Hostage

DVD, Smallville S9 (Hostage)

I tend to have lowered expectations for opening and closing episodes in a 'Smallville' season as they take time to get going, always having to clear up the mess left behind by the previous season's cliffhanger, or at the other end of the spectrum, going all out to create a new mess for next season. So it was with some delight that this penultimate episode provided some much needed warmth and solace from the Kandorian problem that's been boiling over in recent episodes, and was a partial return to what this season has done best: Clark and Lois. It's ironic, but just at the time that poor Clark is waist deep in Kandorian troubles, Zod's plans coming to fruition, Lois' minor life issues (being unemployed and feeling like she's going nowhere, doing nothing of value with her life), make her question his commitment to their cause - while she's concerned that he doesn't take things seriously enough, or whatever, at the same time she's pining to make a difference in the exact moment he's dealing with potentially world-changing events to come. It's a tough position to be in, but he's already played the card of deciding not to tell Lois his true identity, and he has to stick to it. Doesn't mean to say we don't wonder if he'll go back on that and tell her anyway, especially when he leaves a card at the end from The Blur saying they have to meet.

The age-old question of 'tell or don't tell' isn't the only tantalising thread to dangle in front of us - we also have Martha Kent returning after a three season break (I think it was Season 6 when she last appeared), and this time she's got old favourite Perry White in tow (played by old favourite Michael McKean). Straight away I'm putting two and two together to make 'Editor,' as that would be so wonderful if they could draw some of those disparate pieces of the Superman mythos together and get people to where they're supposed to be, even though the series long ago stopped being even close to how Supes' story was 'supposed' to play out, preferring to be free from canon, if there is such a definitive version of his early life. You could say it was always supposed to be some alternate version, since Lex and Clark were friends, but that tension between how we know things are supposed to end up and how they were is what carried much of the potential in the early seasons. Something else those early seasons carried was a real sense of the world that Clark and his friends lived in, with real adult characters that were, well, real. Of course Clark and friends grew up and became adults in their own right, losing the dynamic of the cast that worked so well to begin with, nevertheless, having strong acting talent like Annette O'Toole and John Schneider remained a boon, though later they were criminally underused, and when a story could be found for the old folks it was generally something ridiculous, like them performing some crazy feat or whatever, losing the reality that the home life of Clark began with.

This episode managed to recreate the dichotomy of the warm, solace of the Kent farm and family, with the chilling, blood-curdling danger that existed outside of it, though in reality it was just a mental ploy on Tess to get her to reveal the location of The Book of Rao, with Maxwell Lord back for some mental games to create an internal reality where Tess and Oliver are prisoners in the Mansion. Another episode where Tess is trapped with someone which could have become an event in itself, but is actually over pretty quickly and doesn't amount to much except to get her moving. In keeping  with the poor or outlandish use of adult characters previously, the big question (alongside why is Martha with Perry!), is that of who The Red Queen is, this third party unconnected with Checkmate, yet not on the side of the Kandorians or Clark. It was getting complicated, but I should have guessed it would be Mrs. Kent as soon as her approaching cameo was spoiled for me by the DVD having a picture of her on the episode menu - it would have been a wonderful surprise for her to simply appear out of the blue, but I was pleased when I saw the picture and even more so when she walked into the Kent house again after so long away. It made sense that she couldn't face up to the memories after Jonathan's tragic death, so many memories (both happy and sad!), at the Kent family farm. I say I should have guessed, but I did at the point that Chloe tells Clark that Tess was in A&E during Red's latest appearance, and then it was that I pretty much knew.

