Clark helps a young boy with a mind-reading talent escape the clutches of his evil step-father and his wife.

Who's Ryan? He's a young boy (guest-star Ryan Kelly) whose step-father and his wife use his mind-reading talents to steal and pull scams. When one of their schemes goes awry, and a pawn shop owner is killed, Ryan flees the scene. While racing from his stepfather, Ryan runs into a dark, secluded road and is hit by Martha's car. Martha takes him to the hospital where he checks out OK, but claims to have no memory of who his parents are. The doctors tell the Kents they believe Ryan has been abused and is pretending to have no memory. Because of the late hour, the hospital releases Ryan to the Kent's care while child services tries to track down his parents. Ryan takes an immediate liking to the Kents. It's pretty clear he wants to be adopted by them. He tells Clark he feels "peaceful" around him.

What's up with Clark? Clark and Ryan get along great; Ryan being the little brother Clark never had. However, while Ryan is seemingly able to read everyone's minds (he makes the breakfasts Jonathan and Martha were thinking they wanted), he can't read Clark's mind. Clark takes Ryan to meet Chloe. Chloe is fascinated by Ryan's memory loss. Ryan reads her mind too and tells Clark Chloe wants him to take her to the prom; she's even selected a pink dress for the dance. Clark dismisses this, still not clued into Ryan's mind-reading capabilities. Later, when Ryan flees from the coffee shop after seeing his stepfather, Clark saves Ryan from being crushed in a trash compactor.

What's up with Lex? Because of Lex's rousing success in Smallville, his father asks him to come to work as his right-hand man in Metropolis. Lex says he will consider it and agrees to meet with him in Metropolis. When Ryan meets Lex, he tells Clark to beware of him. Later, Lex tells Clark about the Metropolis offer. They chat about Ryan and Clark asks Lex if he ever wished he had a sibling. Lex says he did have a sibling; his parents had another baby when Lex was 11. Lex said he could tell his father was going to favor the baby, named Julian, and pit the brothers against each other later in life. However, baby Julian mysteriously stopped breathing on the morning he was to be christened.

How Ryan's talents are exposed: After reading Martha's mind, Ryan does a little snooping around and discovers the spaceship chunk in the Kent's cellar. Clark finds him there and Ryan confesses he can read the thoughts on the surface of people's minds, but he can't read Clark's. However, through reading Martha and Jonathan, he figured out Clark's secret. He tells Clark his secret is safe with him if Clark will keep Ryan's secret safe as well. Ryan tells Clark about how his mother died and his evil step-father is forcing him to use his mind-reading to pull scams.

How it all ends up: Posing as a family services worker, Ryan's evil step-mom comes to the Kent house to pick him up. Ryan is forced to go without saying goodbye to Clark who is not home yet. Clark returns and is upset Ryan is gone. Lex stops by on his way to Metropolis and gives Clark a sort-of going away present: an antique foil (sword). Clark tells Lex he hopes he decides not to take the job in Metropolis. Meanwhile, Chloe has done some research and has discovered that Ryan's stepfather has a criminal record. She shows Clark a mugshot of the guy and Clark recognizes him as the driver of Lex's limo. In his special Clark way, he races to catch up with the limo.

Meanwhile the stepfather pulls the limo over and the step mom and Ryan get in. The step father makes Ryan read Lex's mind to discover the password to Lex's trust fund account. The password is Julian. Lex is tossed out of the limo and shortly thereafter Clark discovers him. Lex is OK so Clark races after the limo to find Ryan. Ryan and the step-monsters arrive at a roadside bowling alley parking lot. As the stepfather is trying to access Lex's account on a computer he gets into a fight with the step-mother. Ryan tells the step-mother that the step-dad plans on killing her after the job is done. The step-father shoots her and the bowling alley manager who has come out to see what's going on. Ryan flees into the building and tries to hide behind the bowling pins. The stepfather tracks him down and is about to shoot when Clark, using his X-ray vision, hurls a bowling ball into the stepfather and saves Ryan.

What happens to Ryan: He is on his way to go live with his aunt (whom he knows is a nice person). Before he goes, he asks Clark if he wants to know what Lana's secret is; it's about Clark. Clark says no, he'd like to find out about Lana on his own. Ryan does warn Clark about Lex (who decided not to take the job in Metropolis): Ryan says beware, Lex has a dark side.