Originally aired October 15, 2002
Written by Jeph Loeb
Directed by Jeff Woolnough
After Clark buys an expensive class ring and immediately begins acting very out of the character, Pete learns that the class rings contain Red Kryptonite, and the effects are turning Clark into a hellraiser. Lex struggles to adjust to Lionel moving into the Luthor Mansion.
Tropes present in the episode:
- All Girls Want Bad Boys: Jessie falls for Red!Clark. That is, until he finds out that her father blew the whistle on his company and schemes to get the stolen information so he can get rich.
- Badass Biker: Red!Clark takes Jonathan's old motorcycle for a ride.
- Badass Longcoat: Red!Clark dons one at one point in the episode.
- Bar Brawl: Red!Clark starts one at the Wild Coyote after two guys get between him and a leaving Lana.
- Big Damn Kiss: Between Red!Clark and Lana in the Talon.
- Bring It: During the aforementioned Bar Brawl.Red!Clark: ANYBODY ELSE?!
- Calling the Old Man Out: After spending the episode putting up with Lionel's changes to the mansion, Lex takes a stand and tells his father to stop using his blindness as an excuse to feel sorry for himself.Lex: I've been thinking about the months after the meteor shower, the way people looked at me. A baldheaded boy, thinking I was a freak.Lionel: Please, Lex, not another tale of your tortured youth and how I, how I failed you as a father.Lex: Actually, you gave me some excellent advice. You told me to stop feeling sorry for myself. These were the cards fate had dealt me. It was best that I accept it and move on. [Beat] Stop acting like your blindness gives you an excuse for self-pity.Lionel: So, the son becomes the father.Lex: No, Dad. I'm through indulging you like a child. My office remains my office. You don't like it, leave.
- Cool Car: Red!Clark asks to borrow Lex's red Ferrari 348 to impress Lana.
- Deadpan Snarker: Red!Clark and Jessie.Mr. Gibbons: Perhaps Miss Lang didn't tell you, but there's a dress code here at Smallville High.Jessie: Lame and lamer?
- Deconstruction: Jessie and Red!Clark's romance is one for the All Girls Want Bad Boys trope: She's initially attracted to him, but that attractiveness dries up fast once she realizes that his ambitions go far beyond regular teenage rulebreaking.
- Disability as an Excuse for Jerkassery: When Lex confronts him about making changes to the Luthor Mansion without asking his permission, Lionel uses his blindness to guilt-trip Lex into letting him go ahead with the changes. In the final act, Lex stands up to his father and tells him to stop using his blindness to wallow in self-pity.
- Electrified Bathtub: In the teaser, U.S. Marshal Palmer pushes a stereo into Jessie's boyfriend's hot tub.
- Fanservice: Jonathan shirtless while Martha tends to a minor injury after Red!Clark hurts him.
- Former Teen Rebel: Again, Jonathan is implied to have been one when he was Clark's age. After Red!Clark and Jonathan's spat about the class ring, Martha remarks that Jonathan spent hundreds of dollars on a motorcycle against his own father's wishes.
- Girl of the Week: Jessie Brooks serves as Clark's Love Interest in this episode. She never appears again.
- G-Rated Drug: Red Kryptonite is introduced for the first time in this episode.
- Jerkass Ball: Red Kryptonite serves as this for Clark.
- Lost in the Maize: In the final act, Jessie flees from Red!Clark into a nearby cornfield... only to literally run into Red!Clark.
- Ms. Fanservice: Most of Jessie's attire just begs any guy within proximity to ogle her. Red!Clark certainly notices her.Red!Clark: Excuse me, Mr. Gibbons? I think [Jessie] looks hot, and your dress code sucks.
- Not Himself: Clark for most of the episode, due to Red Kryptonite.
- Oh, Crap!:
- Pete's reaction once Chloe tells him that the Smallville Rings don't have rubies but red meteor rocks instead. He rushes to tell the Kents about this, since if green rocks make Clark sick then the red ones must be changing his personality.
- Lionel's reaction when he hears Palmer's gun click.
- Parental Hypocrisy: After Jonathan gripes at Clark for spending $350 on a class ring, Martha reminds him he himself spent $500 on a motorcycle when he was a teenager.Jonathan: Martha, that was a bad decision he made.Martha: But it was his to make. I seem to recall a certain young man who defied his father and spent five hundred dollars on an old motorcycle.
- Power Perversion Potential: Red!Clark uses his X-Ray Vision to see through Lana and Chloe's clothes, much to Pete's shock.Red!Clark: Did you know that Chloe had a birthmark on her cheek?Pete: No, she doesn't.Red!Clark: Not that cheek.Pete: [looks up from his schoolwork] Are you doing what I think you're doing? [Clark grins] Clark, that's Chloe you're scoping, man.Red!Clark: Not just Chloe.
- Shaped Like Itself: Chloe's response to Pete about whether Clark is on drugs.Chloe: Clark would have to be on drugs to be on drugs.
- Sharp-Dressed Man: Near the end of the episode, Red!Clark puts on a black suit.
- Shirtless Scene: Jonathan gets one after he gets hurt by Red!Clark and he puts an ice pack on a sore spot.
- Stern Teacher: Mr. Gibbons in the teaser.
- Temporarily a Villain: Clark himself serves as the Villain of the Week due to Red Kryptonite affecting his mind.
- Temporary Love Interest: Jessie Brooks, for Clark.
- Villain of the Week: Red!Clark, Clark's personality when he's on Red Kryptonite.
- What the Hell, Hero?: Jonathan gives one to Red!Clark after he buys the ring, and later when he finds out that Clark maxed out his and Martha's credit cards to buy all kinds of neat stuff.
- You're Not My Father: Red!Clark says this to Jonathan while the latter is trying to have a talk with him.Jonathan: Get in the truck, son.Red!Clark: Give me one good reason why I should.Jonathan: [grabs Red!Clark's arm] Because I am your father and I just told you to get in the truck.Red!Clark: You're not my father. [Beat] You never were. [sends Jonathan flying against the truck]
