Smallville Wiki
Advertisement
For the eponymous character, see Lara-El.

"Lara" is the sixth episode in the seventh season of Smallville, and the one hundred-thirty-eighth episode overall. It aired on November 1, 2007.

Summary[]

Clark learns Kara is in Washington D.C. searching for the blue crystal. Kara is captured after she breaks into the lab and sedated with a Kryptonite-infused truth serum. The serum causes her to relive a prior trip to Earth when she followed Clark's biological mother, Lara, to the Kent Farm. Clark arrives in time to save her but, almost becoming victim to Agent Carter's torture himself, he sees what Kara sees: his mother.

Recap[]

→ see also Category:Screencaps from episode 7x06

Flashbacks appear in green text

Lara7

Kara and Zor-El say goodbye on Krypton.

During the war on Krypton, Kara is begging her father, Zor-El, not to send her away. She is very resentful of the three-year journey toward Earth, especially since everything she knows and loves is on Krypton. He gives her a crystal which she must protect. It contains instructions for what she must do when she rescues Kal-El. Zor-El stays behind on Krypton after they bid each other goodbye.

Kara is flying above Washington D.C. An airplane nearly hits her, but she flies out of the way just in time.

Lara54

Clark and Chloe ask Jimmy if he knows anything.

Chloe is looking at a website for the Isis Foundation which gives support for the meteor infected. Clark superspeeds in and Chloe tells him that an airline pilot reported a near miss with an object that was most likely Kara. Clark is worried that Kara might hurt someone or reveal the Kent family secret. Jimmy Olsen meets up with Clark and Chloe, and Clark begs Jimmy to tell him anything he knows about Kara. Jimmy reveals that Kara asked to see Lois' video of the spaceship. He managed to get a partial image of equipment that pointed to the government. Clark comes to the realization that the government might have the crystal, and Kara will do anything to get it back.

Clark visits Lionel in his office to get information about an underground government lab he found beneath the silo in Granville. When asked which side of the family Kara is from, Clark lies, saying she is from his adopted father's side of the family. Lionel then says that the lab belongs to the Department of Domestic Security. He also tells Clark about Starhawk, a program which watches for threats beyond the stars. They came to Smallville after the second meteor shower, and were about to leave since they found no conclusive evidence of an alien threat. Clark asks Lionel to tell him everything he knows about Starhawk.

Lara102

Carter and a lab tech analyze the crystal.

The blue crystal is being analyzed in a lab with Agent Carter supervising. One of the lab technicians reports that seven percent of the material in the crystal is unidentifiable. As the crystal is locked up in a chamber, Lex Luthor enters the building and accuses Carter of stealing something from the spacecraft without telling him. Carter states the information is classified, but Lex doesn't care. He says he will eventually find out what Carter is hiding. After Lex leaves, Carter and his scientists continue examining the crystal.

In Washington D.C., Kara is using her super-hearing to listen for discussion about the crystal. She hears one of the technicians from Carter's lab talking about working in the lab. Using her sex appeal, she pulls him aside and asks questions about his work. Even though he is forbidden to share any information with her, he begins to fall for her and tells her that a crystal was found in the ship and was being studied at the lab. When he turns around for a few seconds, Kara is gone.

Kara is walking through the hallways of the lab. She has stolen the technician's wallet, and is using his card to enter secure doorways. When she gets to the room where the crystal was held, she smashes open the chamber and discovers that the crystal is gone.

Lara170

Chloe meets with Lana at Isis.

Chloe enters a building for the Isis Foundation and, to her surprise, is greeted by Lana. Lana says she started the foundation with money from Lex's divorce settlement to help victims and their families fight back. She eventually plans on turning the Isis Foundation into a major operation. Chloe seems impressed, but she senses Lana is bending the truth when Lana asks her not to tell Clark about  this. Lana denies lying about anything, and Chloe agrees to keep the conversation a secret.

