LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION! (A FOLC guide to Metropolis)

1. Amusement park on the beach: where Clark, Martha, and Jonathan, with Lois along, are attending a 2.Daily Planet sponsored outing, where a Ferris wheel ride goes out of control
3. Daily Planet: newsroom, lobby, Perry's office
4. Clark’s Apartment: where his visiting parents are staying, and where Stuart Hofferman briefly stays over Clark’s objections after the Kents agree to help him hide
5. Street outside Clark’s apartment building where there is a corner newsstand- indicating that side of Clinton Street is zoned for business on the ground floors
6. Lois’ Apartment: where she is visited by Superman after a day of wallowing
7. Viologic Electronics: Stuart's office, Thorp's office, conference room, lobby, corridor, staircase landing
8. Oliver’s Apartment: where Lois and Clark find Hofferman after he fakes his own death
9. Taxi- where Lois, Clark and Hofferman talk as they head for the main subway station
10. Metropolis Subway: Subway Car, Platform, where the Kents and the governor are on the subway, where Lois stops Thorpe from escaping, and where Jimmy takes a front page picture of Thorpe being subdued by Lane and Hofferman
11. Logar Electronics- mentioned by Eric Thorpe, the company he planned to accuse of sabotaging Viologic’s work
12. the distribution department of Viologic, mentioned by Hofferman, which will have the shipping manifests - the central office is upstairs from his office.

POWERS USED AS SUPERMAN

1. Strength, invulnerability: stops a Ferris wheel ride that is out of control, stops a runaway subway train, is not harmed by friction in either situation, lifts two large steel drums containing Lois and Hofferman and water from the ocean
2. Speed: cleans Lois’s apartment with super speed
3. Hearing: rescues Lois and Hofferman after they were put inside steel drums and thrown into the ocean and Lois screams for help
4. Breath: holds his breath with ease as he pulls the drums out of the water


POWERS USED AS CLARK

1. Breath: gives Lois a “push” on a carnival ride slide so she can beat an obnoxious little girl to the bottom
2. X ray Vision: looks through a wall to observe Thorpe and Wick as they talk, sees a broken wire inside a copier
3. Heat vision: welds the broken wire back together
4. Hearing: listens in on a conversation in another room, hears Martha call to him and Lois from the top of the large slide but Lois doesn’t
5. Speed: eats a sandwich at super speed to please his mother (who isn’t pleased at all)
6. Distance vision: from a window in his loft apartment he reads the Daily Planet front page on the corner of a sidewalk across the street

HINT, HINT! (for the galactically stupid)

Jonathan, feeling sad and missing a recently deceased friend, comes close to calling Superman “Clark” on the subway with a crowd of people around but no one notices:
Superman: Do you need help?
Jonathan: He’s going to be okay, Clar- Superman.

CLARK’S (and MARTHA’S) LAME/NOT SO LAME EXCUSES

1. At the amusement park Lois asks where Clark has gone after Superman shows up and Martha uncomfortably says she thinks he went to phone in the Ferris wheel story.
2. In Hofferman’s office, Lois interrupts Clark’s use of powers to eavesdrop and he tells her he was ‘lost in thought" after she finds him staring intently at a blank wall.
3. When Clark tells Lois and Stuart what he knows about Thorpe and Hansen, which he learned while eavesdropping with super powers, Lois asks how he knows all this, he says, "You’re not the only one with sources."

LOIS’ S LAME/NOT SO LAME EXCUSES

1. When Clark confronts her about the Viologic story she’s written without him, she won’t give him a straight answer why: she didn’t want to bother him while his parents were visiting; she promised to protect her source’s anonymity…
2. Her apartment is a mess after a day of feeling sorry for herself as her sources refuse to talk to her, and she passes it off to Superman as spring cleaning.

PERRY-ISMS

What’s everyone standing around for? Huh? Nothing you can sell here for a quarter. Let’s get back to work. - Perry White to newsroom personnel after welcoming Lois back to the staff

SHAMELESS SELF PROMOTION

When Lois tells Superman after his pep talk that Clark had earlier told her the same things, he says he isn’t surprised. “Clark is a pretty smart guy.”

