 Lex is surprised when his father, Lionel Luthor, arrives in Smallville and officially closes down the Luther Corp Fertilizer Plant, thus firing all 2,500 employees to force Lex to move to Metropolis to help him run his evil corporate empire from there. Undaunted, Lex tries to hold off his unscrupulous father by meeting with the foremen to buy back the plan to put it under local management. But Lionel, not to be outdone by his own son, tries to stop the workers by threatening to have the banks forgo on their mortgages. Meanwhile, Clark Kent invites Chloe Sullivan to the spring prom, upsetting Pete who now has nobody to ask. Whitney invites Lana to a picnic to tell her that he s joined the Marines and will be dropping out of school and leaving Smallville for boot camp the following day. The snoopy and despicable reporter Roger Nixon from The Inquisitor steals the piece of Clark Kent s spacecraft from Lex s mansion and finally finds the truth about the Kents. Before leaving town, Whitney tells Clark to watch over Lana for him and more or less gives Clark his blessing to date Lana if it comes to that. But after Lana drops off Whitney at the local bus stop to see him off, a huge tornado strikes Smallville, and threatens Lana in her trapped car. At the Luther mansion, the tornado hits, where a beam collapses over Lionel Luthor putting his life in danger, while a wounded Lex stands over his father deciding whether or not to let him die. Nixon threatens Jonathan for more information about Clark, as Martha watches the spaceship become active. Clark, sensing something wrong, leaves Chloe at the prom and races off to find Lana being whisked up by the tornado in her parked car...