Smallville: "NOIR"

In the new Smallville episode "NOIR," Jimmy Olson and his girlfriend Chloe are having a nice night together at the Daily Planet when they hear a gunshot. They find Lana Luthor in the elevator with a gunshot wound at the shoulder. When the cops come, Lois begins to dig around for clues and steals a piece of evidence from the crime scene. Jimmy Olson, on the other hand, takes pictures of the scene, and then he goes to sit as his computer to look at the photos. When they had found Lana, Jimmy had gotten a quick photo of a man running away from the scene. As he brings up the picture, he is struck on the head and falls into a dream.

In his dream, Jimmy is a famous Daily Planet reporter in the 1940's. While at the Daily Planet he meets Clark Kent, a clumsy, bumbling reporter that spills his drink all over Chloe, apparently Jimmy's boss. Lana Luthor contacts Jimmy and leads him to believe that her husband Lex is going to murder her, so Jimmy goes to The Talon club to investigate. There he meets Clark Kent, who lives a double life and isn't as clumsy as he let on at the Planet. At The Talon, Jimmy watches Lex Luthor and then follows him when he leaves. Lex Luthor meets up with The Talon's lounge singer Lois Lane and Jimmy takes a picture of Lex and Lois kissing, confirming their affair.

Lex and Jimmy eventually have a midnight meeting in the rain about the photo, and it ends with Jimmy shooting Lex, thinking that he was reaching into his pocket for a gun. He was actually reaching in for a cigarette case. Jimmy runs from the scene and hides at The Talon. Chloe goes to The Talon and talks with him about the murder of young Lex, and Jimmy goes back to the Daily Planet for his pictures. There he sees Lana Luthor with a gun pointed at him. She had set him up because she was having an affair with Clark Kent. She raises the gun and a shot is fired, but it was fired by Clark Kent. Lana falls down dead. Clark then explains to Jimmy that he is an undercover federal agent and was assigned to find out information on Lex Luthor. What he didn't plan was falling in love with his wife. Clark then leads Jimmy out the door and into the face of the press. Clark frames Jimmy for the murder of Lana Luthor, and at that moment Jimmy wakes up at Chloe's calling.

After waking from the dream, Jimmy Olson tells Chloe that there had been a cigarette case at the crime scene, but Lana didn't smoke. So why did she have it? They go to find it, but it isn't there. Lois had taken it. Back at her apartment, Lionel Luthor confronts her for the case. He takes out the jump drive from the case and opens it on Lois's laptop. He watches a video with Lex talking to the Senator. Lois is stunned to find out that Lionel did not know about that. Lionel leaves and Lois is left without a story.

Back at the Daily Planet, Jimmy and Chloe discover that the only person in the building at the time of Lana's shooting was a man on the top floor, a reporter. They find out from him that Lana had wanted to talk to him about something to put in the papers. But before he can explain any more, he is shot. Jimmy runs out of the door after the shooter and wrestles him for the gun. In the madness, Chloe is pushed off the side of the stairs and falls down to the ground. Clark runs in at the last minute and catches her, though, and Jimmy subdues the shooter up top.

When Chloe goes to visit Lana Luthor in the hospital, she finds out that Lana had gone to the papers to get out from under both Lionel and Lex. Lionel had asked her to spy on Lex and get whatever information she could, but she had decided to go to the papers instead. Chloe was stunned that she was spying for Lionel and asked the meaning of it. Lana said that she was protecting Clark, and she just asked Chloe to trust her.

At the end of the episode, Jimmy tells Chloe that he has been given an assignment and is leaving for a little bit. He then sets his camera on his car, sets the timer, and swings Chloe down and kisses her as the camera flashes. Cute!

This was a pretty interesting episode, but not one of the best. Next week's looks a little more exciting, or so I'm hoping!