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DVD, Smallville S2 (Lineage)

Wow, this episode made things a lot more complicated. It should have been called 'Mother,' or 'Parents,' or maybe even 'Adoption.' How many issues are there, let me work it out? There's obviously Clark and his shady adoption by the Kents, as well as a woman who believes she's his real Mother. There's Lana and her quest to find out if her Mother's boyfriend, whom we learn is Henry Small of the founding family that created Smallville, is actually her Father. There's Chloe and her story of how her Mother walked out on her and her Father when she was five years old and knows she's not wanted, and then there's Lex and his potential to be half-brothers with Clark, quashed, but then a previously unknown half-brother, Lucas Luthor, is unearthed, and his Dad, Lionel, pretends he died when he was one, yet has a picture of a young lad in a locket. What a tangled web to unweave! The best episode of the season so far, I'd say, though 'Redux' isn't far behind, this threw up many questions, but in a good way, not in a shallow, plot twist of the week style only there to shock or surprise. It's all done with real heart and emotion and is another episode that doesn't feature a freak-of-the-week to confuse the issue. I suppose Rachel is the closest thing, showing up at the Kent Farm once Clark's gone to school and his parents have gone off in the truck, and creepily wandering round the house. It was such a nice morning, too, with some great direction, fun little gags such as Clark saying he smashed his alarm clock pressing the snooze, and making toast the super-fast way with heat vision.

It's a fun, fast scene that shows how assured the series can be in its characters, its sets and its dialogue, and pleasingly that confidence continues through the rest of the episode. As does Rachel Dunlevy's increasingly inappropriate behaviour. I mean, is it really possible for someone to petition a judge (Pete's Mum, too!), to force Clark to undergo a DNA test? Surely that isn't legal, it would be against his rights, even if he isn't an adult. Okay, so the Kents' adoption is shown up to be far below board, but even so, that seemed really far off the base of what's acceptable. Mind you, requesting a DNA test is far from the most unreal moment of the series and this continues to show, for the most part, how grounded the series was at this time, before it completely lost it to fantasy and too much bad writing in subsequent seasons. I love, for example, how the Kents deal with Rachel, everyone so true to their characters: Jonathan just holding back his anger at her poking around in his family (good job he never knew she entered their house - do they not lock the doors when they go out?), while Martha is on the verge of showing compassion to this sad woman, you can tell she really wants to talk to her even though she knows no good can come of it. Lionel, too, is very much true to what we know of him, not giving in to Rachel's blackmail and leaving Lex at her mercy. That sequence was the only truly unreal note in the episode, as you'd think all Lionel's resources would be put into tracking down this mad woman, especially as the house she just bought is presumably where she's taken Lex, and would be the first place the police would look!

Except Sheriff Ethan is too busy enforcing the taking of DNA samples to do any serious police work! It was great fun seeing him when he had hair back in the 80s, and here we come to another great directorial side of the episode: when they start showing the flashback to the day of the meteor shower, you think 'here we go again, they love to reuse the footage from the pilot,' but then we get to see what happened next, what a revolutionary idea! We have Lionel back in his older hairstyle, young Lex and young Clark meeting for the first time and the real story of his adoption opened up. There may be a slightly odd note in that Lionel is so beside himself he doesn't know what to do other than get Jonathan to take the now hairless Lex to hospital - Pa Kent is supposed to be this hero, but all he does is pick the kid up and drive him somewhere! Lionel looks most ineffectual, but it sets up the trade in favours that soured Jonathan on the Luthors for good: not content with paying back Jonathan by setting up Metropolis United Charities and its one case of adoption, which is a clever retcon if it works, Lionel then puts pressure on his new 'buddy' to persuade the Ross' to give up their plant, a course of action that gave the Luthors a foothold on the Smallville community, and it was all Jonathan's fault. It puts in perspective why he can't stand the man or his problems with Lex and the whole family in the past, as well as his constant reminders to Clark that 'we always have a choice, son.' It seems he chose to collaborate in order to protect his new family, not an easy decision either way.

Not only is the drama strong, but the way they shot it was equally up with the quality of Ken Biller's script (formerly of 'Voyager'). We see some terrific transitions between the past and present that are as good as anything in 'Highlander' - Martha's telling Clark about how it was when he first came to them and looks over, the camera panning to show young Clark playing on the floor, then we return to the present as li'l Clark hugs his Mummy and the camera moves up to her now, remembering. It's so effective at conveying the past coming back to haunt, or precious memories never forgotten, but it also shows the helplessness of Jonathan in the barn as he looks over at Lionel leave after giving him the ultimatum. I'm not sure the story hangs together in the wider series continuity as Lionel doesn't seem to really know Martha this season, yet he sat in a truck (which wasn't even theirs, but some friend of Jonathan's that died, though that's a good addition to the story logic when you know that the Kent truck was overturned, so how would they have gotten Clark and his spaceship back to the farm? - problem solved), right next to her for the journey to the Smallville Medical Centre. It's understandable really as he wasn't in a good state of mind and was intent only on young Lex at the time.

Rachel's psychotic tendencies come to the fore when she visits Lionel and he says she needs to go back into mental care, so although it's a very 'Smallville' excess thing for her to do in kidnapping Lex and holding him ransom, then trying to murder him with an axe, it also feels believable based on what we learn of her. Clark stopping her by blasting through the door, the axe splintering down on him, wasn't one of the best effects in the series, but exciting visuals weren't really what the episode was about, it's much more a satisfying people drama where the strengths and weaknesses of the various characters come into play very well. Lex hoping that Clark would turn out to be his brother, Chloe's tearful confrontation with Clark and revelation about her own Mother, Lana's attempt to get to know Mr. Small, both naive and true to how a teenager would approach something like that, but thanks to Clark's encouragement, finding the courage to try again in a more mature and sensible manner - it all showed some fine writing, and sadly only Pete misses out on anything good, his role merely there for backup when Clark tampers with his DNA sample. Yet the Ross family are constantly in the background, whether it's his Mother authorising the test, or the history with Jonathan getting his family to sell to the Luthors.

The strength of the episode is that it rings true in so many ways, the worst qualities of Lionel coming to the fore, the best qualities of the Kents, even of Lex, who refuses to play Rachel's game by talking to Clark for her. It even manages to end on a largely positive note, which I appreciate in a season where things began to go downhill - it's no wonder Lana and Chloe became more and more upset with Clark as for all the talk of secrets and stuff, he still won't really confide, even on these things, and is quick to reassure when they need it. Not that that makes future episodes more bearable, but at least here things make sense - talking of future episodes, I'm pretty sure we see this Lucas Luthor in an episode this season, and I'm not even sure he was the only brother Lex had as future seasons drop all kinds of bizarre plots out of the woodwork. For now, though, this was a strong story that used almost all the characters effectively and depended on personal challenges rather than action, making it well rounded and an instalment of depth. With this and 'Redux' we seem to be into a good patch, which I hope continues.

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