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Lois & Clark:
The New Adventures of Superman
Season 2, Episode 5
205-church
Air date October 23, 1994
Written by John McNamara
Directed by Robert Singer
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An international criminal organization, Intergang, led by Bill Church, begins buying property in South Metropolis. Intergang uses thugs to vandalize the area to drive down the price, so that they can buy the land cheaply. Lois becomes jealous when Clark shows a romantic interest in the deputy district attorney, Mayson Drake. To make matters worse, Drake may be an agent of Intergang. This episode is both the first appearance of Mayson Drake and the first appearance of Intergang within Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman.

Plot[]

Lois and Clark visit the restaurant of Lois's uncle Mike, located in the South Side of Metropolis. While in the bathroom, Clark sees a young man, Baby Rage, ignite the restaurant with an incendiary device. Clark changes to Superman and catches Baby Rage, then puts the flames out with Super Breath. Mike says Baby Rage is a member of local gang The Skins. Baby Rage tells Lois that she has been marked for death.

Deputy district attorney Mayson Drake asks Clark to testify at Baby Rage's trial. When he agrees, she gives him her business card so they can discuss his testimony and makes a pass at him by pointing out she has written her home phone number on the back. As Lois and Clark leave to investigate why police response times are so long for the South Side, Lois is bit on the arm by a bug.

Jimmy Olsen is worried by the prospect of a third date with a girl he likes, Kelly. Using jungle metaphors, Perry White coaches Jimmy to make himself more desirable to Kelly by making excuses for not going out with her, much as commodities are more valuable if they are rare. Predictably, this backfires; Kelly is hurt by Jimmy's evasiveness and gets a new boyfriend.

Lois's contact in the commissioner's office tells her that South Side police department budgets are being cut and officers paid to look the other way in order to drive down property values. Behind it is a criminal organization which has infiltrated major cities across the world, dubbed "Intergang" by the Australian press, though reporters who write stories on Intergang tend to turn up dead.

Superman is summoned by attorney Martin Snell using a special frequency that only he can hear. Snell tells Superman he has ten seconds to save Lois. Homing missiles, loaded only with paint, are fired at Lois and Jimmy simultaneously; Superman catches the one aimed at Lois but not the one aimed at Jimmy. Snell warns Superman to not do any crimefighting in the South Side, or one of his friends will die.

Mayson takes a statement from Superman on the Baby Rage arson but declines his offer to testify at the trial. When he asks her to explain her coldness towards him, Mayson says she disapproves of his vigilantism and secrecy. Lois and Clark tell Mayson what they've learned about Intergang and their suspicions that they are funding the Skins, but Mayson refuses to share her info on Intergang.

Lois suspects that Bill Church, chairman of the Cost Mart chain, is head of Intergang. Snell, who is Baby Rage's defense attorney, used to work for Church, and information on the spread of Intergang lines up with the opening of Cost Mart outlets. Prejudiced by his encounter with Snell, though, Clark says they should focus on Snell instead, pointing out that Church has no police record.

Superman tells Lois how Intergang is using her and Jimmy as hostages, and she suggests he go undercover in the South Side.

Mayson discusses the case with Clark at his apartment. She tells him he is very brave for testifying against Baby Rage, and asks him out on a lunch date. He accepts, and they kiss just as Lois arrives. After Mayson leaves, Lois tells him Mayson used to work under Snell for Church. Mike is attacked by members of the Skins, but he calls Lois's beeper before they overwhelm him. Thus alerted, Clark races to the scene dressed in a store-bought police uniform and takes out the Skins, carefully presenting his Super Strength and Super Speed to appear like Judo in order to conceal Superman's presence from Intergang.

Clark tells Lois that Mayson's work with Church means nothing since they have no proof that Church is part of Intergang, but Lois thinks he is biased by his attraction to Mayson. They argue bitterly, but Clark realizes he feels Lois's reporter instincts are good, and tells Mayson their suspicions when he meets her for lunch. Mayson's response is suspicious: she storms off after asserting that Church is not the head of Intergang even though, as Clark points out, he never suggested Church was the head of Intergang.

Clark testifies at the hearing and makes up with Lois after their argument. However, Snell produces documents showing that Baby Rage was not read his Miranda rights and the search warrant for his house had the wrong address. The judge gives Mayson 24 hours to disprove these charges, or the arrest will be declared invalid and Baby Rage set free. Lois suspects Mayson set up the improper arrest because she is in cahoots with Snell. However, Mayson says she could be disbarred if the charges are not disproven, and finally agrees to an exchange of Intergang information with Lois and Clark.

Clark is buzzed by a bug like the one that bit Lois. He catches it and uses X-Ray Vision to see that it is actually a tiny robot with a hypodermic needle loaded with a radioactive isotope. He realizes his friends must have been tagged with this radioactive isotope, explaining how Intergang's missiles find their targets. He traces the signal for the bug's commands to its source and smashes their computers. Snell fires a missile at Perry, but having found the launchers, Superman follows the missile from its origin and flies Perry to safety.

Mayson meets Snell privately and offers to sell him the name of Lois's informant in the police commissioner's office. As part of the negotiation, she gets Snell to tell her how much he pays Intergang's dirty cops. She tape records the conversation and presents it to the judge, who sends Baby Rage to trial.

Lois and Clark write a series of articles on Intergang's doings on the South Side. The resulting heat causes the police to respond more timely, turning Mike's restaurant business around. Faced with serious charges due to Mayson's recording, Snell offers to reveal the identity of the head of Intergang in exchange for a deal, but Church blows him up to keep him silent. At a charity ball for the urban redevelopment fund co-sponsored by Church and The Daily Planet, Lois lets Mayson dance with Clark, telling Perry she's realized that she will always be friends with Clark and so has no need to be jealous of Mayson.

Cast[]

Main cast[]

Recurring roles[]

Guest starring[]

  • Bruce Weitz as Martin Snell
  • Dick Miller as Mike Lane
  • Steven Gilborn as Lois's Police Contact
  • Michael Holden as Judge Lance A. Davis
  • And Peter Boyle as Bill Church

Co-starring[]

  • Dwayne L. Barnes as Anthony "Baby Rage" Bell
  • Philippe Bergeron as French Operative
  • James Kiriyama-Lem as Tech One

Production details[]

  • Intergang is a recurring criminal organization in the Superman comics. Coincidentally, Bruce Weitz voiced the head of Intergang on Superman: The Animated Series.
  • The name Mayson Drake refers to attorney Perry Mason and his detective friend, Paul Drake.
  • The song Lois and Superman dance to in the final scene is "Fly Me to the Moon".

Quotes[]

Intergang agent: "The minister wants five hundred thousand for the endorsement."
Bill Church: "That's a lot of money for a speech and a handshake. What are his vulnerabilities?"
Intergang agent: "A twelve-year-old daughter."
Bill Church: "Offer him one-fifty. If he doesn't accept it, take a picture of his daughter walking to school. Show it to him. Then offer him nothing."


Clark: "She is not my girlfriend."
Lois: "Well, whatever she is, she has got you finger-wrapped and blind-folded!"
Clark: "You know, if anybody is blind around here, it's you!"
Lois: "What is that supposed to mean?"
[scene cuts to Kent household]
Jonathan: "What did it mean?"
Clark: "I don't even know. It's just one of those things that sounded good at the time, but... once I got onto the elevator, I couldn't figure out what it meant."

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