Season 8 episodes, Episodes, Episodes featuring Davis Bloome,
Episodes featuring Doomsday
Brian Peterson & Kelly Souders
"Eternal" is the eighteenth episode in the eighth season of Smallville, and the one hundred-seventieth episode overall. It aired on April 2, 2009.
8 Discontinuity
9 Spoilers
Tess fails in her attempt to kill Davis. In order to try and explain his destiny, she captures him and unveils his past with the Luthors. Meanwhile, Clark and Chloe discover Davis' secret.
Tess looking in the book Veritas.
(flashbacks are in green)
In the Luthor Mansion, Tess is looking at a drawing of a spaceship. The 1989 meteor shower in Smallville is shown. Jonathan and Martha are driving their truck when a meteor skids across the road ahead of them. Lionel is seen looking for Lex and finds him lying in the middle of a field with no hair. Then Jonathan and Martha chance upon young Kal-El and find his ship. Close by is a kind of egg, from which oozes a liquid which rapidly forms into a young boy. At the mansion, Tess realizes the truth: that another boy landed on Earth that day.
An egg that forms into a young boy: Davis
Clark visits Tess at the Daily Planet. He wants her to print his article about a recent rash of missing person cases. He thinks there are similarities between them but people are ignoring it. Clark wants the Daily Planet to be the first newspaper to publish the story so that the people of Metropolis can be warned. Tess explains that she needs proof so she can print it. Clark accuses Tess of sweeping it under the rug and Tess retorts that Clark is the one who constantly lies, not her.
Davis cooking for Chloe.
Davis is cooking dinner at Chloe's apartment to thank her for recovering the data for his cell phone. They talk and Chloe admits that Jimmy refuses to communicate with her. She states that she thought they were best friends but now she guesses that there was some stuff beneath the surface. Davis accidentally cuts his finger with the knife, but after Chloe wipes the blood away, no cut can be seen and when she looks at him suspiciously he pretends nothing happened. Clark arrives to ask Chloe for help on his story and sees Chloe holding Davis's hand. Chloe and Davis arrange to have dinner another time.
As soon as Davis leaves the apartment, he starts breathing hard and doubles over, apparently in pain.
Tess blows up Davis and his truck
Later that night, Davis is in a muddy field with a bloodied shovel. He gets into his car and kisses the crucifix hanging from the mirror. He gets a call on his cell. As he answers it, he sees Tess Mercer standing in front of the car talking to him on the phone. She asks about a prayer for dismembering a body and then presses a button, which makes Davis's car explode.
Tess talking to an injured Davis.
Back at the Talon apartment, Clark and Chloe go through the missing person cases. Chloe finally asks Clark why he's staring at her and Clark admits that he does not like Davis and is suspicious. He thinks Chloe is moving on from Jimmy pretty quickly. Chloe doesn't want his advice and insists they are just friends. Their argument is interrupted when Chloe gets news that a car matching Davis's license plate was found burned out and abandoned.
Young Lex and Davis talking.
Davis is covered in bloody bandages when he awakens in a bed in the Luthor Mansion. He is approached by Tess. She apologizes because she didn't expect him to end up like this, but actually she tried to kill him. Because he is badly injured, he barely speaks. Tess says she knows about his killing spree. She admires his selection of the victims as they were all criminals. Tess takes a book into her hands and explains she looked into Davis's background. She thought she had reached a dead end, until she found Lionel Luthor's journal. It´s about a boy, that came down the very same day the meteor shower happened, but she does not believe the boy came down alone.
Clark x-rays a field and spots dozens of corpses.
Davis as a young boy watches Jonathan, Martha and Clark. Seconds later, Davis is seen by a couple of soldiers so he runs away. Nevertheless, as they follow him through the cornfield, he is soon trapped. Later, in the Mansion, young Lex Luthor is chasing his pet bird and he hears a child's voice behind a locked door. He unlocks it and meets a young Davis Bloome. They make friends quickly as they discover they both like "Warrior Angel". Davis says that a man brought him here a few days ago and put needles in him. Lex invites his new friend, who doesn't know his own name, to play with him.
Clark and Chloe talk about Davis.
