Stray (16 Apr. 2002)

After escaping from his mean stepparents James Gibson and Sky, the boy Ryan James is hit by Martha Kent's car on the road. She brings Ryan to a hospital, and the boy claims to have amnesia.... See full summary »

Director:

Paul Shapiro

Writers:

Jerry Siegel (character created by: Superman), Joe Shuster (character created by: Superman),

Stars:

Tom Welling, Kristin Kreuk, Michael Rosenbaum

Cast

Episode cast overview, first billed only:
Tom Welling	...	Clark Kent
Kristin Kreuk	...	Lana Lang
Michael Rosenbaum	...	Lex Luthor
Eric Johnson	...	Whitney Fordman (credit only)
Allison Mack	...	Chloe Sullivan
Annette O'Toole	...	Martha Kent
John Schneider	...	Jonathan Kent
John Glover	...	Lionel Luthor
Sam Jones III	...	Pete Ross (credit only)
Ryan Kelley	...	Ryan James
Jim Shield	...	James Gibson
Brandy Ledford	...	Mrs. Gibson
Rekha Sharma	...	Dr. Harden
Bill Finck	...	Pawnshop Owner
Joe Maffei	...	Bowling Lanes Janitor

Storyline

After escaping from his mean stepparents James Gibson and Sky, the boy Ryan James is hit by Martha Kent's car on the road. She brings Ryan to a hospital, and the boy claims to have amnesia. The Kent family offers to lodge Ryan in their farm while waiting for the social services. The boy becomes friends with Clark Kent and his friends, and has the power of reading minds, and his adopted parents use him to commit robberies. Clark helps the boy against his stepfather while Ryan knows Clark is different when Ryan sees that he's the only one whose mind he cannot read.

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Genres:

Adventure | Drama | Romance | Sci-Fi

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Certificate:

TV-PG

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

16 April 2002 (USA)

Filming Locations:

Langley, British Columbia, Canada

Company Credits

Production Co:

Smallville Films, Tollin/Robbins Productions, Warner Bros. Television

Technical Specs

Runtime:

44 min

Did You Know?

Trivia

The climax was shot on location in a bowling alley in Richmond, BC, Canada. Coincidentally, the bowling alley in question is named "Lois Lanes", also the name of Clark Kent's future love interest.

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Goofs

When Ryan and Clark are playing basketball you can see a tractor near the guys. After some shots then the tractor moves for no apparent reason left and right about 1-2 meters.

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Quotes

Clark Kent: You like comics?
Ryan James: I like this one.
[holds up comic book]
Clark Kent: [reading] "Warrior Angel." Why him?
Ryan James: Because he protects people who can't protect themselves.

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Connections

References The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser (1974)

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Soundtracks

"Superman"
(uncredited)
Written by John Ondrasik
Performed by 'Five for Fighting'

User Reviews

Good but "Strayed" a bit

There's a lot of good material in this episode. The ability this kid has is very cool and it's done well. Also, this is the first time that the "freak" in an episode was a child. That dynamic made it interesting. There are also some intriguing revelations about the different characters.

But this episode was a bit flawed in a few respects. The most glaring flaw is the lack of explanation about how Ryan got his abilities. Up until now, every ability in Smallville was somehow traced to the meteors. However, there is no such explanation here. This alone makes this episode veer into Twilight Zone territory. That's still a great place to be, but give us some logic in this madness. Another flaw was a lack of motivation by the villains in this one. Seems to me that if this kid was helping them out like he was, they'd be a bit nicer. That rage and the violence wasn't explained either. By the end it got very jumbled.