Wrath

DVD, Smallville S7 (Wrath)

How can something start so well, then come crashing down so hard? I guess that's a metaphor for the entire series, but, just as Lana and Clark complete another circuit of the trust/betrayal spiral in this episode, I have also said all that before and don't need to repeat what went wrong. Instead, let me just say how satisfying the opening montage is, with Lana and Clark flying along on horseback, going like the clappers over picture-book landscapes, having a good time and reminding us of all those riding scenes of long ago. It was so good I didn't even mind the fact the stunt doubles were so obviously not the actors! A good start then, and a high concept story: Lana gains Clark's powers. It didn't quite follow the path I expected, in that Clark retained his abilities, while Lana had them simultaneously, rather than the repeat of the Season 1 story 'Leech' that worked so well, where Clark becomes normal. They'd already played with that angle, and it's for Chloe to give us a nod back to that encounter with Eric Summers (ironically her former boyfriend Jimmy's brother in real life!). So it was good that they were doing something new with it, but I didn't even consider the possibilities for Lana with all her shady spying on Lex, so that was out of the blue for me.

We've seen Lana go bad countless times. We've even seen her with superpowers, whether she was a witch or a vampire (both awful episodes), so I didn't expect them to go down that route again. But she soon turns into her own kind of monster, bullying the boss of the Daily Planet (still ridiculously young and I can never remember his name, if we've even been told it - but why is he deleting the sensitive information from the hard drive Lana gave him about Lex' project, and more importantly, why is the PowerBook or MacBook name covered on his computer, yet they can show the Apple logo?), kicking Lois through a stained glass window, and later beating up and threatening to kill Lex - she even boots Clark in the face in perhaps the only excellent stunt sequence of the episode. She turns into a completely different person, but then, rightfully, she reminds Clark, and us, that the sweet, innocent version we used to know apparently never existed. I don't believe that for a moment as she was always so tenderhearted and wanting to help people, giving me even more ammunition to suggest the real Lana died and this is a clone. It's only in the latter seasons that she was turned into someone who could become a Luthor and then retain that darkness of character around her. Not that the characterisations have come on in those recent seasons, they just morph into a different personality.

Take Lionel for example. First he's the core evil that's going to turn Lex bad, then he becomes someone Clark and family trust, then he's back to being untrustworthy, and at the minute he's someone who chats to Martha on the phone (nice touch), and who Clark feels comfortable coming to tell him that Lana's now powered up! It never makes sense to me what they've done with him, they haven't even played the thing where he could be using his friendship with Martha to influence the government. Mainly because Martha's not in it any more, but anyway, I can still never be happy with Lionel knowing everything about Clark, any more than Lex. Lex, we learn, knows all about Lana keeping tabs on him, so that storyline came to nothing, with even the subplot of Chloe thrilled at Lana's care for the meteor-infected going out the window when she finds out it was all a front for Lana's spying. There's even a tense conversation in which Chloe warns Lana that if she ever does anything to harm Clark she's not going to stand for it.

That about summed things up for me: it's the return of the misery endings in which episodes conclude with various characters falling out, threatening or keeping deadly secrets from each other. If I was any of them I wouldn't trust anyone else! If that wasn't enough to go out depressed, the story never plays with the myriad possibilities Lana's newfound strength and abilities promised. She merely uses them to attack Lex, whereas it would have been infinitely more interesting to see her have to adjust to these powers in her daily life. Ah, but I'm forgetting that by this stage of the series she doesn't have a normal daily life to counterpoint the strangeness, and hasn't done for a long time. That's why they needed to keep hold of the reality of Smallville and Metropolis, so quickly eroded away into a tangibly fantastical setting, losing its power. All this and icky soap stuff between Lois and Daily Planet Editor Man, who appear only for that purpose, and things don't look good.

As much as I was expecting a solid, if unremarkable retelling of the kinds of stories that have been done before, and better, on the series, I was disappointed that Lana's powers became only an extra means of doing things to Lex. She wasn't even subtle about it: rip off the safe door, push people up against walls, etc. If only she'd kept it to herself this could have been an ongoing story in which Clark's so happy to have an equal in his girlfriend that he overlooks the secret one-woman missions she pulls off. That's what could have happened, but I suppose they felt that would be too close to the Kara arc, where Clark was coping with her powers, which fortunately didn't complicate matters in this episode. Even though I didn't get what I hoped for, there were little things that I did appreciate: obviously references back to times when Clark's powers were transferred was delightful, and the thing with the last slimy, black remains of Dr. Milton Fine's ship was most intriguing. Will Fine make a return as a proper Brainiac or will it be one of those things where the black blob goes from person to person as the need arises? And the aforementioned effects shot of Lana and Clark having a short fight was pretty good, too.

As has often been the case there are two many projects and secrets going on. It's always Project This or Project That with Lex, and now we hear of Project Psion to do with the Fine gloop. There's also the Isis Foundation again, Lana's supposed charity for meteorite sufferers, so I can only hope these, at least, won't feature any more. The writers throw in references to St. Paul or Sampson and Delilah, or other well-known historical references, as well as trying to create themes of betrayal and trust and how far is too far to do what you see is right. Should Clark have killed Lex long ago? So many ideas and questions, yet so little development of any of them, so it remains a bubbling cauldron, full of strong light and sound and smell, but sadly nothing that is edible or edifying. It's a jumble, and of that good episodes are not made. Plus, animal lovers might have been dismayed when Clark and Lana appear to be heading for shelter when the storm kicks in, leaving their horses exposed! Or that Lana is returned to 'normal' if you can call it that, before the end. A mess, with glimpses of greatness within it.

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