DEVICES

1. Defective switches for computer controlled machinery
2. Broken copier at Viologic repaired with a kick - and a little use of superpowers
3. Thermo Master Connector- a device Lois makes up as the reason the copier at Viologic doesn’t work- (it’s the connector that connects… the thermo to… the master.) She has to send for one and return the next day to complete the repair.
4. Eye/Iris scanning locks on Viologic’s doors

BEEN THERE (Clark’s travels)

SAY WHAT? (Clark’s Languages)

HISTORY, HOBBIES, ALL CHARACTERS

CLARK KENT/SUPERMAN

1. Ferris wheel ride goes out of control just as Clark reaches the bottom of the slide.
2. he and his parents exchange a look and he ducks away to return as Superman
3. as Superman, he stops the ride to an outburst of cheers and applause from the onlookers
admits to Lois he is running out of ideas how to distract his father after she notices he isn’t himself.
4. While looking for mustard with Martha, he notices activity at the newsstand on the corner across from his apartment
5. returns to the newsroom after seeing a special edition of the DP has an exclusive by Lois Lane
6. doesn’t know who Eric Thorpe is
7. returns to the newsroom after the press conference and later, looking for Lois, he asks Perry if he’s seen her.
8. convinces Lois to help him look for the phony deliveryman involved in the Hofferman death.
9. escorts Lois out of the DP building, trying to encourage her and keep her spirits up.
10. as Superman goes to her apartment and gives Lois a pep talk- telling her much the same things he did as Clark. (He still believes in her and she should too. Lois thanks him and says that Clark told her much the same things.)
11. tells Oliver Lois is not a morning person.
12. rushes out of the cab and tells the Lois and Stuart to get to the subway station- he will call the main dispatch and tell them about the switches in case they can be shorted circuited. He runs into an alley, jumping over a police barrier and…
13. … Superman flies after the train in the tunnels and stops it just in time. He asks Jonathan if the man who collapsed is alright, and Jonathan almost calls him Clark when he answers. The man has just fainted.
14. He still calls Martha "Mama" on occasion

LOIS LANE

1. is goaded into a bet by a young girl and accepts
2. her favorite flavor of cotton candy is pink.
3. describes State Senator Hanson as someone who knows a lot about manure
4. suggests Clark give his parents tickets to the inaugural ride of the city’s new subway system and offers to get them tickets to the inaugural run of the new subway system later in the week.
5 .thinking Clark reported the Ferris wheel story behind her back, she decides not to share the Viologic story with him
6. agrees with Perry when he offers Clark the rest of the day off to spend with his parents, telling him it’s a slow news day.
7. assures Perry her source is rock solid and would stake her reputation on it
8 sneaks into Viologic as Miss Jefferson, a repair tech
9. slips away from the press conference without telling Clark, after getting a note from Hofferman
10 calls for Superman after being thrown into the ocean in a 55 gallon drum
11. tells Superman she will take care of Hofferman without the police and takes him to Clark’s apartment
12. tells Perry the Planet is her life before she leaves his office
13. gets an ovation from the staff as Perry welcomes her back and emotionally returns her press ID. They hug briefly before he orders everyone back to work.

PERRY WHITE

1. invites the Kents to see his office, saying he wasn’t always a desk jockey.
2. tells them his “infamous’ Cuban snake story, but, presumable Clark stops him before he can tell them where it bit him
3. explains to Clark who Thorpe is - the multimillionaire who recently acquired Viologic, was a millionaire by the time he was Jimmy’s age.
4. When Viologic calls a press conference he sends Lane and Kent to cover it.
5. is stumped by a crossword clue: ‘looks like a pomegranate’ (Note: grenade?)
6. warns Lois she‘ll have to bring in her source as the shield law is not a good defense, might not stand up in court. She refuses.
7. calls Lois to his office and reluctantly tells her the Planet is forcing him to suspend her from her job. Being linked to the murder is too much for the legal department- Viologic can outlast them in court with their money. The paper needs to distance itself from her.
8. promises to get her reinstated as soon as possible, and whispers to himself that ‘sometimes I hate this job.’