Davis's injuries are already healing as Tess finishes her story by stating that Lionel sent a search party for the Traveler and he didn't realize that there were two boys that fell to earth that day, the Traveler and Davis.
Chloe and Clark arrive at the field where Davis's car is getting towed away. The driver reveals that no body was found and the police believe the truck was abandoned. Clark tells Chloe that this field is where his ship landed. Clark then x-rays the field and is shocked to spot dozens of buried corpses.
Davis wakes up, now fully recovered, and walks through the mansion, discovering old memories of sword-play with Lex. Davis asks about the little box on the desk in the library and Alexander explains that it is made of St. George's Armor and that he slayed dragons. Alexander shows us a bit of his true nature and commands that he is now St. George and Davis is the dragon, the beast, which wants to destroy the world and Alexander is the only one that can save it. Alexander opens up the box which is filled with meteor rocks, and Davis suddenly begins to scream in pain. Not realizing what actually happened, Lex closes the box and comforts Davis.
Tess tells Clark about her theories.
Back in the present, Davis remembers his reaction to meteor rocks and tries to leave. Tess appears and starts quoting parts from the bible which refer to Christ and Judas, and says that Christ never would have risen from the dead if Judas had not betrayed him. She tells Davis that there is a savior, whom he must betray. She implies that Clark and he are destined to kill each other. Davis's eyes turn red and he hits Tess so hard, she flies across the room.
Davis begins to transform.
Clark and Chloe arrive at the Planet, arguing about how Chloe was wrong to trust Davis. Chloe admits she was in denial and couldn't believe that Davis really was the serial killer Jimmy warned them about. They realize that Davis's victims were all criminals and wonder if he's on some sort of vigilante mission. Clark mentions that Davis wouldn't be stupid enough to abandon his car next to a field full of evidence, and thinks someone took him. Chloe says that someone has checked Davis's past before her and that he should question Tess.
Clark comes into Tess's hospital room and she reveals that she has Lionel's journal and that he wanted to possess the Traveler, which is why he was in Smallville on the day of the meteor shower. She also implies that Lex and Lionel got the whole idea of the Kawatche Caves wrong. She talks about the painting of a two headed creature - Naman and Sageeth - and how Lionel and Lex thought they were trying to become worthy adversaries of the Traveler, not realizing that there was another boy who came to earth with Clark that was destined to be his ultimate nemesis. Clark pretends he doesn't believe Tess's story. Tess replies that Lionel took Davis, but then the boys tests didn't match what they expected of the Traveler. After five days, Lionel had Davis put out onto the street after getting a phone call from Martha Kent asking for help with an adoption. Tess accuses Clark of being the reason for Davis being abandoned.
Chloe is at Isis researching the murders and waiting for Clark to return. She is surprised to be confronted by Davis instead. She tries to run but he grabs her and forces her to listen to him. Davis confesses that he is in love with her and wants her to help him. Chloe refuses to do anything for him until Davis says he wants her to help him die.
Clark thinks Tess is obsessed with him.
Clark arrives at Isis and realizes there has been a disturbance in the office and Chloe is missing. On her computer screen is a diagram of Dr. Groll's lab, so Clark superspeeds away.
At the lab, Davis is in a cell. Above the cell is a tank of liquid meteor rock. Davis has placed himself in the cage and is trying to convince Chloe to pull the lever. In tears, Chloe can't bring herself to do it. Clark rushes in and begs Davis not to kill himself, wanting to give Davis a second chance, because Clark now feels guilty about Davis's past. Davis argues that people always return to their true nature and that it's best for him to die, because he was sent to kill Clark. Davis begins to transform, his eyes turning red. When he lunges towards Clark, Chloe quickly switches the machine on. Davis is covered in the liquid meteor rock and flashes back to himself as a child, being dropped off by one of Lionel's workers. Young Davis becomes angry, transforms and kills the worker. In tears, Chloe watches Davis die. Then she rushes to the tank and puts her hand on the glass and Davis puts his hand against hers as he slowly stops breathing. Clark watches and seems to feel guilty that there was something between them.
Davis is showered in green kryptonite.
