Watchtower. Tess fires up the same doohickey that Emil used a while back to fix the broken mirror box. This time, she's using it to activate the Phantom Zone key. It's sort of an all-purpose doohickey. Clark's plan is to go into the Zone to figure out who released Slade, but Tess isn't keen on the idea. Oliver walks through the doors, ready for the road trip Clark didn't realizing they were teaming up for. Clark turns to Tess, looking genuinely hurt. "You told him I was going in?" he asks. Tess doesn't have time to answer. Miffed, Oliver says, "I come back here, willing to risk life and limb with you in the Phantom Zone, and I get not so much as a welcome back?" They could at least compliment him on his hair, which did a lot of growing in the last few weeks. Clark turns his accusatory gaze back to Tess, who explains that Clark will be powerless up there. "Oliver has a lot more experience with that." "Thanks," Oliver says dryly. I hope Justin Hartley gets to do something comedic after this. Clark is totally against Oliver coming along. Oliver doesn't put up a fight. Tess gives Clark a device that looks like a watch, saying, "Thanks to Booster's upgrade, Watchtower should be able to maintain two-way communication using the frequency vibrations in the crystal." So... magic? Also, it seems sort of like cheating to use tech from the future. They're going to end up with a whole bunch of Terminators down the road. Tess does some fiddling at the computer and gets the crystal up and running. Sparkly blue light swells out from it. As Clark walks toward it, Oliver suddenly jumps him from behind and they both fall into the light. Tess looks scared. Somebody save them!

They land with a thud in the desolate waste of the Phantom Zone. It looks like the Fortress, but with black crystals instead of white and sand instead of snow. Oliver groans, "If I'd known about the long drop in, I would have brought some rappelling equipment." That Oliver, always ready with the jokes. You know what he should have been ready with? Weapons. Clark is pissed. He grabs Oliver by the lapels of his jacket and gives him a little shake, angry that Oliver didn't trust him. Oliver pushes his hands away, equally pissed at Clark for not having faith in his friends. "I came here to help you," he says. "Wherever the hell this is." He gets a look around for the first time. Everything looks simultaneously dark and overexposed under harsh, gritty light. There are so many lens flares throughout the episode that you might think for a moment you're watching J.J. Abrams's Star Trek. Or that maybe the Phantom Zone is inside some sort of giant, intergalactic disco ball.