Originally aired November 20, 2001
Written by Doris Egan
Directed by Chris Long
Clark volunteers at a retirement home and befriends Cassandra Carver, an elderly woman with the power to see the future of anyone she touches. Cassandra touches Clark and tells him someone he loves will die soon. Harry Volk, another resident of the home, falls into a nearby pond lined with Kryptonite and comes out young again. However, Harry inflicted a sin in his youth and wants to punish the people via descendants who helped ruin his dream and life.
Tropes present in the episode:
- Alliterative Name: Cassandra Carver.
- Big "NO!": Clark's reaction when he sees a vision of himself standing in a graveyard surrounded by millions of grave markers, including ones for his parents, Lana, Pete, and Chloe.
- Bittersweet Ending: Clark manages to save some people from harm predicted in Cassandra's visions but Cassandra dies from seeing Lex's future (as the Big Bad).
- Blind Seer: Cassandra was blinded by a meteor that crashed in her backyard during the 1989 meteor shower, but gained precognitive abilities.
- Bluff the Impostor: Harry pretends to be from the Kents' gas company, and Martha asks him what happened to their usual guy, Kurt. Harry says he's on vacation, and shortly afterward realizes that was a bluff that made Martha realize he's an impostor. Unfortunately for her, when she goes to discreetly call for help, the phone lines are dead.
- Disproportionate Retribution: Harry killed a professor's son because said professor didn't recommend him for the Metropolis Conservatory. After becoming young gain, he plans to kill the descendants of the jurors who sentenced him to jail.
- Dramatic Irony: Cassandra fortells that someone close to Clark will die soon. It turned out to be herself.
- Evil Old Folks: Harry, when he's actually old. But mostly harmless, until...
- Fountain of Youth: A combo of Kryptonite chunks and electricity turns the pond by the retirement home into one for Harry.
- Herald: Cassandra tells Clark she thinks his destiny is to save people.Cassandra: Clark, I've seen you. Before we ever met. More than once, I've touched people and I've seen such pain and despair, but then you were there and the pain was gone. I think that's your destiny, Clark—to help people, to save them from fear and darkness.Clark: How?Cassandra: Well, that's for you to figure out. You can fear the future or you can embrace it. The choice is yours.
- Jack The Rip Off: Clark thinks one shows up after Harry was believed to be dead. Chloe finds it unlikely one would show up so soon.
- Meaningful Name: Cassandra is the name of the Oracle at Delphi in Ancient Greece whose prophecies were ignored by others because of a curse placed on her by the god Apollo.
- President Evil: Lex in Cassandra's vision at the end.
- Rain of Blood: In Cassandra's vision, Lex is drenched with the rain of the blood of those he will kill.
- Seers: Cassandra can see the future of anyone she touches.
- Sins of Our Fathers: Once he becomes young again, Harry targets the descendants of the jurors who sentenced him to jail, including Jonathan (though he settles for trying to murder Martha when he finds Jonathan isn't home).
- Skyward Scream: Clark lets one out during a vision of seeing all his loved ones dead.
- Time-Shifted Actor: George Murdock plays Harry as an old man, while Eric Christian Olsen plays his younger self.
- Villain in a White Suit: Lex is wearing a crisp white suit in Cassandra's vision of him as President of the United States.
- Villain of the Week: Harry Volk, who becomes young again and targets the descendants of the jurors who sentenced him to prison.
- Who Wants to Live Forever?: Clark's vision of the future? Himself, surrounded by the graves of his friends and family.
