Smallville shows the darkest moment in any movie or TV show for Superman’s archenemy Lex Luthor. Smallville first began in 2001, running for 10 seasons and telling the story of a young Clark Kent (Tom Welling) on his journey to eventually becoming Superman. Lex Luthor (Michael Rosenbaum) is an equally central character on the show, he and Clark becoming good friends after the latter saves his life, with Lex suspecting there is more to Clark than meets the eye.
As a parallel to Clark’s evolution into Superman, Smallville also shows Lex’s transformation into a villain. Lex Luthor has been played by numerous actors in many different Superman movies and shows, with all showing his unrivaled diabolical intellect and determination to destroy the Man of Steel. However, no moment of Lex Luthor villainy in any Superman adaptation compares to Lex’s ruthless act of murder in Smallville‘s season 7 episode “Persona”.
Lex Orders The Assassination Of His Brother Julian (& It Destroys Him)
In Smallville season 7, Grant Gabriel (Michael Cassidy) is revealed to be a clone of Lex’s deceased brother Julian. Julian was originally killed as an infant by Lex’s mother Lillian (Alison Down), who saw it as a mercy killing to spare Julian the cruel, Machiavellian parenting methods of Lionel Luthor (John Glover). The adult Julian eventually seeks out a relationship with Lionel, much to Lex’s dismay. By this point in Smallville, Lionel knows Clark’s secret and is reformed into a far better man, but the vengeful Lex cuts his and Julian’s relationship short when he orders the murder of his own brother.
When Lex receives a text from his hired assassin confirming Julian’s death, he is far from elated to learn that his brother has died a second time, going out onto his balcony to scream into the night sky. As a child, Lex had taken the blame for Julian’s death in order to save his mother from Lionel’s wrath, so however much he might have seen the new Julian as a threat, ordering his second death still breaks his heart. As such, this is also the moment on Smallville where Lex’s finally goes over the edge.
Lex Killing Julian Completes His Dark Turn
In Smallville, Lex’s determination to learn Clark’s secret is a central component of his story, and shows that despite their friendship, Lex clearly has a dark side. While this is a natural byproduct of growing up under Lionel when his father was still consumed by evil, Lex’s drift towards becoming a villain himself is still gradual, and something that Clark tries to stop. Lex’s transformation speeds up over the course of the show, and by the time he orders Julian’s death in “Persona”, all hope for Lex being pulled back from his dark abyss is lost.
Lex’s fate as a villain is fully sealed a few episodes later in “Descent” when he murders Lionel. Still, while Lionel Luthor’s death was Smallville‘s most tragic, Julian’s death is, in a sense, also the death of Lex Luthor. The fact that Lex himself knows that he has finally crossed the line by ordering the murder of his brother simply seals Julian’s death on Smallville as Lex Luthor’s darkest act of evil.
