Okay, let's rewind a little:
A few days prior, Clark took the case of Ernest Walker, a thief who was framed for murder after he tried to fence the victim's necklace. Walker claims that he never killed the person, and Clark's Super-Senses prove that he isn't lying, although Kurt Bowman (who we last saw as a suspect in Target), the detective in charge of the case, insists that he's guilty. So now it's up to Clark to prove it in the week he has before Walker gets the death penalty. He does it with the power of pizza- delivery records of a pizza parlor show that Walker had gotten a pizza delivered right when the murder had taken place. Walker can't have been at home receiving the pizza and out burglarizing and murdering somebody at the same time, right? Case closed!
Problem is, now that Clark's so close to clearing the main suspect, the actual culprit gets antsy and places a bomb in his car, sending it careening off into the ocean, observed by a fishing boat. Clark survives unharmed, of course, but the evidence is lost... and, with a witness to what happened, he can't just change clothes and walk back claiming he escaped the car before the bomb went off. No human would have survived that, so in the eyes of most of the world, Clark Kent is dead.
So, back to the present. Lois investigates Clark's death, and interviews the fisherman who witnessed it. Poor Superman is stumped about how to realistically bring Clark back, as he doesn't think he could stand being Superman 24/7. In the meantime, he continues his investigation as Superman; after all, there's an innocent man to exonerate and a killer to bring to justice. When he and Lois are investigating Clark's apartment, yet another bomb goes off, though Superman is able to save Lois and notice Bowman near the building. Lois also reveals something important: the witness to Clark's death was extremely nearsighted and wasn't wearing his glasses, giving Superman a way out if he can think up an explanation for why he didn't contact his friends and family all this time.
Lois and Superman then set up a plot to bait Bowman into revealing himself as the killer by confronting him and goading him into trying to kill her to cover everything up, with Superman at the ready to save her. Bowman runs and steals a helicopter, but this is nowhere near enough to stop Superman, who catches him, saves Walker from the gas chamber, and reveals the true culprit. Lana Lang helps cover for Clark's survival by claiming that he was recovering at her place and too weak to call anyone else.
Meanwhile, Detective Bowman has been sentenced to the gas chamber, the same fate he would have inflicted upon Ernest Walker. While waiting for his execution, he wonders how Clark could survive the car bomb, and realizes that he's Superman... too late to do anything about it, as the executioner throws the lever.
Tropes:
- Angst? What Angst?: Invoked when Superman spots Lois leaving the in-progress funeral.Clark: Well, so much for sentiment.
- Also Clark’s parents’ nonchalant reaction on the phone after being informed of his "death". Of course, it helps that he happened to be in the exact same room when they were called.
- Artistic License – Law: The death penalty comes with a pretty much automatic appeal, and would take years to wind its way through the courts, for Walker or Bowman. It happening so soon is just to give the episode a ticking clock.
- Attending Your Own Funeral: The episode begins with Superman off in the distance watching a funeral. That's when it's revealed that the funeral is for Clark.
- Aw, Look! They Really Do Love Each Other: A mostly one-way example, as Lois monologues to Superman about how she regrets how much she used to tease him, and that she wishes she had told him how much she respects and likes him when she had the chance.
- Big Damn Heroes:
- After Bowman pushes Lois over the rail, Superman comes through the wall to save her.
- Superman breaks into the gas chamber to save Walker.
- Big "WHAT?!": Lois upon learning that Clark is still alive and at Lana's.
- Blind Without 'Em: Fortunately, it turns out that the fisherman who saw Clark's bombed car fall into the ocean has extremely poor vision and wasn't wearing his glasses, thus providing a plausible explanation for Clark to turn up alive. Lana Lang, who knows about his dual identity, claims that she'd been taking care of him while he recuperated.
- Can't Get Away with Nuthin': The one time Clark tries to do something for himself ("I wanted this to be Clark's victory, not Superman's"), he ends up trapped as Superman for a while. Worse, the only reason Bowman catches onto how close Clark was getting and steps in to kill him is because Clark decided to call Lois and gloat about busting the case open while Bowman had his phone tapped — and he intentionally chooses not to share any details, to make the victory sweeter. In narration, Clark later chides himself for letting his ego affect his judgment.
