Adrian Cross was a faulty clone of Lex Luthor's deceased brother Julian in the WB/CW TV series Smallville. He served as the main antagonist in the Season 7 episode "Gemini".
He was portrayed by Tim Guinee, who also portrayed Richard Morriston in Law & Order, David Bishop in Law & Order: Criminal Intent and George Zane in Law & Order: Special Victims Unit
Biography[]
Early life[]
Adrian was manufactured by Lex Luthor's secret Project Gemini. He was programmed with a set of false memories in order to live a life in the outside world. He claimed to be the first clone to survive the project, but a defect in his genetic sequencing caused him to age at an accelerated rate.
Lex would later succeed in creating a perfect stable clone of Julian naming him Grant Gabriel and discarded Adrian. Determined to expose Lex's crimes before his death, Adrian went to extreme lengths to complete his goal.
Season Seven[]
First, Adrian planted a bomb on Chloe Sullivan's secret Santa gift. Then he left a cellphone for Lois Lane to answer despite it not belonging to her. Adrian told her that Chloe had a bomb on her and if she didn't stop ignoring him, Chloe will die. Adrian told Lois his name and tells her his story of being an escaped clone from LuthorCorp, his body was aging at a rapid rate and he expects to die very soon. As they talked, Lois attempted to e-mail Chloe a warning, but her internet line was cut.
Adrian called her again and warned her not to disobey him. Frightened, Lois mistook a delivery man as Adrian and confronted him but he thought she was just crazy. As he turned to leave, he fell back toward Lois, dead from being stabbed with a pair of scissors. Lois' cell phone rang and Adrian warned her again to keep her mouth shut. Lois still attempted to warn Chloe about the bomb. She tried to get a woman to deliver a manila envelope to Chloe which has a warning written on the back.
The woman handed the letter to Chloe, who told Lois that Clark was back and she is leaving to go visit him. At this time, Lois received a text message from Adrian, warning Lois not to tell Chloe anything. Chloe suspected that something was bothering Lois, but she doesn't say anything. Chloe shares an awkward elevator ride with Jimmy when she turned the envelope over and reads Lois' warning message about the bomb.
At that moment, the elevator suddenly brakes, trapping Chloe and Jimmy with the bomb. Lois noticed an "out of service" sign on the elevator. She begins to walk toward it, but was stopped by Adrian, who is holding the detonator in his hand and demanding his story. Lois showed Adrian her article about LuthorCorp's first clone. Adrian told her about his family and his Christmas memories, then reveals that they were all fictitious memories downloaded into his brain. Lois promises to publish the story if Adrian will let Chloe go, but Adrian had another mission for Lois. She must force Lex to confess what he's done.
Using Chloe as leverage, Adrian forced Lois to use her scheduled interview with Lex as a platform to have him admit knowledge and responsibility of Project Gemini. Lois went to her interview wearing a hidden camera and a device in her ear which allowed Adrian to talk to her. If she couldn't get a confession from Lex, Adrian would kill Chloe. Grant and Lex were both waiting for Lois in Gabriel's office, but they were surprised with her first question, a demand to know about Project Gemini.
Adrian is still communicating with her through her earpiece, telling her exactly what to do. Lex claims he doesn't have anything to do with cloning and denies knowing a man named Adrian. Adrian orders Lois to aim a gun at Grant to get Lex to confess. Lois began ranting about Adrian's life story causing Lex to knock her out and finds the hidden camera she was wearing. Shortly after, Adrian enters and tells Lex and Grant about more of his memories.
Grant soon realizes that they have the exact same memories, even talking about their past experiences simultaneously. Adrian also says that they have the same DNA and history, only Adrian was a failed experiment and Grant was a successful one. In an outburst of anger, Lex shoots and kills Adrian, yelling he was just a mistake. In his last seconds of life, Adrian presses the button on the bomb's detonator. However, Chloe and Jimmy were able to be rescued by Bizarro, who was posing as Clark Kent. As a result of Adrian's appearance, a rift emerged between Lex and Grant that was never resolved until Lex had Grant killed.