"Collateral"

Original Air Date on February 4, 2011

Previously on Smallville...

You don't make it easy to ask a simple question.

Will you marry me?

Yes.

What's really up with the VRA?

Vigilantes do not represent the will of the people.

Pretty soon the superhero's for himself.

Start taking the law into their own hands.

It's time we took these "Heroes" under our control.

Where are the vigilantes?

We have to go underground.

I'm shutting down Watchtower.

It's time these terrorists paid for their crimes.

...Suicide squad, led by Rick Flag.

To him you're all freedom fighters, and he would attack anyone that threatens that.

We're coming for all of you.

I lost someone. She meant everything to me.

She traded herself in so I could be free.

Failed her.

Show me where Oliver is.

Carter?

This is all of our fight.

Your call is important to us.

Please stay on the line.

Or you can reach us on the web at http://www.Vigilante- Registration-Agency.Fed.

I've checked all our databases.

We have no record of Mr. Kent or Mr. Queen in our facilities.

Did you try the Justice Department?

Yes!

I tried the Justice Department, not to mention the Department of Domestic Security, the State Department, and the Defense Department that referred me back to you.

Ma'am, don't get huffy.

No, I am not getting huffy.

I am a General's daughter.

I don't even know how to get huffy, okay?

I do happy, I do sad, and I do "stop giving me the runaround, bitch, or I will come for you."

Clark!

I was worried about you. You okay?

Yeah.

They released me a couple of days ago.

And I have been on the phone ever since, trying to find you.

Lois, it was the VRA.

They were waiting for us at Carter's funeral.

This whole time, they've been denying any involvement.

We'll get answers tomorrow.

For now, let's just be happy they let us all go.

Smallville, are you okay?

Yeah.

Okay.

Let me get you something to eat.

Lois, I'm fine.

Any idea why they released you now?

I mean, aside from your fiancée going all Erin Brockovich on them?

Yeah.

This.

They took away my powers, Lois.

No. Clark...

How could they?

I don't remember.

Do you remember anything?

No.

It's, uh It's all hazy.

Clark?

Aah!

Put him back under.

Clark? Clark?!

What's going on?

Clark. Clark, what's happening?

Come back to me, Clark!

Look at me. Come on.

Come on, baby. Honey, honey.

Lois, I just ... I just had some sort of a flashback.

Someone was experimenting on me.

Who?

Who was it?

Chloe.

♪ Somebody save me ♪
♪ "Save Me" ♪ performed by Remy Zero ♪ let your warm hands break right through ♪
♪ somebody save me ♪
♪ I don't care how you do it ♪
♪ just stay ♪
♪ stay ♪
♪ come on ♪
♪ I've been waiting for you ♪
♪ just stay with me ♪
♪ I've made this whole world shine for you ♪
♪ just stay ♪
♪ stay ♪
♪ come on ♪

---

Aah!

Don't move.

Dinah?

It's me.

Not that I could do much with this

except shred your threads.

Your knife would cut more than clothing.

They took away my powers.

You too?

We have to find out who did this to us.

Lois is at The Daily Planet,

trying to get more information.

What do you remember from the last three weeks?

Nothing after Carter's funeral, except these flashes I've been having.

I'm in a lab somewhere.

Trapped under a glass cover?

And someone standing over me.

Who?

Chloe.

I saw her, too.

Maybe the reason they can take our powers away is 'cause they're working with someone who knows everything about us.

Chloe wouldn't tell them anything ... not after what we've been through.

Face it ... her dirty dance with Doomsday nearly destroyed The League.

She would have learned her lesson.

She wouldn't make that mistake again.

I know that you want to have faith in her, Clark, but you and I both know what we saw in those flashbacks.

Right now, Chloe is the only chance we have at getting our powers back.

Well, the last place we saw her was that facility.

Let's start there.

Clark, if we find out that Chloe's turned on us, are you prepared to do what has to be done?

Oliver just turned up at Met Gen.

It's not good.

Oliver...

It's me.

Clark, they're winning.

Not for long. We're gonna fight this.

How?

They've taken my friends, stripped me of all my weapons, messed with my equilibrium, and now they're in my head, Clark.

