Comic legend Jeph Loeb pens Red, which first aired on 15 October, 2002. It also introduces a new variety of kryptonite to the series, one that has an adverse on Clark (Tom Welling), red kryptonite.

It’s time for class rings and Smallville High, and everyone is happy to get them. What they don’t know is that the stone in them is from meteor rocks, in this case, red kryptonite meteor rocks. And this immediately elicits a new side of Clark… a bad boy if you will.

He is definitely not behaving the way we or his family are used to. Jonathan (John Schneider) and Martha (Annette O’Toole) initially think it’s just some regular teen rebellion, but it’s worse than your regular teen attitude (which is pretty bad to start). And that just complicates the whole Lana (Kristin Kreuk) thing as well, as he reveeals that he has feelings for her, and the pair share a very passionate kiss.

His new attitude surfaces (thanks to the ring) at the same time as a new girl joins Smallville High. Enter Jessie Brooks (Sara Downing), who along with her father, Ed (Garwin Sanford) seem to be on the run from something.

Can Clark’s friends help figure out what is going on with him? And what exactly is Jessie running from? And who is the man, Ted Palmer (Micheal Tomlinson), that is pursuing them?

And over at the Luthor mansion, Lex (Micheal Rosenbaum) and Lionel (John Glover) continue to clash.

All in all, it works a little like a just say no to drugs story. And Pete (Sam Jones III), now that he’s in on the secret, is the one who puts two and two together about the krytptonite, along with some help from Chloe (Allison Mack).

It’s a solid episode, and lets Welling play Clark in a different way. There are some great character moments across the board, and the mythology moves forward.

Nocturne debuted on 22 October, 2002. It was written by Brian Peterson and Kelly Souders.

Martha gets a job offer to work as Lionel’s assistant, though Jonathan is a little reluctant about the whole situation.

Meanwhile, Lana has found a collection of poems from a secret admirer at her parents’ grave site. She learns that they were written by Byron Moore (Sean Faris). Byron is kept locked (most of the time) in his house’s basement by his parents (Richard Moll and Gwynyth Walsh).

He’s not being abused, however, he’s held there to keep the effects of LuthorCorp’s experimentation on him in check. It seems, when exposed to sunlight he becomes super-strong and more than a little evil.

The character stuff moves along, the new tension between Clark and Lana is a little hearbreaking. It’s a fairly well-writtten episode, even if it falls into a freak-of-the-week kind of thing. And Byron, well, as the name suggests, he’s made to look like a man out of time, dressed like a romantic poet, and it’s just a little silly.

They find a way to save Byron and hopefully he will be able to live something like a normal life. And despite the fact that Jonathan doesn’t like it, Martha will enjoy working with Lionel going forward.

New opportunities for more character growth and new narratives (Lana and Clark are trying to move forward after last episode’s kerfuffle. A great character episode, but the story is a little lacking.