Clark visits Chloe that night to see how she is. She is quiet and thoughtful, saying she has had better days. Clark has spoken to Oliver Queen, who has disposed of Davis's body and taken charge of the cover-up to explain Davis's disappearance. Chloe feels guilty about what she had done but believes she did it to protect Clark and his destiny as a world protector. Clark looks at a photograph of the two headed creature from the Kawatche Caves, remarking that he didn't have to fight the "ultimate destroyer" very hard. He throws the photograph into the fire. Clark states he always had a nightmare about never having been adopted, and Chloe points out that Clark's nightmare was Davis's reality.
Tess has possession of the orb.
Clark and Chloe talk about what happened.
Clark gets a visit from Tess in his barn. She hints about Clark saving people and reveals that she knows a bit more. Clark thinks she has the Luthors' obsession and states that he will never be that man she thinks he is. Tess thinks that Clark will never fulfill his destiny until he has met his greatest enemy. Clark retorts that Tess doesn't know anything about his life. Tess, knowing that Clark is lying, says she will wait for Clark to come to her. As he leaves the barn, Tess addresses him as Kal-El.
Back at the mansion, Tess unlocks a cupboard and takes out a suitcase. She opens it to reveal the orb.
As Chloe is arriving home, she hears a noise down in the Talon. In the basement, she is shocked to find Davis, alive and well. As Faora had told him, what kills him makes him stronger, so Davis says the meteor rocks have now made him invincible. Chloe realizes that Clark is again in danger and that Davis will try to kill him, but Davis states that there is something about Chloe that calms down the beast in him. He asks if she will stay with him. After a moment's thought, Chloe goes back up the stairs towards the door and locks the bolt.
Aaron Ashmore as Jimmy Olsen (credit only)
Sam Witwer as Davis Bloome
Justin Hartley as Oliver Queen (credit only)
Connor Stanhope as Young Lex Luthor
Alex Ferris as Young Davis
Mike Dopud as George
Daren A. Herbert as Assistant
Steve Maddock as LuthorCorp Security Guard
Osmond L. Bramble as Tow Truck Driver
Eternal means everlasting without a beginning or end.
The title refers to Davis's past and future, both of which are uncertain.
Eternal may also refer to Doomsday being immortal, meaning that he will last forever after he becomes immune to kryptonite. It could also allude to the predestination vs. 'fate of our own making' debate concerning any individual's degree of genuine free will.
Antagonists: Tess Mercer and Davis Bloome
Lois Lane, Oliver Queen, and Jimmy Olsen do not appear in this episode.
Tess and Davis finally meet.
Lionel Luthor, Martha Kent, and Jonathan Kent are seen in archive footage. Lionel hasn't been seen since Descent or heard since Odyssey while Jonathan and Martha were last seen in archive footage in Odyssey, although they actually left the show in Void and Phantom respectively.
Although the flashback is meant to be from the 1989 meteor shower seen in "Pilot", footage from the 2005 meteor shower that occurred during season four episode "Commencement" is also shown.
Davis's immortality as Doomsday is true to the comics because Doomsday in the comics could regenerate every time he is killed and adapts so that he could not be killed the same way. The only way Doomsday could die is to completely obliterate every part of him - which means he is not immortal.
After Lex and Davis leave to go play, Feathers is seen dead on the desk, assuming Davis killed it. In "The Death of Superman" comic book storyline, when Doomsday first comes into contact with Earth's creatures, a bird lands in its hands. Doomsday then kills it by crushing it.
Connor Stanhope played young Lex in the Season Seven's Fracture, Veritas, and Descent. Young Lex was originally portrayed by Matthew Munn in Pilot, seven years earlier. The original scene of Lionel discovering Lex injured immediately after the meteor shower was re-staged with Stanhope in Munn's place for this episode.
This is the second time that a kryptonite-lined cell was used. The first was in Traveler when Lionel imprisoned Clark. This cell was designed to be filled with liquid kryptonite, not lined with kryptonite.
Davis still has the onyx cross in his ambulance that was first seen in Prey after Doomsday murdered the nun who owned it. It was also seen in Turbulence.
Tess blows up Davis's truck. Roger Nixon did the same to Clark in Tempest.
Tess mentions the drawings in the Kawatche Caves, which were discovered in Skinwalker.
The 1989 meteor shower that was shown in Pilot is revisited from Davis's perspective. Faora first revealed that Davis arrived in the meteor shower in Bloodline.
