Phantom

DVD, Smallville S6 (Phantom)

You can never say their season cliffhangers are boring, and this time it also has a lot of interesting developments beyond the usual question of who will survive and how they'll escape the situations they're put in by the end. There's the return of Phil Morris as Kal-el's protector, the leaving of Martha for her new post as senator in Washington, the apparent death of Lana Luthor, nee Lang, Clark having that conversation about who he is with her (before she died, obviously), Lionel turning out to be Kryptonian-influenced for the good - all this and the revelation of Chloe's meteor power too! There's a lot to go at here, and I've probably forgotten other things, but I'll do my best to get down what works, what doesn't, and where this leaves the series.

The teaser and other parts of the episode are brutal even for 'Smallville' standards with a horror film style, from the quivering priest, the cramped wooden cabin and the old man with black eyeballs. It's not necessarily a criticism because through many episodes I haven't felt that chill of anticipation of something bad, so at least when the Zoner launched out of the old man's body it had some build up that gave it a slight shock and you don't see much detail. Even so, there is a lot of blood and gore for a TV episode, with the Zoner going round ripping people's innards out, which I didn't really understand the significance of since it needed a new body to exist in. Fortunately the violence didn't take away from a few nice scenes and that so much is let loose in terms of secrets and developments that have been awaited, if not eagerly then certainly needing a bit of closure.

I almost felt that all the characters were used well with a good balance of the story for each, but Chloe drew the short straw with only a small contribution to the episode. She gets to tell Lois to give up on the fight against Lex, then stupidly believes that her few words of wisdom have changed her cousin's mind enough for her to drop her crusade! Then she gets to listen to a tentative Clark who admits he's told Lana everything and she didn't mind about him being an alien. And finally she saves Lois' life. Why Lois didn't call an ambulance, police, etc, is, I suppose, a testament to her high regard for Chloe, and as it turned out saved her life. For not only is Chloe a great friend, she also has the power to save lives by… ahem, crying on people. Yes, not the best as superpowers go, but it could be useful. Not that she's the crying sort, but she did think her cousin was dead so it's not farfetched. I fully expect her to wake up in Season 7 (since I know she'll be around a while longer).

The knowledge of cast changes that seeps through, even though you're not watching this at the time it came out, does undermine the drama a little, but sometimes it can also be a bit indistinct in my mind. I knew Chloe would be around, but when it comes to Martha Kent and Lana, I'm not so sure. I don't know if they're coming back and that gave their scenes a finality that didn't exist in previous seasons. Martha's talk with Clark before she leaves the farm for a new life did feel quite sad and the way it was played seemed like she was being written out. I liked that she said Clark needn't stay on the farm and could get someone else to run it, and it does make sense that Martha wouldn't want to spend the rest of her life on a farm that was worked with Jonathan. A nice touch was the photo of Jonathan with Clark as a child, and though her story may have concluded at least it doesn't preclude the possibility of cameos. It's a shame there was no leaving do for her and a fuss made, but the characters are so fragmented and the community non-existent any more so it would have been difficult to seem real, unlike, say, the engagement party Clark and Lana have in the alternate reality last season.

Lana is the one I'm much more uncertain about, but one thing I was pretty sure of was that she wasn't dead. Sure she wants out of the marriage, and sure I could see her going off to Europe or somewhere (as she did in Season 4), but never for an instant did I believe she'd really died. Lionel was shocked, Lex was shocked, it only added to my belief that Lana staged the whole thing. She's not stupid and she would have known that blame and counter-blame would have circled the Luthors like flies and the only way to truly break her ties was to fake her own death. It's also something that was done before at the end of Season 3, where Chloe and Dad Gabe were apparently killed in an explosion only for us to find out it was staged for their protection (although the number of times Mr. Sullivan's been in the series since then he may as well have been dead!). So no, Lana's not dead - we didn't even see her get into the car. Whether she'll be back for Season 7 is another matter, but I could certainly see her making a cameo in future. Perhaps the writers deliberately left it a little open so they could resort to her again, but I await the outcome with interest.

