Episode 2.05
“Nocturne”
Nocturne is a twist on the old Jekyll and Hyde storyline. The only difference is that it was forced experimentation on a young boy and daylight triggers his transformation from meek and mild poet, to angst driven, super strong, black eyed monster. The experiments were funded by Luthorcorp., unsurprisingly.
Byron lives in his parent’s basement where they keep him locked up for fear that he will get loose in the day time and hurt someone as he did before. They have faked his death and hope to just live at home with him. Unfortunately, he cannot be caged and sneaks out at night where he spies on Lana and writers her love poetry. Lana is flattered by her unknown admirer, while Clark is jealous.
One night Lana sees Byron and tries to get him to stop when Clark comes rushing into the picture to save her. Byron trips and hits his head. Clark and Lana nurse Byron to health, when he freaks out that it is near morning.
Clark and Lana get him back home but his parents freak out in front of Clark and Lana, making them think that they are simply abusive parents.
When they bring the sheriff over the next day, Byron’s parents tell them that their son is dead.
Clark instead breaks in later on and frees Byron who tries to stop Clark. Upon reaching daylight, Byron transforms and lashes out at both Clark and Pete before escaping.
Meanwhile in a related side story, Lionel looks for a new assistant but everyone Lex sends him does not meet Lionel’s needs. He finds an unlikely candidate when Martha Kent comes to deliver her produce to Lex. Lionel hires Martha despite Jonathan’s misgivings.
Lana tries to find Byron despite Clark’s warnings and succeeds. Byron in monster form simply wants to take Lana and ends up knocking her down against a grave. This upsets Byron even more though and makes him even more angry at Lionel to the point where he goes after Lionel who is getting in a helicopter with Martha.
Luckily of course, Clark is there to save the day. Martha convinces Lionel to fund researching a cure for Byron.
The only other worthy discussion point is Clana. Ok. Enough already. We’ve fallen into a bad pattern. Clark and Lana share a moment. Lana tells Clark that in order for a relationship to work, people have to be honest and forthcoming – not so secretive. Clark thinks about telling her everything about himself and then decides not to. Lana gets disappointed seeing that and they move on awkwardly.
Enough. Crap or get off the pot or at least if you’re going to develop it slowly…actually develop it. It’s just very stagnant.
But overall, a decent episode. Nothing spectacular but nothing spectacularly amiss either.
B-
References:
Lana: “I almost forgot. Clark Kent, the man of steel.”