Labyrinth

DVD, Smallville S6 (Labyrinth)

Clark wakes up in a strange alternate reality which inevitably all takes place in his own mind. No sci-fi/fantasy series should be without this premise and probably none of them are, but such a curious change of events bears much repetition and it did give us a chance to skitter through a little of the series' past. There are all kinds of influences apparent that came together to create Clark's delusion of being Kal-el from Krypton and it does draw you in right away with these mental patients laughing at the notion of his abilities - he has no secrets left and no powers either. There's mention of Whitney (he's not been heard of for a long time!), Nell (she was mentioned only last episode), the incident that began the series when Clark saved Lex on the Loeb bridge, only now, in this version it seems he caused Lex to have an accident. The old Lana, the sweet and gentle and kind version from days of yore is back and as nice as she used to be as if the events of the past five and a half years never occurred. And most striking of all is that they really didn't occur and for the duration of the series Clark's been experiencing it all from inside a mental hospital!

There's a constant humming in the background, a throbbing that makes it much more like a horror story, the way they always have that in those kinds of films. Though it's not a horror of gore and grisliness, but of psychological confusion. The difficulty with these types of story is being able to sustain the mystery and confusion that makes the situation so compelling, and while there is some strong imagery, such as the security men running through the snow after Clark, the strengths of the premise begin to erode as there's nowhere for the story to go except for Clark to confront himself and come to the realisation that what he knows is true, just as the audience knew from the start. There was the slight chance it could have been 33.1, but this level of weirdness was far more likely to be Phantom Zone-related so that wasn't exactly a big surprise.

It is interesting to see different versions of most of the characters, but I felt it was all over so quickly we never got to play with them enough, perhaps just about the involvement to make the story worthwhile, but if it weren't for one thing it would seem a bit pointless. That thing is the revealing of the mysterious stranger who saved Clark in 'Static,' played by occasional 'Star Trek' guest star Phil Morris. His presence in the 'dream' and in the real world where his eyes glow red and he flashes off into the sky is one thing that reminds us there are still some interesting questions to answer. In other ways, the halfway point of the season is marked by something of a brief rapprochement between Clark, Lana and Lex, though I felt the Lana card had been used so many times it had almost lost all meaning. It's almost like you just want her to marry Lex, move away and let Clark move on! But no, he realises he still holds her above all others which could be his weakness, as Chloe points out, especially as he almost sacrificed everyone to fall into this false life with a false Lana. Crucially he didn't, and as usual made the right choice, the opposite to what Lex would have done, I'm sure.

This was a marvellous opportunity to bring back old faces like Whitney or whoever, play with the series' backstory and completely take apart the world they had built up, but as often happens in the series it didn't go far enough. Even so, it was a standout episode for the intensity of the mood it generated and for reminding me about Shelby the dog whom I'd almost forgotten about it appears so infrequently, but it was not a classic. It was however, nice to end on the realisations as he talks to Chloe after the event (I was still waiting for it still be inside his head - in fact maybe the series from this point on is all an alternate reality!), and for there to be a civil conversation between him and Lana in the Talon, and even a lack of malice in the brief interaction between Clark and Lex, but the second half of the season feels like it's been reset ready for whatever developments take place. And that has happened many times before.

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