Hourglass

DVD, Smallville S1 (Hourglass)

The first to show the true potential of the series, this has long been a favourite of mine, but seeing it now, with the whole future of the series mapped out does change my perspective a little. Not that it lessens the power of the episode, it still has quite an impact, right down to the last line of the episode in which the bittersweet realisation of Cassandra Carver's words comes to us, but it seems more contained than it used to as a story: because I know what happens with each of the characters in the future and it's not quite as scripted because the series went way off base. I particularly wanted to know what Pete's future held, knowing that he's going to leave the series and only come back one time many seasons later, but in his case her little flash of inspiration is more like a parlour trick, telling him about it being a long walk home, and then he realises he's left the car keys in the vehicle. As wonderfully crafted as the final line of the episode is, it's also similarly stagey of Cassandra to predict that someone close to Clark would die, then it turns out to be her. Why did she have to worry him, she knew it was to be herself, right? And why didn't Clark see that vision, when he did see the later one of his outliving everyone on Earth? Story convenience, that's why. It is easy to nitpick a story about the future, or about someone being able to see flashes of it, but that doesn't mean the episode as a whole isn't well crafted and uses the characters really well.

At this stage of the season and series, so fresh and green as a Kryptonite meteorite as it was, it was exciting to see the hallmarks of the main hero and 'villain' glimpsed. Sure, we didn't see Superman, that would have been going too far, and Clark's graveyard vision was more a metaphor of his indestructibility than it was a real event (another variation in what Cassandra could see!), but we get a sense of his 'destiny,' his 'fate,' two words that are integral to the series, but I'm not sure if they're pro- or anti- such concepts. Lex is the bad-guy-in-waiting, but he believes in controlling his own future, while Clark is all ready to jump on board with his destiny being to help folks. His parents are staunchly against it, but aren't above using the idea glibly to say that their destiny is to protect him. In the end it comes down to what the series did with itself, and argue for or against the quality of what they churned out for ten years, it's hard not to say that they were in the anti- camp ultimately since things turned out so differently from the mythos we knew. Many elements held true, but in this variation, this 'universe' or 'reality,' however you want to view 'Smallville' in the context of the wider mythology, it didn't become exactly what you'd expect. I have the feeling that Lex as Pres, white suit, Oval Office thing was touched on again, but I don't recall, there have been so many episodes (too many that were unmemorable), but it's a good touch (or a bad one for Cassandra), that the old woman dies from how bad Lex' future could be, or at least, that's how I read it.

I don't think I ever recognised him before, but the guy playing Harry Volk is George Murdock, best known to me for Admiral Hansen in 'TNG' and the fake 'God' face in 'Star Trek V,' so it was fun to see him, and he did a terrific job of being chillingly manipulative. And it's another good idea for someone with a unique power for Clark to confront. In this case it wasn't so much what he could do, as what he was willing to do: the murder of the descendants of the jurors that put him away for murder. He was no match for Clark, but he has the brains of an older man, and not just any older man, but a schemer that had brooded on his lost career for decades and had the full vigour of youth to tempt him to any extreme. Even so, I always wonder why Clark fights people by flinging them across space! The reason has to be that if he actually thumped 'em, he'd probably kill 'em, so he can't do that. At least we got the fate of the freak-of-the-week this time, drowned in a hail of corn that almost took out Martha Kent, too. The series is at its most intense when someone essentially harmless and powerless such as Martha is hunted, and you feel so proud of her for fighting back in any way she can - she shows huge bravery, and rather than sink into a weeping  foetal ball on the floor she's sprightly enough to make every effort to escape this murderous intruder who is even more hideous for entering the happy home of the Kents that is usually so full of warmth and light.

I found, as I have been doing with these episodes that I can't help but wish for more in them, and in this case the fish out of water idea of this old man trying to fit into youth culture as his camouflage, should have been turned up a notch. Except that he was a very arrogant and forthright person, so he's never at a loss. He makes a great villain, but his story is almost the side order to the main meal of Cassandra's farseeing gift and what it could mean for direction in Clark's largely directionless life. What's just as interesting is that the usually confident and assured Lex is uncomfortable at first with her offer of a look into the future, later coming back. I was surprised that the investigation into his car from which Clark pulled him in the accident was so open and that he just shows Clark and asks him for more information, rather than going back into the Roger Nixon storyline. Again, this is the start of a running circular narrative in which Clark brushes things off and people like Lex question him, or others about him, saying how mysterious he is, while he's just trying to be 'ordinary American teen.' It was almost as if they just threw that scene in there and it could have featured in any episode, though it does strengthen Lex' resolve to try and find something out from Cassandra.

We can see the parallels between some of the characters again, with Lex, Clark and Lana all in different stages on the same path of trying to work out who they are and what they're going to do with their lives. Funny to think that years after this episode where the old guy uses a record player to listen to his music, that form of playing came back so that you can actually buy vinyl and machines to play them on! No accounting for the fads of people's tastes! Also good to see Sheriff Ethan again as the guy who comes to take Harry into custody at the hospital, adding another layer of reality to proceedings. It still comes across as a little odd that Cassandra would worry Clark about who was going to die if she could see who, but maybe it was an old woman's fancy and she thought this young man wouldn't come back unless he had a taste of something weird and exciting, not realising he has his fill of such things every week. And here's to George Murdock, who has died in the time since I last watched the episode, at the age of eighty-one in 2012. I wouldn't be surprised if the old woman was also no longer with us, and it's still strange to me that watching this series now is so long ago compared with how it feels. Lastly, the shot of the knife shattering on Clark was one of those early indications of some of the clever CGI effects they could pull off on the series that set it apart from TV that came before.

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