Exodus

DVD, Smallville S2 (Exodus)

It doesn't fill you with a pleasant 'oh no!' like the previous season ender did, but a strained kind of 'dohhhhhh nooooo...' feeling of slight disgust and a bit of disappointment that they could end the season this way. The addition of Lex's mystery of a plane heading for a crash with all onboard disappeared is much more interesting, but for me the overall feel of this episode was of depression, sadness, grief, without the fine emotional attachment inherent in the better episodes of the series.

The first time round it almost made me turn off for good. Indeed, knowing the ending would be Clark driving off stupidly with a red ring on, capped a disappointing season for me that ditched much of the promise and feel of S1. I went on to to watch some of S3, but I couldn't stomach the way the series had changed and gave up for good on it, only becoming interested again when I had bought the S1 DVD and got excited about it all again. Now and again I caught an episode or an excerpt that showed the characters changing, new characters, and different places, but only to confirm my impressions - that 'Smallville' had turned into pretty much a teen soap with sci-fi elements as I first thought it would be.

But this episode... It makes you mad, and not in a good way. More like 'Crush' in S1. The characters are all upset with each other, Chloe goes down the dark path, the baby is lost (that seemed a bit of a set up for me. You kind of knew something like that would happen - a baby could change the dynamic of the series too much. So it was a bit of a let down they chose to do that).

The good points of the episode just about keep it up: there's a fine sense of tension, not a patch on, but reminiscent of 'Tempest', there's some heartwarming scenes with Lex as once again he chooses the right, admitting his crime to Helen, shaking hands with Jonathan. And there's a very satisfying glimpse of Lionel letting his guard down for once - his rage at finding the Kryptonite key gone. Reminds me of Smith in the Matrix films.

It's generally the soapy moments that let the side down,  also there not being a strong central story. It feels like all B-plots somehow. I can see they've tried to recreate 'Tempest' in structure, but it's nowhere near as effective. Pete suffers - he's suddenly (in the last couple of episodes) involved in important scenes trying to help Clark, but because he's been almost a recurring character (Helen has had more screentime!), there's less attachment and it's hard to accept him as easily, because he's become a little distant. The writers really dropped the ball on that character.

So the story is a little hard to swallow, and while it may be realistic for Clark doing two wrongs and still not making a right, it's not as effective a storyline. The problem is created by Clark rather than being something he's caught up in or has to react to. And it doesn't look quite right seeing Lana and Clark together as they are. You can see it's not going to last... And I'm not even going to start on the whole speaking to Chloe troubles. Grrr! A patchy finish to a patchy season, though one that wasn't as bad as I remembered.

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