Rachel Dunleavy was a nurse hired by Lionel Luthor when his wife's heart condition began worsening (c. 1984). Rachel and Lionel had an affair, resulting in a son named Lucas.
Early life[]
Rachel was mentally and emotionally unstable, and Lillian was very ill, so Lionel decided that the best thing to do was to place Lucas with a suitable family and place Rachel in the psychiatric ward of Dr. Friedberg's clinic. She was there for seven years (c. 1985-1993).
Season Two[]
In 2002 (about nine years later), she came to Smallville believing that Clark Kent was Lucas. Thanks to Chloe's past research into Clark's adoption as part of a school project, she discovered that Metropolis United Charities—which she believed handled Lucas' adoption—only handled one adoption: Clark Kent's. Chloe posted a few notices on adoption websites to see if she could get a few hits while attempting to find information about Clark's biological parents, despite the fact that he had asked her to stop. Nevertheless, she thought she would find nothing and claimed Clark didn't want to know whether his biological parents were dead or simply didn't want him, leading to her exchanging e-mail messages with Rachel.
Attempting to get Rachel off his back, Clark agreed to a DNA test. However, when the results came back negative, she refused to believe them and accused Lionel of manipulating the results somehow (in reality, it was Clark who manipulated the results by breaking into the lab and substituting Pete's DNA in order to conceal his secret). Although she initially claimed that she simply wanted to get to know Clark without attempting to take anyone's place, her later words hinted at a deep-rooted dislike of Martha Kent due to her having been present at all the prominent moments of Clark's life instead of hers.
She kidnapped Lex in an attempt to force Lionel to publicly acknowledge Clark as their illegitimate son, taking him to the house she'd purchased with Lionel's money. When Lionel refused to meet her demands, Clark had to step in and save Lex. After Chloe helped Clark track down Rachel's house via clerical records, the house was revealed to be listed under the name of Lucas Luthor. Clark sped just in time to the house just as Rachel prepared to kill a knocked-out Lex with an axe. After witnessing Clark take the axe to the chest and shatter it, Rachel's already fragile mind was further overwhelmed when presented with such proof that Clark couldn't be her son, causing her to break down in tears. She was subsequently taken into custody and sent away to an institution, with Martha concluding that it didn't matter if she told anyone what she'd seen, as nobody would believe her.
Appearances[]
- Season Two: Lineage, Prodigal (Mentioned only)
- Smallville: Visions (Flashback)