Zor-El (Smallville)

Zor-El is a villain appearing in two episodes of Season Seven of the television series Smallville. He was portrayed by Christopher Heyerdahl, who also portrayed John Druitt in Sanctuary and Alastair in Supernatural.

History
Zor-El was the younger brother of Jor-El, the father of Kara, and the uncle of Kal-El/Clark Kent. Like his brother, he was a scientist. His relationship with Jor-El was strained; Kara once stated to Clark that Zor-El and Jor-El didn't talk a lot. When questioned about Zor-El by Clark, the artificial intelligence version of Jor-El asserted that Zor-El was untrustworthy. Jor-El later stated that Zor-El's experiments were motivated by greed and power-lust.

In the episode "Lara," a flashback set in 1986 shows Zor-El following Kara to Earth, where he finds her on the Kent Farm with Jor-El's wife Lara-El. After ordering Kara outside the Kents's farmhouse, Zor-El professes his love for Lara, only to learn that she's pregnant with Jor-El's son. It's then revealed that Zor-El attempted to assasinate Jor-El so he could have Lara all to himself, and also that he had taken Lara's DNA and put it inside a blue crystal. Despite Lara's protests, Zor-El tried to have his way with Lara but caught Kara eavesdropping on the whole scene. Angered, Zor-El used a Kryptonian crystal to erase Kara's memories of the incident.

Later, when Krypton was about to explode, Zor-El placed his daughter in a red Kryptonian spaceship along with the blue crystal, which he explained to Kara contained instructions for her to follow once she arrived on Earth and found her cousin Kal-El. After launching Kara away from Krypton, Zor-El died with the rest of his people.

In "Blue," Clark hears his Kryptonian birth mother's pleas for help coming from the blue crystal, which teleports him to the Fortress of Solitude. There, he places the crystal into the Fortress's console, creating clones of Lara and Zor-El and bringing the Fortress under Zor-El's control. Zor-El comes to the Kent Farm and speaks with Kara, claiming he has turned from his evil ways. Later, he goes to LuthorCorp and attacks Lionel Luthor, Jor-El's oracle, to coerce him to tell Clark/Kal-El to follow him. When Lionel refuses, Zor-El prepares to kill him until Clark arrives and punches Zor-El out the window; however, Zor-El flies off.

Sometime after that, Zor-El confronts Clark and tries to persuade him to join him in re-creating Krypton on Earth. When Clark refuses and attempts to attack him, Zor-El blocks him and throws him against a car, revealing that Clark has been stripped of his powers after putting on Jor-El's victory ring (which contained blue kryptonite, which in turn temporarily strips a Kryptonian of his powers) which he made sure Lara had on her person after being resurrected by the blue crystal. When Clark refuses to join him a second time, Zor-El spares Clark's life for Lara's sake, then goes to Queen Tower, where he incapacitates Lana Lang and kidnaps Lara.

Zor-El brings Lara to the Fortress, where Kara is waiting. He then reveals his plan to use the Fortress of Solitude to bring about a solar eclipse that will wipe out humanity so he and Lara can re-populate Earth and thus turn it into a new Krypton. Later, Zor-El returns after trying to find Clark and is attacked by Kara using a Kryptonian dagger. He begins to strangle his daughter and knocks Lara backward when she attempts to stop him. Fortunately, Clark arrives with a chunk of green kryptonite which he uses to weaken Zor-El and cause him to release Kara. When Clark removes the blue crystal from the Fortress's console and stalls over smashing it, Zor-El manages to get the green kryptonite off of his chest and prepares to impale Kara on a cluster of crystals, but is stopped when Clark destroys the blue crystal, killing both Zor-El and Lara, and eliminating the victory ring.