Nicholas Conroy, also known as The Traveler, was the uncle of Sarah Conroy and the main antagonist of the Season 3 episode "Slumber" of Smallville.
Nicholas was portrayed by Christopher Shyer and The Traveler was portrayed by John DeSantis, who also portrayed the Male Zoner Companion and Solomon Grundy in the same series, The Juggernaut in Thir13en Ghosts, the Bald Man in the TV series A Series of Unfortunate Events, Moonface in Incident On and Off a Mountain Road, the Band-Aid Nose Man in The X-Files and voiced Ollie in Barbie and the Magic of Pegasus.
Biography[]
Early life[]
Nicholas Conroy gained custody of his niece, Sarah, after her parents died in a car accident and became the executor to Sarah's inheritance. In order to control her finances, Nicholas kept her in a permanent vegetative state. However, due to exposure to green meteor rocks, Sarah had developed an ability to communicate with people through their dreams.
To outward observers, he seemed like a devoted uncle caring for his sick niece. In her dreams, she envisioned him as a monstrous entity cloaked in a blood red robe, extremely tall with bony, decayed fingers and wore a red cape with a tattered hood calling itself the Traveler. When Sarah was close to waking up, a dream version of the Traveler would prevent that and take her away.
Season Three[]
Sarah first met Clark Kent at Crater Lake but vanished underneath the earth. Clark again saw her at Smallville High and tried to ask her what's going on, but she just said that "he's" always after her. She starts to look terrified and Clark saw the reflection of a red hooded figure in the glass of the case. However when he turned around, no one was there but Pete, and Sarah having disappeared as well.
At the Kent Farm, Clark saw Sarah again and tells him that lilacs are her favorite flower and begs him to not let The Traveler take her again. Suddenly the Traveler appeared through smoke and Clark approached the Traveler but he simply threw him across the yard, declaring in a deep distorted voice that Sarah cannot hide from it. He engulfs Sarah and Clark ran to rescue her but has vanished and Clark awakens from the dream he had been in for a day and a half.
Clark recognized Sarah's presence in his dreams as a cry for help so he and Lana Lang began investigating Sarah's circumstances. They went to visit her but were dismayed to learn that Sarah was in a coma being cared for by her uncle, Nicholas Conroy. Clark noticed lilacs in her room and said that they are her favorite and also noticed Nicholas wears a St. Christopher's medallion, the patron saint of travelers.
Nicholas was unnerved by Clark's observations and excuses the two, saying he has to administer Sarah's medication. After learning that there was no medical explanation for her coma, they deduced that she was being unnaturally kept asleep by her uncle with intravenous drugs.
He is visibly tired and as soon as Lana leaves to get him a cup of coffee, he drifted asleep. Sarah appears in his dream and explained that this is the first time she's been able to enter dreams and could hear them when they came to visit.
Clark asks who the Traveler is but she avoids the question. She reveals that every time she starts to wake up, her uncle gave her something that pulled her back asleep. She then fell off the balcony and is engulfed by the Traveler.
Clark later returned to Sarah's house and asked Nicholas if he can sit with her for a while and the uncle allows it. He X-rays the medicine cabinet and steals one of the vials of medicine before super speeding away. Nicholas discovers the open cabinet and looks angry. Clark drives home in a hurry but Sarah appears in the seat next to him meaning Clark fell asleep and Sarah said that Nicholas is angry.
Sarah was able to use her power to enlist the aid of Clark Kent in exposing her uncle's schemes. In Clark's dream, he and Sarah arrive back at Crater Lake. He tries to tell her that she has to face the Traveler or they will stay trapped asleep. She is pulled into the lake and Clark dives in after her. Lana goes to Sarah's house to stop Nicholas from drugging her. Instead, he injected Lana with the drug and she falls unconscious.
Clark pulls Sarah out of the lake and she reports that Lana is in trouble. The Traveler arrives again and threw Clark across the shore as the clouds darken. Clark tried to help Sarah overcome her fear of the monstrous personification of her uncle. When she does, the sun comes out allowing Clark to use his heat vision to obliterate the figure.
In the real world, Nicholas Conroy places Lana in her Jeep and prepares to blow it up by pouring gasoline around it. Clark telescopes his X-ray vision through the woods, sees him strike a lighter, and super-speeds to catch it before it hits the ground. Clark throws Nicholas against a tree, knocking him out. He was incarcerated for his crimes and Sarah finally woke up and thanked Clark.
Trivia[]
- The Traveler resembles Doctor Destiny; owner of the Dreamstone, and the Time Trapper; an enemy of the Legion of Super-Heroes in the DC Comics universe.