This is the first episode where Tess addresses Clark by his first name. She has previously addressed him as "Mr. Kent" in Plastique or simply "Kent" in Toxic, Identity, Turbulence.
This is the second time that Clark uses his X-ray vision to scan a field and find that it was a serial killers dumping ground. The first time was on Jed McNally's farm in Season Six's Subterranean.
Tess discusses Lionel's involvement with Veritas, which was first mentioned in Fracture, while the extent of Lionel's involvement was revealed in Veritas.
This is the second time that Davis Bloome has died. The first time was in Bloodline, after Faora killed him.
Tess has somehow come into possession of the Orb which was last seen in Arctic, when Lex used it to destroy the Fortress, so presumably it was recovered from the site by her team.
Clark tells Chloe that Davis collects crime scene photos and is always first to arrive on the scene, which he discovered in Prey.
This is the first time that every CEO of LuthorCorp (Lionel, Lex, and Tess) has appeared in an episode, even though Lionel was shown through archive footage and Lex was in flashback as a young boy.
In Pilot, it is mentioned by Lex that the mansion was shipped from Scotland stone by stone and Clark says that he remembers that the trucks were rolling by for weeks. However, in the flashbacks in this episode, the mansion is seen just days after the meteor shower and looks much the same as it always has and there seems to be no construction going on anywhere.
Clark tells Chloe that his spaceship crashed into Miller's Field, which happened in Pilot.
Tess mentions Martha Kent. She was last seen in Phantom.
Tess' assistant was last seen in Turbulence.
Discontinuity
Young Lex and Davis are seen playing in the Luthor Mansion in 1989 several days after the first meteor shower. However, in Pilot Clark told Lex, "I remember trucks rolled through town for weeks but no one ever moved in." Although, the presence of the Luthors in the mansion could have been kept secret so no one would know they had Davis there illegally.
Young Lex tells Davis that the box was forged from the armor of St. George. Lionel told him this story during his 12th birthday party in Memoria. The flashbacks seen in this Eternal happen directly after the meteor shower, making Lex nine years old and already knowing the story. However, in Traveler, Lex states that he blocked out a lot of memories after the meteor shower. Maybe when Lionel gave him the box as a gift on his 12th birthday, he had no recollection of the origin of the box.
Tess's interpretation of the Naman and Sageeth legend, in which she concluded that Davis Bloome was Sageeth, contradicts Talisman, which revealed that Naman's enemy would either be Lex or Lionel. However, this is merely another interpretation of the legend.
Davis's foster record birth-date is a few months after Clark's. Lex is about seven years older than Clark legally, so Davis would still be a toddler around 3-years-old, as Clark was, at this time. [1]
The guards chasing Davis in 1989 were armed with Heckler and Koch MP7s, which were not put into production until 2001.
Clark mentions that as a child he had a nightmare about his ship landing and nobody ever finding him. Clark didn't know about his ship or his alien heritage until Pilot, and he wasn't a child any more. This could mean that he subconsciously knew that he wan't human and just didn't understand why he was having such dreams, or he counts his years at Smallville High as still being part of his childhood. In some continuities, Clark remembers the years he spent in his ship.
In Season Five's Mercy, it was revealed that Lionel had known Clark's secret ever since he held one of the three stones that helped form the fortress of solitude, which happened in Season Four's Commencement. But in this episode it is now revealed that Lionel has known his secret since he first arranged for Clark's adoption, the details of which can be seen in Season Two's Lineage. However, it was never explicitly stated that Lionel completely knew Clark's secret. It was only stated that Lionel believed Clark was the boy he was looking for when he said " I have the wrong boy". When Lionel got a call from Martha Kent about adopting Clark, Lionel suspected and believed Clark could be the one. However, Lionel could have simply been lying to Clark when he talked to him in Mercy. But even if that were true, he would have had no reason to try and get Chloe to use her powers on him to find out where he came from in Season Three's Truth.
Clark mentioned to Davis what life could be if he had been raised by the Luthors. This scenario is explored in Season Ten's Luthor where Clark goes to an alternate universe where he was raised by Lionel and became Clark Luthor.
