Ally Allston has been causing a lot of trouble for Superman, the Lane family, and a lot of the characters in general. This is kind of impressive, given she has no powers, no weaponry, and isn’t a genius inventor like Lex Luthor (are we ever going to see Jon Cryer’s Lex on this show? I really hope so). Now she pulls off more mayhem, the Smallville mayoral race heats up, and there’s a lot of personal relationship difficulties. A lot happens in this episode, but then, they have a lot of room over the course of “30 Days and 30 Nights.”

Things start off busy and keep going that way throughout the show, on a lot of different levels. Ally manages to escape with some help from her people. The reach of her cult is apparently a lot longer than anyone realized. Sam, not in the best position after the end of last episode, has a rude awakening and tries to get a handle on what’s happening. Clark, relaxing in a rare moment with Lois, hears about all the chaos and takes off to help. Ally accomplishes something she’s wanted to do for a while now, and Superman meets up with one of her cultists just a bit too late. The Man of Steel then makes an… interesting… decision, does something a bit odd, and takes off after her. This turns out to not necessarily have been the best choice.

Some time later, Lois is home watching the news, and we learn that Superman has been missing for a while now. This, once again, makes it seem as if this show has somehow separated from the rest of the Arrowverse, as some of the events happening could have been at least been made better by the various other heroes out there. A montage shows time passing and worry increasing as Jonathan works at his new job/punishment, Jordan trains with Sam, John and Natalie set up their new place, and Jordan misses some dates. We also see Lois in bed alone, and it’s a really well-staged scene, showing her worried and alone without making things ridiculous or overblown. We see that Superman’s getting at least some help in his absence, and Jordan is pushing himself not only in training but in listening for any hint of his missing father.

The day of the election is finally here, and in preparation, we see Natalie demonstrating something she can’t do, John Henry missing something important, and Lana speaking to her supporters. While everyone is behind Lana, the same can’t be said of Jonathan, who has an unpleasant run-in with someone who is extremely displeased at the price everyone else is paying for things he’s done. Wisely, he decides to leave. Sarah tries to find out what’s been bothering Jordan lately (to preserve the secret, no one can know that Clark is missing at the same time Superman is, after all), and there’s some epically bad timing as Jordan feels the weight of his new powers and responsibilities. Jordan ends up taking off with some bad excuses (much like his father before him), pulls off some impressive heroics, and saves some lives. He even, at least briefly, demonstrates one of his father’s powers that has eluded him until now.

While Jordan crosses paths with someone at the disaster he’s helping with, Natalie is in a snit. Then again, she does that a lot lately. In fairness, though, she and Sarah have been going through a lot. Sarah, because she’s pretty amazing, tries to reach out to Natalie, but unknowingly runs into the wall of secrets Natalie has to keep. Other people’s secrets have been causing Sarah a lot of trouble this season. Natalie ends up leaving, a confused and hurt Sarah in her wake. Lois has made an excuse about Clark that makes it sound like he’s still working for the Daily Planet (which I thought everyone knew he wasn’t), and Natalie, unable to find her own father, asks Lois to take her home.

As if Lana doesn’t have enough to worry about, she gets a call that Kyle is in the hospital. Being a firefighter is never really a safe job, I doubt he’s on top of his game right now, and there were a lot of good reasons for his most recent call-out to go out of control. Lana, Sarah, and Sophie all rush to the hospital, where Kyle, clearly a bit battered, is sorry to have distracted them on this big day and says he asked the hospital staff not to call them. I believe this. Kyle’s screwed up a lot, but he’s really trying now. Sarah in particular is worried about her dad, but he tells her she should go with her mother and that he’ll be fine. Back at the farm, Jordan and Jonathan get another well-written scene of brothers who clearly love each other, even with all the chaos in their lives. Jordan excitedly shares his most recent adventure, and Jonathan gives him some good advice he doesn’t want to hear.

John Henry makes an interesting discovery about the most recent problem in Smallville, and then gets interrupted by Natalie storming through. Lois isn’t able to help him out with what’s wrong, and then John tells her something he more or less thought she knew. Jordan comes to what is likely the right decision, but does so just a bit late as a furious Lois gets home and calls him out on some of his recent exploits. The two argue, and Jordan is very much in defiant teenager mode. He does actually have some good points, but he phrases them very badly, and Lois is already under a lot of strain so she’s not really disposed to listen. John Henry tries to reach out to Natalie, but they have some very different points of view about this particular day, Jordan and Natalie seem to competing for difficult teen this week, and I’m not sure who’s winning. Or losing? Sarah visits Kyle’s place, which leaves a lot to be desired, and gets even more worried about her dad. Also, while it’s never spelled out, I think we can presume that Kyle left the hospital Against Medical Advice.

