Fanatic

DVD, Smallville S5 (Fanatic)

After all that Lionel Luthor's done Martha would still take his money? Jonathan Kent still doesn't let his family in on being threatened or ill? Clark still doesn't tell Lana his big secret even though now would be the perfect time when she's all into the notion of a spacecraft in the first meteor shower? Somehow the episode won me over, despite not being clever, aside from the misdirection with Lois apparently firing the gun in the teaser. So much happens in the space of an episode in 'Smallville' that there's no shortage of things to think about, that's for sure!

One thing I was prepared for was Mr. Kent's death. It's been leading up to that for a while, I knew it was coming anyway, so a bullet in the head seemed likely, even though I know he's got the heart condition. So although I wasn't exactly surprised that he didn't get shot, I was kept on the edge as I know he hasn't got long. Just when Lex seems to be himself - the old Lex, I'm talking about. His dark talk in 'Lexmas' forgotten as he once again affirms his care for the Kents, argues with his Dad and gives a good, honest reason for wanting to ascend the political ladder: it's something he finally has that he can work hard for. It's no wonder that Lex has been a bit crazy throughout the series, because throughout the series he keeps getting knocked on the head and without the useful padding of hair to cushion the blows they must have taken more of a toll than for the average person. It's a theory. To add to the nature/nurture, the twisted way he's been forced to live and myriad other problems.

Trouble is, the big showdown building up between Kent and Luthor hasn't worked itself up naturally. To begin with Jonathan hated all Luthors and over the episodes, as Lex, puppy-like did all he could to prove himself different Mr. Kent thawed. From then on (like most aspects of the series, such as Lana and Clark's lovin' and hatin', or Martha's worries), things yo-yo-ed between happy, jolly acceptance and deepest, darkest distrust and anger. It's difficult to believe Jonathan's actually angry at Lex, and vice versa so the aggression is automatically pulled out of the battle leaving it seeming limp and artificial. I'm with Martha - she doesn't like what she sees. It's like a parallel universe with no progression from what's gone before. If comics are like this, then I'm glad I never got into them! Martha's husband has become so different, and just at that moment of weakness, along comes Lionel, like a devil on her shoulder to offer her a way out. But she must know he never gives anything for nothing. I'd cite other occasions when he's offered to help in the past, only the episodes are all blending together through being so samey so I can't pick out specific ones.

So it's back to being the dishonest Kent's again. Martha hid the key to Clark's spaceship, Clark's hidden many things and now Jonathan is hiding the extent of the threats to him and more importantly, his own health. If they could only learn from their past mistakes (not even long past!), and work together as the family they were, maybe that would have prevented many of the problems, and if not they could have faced them more stolidly.

It was a good start and a good end, but I guessed immediately that it was going to go back before the event of the teaser. Although the image of Lois pulling the trigger was enough to draw me in, I could only entertain her as a killer for a short while. Either she was made to do it under duress, or we were being fooled with and she was actually shooting the attacker, or it was some brainwashing Kryptonite (yellow maybe?) that had turned her head. Those solutions came to me in reverse order, but only because of the way crazy-zealot-girl became crazier as the minutes passed, and worse, she didn't even have the excuse of meteorite infection. The one time Lex is actually talking sanely she comes along and knocks him on the head, doing crazy things in his name, maybe showing him a bit of a mirror of himself. Such an experience could have been a wake-up call for him, but with these writers, I doubt it. While Mr. Kent faces death threats and the toil of the campaign, Martha sees her husband changing and the cracks spreading underneath them all, and Clark's worrying about the romantic side of life. Makes him seem a lot less heroic.

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