This was by far my favorite episode to write this season.
Clark's eyes shot open as his world tried to come back into focus.
"Earth to superfreak," an unfamiliar voice taunted as two men he didn't know stood above him.
"Everyone, please, sit down," an old man with a British accent said calmly to the two men.
Clark frantically sat up and found himself inside a circle of middle-aged men all dressed in white scrubs. Then he realized he was dressed in the white scrubs too.
"Are you still with us, Clark?" the old man asked.
Clark looked at the men around him who either stared at him blankly or condescendingly. "What's going on?"
"Well, you said that you and your dog were in the barn when you heard something. And then you left us for a bit."
"What are you talking about? How'd I get here?"
"So, what attacked you?" the man who'd been standing over him asked. "Was it a Krypto-freak again?" He burst into laughter and the rest of the men in the circle joined him.
"No, no, no, I know," another man laughed. "It was a spirit from the Phantom Zone, right, Kal-El?"
Clark's stomach flipped. "How do you know that name?"
"'Cause you never shut up about it! O, great son of Jor-El."
The old man stood up with his hands out. "Settle down, gentlemen."
"Wait, back off!" Clark yelled at the man.
"Take it easy, Clark. Take those deep breaths we talked about."
"Who are you?"
"It's me. Dr. Hudson."
Clark looked around the dull room at all of the many people wearing scrubs when he saw a face that he recognized. "Emmeline?" He quickly ran over to the girl. She was wearing white scrubs that were too big on her, and her long hair had been tied back into a very messy bun. "Emmeline."
Emmeline turned to look at him. "What did I tell you about trying to talk to me?"
Clark was taken aback at the iciness in her voice and eyes. "How did you end up in here too?"
"None of your business!"
"Don't worry, I'm gonna get you out of here, Em."
Emmeline's eyes widened as she clenched her jaw. "What did you just call me?"
With almost no warning, she punched him in the face. Clark wasn't sure what surprised him more: the fact that Emmeline had punched him or that her punch had actually hurt.
"Stay away from me, Kent!" she yelled as an orderly began to roughly pull her away.
Two more orderlies came up behind Clark. "No, I don't want to have to hurt anyone."
"Why don't you just use your superspeed and run away?" one of the men from the circle sneered.
Clark hit one of the orderlies on the chest, but he was stunned when the orderly didn't fly back like he'd expected. The orderly pulled his arm back, and it was one of the very few times in his life where Clark felt intense pain. The two orderlies roughly grabbed his arms and dragged him down a long hallway.
"Why are you doing this to me?" he yelled. "What do you want? What's happening?! Let me go! Let me go! Please! Someone! Why am I here?!"
Clark tried to breathe as he stepped inside the main room of whatever facility this was. Dr. Hudson had told him that his whole life as he believed it was just a figment of his imagination and a coping mechanism for the death of his birth parents in the meteor shower. He didn't buy it, but the longer he was here, the more he began to doubt himself.
The orderlies escorted the patients into a secluded and barred garden in the middle of the facility. Clark looked around to see if there was any way he could escape, but without his powers, he was pretty much useless.
Then he saw Emmeline sitting on a bench and slowly ripping up a violet in her hand. He cautiously approached her. "Um, Emmeline?"
Emmeline looked up and glared at him. "What do you want, Kent?"
He held his hands up. "Look, just-just let me explain."
"Explain what? How you decided to act like we're buddies earlier?"
"But we are. You're one of my best friends."
"You know, I've listened to some of your ramblings, and you've come up with some pretty crazy stuff, but what possibly gave you the idea to conjure that up? Did you see me and then come up with some sick fantasy about me?" She clenched her jaw as she stood up and her hands curled into fists. "Do you know what I do to people who have sick fantasies about me?"
"No, no, it's not like that, I swear!"
Emmeline slowly sat back down on the bench.
"Can I sit?"
She pursed her lips, then curtly motioned for him to sit on the bench next to her.
Clark told a very condensed version of his real life rather than whatever strange fantasy world he'd found himself in. He told her how they'd met, how they'd gotten so close, about his true heritage, and about the Zoners.
