| Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman | |
| Season 1, Episode 16 | |
 | |
| Air date | February 6, 1994 |
| Written by | Deborah Joy LeVine |
| Directed by | Philip Sgriccia |
| Episode Guide | |
| ← previous Illusions of Grandeur |
next → Foundling |
A fugitive, who was convicted of murder, stays at with Lois, who believes he is innocent. He also holds the ability to stop a new computer virus plaguing Metropolis. Jonathan moves in with Clark when he begins to suspect Martha is cheating on him.
Plot[]
Programmer Eugene Laderman is found guilty of murdering his employer Henry Harrison, and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. Minutes later, he escapes from the courthouse. He hides in the car of Lois Lane, who has been reporting on his trial and believes he is innocent. He begs her to help him talk to Henry Harrison's wife Lena; he is troubled that she never visited him or even looked at him during the trial. He insists that he and Lena love each other.
Jonathan Kent comes to Metropolis to stay at Clark's place, explaining that he and Martha had a big fight after he discovered she had hid a painting of herself in the nude done by a younger man. He is convinced Martha is having an affair.
Lena tells Lois that she and Eugene indeed love each other, that Henry was violently abusive, and that Eugene killed him for her sake. Detective Betty Reed questions Lois, believing she may know Eugene's whereabouts. Lois confides in Clark that Eugene is hiding at her apartment. Clark urges Lois to call the police and turn him in, since harboring a fugitive is illegal and he fears Eugene could kill Lois. She persuades him to come and talk to Eugene before making up his mind. Eugene tells them Henry was a longtime programmer for LexCom. He denies having sexual relations with Lena, as was claimed at the trial; he says Lena insisted on abstaining from sex until she separated from Henry. When they mention that Lena told Lois in confidence that Eugene is guilty, he counterclaims that Lena murdered Henry, and he kept quiet about it to protect her.
This is enough to get Clark behind investigating Henry Harrison. They learn that Henry was fired from LexCom less than a month before he was eligible to retire with a pension; Lex Luthor says this was part of layoffs during the recession, and describes Henry as a brilliant and original thinker.
Reed comes by with a warrant to search Lois's apartment. Clark and Eugene hide out on the window ledge through the search. Lois tells Reed that Lena killed Henry, but Reed is way ahead of her: Lena has an ironclad alibi for the night of Henry's death.
Eugene tells Lois and Clark that the night Henry died, Eugene found him working on a highly destructive virus program called The Ides of Metropolis. With some hacking, he has found that computers in Metropolis are running slow, which he believes indicates the virus is becoming active.
Martha comes to Clark's apartment and tells Jonathan she is not having an affair. He believes her, and they reconcile.
Reed informs Lois and Clark that after a homeless man living in the generator room in Harrison's building was reported missing, she exhumed Henry's body and found the dental records are a match for the missing man. The records were a match for Henry during the trial, meaning they must have been falsified through computer hacking. As they debate Eugene's possible guilt, computers across the country are abruptly usurped by The Ides of Metropolis, causing mass panic and chaos.
Lois and Clark take Eugene to the Metropolis University of Technology so he can use the computer system to develop an antivirus. Reed finds them there, but they convince her to hold off on arresting him until he stops the virus. Reed and Lois head to Harrison's company, Harritech, to confront Lena. Henry is there as well; he explains that he faked his own death to escape suspicion for creating The Ides of Metropolis, since the virus will disable every system but his own, winning Harritech a monopoly. He and Lena throw Lois and Reed into a trash compactor, where they bicker and then finally bond just before the compactor is activated.
After trying various password possibilities for the virus, Eugene correctly guesses "Et tu, Brute", which like the name of the virus is a reference to the play Julius Caesar. Superman flies across the nation to hand deliver the antivirus disk to all three of the main computer network hubs. The antivirus also disables the compactor, so Lois and Reed get out and arrest Henry and Lana. Eugene is exonerated.
Cast[]
Main cast[]
- Dean Cain as Clark Kent/Superman
- Teri Hatcher as Lois Lane
- Lane Smith as Perry White
- Tracy Scoggins as Cat Grant
- Michael Landes as Jimmy Olsen
- K Callan as Martha Kent
- Eddie Jones as Jonathan Kent
- John Shea as Lex Luthor
Recurring cast[]
- Tony Jay as Nigel
Guest starring[]
- Todd Susman as Eugene Laderman
- Jennifer Savidge as Lena Harrison
- Melanie Mayron as Detective Betty Reed
- Paul Gleason as Henry Harrison
Trivia[]
When Eugene confirms that Henry Harrison's password is a line from Shakespeare's play Julius Caesar, he exclaims "The play's the thing!" which is a line from another Shakespeare play, Hamlet.