By Sonia K.

Gabriel Duncan, the tech guy from The Torch, is holding a guard at gunpoint inside a silo and yelling at him to grant him access to the missiles.  The first guard tries to stop the other guard from doing what Gabriel wants but to no avail.  When the guard finally grants him access, Gabriel shoots both of the guards.  He calls Chloe just as she is packing to leave for Metropolis University, to tell her that in one hour, Smallville will finally be gone forever.

Clark and Lana awake from their first night together.  They have overslept and while sneaking Lana out of the house, they get caught by Mr. & Mrs. Kent.  Mrs. Kent is surprised but Mr. Kent is more upset with Clark.  Lana leaves and Mr. Kent tries to warn Clark of what he’s getting himself into.  While Mrs. Kent is more concerned about a slightly embarrassed Clark being “careful” in his new, mature relationship with Lana.

Chloe shows up at an awkward moment but wastes no time informing the Kents of the cryptic call from Gabriel.  Mr. Kent leaves to warn the sheriff and Chloe & Clark try to find Gabriel on their own.

Lana arrives at her apartment to find Lex waiting inside for her.  Lana is immediately annoyed especially over Lex snooping through her personal things including sketches of the two beings from the spaceship (see: Episode 501-Arrival).  Lex tells Lana that he was only skeptical at first about her seeing a spaceship but that he believes in what she says.   He fails to mention that he has the spaceship in his possession, but does try to find out who else she may have told about the spaceship.

Mr. Kent finds that the sheriff is already aware of the situation.  Teams of officers are being sent in to a silo, guns drawn.  Inside, Gabriel is trying to re-route the missile coordinates to Smallville.  As they enter, the silo is completely empty.  They realize that there are over 15 silos similar to this one and that Gabriel could be in any one.

Chloe & Clark go to Gabriel’s house and find that he has his very own Wall of Weird, on a much larger scale however.  They find Gabriel’s father laying in a pool of blood in one of the rooms. 

At LuthorCorp, Lex is arguing with one of his researchers.  He demands them to find a way into the spaceship he took from out in the field.  The researcher explains they have used all of their resources and that the material is unknown to mankind.  Lex retorts that he can easily be replaced by another researcher.

Chloe & Clark come up with a plan.  Chloe calls Gabriel, saying that she has had an accident while trying to leave town and that now she is stuck in a ditch.

Lex visits Lionel at the mental institution to question him about the symbols he’s carved everywhere, still, Lionel has no response for him.

Gabriel shows up to help Chloe, instead Clark intervenes and tells Gabriel he has to stop, Gabriel reaches down, pulls out a gun and shoots Clark.  As his blood flows, Clark falls to the ground.  Chloe attacks Gabriel but he overpowers her and takes her with him, leaving Clark wounded and alone.

Clark is rolled past Jonathan and Martha Kent as they wheel him into the emergency room.  They are told he has been shot. 

At the silo, Gabriel has Chloe tied up and is carrying on with his plan.  Chloe tries to talk him out of it by mentioning his father.  All Gabriel tells her is that both he and his father were against meteor freaks and after the last shower, his father became one.  Gabriel’s father wanted Gabriel to help him to die rather than to live with the aftereffects of the green meteor rocks. 

Lana visits Clark at the hospital.  She tells him how she feels about him.  He opens his eyes to look at her but in an instant his eyes roll back and his heart stops.  At that very moment, Lionel awakens into some form of consciousness.  He punches through the glass where he is being held and with one glance, super-speeds away.  The doctor tries to revive Clark but it is too late.  Official time of death, 7:18 AM.

Devastated, Lana makes her way back towards the lobby.  Before she can speak, Mr. & Mrs. Kent see the pain in her face and realize Clark is gone, in more ways than one.  As the doctor notifies them of Clark’s death, the nurse rushes out to inform them of a bigger problem with the Kent boy, his body has disappeared.

As time winds down, Gabriel’s attention turns back to the missile launch. With only a couple of minutes remaining, Chloe manages to untie herself and strikes Gabriel with the guard’s baton, knocking him out temporarily.  She tries to override the program but it seals the doors and denies her access.  Horrified, Chloe can only watch as the missile prepares for launch.  As she watches, Gabriel wakes up and recovers his gun and ends up in a tight struggle with Chloe.  As they both struggle to gain control, the gun goes off.  Blood splatters on the glass, Gabriel collapses, the missile launches, and somewhere faraway in the ice fortress, Clark Kent awakens.

Lionel is also in the ice fortress, being that he is the one responsible for taking Clark from the hospital.  Lionel informs Clark that he is Jor-El, his birth father and that since the meteor shower, Lionel’s body was acting as a vessel for Jor-El in case Clark ever needed him.  He tells Clark that even though his mortal journey on Earth has ended, his imminent destiny has not.  He returns all of Clark’s powers, but not without consequence.  Clark learns that by not following Jor-El’s earlier warnings, he has to pay the ultimate price.  Somebody he loves will die and there is nothing he can do to prevent it.

With only moments to spare, our hero returns to Smallville as the missile is leaving the ground.  Clark launches himself into the air and grabs on to the missile.  He climbs towards the top of the missile and begins taking it apart with his bare hands.  As debris flies off, he pulls off the head of the missile and launches it into space, where it detonates, leaving Smallville completely unharmed.

As Chloe sheds tears for what she thinks she’s lost, a resurrected Clark returns home to the Kent Farm.  The Kents are beyond elated that their son is alive and well.  Clark allows them to believe that Jor-El brought him & his powers back without wanting anything in return.

A knock on the door distracts them from their conversation.  As a devastated Lana lays eyes on Clark, she runs to him and they embrace.

Afterwards, Lana goes to speak with Lex.  She shows him Clark’s medical file from the hospital and tells him there is nothing abnormal about Clark.  Lex disagrees and instead tries to play on Lana’s insecurities where she & Clark are concerned.  As she leaves, he reminds her that normal people don’t rise from the dead.  At that moment, Lionel returns.  Lex asks him how he came out of his near catatonic state, and why he was mentioning things such as Krypton and Kal-El.  He asks Lionel what the symbols carved into the ground meant.  Lionel simply responds by saying that he does not recall anything that took place during nor after the meteor shower.

At the farm, Clark tells Chloe that he has no choice but to accept his powers and his destiny.  He is upset at the realization that he is no longer human therefore having to deceive Lana all over again or maybe even risk losing her by telling her the truth.  Chloe tries to advise him to share the truth with Lana.  Clark seems to disagree, believing that Lana may not have the same reaction as Chloe.  He regrets losing his powers and not following Jor-El’s orders.  He tells Chloe that he thinks he may have made a terrible mistake…