When he finished, Emmeline just looked at him like he'd wasted an hour of her life. "You might be the craziest patient here."
Clark's heart sank. He had hoped that telling her about their friendship might jog her memories, but he was pretty sure that this Emmeline technically didn't even exist so there went that idea.
Then Emmeline smirked. "Lucky for you, I've kind of got a thing for crazy."
"So you believe me?"
"Honestly, no. It sounds completely insane. I mean, in this world of yours, I'm really reserved and introverted and super nice to everyone? Yeah, I don't think so. Way to make me incredibly boring."
"You're not boring, I didn't make this up, and I can't believe you think that's the craziest part of everything I just told you. But it's all true, I swear."
"Yeah, well, being my best friend probably says a lot about you. What are my parents like in this fantasy world?"
Clark's eyes darkened. "Um…you're really close with both of them but…your mom passed away a little while ago."
"Good riddance," Emmeline bit out.
"How can you say that?"
Emmeline looked up at him hardly. "My mom's a crack addict who never bothered to try to stop my dad from pounding her. Or me. He's the one who put me in here, you know. After I tried to stop him from hitting us, he convinced everyone that I 'wasn't all there' and they locked me away in here. You ever notice that I'm the only girl? He told them I couldn't be around other women, and the idiots believed him. Like putting me in an institution full of men was supposed to help things."
Clark sighed, wondering if this is how Emmeline would've turned out if she'd been raised by her biological parents. She barely knew her mom and neither of them knew anything about her dad. Maybe her being adopted really was for the best. "Well…back home, your biological mom gave you up for adoption, and your adoptive parents are some of the greatest parents you could ask for."
"Sounds nice. Maybe if I'd had them instead, I wouldn't have turned out so messed up. I guess it's worth helping you get back there if it means I have good parents, even if I am super boring."
"You'll help me?"
"Yeah, why not? True story or not, this is the most interesting thing that's happened to me in years. Besides, I've got nothing else to lose. What do you want me to do?"
"I have to find a way to slip out of here. Once I figure it out, I'll need you to provide a distraction."
Emmeline smirked again. "Well fortunately, I am very good at causing distractions. Just give me a signal, and you won't even exist."
While waiting in line for some kind of medication that he'd have to either pretend to take or purge later, someone whispered behind Clark, "You're not crazy, Kal-El. We don't have much time, so listen to me closely. I believe you're from another planet."
"What makes you say that?" Clark asked without turning around.
"Because like you, I'm not from here. I come from Mars. You can't trust anyone—"
Clark turned when the man abruptly stopped speaking and saw that an orderly had injected him with something that caused him to pass out into his arms. "Hey!"
Another orderly gave him a warning look. "Don't even think about it."
Clark watched as they dragged the mysterious man down the hallway back to his cell. Then he noticed a janitor pushing a cart through the room and use his keys to open a supply closet.
He looked over at Emmeline and gave her a very small nod.
Emmeline smirked and winked at him. She kicked off her shoes then stood up from her chair and whipped off her scrub shirt to reveal her white tank top underneath. "Now, I've seen how some of you disgusting pigs stare at me, so I know you want some of this." She took her pants off so everyone could see her white underwear. "How about I give you a good look?"
Clark swallowed nervously and hoped that he had amnesia when he managed to get back to the real world because he didn't know if he'd ever be able to look at Emmeline without blushing after this.
One of the creeps in the room came up to Emmeline and touched her shoulder, but she easily punched and kicked him away. Laughing hysterically, she held her arms out. "Who else wants some?"
She punched two more men and an orderly who tried to take her arm.
With the sound of the brawl and Emmeline's laughter ringing out behind him, Clark slipped into the supply closet and knocked out the janitor inside. Then he switched their clothing and snuck out of the facility. If he ever saw this world's Emmeline again, he'd have to make sure to thank her.
Now back in the institution after being out in the world for less than a day, Clark could feel fragments of his mind beginning to shatter.