Kara finds the lab technician again, demanding to know the real location of the crystal. Clark shows up behind Kara and tells her to let the technician go and to give him back his wallet. He pulls her aside, wanting to know if she was looking for the crystal, but she refuses to tell him anything. Kara is upset because the crystal is her last tie to Krypton, and she thinks Clark doesn't care at all. She tells Clark to get out of her life, making it very clear to Clark that she is not too fond of him. When Clark tries to stop her from leaving, she pushes him away and flies through the ceiling.

Lara213

Kara uses Jimmy's computer.

At the Daily Planet, Jimmy finds that Kara is using his computer, hacking into a national security network. She is looking for people who have entered the lab and might have stolen the crystal from it. Her search brings up LX Dynamics, a LuthorCorp defense contractor. As Jimmy finds a file, Kara superspeeds away.

Lana is viewing footage from the surveillance cameras installed in the Luthor Mansion when she suddenly loses all signals. Kara enters the mansion and x-rays the wall and sees a safe. She suddenly falls ill and sees Carter standing behind her with kryptonite handcuffs. After seeing how meteor rocks disable her ship, he figured it might do the same to the passenger. Lex enters the room and Carter pulls out a gun, accusing him of working with Kara and stealing his property. Lex wonders what he did to Kara. Carter shoots Lex with the tranquilizer gun and leads Kara away. Lana gets back the feed from her surveillance cameras and calls Clark to tell him that Kara was there.

Lara48

Kara flirts with the technician to gain access to the lab.

Lara251

Clark demands to know where Kara is.

Clark enters Lex's mansion, where Lex is making a phone call to get Carter fired. He is demanding to know where Kara is. Lex tells him she was just arrested by the department of domestic security and has been taken to a lab in Virginia.

Kara is restrained on a table in a lab, in deep pain from the kryptonite surrounding her. She keeps insisting she's human, but Carter wonders how she smashed into an impenetrable vault. Prior to capturing her, he spoke with the lab tech she tried to seduce. Using technology developed at Summerholt, Carter is able to force people to relive their memories by injecting the meteor rock straight into their veins. He gives Kara a small dose of kryptonite, wanting know more about her background.

Lara279

Kara relives a prior trip to Earth with Lara.

At the Kent Farm, Kara is talking to her aunt, Lara-El. Kara followed Lara to Earth by sneaking through the last remaining portal. Lara says she wants to see where her son may grow up. Kara congratulates her on getting pregnant since she and Jor-El have wanted a child for a while. Lara is worried that Krypton may never see the end of the war despite the chance that Jor-El's Brain InterActive Construct would save them. According to Lara, Jor-El chose the Kents to raise their child when he visited Earth many years ago because he was impressed by their capacity to love. Kara makes a comment about how messy the barn is, but Lara explains that it's not where they live. She decides to show Kara around.

Lara322

Carter forces Kara to relive a prior trip to Earth.

Kara wakes up from the flashback, still in Carter's lab. He discovers she was on Earth in 1986, before the first meteor shower. Kara continues to deny being an alien, but her pain is getting worse. Carter injects more kryptonite into her veins to force another flashback.

Lara and Kara enter the kitchen of the Kents' house, while the Kents are away. Kara suggests that Lara name her son Kal-El, so he can look at the sky and think of them. Lara finds a picture of Martha Kent, and thinks she will make a good mother. Kara takes a photo of Lara, so her son could have a picture of her. Lara hides the picture behind the picture of Martha. Suddenly, the door is kicked off its hinges, and Zor-El steps in.

Back at the lab, Clark bends the door open and is immediately weakened by the kryptonite radiation filling the room. Carter realizes that he is from the same race as Kara. Clark warns him that the meteor rock exposure is killing her and punches him away. Clark is able to remove the IV from Kara's arm, but he sees the same flashback Kara is seeing when he tries to disconnect the rest of the equipment.

Lara349

Zor-El tries to have his way with Lara.

