Writing At the start of the second season, developers and
showrunners
Alfred Gough and
Miles Millar brought in
Ken Biller to run the newly formed writers' room. For the
first season, Gough and Millar usually wrote the final draft of every episode because they were still seeking the show's voice. The pair understood that a writing staff would help "expand [the] show". As part of their expanding, they also brought in comic-book writer
Jeph Loeb, who spent his first two weeks seeking fresh ideas for new episodes. One of the decisions the new writing team came up with was letting
Pete Ross in on
Clark Kent's secret. The decision to let Pete learn Clark's secret was a choice made so that the character would have a function on the show, and allow Clark someone who was not one of his parents. It was also a way to examine the "power of friendship and loyalty", and "the price of having to keep a secret".
Superman mythology For the second season, Gough and Millar brought in
Christopher Reeve, who portrayed
Superman in
four feature films, as a guest star for a pivotal role in Clark's life, that of
Dr. Virgil Swann. The pair always had intentions of bringing Reeve onto the show, and when they found out that he enjoyed watching the show himself, Gough and Millar decided that they were going to bring him on for season two. They had already crafted a character, Swann, they knew would reveal the truth about
Krypton to Clark, and they decided that Reeve would be perfect for the part. Along with Reeve, another actor from the
Superman films to be brought into the show was
Terence Stamp, who portrayed
General Zod in the first two
Superman films, as the voice of
Jor-El. Stamp's role as Zod in the films, coupled with how the writing team portrayed Jor-El's early appearances—giving Clark a message that he will rule Earth with strength—led to fan theories that Jor-El was in fact Zod at the
ComicCon that met two months after the episode aired. Gough assured the ComicCon audience that the character was Jor-El, and not Zod in disguise. "Insurgence" was actually written before "Visage" and "Suspect", but not filmed until after both of those episodes because the team was having difficulty figuring out the logistics of producing the episode. Afterward, the episode would be scheduled to air between "Visage" and "Suspect". As
Tom Welling describes it: "With 'Red Clark' he's
completely aware of the consequences of his actions at the time, but he doesn't care! He doesn't care what happens to you, and he certainly doesn't care what happens to himself, because he probably realizes that nothing can happen to him. It's always fun to be that way, even in real life, because we're not allowed to be that way all too often". One of the concerns for the episode was whether the audience would embrace the idea of a "bad Clark", as Biller knew that Clark would have to be "the villain of the story",
Characters Season two expanded the lives and relationships of the main characters. Gough and Millar used the season opener, "Vortex", to establish multiple dynamics for the seasons, including: "Lana's distrust of Clark; what happened to the spaceship, which [developed into] Clark looking into his origins;
Lex protecting Clark and killing the reporter; and the Lex/
Lionel dynamic, with Lionel being blind". According to Gough, they had a specific intention for the ending of the second season: "Season one ended with the height of heroism, with Clark running into a tornado to save Lana. For season two, we wanted to see the nadir of that, which is Clark running away [...] from his problems". Gough likens the finale to the ending of
The Empire Strikes Back (1980), in that Clark leaves Smallville and everyone he loves because he is scared. In order to do "the character justice", they have to take his journey through the darkness, with him failing along the way. Whitney was not the only character whose fate was met with demise. "Suspect" became the show's first "cracking the mystery" episode, which revolved with the attempted murder of Lionel by a mysterious assailant; it was influenced by the Japanese film
Rashomon (1950), just like season one's episode "Zero", which is told from different people's perspective of the same event. It was originally decided that Lionel's assistant, Dominic Santori, was going to be the person who attempted to kill Lionel, but ultimately it was decided that Sheriff Ethan Miller would be villain of the episode. Although
Jonathan Kent was also a suspect, it was clear to at least Beeman that they could not pin the crime on a series regular, so they decided to try to surprise the audience by making it Ethan. Mitchell Kosterman, who plays Ethan, was a little distraught over his character's fate, having grown comfortable with his place on the show. The original ending of the episode featured Ethan taking a nurse hostage, which Kosterman felt was out of character; subsequently, the final version shows Ethan giving up when he finds out he's been caught. To Kosterman, this ending allows the character to stay sympathetic, by showing that he was "pushed to a bad place", because Kosterman feels "that whole dynamic of good people being pushed to do the wrong thing by bad people like Lionel Luthor is a pervading theme in the whole show". The fate of Dr. Helen Bryce, who would marry Lex in the season two finale, was already established by the time the creative team was working on "Precipice", the season's nineteenth episode, though it did change from the writers' original intentions. Initially, the character was to be killed off at the end of the season, on her wedding day, but the quality of
Emmanuelle Vaugier's performances and her chemistry with
Michael Rosenbaum inspired the creative staff to keep her around until the start of the
third season.
