Duplicity

DVD, Smallville S2 (Duplicity)

A bit of an unhappy one, but not as much as I thought it was going to be. I was under the mistaken impression that Pete left in the same episode in which he learned Clark's secret, always a missed opportunity as it would be fun to see him and his pal doing stuff together now that he's in on it all. In fact the episode has a very upbeat ending as Clark enjoys showing off his true basketball skills to an amazed Pete. But the best moment of the episode has to go to Pete himself who, despite his strong disappointment that Clark so distrusted him that he wouldn't share his big secret up till now, protects him with his life when it comes down to the deranged Dr. Hamilton threatening to inject him with raw meteor juice unless he tells him whose spaceship this belongs to. Pete was an absolute hero and what a relief to see someone willing to die to protect Clark's secret! Unfortunately he also shows why it's best Clark keeps it under wraps because it's his slip of the tongue that tips off Hamilton that Pete knows its owner. I found it very interesting that Jonathan Kent actually says Clark doesn't really have a choice when it comes to not telling people, because what is his most famous quote? 'We always have a choice, son.' When it comes to protecting Clark you have to wonder how far he'd go, though we'd already explored that a little in the opening episode when he almost went to the extreme of killing Nixon, but in the end didn't.

It shows the moral path isn't clearcut when it comes to this unique situation, but whether Clark was right or not to finally come clean to Pete, is a different question. As we'd later see, Pete doesn't stay around Smallville for long and finds it too hard to keep it within him (which seems to be a theme of the episode since Nell can't keep it to herself that she's been proposed to by her new boyfriend, much to Lana's dismay), so while there was some short term relief for Clark and some joy for Pete to know his friend's a super-powered alien with his own spaceship, it becomes too heavy a burden to bear. While I was expecting it to be so much of a downer it's really only some of the time and you do wonder what Pete will do, but it's really only Lana that gets to Clark when he refuses to let her in on the private spat between him and Pete after she's just admitted she broke up with Whitney. It was an uncomfortable scene and Clark always looks so guilty you have to wonder how characters don't see through him - I felt the same way when Lex or Chloe spoke to him about the ship's octagonal disc and the spaceship rumour, respectively. If Clark ever shows reticence that would seem to suggest they're on the right track. Maybe Chloe's journalistic instincts aren't fully honed yet when it comes to her best friends, but you'd think Lex would see the guilt and evasion every time, since he seems so switched on.

Lex has enough to keep his mind busy at the moment, however, what with Hamilton effectively messing up Cadmus Labs, the facility where he was doing meteor research for Lex, but his jitters illness (as seen in 'Jitters' - a nice callback), turns him violent leading to staff quitting and things being damaged. We're also reminded that Lex has his own business to run as he took over the Smallville plant last season, something you'd think would be much higher on the story agenda. But this season the growing community of the town was to be severely curtailed: we get Nell and Hamilton back, but the first is in the process of being written out (I don't know how many more times she'd appear), and the second dies in this episode so although I enjoy them returning to plots from Season 1 it's a shame they felt the need to bring them to a halt, most often by killing off the recurring characters as if they wanted to be done with what had become a good part of the unfolding drama. I can't really say Lionel Luthor's presence has improved the series so far, he worked so well as a force of nature coming in and upsetting the applecart, and now they have to keep finding reasons for him to be in Smallville rather than it being natural.

It's also a bit of a puzzle over how much he knew in these early years because in a later season we find he was part of the Veritas group that were protecting Clark in secret (I think), and knew all about the spaceship's arrival. If so, you have to wonder at his role in this episode where he seems to have no idea about it all, while Hamilton tries to get him onboard for funding when Lex drops him as a responsible employer should. Hamilton is very well acted, he really feels like he's on the very edge of completely losing it and smashing everything to pieces and makes for an ideal villain. Not that he's a match for Clark other than threatening to pour meteor juice on him, but then Clark did blurt out that it makes him ill and it's best never to let on to your weaknesses in front of enemies! But there are a lot of things that don't make logical sense: how did Pete pull that hefty bloke out of his van? Why could the police not find this van as it must have made quite a mess of the cornfield? How could Pete (even with Clark), move the spaceship, especially lifting it into the truck? Why didn't Clark just tell Pete he couldn't help letting Pa Kent in on the secret and they came to look at it? Admittedly, that last one would still look shady as why wouldn't they just talk to Pete first? Why does Clark feel it's okay to practice his powers out in the open on the farm - Pete drives right up to the gate before he's realised he's there and you see a bus in the background so anyone with reasonable vision would be able to see Clark throwing the basketball from so far away if they happened by!

Hamilton gets away with murder, killing the van driver, yet the Medical Centre knows he was the last person to visit him as he apparently signed in! You'd think Sheriff Ethan would be paying him a visit after that suspicious death. We don't know how much time elapsed across the episode, we see it light and dark at various times so maybe I could give it the benefit of the doubt and say that either the Sheriff's office was overrun with more high profile cases, or, being country law enforcement, they have their own pace of dealing with things. Otherwise it looks a little incompetent… But I did like the way Clark reveals his true self to Pete, shooting in front of the car and stopping it mid-drive. It may not have been the wisest method, it is quite shocking, but it was a spur of the moment decision and something that couldn't be undone. Later, when they're buds again I really wanted Pete to go through various episodes we saw and ask Clark what happened here or there, so he gets the picture, but then maybe Clark should just give him the Season 1 DVD set and that would answer all his questions! Pete gets to feel what Clark felt, being duplicitous all those years, because Chloe stumbles upon them and while Pete doesn't actually lie, he doesn't make the truth sound believable and he must have realised, if not then, certainly later, that it really is a huge responsibility and how it is to have to cover even to people you like and trust.

The important thing is that the soap opera of Lana and Chloe getting upset over Clark is practically nonexistent, other than Lana's one moment of irritation in Clark's lack of confidence in her, and they really needed to do something that gave Pete a role. They probably thought this was the way to go, I'm not sure if they planned to get rid of the character or it was a result of him becoming a lame duck, but in the end he did become just Chloe Mark II, he didn't have a strongly defined role. This new development could have opened the character up in better writer's hands, but this was just one of the negative aspects of the season that they promised much and wanted to deliver, but ended up breaking apart the community and feel of the series that had been built so successfully in Season 1. I used to like this episode better, and while I still enjoyed it, particularly Pete's understanding of Clark's abilities and the feel-good ending, it also shows up too many of the coming flaws and as such it wasn't quite as strong as it used to be, though still good, plus it shows the strong morality of Clark that he wouldn't even let his enemies die, he'll help people regardless, a positive quality that should be more common in TV and film, but sadly, isn't.

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