JIMMY OLSEN

1. stops a stranger in the newsroom who is looking for Lois and tells him to wait at her desk
2. admits he is jealous of Eric Thorpe, boy genius
3. says he had mumps in the sixth grade (it slowed him down, prevented him from being a boy genius, too)
4. he goes to the Viologic press conference with Lois and Clark
5. announces forensics report from the police confirms the blood stains on the sheets in Clark’s bed match Hofferman’s and there was also residue from a small caliber weapon found.
6. hopes evidence of wrongdoing leads straight to Thorpe

MARTHA KENT

1. buys popcorn in an effort to cheer up Jonathan
2. Is nonplussed to have to lie to Lois when Clark disappears to become Superman
3. has no problem telling State Senator Hanson he should start his quality education with geography because Smallville is in another state, but he has moved on and doesn’t hear.
4. she tells Jonathan she just hates it when Clark inhales his food.
5. is a great multi-tasker, repairing Clark’s faucet as she makes sandwiches, too
6. tells Clark they now have another reason to visit Metropolis thanks to Jonathan’s new friend, Al

JONATHAN KENT

1. his best friend, Henry, died unexpectedly the week before coming to Metropolis and he has been upset since.
2. plays a distracted game of checkers with Clark
3. reveals he and his late friend were supposed to have gone fishing this week, but here he is getting beaten at checkers by Clark instead
4. is feeling better by the time the Kents’ visit is over. The man who fainted on the subway is a Kansas native and he and Jonathan hit it off and became friends.
5. hugs Clark before leaving for home and tells him to ‘drop by soon’ and they both laugh at their private joke

ERIC THORPE

1 is one of two men in business suits who watch the Ferris wheel near-accident from a darkened limousine
2. declares Superman won’t be a problem at the next accident "because he won’t be able to hear the screams."
3. recently acquired and took over running Viologic Electronics
4. plays guitar and knows that over 50 songs can be played knowing just three chords- G, C, D
5. knows Hofferman has leaked the story to the DP and he threatens him violently, frightening him into agreeing with anything Thorpe tells him is true.
6. sends Wick to kill Stuart after it is apparent he is still alive and not drowned
7. decides to sue Lois, and the Daily Planet, instead of trying to kill her again
8. kills Wick to make a point with Hansen and keep him in line

STUART HOFFERMAN

1. goes to Daily Planet, unaware he is being followed
2. tells Lois about the defective switches made and sold by the company he works for, Viologic Electronics
3. He asks for protection as a source and Lois assures him the DP always protects their sources.
4. as head of research at Viologic, he knew before they were shipped that the switches were defective.
5. reported it to the CEO, Mr. Thorpe, but his report was ignored.
6. the defective switches were what caused the Ferris wheel ‘accident’
7. supports ‘Save the Earth” efforts as demonstrated by his use of a single tissue until it falls apart
8. returns to work and is met in his office by the two men who were in the limo at the Ferris wheel accident, Eric Thorpe and his muscle man, Wick
9. is forced to deny Lois’s story but drops Lois a message on a tissue he uses to clean his glasses: “Meet at the pier 1 hour.”
10. after rescue from water by Superman, he refuses to go when Superman suggests Lois take Stuart to the police and let them put him in protective custody
11. asks for a cheese omelet, Gouda, if Martha has it, thus suggesting he will be a problem guest
12. uses a safety razor with floating heads and a toothbrush with a pick on the end.
13. Fakes his own death with the help of Oliver Bartlett
14. agrees to help Lane and Kent after Clark tells him if he and Lois could find him, others (Thorpe) can too.

OLIVER

1. Hofferman’s best friend and co-worker catches Lane and Kent in Hofferman’s office and orders them to leave
2. Lane and Kent make a newspaper with a fake headline "Oliver Bartlett Jailed for Harboring Fugitive" and drop it outside his apartment door.
3. literally gets his ear twisted until he confesses that Stuart is in his apartment and he lets Lane and Kent inside.

