Descent

DVD, Smallville S7 (Descent)

A real game-changer, where to start? Lionel's death at the beginning, I suppose. Let's see, I had read somewhere that Season 7 was Lionel's last, but I hadn't been thinking about that over the last few episodes, it hadn't crossed my mind, and then he's gone, just like that! Coming in the teaser, pushed out of a building by Lex, he sails to his doom, his face showing… I'm not sure - relief that Clark won't be compromised by him? Resignation that he's going to die? This is 'Smallville,' despite how much of the episodes happen in Metropolis now, so even as he fell I didn't believe this was the end of Lionel Luthor, though by the final scene of Lex and Clark standing, opposed in black, on a green hill outside the city, Lionel's coffin in the ground, well, it was pretty definitive (where was Lucas Luthor, Lionel's other son from Season 2?). But earlier I thought Clark was going to save him, or that another super-person would catch him. I thought Jor-El might revive him, that it wouldn't be his body when Lex pulls back the cover for identification. Thinking about it now, Chloe could bring him back, though it was said previously that if she brought back someone again it could kill her permanently, and she had little love for Lionel. Few did, but through his death it seems he was as true as he professed to be, his purpose to protect Clark, the 'Traveller,' at all costs, even to himself.

I think most people would have had their doubts about Lionel, as all through the series he's been shown to be untrustworthy, devious, conniving, all the qualities Lex had inherited. Even at his most helpful and protective of Clark since learning the secret a couple of seasons ago, I never fully trusted him, it was more likely he was still playing his own game to the advantage of himself. But he refused, denied, put up every shield against his son so that Clark's name would never pass his lips, and he was murdered for it! Even now I find it hard to believe they'd kill off someone that had been in the series so long and influentially, but if I hadn't known he was leaving this season I would still be coming up with theories about how he's going to come back. If it comes to it, he could still live again, and my immediate thought when he was certified dead was that this was a clone or there could be a clone of him to come. I doubt this is the very last we ever see of him since I've heard that most of the characters come back in some way in the last season, though that's only a rumour, and will hopefully be something I find out for myself in a couple of years when I eventually get to the end!

The thematic content was heavier than usual, this a defining episode of the season, a momentous part in the ongoing story similar to Lionel or Chloe finding out Clark's secret, Chloe revealing a meteor power, and other huge events. It's telling that Kara plays no part in it, showing how little she means to the overall story of the series. It's all about the good in Lex being completely overthrown, the last vestiges of humanity cast into the fire, literally, as he drags the imagined Young Lex down the stairs and throws him into the burning fireplace. We've seen him reject the good in himself before, 'Smallville' has ever been a series that spins on a turntable, the same few events repeating over, again and again, Lex' diminishing goodness one of those scratches in the record that had to be dragged out because the series was popular and it had to continue.

For once I'm not going to go on about the awful plotting and cyclical story lines, because I was impressed with what was done here. It was so unexpected that Lex would just push Lionel out of the window - I could see him holding his Father at gunpoint, forcing him to admit he had the key or could take Lex to where it was, but it was never a wise move to go and stand in front of someone with a gun in their hand. I also felt the importance of that key and that Lionel always wears it as the only security he can count on, was discredited by the fact that we've seen him so many times over the years in so many circumstances and he's never shown any concern for a little locket and the key it contained. That's because the writers hadn't come up with the idea yet, but it could also be that it's only this season, with Lex snooping into the Veritas group and learning of the Traveller, that he felt it necessary to conceal it on his person at all times.

There are some really on the nose conversations taking place in this episode, about things that have made up the series' mythology since day one: Lex ranting about his Father basically sacrificing him for the Traveller - they wouldn't have gone to Smallville if hadn't been for that mysterious person, and Lex' life was changed because of it. He's mad when he thinks this Traveller meant more to Lionel than he did, but Lionel tries the old line about toughening him up for his special destiny. Seven seasons in, to be able to have a meaningful conversation about events we saw in the pilot is a joy to behold, and for these writers, an achievement, because let's face it, they aren't among the best, they don't plot well and their characters often don't make sense. I was similarly impressed with Clark and Lex' talk at the mansion - Lex accusing Clark of being the perfect son, likening their two Father's to each other, calling out Clark as the main reason for all his troubles. He's gone wrong and he's desperate to blame others, but there's some truth in what he says, though it was jealousy more than anything that has driven him. Chloe's assertion that all three of his Father figures (Jor-El, Jonathan and Lionel), have made him the person he is today was something I'd never have thought of, never have bracketed those people together, but in some ways it's true, and this was one of the best ways to remind us of Jonathan and all that he meant at such a time, his picture proudly displayed by Clark.

