Reunion

DVD, Smallville S6 (Reunion)

From the title I was running through a list of people that it might refer to. Could it be Aquaman or Helen, or someone that had supposedly died, or an old enemy? It turned out to be unrelated to the series lore, but was one of those stories that cleverly integrated the early life of Lex into the present day. The episode starts off with a flashback to his schooldays, indicated by the special visual style of higher contrast with an almost washed-out colour palette that sells the age clearly and looks good. It comes into even more focus when we see the same place in the present when Lex attends a reunion at his school, ending in the death of an associate. It sets it up as a standard 'Smallville' whodunnit with superpower connotations, but takes it in a different direction. The actors playing the younger versions of Lex, Oliver Queen, the unfortunate Duncan and Queen's two friends looked similar to their older counterparts, Lex pretty good, but Queen was incredibly close to the actor's voice and face. If they ever do another flashback to Queen's earlier life they should use that guy again, though it's unlikely.

Giving Queen a skeleton in the cupboard and having him show remorse for his actions even to his enemy, Lex, adds more depth to his character and makes me like him even more, if I didn't already from his cool gadgetry and growing acquaintance with Clark. I wouldn't quite say they were bona fide mates just yet, but Clark feels comfortable just walking in to Queen's rooftop apartment, whereas Lex' door is firmly shut in his face, physically shutting the Medical Centre door in this episode when Lex stops him from seeing if Lana is okay after she and Lex are almost killed. The stuff going on between Lex and Queen is another part of the episode that really makes it work. Lex goes to see him and they get into a fight, Lex not realising, of course, who he's taking on, but then Queen saves his life when Duncan's mental powers cause glass doors to explode at them - one thing that often doesn't work for me is when they show glass shattering over people. It looks like the safety glass it is, all rounded edges and small pebbles rather than nasty-looking shards, which dents the reality a little.

Later, Queen is invited to Lex' place simply so Lex can thank him for saving his life. The whole incident the episode centres around let off some steam between the pair and allowed them a lull in their hostilities, admittedly a battle that has been waged quietly, behind the scenes. Lex mentions Queen's home is Star City as this is where he tells him to go back to. I assume this is a 'real' location that exists in the comics world, so I wonder if we'll ever see it. Probably not, as Metropolis is an expensive enough proposition, I imagine. One city I do know a bit about is Gotham, mentioned by one of Queen's friends just before his car gets blown up. It's weird, but I think it was only my last review when I was speculating about whether Batman and Gotham could ever be touched on in this series, so that was quite a thrill!

A deep, dark secret shared by Lex and Queen was a great idea for a story and the flashback sequences worked very well, as if they were a reality rather than some overly stylised dream sequence type scenes which have been done on the series many times. The secret was hardly difficult to work out: that the group of friends had caused the death of Duncan. But it had more resonance because Queen has been shown as this good guy, and it also makes us feel horror at the way Lex treats Duncan, his only friend, battering him for making him feel bad and for being a loser. Actions more in keeping with his current persona than the guy who was trying to put these kinds of things behind him, as in the early seasons.

Duncan Elemire might have been just the kind of positive influence that could have changed Lex if they had remained friends, wanting to become a lawyer to help the poor. But it's Lex' own ambitions and desire to be on the inside of anything that's going which destroys the boy, and ultimately adds to the evil path Lex was set on. I'm sure Duncan wasn't really evil, but had been turned that way through experimentation. Much of the damage to Lex was done by Lionel and we see a bit of the old Father come through for a change - since last season he's become a self-styled good guy, helping Clark and Martha and generally renouncing his previous actions. Yet here we find out that even to this day he's continued the meteor experiments that have ruined so many of his employee's lives. Everyone thinks Duncan died after Lex' beating and he staggered into the road to be run over, but he was actually kept on life support while the finest minds were employed to mend his brain. Queen and others assumed Lionel stepped in as an act of kindness, later realising it was just an act and that it was to cover up any stain on the Luthor name. The truth, that Lionel was actually using Duncan as another of his guinea-pigs is even worse and a throwback to his previous actions. How many of these experiments are still going on, bankrolled by the 'changed' Luthor, Sr.?

The directing was worthy of note. As well as the stylishly directed flashbacks, I noticed the use of low-down views used several times, which gave a different, more threatening look to scenes. The freak-of-the-week was intelligently done, as was the story, not something the series can often be praised for. It seems that whenever they focus on Oliver Queen they come up with better ideas. We'd seen telekinetic meteor powers before, as early as Season 1, and I wasn't keen on the supposed 'astral projection' which is going into territory I don't think the series should, and has done several times with witches and vampires and stuff, instead of the more established Kryptonian effects. Of course it was still explained away as being meteor juice, and the effect worked, as did Queen's newest high-tech arrow, packing an EMP blast! Handy that an enemy came long who could be defeated by it just at the time of its invention. I love the interaction between Clark and Queen, such as Clark arriving unannounced and catching the arrow in mid-air, showing he's happy to be around someone who he trusts with his secret.

There's also the fun scene when Chloe first meets Queen, and I thought the B-story of the 'Zoners' as she coins them, causing trouble in spots around the world was organically arrived at, using the fact that Queen's satellites were the only ones to capture data on Dark Thursday to connect him to the story. I haven't been a fan of Dark Thursday and its repercussions as it sounds so cliched, but this did at least set up Clark for further adventures with dangerous beings for him to fight, ending the episode with the fact that Rya, the friend/enemy who went back and forth with Clark in the Phantom Zone, is on Earth. One of the most amusing scenes is Lois' way of disregarding everything Clark's been through in the series and his life - he states that sometimes people keep secrets from those close to them to protect them, and she comes right back saying simply that 'it's retarded.' A simple mind, I'm sure she wasn't quite such a dumb person when she first joined the series, though she was always blunt.

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