Zor-El is yelling at Kara because she left Kandor, and tells her to wait outside. Alone with Lara, Zor-El tells her that they could rule the planet Earth with strength as a family. Lara backs away, telling Zor-El that she is pregnant with Jor-El's child. Meanwhile, Kara is watching from outside. Zor-El claims he tried to kill Jor-El because Jor-El stole Lara from him, ruining his life. It is revealed that he stored Lara's DNA inside a crystal. He continues to try to seduce Lara, until Kara stops him. Enraged, he erases Kara's memory of that day with another crystal.

Clark discovers that Kara has flat-lined from the kryptonite exposure. He tries to wake her up while Carter is sneaking up behind him with more kryptonite. Lionel appears in the doorway and shoots Carter. Clark punches Kara's chest as hard as he can, resuscitating her. They embrace, and she apologizes.

At Clark's house, Kara and Clark find the picture of Martha with the picture of Lara hidden beneath it, proving that everything they saw really happened. Kara comes to terms with the fact that her father was not the godlike hero she thought he was. Clark tells her that she is not defined by her parents, and must now shape her own destiny. She apologizes for being so obsessed with the crystal, putting them both in danger, and saying things she didn't mean. Clark hopes he can see Lara again someday.

Lara413

Lionel tells Lex to give up his fascination with Clark.

Lionel visits Lex and criticizes him for being fascinated with the new girl in town, Kara Kent. He thinks Lex should give up his obsession with Clark and everyone associated with him. Lex comments that Lionel spends about as much time protecting Clark as he does pushing Lex away. Lionel agrees that Lex has changed; he has become more of an expert at hiding his projects. He can fool everyone around him with the exception of Lionel.

Lara458

Clark has the crystal.

Kara apologizes to Jimmy for running off last night, saying he was always there for her when she was out chasing leads. She invites him out for lunch and kisses him. Jimmy runs into Chloe on the way out. Chloe still wants to be friends and asks him out to lunch, but Jimmy says he already has plans and looks at Kara. Chloe warns Jimmy to be careful.

In the barn, Clark thanks Lana for helping him find Kara, and shows her the picture of Lara. Lana is curious about how the picture could have been taken in Clark's house, but he decides to show her something else. He opens a box inside a trap door in the barn, revealing the blue crystal with Lara's DNA.

Cast[]

Starring[]

Guest Starring[]

Co-Starring[]

Mentioned[]

Featured Music[]

  • "Super Sexy Free" - Bosshouse
  • "Lucid" - Eek

Title[]

  • Lara is the name of Clark Kent's Kryptonian birth mother.
  • This episode is the first full on-screen appearance of Lara.
  • This is the third episode of the season to use a character name from the comics as its title. The previous ones were Bizarro and Kara.

Notes[]

  • Antagonist: Agent Carter
  • Clark’s Abilities: Superhuman Strength, Super-Speed, Invulnerability
  • Kara’s Abilities: Super Memory, Flight, Multi-spectrum Vision (possibly), Super-Speed, Superhuman Strength, X-Ray Vision
  • Lois Lane does not appear in this episode.
  • During the scene following the opening credits, Chloe tells Clark about Kara's encounter with the airplane. The Pilot said he had a near-miss encounter with an object that shot into the sky in a "Red-Blue Blur". This is the persona Clark Kent will use to conceal his identity in later seasons.
  • At the start of the episode, Kara mentioned that it takes 3 years to travel from Krypton to Earth, which roughly matches the description in Superman Returns, in which Superman is absent for five years due to a trip to and from Krypton.
  • When Clark visits Lionel, we see that Lionel is wearing a black glove. This may be a hint to what Lex's future will be.
  • From the discussion with Lara during Kara's flashback, it seems that Kara is the one who suggested the name Kal-El for her as of yet unborn child.
  • It also shows the source of the strife between Zor-El and Jor-El as they were both in love with Lara with Jor-El obviously being the one who won her heart in the end.
  • When Clark is about to open the picture frame you see a picture of Martha Kent, But when he opens it you can see that it is a picture of two people.
  • Unlike Clark's Kryptonian ship (which was designed to hold him as an infant), Kara's ship was big enough to hold her entire family. It is basically the same size as Milton Fine/Braniac's ship from season 5, which also carried both Nam-Ek and Aethyr to Earth in Season Four's Commencement.
  • This episode marks the first time in the series that Krypton is fully seen.

