Superman on Television

Lois & Clark: Episode Reviews

Season 4 - Episode 19: "Voice from the Past"

Reviewed by: Nathan MacKenzie

Originally Aired: April 26, 1997
Directed by David Grossman
Written by John McNamara

Guest Cast:
Patrick Cassidy as Leslie Luckaby
Keith Brunsmann as Troll/Mr Smith
Kenneth Kimmins as Dr Klein
Stacy Rukeyser as Carolyn
Terence Mathews as Cop

Synopsis:

This episode is the conclusion of a three episode arc which started from "Faster Than a Speeding Vixen" and "Shadow of a Doubt". We learn more about Mr Smith and Leslie Luckaby and the overall plan now that they have learned the true identity of Superman and what the plan encompasses.

Review Rating - 3 (out of 5): The episode continues on with the last scene of the previous episode, the identity of Superman. Lois and Clark do background checks on Leslie (Superman flies to Australia to find this out) to see who he really is and to see if he is really the son of Lex Luthor. We learn that the plan is for Superman to become part of Lexcorp and for Leslie to marry Lois Lane. For this to happen, Mr Smith manipulates Lois after placing a device on her whom he can now use to see through her eyes, talk to her and cause her great pain. He uses this device to break up Lois and Clark and force her to marry Leslie.

We learn the true identity of Lex Luthor's son in this episode and I like how this played out. Looking back now on all of the three episodes you saw this coming but it was good to come to conclusion all the same. After a bomb explodes Superman takes a device which was found to set it off back to Star Labs to Dr Klein, unfortunately Dr Klein has other plans if you know what I mean but Superman persuades him to take a look anyway to hopefully discover who armed the bomb and perhaps where it originated form. The episode also continues to look into if Lois and Clark can have kids, which again we saw a very funny scene between Superman and Dr Klein in which Dr Klein tries to explain to Superman that the final test that needs to occur is that of a his sperm. We also continue to see that both Mr Smith and Leslie love Lois and from this cause the two to eventually battle it out to the death.

A great conclusion of the story was seen in this episode. The story arc of Mr Smith and Leslie Luckaby was well thought out even though as we learn who is the son of Lex Luthor, I think it wasn't well thought out regarding the age of the character noting that they are not much younger that Lex himself. In the episode there is a throwaway line from Clark saying "No one knows how old Lex really was". The continuing on if Lois and Clark can have kids is also discussed in this episode which I thought was great however it was mentioned that test results have come back, but we never actually saw this happen so I guess we are to assume this happened between episodes.

Patrick Cassidy continues to excel in his role of Leslie Luckaby and Keith Brunsmann really gets into his role in more depth in this episode then the other previous episodes. When the two are together you can see they play well off each other but in parts are a little bit scratchy but I think that is the way it is portrayed in the script. Teri Hatcher had to do a scene on her own in this episode and she did this the best that she could do with what was written for her, this was the scene where Mr Smith could see through her eyes, talk to her and cause her great pain if she didn't do what was asked of her. Superman and Dr Klein together are always fun to watch and again it doesn't falter in this episode. You can see that they both have fun working together.

Next week, "I've Got You Under My Skin".

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