By: Atiya Irvin-Mitchell
Kara (Kiana Madeira) and Clark (Jack Quaid) are at the Fortress of Solitude in their uniforms and Clark observes that the fortress has changed. He tells Kara that this is the beginning of a brand new future and asks her if she’s ready, and she says she’s ready. But she tells Clark that she would like to be alone when she says goodbye to her father because she needs to make her own peace with him. Clark understands and tells her he’ll be there if she needs him. Kara leaves the room, and Clark gets surprised by a robot.
Clark asks if the robot “works” at the Fortress of Solitude, and the robot explains that he’s the Steward of the Fortress and they have important matters to discuss. At first, Clark wonders who else he needs to discuss things with, but the steward says all the robots who look after the fortress need to speak with him. With that said, a group of robots starts talking to Clark all at once and raises different concerns about the Fortress of Solitude.
Elsewhere, Kara is putting Brainiac’s (also her father) consciousness away for storage and tells him goodbye. But, they parted on anything but amicable terms. Braninac (Michael Emerson) mocks her and says that she fooled Clark into thinking she’s a hero, but she won’t be able to play the part for very long. He tells her that she’s her father’s daughter, and when Clark realizes that, he won’t want to know her. Kara says she is nothing like him, and she knows who she really is. Brainiac asks her who she is, but Kara doesn’t have an answer.
The robots are still telling Clark, whom they call Kal-El, about all the fortress-related problems he needs to deal with, but the conversation is interrupted by Kara. She rushes out, upset after her talk with Brainiac, and Clark goes after her. The robots are upset about Clark’s abrupt departure, and one robot says that Clark doesn’t honor their ways. But another robot says that he will learn because he has no choice. Kara flies off into the sky and asks herself who she is.
An unspecified amount of time later, it’s Halloween at the Kent family’s farm. Jimmy (Ishmel Sahid) is doing an influencer-style video on the Halloween festivities at their annual pumpkin patch and is encouraging people to join the festivities. He, Kara, and Lois are in costume and enjoying the fun. Lois asks Jimmy and Kara who they are, and Kara explains that they’re dressed up as Ace Morgan and June Robbins from Challengers of the Unknown. The fictional couple is married, so Lois asks if Jimmy and Kara are doing a couples costume. They don’t answer, but Kara tells Lois that she and Jimmy have been watching the Challengers of the Unknown TV show together a lot. Clark interrupts the line of questioning by asking Kara to help him with a tractor.
With Kara gone, Jimmy asks Lois not to make things awkward between him and Kara. Lois teases Jimmy for liking Kara. Jimmy says, of course, he likes Kara, and spending time with her is amazing. But, he’s worried that Kara is only hanging out with him because she hasn’t been on Earth long, and he’s the only guy she knows that isn’t her cousin. Lois thinks Kara really likes him, but Jimmy thinks she can do better. Kara interrupts and tells Jimmy the kids need change for the corn maze, so Jimmy goes to help her.
Then, after Clark sends two kids off to the corn maze, Lois tells Clark that Jimmy won’t tell Kara how he feels. Clark tries to tell Lois that getting involved is a bad idea because they should figure out any romantic feelings on their own. He reminds her that neither Kara nor Jimmy has any romantic experience. Lois is surprised that Jimmy doesn’t have any experience, and Clark says he doesn’t have any that Clark has seen. Lois jokes that, that explains Clark and Jimmy’s bunkbeds.
Later, Clark puts his arms around Lois and asks her if she loves Fall on the farm. Lois says, of course, she does, and tells him his family’s farm is beautiful. Clark tells Lois that he’s been thinking about their future and wants to know what she’d think about their own farm outside of the city. Lois says she could like a hypothetical farm, but for Clark, the farm isn’t hypothetical. He found a moderately priced farm in a good school district, and he wants a dog. Lois tells him that, that’s a lot and wonders how long he’s been thinking about this. Clark says he’s been thinking about their future since Brainiac almost destroyed the world. Lois understands, but she thinks things are good as they are right now. She understands that Clark had a wonderful childhood on the farm with his parents, but she had a different experience with her father. Her father, Sam Lane (Joel de la Fuente), who is here now, is Lois didn’t know she should expect.
Sam tells her that the Kents invited her and he couldn’t say no since he’s retired now. Lois finds it hard to believe he’d ever retire and he admits that his version of retirement is working at the Pentagon. Lois still wonders if her father has any alterior motives and he gives her a campus that reminded her of him when he cleaned out his office. Sam says she should use it if she ever needs to find her way. They hug and he notes that Lois has her whole future ahead of her. Then he tells her that he has a tip about a breach at Pentagon and Lois is disappointed, but not surprised.
