Stray

DVD, Smallville S1 (Stray)

Another of the many from this season that I think of fondly, and it doesn't let you down with a strong opening, a happy ending and plenty of good bits in between. Ryan is the stray of the title, a young lad who would return the following season. It's not explained in this episode (and I can't remember about the sequel), whether his power of hearing the thoughts in people's minds was something from the meteor shower or not - he seems like he might just about be old enough to have been a baby when they hit, maybe not, but perhaps his Mother was affected in some way before she had him. That's the biggest question left open by the episode and I was surprised to find it wasn't even considered. I suppose that was due to his secret being inextricably tied to Clark's, so Clark couldn't discuss it with Chloe (or Pete, who is once again, along with Whitney, absent from the story), which is how we usually get a backstory for a freak-of-the-week. It doesn't harm the episode, however, it's just different, and the real point of the story is to set up a few things for the future, tease a little bit about the characters, just as Cassandra did with her ability to show moments of a person's future to them in 'Hourglass.' There are some similarities as both situations were about others' personal secrets and inner lives, one coming from someone at the end of her life and now one who is at the start of a new life, and both were drawn to Clark in friendship.

It's a good job Ryan was a decent chap as if he'd been a little terror like most of the meteor-affected he might have found out Clark's secret and held it over the family, but in actual fact if he'd been a bad lad he probably would have revelled in the company of his Stepfather and wife who were only intent on getting rich from armed robberies. I suppose their previous felonies weren't very fruitful, unless they spent all the money before it was on to the next town, which wouldn't be a surprise considering how low their morals were - the guy even killed his wife before the end, not to mention innocents! It's another case of Clark possibly being a killer himself as a bowling ball travelling at that distance, at that speed, enough to burst through the machinery to thump right into the bad guy's chest with enough power to fling him back against the wall… well, could he be likely to survive that? As often is the case on the series that side of it's glossed over and we don't hear any confirmation or denial - if they'd only said he had been treated and then taken to prison it would have been fine. Otherwise you'd think the Sheriff's office would have a few questions for Clark about how he was able to throw that ball with such force! That's not the only questionable thing he does - when he rescues Ryan did he have to rip the back panel off the rubbish lorry (or garbage truck in their parlance)? He did the sensible thing in ripping out the hydraulics to stop the crush, but couldn't he have got the driver to open the back?

I know it was meant to evoke imagery of Warrior Angel, the comic book hero Ryan so idolised until he met a real life hero in Clark, but where was the driver in all this? Didn't he notice his truck had stopped working? Didn't he see the panel had been forced open? Or did Clark pull Ryan out and then bend the thing back into shape? If so, then the driver must have gone to sleep on the job! As ever, these minor inconsistencies that are so much more noticeable in later seasons, are easy to ignore because the rest of the story, acting and drama is so good, whereas in those latter seasons they were suspect and didn't have the weight to distract from the narrative or logic flaws. Here, Ryan is this quiet, but nonetheless insistent young fellow who has had to deal with physical and mental abuse and has found an idyllic refuge from the outside world. I don't know why they couldn't have adopted him really, except that for all its ongoing plots, it was still birthed in episodic structure so things were likely to reset by the end of the episode. Will Lex leave for Metropolis to accept his Dad's job offer? Will Lana admit where she stands with Clark? Will Chloe admit she wants to go to the ball with Clark?

There was a lot of material to mine from this particular power, probably one reason they brought him back the next year, and although Ryan's tragic story allows Clark to be the hero he's always going to become, now, in a small way, it's as much about setting up the end of the season as anything else: Lana becoming available, Chloe and the prom, Lex having a moral choice to make regarding loyalty or enmity with his Father. Is he really bad deep down as Ryan suggests? Well for a start he can only read people's surface thoughts (which begs the question why Martha was thinking of the spaceship in the storm cellar so he knew about it - maybe she was half worried he might explore and find it for himself?), so there might be a slight touch of the Pete best mates jealousy that Lex is so high in Clark's esteem, but we know there are still undeniably suspect parts to Lex. At the same time, what he says to his Father is true: he has turned his life around, he doesn't party, he's worked hard at his projects and senses his Father's disquiet with his new behaviour. Clark likes to give him the benefit of any doubt. Clark is a good guy, he can be a little naive in his belief in the best of people, but it's also inspiring because he is such a positive person. And although he's a few years older than Ryan, he is still learning the ropes, he does have a lot to go through before he really becomes Superman in that far future we'll eventually see right at the end.

