Delete (Smallville episode)

"Delete" is the eleventh episode in the third series of Smallville. Both Clarke and Lana are affected by an email which triggers them to try to kill Chloe. The episode was written by Kelly Souders and Brian Peterson and directed by Pat Williams.

Episode Guide

The episode begins with Chloe Sullivan clearing her desk at the Daily Planet. Before she leaves, she passes some stories to her editor. He refuses, but she persuades him to use the name Lois Lane if he decides to publish them.

Lex visits the LuthorCorp IT department and meets an attractive employee called Molly. She gives him a disk to eradicate a virus problem and the two flirt briefly. After Lex leaves, Molly is seen removing the hard disk from one of Chloe's computers from The Torch office.

In the next scene, Chloe returns to The Torch office and Pete informs her that the computers have been taken away. As she leaves Smallville High, a red truck revs its engine and tries to rush her. As she tries to avoud getting hit by the truck, Chloe trips and falls under the truck and is safe. She is surprised to see Clarke get out of the truck, although he appears bewildered at her being underneath.

At the hospital, Clarke is breathalised and found to be sober. Chloe covers for him saying he lost control of the truck, although she's not sure. Clarke meets Lana and her new boyfriend Adam at the hospital, but things between them are still uncomfortable.

Back at LuthorCorp the next day, Lex returns the borrowed disk to the IT department, only to discover that there is no Molly and a bunch of hard disks were erased the previous evening.

Lana is spending time with Adam at The Talon, and Adam enquires about their relationship. Lana tells him that Clarke will always be important, but that their romance is over.

Chloe later tells Clarke that the incident seemed to be intentional and Clarke admits that he's still upset with her over her work with Lionel Luthor. But not enough to want to harm her. They try to trace what he was doing up until the incident, but all Clarke can remember is working on a paper on his computer. The last thing on the computer is an email from a company called BrainWave.

Lana takes Adam for a tour of Smallville High, but receives an emailfrom BrainWave that prompts her to attack Chloe with an axe. The fight continues into a shower room where Chloe and Adam eventually manage to subdue her. Molly was the person who sent the email from a list of Chloe's contacts.

Back at The Talon, Clarke makes the connection between the strange emails and their resulting homicidal behaviour. Adam manages to trace the email to a computer that is owned by Chloe but connected to the Internet from a LuthorCorp address. However, when Clarke approaches Lex about this, Lex is sceptical that his father would be involved.

Adam is leaving hospital and tells Lana that he'd like to spend more time together. However, she is cold with him, and raises her suspicions about his martial arts and computer hacking abilities. Rather than argue with her, Adam asks her to leave.

Clarke's questioning of Lex draws up a result in a picture of Molly. He shows this to Chloe, who makes the connection to an article she wrote about the Summerholt Institute that Molly belonged to. Molly was a child prodigy with a talent for working with computers, but went homicidal and was taken in by the Institution for rehabilitation. Chloe suddenly fears for her former Editor, Max, who also knows about the article and has also been sniffing around.

Althhough Chloe tries to warn him, Max is killed by his secretary, who has been hypnotized by the Summerholt Institute. Clarke goes off to investigate, leaving Chloe staying overnight at Luthor's mansion.

Clarke confronts Dr Garner at the Summerholt Institute, but is escorted out. However, he's able to listen in to a call where Garner tells Molly to hold off as something's come up.

Lex manages to track down Molly and Clarke discovers the two talking. Lex reveals that he's stolen Molly's disk, but they discover she's sent one final email to Clarke's parents.

Martha and Jonathan manage to convince Chloe to come to their house, and Martha attacks Chloe with a sickle and Jonathan holds her to a post with chains. Clarke, meanwhile, arrives at the barn and fights off Jonathan, but he comes back with a Kryptonite rock and knocks Clarke to the ground. Chloe manages to stop the fight by releasing several bales of hay from the roof to knock Jonathan out.

Lana offers to rent Adam the loft space at The Talon, despite her suspicions about his past.

Lex waits outside Summerholt for Dr Garner and warns him from any further attempts on Chloe's life. Garner reveals that Molly has vanished and Lex tells him that she's with people who can help her now. Garner chastises Lex for having limited vision, but Lex reveals that he's read Chloe's article. Lex uses this to blackmail Garner into helping him regain his memory.