| Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman | |
| Season 3, Episode 20 | |
 | |
| Air date | April 28, 1996 |
| Written by | Teleplay: Teri Hatcher, Pat Hazell Story: Teri Hatcher |
| Directed by | Philip Sgriccia |
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While attending Lois's high school reunion, a former classmate begins to shrink the spouses of the others, with Clark being her next target.
Plot[]
Lois attends her high school reunion accompanied by Clark. There she learns that two of her former classmates' spouses have disappeared and are being comforted by another former classmate, Annette Westman, who now runs a successful cosmetics firm. Lois decides to investigate the disappearances.
Annette, wanting revenge on everyone who mistreated or simply got more attention than her in high school, abducted her classmates. She packages a shrinking formula into a free sample of gender-specific shampoo which she delivers to the target's home, then sends her underling Hans in under the guise of an exterminator for Snoil Extermination to retrieve the target, who will have shrunk to roughly two inches tall. Finding her bitterness is unabated at the reunion, she sends out two more samples, one of them to Clark. Hans enters Clark's apartment only to find him seemingly unaffected by the formula, and he awkwardly leaves. Clark mentions his odd encounter with Hans to Lois.
Meanwhile, Perry's girlfriend Sally Reynolds (introduced in "Forget Me Not") has been taking him line dancing. This leads to him dressing in cowboy boots and adopting stereotypical old west mannerisms, to the amusement of the Daily Planet staff. Lois is uncomfortable at the prospect of changing her surname when she and Clark get married. He assures her that he doesn't mind her keeping her maiden name.
Lois notices Clark is slowly shrinking when his clothes become too big. She becomes angry at him when he admits he has been aware of the shrinking for some time and hid it because he didn't want to upset her. Clark goes to Dr. Klein as Superman, who runs some tests. As he reaches the size of the abductees, he hides himself from Lois, not wanting her to see him like this. She tells him that they are supposed to share their struggles with each other, but he argues with her and then flies off.
The wife of the third disappeared classmate mentions to Lois that an exterminator from Snoil was at the house when her husband disappeared. Lois makes the connection to Clark's encounter with Hans and realizes that Snoil is a backwards spelling of "Lions", her high school's football team. When Clark's researches turn up a shrinking theory conceived by a scientist who now works for Annette, Lois makes the final connection. Clark warns her that it is too dangerous to go after Annette, so the two head to her house separately.
Lois confronts Annette, telling her that she doesn't really want to comfort the bereaved spouses; she just wants to see their pain from up close. Annette pulls a gun and shoots at Lois. At miniature size, Superman flies under Lois' shirt to stop the bullet, making it appear that she was fatally shot. Annette attempts to use the formula to shrink her for easier disposal of the body, but Superman pushes a couch into Annette, causing the bottle holding the formula to shatter, shrinking her. Everyone is returned to their original size, and Lois extracts from Clark a promise not to push her away again.
Cast[]
Main cast[]
- Dean Cain as Clark Kent/Superman
- Teri Hatcher as Lois Lane
- Lane Smith as Perry White
- Justin Whalin as Jimmy Olsen
- K Callan as Martha Kent
- Eddie Jones as Jonathan Kent
Recurring role[]
- Kenneth Kimmins as Dr. Bernard Klein
Guest starring[]
- Elizabeth Anne Smith as Annette Westman
- Steve Young as Joe Malloy
- Don Brunner as Hans
- Rainer Grant as Julie
- Tim Bohn as Dick Carlton
- Jim Hanks as Les Barrish
- Leslie Sachs as Debbie Malloy
- Ellen Gerstein as the fortune teller
Production notes[]
- Dr. Kline reiterates Superman's aura effect: anything within a tenth of a millimeter is essentially second skin.