Rogue

DVD, Smallville S1 (Rogue)

I came to this without much preconception as I had no memory of what it was about from the title, and only when I saw it was a school trip in Metropolis did I associate it with Clark saving the bus (or stopping it to save the homeless man, to be precise), so it was with great pleasure that I found it to be a terrific episode, up there with the best so far this season. It's well structured with a strong main plot about Clark being manipulated by a cunning and ruthless Metropolis cop, a smaller secondary story about Chloe being fired from the Torch school newspaper, and a third minor subplot which kicks off Lex' direct fight against his Father thanks to Victoria Hardwick coming onto the scene to begin a new arc for Lex. What struck me most was how powerful the two levels of the series are working at this stage: you have the raw, clumsy, emotional teenage point of view, and then you have the more measured, experienced and rational adult one, and both are fascinatingly bounced off each other. You see how simple Clark's world is from the way he reacts to things - he's pulled into corrupt copper Phelan's plausible narrative and world, despite warnings from Lex and his own Father, because he thinks there's no other choice. Choice is a big theme of the episode, right down to the decision to kill, as we see how horrified Jonathan Kent is when he hears his son build up to a big secret, only to find that, though Clark wanted to kill the man holding his family to ransom, he didn't, and his relief is palpable.

Whether Superman should kill or not is a huge moral issue, so it's fantastic to see the writers address such an integral hallmark of his makeup. Because Phelan probably does deserve death: he's manipulated innocents, he's killed, himself, and he's not even above stealing - there's a reason Internal Affairs are breathing down his neck, he's a really objectionable guy, played to perfection by the actor whose every mannerism and gesture is so full of reality, whether he's twisting people round his finger, or barely containing his own rage at Clark betraying him and landing him in more hot water. He's such a fascinating character that the only downside of the episode for me was that they (seemingly), killed him off, as he could have been a terrific recurring force for evil. Though he claims to be the one standing between the criminals and 'decent' citizens like the Kents, he's actually the one standing between Clark and Lex, holding the cards on both of them. Though Clark doesn't show interest in learning about Lex' dark past, Lex is desperate to know just what Phelan had on his young friend, even to the point where he rushes to ask him before he dies at the Metropolis Museum and Phelan, twisted to the end, refuses to give him the satisfaction. What would have happened if Lex had found out or Clark had come clean with him at this stage of the series, I wonder? Would Lex have been more or less resentful that he wasn't trusted, or would he have become a Phelan-like force, not to control Clark into doing his bidding, but perhaps a voice on his shoulder urging him not to waste such talents. And he probably wouldn't have been self-controlled enough not to want Clark to do something for him at some point.

That's the great thing about this episode, it has all the elements that make the series sing: you've got Lex getting close, but not quite close enough to learning what there is to know about Clark. You've got the incredibly strong bond Clark shares with his parents. You've got the wider town community a part of the story (Sheriff Ethan embarrassedly comes to arrest Mr. Kent). And you've got the bright, happy moments amid all the tension and drama. One place that should be the brightest and happiest is the Torch, run so well as it is by Chloe. But this time Principal Kwan has had enough of her bizarre theories and stories on meteor-related events. What's more bizarre is his assertion that experts have proved the meteor rocks to be harmless, as every encounter you ever see has shown how dangerous they are, so either the 'experts' were incompetent or it was all hushed up by LuthorCorp so they could carry out their own experiments. I don't think these kinds of issues ever got true resolution as the series descended into more comic book simplicity and idiocy in later seasons, but that isn't the case here where there's still a strong impression of reality. Sure, there are still little things that make you double-take, like the bus driver who collapsed from a heart attack, then sits up right as rain after the crash. Or Martha being handed the report in the paper and mere seconds later says there's no mention of any witnesses as if she'd had time to glance through the whole thing! But these are minor problems that don't affect the quality of the story, the first Metropolis-based adventure.