- Clear Their Name: Clark is trying to do it when someone "kills" him.
- Cover-Blowing Superpower: Clark Kent's car is destroyed by a car bomb and he is thrown off a cliff into the ocean, forcing him to fake his death rather than reveal that he's okay, because there is no way a normal man could survive the explosion and there were witnesses to it (or so he thinks). The trope is also inverted: Since Clark was "killed" in the explosion, and took the only evidence of a condemned man's innocence with him, Superman has to figure out how to catch the assailant and exonerate the innocent man before his execution, without using Clark's information or identity.
- Death by Secret Identity: Detective Bowman figures out Clark Kent is Superman right at the end of the episode, the very moment he gets executed.
- Deducing the Secret Identity: At the ending of this episode, as he sits in his cell waiting for his execution, Detective Bowman tries to puzzle out how Clark Kent could've survived a car bomb that blew up his car and sent the wreckage careening into the ocean. It's only moments before the execution is carried out that it hits him: the only way Clark Kent could've survived the assassination attempt would've been if he was actually Superman. He takes this revelation to the grave.
- Dirty Cop: Detective Bowman killed a wealthy woman and framed Walker for the murder. It wasn't difficult for him, since he conducted the investigation that led to Walker's culpability.
- Dramatic Irony: By the end of the story, Lois learns that Clark "merely" escaped the explosion with nothing but a few injuries, amnesia, and seemingly spent it recuperating in the lap of luxury with Lana. To this, Lois claims she's jealous of Clark's "endless luck". Little does she know Clark (as Superman) has had his fair share of hard luck these past few days (trying to bring back "Clark", fighting off Bowman, racing against time to prove Walker's innocence).
- Easy Amnesia: How Clark explains away his survival in the end.
- "Eureka!" Moment: Detective Bowman figures out that Clark Kent is Superman but is unable to use this for anything since he's seconds away from being executed by then.
- Also for Clark Kent himself. At the newsroom, just before he was about to eat the pizza a co-worker left behind, he remembered that the thief claimed to have eaten pizza at the night of the murder, which he could use as evidence to clear his name.
- Everyone Has Standards: Ernest admits to frequently committing thefts, but insists that he never hurt anyone.
- Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: Lois tries to point out to Bowman that clearly the killer who framed Walker was the one who planted the bomb that "killed" Clark. Bowman responds that, because Clark is a reporter, that automatically means everyone hated him for sticking his nose where he shouldn't. This argument proves empty, as Bowman clearly doesn't know that even for being a reporter, Clark's a kindly and pleasant individual, and he doesn't have nearly as many enemies as Superman himself.
- Faking the Dead: Clark survives a murder attempt but initially has no way to explain his survival without revealing that he's Superman.
- Frame-Up: Ernest Walker was framed for murder by Bowman. He was the case's lead investigator, which was how he was able to plant the evidence and make the accusation stick.
- Freeze-Frame Bonus: If you look closely at the figure in shadow as Clark drives out of the parking lot you'll notice that it's Bowman.
- Green-Eyed Monster: Lois is clearly displeased that Clark (according to his cover story) remembered Lana's name and phone number rather than hers when he (supposedly) needed help. Lana clearly enjoys rubbing it in her face.
- Hardboiled Detective: Of the Lighter and Softer variety - this episode is essentially "Superman does a Hard-Boiled Detective story".
- Hoist by His Own Petard: Bowman gets his comeuppance in the very gas chamber he tried to have Ernest Walker executed in.
- Honor Before Reason: Had Lois not been in Clark's apartment at the time, Superman was fully prepared to go to the governor and reveal his secret in order to save Ernest from execution.
- How We Got Here: The episode starts with Clark's funeral and then it goes back to the beginning of the events that led Detective Bowman to want him dead.
