When Lana is assaulted by three drunken customers at The Talon, Clark defends her and ends up throwing the main antagonist onto the new Sheriff's car. The new uptight Smallville sheriff, Nancy Adams, arrests Clark for assault and battery but later dismisses the charges and gives Clark 40 hours of community service instead. Andrew Connors, the man that Clark threw onto the Sheriff's car, fakes a serious injury and attempts to sue the Kents. With the abrasive Sheriff Adams unwilling to help Clark and his family, Lana decides to help Clark expose Connors as a phony. Meanwhile, Helen is stalked by her ex-boyfriend, Paul Hayden. When Paul attacks and nearly kills Helen, a vengeful Lex teams up with Clark to track down Paul to the train station before he can skip town.

Clark gets an inverse make-over from Lois, in order to become a gray mouse when the Blur goes public. Just then, a flashy media-hungry new superhero emerges: Booster Gold, who systematically steals the show. Clark discovers Booster came from the future with a Legionnaire's ring, probably stolen. Generally bullied, shy schoolboy Jaime Reyes is inadvertently infected with the alien scarab which Booster was hired to retrieve for industrialist Ted Kord, hence transformed into the Blue Beetle, an uncontrollable monster. Clark could just expose Booster as a fake coward, but chooses to educate him in superhero ethics.