Welcome back to Rewatching Smallville, my weekly dive into the iconic series that explores Clark Kent’s journey before becoming Superman. Whether you’re a long-time fan or new to the show, you’re invited to join in each Tuesday as I revisit episodes and share my thoughts and observations. Be sure to share your own memories and theories in the comments below!

There’s something deliciously ironic about a show called Smallville producing one of television’s most memorable “crazy girlfriend” episodes. By Season 3, we’d grown accustomed to the weekly parade of meteor-enhanced misfits terrorizing Clark Kent and friends—your standard jocks-turned-killers, weight-obsessed cheerleaders, and the occasional time-traveling nutjob. But “Obsession” (Season 3, Episode 14) threw us a curveball that hit harder than kryptonite to the chest: what happens when the meteor freak of the week is someone Clark actually falls for?

Spoiler alert: it doesn’t end with a white picket fence in Smallville.

The Setup: Elevator Pitch Gone Wrong

The episode opens with what should be every high schooler’s nightmare—a boring economics field trip to LuthorCorp. But leave it to Smallville to turn corporate education into life-or-death drama. When Clark and the mysteriously pretty new girl Alicia Baker get trapped in a plummeting elevator, both are forced to reveal their respective superpowers to save their lives. Clark uses his heat vision to fry the security camera (because even in mortal peril, secret identities must be protected), then punches through the elevator wall with his super strength. Pretty standard Tuesday for our boy Clark.

But then Alicia pulls her own party trick—teleporting them both to safety in a puff of green smoke that definitely wasn’t in the building’s safety manual.

Cue the mutual “holy crap, you’re like me” moment that every teenager with a secret dreams of. Finally, Clark has found someone who won’t require elaborate lies about why he keeps disappearing or how he managed to bench press a tractor “by accident.”

The Honeymoon Phase: Too Good to Be True

What follows is perhaps the most genuinely romantic subplot Smallville had produced up to that point. Sarah Carter’s Alicia Baker brings an effortless chemistry with Tom Welling that makes their connection feel authentic and earned. For once, Clark doesn’t have to dodge questions about his mysterious absences or manufacture cover stories for his superhuman feats. He can simply be himself—cape and all (metaphorically speaking, since this is pre-Superman Clark).

The telescope scene in the barn loft is particularly effective, with Clark and Alicia bonding over their shared experience of being “different.” It’s the kind of vulnerable, honest moment that Clark’s other relationships—particularly with Lana—rarely achieved due to the constant undercurrent of deception.

And then there’s that bedroom scene. Jonathan Kent walking in on his teenage son with a scantily clad girl who literally teleported into his bed is peak Smallville absurdity. The look on John Schneider’s face perfectly captures every parent’s worst nightmare, supernatural powers or not. Tom Welling later admitted that both he and Sarah Carter felt genuinely embarrassed filming the scene, which only added to its authenticity.

When Love Becomes Obsession: The Fatal Attraction Turn

But this is Smallville, where happiness is about as rare as a kryptonite-free day in Kansas. Alicia’s sweet, understanding girlfriend act quickly morphs into something far more sinister. The transition from romantic interest to unhinged stalker is handled with surprising nuance—Carter manages to make Alicia’s descent into obsession feel tragic rather than simply villainous.

The warning signs pile up quickly: Clark’s locker plastered with photos of Alicia, his loft redecorated without permission, and a yearbook photo of Lana with Alicia’s scratch marks through it. It’s textbook obsessive behavior, but the show wisely doesn’t paint Alicia as a one-dimensional psychopath. Her controlling parents, who literally built a lead-lined room to contain their daughter’s powers, provide context for her desperate need to control the one relationship where she feels accepted.

The revelation that Alicia’s previous boyfriend “didn’t fare too well” adds a sinister undertone that elevates this beyond typical teenage drama. When she uses a meteor rock to incapacitate Clark after he attempts to trap her in a lead-painted room, we see just how far she’s willing to go to keep him.

The Lana Factor: Green-Eyed Monster Meets Green Smoke

No discussion of “Obsession” would be complete without addressing the elephant in the room—or rather, the red-headed elephant that Alicia sees as her primary romantic rival. The episode’s climax, with Alicia threatening Lana at the Talon while revealing that Clark has shared secrets with her that he’s never told his longtime crush, is a masterclass in emotional manipulation.

“Clark told me all the secrets he would never tell you,” Alicia taunts, and you can practically see Lana’s world tilting on its axis. It’s a cruel twist of the knife that forces both Lana and the audience to confront the fundamental dishonesty underlying Clark’s feelings for his neighbor.

The knife scene itself is pure melodrama, but it works because of the emotional groundwork laid throughout the episode. Alicia isn’t threatening Lana out of pure malice—she’s a desperate, damaged young woman who sees Clark as her only chance at connection and acceptance.

Production Notes: Snow, Chemistry, and Lead Paint

“Obsession” marked several firsts for Smallville. This was the first episode to feature snow, adding an atmospheric layer that enhanced the episode’s emotional tone. The opening sequence with Clark and Alicia was filmed in a single, uninterrupted minute-long take, allowing their natural chemistry to shine through without the usual quick-cut editing.

The teleportation effects were ambitious for The WB’s budget, combining practical stunts with digital compositing to create Alicia’s signature “shimmer and vanish” technique. The production team had to carefully choreograph scenes to account for Alicia’s sudden appearances and disappearances, with body doubles and precise timing ensuring the illusion held up.

