Heat

DVD, Smallville S2 (Heat)

We pick up a good three months after the storm of the previous episode, Chloe's had a chance to spend all summer at the Daily Planet in Metropolis as an intern, a fun connection to the Superman lore, while Clark has continued to look out for Lana as Whitney asked him to. It was nice that we had a reminder of how things stand and that Whitney's off in the army as Lana tries to record a message to him to break up. It seems like she's just wanting to cheer him up with messages from all his friends, but in the end it was just a cover to herself eventually coming round to the realisation honesty is the best policy. It seems rather harsh of her to do such a thing when he's not there, but then she is supposed to be a teenaged girl, even if she is more responsible and mature than the average person of that age, running the Talon coffee house and generally seeming more like an adult. It's more likely that the writers needed to change things around for their ongoing romantic soap so it doesn't sit too well from any perspective, though I did enjoy the callback to Whitney and the messages the other characters make.

The real surprise is that Lex has found the love of his life and is getting married. Tonight! I suppose this story was made at this point in the season as there is a short period at the beginning when it could be plausible since so much time has passed between episodes, that Lex could have got to know the mysterious stranger, but that theory is debunked quite soon as they're quick to show Desiree using her special pheromone power on him, a purple vapour that subjugates him to her every whim, though it requires regular dosage to be effective. The title of the episode works on various levels, from the heatwave ravaging Smallville to the fires Clark keeps inadvertently starting (well, twice, anyway), to the ahem, more sensitive topic that proves to be the catalyst for Clark's latest power to manifest. I'm not sure even in America they'd allow a teacher to go around in such a small tight dress as the one 'Miss Atkins' wears while teaching her sex education class, even given it was such a hot day, but the episode is quite a shameless attempt at appealing to the teen audience in the most basic way possible. There are lots of logic lapses in the episode, from Clark and his suspicious position near these fires, to his ease at gaining control over the heat vision, to Desiree getting away with so many things.

In the episode's defence there is suspicion, Clark even gets arrested by a reluctant Sheriff Ethan and we know he could simply break loose and escape, but where would he run to? Lana, too, speaks of the fact he was there when all three fires started (the classroom, the Talon and the jail; only Desiree's car being blasted to pieces by her own hand was nothing to do with him), and there must have been questions over how a fire could have raked the wall of the Talon like it did - if it was just the coffee machine going up in flames an electrical fault would be easy to blame, but a line of fire across a wall? The series was always a little bit fantastical, but they tend to paper over or skip any issues like that, just as Desiree and Lex' marriage and her fate are just thrown out in a quick dialogue scene from Mr. Kent at the end, no explanation for how her power of controlling people is understood to the authorities or anything along those lines, even Lex appears to be left in the dark about what happened. At least in these early seasons it wasn't as egregious as it became later, but it's still irksome in its level of believability.

What holds the series together are the terrific performances of the cast (excluding Lionel Luther who doesn't appear this time), especially that scene where Martha comes upon Lex at the Talon when she went to meet Nell (who also doesn't appear - I can't remember if she even came back again!), and gives him a real piece of her mind. It's brilliant how the pair of them react to each other, Martha quivering with disgust and horror at how Clark's been treated and Lex still trying to hold onto a piece of the respect he's developed with the Kent family while also desperately attempting to justify his evil wife. The girls don't get as much to do, Chloe only there to keep the flame burning for Clark and everything she says has something to do with him and them and it's quite tiresome, but then you have to remember it's a teen drama that borders on a soap sometimes, not that that's an excuse. Lana is similarly all about feelings and stuff and it's quite obvious that she and Clark make any opportunity to get together (as in 'come and record a message for Whitney'). Jonathan is very good and I like that they aren't coarse about what triggered Clark's power, it's implied and the idea is got across with subtlety, and it's good to see the support between parents and son even in tricky issues.

The effects themselves were very good, the burning, the distortion of the heat as it bursts through the air, the blaze in Clark's eyes, all sell it very well, but it was a little too easy for him to learn to control, perhaps for the sake of drama he needed more time and that would have added something because the horror he feels at the possibility he might have set Lana ablaze was strong. Similarly, we never get to hear the best man speech he made about Lex, though the wedding was going to be quickly annulled, it would have been a nice moment to hear what Clark would say about what he describes as his best friend. We don't get to see him bat the bullet away that Mr. Kent fires at Lex, but it made more sense for him to incinerate it midair since so many were watching, even if he can move as fast as a speeding bullet - one of the best examples of his powers was as simple as taking the hot tray Mrs. Kent passes to him straight out of the oven when she's wearing oven gloves, then it's confirmed how hot it is by Jonathan burning himself when he picks up one of the muffins. Simple and subtle, but homely and cool at the same time.

That Desiree originated in Smallville would seem to make it dangerous for her to show her face again, so I don't know how she ever made it into such a responsible job as a teacher at the school - well, of course she probably used her pheromone ability on whoever the Principal is now, but surely some of the teachers would have recognised her? It was fun to hear Chloe mention she'd lost her vast sums of money in the dot.com crash of the late-90s/early-2000s, a reference that dates it (if those colourful old iMacs didn't already), but it's fun to go back and it makes you appreciate how bright and bold the series was for something made in 2002, all widescreen and full of warm colours. And I did enjoy the episode more than I had in the past, but it's still an uncomfortable story and I'm not sure it was the best use of the heat vision, one of the few powers held ready for an origin story as they'd done in Season 1. It's too soapy and things are instantly back to normal at the end and there needed to be consequences so I can't quite give it a good score despite some quality scenes and a truly deadly femme fatale enemy to defeat.

**