Metropolis has decided to honor its caped defender with "Superman Week" — something the honoree is finding a huge pain in the neck, since he has to somehow fit a long list of ceremonies and other events in between his normal duties as a reporter and crime-fighter. To add to his problems, Perry White wants him to investigate an underworld figure named Sy Horton.
Jimmy Olsen, however, intercepts White's message to Clark and decides to go after Horton himself. This ends up with his getting captured and fed a truth serum which forces him to reveal the events of "The Defeat of Superman", which ended with a hunk of Kryptonite being sealed in a lead pipe and thrown into the bay. Jimmy later confesses this to Clark, who tells him to meet him that night at Clark's apartment. Jimmy arrives to find Clark with the lead pipe in hand — and also that he's been tailed by Horton and his partner Matthew Tips.
The two thugs take the pipe and set a trap for Superman by posing as a sculptor named Van DeGlass, for whom Superman is posing that day. When Superman arrives, he appears to succumb to the Kryptonite. But when the crooks go on to try to rob a bank, it turns out that the kryptonite in the pipe was fake — Clark had planned for them to steal it all along.
DeGlass's sculpture turns out to be handy for another reason: so that "Clark Kent" can interview Superman on TV, in the crowning moment of Superman Week.
This episode contains examples of:
- Bad Liar: Jimmy Olsen pretends to be a telephone repairman to get into Horton's lair, but it doesn't work very well.
- Batman Gambit: Superman does a very good job of anticipating exactly what Horton and Tips are going to do.
- Call-Back: A rare example for a series of this vintage, as the show follows up on the events of "The Defeat of Superman" in the previous season.
- Forgot About His Powers: Averted. It at first appears that Superman is fooled by Horton disguising himself as DeGlass despite his X-ray vision, but actually Superman knows exactly what's going on.
- Holding Both Sides of the Conversation: Clark manages to interview himself at the end, using a tape recorder and his custom-made bust.
- Slipping a Mickey: Horton and Tips drug the coffee of the guard watching the payroll money they're trying to steal, but Superman has anticipated that one too.
- Truth Serum: It works like a charm on Jimmy.
