Harvest

DVD, Smallville S10 (Harvest)

It was a clever idea the way they brought back Lex Luthor into the series - they did it without needing Michael Rosenbaum or another fill-in, they simply have a young clone of him whose accelerated ageing is causing him to grow up fast, and not only does he have the characteristics a clone would, he has the same memories as if he'd actually been Lex. I'd say Tess' plan backfired on her, and in a big way. Alexander looks set to be the foe of the season to end the series, though it remains to be seen if they can pull it off, and whether the constant ageing will put us through a number of changes in the cast or whether young Alexander will find a way to halt his condition and be a nasty child version. Although this is another episode that avoids this season's apparent mandate to bring back a previously seen character every time, there are many references to the past - even the ageing of Alexander is referred to something that happened in Season 3, the guy whose daughter lived at high speed (one of the better ones in a weak season as I recall, though it's been many years since I saw it), but so much is talked about between Clark and Lois on a nice drive in the country as she puts it all together now that he can be honest, and even Clark learns it was she that pulled out the blue dagger recently.

This isn't the best episode to explore Clark's powers from her perspective as it turns out, because they stumble upon an idyllic rural community that soon reveal themselves to be a meteor cult that want to sacrifice Lois under a cauldron of blue fire, believing such an offering to God will keep them and their crops healthy for another year. As it happens, their area was also hit by meteors back in '89, only these were blue - I couldn't remember what blue Kryptonite meant (I just remember the guy, again in Season 3, using them as bullets), but we soon get a reminder: it strips Clark's powers from him and makes him vulnerable as long as it's near. Which sounds pretty much like the green variety except not as potent, as it doesn't kill him. That's left up to the evil villagers who bury him underground, though as soon as they've left (they're infected by the water they drink), he's able to do a stereotypical hand reaching out of the earth like many a horror film before him. It's not the only stereotypical element to proceedings, the whole village of devoted religious believers is out of the horror handbook of nasty villages. Importantly, especially in a modern TV series, I like that Lois is able to distinguish between the Biblical knowledge she has and this alteration of it, rather than the episode suggesting that all people of faith are mad and dangerous to themselves and others, as can be the case in some TV shows.

A more realistic approach is taken, Lois even citing the commandment 'thou shalt not kill,' in her defence. But the villagers have been led astray by circumstance and their desire to eschew modern life, instead held in thrall by their leader who has twisted beliefs into a reason that his daughter died, the first to suffer, in the meteor shower, so that something good could come of it in his mind, presumably. Clark, powers restored, gives a warning, then whisks Lois off to safety, but from the start I equated the story more with a 'Stargate SG-1' episode than a typical 'Smallville,' with the usual idea of a beautiful, if simplistic agrarian community hiding a terrible secret. Not that that's a bad thing, it's good to see a series try something different, but they didn't use the idea to the fullest, and although it's a theme of Clark and Lois needing each other, and even if Clark doesn't have his powers their teamwork saves the day, it wasn't quite up to the standards of Lois and Clark-centric episodes at their best in this, and last, season. The scene at the end was also a little full-on for the series (when did they light all those candles?), and that sort of thing isn't necessary to show us how much they care for each other.

I think the failure of the episode is that it doesn't really give us anything new, which you'd expect now that the pair of them both know about Clark's secret and that the other knows, and while the reminiscing about past events in a new light could be said to cover that base to some extent the story was really the opposite of what was needed. There's a hint of Clark's overprotectiveness when he got Tess to assign him and Lois to a safe story in the countryside instead of an anti-hero rally that might put Lois in the firing line for her pro-Blur stance, but that was undermined by the fact that she actually was put in danger anyway. So it seems Lois can't be protected and Clark has to keep calm and loosen up, or keep her in a cage, but we know that's not what she'd accept so it does show her to be a bit of a liability. But that's always been the case and now that she knows, perhaps they'll be in a better position to deal with opposing events, but I can't help feel her reckless nature will only increase because she's even more sure of herself, knowing she has an alien boyfriend with superpowers to keep her from falling, whatever she does. I would call it a mediocre episode all told, though any time it's Lois and Clark together the series is better, so at least it has that, even while the Tess and Alexander B-plot is depressing as we see her pet project revealed as the danger Lex always was.

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