They've got me thinking Chloe is behind this whole thing.

I saw her.

What was she doing?

I don't know.

She was...

Running an experiment on me.

Clark, did you see her, too?

Huh?

I can tell you saw her, Clark. Tell me what you saw.

What'd you see?

I'm not ready to give up on her yet.

What did you see, Clark?!

I'm gonna figure out what's going on here and get you out of here.

Everything's gonna be all right. I promise.

Clark! Where are you going?!

Hey!

You got to tell me what you saw, Clark!

You got to tell me what you ... Clark!

Don't you leave me here, Clark!

Hello, Oliver.

I'm not sure what these drugs are called, but they are working.

You're not hallucinating, Oliver, and you're not insane. Trust me.

Really?

Well, that's kind of hard to believe, considering you just materialized out of a wall.

I'm here to save you.

To save me?

Really?

Is that what you were doing in the flashbacks of the lab I keep having ... saving me?

Chloe, I saw you.

You were messing with our heads.

You tortured us.

You really think I would ever do that?

Well, what... Then what is it, huh?

You tell me. You said I wasn't hallucinating.

Clark saw the same flashbacks.

The government captured you and the rest of the team at Carter's funeral.

They've hooked you all up to a major mainframe and imprisoned your mind in a virtual world.

Well, you may be a projection of my brain, but the government hooking us all into a virtual reality?

Is that what you're saying?

Right now, you, Clark, and everyone else are lying comatose in lab beds while your brains are being wired into a real-life H.A.L.

It's like you're playing a giant video game.

It's being driven by your subconscious.

You're not real?

I'm pretty much "Chloe in the Sky With Diamonds."

When I broke into the lab of lunacy and saw all of you lying in glass tubes, I hacked into the computer and created an avatar of myself so I could warn you.

So you programmed yourself into my fake reality.

What about the flashbacks?

Moments of reality when I tried to pull you out.

But when I disconnected you from the mainframe, your body flatlined.

So I had to hook you back in.

Otherwise, you weren't gonna survive.

Look, Oliver, I got to get you out of here.

Chloe?

Hate to rain on your program, but I'm in a straitjacket.

I'm in a cell in the lockdown wing of a hospital.

I-I'm not going anywhere.

Only if you believe that's true.

Simple mind over matter.

Because I believe that everything I see is fake, I'm not limited by it.

I have power.

The sooner you believe everything you see is fantasy, the sooner you can manipulate it, break free of it.

How'd you do that?

I didn't.

You did.

Come on, Houdini, let's go.

I programmed a virtual trap door in the system to get you out of this maniacal maze.

So, where is this emergency exit out of narnia?

800 feet above Broadway.

Of course it is.

Hey, I had no control over where the door materialized, but anyone can access it.

They just have to believe that nothing they see is real.

Don't look, and follow me.

Who the hell are they?

The computer runs a security scan every six minutes.

When it detects me, it releases an antivirus posse full of men in black who are constantly circulating the city.

So these guys are virtual cops?

Avatars.

And if they I.D. me or anyone I've contacted, they will highlight and delete you ... I.E., kill you.

Yeah, well, like video-game kill me, right?

If a skydiver's parachute doesn't open, the cause of death is not high impact.

It's the heart attack you have because you know you're gonna die.

The body follows the brain's lead.

In here, the same golden rule applies.

If you think you're gonna die, you do.

All right, Alice, where's the rabbit hole out of here?

The only way out is the same way we came in.

All right.

I'm gonna rush this guy.

You make a run for it.

No, no, I can handle it. I just need to know one thing.

Do you trust me?

With my life.

Let's go.

I checked with the General.

These are the government installations with lab facilities where we might have been taken.

None of them look familiar.

What if Dinah was right? What if Chloe is responsible?

Clark, you need to consider the source.

Dinah would rather blame this whole thing on my cousin than those tub-thumping, love-it-or-leave-it morons she used to broadcast to.

Clark...

We need to talk.

Well, you look energized, Dinah.

How does it feel to be on the run from the war hawks you rallied behind?

