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Season Four: Crusade - Gone - Façade - Devoted - Run - Transference - Jinx - Bound - Scare - Unsafe - Pariah - Recruit - Krypto - Sacred - Lucy - Onyx - Spirit - Blank - Ageless - Forever - Commencement

Spell

First aired November 10, 2004

Official Description - Detailed Description - Notes

See also: Quotes - Music - Transcripts

The CW's Official Description:

After Lana (Kristin Kreuk) reads from a spell book written in the 1600s, she, Lois (Erica Durance) and Chloe (Allison Mack) become possessed by witches that had been burned at the stake. The three witches have come back seek revenge and search for the powerful Kryptonian crystals, wreaking havoc on the town in the process. Clark (Tom Welling) attempts to stop the witches but they strip him of his powers and force him to reveal the location of the crystal he hid in the cave.

Michael Rosenbaum, Jensen Ackles, Annette O'Toole and John Schneider also star. Jeannot Szwarc directed the episode written by Steven S. DeKnight.

Detailed Description:

Notes:

Clark gets a visit from a football recruiter from Princeton. Princeton is the real-life alma mater of a former Clark Kent, Dean Cain, who was a stand-out football player while attending (though Clark is a quarterback, while Dean was a safety).

John Glover doesn't appear in this episode.

Kristin Kreuk's co-star from Edgemont, actor Micah Gardener, makes an unaccredited appearance as a party guest in this episode.

Are we supposed to believe that Lana, possessed or otherwise, has enough hand-strength that when she cuts something harder then the scissor blades, the blades break? Try cutting something metallic sometime with a pair of scissors - the blades won't break apart. At least in the past when things have shattered after hitting Clark, it's been when they're swung hard - no such thing happens here.

So...what happened at the end of the last episode? Did Clark just ask Lex if he had Jason fired and accept his smug grin as an answer? In this episode, Clark doesn't seem to be aware of Lex's involvement so apparently so, but it seems an odd way for two friends to end a conversation.

Jason doesn't seem to notice that Clark's face and chest have miraculously healed from the injuries Jason saw on them earlier in the barn.

They were celebrating Chloe's 18th birthday, but the tombstone seen in the first few episodes of the season indicate she was born in 1987. In order to turn 18, Chloe would have been born in 1986, or this episode takes place after January 1, 2005.

More of a nitpick then a goof, but from the beginning of this season, the producers have repeatedly portrayed Jason and Lana's relationship as "adult." Lana's gone on about it incessantly about how they're adults and not hurting each other, we've seen your typical WB pseudo-nudity and heavy breathing, they're willing to risk Jason's career and reputation to express their passion physically on school grounds, etc. But here the producers take great care to definitely establish she's a virgin. This all seems a bit contradictory.

Couldn't Isabelle/Lana find any virgin hair closer to home? Chloe was just there, why not lure her back or grab a hair before she left? And if she has Lana's memories, you'd think she'd be pretty sure Chloe was a virgin - she's had far fewer boyfriends then Lana the last four years. Instead Isabelle/Lana goes all the way out to the Kent farm to get Clark's hair.

How big is Chloe's hand? Before Jason cuts Clark down, the mark Chloe made on Clark's chest pretty much spanned Clark's whole chest which doesn't seem possible based on the size of Chloe's hand.

Why does Clark take a shotgun to the cave? Even if he conveniently forgets the witches have telekinetic powers from when they threw the tools at him, is he really planning on gunning down the three girls? Or does he think a shotgun is going to scare them into giving him the book given the powers they've displayed and the fact he's now sans powers? It can't be to shoot the book, because shooting at something in someone's hands with a shotgun is generally not a good idea.

Clark uses his heat vision as a repellor beam of sorts to deflect the flying tools. First of all - why bother? He's invulnerable. But his heat vision...well, melts things. None of the tools (including a saw blade we see close up) look the least bit heated up or melted.

How'd the three witches lose the book in the first place? They were able to run Clark pretty ragged, and you'd think they'd figure out not all to sleep at the same time or leave the book unguarded. So how'd a bunch of villagers overwhelm them?

Given what happened the last time they lost the book, why is Isabelle so casual about it in the 21st century? She doesn't have it when she visits Lex and Clark, and apparently just leaves it at the apartment because Jason finds it and almost destroys it.

If Clark's so fast, why does he just stand there in the barn and let the witches talk, speak spells, gesture, etc.? The previous week he defeated a villain between eye blinks.

