Lockdown

DVD, Smallville S5 (Lockdown)

Not the cat and mouse hunt through the Luthor mansion I anticipated from the title and teaser, but it wasn't bad. A mish-mash of plots with little action, but enough to provide some thrills and spills, most notably in Sheriff Adams' last stand. And her last fall, slumping to the ground with a bullet wound to the heart. I didn't see her exit coming, I thought she was invulnerable and the crusty old hag was going to outlast everyone, but sadly she had to go the way of pretty much all recurring characters on 'Smallville'. I can't say I ever really liked her as such - she was spiky, venomous, overly suspicious (though correct to be so!), and generally an obstacle for the kids to overcome, but she'd mellowed in her appreciation of Clark, even going as far as wanting him on her team, which says a lot! Perhaps she mellowed too much? A season or two back she'd have arrested Clark under suspicion of having something to do with Lana's disappearance, so she was much improved in some ways, but she let her guard down on this episode and it turned out to be the vital moment, shot in the back by one of her own deputies. Not a good way to go. I wonder if they'll bother with a new recurring sheriff as the emphasis has turned a little more towards Metropolis in the overall makeup of the series. Do they need a sheriff any more?

Clark's angst about restraining himself from Lana and not telling her the secret, and then finding she's been investigating the black ship with Lex is just one of many negative emotions doing the rounds in the story. Clark confides in Chloe, Lana's in with Lex, then Lex admits to lying to Lana, and add to that Jonathan finding out who his campaign money is coming from and you get a crossroads of deceit and unhappiness. Unusually, on this occasion there's little of the gloom that has messed up other stories, and things are pretty bright and cheerful all told. Mr. Kent takes the news about Lionel Luthor's contribution quite well considering, but only when he thinks it was Lois who accepted it. He's almost as furious as you'd expect when Martha owns up to the decision herself, but even then he softens relatively quickly.

It seemed a bit out of character for him to so easily accept what had happened, but it may be because he found a way out of it, and realised he could do something to counteract the damage. The flaw is that if he really was able to bring a pot of money out of the hat like that, why didn't he sell the land he 'never uses' in those times of trouble they've experienced before. If it was because of pride as he says, why is he so easygoing about giving it up now? Does he not expect to live much longer? It just felt like a device to soothe the troubled waters a little, an action which I applaud because I hate it when it's so negative, but unfortunately it is another example of the way the writers will make anything up on the spur of the moment to treat a story problem. I wonder if that course of action could bite him back as Lionel could buy up the land and develop on it. He's leaving himself open to all kinds of things! There are bound to be repercussions in some form when Lionel's involved...

Clark's a bit confused. He questions Lana over why she didn't tell him about studying the ship with Lex, and when she mentions the way he always changed the subject when she tried to talk about such things he said it was best to move on from it, or something like that. So he wants to talk about it, but doesn't want... to talk about it. Right. Martha does something similar when she reminds Clark how Chloe and Pete accepted him, completely forgetting to mention the way Pete's life was ruined and his friendship with Clark destroyed! Chloe hasn't known long enough to have problems, but Clark is probably right to be concerned, especially as Lex is now pledging not to keep any secrets from Lana ever again. I believe he has that intention, but I don't believe he can keep it!

Lastly, it was a strange ending, hovering over the question of whether Clark will tell Lana his secret. Is it supposed to make us think he's about to do so? It ends with an odd few seconds of slow motion on Clark's face - was that for effect or did they need it for the timing of the scene? Odd all round, that scene. Not a bad episode all together, with some good heroic or fun moments for Clark to do some showcasing of the old superpowers, and enough going on that it rattled along nicely. We've probably seen enough evil police officers now though, eh?

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