Clark, I just got word that Oliver escaped from Met Gen.

What?

Yeah, here's pictures from a few minutes ago.

Chloe!

We have to find her, Clark.

She knows how to contact us.

She obviously doesn't want to.

I know Chloe. She must have a good reason.

Come on, Clark.

You and I both saw her experimenting on us in a government lab!

She's helping Oliver escape from Met Gen.

Chloe would never hurt Oliver.

Not unless he got in her way...

Like these guys.

Well, that can't be right.

And I hate to crash your little tea party, but my cousin is no Benedict Arnold.

She's taking out operatives in cold blood, Lois!

I don't know whose side she's on, but it's not ours!

Not everybody switches sides as easily as some of us.

And let's not forget, when we first met Black Canary, she was nothing more than Lex Luthor's little organ-grinder monkey.

I mean, do you ever look to see who the bad guys really are before you start throwing knives and spin-kicks, there, chickadee?

Violent criminals deserve to fry.

And if your cousin is one of them, well, that's a campfire that I'm not ashamed to sing around.

Clark, what do you think?

Chloe?

Is that really you?

Clark...

I really missed you.

But I only have a few minutes to unplug this little "Truman Show"

and get us back into the land of the living.

Now, wait a second.

I saw you take out two guards, and then I got these flashes ... Clark, everything you see here is the creation of a government computer.

Right now, you're lying in a lab while government scientists are trying to figure out how your brain activates your abilities.

But I don't have abilities here.

Exactly.

They've blocked certain neuro-paths in the virtual you to see if they could take away your powers.

If the procedure succeeds in this world, they'll do it in the real world, too.

Why don't they just kill us?

Clark, they want to be able to turn your powers off and on.

The same thing with Oliver's skills.

The kids who play nice get to keep their powers.

Those who don't get them taken away.

They want us to work for them.

But in the flashes that I saw, what were you doing?

I was trying to disconnect you, Oliver, and the Canary from the computers, but your bodies began to shut down, so I had to hook you back up again.

That's why Lois didn't see them.

We figured out how dangerous it was before we got to her.

Look, Clark, I can get you out of this world of weird, but only if you truly believe it's fake.

They're here. Quick, follow me.

Wait, where are you going?

We have to jump.

No!

It's the only way you can get through the portal and into the real world.

You ready, Ollie?

Yeah.

Clark, come on.

Clark, do you trust me?

Wait. I want to, but where have you been all this time?

Who are you working with?

I can answer these questions later.

Either way, you either trust me or you don't.

I want to, but I need to know.

Clark, we got to go.

Oliver, don't! He has to believe the world is fake.

He'll die if he doesn't.

Look, Clark...

Take my hand.

Do you trust me?

I can't.

I'm sorry.

No!

Are we dead?

This might help you decide.

Keep your shirt on, Queen.

We still got work to do.

Stand down!

It's okay, Chloe. I got these ladies.

You're working with them?

I can explain later.

I did what I had to do.

Right now, the VRA boys don't know we're here.

But when they find out ... and they will ... we better be ready.

I have Deadshot covering road access on the east perimeter.

You take the north.

I've got cameras on the woods to the west, but we're still vulnerable from the south and by air.

What exactly are we up against here?

VRA ops.

Every one of them is a highly trained, lethal killer.

Our satellites picked them up four klicks away.

Looks like they're getting ready to move out.

Which means we better get these vegetables mobilized asap.

One down, five to go.

I'm back in.

Go to an alley, you'll find a rat.

Just chill out. I'm your only way out of here.

Where did you take Oliver?

You are caught in a virtual cage, and you don't even know it.

But I can help you fly the coop.

You just have to meet me on the top of The Daily Planet.

Save the blonde-speak.

I want my powers back, and so do Clark and A.C.

Yeah, that's just the point. You never lost them.

This whole thing is an illusion created by a computer.

The only illusion here is you.

It doesn't take X-ray vision to see that you're a traitor.

I told you, Dorothy, this is all a dream.

Now, before I send you back to Kansas, I need to know one thing.

Where's Lois?

We're in position and standing by, Lieutenant.

Move in.

