Brutal Youth is the fifth episode of the fourth season.
Plot[]
Jimmy's boyhood pal comes staggering into the newsroom - white haired, wrinkled and old.
Plot Summary[]
Lois and Clark return from their honeymoon when an old man shows up at the Daily Planet asking for Jimmy. Before he tells him what he wants, the man drops dead and despite looking over seventy, his identity says he was a friend of Jimmy's named Benny Rockland that he is in his twenties. Lois and Clark go to Dr. Klein to find out what happened to him while a prisoner named Conner Shenk escapes from prison.
At S.T.A.R. Labs, Lois finds out that Superman's ageing process is different to a normal person. His Kryptonian molecular structure slows it down and will continue making him look young while Lois will look old as any other human being.
This greatly upsets Lois and she begins to see herself in the future as a very old woman compared to her youthful husband, even though Clark assures her that even if it is true, it will never change how he feels about her.
Meanwhile Jimmy, anxious to be a famous reporter himself, investigates on his own and gets captured by a scientist named Vita Duetsen who made experiments on youth. She was behind Shenk's escape as she needed another prisoner to test out her youth force machine. She tries the machine on both Jimmy and Shenk which makes Shenk young, but Jimmy to grow old at a terrible rate.
Shenk seems to be going back to his old self and along with Duetsen, decide that Superman's body would be ideal for making him young again and also knowing that Jimmy would be dead from the ageing process in a matter of hours decide to bring Superman to them.
Superman arrives with Lois outside and they tell him their terms. Shenk uses the machine first and rapidly ages backwards into a baby. Superman takes him away and places Jimmy in the machine which thanks to the Man of Steel's youth restores him to normal. Duetsen is then arrested with Shenks who will age back to his normal old self.
Clark is not displeased at losing some of his years as it helped his friend to survive and he later buys Duetsen's house much to Lois's delight where they can happily live together.
Guest Cast[]
Recurring cast[]
- Kenneth Kimmins as Dr. Bernard Klein
Special guest star[]
- Jack Larson as Old Jimmy Olsen
Guest starring[]
- Caroline McWilliams as Dr. Vita Deutsen
- John D'Aquino as Young Conner Schenk
Co-starring[]
- Sandy Ward as Old Connor Schenk
- Don Keefer as Old Benny Rockland
- Randl Ask as Mister Larry
- Lynn Tufeld as Bank Teller
- Steven Rodriguez as Guard
- Barbara Pilavin as Old Lois Lane
Trivia[]
Jack Larson had originally played Jimmy Olsen in Adventures of Superman.
| Season 4 (1996-1997) |
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 Episodes: |