Sam says that files were stolen that detailed a decommissioned Project Caliban. Long story short, it’s a Kryptonian biotech program and Sam says Superman should look into this. Lois, however plans to look into it herself. She takes Clark and Jimmy to an abandoned office space and wants to investigate. Lois wants the story, but Clark is worried that they won’t be back in time for trick-or-treating, so Lois promises they won’t disappoint the kids of Metropolis or Clark. Clark tears down a fence and the group goes inside. Inside, the building is very empty and it looks like no one was ever there. Lois wonders why anyone would build a fake facility. Kara interupts the question by informing them that there’s a dog. Jimmy gently says that not every animal is a dog because the animal looks like a deer, then it turns it head and reveals a wolf’s head. Jimmy is scared, but Kara wants to pet it.
Chasing the creature leads them to the door and Kara pulls it open and goes inside. Clark wonders if going inside is a good idea, but Kara says courage is a Kryptonian virtue. Jimmy thinks it’d be fun to solve a mystery on Halloween, Lois still wants the story, and Clark just really wants to bob for apples. Unrelated to the apples, he is worried it might be unsafe to go inside.
They go inside and find an abandoned lab and confidential documents. There are also fluid filled containers with white jelly-like substances inside. Lois is startled by footsteps and sees that a broken container previously had an alien inside. Jimmy reads through the files on genome sequencing and wonders if they were making a weapon. Kara tells Clark that the white substances inside the containers are kryptonian DNA. She thinks they were trying to create something. Clark adds they were trying to recreate them.
Deeper into the facility and away from the group, Lois finds the source of the footsteps and it’s a creature. It’s reptile like and doesn’t appear friendly. When it charges after her Clark fights it off. But, the creature can breathe lasers so it’s not an easy fight. The group makes a run for it, gets on an elevator, is forcibly decontaminated, and ends up a room with a lot of plants. Kara tells the group most of the plants present are Kryptonian. Some of them seem pretty sentient as one grabs Jimmy, but Kara rescues him. On a more serious note Clark finds a fresh grave and realizes someone was buried here. He uses his X-Ray vision to see the badge and the body is Dr. Otto Binder. Lois guesses that something got loose and killed the researchers. But what? When Clark reaches for an abandoned pair of glasses and a very muscular and angry figure flies does and attacks him. This is Bizarro aka Superman’s clone and Kara calls him an abomination and punches him.
Then the reptile-like creature appears, clearly on Bizzaro’s side, and Clark tries to deescalate things by saying they aren’t there to hurt them. But, Bizarro and the other creature are scared away by a loud clanging in the distance. Jimmy wonders what could possibly scare a creature and a clone. The group goes exploring deeper into the area and find trees like the ones Kara observes would be found on Earth. Then they find toys, that are seemingly meant for a baby or toddler. Lois wonders if someone was raising a child here and the clanging gets louder which startles everyone. With his super hearing, Clark hears someone asking for help.
Kara finds a recording of a man saying that being scared isn’t a good reason to hurt someone. She watches the recording tell someone to choose to be kind. Elsewhere Lois, Jimmy, and Clark find that the source of the voice was a headless robot. The robot throws Clark and finds its head and then it goes after Bizarro and the creature, but Clark shields them both from the robot’s lasers.
Jimmy and Lois find Kara watching the videos and realize it’s Dr. Binder in them. He’s talking about how sometimes people lash out due to fear and Lois guesses he raised Bizzaro to be a weapon. Kara doesn’t think that’s the case, because Brainiac raised her to be a weapon and unlike Dr. Biner he never allowed her to have toys or spoke this gently to her. We get flashbacks of Dr. Binder and Bizarro planting flowers and playing with butterflies. While the realization is happening, Clark is still fighting the robot. After he believes he’s subdued it, he tries to check on the clone and creature, only to be ambushed. The robot starts crushing him and plans to self-destruct and Clark tells the clone and creature to run.
The explosion triggers something in the facility and it starts filling up with water. The explosion temporarily knocks Clark out and Bizarro carries him and the creature to safety, but flies away when Kara, Lois, and Jimmy arrive to check on him.
Later, it’s time for trick-or-treating in Metropolis and Clark wears his Superman costume while giving out candy. Bizarro is out in the world and seems to remember Dr. Binder telling him to be kind and good and gets a lollipop from a little girl. No one notices how strange he’s dressed on account of it being Halloween.
Elsewhere we see Lex Luther (Max Mittelman) talking with Slade Wilson (Chris Parnell) about Caliban and angrily watching footage of Clark as Superman. He tells Slade to forget about Caliban because it was a failure and that it’s time to visit Hank Henshaw. Slade says he can barely stay alive without machines, but Lex says that’s why he’s perfect.