Prey

DVD, Smallville S8 (Prey)

Some resolution looks to be in the offing as this episode rolls along, with Davis Bloom, friendly neighbourhood paramedic, in the frame of our suspicions as the man behind a massacre at the Ace of Clubs (where else!), among other violent murders in the city. We've already seen him writhing around on the ground as some kind of mutant, whether meteor infected or not. I actually thought of him early on, before he was even part of the story, as that would make sense - the series isn't shy of bringing in a new character, then making them a dangerous menace in the shadows after a while, just look at Adam from Season 3, or Jason from Season 4, but as they've been so open about Davis being more than he seems, my initial thoughts turned away from him. It would be too obvious if he turned out to be the attacker, and I was proved right. Or was I? As they like to do, there's a twist at the very end where it seems possible that Davis was responsible for some, or at least one of the killings, after all. I don't buy his fascination with Chloe, though. Unless he's a completely immoral person, he must be sensitive that she's spoken for and is to be married to Jimmy, so it's very wrong of him to be asking her searching questions about their friendship!

I was glad to see Jimmy involved in a real way for this story, not just a victim or someone to fight and make up with Chloe, but doing his job as a photographer. Room was made for him by not featuring either Miss Mercer (though her lackey meets with the meteor freak in prison at the end - like Lex she wants to bring these outcast villains together; my, how original), Lois Lane or Oliver Queen. It seems they can't create a storyline that contains all the disparate pieces of the series, and it must be the most separated cast I've seen. Lois' absence was explained away as an assignment, or something, and Queen and his gang were said to be unavailable for some reason, but it's just touched on enough to make you wonder why (except the obvious reason is that there are too many people and not enough air time to feature them all, plus it would make things too easy for Clark), but it's better than no reference to them at all. One ally Clark did have was his Martian friend, as Chloe refers to him, and incredibly he actually gets a name from Clark, who calls him Jones, though not to his face. Is this a name Clark just picked at random, or was decided upon between them, or has it been used before? I don't recall him ever being given a name, mainly because he tends to only interact with his charge, Kal-El, but it's a development of some kind, even if we don't get resolution to the Davis story.

Chloe proves a true friend to the paramedic, persuading him that he couldn't be a murderer because he helps people. It would also make sense since as far as we know he doesn't have a background of leaving carnage in his wake and leads a respectable life in a highly qualified job, but it's all too easy to believe in someone 'different' as being a likely suspect to kill when they lose control of themselves, like a DC version of The Incredible Hulk. Hulk wasn't the only hero (or super-powered character, I'm not sure he could be described as a hero), coming to mind in this episode, because for the first time we see Clark Kent from the history of Superman, who starts out saving people without any costume to disguise himself (maybe his Superman should wear glasses?), but stays up into the night to monitor police frequencies and crash any villains' parties he can, saving the weak and vulnerable. In fact the style he was doing it in, zipping in and out without even being seen, and the fact that city streets are dark and slick, made me think more of Batman. If only they could have got the Dark Knight into the series, that would have been exciting! But it's pretty exciting seeing him leap a tall building in a single bound, another Superman trait before he was retconned into being able to fly - we've seen Clark make giant leaps before, but never up onto the top of a building, so that was something special.

The lacklustre ending was a lot less special, limited by a TV series budget, to Clark tossing a tyre at the shadow creature (which I was at first considering to be Jones, being the only other recurring character reintroduced, then a Phantom from the Zone), which knocks it out, revealing one of Chloe's Isis Foundation members. Jimmy didn't even question Clark arriving, or whether he saw anything, and it comes back to that old thing of people not suspecting Clark of being more than a humble farm boy (or a minor reporter as he is now - his claim to be a reporter at Davis' accusations of being on scene at murders before anyone else was a bit weak, as he's more of a tea boy for Lois than a real member of the press), or not for a long time after so many odd things have happened involving Clark. Also taking me back to old episodes: the freak-of-the-week format beloved of the early seasons, that was mainly edged out except for occasional episodes after that. It was quite a good one thanks to lots of suspects and it brought some tension between various parties. On second thoughts the arguments weren't a good thing about other seasons where Clark would charge in and accuse Lex, Lana, Chloe, or whomever, or they would accuse him and it turned into a miserable soap. I like it better when they work together to solve things, but maybe because we've seen less of the drama between characters this season, I didn't mind it. Chloe did have a point about sticking up for the meteor infected, and it was good to see the Foundation actually doing its job rather than being a high-tech office sometimes used to work out clues.

I'd forgotten how often Clark used to butt heads with people as he's truly been quite mild-mannered this season, on the bottom rung of a journalistic career and often overshadowed by Lois or Chloe. So I liked how they used him in this one, and the return of his guilt at not being able to save everyone from everything, something that used to be quite an issue. His helper, Jones, (as we'll call him from now on, if that is his real name…), shows up in time to be of some assistance in keeping the police off his trail as he does his good Samaritan work. How does he do this? He's joined the force himself! How did he do this? He's got top sources to help him and that's all he's telling. Well, if you really wanted to help Clark… I'd forgotten Jones had lost his powers, so was glad of the reminder, which explains why he's hanging around doing the mundane job of a police detective, but it could be a ripe addition to the mix if they use him properly.

Jimmy's the latest character to meet Davis for the first time, and instantly wants a favour - are people really allowed to just ride along with a paramedic like that? I suppose Jimmy is a fully fledged member of the press, even if he does look like a child. What didn't work so well in the episode was people having arguments in populated areas like a corridor at Metropolis General Hospital, or the offices of the Daily Planet where you can see other people in the background or walking past. Not the best place to have accusatory conversations about murder or secrets! While it wasn't quite the fruition of the Davis storyline I had first expected, I quite enjoyed the mix this episode had to offer, although it needed some contemporary music to drive home the important points, which the series so rarely does now. Interesting fact from Chloe, too, about her having documented three hundred and twenty-seven meteor freaks since ninth grade (a little odd that Clark reminds her of their friendship of eight years, as if he was going to remember and say the exact number of years at a time like that - and didn't they know each other before the series started, so wouldn't it be longer?), yet she's not been able to help a single one. I'm not sure that's true, there must have been one or two happy endings along the way that aren't immediately popping into my mind. I wonder if that was an accurate count from all the ones featured in episodes and/or spinoff material?

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