 Adam Knight appears in six episodes of season three ; he is portrayed by Ian Somerhalder . Adam is first seen as a fellow patient of Lana 's at the Smallville Medical Center in the episode " Asylum " ; he helps Lana get through her physical therapy after she was trampled by a horse . The two develop a friendship , which starts to grow deeper in the episode " Delete " when Lana offers to rent Adam the apartment above the coffee shop . In " Hereafter " , Adam 's actions — specifically his injection of an unidentified drug — begin to arouse suspicion in Lana and her friends . It is revealed Adam died of a rare liver disease , and the injection of a drug given to him by LuthorCorp resurrected him , and is only thing keeping him alive . Lana discovers Adam has been keeping a journal of all her actions , as well as all of Clark 's , so she tries , and fails , to evict him . Lana asks Lex for help in getting rid of Adam , but he disappears before Lex can find him . In " Obsession " , Lex tracks Adam 's whereabouts to a LuthorCorp lab run by Dr. Tang , where Dr. Tang has been keeping Adam alive against the orders of Lionel Luthor , who cut off his supply when he failed to uncover any new information on Clark . Adam eventually breaks out of his confinement in the episode " Crisis " , killing Dr. Tang and the rest of the lab technicians . He kidnaps Lana and attempts to kill her , but Clark arrives in time to stop him . Without his serum , Adam 's body rapidly deteriorates until he finally dies . 