Lex talks of how he struggled to be Clark's friend, and we've heard these conversations before, but the abyss between them has widened and darkened, and we've even had an impression of finality, as if this is the last time they'll ever talk on the level as person to person, but we've seen that, too. I can imagine we'll return to this again (if Lex' duration lasts long enough, like Lionel, I believe this is his last season also), but for now the conclusive nature of what's said and the way he demolishes the small voice left inside that was his child self, and committing patricide… it adds up to a lot, and again, this series is far from being above undermining great drama in subsequent episodes, but I can at least take this patch, this run of episodes from the season, and hold it up as good 'Smallville.' Wouldn't even go so far as to say 'great,' but good and solid; stuff that worked, and I didn't expect that from what I'd heard of Season 7. I could even grant that there was some artistic direction, with some beautiful shots of the Luthor mansion that I don't think we've seen before, and a slowing down, visualisation of Lex' mind when he's stopped by his young self outside LuthorCorp). They even brought back that detective character (Sawyer), at least I think it was her.

The episode doesn't rely solely on Lex' evil or Clark's determination to put himself solidly in his path, it uses all the characters that take part in an effective way, and a way that makes you fear Clark's absence from them - all the powers in the world can't put him in everyone's vicinity at the right moment, and they're in deep waters. Chloe's fired, and in another surprise of the episode, the key Lionel left for her to pass on to Clark is very easily discovered by Lex. She didn't know how vital it was until later, and she might just have wrestled it off Lex or pushed her mind to the limits to quell his curiosity, but it was given up too easily. So now Lex has the two keys to unlock the Traveller's secret, but if he hasn't realised Clark must be that man, then… I don't know.

As soon as I picked up on his assistant, Gina's fondness and diehard loyalty to her employer, I felt she was destined for the dead list. I didn't think it would happen so soon, but once she was becoming an agent in her own right, terrorising Lois and Jimmy, knocking Chloe out– no, wait. It was when she showed she knew Lex had killed Lionel, that was the moment I knew, everything else was just the process of getting there. It was a fabulous wrinkle in her story that she sees who Clark is, sends a tantalising message to Lex about it, but before he's listened to it, he's had her killed. I assume it was him. He's going to be even crazier when he realises what he's done, and I was imagining a great Darth Vader style "NOOOOOOOOOO!" over Lionel's grave!

Lois and Jimmy make a great team, they really do. They're dedicated to the story, they have a sort of Clark/Lois friendship of mutual appreciation, but also nagging (mainly on Lois's side), and they work well together as a Superman TV series should. Who could have imagined we'd have had 'Young New Adventures of Superman' from the evidence of watching the early seasons? I can't say I ever warmed to them in the way that the Scooby gang of Clark, Chloe and Pete were so fun to watch in the old days, but if they carry on in this vein the series could improve. They were put into a very traditional difficulty, locked in a freezer room (it's 'BUGS' Season 4!), Lois having been shot (again!), and you want Clark to somehow find them. It's a little easy for him to do so, able to filter out all the noise of the city to locate them who knows how far away, but it's wonderful to see him do one of those old tricks of busting in, fixing things (in this case blasting a heat vision bubble around them), then scooting out before they know anything - they are some of the few characters that don't know about his secret, and while that often makes them look foolish and backward, this time it took us back to those times when Clark had to save people without them realising it, and I miss that.

He's not always around at the critical moments this time, it's up to people to do the best they can, perhaps he's been spending more time with the comatose Lana, who doesn't appear, nor does Kara and Brainiac, though they're all mentioned. The story doesn't bog itself down with all these other things, one of the reasons the force of Lex' descent isn't watered down. It was right for them not to make Lionel's death sentimental, for all the terrible things he was and did. His death will be a great loss to Clark's cause, but less so on a personal level, and the same for the viewers. The irony is heavy that at his most honest and truthful and righteous, Lionel was shut out and ignored - his very voice in this and the last episode became weak, his body language defeated, stripped bare of all subtlety and subterfuge, so that Lex doesn't believe him in the slightest. The real sadness is in Lex' rejection of right, even now shouting about protecting the world from aliens, meteor freaks and any other weird stuff coming out of Smallville by controlling it. But you sense it's more about him not being hurt any more by those around him. This is the Lex Luthor of Superman, the devious, deadly power-monger, that smiles sinisterly at Gina when she shows such affection and joy that 'their' (his), plan is coming to fruition. Then having her killed. Yep, Mr. Luthor is here, Lex is gone.

***