Episode development Although the majority of the season two episodes were conceived during pre-production, as well as during the filming of the second season, other episode ideas, or scenes, were originally intended to be scripted for the first season. A scene involving Clark inadvertently using heat vision in his sexual education class was originally scripted for the pilot, but was cut when the budget became too large. That scene would become the inspiration for the season two episode "Heat". Since his initial performance as Ryan in season one's "Stray", Gough and Millar had hoped to be able to bring
Ryan Kelley back to
Smallville. In season two they got their chance, with the intention to kill off the character, who was suffering from a brain tumor. Gough and Millar were initially apprehensive about how audiences would react to the death of a young teenager whose age was representative of the target demographic. For the episode "Ryan", the creative team wanted to show that Clark, even with all his powers, cannot save everyone; in this case, Clark's speed and strength are no help against the tumor growing in Ryan's brain. The episode is about Clark's trials of learning that life is not easy, and how those trials change him. "Lineage" was one of the original stories Gough and Millar pitched to the studio when they were first trying to get
Smallville off the ground. The episode was designed to explain why Jonathan hated Lionel—having made a deal with him in order to be able to adopt Clark—as well as set up the character of Lex's half brother, Lucas, in the forthcoming episode "Prodigal". As he wrote the episode, per Millar's suggestion, Biller drew inspiration from the film
Lone Star (1996) when writing the flashback scenes. In
Lone Star, to illustrate the moment of flashback, the camera would pan around until it revealed the past. As with season one, the writing team came up with more "what if" episodes for the series, like season two's "Visitor", which came from the idea of, "what if someone showed up and Clark began to believe that he wasn't the last person from his planet". In the case of "Nocturne", "what if Clark had been brought up by different parents?". With "Nocturne", the episode is meant to be "an extreme version of the Clark story". As Gough explained: "Here's a kid with a condition, whose parents literally lock him in the basement. It's an extreme parenting episode—contrasting how these parents deal with Byron, and how the Kents deal with Clark". The episode also dealt with Clark's fallibility, in the fact that Clark is only a teenager, and he does not always have all of the facts; just because he thinks he is doing the right thing does not necessarily mean that he is. In this case, Clark believes that he is saving Byron from his abusive parents. Gough clarified: "[Clark]'s doing what he thinks is right, but ultimately unleashes the kid, and [Byron] causes damage. Just because you have the power and you think you're right doesn't always mean you're taking the right course of action". Another "what if" episode was "Witness", which originally came from the concept, "what if Clark witnessed a crime and had to testify in court as to why he was standing in the middle of the road at 2 o'clock in the morning?" In the end, the court angle was dropped from the storyline, with Clark making an anonymous phone call to the sheriff and eventually having to battle the three kryptonite powered thieves that he had witnessed stealing. "Witness" is not the only episode to be altered from its original concept. "Dichotic" began, in its early stages, as a story about a news reporter who had the ability—thanks to kryptonite—to split himself in half. The reporter would create the news at the same time that he was filming it. Biller and
Mark Verheiden discussed a teaser that involved the reporter pushing someone out of a window and as the body plummeted to the ground the audience saw the same person reporting the news as it happened. The main story would focus on the reporter attempting to assassinate Lex, but it eventually evolved into what Biller refers to as "a metaphor on trying to super-achieve at high school". In the revamped version, a high school student uses his ability to duplicate himself so that he can take classes in high school and at the community college at the same time, in an effort to win a LuthorCorp scholarship and go to the university of his dreams. With
Jonathan Taylor Thomas playing the over-achieving student, the character of Ian Randall was also used to stir up the Lana-Clark-Chloe triangle. Beeman explained that a problem existed in developing new storylines involving the characters: "We want the characters we're familiar with, and on the other [hand], you have to search for ways to change them up". Even the ending was altered during filming, as both copies of Ian were to fall over the edge of a bridge; then, as the two Ians fall they touch each other's fingers slowly fusing together before hitting the ground. The team was so impressed with Thomas's performance they opted to keep the character alive. The twenty-second episode of the season, "Calling", initially had a different opening sequence involving Clark and Lana. In the original version, Clark and Lana were staying up late to watch a comet through Clark's telescope. Through the dialogue exchange between Clark and Lana, there was supposed to be a correlation between the arrival of the comet and Clark and Lana's relationship status. The comet also signified the arrival of Jor-El, Clark's biological father, and Clark's departure from Smallville. The effect for the comet was expensive however, and if they cut the comet they had to cut the dialogue because it would have made no sense if someone sees the comet. Instead, the scene was rewritten to be about Lana visiting Clark at midnight to celebrate his birthday.