Once again a character just...shows up. Why did Jason go to the Kent barn? Last thing he knew, Clark was nowhere to be seen and Lana knocked him out. And the witches can teleport, so it's not like they'd leave a trail for him to follow.

So after Lana and the other witches tied up Clark at the barn and disappeared (presumably teleporting), some time passes. Jason shows up and frees Clark, they have a conversation, split up, Clark gets a shotgun, grabs a new shirt, cleans up his wounds...and gets to the caves only a minute after the witches do. What were they doing while he was doing all this that took so long? And how did Clark know he had enough time to do all this?

The producers go to great pains to establish that Clark and Lana are both virgins at the beginning of this episode. And the fact they still are will be a major plot point a few episodes down the road. But given how libertine the Countess Isabelle is and what we see at the barn, it seems difficult to believe they would still be virgins after the witches turned the birthday party into an orgy.

At the beginning of the episode, when Lana come to Clark's barn to setup for the party, she removes two boxes and hands them to Clark. We see her give the first box to Clark with the decorations, and then puts the second box with the plates on top of that Then when there is only a shot of Clark asking a question, we see only the first box (with the decorations). In the next shot we see him carrying both boxes again.

The witches are being hauled to their burning in a covered cart. Apparently the cover is soundproof, because neither we nor they hear the screaming mob until it's yanked off. Either that, or the mob agreed to start screaming on cue the second the cloth was yanked off.

Back in "Run", Lex said he was going to lock away the manuscript page in a LuthorCorp vault. So why is it on display here? Particularly since it's been absent in the study in "Transference" and "Jinx" since then.

After the bit where Jason threatens Isabelle that he will burn the book, she says "You have no idea what you are dealing with, little man" and then she says a spell that throws him against the wall. After she says the spell, we see Jason being thrown onto the wall while you can see Isabelle saying the spell again, but we can't hear anything.

At the beginning, with the scene in 16th century France, shouldn't the people be speaking French or at least with a French accent?

Roughly a year ago (in "Hereafter") Lex stated to Adam he never had the patience to learn to play the piano. But here he plays like a virtuoso. Apparently he not only got the patience but found the time between near-dying of poison, being on regular blood transfusions, dealing with his dad, testifying in court, protecting Chloe and her dad, searching for ancient Kryptonian artifacts, etc.

Is Clark vulnerable to magic?: This episode seems to establish one of the major elements of the comics - that Clark is vulnerable (or at least his powers give him no special protection) against magic. And Clark assumes Isabelle's powers are "magic" when he makes this determination. But...is he correct? Isabelle's powers are derived entirely from Kryptonian stuff such as the book with the water symbol/tattoo (when they lose the book they lose their powers, twice). And in her 17th century mind frame, she views the three crystals as magical "Stones of Power". Is she somehow tapping into Kryptonian technology under s.f. author Arthur C. Clarke's axiom that "Any sufficiently advanced technology appears as magic to less primitive types?" Only time will tell...

Where's Kara when you need her?: "Spell" shares several elements with the Supergirl movie. Jeannot Szwarc directed both of them. Both have an evil hammy enchantress (Selena, Isabelle) with magical powers, and both are looking for a Kryptonian artifact that they think is magical. Both use magic to get an attractive young stud to sorta lust after them (or whatever Isabelle is doing to Clark to get the location of the cave).

Lex says: "Just in case there was any Evil Dead action still brewing": referring the famous trilogy (as of this episode's original airing) of movies starring Bruce Campbell. They also feature a magic book, the Necronomicon Ex Mortis.

Lana cutting Clark's hair: The breaking of the scissors, when Lana tries to cut Clark's hair, is borrowed from the cover of an old Superman comic book where a barber is trying to give Superman a haircut. Broken scissors are strewn on the floor and Superman is reading a Batman comic book. Pre-Crisis scissors seemed to be the preferred way to test Clark Kent to see if he was Superman - both Lois Lane and Perry White tried it a couple of times. Finally, the scene might be a parody of Superman IV, when Lex Luthor and his nephew stole a strand of Superman's hair from a museum where it was holding up a boulder.

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Season Four: Crusade - Gone - Façade - Devoted - Run - Transference - Jinx - Bound - Scare - Unsafe - Pariah - Recruit - Krypto - Sacred - Lucy - Onyx - Spirit - Blank - Ageless - Forever - Commencement

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