Linda Lake (portrayed by Tori Spelling) was a supporting character from the TV series Smallville. She was a gossip columnist at the Daily Planet who made her living by running sensationalist stories that painted their subjects in a negative light. She was also a metahuman, having gained the ability to manipulate and transform into water following the 2005 meteor shower. With her new power, she was able to invade people's privacy and discover their secrets without their knowledge. She tried to do the same to Clark Kent, only to be defeated and exposed.
Biography[]
Early history[]
In 2005, Smallville was struck by another meteor shower. Linda was reporting on the event as it occurred, but her news van crashed into Crater Lake. Linda survived, but the exposure to kryptonite radiation endowed her with hydrokinetic powers, allowing her to transform into water. With this power, she started spying on people and learning their darkest secrets, then used that knowledge to smear these individuals in her gossip column, the "Daily Dish".
Season 6[]
First appearing in the episode "Hydro", Linda ruins the career of Metropolis Meteors baseball player Mike Dawson by publishing an article stating that he used steroids to improve his performance. One evening, Dawson approaches Linda and attacks her, determined to stop her from destroying anyone else like she had done to him. Linda fled and vanished into a fountain. When Dawson approached the fountain, she reformed and pulled his head under the water, drowning him.
Linda later uses her power to eavesdrop on Chloe Sullivan and Lana Lang, learning that Lana is due to marry Lex Luthor but still harbours feelings for Clark Kent. She publishes the story, causing all sorts of problems for Clark, Lana, Chloe and Lex. After Lex reads the article, he meets with Linda and offers her a blank cheque to dig up any information she can on Lana and Clark.
Linda infiltrates Chloe's apartment and overhears Chloe state that Clark is an alien and then writes another story about him, but Chloe breaks into her office and smashes her laptop. Linda then chases Chloe with a nail gun, intending to kill her, but Chloe manages to escape. She follows Chloe to the street where they start to fight again but is beaten by Chloe and run over by Lana. She bursts into a splash of water, which drains away.
Season 8[]
Some time before her next on-screen appearance, Linda found herself incarcerated at Black Creek, a LuthorCorp facility that ran experiments on metahumans. LuthorCorp had only been able to hold her after learning that electricity caused her molecules to stabilize and render her solid. After Tess Mercer had Black Creek shut down, Linda was free to resume her career.
Returning in the episode "Infamous", Linda learns about Clark's secret and how he's been using his powers to save people as the "Red-Blue Blur". She attempts to revive her career by threatening Clark, demanding that she have exclusive rights to report on his heroics, otherwise she will expose his identity to the world. Clark tries to get one up on Linda by revealing his identity on his own terms, telling Lois Lane about his secret. This makes Clark a celebrity overnight, but Linda strikes back by publishing a story that states that Clark is merely the first wave of an alien invasion.
After the public and authorities turn against him, Clark realises that going public was a mistake. However, having obtained a ring from the Legion of Super-Heroes that allows the user to travel through time (acquired in the episode "Legion"), Clark decides to travel back two days into the past. This allows him to stop Linda before she completes her article and he takes her down by electrocuting her, rendering her solid.
Death[]
While incarcerated in Metropolis General's Criminal Investigation Ward, Linda calls upon Davis Bloome to free her. While she had been at large, Linda had discovered Davis in the midst of one of his Doomsday transformations, deciding to use this information to blackmail him into releasing her. What Linda did not understand was that Davis lost all self-control when he changed and her threats triggered another transformation. Davis was able to subdue Doomsday by murdering Linda, grabbing her pillow and smothering her with it. With the electrical cuffs on her arms, Linda couldn't transform into her water state and was suffocated.