Ryan precipitates a microcosm of Clark's life, observing his powers firsthand, noting the realities just below the surface pertaining to Clark's closest friends, but at the same time being unable to read him, which was intriguing and fit perfectly with Clark's alien nature. Reminding us of the storm cellar was also a wise move considering how much of a part it would play in the season finale. As so often with the series (at this stage of it, anyway), they get the domestic side as right as the criminal or action sides, with plenty of scenes with Ryan wishing he had what Clark has, making breakfast for the Kent family and in a typically childish point of view only seeing things simply. Why did he run from his Stepfather when he had Clark and his friends around? He didn't know about Clark's powers at that point, although he did know he was different (I liked that he was able to feel peace around Clark because he couldn't detect the thoughts he got from everyone else around him), so maybe he was scared the guy would start shooting up the place, or maybe it was as simple as not thinking rationally and reacting in a fight-or-flight way to immediate danger. He was guileless in his revealing of people's personal thoughts (although the way Lana says he was right about her employee, she was stealing from the till, it sounded like he had suggested that specific thing himself, which he didn't!), which made it hard for people to be angry with him, but as always you'd think they'd pay heed right away to anything that was slightly weird - instead Clark thinks he's just making up stories, kids, tsk tsk, etc!

There's plenty of charming meandering pensiveness about what might have been and what Clark means to his parents, so although it's not full of excitement it is a bright, happy place to be, which also serves to contrast the vicious and ruthless violence of the enemy. He's not difficult to defeat as he has no power to harm Clark except vicariously by his power to hurt Clark's parents or Ryan, but whenever the shocking scenes of this maniac are on they are jarring compared with all those colourful happy moments. I'd thought Clark took Ryan to see Lex' Warrior Angel collection, but that must be in the sequel. I'm not sure now if Chloe did buy a dress in advance of the prom or not, as Ryan says she did and she protests that she didn't actually buy it, so maybe she just tried it on and to Ryan's mind that meant she'd bought it. Or she was lying to Clark in her embarrassment! It's also a little funny when Clark whips up and finds Lex lying in the road having been ejected from his limo by the hijacking pair - he was a little dazed, but where did he think Clark had come from? Just out jogging and he's going to go off and run after the car? Or was driving by, in which case couldn't he have given Lex a lift instead of leaving him injured at the roadside! And there's also the thing that Clark always does where he runs super fast until he gets near somewhere he needs to be, in this case the bowling alley. Why not keep going at that speed to scour out the whole place, it doesn't make sense he wouldn't, but obviously for the audience's sake we need to see him do stuff as the whole thing can't be in slow motion!

The upshot is that in some ways it is quite silly, but then that's the series, and the key thing is that it's pleasant and reassuring, bright and positive, the Kents, Clark and others being shining examples of good human beings doing the right thing. That's what makes you want to come back week after week, not how far Clark throws a villain, or what special effects they use (the x-ray vision gets a good workout, even down to spotting a photo in Ryan's backpack). It's the outdoor domestic bliss of country life and family, deliberately lit brilliantly and designed to be full of primary colours to create a feeling of happiness and joy, while also showing scary, nasty scenes that Clark has to keep at bay from his world. It's easy to see why Ryan would want a piece of this pie, as everyone would (though I'd recommend against eating one of those cooking apples Martha was using to make apple pie - he grabs one from the bowl on his way out!). That's the most success you can get, not the heartless moneymaking of the Luthors, and that's the lesson of the series. We get to hear about a brother of Lex' who died as a baby (Julian). I'm sure there was another brother we meet next season, too (Lucas?), so there were more revelations to come in the Luthor line. Oh, and witness a pre-'Battlestar Galactica' (and very pre-'Star Trek: Discovery'), Rekha Sharma as a nurse or doctor at the Smallville Medical Centre. I didn't recognise her until I saw the name in the end credits.

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