Spirit

DVD, Smallville S4 (Spirit)

Haven't we seen all this before? Body-swapping, body-hopping, moany teen politics stopping our heroes from having the time of their lives. An axe into metal, flames and Clark mental, complaining and sneering, some people jeering, even a body on land of the Luthors, not even sure if there was a shooter... sorry, I got carried away there with the surreal happenings of the episode. I get the impression that the teaser in which a psychopathic Chloe smacks Mr. Kent in the mouth, runs around with an axe (seen it before, tick) and sets to blowing the school up, was thought up first and then they had to find a story which would get them to that point. That might be a good exercise for a writer to make them more inventive, but still this episode is more of a greatest hits package of recycled ideas.

Haven't we seen a teaser previously which happens later and to which events build (tick)? Dawn is the school's 'popular' student (tick), but no mention is made of the various others that have filled that bill and proved adversarial to our heroes in the past. Surely an excuse for some gratuitous name-dropping continuity if ever there was one. The teenage posturing (tick) and preparations for the prom (definitely seen it before, tick), isn't something I enjoy and is a little perplexing if you don't understand how American schools/colleges work. To me it seemed like they had had their big prom back in Season One and at the time I thought they were leaving, but is this now their completion of high school or whatever? The landrover crashing into a ravine (tick) was much more in the style of the golden years of the series, as was the protaganist developing meteor-inspired powers (tick) - why has the local council not gone round clearing up these rocks, incidentally. They've had fifteen years in which to do it! But no, that would mean no stories worth telling in the town of Smallville.

As I began to relax into a standard, expected kind of episode the brilliant performance of Annette O'Toole shook me out of my complacency! Absolutely brilliant, she had the mannerisms perfectly and my only regret was that the whole episode wasn't about Dawn stuck in her body. She was finally given a significant acting part and she took it and ran with it. It makes the writers appear criminal for not using her more in the series and reminds us of how good she can be. Once again there are a few little niggles, like why Clark and friends don't immediately realise when someone's acting out of character, but merely raise an eyebrow, ask if they're okay and then go about their business (tick). I can't imagine Lana taking a tirade of personal abuse from Mrs. Kent without at least questioning her sanity!

Despite an enemy that can switch from person to person (for a great range of escape possibilities), Mr. Kent getting up with not the slightest bruise to be seen after being knocked downstairs by a mad Chloe (and then looking vaguely bemused that Chloe's not acting normally), and even Chloe herself getting a super-punch from Dawn in Clark's body (which would surely have killed her, but again doesn't leave a bruise) it's the fact that Chloe has been nominated as Prom Queen that I found hardest to believe. She's always been the outsider and it was just one step too far from what we know. I enjoyed Jonathan Kent coming in prepared with Kryptonite, as he and Clark had expected him to be taken over by Dawn, but it was the ending that saved the show: another band which I don't know and have to assume is famous (though it again seemed unlikely Lex would be doing favours for the school these days), play out the episode and it's like a step back in time with Clark and Lana waltzing away and Chloe looking on resignedly. Even Mr. and Mrs. Kent got in on the pleasant ending, though it did stretch on a bit too long so they could fit more of the song in.

Strangely,  and probably because of the oddness of the episode I completely accepted everything at the end and it brought back the upbeat style of ending that the series used to do so well and so regularly. Lex and Jason seem to be in a completely different, much more sinister episode entirely, with supposedly Bridget Crosby's body found dead, Jason having got one of the 'stones' and Lex, well, who knows. As usual the Sheriff completely disbelieves anything a member of the public says, rather too happy to accuse him of stringing her along. Get a new sheriff is my advice: she looked almost dead herself.

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