Dark shadows rested under his eyes and his whole face was pale from weariness. The last few hours had been too much for him to take. Lex was in a wheelchair with both of his legs missing which had been caused by Clark's misguided attempt to save him on the bridge, his mother was married to Lionel Luthor, Lana was living in his barn and had apparently been in a relationship with him since they were in kindergarten, and Chloe…Chloe had been in the institution with him, and now…she was dead. She'd been the only one who'd really believed him and now she was dead.
He felt crushed and defeated and he wondered if he really had made everything up as a coping mechanism.
As Dr. Hudson led him back to his room, he froze when he looked through the window to one of the other rooms.
"Emmeline?" he said softly.
The girl inside who was facing the opposite direction turned to look at him and slowly approached the window. She cocked her head as she stared at him.
Clark felt like he might be sick. Her eyes were completely dull and lifeless and there was no trace of Emmeline, real or fake, anymore.
"What happened?" he asked crestfallen.
Dr. Hudson sighed. "Her violent tendencies became too dangerous for her own safety and the safety of others. We were forced to take…extreme measures."
"No, she…"
The man gently put his hand on Clark's shoulder. "It's unfortunate, I know, but remember, you only convinced yourself that you were best friends. In reality, you both are nothing more than strangers."
Emmeline stared back at him with those horrible glazed eyes and turned away, pacing aimlessly back and forth in her room. She had previously said that she had nothing left to lose, but she had been wrong. She had lost her sanity.
Clark lay on the tiny, uncomfortable bed in his cell. He couldn't move. He couldn't think. He could barely even breathe.
He didn't know who he was anymore. Was everything he thought he knew really all an extravagant lie? Were Chloe and Emmeline…really gone?
"You can't give in, Kal-El," the man from Mars said from his own cell. "You must resist. None of this is real."
"Leave me alone," Clark said. It took all of his energy to even force his mouth to move to form the words.
"Listen to me. When you were attacked in the barn, you were infected by a being that you released from the Phantom Zone."
"The Phantom Zone doesn't exist."
"Yes, it does. And if you were a human, that spirit would have taken you over with ease, like Zod did with Lex Luthor. But you're a lot stronger than that. You're Kryptonian."
Clark moved into a sitting position, his mind numb. "You're a patient in a mental hospital. You're just as crazy as I am."
"If you give in to Hudson and undergo this treatment, the entity will gain control of your body with all its powers and unite the other fugitives from the Phantom Zone. Together, they'll enslave all of mankind."
Clark went over to the gated window on the door of his cell and looked into the cell next to him where the man stood. "If this is all in my head, then how are you here?"
"I'm in your mind as well, trying to help. But there's only one way to purge this parasite and regain your consciousness. You have to kill Hudson."
"Kill Hudson? I can't kill a man."
"He's not a man. Hudson's a Phantom."
"You told me not to trust anyone. Why should I trust you?"
"You know who you are, Kal-El. Trust yourself."
Two orderlies came to the man's door and unlocked it. Then they both roughly yanked him out of his cell. "Well, if it isn't our visitor from Mars."
The man forced himself out of the orderlies' grasps and looked into Clark's gated window. "Look within. Believe in yourself. The future of mankind depends on it."
One of the orderlies took out a lighter and flicked it then waved it near the man's face which backed him into the corner. "Whoa, what's the matter there, freak, huh? Scared of a little fire? Isn't Mars the red-hot planet? Welcome home."
The other orderly punched the man in the face which knocked him out.
"Get him out of here." While the man was dragged off, the orderly faced Clark's window. "It's time, Mr. Kent."
Clark's mind whirled as he tried to decide what to do. Should he trust the strange man who claimed that this world was indeed fake? Or did he trust everyone else who insisted that this world was real?
The orderly handcuffed his hands in front of him and led him into the treatment room. When Clark walked in, he saw Lana standing near the operating table.
"I didn't want you to go through this alone," she smiled. "Dr. Hudson said I could come. We're so close, Clark. You're gonna get better and we can finally be together. Like we were always meant to be."
"I want you to be real."
"I am real."
Clark looked at her doubtfully.
"Okay. Let's say that I am a hallucination…and that your world really does exist. I'm about to marry your greatest enemy. You're an alien from another planet who's responsible for so much tragedy. Do you really want to live in that reality?"