Lois and Sam investigate the earlier disaster, following up on a lead from John Henry. Lois is still fuming at what she learned earlier, and Sam calmly disagreeing with her isn’t helping. They make a discovery that ties into another ongoing subplot, and end up back at the farm. The two of them lean on Jonathan over something he’s been holding back and finally make some headway. Sarah, worried about her father, tries to share her concerns with Lana. Given everything going on, Lana isn’t really listening, or at least not coming to the conclusions Sarah hoped for. Basically, Sarah is getting ignored, blown off, and dismissed by a lot of people this episode.

After a lot of discussion, Jonathan finally reveals something Lois has wanted to know for a while now. As she finds out what’s been kept from her, you can see a fantastic expression of motherly disapproval on many levels cross her face. Lois and Sam reassure their new informant that they will be protected, and learn a lot about what’s been going on. Moving on to the planning phase, Sam and Jordan bring up something Lois would just as soon not think about, but make a persuasive argument between them. Sarah goes back to see Kyle, taking a few things into her own hands (literally and figuratively). She shares some of what’s upsetting her, and Kyle gives some good advice. The man has screwed up a lot of things, but he’s clearly doing everything he can for his family in spite of that. John Henry tries to see things from Natalie’s point of view and has his own emotional reactions to work through.

In a very uneasy alliance, Sam, Lois, and Jordan go look into their next lead. Lois makes a decision that makes sense for her as a mother but is really bad tactically. In a classic move from the comics, Lois snoops just a bit too much and gets captured, along with Sam, by someone who clearly has a few special advantages. Sarah reassures her mother when Lana starts getting the jitters. It’s another example of the exceptional person Sarah is. She’s been having a real tough time over the course of the episode, and she still takes the time out to ease her mother’s mind.

The writers clearly had fun with the next exchange between Sam and Lois, when she shows herself to be an expert in a rather specialized field of knowledge. Finally having no other option, Lois calls out the cavalry, and there’s an impressive, if short, fight sequence. Lana gets some good news, Sarah looks very lonely, and the Sam/Lois/Jordan team put in an appearance. Considering how high tempers were running against Sam a while back, I’m a bit surprised he’s making a public appearance in Smallville. After a lot of soul-searching, Sarah has come to an understandable, if regrettable, decision. Jordan isn’t happy at all, and can’t really explain why he keeps having to leave. Natalie and John Henry manage to make up at least some of their differences and share a special meal.

Upset by the events of the night, Sarah goes to see her dad and won’t take no for an answer about staying. Jonathan finally gets some alone time with Candace, which has been rare for them of late given everything happening. He gets a worrisome symptom and ends up going home early. Lois and Jordan have a talk on the porch that covers kids growing up and heartbreak, among other things. They get interrupted by a very unexpected visitor with some bad news, and the final scene shows things not going well for one of the main characters of the show.

What I liked: As I think I’ve said for almost every episode of this series, they continue to impress me on just about every level. The special effects are fantastic, the writing and acting are great, and while I don’t like everything that happened, the story is making sense. The character reactions work for the people going off of what they know. I’m glad Lana is getting so much time and that things are mostly going well for her. John Henry got a few good scenes. Jordan is impressing me in his growth as a man and a hero, although he has a way to go in how he deals with his mother. The Jonathan and Jordan scenes work very well. It really says something that they did an episode of a Superman show where he was mostly missing and it was still a very enjoyable episode.

What I didn’t: Superman’s scene near the beginning wasn’t really clear in terms of what he was doing. I get tensions were high, but a lot of people were being extremely difficult this episode. Jordan with Lois, Natalie with John, Lois with Sam and Jordan… the people of Smallville overall need to switch to decaf. They really need to just come out and say this show has parted ways with the Arrowverse it started in.

This episode was another in a string of really good ones. I’m giving this a 4.5 out of 5. The show is taking another few weeks’ break (they need to stop that), so it’ll be a bit until we find out more about what those last few scenes meant.