- Killer Cop: Detective Bowman tries to kill Clark and later, Lois and Superman. He also murdered a wealthy woman and framed Walker for it.
- Irony:
- Clark realizes he can't escape from the wreck in the beginning of the episode, because an eyewitness would see him and figure out his secret. Halfway through the episode, he learns as Superman that the eyewitness was blind as a bat, so he could have saved his identity regardless - but by that point, Clark has been "missing" for so long thanks to his decision that nobody would believe he wasn't dead anyway.
- Bowman tries to argue to Lois that of course someone planted a bomb in Clark's car because him being a reporter means he would automatically have enemies. He's only half right: Clark's too nice to make enemies, but there are plenty of criminals and bad guys who would want to see Superman dead.
- Little "No": Ernest, as the gas is released.
- Living Lie Detector: As Ernest pleads his innocence, Clark notices the steadiness of his heartbeat. Based on that, he thinks that Ernest is telling the truth and starts looking for evidence to exonerate him.
- Miscarriage of Justice: Nearly happens. Ernest comes within seconds of being executed for a murder he didn't commit.
- No One Could Survive That!: Clark Kent clearly would have been killed if he were a normal human, and can't reappear until Superman finds some way to explain his survival without revealing his secret.
- Noir Episode: It's essentially a noir mystery with Superman. He even engages in a Private Eye Monologue throughout.
- Not Me This Time: Walker who is on death row, admits that he was a thief who committed robbery plenty of times, but he never hurt anybody and did not kill the woman he was convicted of murdering.
- Not So Above It All: Clark can't resist calling Lois early in the morning to gloat that he found the evidence to clear Walker.
- Oh, Crap!: As he's placed into a gas chamber for his execution, Bowman ponders over how Clark could have survived being blown up by a car bomb. The revelation comes to him shortly before his death.Bowman: He's Superman!
- Ooh, Me Accent's Slipping: Lois' actress can't quite hold back her New York accent when she starts to tear up looking at the photograph of her and Clark.
- Returning to the Scene: Superman spots Detective Bowman on the street right after Clark's apartment is blown up, which points him toward the real killer.
- Revealing Cover Up: Bowman's attempt to prevent Clark from digging up evidence to exonerate Ernest leads to him being implicated as the real killer and the perpetrator of the frame-up. There's no real indication that he would have been in danger if he'd simply let Clark prove Ernest's innocence; even if this led to a new cold-case investigation, he'd have been in a perfect position to sabotage it.
- Revisiting the Roots: Possibly an unintentional example, but the premise of Superman saving a wrongly-convicted death row inmate was literally his first act of heroism back in Action Comics #1.
- Riddle for the Ages: Bowman's motive for committing murder is left open for the viewer to speculate. It's also unknown whether Ernest simply happened to be a convenient patsy or if Bowman chose him as the fall guy for some reason.
- Right for the Wrong Reasons: Bowman suggests to Lois that Clark had numerous enemies who'd want to kill him. Even though he's the one responsible for this, he's still technically right, but it's not because Clark's a reporter as he suggests.
- Secret Identity: Discussed. This episode clearly establishes Superman considers his Clark Kent identity as essential to stay in touch with humanity, and would go completely insane without it.Martha: Well, this is a fine mess.
Jonathan: It's not like he's really dead, Martha. He just can't be Clark anymore.
Superman: But I am Clark. I need to be Clark. I'd go crazy if I had to be Superman all the time! - Spoiler Title: Averted. Unlike most episodes, the title isn't shown before the opening credits. Rather, it's saved for after the revelation that the in-universe characters believe Clark to be dead.
- Vitriolic Best Buds: Discussed.Lois: [looking at a picture of Clark] I always teased him, but I had so much respect. [cries] And I liked him too, I really did. I wish I'd told him.
- Wham Line: At the funeral.Priest: We must not forget the good times and the warm feelings we have for a colleague and a friend named Clark Kent.
- Wham Shot: Superman seeing Bowman in the crowd of onlookers outside Clark's building.
