Skinwalker

DVD, Smallville S2 (Skinwalker)

I didn't dislike this one quite as much as I used to, but I certainly didn't like it, either. It features the ominous and/or sad endings that would plague the series, losing that upbeat, optimistic style that carried so much of Season 1, a focus on a Lara Croft guest character who had about the same level of charisma, and really, the only compelling drama of the story came from Martha's divided loyalties which weren't really tested very strongly and were largely resolved quite easily. At least the rationale for Kyla's ability to change into a wolf came from a meteor rock origin, which is more than can be said for some of the freaks-of-the-week this season, but it's sad how much screen time she, and Clark's preoccupation with her, took up at the expense of the main cast. Take Pete, for example - he's there at the beginning for an odd action sequence where he and Clark race dirt bikes through the woods, then he's out of the picture as Clark spends all his time with Kyla. At first I thought it really weird that Clark would enjoy riding a motorbike since he can run far faster so there would be no adrenaline rush from the speed. But then I realised that this is a way of levelling the two friends, reliant on skill at handling a bike and the terrain under it, which would provide a challenge between them, as the racing shows, so it was actually quite a clever idea.

It didn't stop Pete from being ditched super quickly, but at least he was in the episode, it's just that you'd think Clark would be talking over what's going on with his best friend and yet those scenes are missing. Is it the female influence in the production that wasted Pete as a character, I wonder? Chloe, too, was barely to be seen, and then only really there to set up Lana's bad news that former boyfriend Whitney was Missing In Action (although it was fun to spot what looked like the Epson A3 printer I still own to this day at the Torch!). Lana gets to be included, but it's really more of an uncomfortable situation as she finds Clark and Kyla so close, so fast, but it does display her lovely nature that she was still happy to help them with their 'Save The Cave' campaign to protect the Kawatche Indian caves and the valuable cave paintings within from being bulldozed over by LuthorCorp's plan to put up office blocks. I was a bit confused by exactly how old these paintings were supposed to be as at one point five hundred years was mentioned, when a traveller from another world visited, and then at the end someone talks about them being only a hundred years old, which is quite a difference!

The Kawatche caves were never a favourite development of mine - I see the purpose, which is to give Clark something further to investigate regarding his personal heritage, something that would be done far more justice later in the season with Christopher Reeve's wonderful first appearance, but it was all a little too pat: a handy hole the shape of the octagonal disk, for instance. How would that work, putting that key into a piece of rock, or are the insides of the cave actually Kryptonian technology disguised to look like rock? That's the trouble with comic book fantasy, it doesn't have to have any basis in reality. And I know it's churlish to talk about reality when it comes to 'Smallville,' but most of the time early on it had its own internal logic and some kind of consistency where there wasn't too much reliance on the fantastical if you can buy that meteor rocks have these unique metamorphosing properties on anyone who comes into contact with them. The story of Numon and his rival was also a little too obvious, a bit like the Warrior Angel stuff in 'Ryan' - we get it, we know Lex and Clark are supposed to become bitter enemies (and they will, don't worry, they will - and it didn't work well!), but they're far more fascinating as friends, in conflict or not.

As evidenced once again by this episode when Clark goes to Lex for help against his own Father, Lionel, in posting bail for the old Indian activist who wants to protect the caves and is suspected of murdering the foreman. I guess Kyla made a mistake by throwing the towel away, or whatever it was carrying the man's blood she must have wiped off herself, instead of burning it, but then she is supposed to be a teenager. How long has she been able to change into a wolf, did her Grandfather know about it (I'd suspect not), and would he have done anything about it if he had? I must say he didn't seem all that cut up about her death and it was rather arbitrary: she cuts herself on the window she leapt out of to escape the Luther Mansion (we see how she got out, but how did she get in?), and that somehow gives her a fatal wound? It was a convenience so Clark didn't have to deal with her again, either in a girlfriend capacity or as someone who knows his secret. Again, that's what usually happens to the villain each time so it's nothing new, but Clark was a bit fast to swallow all this legend stuff since it suited his feelings, while he was instantly defensive of the old man, her Father, when Chloe talks about the evidence against him.

What was most interesting was Martha's position in all this. For the first time she's at odds with what we're supposed to sympathise with and she does seem rather quick to defend the Luthor point of view, which is strange. It seems she's become more than just an assistant, she actually represents Lionel now! They kept away from adding Jonathan into the mix, probably feeling the tension between them had already been explored and would have confused the issue a little, and at least Mr. Kent does get to give his son some advice. On the other side of the Father/son coin are Lionel and Lex, shown to be operating against each other openly as Lex finds a reason to become attached to the caves through recognising the octagonal hole. It makes things somewhat interesting, but as I say, returning to the caves wasn't among the highlights of the season to come and was another sign of the degeneration of the series as it had been into what Season 3 would make it, or even the end of Season 2, and I wasn't in favour of all that. So I have to lay a lot of the fault at the door of this episode for introducing such things as these magical caves of mystery. The one bit that did surprise was Henry Small turning out to be Lana's biological Father as I thought it was not so, which just shows how reliable memory can be (even though it had been well over a decade since I last saw it!). And one last thing: are we supposed to take the howling wolves at the Mansion as being part of Lionel's fear, because there was only Kyla there, but at first it seemed he might be surrounded by a whole tribe of them!

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