Surveillance and counter-surveillance in the Luthor family is going to cause problems not just for them but for Clark (Tom Welling) as well in Insurgence. Written by Kenneth Biller and Jeph Loeb, this episode was first broadcast on 21 January, 2003.

Lex (Michael Rosenbaum) is furious to discover that his father, Lionel (John Glover) has planted cameras and audio recorders in the mansion, watching all of his moves. Lex decides to return the favor by hiring a group of thugs to break into his father’s Metropolis office building, and setting up a camera system there.

Unfortunately, Lionel and Martha Kent (Annette O’Toole) are working there, and now Clark needs to find a way to save his mom without using his powers – or maybe leaping a building in a single bound. And that building… The Daily Planet.

The thugs have plans of their own. They aren’t going to set up cameras, they are going to break into the Luthor vault (which seems to be full of kryptonite bars, a familiar looking octagon key, and a file on Clark), and they don’t care who gets in their way. And those discoveries are going to put some interesting dynamics in Martha and Lionel’s relationship.

We also see that Johnathan (John Schneider) and Martha are still having some stress regarding her having taken the job with Lionel, especially when it ruins their anniversary.

There’s also a nice progression on the Lana (Kristin Kreuk) family drama as she plans to meet her biological father’s (Patrick Cassidy) wife (Eileen Pedde). But also learns a troubling truth about the man he is.

This one is smart, tense, has some great moments as it plays with the both the Luthor and Kent families, introduces new secrets, wrinkles and problems. And guess who has the key now?

Suspect first aired on 28 January, 2003. It was written by Mark Verheiden and Philip Levens.

The Luthor/Kent problems continue when Lionel is shot by an unknown assailant, and the prime suspect is Johnathan Kent, who was drunk at the time. Clark is intent on proving his father’s innocence, and learns that someone in Smallville has his own reasons for wanting Lionel dead.

Welcome back Dominic Senatori (Jason Connery)!

It seems he may have set up everything, shooting Lionel, and framing Jonathan, who definitely seems out of sorts when he’s arrested, seemingly passed out in his truck, with a bottle of booze in one hand, and a gun in the other. Or was it someone else?

But everyone involved in the story has their own interpretation of the truth as we see flashbacks that seem to vilify Jonathan. But what really happened? Sure it looks like all the evidence points to Jonathan, but how many people actually have a motive to shoot Lionel? There’s a long list of suspects, but you don’t only need motive, you need opportunity.

Lionel has been having quite the time over the past season and a half, he’s gone blind, and now been brutally shot.

So who shot Lionel? It takes a while to get to the truth, but it comes out in the end. A solid episode, but Insurgence is the stronger one this week.