After attending an opera with Lionel, Lana stops by The Dailey Planet. Jimmy and Chloe hear a gun being fired. Lana has been shot. Jimmy manages to get a shot of the apparent shooter with his camera phone. While the police investigate the crime scene, Lois manages to steal a cigarette tin belonging to Lex that the police consider evidence. As Jimmy checks out the photographs he took of both the shooter and the police investigation, someone knocks him over the head. He dreams that he is in the 1940s and works for a Lex Luthor owned Dailey Planet as their chief reporter. Chloe is his boss, and Clark is a bumbling reporter who wears glasses. Jimmy gets a call from a woman in need of help, who ends up being Lana. Lana tells Jimmy that she suspects her husband, Lex, is trying to kill her. She believes he is having an affair with someone who hangs out at The Talon, which in Jimmy’s dream is a nightclub owned by Lionel. As proof, Lana gives Jimmy her husband’s cigarette tin filled with Talon matchbook covers.
Jimmy goes to The Talon to investigate. Since he is underage he isn’t let in until Clark, without glasses and hardly bumbling, tells the club’s bouncer that Jimmy is with him. Clark knows that Jimmy is onto a big story and wants in. Jimmy won’t let that happen. The two change the subject when the club’s sexy singer, Lois, performs an enchanting melody onstage. Another familiar face also gazes at the beautiful Lois. That face belongs to Lex. Somehow onto the fact that Jimmy is investigating his son, Lionel tips Jimmy off on how Lex leaves the club. Jimmy follows Lex to a local farm where Lex meets up with Lois. It turns out Lex is planning to marry Lois after he kills Lana. Jimmy not only hears Lex’s threat, but he also takes a photo of Lex and Lois kissing. Realizing Jimmy is onto him after seeing him take the photo, Lex chases after Jimmy. Jimmy is barely able to outdrive him. After paying Lana another visit to fill her in on what he’s found out, Jimmy promises Lana that he will kill Lex to protect her. Lana gives Jimmy a gun to protect himself with. Jimmy arranges a meeting with Lex during which he shoots Lex dead. Police arrive on the scene at the moment. Jimmy is barely able to escape.
Chloe hears the police report come in at The Dailey Planet. She heads over to The Talon to find Jimmy after hearing the description of the man the police saw fleeing from the crime scene. Chloe has done some investigating of her own and thinks Clark and Lana are in cahoots and set Jimmy up to take the fall for Lex’s murder. Lionel overhears their conversation, and after they leave he calls Lana to tell her Jimmy has done what Clark and her intended him to do. With Lex out of the way, Lionel now has complete control of the town, revealing why he was willing to let his son get killed. When Jimmy confronts Lana, Lana shoots him in the chest. At the same time she is shot dead by Clark, who is actually an undercover cop that has been investigating the Luthors. Though Jimmy manages to cheat death, the bullet being stopped by Lex’s cigarette tin, he is still arrested by Clark for murdering Lex. After his arrest in his dream, Jimmy wakes up in the real world. Although the photo he took of Lana’s killer is conveniently missing, a photo of Lex’s cigarette tin is still there.
Using what took place in his dream as a guide, Jimmy discovers that Lana was visiting The Dailey Planet to talk with a reporter named Brennan that may be her shooter. When Jimmy and Chloe confront Brennan, they learn that he was the one Jimmy got in the photo, but he didn’t shoot Lana. He knocked Jimmy out so he could steal the photo and avoid getting mixed up in the investigation. Just as their conversation comes to an end, Brennan is shot by Lana’s shooter. Jimmy chases after the shooter and knocks him out. The shooter is arrested and taken to the county lockup, where he is conveniently killed following his arrival.
In the end, it turns out that the gun that shot Lana didn’t belong to the shooter, but was one of Lex’s guns that Lana took with her for protection. She was going to meet with Brennan to tell him about her discovery of Lex’s Project Ares experiment, which she has been nosing into further for Lionel as part of the pact she made with him to protect Clark. Someone attacked her and shot her when a struggle over the gun took place. Lana tells Chloe about her pact with Lionel, but asks her not to tell Clark for his own protection. Though Chloe tries not to tell Clark, a heated conversation between the two over Chloe’s refusal not to share the information with him leads Clark to making the discovery. Jimmy’s photos of the shooter that he took after he caught him wind up on the front page of the following day’s newspaper. Jimmy’s editor decides to promote him back to his old job, and even sends him on an assignment away from Metropolis. Lois returns to her apartment to find Lionel sitting on her couch. He retrieves Lex’s cigarette tin from her. There is a flash disc inside the tin. Lois watches on as Lionel plugs it into her laptop and watches a secret meeting between Lex and Senator Ed Burke concerning Project Ares that has been recorded on it. Her curiosity about Lex’s project has been sparked, though Lionel warns her not to get involved for her own good.
Starring: Tom Welling (Clark Kent), Kristin Kreuk (Lana Luthor), Michael Rosenbaum (Lex Luthor), Erica Durance (Lois Lane), Allison Mack (Chloe Sullivan), John Glover (Lionel Luthor), Annette O'Toole (Martha Kent)
Guest Starring: Aaron Ashmore (Jimmy Olsen), Alan C. Peterson (Senator Ed Burke), Richard Kahan (Brennan), Audra Ricketts (), Ben Ayres (Bartlett), Kelly-Ruth Mercier (Operator), Peter Kelamis (), Kasper Michaels (Policeman #1), Gardiner Millar (Bouncer), Shaw Madson (Phil), Billy Mitchell (), Mike Dopud (George), Keith Dallas ()
Written by Brian Peterson & Kelly Souders
Directed by Jeannot Szwarc