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Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman
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| Title: | Barbarians at the Planet (1) |
| Episode Number: | 21 |
| Season: | 1 |
| Season Episode #.: | 21 |
| Production Number: | 455319 |
| Original Airdate: | Sunday May 01st, 1994 |
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Men burst into a warehouse and rifle the boxes there until they discover what they seek: a fist sized chunk of green kryptonite. En route to Lex’s favorite Italian restaurant, Lex proposes marriage to Lois. The Daily Planet falls on hard times when subscribers drop, advertisers flee and credit dries up – and Lex buys the paper to save it, but then begins making changes. Jack and Jimmy are reassigned to the print room, and then an explosion nearly destroys the Planet, and evidence suggests Jack planted the bomb! But the truth is that a ruthless enemy of the Planet has seized an opportunity to destroy it, and all so that he can get what he most wants in the world: Lois Lane!
| There are no foreign summaries for this episode
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| Tracy Scoggins does not appear in this episode.
| Upon learning that Lois has accepted Lex’s marriage proposal, Superman goes to the arctic, where he unleashes his rage in the form of a scream powerful enough to cause serious avalanches.
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| Lex: Lois Lane, will you marry me?
Lois: I don’t know what to say.
Lex: There are only three possible choices: yes, no, maybe.
| Devane: Your information was accurate, Luthor. I have the kryptonite.
Lex: When can I expect delivery?
Devane: I’ll call you when I get back to Metropolis. The price is five million.
Lex: Done.
| Lois: What’s going on?
Jimmy: Have you tried to cash your paycheck?
Lois: I deposited it.
Jimmy: Rubber.
Lois: Again?
Clark: They said last week’s problem was a clerical error!
| (Lex has attempted to drive the Daily Planet out of business, to undermine Lois and constrain her choices to the choice he wishes her to make: agree to marry him.)
Lex: If you wish to defeat a battlefield opponent, you must destroy their support system, their allies, and any avenue of retreat.
| Lex: For those of you who don’t know me, my name is Lex Luthor. I, no less than you, have been greatly distressed by the sea of troubles that has mired Metropolis’s one great newspaper. I don’t know why your advertisers have abandoned you, or why circulation is down. I don’t know why your banks have cut off your lines of credit. I don’t know why your cash reserves were depleted by unnecessary expenditures, though I have my suspicions. But I do know that your problems can be solved, with strong leadership and fiscal responsibility. So therefore I’ve taken the one step necessary that will guarantee the future of this grate newspaper. I bought it.
| Lois: Lex just saved our jobs. Not to mention...
Clark: Not to mention... what?
Lois: Not to mention... he asked me to marry him.
| Perry: Did you, or did you not, just make that feather-brained, snot-nosed, pimply-faced, underage cow chip my boss?!?
Lex: Well, that’s one interpretation.
| Lex: Clark has this... unreasonable, unremitting hostility towards me, I don’t know why. I don’t know how to gain his trust but, I will.
| Lois: It’s going to work out fine, Clark. Just give it time. Lex will turn things around.
Clark: Incredible.
Lois: What?
Clark: You! A prize-winning investigative reporter!
Lois: Is there a point?
Clark: How can you be so blind, Lois! I mean, you look right at the guy and still you don’t have a clue who he really is!
Lois: Who?
Clark: Luthor!
| Jonathan: Do you love her, son?
Clark: Yeah. I do, Dad.
Jonathan: Good. Then tell her.
Clark: Tell her what? That I’m Superman?
Jonathan: Ah, well, that’s got to be up to you.
Martha: At least tell her how you feel. If she feels the same way, well, shouldn’t take her too long to figure out you’re no ordinary guy.
| Perry: It’s an historic day. Tomorrow, for the first time in 219 years, there will be no edition of the Daily Planet.
| Perry: Whatever happens, I want you do know that you’re the best... the very best... that I’ve ever worked with.
| Clark: I will never work for Lex Luthor.
| Clark: I have been in love with you... for a long time. You had to have known.
Lois: I mean... I knew... I... I... guess I knew that you liked me, were attracted to me. Clark... I’m sorry; I just don’t feel that way about you, romantically. You’re my best friend, the only partner I could ever stand to work with. I admire you and I respect you, and I do love you... as a friend.
| Lois: I have a lot of chances going on in my life, and I want to make the right decision. And I can’t do that until I know how you feel. Superman, is there any hope for us? You and me? I’m so completely in love with you.
| Clark: I’m just trying to find out why the paper failed. What we know is just the tip of the iceberg, Lois.
| Lois: I have found a good job, and someone who wants to spend the rest of his life with me. What is erong with that?
Clark: Okay, fine, if that’s what you want, Lois, then fine! Go ahead! Get in bed with the devil!
| (Lex is discussing his rise to power with Lois. He explains that he has done questionable things in pursuit of success. While he explains this, viewers see a flashback that explains some of the plot.)
Lex: Gentlemen, don’t worry about the advertisers and the banks. They’ll do what I tell them to do. The board’s decision to sell the Daily Planet must be immediate, and unanimous. Naturally, your loyalty will be rewarded. Or, should I say, compensated.
| Lex: Will you marry me?
Lois: Yes, Lex. I will marry you.
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| The phrase ‘Barbarians at the Gates’ from which the episode title draws inspiration, appears periodically as a description, usually related to a hostile takeover or an invasion, especially by a trusted group or individual. Most recently, it was the title of a 1990 book (later a movie) about the hostile takeover of RJR Nabisco. Its origins go all the way back to a time near the end of the Roman Empire. The Romans, no longer able to rely on their own armies, gave lands to the barbarians (Huns, Vandals, Visigoths and other Germanic tribes) in exchange for protection. Strategically, the move was a disaster; the Romans embraced their enemies, and those enemies realized the Roman Empire was rotten inside and eventually destroyed it.
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| This is the first part of a two part story. The story concludes in “House of Luthor.”
| Lex learned a great deal about Superman, including the fact that he is not human, in “Foundling” when he had brief custody of a Kryptonite knowledge base that Jor El placed in the spaceship with Kal El. This is doubtless where he learned of kryptonite, or at least learned enough to postulate its existence.
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| Lois, a trained reporter, should have pierced Lex’s rather transparent manipulations of events. Even without the viewers’ perspective it was fairly obvious that Lex was manipulating events towards the goal of getting her to accept his marriage proposal. Of course, at this point in her career she does not understand Lex’s true nature, and might even be disinclined to believe anyone would be ruthless enough to destroy a corporation chiefly to force a woman to make decisions he wants her to make.
| A nice scene roughly three quarters of the way through the episode showcases Lex Luthor’s ruthless brilliance, as he attempts to double-cross a mercenary who was to sell him some kryptonite, only to find himself double-crossed in return. But the Lex making the deal isn’t the real Lex, and in the end, ruthlessness and intelligence win the day, with Lex leaving the deal with the kryptonite, without having paid, and with the added bonus that the mercenaries that could link him to the theft are all dead.
| Scenes that take place between Lois and Clark, and later between Lois and Superman, nicely highlight the dichotomy between Superman as Clark, and Superman as himself. Some of the best moments of this series came from its ability to capture the essence of a love triangle that involved only two people.
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