All right, we got to hurry.

You can thank us later.

This Canary is gonna need to eat some crow.

VRA ops are three klicks out and closing.

Okay, I'm gonna need about 20 minutes to get Clark, Lois, and the rest of them out of that that Pixar postcard.

In the meantime, you hold off the boys in black until the rest of our team is up and ready to rumble.

Let's get going.

By the way, thanks.

Sorry for getting all in-your-face back there.

Whatever happens in cyberspace stays in cyberspace.

We're facing a small army out there, Chloe.

We need Clark.

I know, Oliver, but I can't make Clark believe in me.

Somewhere along the way, he stopped having trust in me.

That's because you left us.

Just keep trying.

We've got about 17 minutes tops.

Otherwise, I don't think I'm gonna be able to get Clark out of here.

Lois.

It's going to be okay, Clark.

I'm not so sure. I'm starting to see things that aren't real, things that aren't there, things that aren't possible, just like Oliver before they put him away.

We need to find out how Chloe's working with them, get my powers back so we can stop them.

I know what's really going on here, Clark.

Okay, Chloe talked to me. She told me everything.

I saw Chloe and Oliver jump with my own eyes.

I went down to the street to check.

They vanished.

I know, because the world we're in is fake, and they escaped.

No. No!

Clark, Chloe said you wouldn't trust her, so maybe you would trust me.

Why won't you believe her?

It makes perfect sense.

Lois, you're trying to tell me that all of this ... all of this is fake?

And that makes more sense to you than us going through some post-traumatic stress because of what they put us through?

Yes, and normally you'd think so, too.

Because Chloe said so?

Clark, you and Chloe have ... have battled Luthors, you fought with demons from outer space, and you battled supernatural hexes together.

In the world of Clark and Chloe, this is just another day at the office.

What's really going on?

I don't know Chloe anymore.

I don't know who she's working for.

I don't know what she wants.

Because she left?

Because she didn't say why.

Clark, I get it.

You've known her longer than almost anyone.

From the Torch to summers at the lake

to The Planet and Watchtower.

She has always been there for you.

Maybe all that history has blinded me from the truth.

Chloe and I are on different paths.

I don't know where she's headed.

And as much as you want to trust and believe in her, it's hard...

Because she didn't confide in you, maybe for the first time.

If Chloe really believed in us, she would have told us she was leaving and why.

All this time, this has been festering under there, and you didn't say anything.

What am I supposed to say?

That it stings, that it's the hardest thing ever to trust someone enough to let them have their secrets...

Because you know they're doing it for a good reason.

They're trying to protect you.

You know where I'm going with this?

Yes.

And I expected you and Chloe to trust me all those years before you knew my secret.

Yeah, now it's our turn to trust her.

She's earned this, Clark.

Okay...

Everything in this world that you see and hear is telling you that you shouldn't trust her.

But I can tell that your heart is saying the opposite.

And if I know one thing, it's that Clark Kent's heart is usually right.

Chloe and Oliver jumped off that roof because...

...It really is a portal to the real world.

And she can't hold it open much longer, but she can't make you believe it's real.

Clark, that part's up to you.

Make sure Kent never makes it out of there.

Do whatever it takes to stop him.

Use Sullivan's avatar.

Chloe, we were just on our way.

Where?

To meet you on the roof.

I'm ready to jump this time.

What are you talking about?

The portal to the real world.

The one you tried to get him to jump through.

Okay, you both are obviously suffering from post-traumatic stress, and this delusion is a part of that.

What you're talking about is literally suicide.

Clark, are you actually gonna let Lois jump to her death?

Wait, you're not Chloe.

Someone's hijacked you.

And if none of this is real...

Oh!

Clark, let's go.

The escort is ready to transport the prisoner.

They're waiting for you, ma'am.

We've got The Blur right where we want him.

Do not let him out.

Kill her.

Trotter at 10 o'clock.

Fine, Kent.

Take the leap...

But from everything we've learned, I know you never will.

Out of all the superheroes we've captured, you've always been the most reluctant to accept your abnormalities...

Haven't you?

So badly wanting to believe in everything you hear and see...

