clark finds a map and a schedule for LuthorCorp's payroll. He figures out that the brothers are going to rob an armored truck. He tries to distract Lois so he can superspeed and stop them, but she insists on driving them, slowly and carefully. Clark uses his super-hearing to locate the brothers.

They see the two brothers robbing a security truck with the dogs in their van subdued in cages with kryptonite liquid vials on top. Lois goes to help the security guards, and Clark climbs into the van to free the dogs. He opens the retriever's cage but as Einstein jumps out, the vials smash. He falls ill from the kryptonite and the van drives off with Clark and Hercules in the back. The boys stop eventually to switch cars and discover Clark in the back. Einstein has followed the truck. They lock Clark into a cage and prepare to blow up the whole truck, but the golden retriever jumps in and pulls Clark to safety. Clark knocks the brothers out and Einstein saves the other dog as well. However it is trapped by the flames so Clark jumps back in and despite the Kryptonite, is able to rescue the dog and superspeed out just as the truck blows up.

Clark takes the dog back home where the vet gives him a clean bill of health. Lex comes to collect the dog but Clark says it saved his life and he intends to keep him. Clark is delighted when Jonathan allows him to keep him and Martha suggests Clark name him Shelby, after a dog she owned as a child.

Meanwhile, Genevieve Teague questions Lex on his motivations for hiring Jason. She asked Lex to hire him to keep him away from Lana, but is sure Lex is using Jason to find the Stones of Power. She asks Jason to leave with her, but he confronts her about her orchestration of his and Lana's relationship. Genevieve reveals that she knew of Lana's connection to Isobel Thoreaux and that their ancestors were responsible for burning Isobel at the stake. She goes on to reveal that Isobel vowed she would one day rise from the dead and kill all of Gertrude's heirs. Lana sees them talking but when Jason doesn't offer any details of the conversation, she asks Chloe to research his ancestors. Chloe tells her that she could only go back as far as Genevieve's grandmother and the family comes from the French village of Castelnois de Montmiral. Lana reveals to Chloe that that is the same village her ancestors are from... as well as Isobel Thoreaux's. Chloe proceeds to tell her that Genevieve's grandmother is the one who moved Isobel's tomb into the church in Paris. Lana wonders why anyone would move a witch's tomb into a church, and Chloe says the only way to find out is to talk to Jason about it. Lionel warns Jason not to trust Lex and gives him a copy of the map on the manuscript.

## Cast

### Starring

* Clark Kent
* Lana Lang
* Lex Luthor
* Jason Teague
* Chloe Sullivan
* Lionel Luthor
* Martha Kent
* Jonathan Kent

### Guest Starring

* Zach Greenfield
* Josh Greenfield

## Notes

* Antagonist: Greenfield Brothers
* When Lois hits the dog, as she is getting out of the car, the rear car lights are off. In the next frame, they are back on.
* On the shed Chloe drives past to meet Shelby, there are three garments hanging in the Superman colors.
* Lois is driving a silver GMC Envoy, with the logo on the grill inexplicably blacked out.
* Clark is seemingly unaffected by the kryptonite serum until it spills, perhaps suggesting that the vials containing it were leaded glass.
* From Jonathan and Martha's conversation, it can be assumed that Clark developed super strength at age three.
* During the conversation between Jason and his mother she says "we are Gertrude's ancestors Jason" when she should have said we are her descendants.
* When Clark throws the Greenfield brothers against the wall to knock them out you can see the wall bounce in place from the impact.
* When picking up Shelby, Lois says "Everyone I've ever hit was all right", a possible allusion to the previous episode, where a person she hit ended up paralyzed and died later, though it turned out to be for unrelated reasons.
* In *Crusade*, Lois stated she is a sucker for "stray dogs and naked guys". The second part alluded to her finding a naked Clark in the field. Now, she followed the first part by finding a stray dog.

## In Other Media

* The episode ends with the Goo Goo Dolls cover of Supertramp's 1977 song "Give a Little Bit". The original can be heard on Lois Lane's car radio during the climactic earthquake scene in *Superman: The Movie*.
* The vet that examined Shelby at the end is named Dr. Klein. This alludes to the television series *Lois & Clark: The New Adventure of Superman* where Dr. Klein is working at Star Labs.
* In the comic book *Superman for All Seasons*, by Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale, the young Clark Kent has a dog named Shelby. This would make Shelby the 19th DC Comics character adapted into the series.
* Clark initially planned to name his new dog Krypto, which alludes to his Kryptonian dog by the same name, who appears in the Superman and Superboy comics. Despite being a dog, Krypto has all the same powers and abilities as Superman. The last scene where Shelby is dried with the red towel is an allusion to Krypto who wore a red cape attached to its collar.
* A golden retriever with unusual abilities named Einstein may be a reference to the dog in *Watchers* by Dean Koontz.

## Trivia

* One of the names Lois suggests for the dog is "Bud", the real name of the dog playing Shelby.

## Quotes

**Lois**: You can call your next dog Krypto.

**Clark**: We found this dog...
**Lois**: Actually, I found him... well hit him actually. But not hard, we call him "Clarky."
**Clark**: We don't call him "Clarky."
**Lois**: Is it the "y" part you don't like? Because we could always just make it "Clark." But then that would get really confusing. But hey, maybe you should consider changing your name. You could be "Skipper."

**Genevieve**: I'm just trying to protect my son.
**Lex**: Well maybe you should get together with my father and write a parenting book. I bet it'd be a best seller.