Clark realized that she had a point. In his other world, whether it was real or fake, he had the pressure of the world on his shoulders due to being given extraordinary abilities that came with a great cost, his father was dead, the woman he was in love with was about to marry the person he hated the most, and his best friend had convinced herself that cutting ties with him was her only solution. "I don't know what to believe anymore."
"Don't you just want to take this treatment and be with me?"
"Of course I want to be with you. More than you could ever imagine."
"Then stop fighting, please. You've lived like this for so long, carried this burden of being a hero. It's time to just let go and live a normal life."
"I've never been normal."
"Your destiny isn't to save the world, Clark. It's to be with me for the rest of our lives."
Lana gently kissed his cheek. Clark thought about how easy it would be to just give in to this world. Then he could be normal and he could be with Lana. But Chloe…and Emmeline…
No, he couldn't think about them.
The door opened, and Dr. Hudson walked in. "There's no need to be afraid, Clark. The procedure is quite painless."
While Lana went outside the room to watch the procedure, two orderlies strapped him down to the operating table. Near his head, a drill began whirring which did nothing for his nerves.
"It will be over in the blink of an eye," Dr. Hudson assured.
The two orderlies firmly held him down and the drill began to move towards his temple.
Emmeline took a deep breath as she got out of her car. It had been weeks since she'd broken off things with Clark, and the thought of the conversation ahead made her more than a little anxious. She didn't even know if it was going to change anything.
But she'd promised Arthur, Victor, Bart, and Oliver that she would talk to him, and she wasn't going to go back on her word.
Suddenly, she heard a thump from inside the barn, and then Shelby raced out with anxious barks. Emmeline took a few nervous steps back. Shelby seemed to sense her anxiety because he stopped in his tracks and whimpered.
"What is it?"
Shelby ran back to the barn and then turned to look at her. Guessing that the dog wanted her to follow him, Emmeline quickly made her way inside the barn. Her eyes widened when she saw Clark lying on the barn floor unconscious while an African-American man in a dark coat stood over him.
"Who are you?" she nervously demanded. "What are you doing?"
The man looked at her calmly. "Call to him."
"What?"
"Call to Kal-El."
Emmeline looked at the man in confusion. If he knew Clark's birth name, then it was probably safe to assume that he wasn't human either. She didn't know why she was supposed to call to him, but something about him told her that she should probably do as he said.
She quickly knelt down next to Clark and put her hand to his shoulder. "Clark? Can you hear me? It's Emmeline. I'm here. Come on, Clark, whatever's happening, you need to fight it. Come on. Come on, Clark. I'm here. Okay? Come on, fight. I'm right here."
On the operating table, Clark's eyes widened in shock when Lana disappeared from behind the glass. He tried to lift his head, but the orderly pushed him back down.
"Clark?"
Clark's eyes darted around the room. Whose voice was that?
"I'm here."
"…Emmeline?"
"Fight it."
"I'm still in the barn."
Dr. Hudson looked at Clark nervously. "Settle down, son." He furiously typed some keys on his keyboard to make the drill move faster.
"I know who I am!" Clark yelled. He pushed one of the orderlies away from him and yanked off all of the wires on his chest.
"Just relax, Mr. Kent, please!" the orderly cried.
Clark shoved a medical tool into one orderly's chest and slammed the other one's head onto the operating table. Then he grabbed the front of Dr. Hudson's shirt.
"Clark, stop it!" the doctor said quickly. "You're having another episode. Think about Lana. You could be together at last."
Clark slammed the man onto the operating table and began to choke him. "Get out of my mind!"
Dr. Hudson's eyes squeezed shut and when they opened, they were a deep and ugly black, proving that he was indeed a Zoner. The area around his eyes reddened as Clark squeezed harder and harder.
Emmeline frantically jumped back as Clark's face turned into that of a creature from the Phantom Zone. The man standing above him held out a strange green orb which pulled the phantom out of Clark and sucked the creature into it. With a flash of red light, the phantom was gone.
Clark sat up and looked at the man behind him. "It's you."
"Welcome home, Kal-El," the man smiled.
His eyes flashed red and then he flew out of the barn in a red streak.