WICK

1. carries soccer ball stress relievers
2. follows Hofferman to the Daily Planet
3. witnessed the Ferris wheel near accident
4. admits he withheld Hofferman’s report from Thorpe because he thought it wasn’t important, a big mistake on his part
5. sees Lois Lane leaving Viologic the day after she was supposed to have been killed by two of Thorpe’s thugs

DANIEL HANSEN

1. State Senator running for governor
2. visits the Daily Planet to try to get an endorsement
3. promises the Kents that Smallville, “a nice town,” will get good jobs and quality education- unaware it is in Kansas
4. doubts his chances of ever being governor and discovers his benefactor, Thorpe, is a killer

SHELDON BENDER

1. counsel for Viologic, Clark calls him the "champion of the corrupt."
2. serves Lois the papers from Viologic’s lawsuit against her and the Daily Planet

OTHER CHARACTERS

Governor Winston
1. tries to keep people calm aboard the runaway subway train, as his aide notices the train isn’t stopping anywhere and is picking up speed.

Older Man on subway
1. ignores the governor and panics, he becomes short of breath and collapses
2. turns out to be from Kansas and becomes friends with Jonathan and Martha and we discover his name is Al

Young Girl (identified as Vanessa in an online script)
1. is the daughter of DP employee in payroll department (“My mother signs your checks”)
2. rudely cuts in line on slide and challenges Lois to a race to the bottom- the loser to buy the winner cotton candy
3. takes Lois’s burlap bag for the slide

Roy
1. agricultural reporter at the DP, mentioned to his parents by Clark
2. Lois reveals he is in Idaho covering a spud festival

Woman Reporter
1. Perry sends her to catch Clark so they can get over to city hall to cover the mayor’s press conference

Esther and Owen
1. apparently another reporting team at the Daily Planet
2. Perry orders them to do a background piece on Eric Thorpe.

Police Officer Sullivan
1. stops the taxi in which Clark, Lois and Stuart are in and tells them no one can get near the subway terminal because the train is out of control and is expected to crash at Centennial Park Station

2 Men (Thorpe’s Thugs)
1. follow Hofferman to the pier when he goes to meet Lois
2. at gunpoint, put Lois and Hofferman into metal drums and toss them into the ocean

Secretary at Viologic
1. who called copier repair just minutes before “Miss Jefferson” and her assistant appear, and who insists Miss Jefferson explain to her boss the ‘thermo master connector’ and how it works

Security Guard (at Viologic)
1. knows nothing about a repair tech being needed when ‘Miss Jefferson’ shows up; lets her through when Clark, as a trainee bringing her briefcase of tools and equipment, joins her

Guard (at Daily Planet)
1. confiscates Lois’ press pass

Joey
1. mentioned by Lois as the last source she has left to call, will no longer talk to her and hangs up.

NAME THAT TUNE (theme song)

Nothing of note this episode

LIFE GOES ON (Other News Headlines)

“Traffic Safety Plan Outlined By City Roads Authority”
“Community Services- Telephone Company to Lecture on Safety”
“Property Owners Fight High Rise Building Zone”

