Tyler McKnight was a metahuman criminal with the ability to control glass in the WB TV series Smallville.
He served as the main antagonist of the Season Five episode "Fragile".
He was portrayed by Callum Keith Rennie, who also played Asher Talos in Blade: Trinity, John Wakefield in Harper's Island, Karl Malus in Marvel's Jessica Jones, Jon Valor in DC's Legends of Tomorrow and Brad Halloran in Jigsaw.
History[]
Past[]
Tyler McKnight was a craftsman who worked with glass to make art. He was caught in the 1989 meteor shower that hit Smallville and gained the ability to telekinetically control glass due to his work ethic. He had a girlfriend in college, Teri Van Horn, who became pregnant, which resulted in the birth of their daughter Maddie in 1995.
Teri kept her child away from him because of his criminal background. Tyler knew Maddie had inherited his powers and as a result, he killed Teri in a car accident to get her. Tyler had also used his ability to break into a jewelry store, where he stole five diamonds that he hid in a glass portrait but was caught and sent to Belle Reve. He was later released due to good behavior.
Season Five[]
When Tyler was released in 2006, he went looking for Maddie and killed her current foster mother, Naomi by shattering all the glass in her house, but failed to retrieve her. He soon got another chance and grabbed Maddie who was at the Kent Farm. Maddie was leaving the farm with a social worker and sat in his car. After causing the car windows to explode, killing a Child Services advocate and injuring Lois Lane in the process; impaling her shoulder with shards of glass that knocked her to the ground, Tyler made his move.
McKnight approached the car, pushes Maddie back in, and drove away. Maddie tried to use a pay phone to call Clark Kent when Tyler approached. He introduces himself as her father, Tyler McKnight. Maddie figures out that Tyler has the same power as she and is the one responsible for the recent deaths, including her mother's. Tyler says that he's spent years in prison and wants her with him.
He planned to run away with her, but first stopped at the Talon to collect seven diamonds he had hidden in a glass portrait. Tyler was stopped by Clark who super speeds into the room throwing Tyler across the room, and Maddie ran into his arms. Tyler was taken into custody. However, Tyler managed to escape police custody by killing an officer by destroying the lenses of his glasses and subsequently returned to the Kent Farm to "recover" Maddie.
That evening, Maddie and Clark were playing cards when he notices the front door was open and busted. He found Tyler McKnight in the barn with a shard of glass held to Martha's throat, threatening to kill her unless Maddie left with him. Clark uses his heat vision on the glass and Martha runs to safety. Tyler then sent a cloud of broken glass towards Clark, but it was redirected by Maddie, expertly controlling the glass and saying that she won't let him hurt anyone else.
Clark talks her out of killing Tyler, reminding Maddie of a past conversation they'd had about Clark's relationship with his biological father. Maddie lets the glass fall and Tyler, seeming realized what he almost made his daughter do, is subdued. Tyler was subsequently placed back in Belle Reve and Maddie went on to live with her grandmother, Tyler's mother. As she left, Maddie and Clark have an emotional goodbye.