Tess (Cassidy Freeman) has a nightmare and sees herself as a girl walking with a woman. She drops a music box behind playing the Dance of the Sugarplum fairy. She hides a key under her floorboards which she uses to get out of her room. So Tess was sneaky even as a child. She wakes to hear the music box playing in the mansion. Lois (Erica Durance) unpacks some of her mother's things from a box she's been "avoiding for 15 years." The General gave them to her: her mother's keepsakes. She looks at the Old Blue glass bird which was kept in the kitchen window. Lois never visited her in hospital. Clark (Tom Welling) thinks she was a scared child. Lois didn't get to say goodbye, but her mother did, leaving video tapes for her. Clark tells her she should "not feel guilty for not wanting to open up old wounds." Cos that's what he's done. Jor-El wasn't his father but just a machine.
Clark meets Tess at Watchtower, she needs his help with a music box. He looks under the box and peels away the 'happy birthday' label revealing the name of St Louisa's orphanage. She didn't think to look under it. There's no picture of the box in her photo album. That's why she doesn't like to go home for Christmas, what home? The orphanage, finding that was easy, is run by Granny Goodness (Christine Willes) cos she's too good to be true! As she removes memories of young girls to build her own formidable army.
Lois plays the tape and her mother, Ella (Teri Hatcher) says she didn't want to the girls to see her at hospital. The General gave her Blue when she was pregnant with Lois and it's a symbol of hope (as is the Blur/Superman.) Girls need their mothers sometimes, the tape is for when she needs to be there for her and she won't be. Losing a parent can create a hole in a child's life. This conversation seems to be directed at Clark mostly, as well as Tess and Lois. She knew Lois will one day meet someone special, knowing her he'll be "tall, dark and handsome." She won't be able to commit if she's missing a love from an old memory - like her mother.
Clark notices Tess is standing on the building steps 20 years ago and they turn up at the orphanage using their reporter IDs. Clark hears a girl crying and he claims he's forgetten his notebook so he can rescue her, but ends up falling prey himself when he checks out the fencing girls. Well he took his time getting the notebook. Granny wants to make the girl forget her parents. The fencing girls explain why Tess also fences. He's weakened by green Kryptonite fire and he's overpowered. Oh Clarkie this has got to stop. Granny takes Tess to her gallery of girls on the walls and she stands in front of the photo of Tess. She's been training girls to "conquer society here and around the world." Tess finds the scratches she made on the wall when she was little. She knew the music box would bring Tess back to Granny.
Lois reads Clark's journal and gets a brainwave - can't move forward "until he deals with the super-sized hole his dad left in his heart." Not the one left by Jonathan either but Jor-El. She finds the map showing the location to the Fortress and also the key. Why is Clark leaving his things lying around so casually, behind the book shelf wasn't much of a hiding place for the key and he took that back from Kara too. Granny took Tess in after she was 5. Her birth parents found her a home and sent her away. They were powerful; hinting at the Luthors, since no one else would be so powerful in these parts. Granny took her to Cadmus Labs and got her face healed. Tess is stronger than anyone and her favourite. Lines are being drawn soon and Tess would be wise to have Granny on her side. Tess demands to know where Clark is and Granny strikes her down, locking her in her old room.
Clark is stripped to be tortured, killed more like. "Someone who loves you doesn't make you forget who you are and where you came from!" Again a comment about himself, though perhaps subconsciously. Harriet ( Lindsay Hartley) was meant to look after Clark for Granny and she's about to remove his memories. He freezes the chain holding the damper of the fire and gets his strength back. Life can't be better without a painful past, Granny tells him, but it can. Tess finds her key in the room and fights the girls, showing she is strong but is no match for the power fo the whip, in the form of Lashina.
Lois at the Fortress attempts to speak with Jor-El. Her mother was wrong to try and protect her. Jor-El can be there for Kal-El and he "needs a father who believes in him." Her loving Clark isn't enough and Jor-El's ghost is preventing Clark from reaching his potential. Lois appears to be suspended in a blue coloured light, resembling ice. Granny sees Clark as an abandoned soul. Clark: "Challenges are what makes us who we are." Then escapes and rescues Tess from the rope around her neck and takes care of Lashina too. Tess is part of his team and he won't abandon her. Clark also realizes Lois is at the Fortress and rescues her too. He's through with Jor-El after what he did to her. Jor-El (Julian Sands) and Clark's mother (Helen Slater) appear as holograms. Their love will be with them. He carries his father's strength and his mother's bravery. He will live a full life "born of a great love." Jor-El tells him he has a potential so unlike him and Clark had to come here alone so he wouldn't be burdened with his failures. All of his father's knowledge but not his "ego or regrets...I will never lose faith in you...Earth's greatest saviour. We will always be part of you."
Granny is introduced to Godfrey (Michael Daingerfield) by Desaad (Steve Byers). Godfrey is the chosen. The Dark Lord has made him like them, "Darkseid's minion." Godfrey's voice is heard around the world. Desaad finds the bodies, Godfrey breaks their spirits and Granny cleans their minds. Granny also being one of Darkseid's minions. Lois places Blue in the kitchen window. Her mother didn't want to see her cos she'd look weak and failed her by leaving, but she's brave. Clark is a part of Jor-El that's human. He was carrying the heavy burden of losing their home, much heavier than Clark's weight. Lois is moving in and finds an envelope for her wedding left for her by her mother. Whilst Clark hides the engagement ring.
Tess was left at the orphanage by a man with long hair who can only be Lionel Luthor as the name on the number plate is shown. She reads her birth certificate: Lutessa Lena Luthor. Then wishes Lutessa a happy birthday. Tess has come home then what with taking over the company and staying at the mansion and clearly, she's been home a long time. No wonder she had such an affinity towards Alexander as he's her brother. So is she better than the Luthor's or is she just as evil. An episode all about parents and their children, in Lois, Clark and Tess and in coming to terms with who they are in some respects. Tess appears to be dubious, since you never could tell who's side she was on in the past; she kept chopping and changing her loyalties. But Tess being related to the Luthors should have been obvious cos of her red hair. Why has her birth certificate only just come to her attention.
Just as Lois had her mother's videos, Clark had his parents recordings with them in holographic form too, before they also died. Parallels running here for both and Tess was looking through her photo album. Lois and Clark are going to sing karaoke at the Ace of Clubs which is another allusion to the comics. As was whip girl's name of Lashina (whip, lashes, hence her name.) Jack Kirby created their names in the 1970's for 'Fourth World' comics.
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