Eternal

DVD, Smallville S8 (Eternal)

Major retconning ahoy! I never really bought into the acrobatics the writers performed to try and make sense of their creation, making out that Lionel knew from the start about Clark, that he was responsible for phoney adoption papers, had even been part of a group that somehow predicted that a Traveller would land on Earth. I suppose if you can accept aliens from the planet Krypton, then these other things should be second nature, but they always felt forced, forced by a desire to create twists and turns that will make you gasp, the showmanship of style over the substance of story. Maybe that's one of the reasons the series endured, giving people the mystery and deep mythology they craved, but it was, as Chloe says about something else in this episode, difficult to swallow. So we get to travel (once again), back to the day of the meteor, back to the pilot episode, with Jonathan and Martha (we see a new bit of them walking away, though the doubles are obvious, especially the child!), Lionel and young Lex, going through those same motions (the flattened corn still looks computer-generated when Lionel stands looking down at it!), only this time we learn that it wasn't just Kal-El that made the journey… Yes, hidden inside a blob of goo that releases its slime, it turns into young Davis! Well I never. Except that, like in a cartoon, when the Kents' backs were turned there was a heated chase around the area with LutherCorp black-suited thugs in riot gear catching this child. Guess the Kents didn't think to look for any other children in the vicinity of the crater?

Lionel kept this kid locked up for a few days, realised he wasn't what he wanted and dropped him off, so the story's really a moral one, about the difference an upbringing can make - Clark had the love and affection, and strong moral teaching of the Kents ("We always have a choice, son"), and Davis had… the mean streets. I wonder if this is the 'real' origin of Doomsday, or something invented for the series? It's trying to echo the Lex/Clark dynamic of two special individuals brought up in totally different ways and makes you think back to the first season or so, when Lex was obsessed with how Clark saved his life, and came to believe he was alive for a greater purpose - how he'd so successfully fought against the evil methods of his twisted Father to make him 'strong,' and had actually turned out quite well-balanced and something of a good guy, until he allowed his obsession to take over. Lionel didn't help, of course, and in the end he came to believe Clark was a risk, a problem that had to be dealt with, as Tess appears to be moving towards at the end of this episode.

Actually she's kind of the opposite extreme: if Lex felt Clark must be destroyed, she wants to push him into his destiny, work him to his full potential in the role he 'should' be taking on, that she feels he isn't, and won't until he comes up against his Judas, his greatest challenge and betrayal. Using Judas does rather mix metaphors, as he wasn't exactly a challenge, more of a tool, but then again, maybe she sees Doomsday as a tool to make Clark face up. Not that he isn't doing that anyway - he does, after all, save people on a regular basis as the Red-Blue Blur (they should do an episode solely as a day in his life!), but maybe she's envisaged the Superman suit, and a film series, and won't be content until 'canon' is as it should be, i.e.: Clark in costume, flying around? Maybe she's right in what she thinks, but it's really none of her business. Then again, like Lex, she loves control. It's interesting to see her go from a standard bad girl, with a personal obsession to find Lex and help him, to learning what Lex knew, being betrayed by him, and becoming a fervent advocate of Clark's destiny, as if she's the one that needs to make things happen. Her pride has been turned down a different path, but one that could be equally as destructive.

What I found most interesting, a lot more than the retconning backstory, was Davis' desire to commit suicide. I assume he didn't know that a Kryptonite shower was going to make him 'immortal' (as he claims at the end - starting to sound like 'Highlander'!), but genuinely believed it was the only way to save Clark and the planet. I felt, like Clark, that it was wrong for Chloe to do the deed, even if, ultimately, she didn't kill him. She showed that she was willing to go that far: "I won't risk the safety of the world because of your code of ethics," she says, which sounds remarkably like Lex used to, doing whatever it takes to achieve the goal perceived as correct. It looks like she's willing to be close to Davis, too, if the end scene is anything to go by (I ask you, why wouldn't you turn on the light if you're hearing noises in your basement! Interesting to see that area of the Talon, though, as I don't think we'd ever been down there before), when she bolts herself and Davis down there (not that he says the most charming things: 'there's something about you that calms my inner murderer'!). I suspect she's biding time before she can find a way to stop him for good - she said before, she'd do it again, and Clark and the safety of the world are higher on her priority list than romantic entanglements despite all the bad stuff with Jimmy at the moment.

Still, I wanted them to explore Davis' desire to commit suicide, what it would mean for Clark, and whether it was right (I've already said it wasn't, and the story bears me out - it makes him even more dangerous than before), the whole episode could easily have been about this issue, but instead we get the usual filler, or 'plot' as it's called. I also thought it was too easy for Davis to die like that (aside from the ridiculousness of Dr. Groll's lab being ready to use, all set up for Kryptonite death - didn't it get seriously damaged last time they were there?), and as Clark said, it wasn't much of a fight. But of course it was too early, as Tess said - she must have realised there were a few more episodes of the season to go. Not that Davis' story has exactly unfolded organically, but I don't need to moan about things like that. It was also so throwaway, with the line that Oliver was going to sort out the details. I wonder if he sorted out the detail that Davis was missing from the tank, and will he tell Clark, or would that make things too simple?

I actually forgot that Tess knew Clark's identity, but it was nice to see them facing up to it, even though, as usual, he shrugs it off as Luthor-mania, and never openly confirms what she knows, despite that, it was still interesting. It's been so long I've forgotten the significance of the blue stone she's got, but I'm sure things will be made clear as we edge towards the big confrontation that everyone's hoping for and expecting at the end of the series. It's a job to keep expectations in check, because you always have to remember this is a TV show, not a film, and even with the best CG in the world, they weren't going to have a film's budget. Not a bad episode, but another one that flings itself around too much without sticking to the strongest elements, and relying instead on nostalgia about the pilot (I did like to see young Lex and Davis playing, though).

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