This was one of those episodes I'd been anticipating all summer. I'm always curious how writers will write themselves out of holes they've dug... and they don't always do a good job.

I'd have to call this one 7 out of 10.

You know how it is when you build something up in your head: usually the thing you're looking forward to just can't measure up. In this case the writers built a heck of a cliffhanger: Chloe dead, Lex poisoned, Lana in Paris, and Clark in some nether-region resembling the Phantom Zone. The season opener takes place 3 months after the events last witnessed by us.

First, what I liked...

The various hanging threads were resumed in a roundabout manner, showing situations that leave you wondering what's going on. A strange young woman in Chloe's office viewing a final message, Lex in Egypt apparantly fine although he seemed left for dead previously, Lana bumping into some guy on a Paris street corner with some convoluted story about his girlfriend, and Clark showing up in the middle of a cornfield naked and with amnesia (I could have done without the "naked" part, more on that later). A cameo by Margot Kidder (who played Lois in the Superman movies) is pretty cool. And to top the list... we get to see Clark fly!!

A lot is going on in this episode, so I'll give it to you stream-of-consciousness style. Jonathon Kent is comatose following the attack by Jor-El in the cave, and Martha is at her husband's bedside, refusing to allow doctors to pull the plug. Lois Lane (yes, that Lois Lane), Chloe's cousin, turns out to be the young woman in Chloe's office and is in town to get to the bottom of Chloe's death, which the FBI has ruled an accident. Lionel Luthor is about to go on trial and presumably go free due to the lack of testimony from Chloe. The guy Lana bumps into turns out to be someone she's had a relationship with for 3 months. Finally, Clark has no memory of who he is or anyone he knows and appears to be on a quest to find something that will give him the details of his mission on earth.