NOT SO SUPERMAN

Nothing of note this episode

MISCELLANEOUS

1."Welcome Daily Planet and their families" reads the sign at the amusement park, seemingly missing the word ‘employees’
2. There is a busy newsstand on the corner across the street from Clark’s apartment building. This might mean that one side of Clinton Street is zoned for business and the other side residential.
3. After getting into Viologic with Stuart, L&C gain access to a room where there is a second alarm system which will alert security to their presence if they don’t enter a code within 90 seconds. Stuart doesn’t know the code, but they are still able to search the files and find evidence and discuss it before the 90 seconds is up.
4. At the pier Stuart accuses Lois of leaking his identity, she denies it and as they argue, two men with guns interrupt and take them captive, putting them into large 55 gallon barrels and tossing them into the ocean.
5. At Viologic, while posing as a copier repair team, Clark uses his vision to find a broken wire which he fuses together with his heat vision and tells Lois he thinks all the machine needs is a good kick.
6. Lois can’t believe he could suggest such a thing and tells the incredulous secretary he’s joking. Clark insists she kick it, so she taps it with one foot, nothing happens and she wonders if she isn’t kicking the wrong thing. He turns it on and it works!
7. Clark’s super hearing picks up Lois’ name and he listens and looks through the wall into Thorpe’s office. He sees Thorpe and Senator Hanson talking about their future plans. Thorpe will see to it Hanson is elected governor- and four years later, president. The objective is lucrative defense contracts awarded to Viologic. Gives Hanson $100,000 for TV ads, refuses Hanson’s wish for $200,000
8. Bender goes to the DP and tells Perry and Lois that Viologic has just filed a 20 million dollar lawsuit against the Planet for libel and serves Lois with the papers on the spot. She mentions the First Amendment, Bender says she is lucky they aren’t suing for trespass too. She threatens them with a large bill for fixing their copier, then tells Perry they should countersue for harassment.
9. Lois and Clark go to his apartment and find the Kents unconscious, as well as evidence that Stuart has been killed. The next day the Metropolis Star runs a banner headline "Planet Informer Murdered, Reporter Linked"
10. Clark tries to tell Lois he has discovered the guy who was delivering the deli food to his apartment was stopped downstairs and someone else drugged the food and delivered it to his apartment, but she is in tears. “Because of my compulsive obsession to always outdo everybody, Stuart Hofferman is dead!" she declares.
11. Clark escorts Lois out of the DP building, trying to encourage her and keep her spirits up. On the sidewalk a woman reporter calls to Clark, telling him Perry wants them at City Hall immediately to cover the mayor’s press conference to name a new police chief.
Clark has to run but tells Lois he will call her later.
Alone, she says she’ll miss him…partner.
12. At 5 am Lois shows up at Clark’s apartment- she has thought it over and deduced that Stuart is not dead. The only source she has who is willing to talk to her has revealed that the tests done on Stuart’s blood indicate there are no drugs in the sample. She finds no toothbrush in Clark’s bathroom and even Clark and his parents realize that she’s right. Hofferman is still alive. Lois has a fax of Oliver’s current driver’s license and Jonathan recognizes him as the fake delivery man who brought their food to the door.
13. Stuart takes Lane and Kent to sneak into Viologic. His key card and ID number work and his retinal scan still works, too. Inside the distribution department they discover there is an independent alarm system which will alert security in 90 seconds if the proper code isn’t applied to stop it. Here follows an ‘Oh-Oh’ moment, and they somehow manage to find what they are looking for before the time is up and they discover some of the defective switches have been sold to two buyers- the amusement park and the transit authority for the new automated subway.
14. In a limo with Thorpe and Wick, Hanson has doubts he will ever be governor and Thorpe tells him he never backs losers and after today he will be the only candidate in the race. He then shows Hanson that he has killed Wick for his mistakes.
15. Thorpe, inside the terminal, angrily rushes away after Superman prevents the train from crashing, but Lois sees him and she stops him with a few tae kwon do moves and she and Stuart stand over him as Jimmy takes pictures. "Financier Tied to Attempt on Governor’s Life" is the headline the next day in the Daily Planet.
16. Lois and Clark joke about a Pulitzer in their future and whose name will be first – hers, of course. Then, she can’t resist teasing him when a call from her exterminator comes – ‘The trap is set? Hundreds will die? Poison gas? Does anyone else know about this?’
Clark, sternly, ‘Lois?”
Lois: Clark, relax. It’s just my exterminator.’

OBSERVATIONS (in real life)

In this episode, as in ‘Wall of Sound,’ it is fun to see how quickly Lois will dismiss Clark as a partner and, just as quickly, take him back.
For his part, Clark will not back down from her anger or attitude unless advised to do so by a third party.