I never thought it was Tess, even she's not that good an actor, and what good would it have done her? Then I was edging more towards Chloe, as her twisted Big Brother-ish attitudes and approach made her create an alternate identity in which she could get involved, but it was a bit of a stretch and it was most likely a new character. But then it clicked: of course they weren't simply going to bring back Martha to present a home-cooked meal (as nice as it was to see her with the apron, busying herself in the kitchen - I hope she was impressed with how clean Clark had kept the place, although I wonder what happened to Shelby the dog, as you'd think it would have come bounding up to her!), she was bound to play some kind of significant role, and at first thoughts you'd expect it to be political in nature, perhaps the combined efforts of Perry and Martha would get Clark and Lois reconstituted as part of the Daily Planet again? But no, she had to be The Red Queen, and strangely, though it was in parallel with many other bizarre stretching of characters over the years, I didn't find it too out of character. As she admitted to Clark, with all he was dealing with she was worried about what would happen to him, not least, as she admits, if The Book of Rao is indeed used to send the Kandorians off to another plane of existence, it will suck up every Kryptonian off the planet, too!

I liked the logic of the Mother, and we got to have some meaningful scenes, such as those between Lois and Martha when she talks of the past and doing something with her life: they successfully managed to show that Martha Kent was an intelligent, career woman over the years, not just a simple farmer's wife, but that she enjoyed caring for the land and the people in that small community, her love for Jonathan driving her on. So it all fell into place for me, and we also had that little moment when Perry's about to enter the kitchen carrying some logs, and like Martha, you could be forgiven for thinking it was Jonathan back from the dead in those same old jeans and jacket - because I don't believe we've seen the last of Mr. Kent, or at least I hope not, even if it's some kind of flashback they need to bring John Schneider back in the final season. I have a lot of hopes for that final season to come, although some of them have been reduced after appearing in this very episode: I really hoped, upon seeing Perry again (who hadn't been in the series since way back in Season 3, and even then only one episode), that this was going to open the door to putting things in their rightful places, with Clark and Lois as reporters working for Perry White as Editor. But he scurries off to chase a false lead on The Red Queen in Africa by episode's end. It could still happen that next season he returns to become a regular, but the chances appear to have dropped with the way he was written out here.

As Clark himself said, I just wanted things to be back to how they were for an episode, and in large part they were, but at the same time they weren't, because once a time has come and gone, you can recreate it, you can try and relive it, but it will never come again. There is a time for everything under the sun… And so it was with this, a sense of the past, a pleasant ray of remembrance, even the bittersweet of sad memories, but by the end things were back to current times. I think Lois should have been unemployed for longer, one of those things the series briefly skips over because it doesn't see the dramatic potential of such real world situations, but that's the way the series went, and one reason why it never lived up to its full potential. I'm just grateful that we got a positive episode before the end of the season: the Kent farm took on a glowier glow than we've seen for a long time, the music was quirky and funny, then we're frozen into the horror of Tess trapped in her room, threatened by a gun. It worked. As always there were things I had a problem with, such as Watchtower, though mangled, still doing its thing with Chloe at the helm (though her observation that having all the information isn't the same as having all the answers was another fascinating thought that could easily have been more fully explored), and there's no way Lois would have been able to lift the heft of Perry when he gets stuck climbing up the building (Martha must be on good shape to get up there, too!), as much as I enjoyed that sequence!

I sense Chloe is preparing for her exit, being pretty sure she left after Season 9, and now her saying she's had enough of the virtual world and wants a real life with Oliver, it makes me wonder how those characters will play out. Will there be a death, or a simple exit, like Pete did in Season 2? Though I don't hold out much hope that the end of the season will be that great, not having much interest in the Kandorians' affairs, and expecting Zod to be out of the series, I am at least given hope for Season 10. Will Clark tell Lois his secret? Will Chloe renounce her crime-fighting (what else would she do, they can hardly write her out to be shunted off to some safe house of Oliver's in some distant country where she can do the same thing as she was doing with Watchtower)? Will Perry marry Martha, and will they return to being a part of the series again? To repeat what Chloe said, having the information isn't the same as having the answers, but at least this episode made me want to learn the answers, not just be given the information. And while I'm not sure how much I'd miss the character as she is now, she does tend to get some good references: this time throwing in references to both 'Donkey Kong' and 'Alien Nation' in the same conversation!

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