Daily Planet. Lois, with Perry at her side, marvels at how he was able to get her job back. Her nameplate has been restored to her desk. Clark's, too, is back to its familiar station opposite hers. Perry plays it off as "no big deal," just a little talk with her boss. Lois beams. "Well, I will never forget this, and neither will Clark." Perry compliments her on their teamwork and asks her to go with him to Nairobi, where he's supposedly tracked down the Red Queen's new location. Lois is tempted, but realized, after working with him, that she doesn't need to go elsewhere to find her "higher calling." "I needed to find the hero inside myself," she says. He shakes her hand and heads up the stairs. She calls him "Chief" for no real reason at this point. He stops long enough to tell her, "Oh and tell Clark we're even. I owed him one from a long time ago." Lois goes back to her desk, taking it all in, running her hands over the computer keyboard. Suddenly, there's a whoosh that ruffles her hair. When she looks down, there's a note on her desk that reads, "It's time for us to finally meet. -- The Blur." Lois frowns, because, like, didn't they just agree not to meet face-to-face? Something sneaky going on!

Kent house. Clark comes home to find his mom baking pies in their gorgeous antique oven. Sunlight streams into the kitchen through the open windows. He looks at the scene for a moment, taking it in. Then, sadly: "I can't believe you have to go back to being Senator Kent today." "It's just the two of us here," she says. "I'm your mom and nobody else." What an odd thing to say. Clark is totally on to her, even as he wishes for her to come back more often for visits. She promises to be back soon. "Maybe next time, you could ease up on the Kryptonite," he says, watching her closely to gauge her reaction. She pauses, but pretends to busy herself with various pie-related matters. She feigns ignorance, unable to look at him. He tells her he knows that she threw Perry and Lois off the trail and went after the Book of Rao. "You're the Red Queen. Why didn't you come to me with this?" he asks. Dropping the ruse, she tells him, "Because I didn't want you in the line of fire." Clark is surprised she would involve Perry, but she says she had no idea he was on to her. Really? You know when Chloe's Googling you, but you don't know when your own boyfriend is gathering reams of research on you? "He makes me laugh," she says, her chin quivering. "He makes me feel like everything's going to be okay." Now she realizes she can't keep him in her life anymore. Clark ignores his mom's breaking heart and instead asks for the Book of Rao. He needs it to save Earth. "It's what you and Dad raised me for," he says. "It's my destiny." She exposits about going to Washington and learning about "forces" that were working against Clark, because they always tell junior members of the Senate about super-secret alien-fighting agencies. She wanted to protect him and invented the Red Queen to do it. She goes to her purse and gives him the disk. She breaks into tears, afraid of losing him. He tries to assure her he'll always be there for her, but she corrects him: The disk will get rid of the Kandorians, vanish them to "another plane of existence," but it'll send Clark away, too. Clark's face goes, "Ruh-roh!" End credits.