In Other Media[]

Trivia[]

  • Helen Slater's appearance as Lara-El is significant because Slater portrayed Supergirl Kara Zor-El in the 1984 feature film Supergirl: The Movie. She is the seventh Superman alum to have a role on Smallville and the second to be introduced in this season following Dean Cain as Curtis Knox. Her appearance and interaction with Laura Vandervoort's incarnation of the character serves as a "passing of the torch" moment. The film was a commercial and critical failure, but has become a campy cult favorite among Superman fans. It was also directed by frequent Smallville director Jeannot Szwarc.

Continuity[]

  • Agent Carter was also seen in Kara and Fierce.
  • Kara's line, "Everything and everyone I love is here, on Krypton," bears a resemblance to Clark's line when Jor-El tried to get him to leave in Exodus.
  • This episode marks the first appearance of Lara since the Season 3 episode, Memoria, where viewers only saw her arm. Also, Agent Carter claims that the serum he uses is made from the one used in that episode.
  • Lara mentions Jor-El came to Earth years ago; this was seen in Relic.
  • This is the first time we see the Isis Foundation up and running, although we also saw it in non-operational form in Cure, as well as what its "other" purpose is.
  • Lara tells Kara in the flashback that the Kents are away at Church. This is the only time the series gives any indication that the Kents, or specifically Clark's parents, might be religious. Though this is roughly 3 years before Clark's arrival.

Locations[]

Quotes[]

Kara: Everything and everyone that I love is here on Krypton.
Zor-El: This crystal is your way back to us. So long as you have it, the world you know and love will be safe.
Kara: Why can't you come with me?
Zor-El: I'm needed here to protect Kandor. You must protect the crystal. It contains instructions for what you must do when you rescue your cousin Kal-El.
Kara: I don't want to go
Zor-El: Remember, Kara, a true Kryptonian embraces their destiny no matter what.

Chloe: Look, I know how this is gonna sound coming from me, but you and Kara are from different worlds. Just be careful, okay?
Jimmy: Chloe, Kara is from Minnesota. It's not like she's from another planet.

Jimmy: Kara. You're okay. When did you get back from D.C.?
Kara: I just flew in.

Kara: Why are you doing this? You're hurting me.
Agent Carter: Well, if I wasn't hurting you, you'd be hurting me. We humans--we call it "survival of the fittest."
Kara: I am human!!

Kara: Have you given your baby a name yet?
Lara: No. With everything happening on Krypton, Jor-El and I have yet to discuss one.
Kara: He'll be so far from home. Our sun will be nothing but a distant star... Maybe you could name him Kal-El. That way, when he looks at the sky, he could think of us.
Lara: Kal-El. Well, that's a beautiful name.

Lionel: Can't I take an interest in my son's well-being?
Lex: Oh, and which son is that? You spend as much time protecting Clark as you do pushing me away. Exactly whose father are you?
Lionel: I wish I could say yours and be proud. Your treatment of Lana...
Lex: C'mon, dad. I learned from watching you with Mom. I was just... being a Luthor.

(Clark punches Kara in the chest; she reawakens)
Kara: (hugs Clark) Kal-El! I'm so sorry.
Clark: It's okay. Everything is going to be alright.

External links[]


Previous Story:
Action
Next Story:
Wrath
EpisodesSeason 1 · 2 · 3 · 4 · 5 · 6 · 7 · 8 · 9 · 10

Minor CharactersSeason 1 · 2 · 3 · 4 · 5 · 6 · 7 · 8 · 9 · 10

Screencaps: Season 1 · 2 · 3 · 4 · 5 · 6 · 7 · 8 · 9 · 10

CategoriesMain Characters · Relationships · Villains

ComicsThe Comic · Season 11 · Miniseries


Advertisement