Interestingly, the lead paint solution was a callback to ideas from Season 2’s “Visage,” showing how the writers were beginning to build a more cohesive mythology around meteor-enhanced abilities and their weaknesses.

The Larger Smallville Universe: Context Matters

“Obsession” doesn’t exist in a vacuum within Season 3’s narrative arc. The episode arrives at a crucial point in Clark’s emotional development, following his summer of rebellion on red kryptonite and his subsequent return to Smallville with a deeper understanding of the consequences of abandoning his moral compass.

The Adam Knight subplot, running parallel to the main story, serves as an interesting contrast. While Alicia represents the dangerous allure of complete honesty in relationships, Adam embodies the opposite—a relationship built entirely on deception and manipulation. Lana’s involvement with Adam, and her growing suspicion of his true motives, mirrors Clark’s own struggle with trust and intimacy.

The episode also continues Season 3’s exploration of Lionel Luthor’s growing interest in Clark Kent. The reveal that Adam was planted by Lionel to spy on Lana and, by extension, Clark, adds another layer of paranoia to an already complex emotional landscape.

Critical Reception: Then and Now

When “Obsession” aired in February 2004, it generated significant buzz among fans and critics. Many praised Sarah Carter’s performance, with several reviews noting her ability to make Alicia both sympathetic and genuinely threatening. The episode was frequently compared to Fatal Attraction, though most critics agreed that Smallville handled the “dangerous girlfriend” trope with more emotional complexity than typical genre television.

Fan reaction was overwhelmingly positive, particularly regarding the chemistry between Carter and Welling. Forum discussions from the time reveal that many viewers felt Clark and Alicia had more genuine connection in one episode than Clark and Lana had developed over three seasons—a sentiment that has only grown stronger with time.

The decision to bring Alicia back in Season 4’s “Unsafe” and “Pariah” was largely driven by fan enthusiasm for the character and Carter’s performance. This made Alicia one of the few “meteor freaks” to receive a multi-episode arc, elevating her beyond the typical villain-of-the-week status.

Breaking the Meteor Freak Formula

What sets “Obsession” apart from the standard Smallville formula is its emotional investment in the powered antagonist. Most meteor-enhanced characters serve as cautionary tales or obstacles for Clark to overcome. Alicia, however, represents something far more personal—a glimpse of what Clark’s life could be like with someone who truly understands him.

The episode’s tragedy lies not in Alicia’s powers or even her obsessive behavior, but in the fact that she came so close to being exactly what Clark needed. The cruel irony is that the very thing that makes her perfect for Clark—her complete acceptance of his secret—is also what makes her dangerous when that acceptance turns possessive.

This emotional complexity elevates “Obsession” beyond typical monster-of-the-week episodes. While installments like “Cool” or “Craving” delivered solid suspense and social commentary, they rarely forced Clark to examine his own desires and fears so directly.

The Performance: Sarah Carter’s Breakthrough

Sarah Carter’s portrayal of Alicia Baker deserves special recognition for its layered approach to what could have been a thankless role. Carter manages to make Alicia’s transition from sweet to sinister feel organic rather than jarring, showing us glimpses of the damage and desperation underlying her initial charm.

The actress later expressed disappointment that Alicia was killed off so soon, and it’s easy to understand why. Carter brought a complexity to the character that made her feel like a fully realized person rather than a plot device. Her chemistry with Tom Welling was so natural that producers reportedly limited their off-set interactions to avoid fueling romantic rumors.

Thematic Resonance: Trust, Secrets, and the Price of Truth

At its core, “Obsession” is about the double-edged sword of honesty in relationships. Clark’s euphoria at finding someone who accepts his true self is palpable, making Alicia’s betrayal all the more devastating. The episode asks difficult questions about trust, vulnerability, and whether complete honesty is always worth the risk.

The lead paint trap that Clark uses to stop Alicia is symbolically perfect—he defeats her using the same method her parents employed to control her powers. It’s a moment that highlights the tragic cycle of containment and control that has defined Alicia’s life, even as it provides a practical solution to Clark’s immediate problem.

Legacy and Looking Forward

“Obsession” remains one of Season 3’s most discussed episodes, and for good reason. It successfully combined the show’s supernatural elements with genuine emotional stakes, creating a story that resonated with viewers long after the credits rolled.

The episode’s exploration of Clark’s desire for authentic connection would continue to influence the series throughout its run. Future relationships, particularly with Lois Lane, would build on the groundwork laid here—the idea that Clark’s ideal partner must not only know his secret but be strong enough to handle the weight of that knowledge without being consumed by it.

Final Verdict: When Smallville Got Personal

“Obsession” succeeds because it dares to make its meteor freak of the week someone who matters. By investing Clark emotionally in Alicia’s story, the episode transcends its genre trappings to deliver something genuinely affecting. It’s a reminder that the best Smallville episodes weren’t just about superpowers and special effects—they were about the very human struggles of a young man trying to find his place in the world.

Sarah Carter’s Alicia Baker deserved better than the tragic end she received, but her brief time in Smallville left an indelible mark on both Clark Kent and the series itself. In a show often criticized for its relationship melodrama, “Obsession” stands as proof that sometimes the melodrama was exactly the point.

“Maybe that means I’ll always be alone,” Clark tells his mother at the episode’s end, and for a moment, we believe him. It’s that kind of genuine vulnerability that makes “Obsession” essential viewing for any Smallville retrospective. Sometimes the best episodes are the ones that hurt the most.