Abyss

DVD, Smallville S8 (Abyss)

A frustrating episode, and not for the usual reasons. So often I get irritated by the series for messing me about and going round in circles of meaningless where nothing has any depth and it gets all soapy without a strong connection between the characters. This time it was more of a frustration with the potential of the story and how it remained pedestrian up until the end when some great stuff happens. I've always been fascinated by Doomsday, though I know little about it, my only Superman comic from youth being the one in which this creature kills Superman. That's about all I ever knew about him, except that he was some kind of alien, and if he could kill Superman he had to be something pretty impressive! I've always wanted to see this enemy of the Man of Steel portrayed on screen, and I'd heard years ago that it was coming to the series, though only in rumour, nothing for certain about when or how. But I kept waiting, even though there had been false starts with the back of the Season 4 DVD set featuring 'Doomsday' as part of the slogan, yet having nothing to do with the creature, disappointingly. I can't remember if I had suspicions about Davis being Doomsday before, but I certainly did early in this episode. I think after his 'rebirth' as a Kryptonian being after being 'killed' by Lois under the control of his Mother, I assumed he was just going to be another renegade member of the race, but something in this episode (before it was obvious), suggested it to me, and it does seem pretty transparent that Davis is the monster after all.

Clark doesn't seem fazed at all by Jor-El's description of this terrible being that was created to adapt to any attack (I'm thinking the Borg), but that's not surprising since he's always managed to survive whatever the universe has thrown at him, even if it came at great cost. Mind you, the vanquishing of Brainiac was about the most underwhelming way to defeat an enemy as you could imagine. Not only does Clark simply pop the blue crystal back to the North Pole (will we ever find out who the mysterious 'X' was that sent it back to him?), and in the usual repeating pattern, restore what had been so dramatically lost with no trouble and no stakes, Chloe is just laid on a bed of ice and the black liquid of Brainiac drips out! Quite apart from the dismay I should have been feeling (except that I'm oh so used to it), at such an important event as the destruction of the Fortress of Solitude, in which, lest we forget, Lex Luthor was embedded, being undone in such a simple way, almost as if it had never happened in the first place, Clark pronounces he's learned his lessons and is now ready to protect more than just his friends and family. Where did that come from? Was it Oliver Queen's bullying from episodes past or some other motivation that's slowly gripped him? There hasn't been a change in attitude that would show the character changing, and I hate to say it when I'm writing about an episode that has some really good ideas, but it's the writing at fault again, though in this case it's more the fault of previous episodes not doing a good enough job at being consistent or showing growth.

Anyway, Jor-El welcomes him back and they're best buds again, which is useful because Chloe has to have her memories restored. The episode was very different to how I imagined it was going to be from the exciting teaser in which Chloe flashes back to her engagement party and everything falls apart and blanks out in representation of her chronic memory loss. It was dramatic and unexpected, and I was hoping for the kind of 'trapped in a world of horror' episode the series can pull off when it tries to, with Chloe bouncing around from memory to memory, or someone trying to guide her 'home' out of her own mind (like some mix of the 'DS9' episodes 'Distant Voices' and 'Extreme Measures'), but then it slowed to a crawl, becoming very talky with very little of note happening. Occasionally we get another flashback, the most enjoyable being when we witness the child Clark showing Chloe around his loft for the first time in a nice nod to the past while also giving us something new to fill in the gaps. The young actors were fine and there was a pretty good feel of these characters at that young age, reminding us of the much more quirky nature Chloe used to display that was gradually watered down as she became an adult. It was almost a flashback in itself to see Clark fixing something at his farm as it happens to rarely, but one thing I didn't miss were Lois, Tess or Oliver - rather than have them squeezed in for the sake of it they remained absent.

There were plenty of these nods back in time to the series' past, like the mention of Lana Lang, whom I don't really expect to see again unless they brought her back for a final season cameo that I don't know about. Clark lists all the people who've left the series… I mean, all those he's lost, either leaving or dying, which sets up the most surprising conclusions: that when Clark has a chance to wipe Chloe's mind of his secret identity as a super-powered alien he goes for it. So I think he's back to being alone again, since no one else knows his secret on the series (forgetting Kara or Phil Morris' characters who could potentially appear again, or Lionel and Lex who are out of it, and Mrs. Kent, who's far too busy to get involved these days!). There was a moment of real connection and character that's rare on the series in these later seasons - Clark has to sacrifice having Chloe as his full ally in order to protect her, effectively shown in the flashback to when he caught the car with her watching back in Season 4 or 5, was it? It's been a long time since Chloe found out, and they played it so that she didn't tell him she knew at first, and I suppose I should be railing against the writers for doing another spiral with the status quo being restored, especially as she's sure to learn Clark's secret yet again in future. But it was something that had depth to it and meant something, so I applaud the series for doing it. It makes Chloe's position in Clark's life more interesting to see where it might go now, not least because she's the link from Brainiac to Doomsday, having Davis imprinted on her as the only one to trust during her mental meltdown.

Davis was certainly acting strange this time. He had much more of a sinister aura around him, which we're not used to as he's always been positioned as a good guy, a helpful sort on the periphery whose dark secret was to be explained. Well, the secret's out, but it remains to be seen how it will play since his goals are unclear. It could be that his abandonment by Chloe as anything more than a friend will be the catalyst that crosses his motives over into the dark side, which would be a little cliched, but I'm not going to judge until I've seen, and I am excited to see how Doomsday is revealed. I'm hoping, and I'm pretty sure it does happen, that he turns into the big grey monster physically, not just as a representation, like Khan in 'Star Trek Into Darkness' which was nothing like the original. Not having James Marsden to play the villain in the background of Chloe's mind hurt the episode, and I really did want to see a runaround inside Chloe's head rather than the slow realisation that Brainiac is messing with her memories. They take long enough to get to that point, too, with Clark eventually vocalising what we all knew from the start.

I wondered why Jimmy would go to Clark instead of taking her straight to a doctor, but they are all good friends and with all the weirdness they've experienced you'd hope they would all turn to each other in a situation like that - indeed, I really wanted a happy ending with the three of them driving off to Metropolis in a kind of recreation of the friendships of the early seasons, but then we wouldn't have had pouty Davis, and they probably felt they had to do that, even though it was a bit weak. I did like that Jimmy and Clark discuss Chloe's former meteor power for the first time, Jimmy assuming he knew, but only now being confirmed in that. And you have to feel sorry for the guy as it feels like Jimmy remains on the back foot to everyone! Finally, was that the voice of Lionel Luthor speaking the last words as Jor-El gets taken over by the Brainiac gunk? We'd already seen his picture during Chloe's attempts to remember all the people she'd known, and his name was spoken along with Lana, Jonathan, Pete and Lex when Clark talks about those he's lost. As good and ripe with potential as the ending was, there still wasn't enough to make the episode work well as a whole, hence my irritation. Another lost opportunity then, but at least this time it was because they got to the good stuff late rather than never.

**