Clark looked over at Emmeline, and he thought his heart might burst. "Emmeline?" He pressed both of his hands to the sides of her face and looked straight into her eyes. To his relief, concern filled them instead of that awful blank stare. With a sigh, he let his forehead softly fall against hers. Emmeline closed her eyes and gently put her hands overtop of his.
The two of them sat on the floor of the barn in each other's embrace for several minutes, thankful to have each other back again.
Clark handed Emmeline a mug of hot chocolate as they sat in front of the fireplace in the Kent living room. "You're sure I was only out for a second?"
"Yeah, I got out of my car, heard you fall, went in the barn, and that guy was standing over you."
"It felt like a lifetime."
"I have to admit, it was a genius plan. There's no better way to defeat someone than to make them think they can't trust their own mind."
"Em, you don't understand. I almost gave up everything and everyone that I care about…for Lana." With a sigh, he admitted, "The truth is I still love her."
Emmeline swallowed thickly, feeling two tons of rocks drop directly into her stomach. She supposed it didn't really come as a surprise, but it still didn't feel great to hear him say the words. "Clark," she sighed. "I think you need to really consider why you love her. I'm worried that you've built up this perfect image of her in your head and you're more in love with the idea of her than who she really is."
"What do you mean?"
"Well…in this other world, was Lana who she is in real life or was she who you wanted her to be?"
Clark pursed his lips as he considered her question.
"If the two of you are meant to be together, then that's great and I'll support you. But make sure you love her for the right reasons." She took a sip of her hot chocolate and then leaned back against the couch. "So what was I like in this fantasy?"
Clark immediately began blushing as he remembered Fake-Emmeline's way of causing a distraction. He nervously cleared his throat. "Well, uh…you trusted me. Even though you thought I was completely nuts, you decided to help me anyway. And…help you did."
Emmeline smiled a little.
"It was your voice that helped me realize I was still in the barn."
"That man told me to call for you. Who was that guy?"
"Um…he's from Mars."
"He's a Martian?" Emmeline shook her head. "I don't even know why that surprises me anymore."
Clark looked at her seriously. "Not that I'm unhappy about it, but why are you here? I wasn't sure you were ever going to speak to me again."
Emmeline rubbed her knee. "It was pretty heartless of me to break things off because of what happened. You're the one who actually made the decision to turn back time and I'm sure you blame yourself constantly, and I didn't really help with that. Just…the idea that my being friends with you cost your dad his life…"
"Em, if you wanna get down to it, I cost your mother her life."
"What?"
"She was caught in the second meteor shower which only happened because I didn't listen to Jor-El."
"My mom had cancer."
"And my dad had a heart condition."
Emmeline look down at her mug when she saw what he was getting at.
"And if we're being honest, if my dad knew that it was either his life or yours, I can guarantee you he would've given his life up for you willingly in a second."
Emmeline smiled sadly, knowing that he probably spoke the truth, and it made her feel somewhat less guilty about what happened. "So do you know why I even remembered that night?"
"No, I have no idea. It doesn't make any sense. No one should know about that night except me."
"Well, I guess we'll just have to add it to the collection of other stuff that doesn't make sense."
"I think the collection's too big. We'll have to start solving a couple of those mysteries."
"Yeah, about that…"
"What?"
"I'm going to be spending less time at the Daily Planet and more time at the clinic. I want to focus on my own work for a little while and find out how I can help you."
"Help me with what?"
"I heard about your little outing a few nights ago with the Green Arrow and his team. I wanted to be there, but…the only thing I'm good for right now is giving the occasional pep talk. Which isn't really going to help anyone out in the field. I want to help somehow, I just…need to figure out how."
"So I guess I'll be seeing less of you then."
"Well, the clinic isn't far from the Planet. You can always stop by and see if I'm available and fill me in on whatever adventure you're in the middle of. Maybe I'll actually be able to do something."
Clark smiled gently. "It's really nice to have you back, Em. I don't think you realize just how much you mean to me."
Emmeline smiled back, though her heart felt conflicted at the sentimental words right after he stated he was in love with another woman. But even still, she told him, "You mean a lot to me too."
