Episode 5.3: Hidden

Gabriel Duncan is a clever young man who breaks into a missile silo, kills the guards, and begins the countdown sequence for a nuclear strike on Smallville. He believes that he is doing the world a favour by ridding it of all the super powered meteor freaks that exist there. But when he calls Chloe, someone he cares for, to tell her to get out of town, it sets her on the path of investigation to find out what he's up to. Meanwhile, Clark and Lana wake up in bed, having slept together. Lana tries to sneak out of the house but is caught by Jonathan and Martha. When Chloe discovers what Gabriel is up to she tells Clark, so Clark sets a trap for him, using Chloe as bait. But the trap backfires and Clark is shot. When he dies in hospital, Lionel awakes from his catatonic state inhabited by Jor-El, and takes Clark back to the fortress. Once there Clark is resurrected, with Jor-El essentially telling him, "I told you so". With his powers returned to him, Clark stops the missile, but is once again faced with the dilemma of lying to Lana. Also, Lex discovers that another alien entity has been coming in and out of the ship.

Assuming for one moment that you can accept the ridiculousness of a teenager not only being able to break into such a lightly guarded missile silo, but being able to operate it as well, then this is a really great episode. Smallville always requires a bit of suspension of disbelief. Some episodes more than others. This is definitely one of those. But I think if you can get over that hurdle then there is much to love here.

The scene with Lana trying to sneak off is pretty amusing, but it does remind us that Clark still lives under his parents roof, so he needs to repect their wishes.

The climax where Clark rides a missile is brilliantly executed and the special effects hold up pretty well even now. It's one of those iconic action sequences that the series was so good at producing.

When Clark gets shot I love both his and Chloe's reaction to it. Clark is so used to just rocking up to troublesome situations knowing that he has his powers. He learns the hard way here that he can no longer do that. It's easy to be reckless when you are made of steel.

I like seeing episodes where the villain is not a meteor freak but has a vendetta against the meteor infected. It reminds me of the third season episode, "Extinction", with Van MacNulty. We're so used to seeing those infected by the meteor rock going insane that it's nice to acknowledge how that would affect the prejudices of people who have had to live with the fallout of that insanity.

My main gripe with the character of Gabriel is that, given we are five seasons in, you'd think we would have heard of this guy at some point before now given how much he seems to care for Chloe. This is one of those Smallville tropes that you kind of just have to accept and move on with. It's definitely not the first time it's happened and it certainly won't be the last. But it's still jarring everytime it occurs.

Once again, Jor-El comes off as a bit douchey but, rather annoyingly, you can't really argue with the fact that Clark has gone without his powers for just a couple of episodes before getting himself killed.

9/10