And feel.

So afraid to let go of this world that tethers you to any sort of normalcy and reality.

You take that leap and you don't 100% want to defy the rules of this world, and it will kill you.

Don't listen to it, Clark.

Just trust yourself.

You did it for me when you told me your secret.

You trusted yourself, and you were right.

The only way to see the truth is to close your eyes and ears and take a leap of faith.

I believe in you.

It wasn't the same without you.

I can't believe it's been five years already.

You know, not to go all Steve Perry power ballad on you, but lately I feel like I've been the one living in the virtual world ... cut off from everyone I really care about.

It's actually a good thing you weren't here when Trotter took us down.

You saved us.

Ah, let's just say I learned from the best.

Besides, half the credit should go to the Fate helmet.

I mean, it warned me something bad was gonna happen to our group, so...

The Suicide Squad? Chloe...

Clark...

Every Frankenstein has a human heart.

When I found out that Flag was trying to kill the General, I knew it was gonna take more than just the blue suits in the bureau to take him down.

So, I wrote a worm permanently mothballing his missile system, and I gave him a choice.

I could either report them to the government, or they could report to me.

And to think, you're the same Chloe that's in that picture.

Yeah.

Can I ask you something?

Oh, this never ends well.

How'd you do it?

Trust me, I mean ... back then, before you found out.

I had my suspicions.

But that's what I mean.

You knew that I was lying to you, and still you looked me in the eye every day and you trusted me.

I guess that's the true test of believing in someone ... knowing that their lies are there to protect you.

It's not really trust if you ask someone to explain themselves.

But that's hard.

It's really hard.

You never gave up.

And I never will.

Hey, guys.

Sorry I'm late, but unlike the virtual world, I can't leap traffic jams in a single bound.

No worries, cuz.

Clark and I were just updating our nonexistent Facebook pages in person.

Now, I don't know if you guys saw it, but Watchtower just texted ... I mean, Tess just texted that Trotter and her men are enjoying a taste of their own virtual venom.

Since Trotter is officially off the military's grid, we're not gonna have to worry about her spreading her hero-hating vitriol or your secret anytime soon.

Good.

Hey, since we are, uh, all together in the same room and the same plane of existence ... and let's face it, with our lives, who knows how long that'll be? ... we wanted to ask you a question.

I think what Lois is trying to say is, do you ... W-will you be my maid of honor?

Oliver, they're beautiful.

Yeah, I thought so.

Think you might want to, uh, put these in water.

I'm pretty sure they're real.

I haven't been given flowers like this in a long time.

I just stopped looking for you.

I figured that's what you wanted.

Right?

You have no idea how much it means that you trusted me.

You could've called me.

You could've called me. You could have said, uh...

Yeah, I wanted to, but the Fate helmet warned me to stay away.

Did the helmet, um...

Say anything about how I'd be sitting alone, listening to old voicemails just to hear your voice?

Anything like that? Or, uh...

Or that I'd be scanning every single stranger's face on the subway just in hopes that I'd come across your smile...

Never to find it?

No, it didn't tell me that.

I figured that out on my own.

Oliver, I didn't reach out to you because I didn't trust myself.

I knew that if I looked into your eyes or felt your breath on my cheek, there is no way I would have walked out that front door.

And there hasn't been a day that's gone by that I haven't dreamed about the time when I would walk through it again.

Are you sticking around for a while?

Yeah.

Good.

Okay, I finished picking out the flowers and the bridesmaids' dresses.

You can come back in the house now.

Is that Carter's book?

Yeah.

I've been thinking a lot about him lately.

He would be proud of you, Clark.

I've been thinking about what you said ... that I should shut my eyes and my ears to the outside world to figure out what's true.

You made me believe.

And you got me to fly.

Even if it was just in cyberspace.

Mm.

Well, I have to say, Smallville, that soaring over The Daily Planet

and the spires of Metropolis...

Was amazing.

Well, who knows?

Maybe one day we'll get to fly in the real world.

I've always believed that you can do the impossible, and one day you will.

And, speaking of the real world, I have a conference call with Perry at 7:00.

See ya.