Ep 9. Asylum

In the third season of Smallville, we see young Superman's journey as he navigates through high school while dealing with his unique abilities and discovering his alter ego. Episode 9, titled Asylum, brings a thrilling story where we see the return of Lionel Luthor, the father of Clark's best friend, Lex.

The episode begins as Clark and Chloe investigate an abandoned insane asylum on the outskirts of Smallville, where they find a secret underground laboratory, that contains evidence of bizarre experiments on the criminally insane patients. Any information about the laboratory was missing from official records, and the secrecy and illegality of the experiments become apparent.

Meanwhile, Lionel Luthor returns to Smallville and heads straight to the Kent farm, where he invites Clark's parents, Jonathan and Martha, for dinner. In the dinner, Lionel expresses his admiration for Clark and his family's values, and discusses his plans for expanding his business in Smallville by opening a new LuthorCorp factory. Lionel is back with a hidden agenda, and we see him playing his game of deceit and manipulation, as he tries to pursue an unknown goal.

Clark's journalist friend, Chloe, follows Lionel and tries to unearth his intentions. The investigation leads her to the LuthorCorp plant, where she discovers the same evidence of bizarre experiments on patients from the asylum. Lionel catches Chloe in the act and tells her that the experiments were inhuman, but he had nothing to do with them since the experiments were done by his previous employees.

The situation takes a turn for the worse when one of the patients, whose brain waves had been altered in the experiments, escapes from the asylum and heads straight to Lionel's office and tries to attack him. Lionel manages to escape, but the patient is left behind, injured.

Clark is informed about the escapee and arrives at the scene only to find that the patient possesses a unique ability, similar to one of his abilities, as the asylum had experimented on him with the same meteor rocks that gave Clark his powers. Clark managed to stop the patient from causing any harm, but the strange similarity of abilities could cause a lot of trouble for him in the future.

Asylum offers a lot of intensity and suspense as we see Clark's friends and family in danger, while Lionel Luthor returns to Smallville with ambiguous intentions. The episode uniquely highlights Clark's humanity, as he tries to protect the people he loves while keeping his superpowers secret.

Overall, Asylum is an engaging episode that offers a lot of excitement and an insight into Lionel's character, who has a crucial role to play in the series. The episode portrays complex themes of morality, science experimentation and the power of families through the lens of Smallville's world, making it a must-watch for fans and newcomers alike.