Filming The first episodes filmed for season two was actually the sixth episode aired; "Redux" finished
principal photography shortly after filming for "Tempest" ended, which was just before the crew went on their summer break. For season two's "Rosetta", the crew was presented with a dilemma that required the help of television producer
John Wells, that was the guest starring of Reeve. Because of the expense of flying Reeve to
Vancouver, Beeman and Welling flew to
New York City to "bring Smallville to him". This is where Wells lent his hand, as he allowed the
Smallville crew to film Reeve's scenes on the set of
NBC's
Third Watch (1999–2005), The decision to go to New York was also made because Reeve used a wheelchair and required much assistance when he traveled. Although
James Marshall directed the episode, for Reeve's scenes in New York, the
Smallville crew sent Beeman as a stand-in director. Beeman was accompanied by Gough, Welling, and Mat Beck. At the start of season two,
Entity FX, which is based in
Santa Monica, California, became the primary special effects team. 's request. The script called for "corn flattened as far as the eye could see", but Horton wanted a defined stopping point for all the destruction; a wall of corn was digitally erected surrounding the area of trammeled corn stalks. The season finale required numerous computer-generated imagery. At the start of the episode, Jor-El's disembodied voice talks to Clark through the spaceship. For this scene, Entity FX created a completely computer-generated model of the ship, because the ship had to transform into multiple objects as the scene progressed, creating it digitally was the best option. Later in the episode, when Clark refuses to leave Smallville, Jor-El brands him with a Kryptonian tattoo. Brian Harding worked on the tattoo that is placed on Clark's chest, creating an effect based on the idea that it appeared to burn from the inside. For the same scene, Beck and his team had to digitally create a bare chest for Welling's stunt double, who had to wear a shirt to hide the safety harness he was wearing when they dropped him in the moment Clark is released from the ship's hold. In order to escape his father, Clark decides to use a kryptonite key to destroy his spaceship. When Clark puts the kryptonite key into the spaceship, Beck and his FX team tried to create a "virus/fungus" growth from the key slot to simulate "some sort of fractal decay". Mike McCormick worked specifically on the process of destroying the ship, giving the ship the appearance that it has a "nasty skin infection" that is spreading as if it is caught in the circulatory system. Next, Beck had to tackle the problem of the ship's final destruction. Originally, it was intended to have the ship explode, but no one wanted to have to rebuild the Kent farm. Instead, they settled on a giant
EMP wave given off by the ship the moment it is destroyed. Entity FX created a beam of light that shot vertically up from the ship's location and then fell back down expanding into a "ripple that spread across the land". This beam of light would create a crater where the storm cellar was, which was dug prior to filming and digitally covered up so as to keep the illusion. One of the final shots of the episode was of Lex watching as his plane crashed into the ocean. In a homage to
Cast Away (2000), Entity FX crafted a digital effect of the ocean water flooding Lex's plane as it hits the ocean. The scene is reminiscent of the same scene in
Cast Away where
Tom Hanks's character also watches as the ocean water floods his plane as he crash lands in the ocean.