Another scene I liked, though with slight reservations, was the one in which Clark super-speeds past her and all pretence or misdirection was dropped between them. It was a visual reminder of all those old episodes where she'd come to the barn with the sun streaming in, a nice remembrance of happier times. Lana did know for sure about his powers, and now he lets her in on the equally big secret of his extra-terrestrial parentage. I was pleased that this had been definitively addressed at last, but there was the glaring omission of Clark's issues of guilt over the death of Lana's parents, something that was an important motive for keeping his secret right from the early days. I can see that it wasn't really an appropriate time for such a discussion, but I hope Lana does make a comeback so the issue can be brought up. As it stands, Lana just smiles and kisses Clark without seeming that surprised, but with all she's been through, seen, and heard, few things would probably shock her at this stage. Even though Lex seems so evil now I couldn't help feeling sorry for him for once in the way she announces their parting.

It's been a long time since I've felt Lex might be misjudged, (perhaps a little in 'Nemesis' when he comes back to help Clark), but this episode came the closest in reviving sympathy for him. Yes, he's got a clone army, he wants to experiment on the Zoner and doesn't care who gets killed in the process, but I did get a sense that he was doing this because he wanted to protect the Earth from these threats. An odd thought after all that's gone on this season, but maybe it was his lack of control and surprise at things that happened to him in this episode that made him seem less the evil genius and more like the old Lex.

I almost believed him when he professed no knowledge of Lana's artificial pregnancy, and I still can't recall exact evidence that says it was his plot, though I'm pretty sure there was dialogue to confirm that. Is he a really good liar or has he convinced himself? He does hit Lana which was surprising and uncalled for, but he truly seemed shocked at Lana's death and his arrest. He let those assistants die to effect his escape from the Zoner but we already knew he doesn't care about his minions. The truth is he was manipulated by Lionel, or at least his marriage was a false one crafted by his Dad for his own benefit or the benefit of humanity by keeping track of his plans and I always felt that when he realised Lana was playing him that it would be the turning point which shoved him over the edge where good motives became nonexistent and he hated everyone. Ironic that it didn't seem to happen and that he seemed more real than he has done for quite a while.

I'm still not sure whether Lionel is trustworthy, despite finding out he's been influenced by Jor-el for the good of Clark, but it would be interesting to watch the season again with that knowledge. Jor-el has often been portrayed as bad, and it's hard to accept the retcon of Phil Morris' character of the Kryptonian who has always been watching out for Clark from a distance, without feeling a tiny bit suspicious of him, especially as the only Kryptonians that survived so far have been criminals. The explanation that Lionel somehow called him in at last because he drew the Kryptonian word for power was a very weak way to explain away Lionel's drawings over the season as if they never really knew where they were going with him and only just decided 'okay, well actually he was drawing those things to call this other guy.' Yeah, whatever. I did like Morris' character (didn't catch a name for him), even though, as Clark says, where's he been all his life? There are plenty of times Clark needed protecting!

There was always going to be something big happening in this episode, but actually the story feels much smaller than some of the other season-ending episodes. I think this works to the good of the series because its size and scope can be stretched rather thinly sometimes. This was about giving us answers to so many things that have been waiting to be resolved and doesn't leave us in quite the same way as most cliffhangers do. There are the usual difficult spots for various characters: Lionel's unconscious in the broken dam with water pouring in on him, Lois is healed (I really thought the creature was going to take over he body and Clark would have to fight her!), but Chloe's stricken down from the effort, Lana's dead, Lex has been arrested for it, and Clark now has to contend with an evil double of himself. They don't like Clark flying so I suppose that was the reason they took the opportunity at the end with evil Clark flying at the camera, because it was something they only do when he's not the real Clark (like when he was 'Kal,' infected by red Kryptonite, or fighting Zod).

I liked the reference to 'Superman III' (which I consider the most underrated of the series), by having Clark fight his double, but with all those superpowers why does it always have to come down to one person throwing the other across a room to smash into something? Why can there not be more variety? It was interesting that Dark Clark or Mirror Clark or Evil Clark or whatever you want to call him was able to absorb Kryptonite as if he was the opposite of our Clark. I thought Lionel had the rock to use against Clark in case he was going to kill Lex, but I wasn't sure after seeing him thrust it into Dark Clark's chest. For me, apart from being reminiscent of 'Superman III' this was the least interesting part of the episode, but I would say that Season 6 has, if not rejuvenated my interest in the series, then certainly been improvement enough as a whole to warrant continuation to the end of the series, though I've been warned Season 7 isn't very good. That will remain to be seen. I'd like them to bring back Green Arrow and get more of the compelling story lines back into it as they've done for the most part this season and then there's always a chance it could keep improving.

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