What is major are the character moments and the great superpower stunts. Aside from the spectacular bus crash where Clark stands his ground with the vehicle smashing so hard into him he almost has to pry his way out, there's his anger coming out in smashing a wooden beam into splinters in the Kent Farm kitchen, and though the safe being used to crush Phelan's car isn't a particularly dramatic visual, it's a great way to show Clark uses brain as well as muscle. And of course the impressive slow motion bullet that Clark is surprised to be able to dodge when Phelan fires at him. Even though he'd actually have been fine he's not to know that, and if you could step out the way of a speeding bullet (which he is faster than!), you would do. That's something they've done a great job with: making each new extension of his powers something that surprises him or comes out of the blue, rather than a result of careful experimentation. His Dad's not going to drop farm machinery on him, but a dodgy guest character can do that, and does. You'd think that Clark would be a little more careful with the machine rather than toss it across the barn, but this is another (actually the first), indication that he has a temper as he shows real frustration at being pinned to the floor. While he makes some wrong decisions, he still manages to take the course that sets things right, and I love that although bad things comes from what he does during the episode, his parents never blame him (apart from the lying part), because he feels bad enough already and they realise they've drummed into him so much how careful he has to be not to give away his power that they're proud of him and it's a beautiful moment when his penitence is met with pride.

You feel the depth of difficulty Jonathan and Martha have to deal with as they try to grapple with the issues at hand. They've always known there are those out there who will exploit him, and we see a flash of the old Kent temper when Phelan pushes too hard. I was surprised how level-headed Jonathan was up to that point, actually, as you can imagine him going in all fists blazing, but he treads carefully, controlling himself because his son's life is at stake. I suppose it was the temper that eventually killed him, and certainly didn't do his heart any good. But John Schneider is absolutely masterful in his portrayal of a simple man of the land that has such great love for his family that everything is seen through that filter, with a hard line of pride running through him, a decency, an honesty and a homespun wisdom about how the world works, even while carving out his own corner of it. It's these things that you really miss as the seasons progress, but it's difficult to see where they could have gone with the series without trying to make things bigger in scale and thus losing that intimacy of family and community, as well as the blurring of the lines between teen and adult. Even Lex is younger than I realised as he's said to have a few years to go before he reaches thirty, so it's strange watching it now when I'm well past even that age. But the dynamics are so strong, with the younger people (Whitney and Pete barely appear, though his Dad, Bill Ross is mentioned as he's the one Jonathan wants contacted - I know his wife is eventually seen as a Judge), the middle group of Lex and now Victoria, and the proper adults.

While Clark is shown to be of his age group in the decisions he makes, Chloe and Lana are equally seen to be naive: when Kwan shuts down the paper Lana has so come to like Chloe that she offers to talk to him, but it backfires with the Principal giving her the editorship. It doesn't occur to her for a moment that Chloe could see this as moving in on her territory as she thinks they can carry on as before, only with her as the public head, while internally things would be the same, but a lot of things comes rushing out and I suppose this is where you see that Chloe has designs on Clark and a jealousy toward 'perfect' Lana that has previously only appeared as impersonal dislike of her set. It's deftly written the way Clark and Lana are danced around or dance around each other, with Lex once again arranging for them to meet (shades of his ruthless nature surface again when he advises Clark to see Whitney as the enemy), and obviously the rather on the nose gush of Chloe's views. Crucially the situation with Chloe is worked out by episode's end giving us another happy ending where everyone's friends again, followed by a second finale of the sinister type as Lex puzzles over the blur in the Museum that was Clark super-speeding away.

It really does have it all, even if Lex' position outside the place looks a bit suspicious when there's just been a bomb threat phoned in. Then again, the guards obviously know him, though I wasn't quite sure what he was doing there at the beginning - he's clearly a big shot in town. We even get the most important Jonathan Kent line, too: "You always have a choice, son." The whole thing comes together magnificently, and I can't help but put a deal of that down to the Director, David Carson, as I've always liked his style in Trek: he directed my favourite of the films, 'Star Trek: Generations,' one of the best pilots ('Emissary' for 'DS9'), as well as one of the most well regarded episodes of 'TNG' ('Yesterday's Enterprise'), so it was a pleasure to see his name attached to this. It's hard to believe, but I actually was a little down on this episode when I first saw it, finding it to be very average, but either age has improved it, or my own has given me a better understanding of all the angles, because this time I thought it was very good indeed.

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