Physical effects Sometimes the digital effects are not necessary, even when they are expected. For the scene where
Joe Morton suffers a fatal seizure, the crew used an under-crank shooting technique, to speed up the movements of Morton's character, coupled with Morton's own shaking. In "Precipice", Wash assisted the digital effects team when the production crew was filming a scene that was going to involve Clark X-raying a car with a group of teenagers in it. To achieve the effect of Clark X-raying a
SUV, Wash had all the actors in the SUV sit on apple boxes to get them at the representative height they would be in the SUV. The actors then went through all the motions they needed in order to "sell the X-ray effect". For season two, Wash added prosthetic veins to Welling's hands, which would move when he moved, to help simulate the kryptonite poisoning his character would undergo. Then, in post-production, Entity FX would add a green hue to them, and digitally hide the prosthetics when Clark was not affected by the kryptonite; in the first season, there were no physical prosthetics and all effects were done digitally. Apart from digital, the physical effects performed in
Smallville are key, especially when dealing with the villains that Clark must fight in each episode. In "Nocturne", Byron is transformed into a monster with superhuman strength. To demonstrate Byron's strength, the stunt team did a fifty-five foot "chuck", where Bryon throws Clark across the front lawn. To accomplish the task they connected a wire to the stunt man's back, so when Bryon hits "Clark" they can use a crane and hydraulic system, positioned one hundred feet in the air, to pull the stunt man. Twenty-five feet into the pull the wire is released and the stunt man flies the rest of the distance to the landing pad. In "Visage", the bone-morphing Tina returns disguised as Whitney. When she learns that Lana wants Clark, she decides to become Clark. The real Clark confronts Tina, which results in a physical fight between the two Clarks. The fight sequence between the two Clarks originally had more choreographed shots, but had to be cut down to five actions, as the fight sequence was pushing twenty minutes. For the scene, Welling performed all of his stunts alongside his usual stunt double, Christopher Sayour, who doubled as the "second Clark" in the sequence. For the actual stunt of leaping from the
Daily Planet to the LuthorCorp building, the production team hooked Welling to a "parallelogram" on the studio greenscreen stage, and then filmed him running across a platform and leaping into the air. The parallelogram rig floated him in midair as he went over the building sill and began his downward trajectory. Although Welling did the initial stunt, his stunt double took over the chore of sliding through the glass as it explodes on contact. Welling is not the only actor to perform his own stunts. Kreuk performed her own stunts for the bridge scene in "Dichotic", where she had to hang above the river. Her willingness to perform her own stunts saved the team money on greenscreen effects, or stunt doubles that would have been used in her place. Though the cost of using a greenscreen was saved, Entity FX still had to digitally remove all the wire harnesses from the scene, which is an effect that goes unnoticed in the final product of the majority of episodes. The team had two effects with vehicles that did not perform as originally planned. The first, in "Rush", involved a scene where Pete and Chloe intentionally drive their car off a cliff and Clark speeds in to catch it before it hits the ground. To attain the shot of Clark catching Pete's car required the crew to suspend the car from a crane with
Sam Jones III and
Allison Mack inside the car. The scene was filmed in a rock quarry, as there are not many cliffs in the Vancouver area, with segments of the scene created digitally. The car was then filmed as it was being pulled into the air backwards—the footage was then reverse to give the impression that it was falling. Initially, Mike Walls and his crew tried to pull the car straight up, but it was not working. The movement of the car had to be tweaked to give a sense of reality. In the season finale, Jonathan and Martha crash their truck on their way home after an EMP blast, which Clark caused, sends a shock wave out that downs a telephone pole and their truck hits it. In order to get the Kent truck to roll for the moment where Jonathan and Martha encounter the wave of EMP, two stunt drivers drove the truck toward a collapsed telephone pole, skidding into it. Then, with mannequins in the truck for safety, the effects team wrapped some cables around the truck and launched it off a ratchet to make it roll. This did not go as smoothly as planned the first time, as the telephone pole did not fall when they set off the explosive charge to break it. Since it would be too hard to strap Schneider and O'Toole into the truck while it is upside down, and too dangerous to flip the truck with them already in it, Walls and his team built a rotating truck seat, which allowed them to strap Schneider and O'Toole in, then rotate the seat so that they are upside down and slide that into the overturned truck. ==Tie-in==