Talon apartment
Miller's Field
Isis Foundation
LuthorCorp Lab
Tess: (dawning realization) Lionel was too blind to see the truth. There was another.
Young Davis: Are you him? Are you a Warrior Angel?
Young Lex: No. But I want to be.
Chloe: You know, Clark, I really hope you have the safety cocked on your heat vision.
Clark: (caught off-guard) What?
Chloe: You've been staring at the back of my head so hard, I'm afraid my hair is going to go up in flames.
Clark: If you don't want to talk about it —
Chloe: (sarcastically) No, please; I love trudging through stagnant water.
Tess: (to Davis, referring to Clark) I finally realized that until you fulfill your destiny, he won't have his great challenge to overcome. He cannot become the world's savior without triumphing over the world's destroyer.
Clark: Look, it's just I have a bad feeling about the guy. I mean, c'mon, Chloe —
Chloe: Don't 'Chloe' me, Clark. What is it with this whole 'meet me out in the back for a duel' mentality?
Clark: It might have something to do with the fact that this guy disappears and can't explain where he went. He's full of secrets, Chloe; there's not even a record of his childhood.
Chloe: Sounds familiar.
Tess: (to Davis) I was trying to kill you, but... that seems to be harder than I thought.
Davis: I am not who you think I am.
Tess: No... you're not who you think you are.
Tess: What do you do when you find Judas in your midst? Who would Christ have been if Judas had not betrayed him? Maybe we would remember Jesus as only a teacher roaming the desert.
Davis: I don't quite understand what you're getting at.
Tess: Without Judas, Jesus would never have risen from the dead to come back and face his greatest challenge: saving humankind. There is a savior among us. You are here to betray him.
Clark: The guy blacks out regularly and you chose not to mention it?
Chloe: I figured he had low blood sugar or something.
Clark: He told you he was hiding something dark inside, Chloe! That didn't set off any alarms for you?
Chloe: You know what? I figured 'dark' meant moody, or bipolar at worst. I don't exactly jump right to serial killer!
Davis: I need you to do something for me.
Chloe: I won't do anything for you.
Davis: I need you to help me die.
Clark: Davis, don't be a martyr.
Davis: I'm not doing this for you. I want this to end. I can't live with myself.
Clark: But it's not your fault. Everything that's happened to you, is because of me, all right? We should have been brothers. Davis, you didn't have a home. If that would've happened to me... I've always wondered what it would have been like if the Luthors had found me in that field. I could've turned out differently.
Davis: But you didn't! You were destined to have the better life. And no matter how hard we try to fight it, we will always return to our true nature.
Clark: Davis, there has to be something in your life, something that is worth giving it one more try.
Davis: It isn't always about where your heart is. It's about what you've done... and what you're going to do. I was sent here to destroy you, Clark.
Clark: How are you holdin' up?
Chloe: I've had better days. And that's saying a lot, in Smallville.
Chloe: I wouldn't change what I did.
Clark: But there's always another way.
Chloe: He could've killed you, Clark. I won't risk the safety of the world because of your code of ethics. Because you refuse to stop the things that threaten you.
Clark: Jor-El said he was the ultimate destroyer. Didn't turn out to be much of a fight.
Tess: If this is the way that you lied to Lex, then I can see how it pushed him over the edge.
Clark: Lex was racing toward that drop-off way before he met me.
Tess: Yeah, but betrayal... You know, the more you love someone, the harder it is.
Clark: I'm not some problem to be solved.
Tess: I get it. It's too early. Just know that I'll wait for you, Clark. I'll wait for you to come to me.
Clark: It's gonna be a long wait.
(Clark walks away)
Tess: (to herself) It'll be shorter than you think, Kal-El.
Chloe: No matter what you want as Davis, the other side of you will still try and kill him.
Davis: I won't kill Clark if I'm with you.
Chloe: But you said so yourself, it's your true nature.
Davis: But maybe there's something stronger out there than my need to kill.
Clark: When I was a kid, I used to have this nightmare. My ship landed in a field and no one ever found me.
Chloe: That nightmare was Davis' life.
Clark: I always felt like it was a burden knowing that I was destined to save people. I can't imagine what it must've felt like knowing that no matter how you lived your life, you were doomed.
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Episodes featuring Davis Bloome