Visage

DVD, Smallville S2 (Visage)

I knew Whitney was coming back, and I knew Tina Greer would return, but for some reason I hadn't conjoined the two ideas together so although I remembered the only time we see the real Whitney was in the teaser where he's getting blown up in Indonesia, I had no idea who was masquerading as him, which is funny since I can't remember anyone else with the power to change their shape to impersonate people! At first I thought I was going to like it because it's the Whitney episode and I always liked the guy, and this was his last proper appearance, apart from a small role in flashback during Season 3, if I remember correctly, but then it did drag out his guilt-spreading on Lana so that she feels forced into pretending everything's fine again when in reality they'd broken up a while ago - a good line about losing parts of his memory, that seemed like a convenient excuse for things to go back to how they were, although in reality it was a convenient excuse to explain away any inconsistency in his behaviour or memory. Post traumatic stress disorder is mentioned in the episode, I suppose it was still a relatively new concept at the time, but if anyone had PTSD it was poor Whitney's Mum who not only goes through the emotional highs of her missing-in-action boy returning home, only to be terrorised by him and held hostage, including being witness to a savage murder by baseball bat right in front of her eyes, she also has to deal with the reality afterwards that her Whitney is really dead. Perhaps the closure helped, but she must have been absolutely distraught after the events of this episode, especially since she'd lost her husband last season!

I don't think we'd ever met Whitney's Mum before, so it was a sad way to introduce a member of an existing character's family, and an especially cruel and brutal way to treat her, too. The extreme violence and grisly nature of this dangerous psycho made the episode quite uncomfortable to watch in places, even though they didn't show as much as I can imagine, enough was implied that I was put off. The series has always been rather in your face with gore or shocks, at least to the extent that it had turned a corner in the early 2000s compared to the kind of TV I'd watched before. Perhaps it's not as vicious or visualised as modern TV is, but that seems to be the nature of all media: to get more and more excessive in what it shows or portrays to the extent that I do wonder where it will end. Even leaving aside the violence, the creepiness of Tina's singleminded pursuit of Lana was also most horrible and though in her first appearance ('X-Ray'), she was all about sharing Lana's 'perfect' life, as she saw it, she takes things to a whole other, disturbing level this time that was most unpleasant to see. I like it when they bring back characters, especially ones who survived Clark's opposition (I always think of bug boy as a good return because he actually turned his life around ten years after his first appearance), but it's a shame that they chose to bring Whitney back by not bringing him back.

I don't feel the character got his dues, much like Pete (who also returned for a one-off episode later on, and who also wasn't used as effectively as his character could have been when he was a regular or when he returned), but at least in this episode there's some clear appreciation of those that go off and join the military to fight for their country against the evils of the world. Jonathan Kent was especially forward in his views that Clark should put aside personal feelings and support the returning hero by attending his Welcome Home party, and of course Lana feels obligated to go along with his wishes, at least until later in the episode when he's pushing her to move in, get married, and so on. She's a good person, full of compassion and good qualities, but there comes a tipping point where even her positive outlook and kindly nature are pushed to the limit. I love that even after they blow up about that and sly Whitney asks for the famous necklace with the meteor rock centre, she's only too happy to give it to him even though it does mean a lot to her. It's one thing she can do for him. In reality it's Tina and she knows it's a weapon she can use against Clark. But she doesn't know all his secrets, and flinging him down into the storm cellar wearing this Kryptonite pendant is actually the saving of him: in a very cool twist, the normally unresponsive ship powers up, as if sensing its nemesis nearby and neutralises any and all Kryptonite in the vicinity, freeing Clark, in a great sequence for being unexpected and yet believable that it could happen.

For some reason I had the strange thought that the necklace had already been rendered clear and inert, but I may be thinking of later seasons, perhaps Lana has it on again some time, I just don't know. It was a good tie back to the pilot when Clark was put in a similarly incapacitated state thanks to the necklace and Whitney (the real one that time), and there's an impression of the first 'Superman' film when he's thrown into a swimming pool with Kryptonite round his neck. The biggest connection, however, was to 'Superman III' where the Man of Steel is split into two and the good and bad sides fight each other in a scrapyard (giving new definition to the 'scrap' part!), because here we have two Clarks fight each other, and although it's not a scrapyard and there's no car crusher (nor peanuts - I wish there'd been a scene where Tina as Whitney flicks peanuts!), it is a back alley and it has that same rundown look with all kinds of debris with which to batter each other. Completing the gory style of the episode, Tina is defeated by charging chest first into a metal spike that runs her through, and dying. I wonder how Clark was going to explain that one to the authorities! For that matter, if Tina had bones infused with Kryptonite shouldn't even going near her have made him sick?

Lana isn't the only one feeling under pressure from her 'man,' as Lex and Helen have their differences when he apparently catches her meeting with Lionel and accepting a large payment. Now, I don't remember exactly what happened in Season 3, but I was under the impression she really was working for Lionel, so was she acting huffy so as to get Lex to trust her even more after he'd clearly found out her secret plot, or was it as she said and she turned his Father down but he sent her the money anyway, perhaps knowing Lex would be checking up on her? It's a confusing mix of bluff and double-bluff, and maybe even triple-bluff, with Lionel, but it's just as possible that he would be turned down yet would try again in future to get her to work for him against Lex, he's certainly arrogant enough, I just can't remember. Lex is desperate enough that he opens up about the wall he's built around himself, thinking he's finally found someone he truly cares for, which makes for an emotional ending to the episode, though it's an upbeat ending in many ways: Lex and Helen make up, Clark wonders if he'd put himself on the line like Whitney did if he hadn't got his powers and is reassured by his Father that he would, and Lana comes to him full of regret and self-recrimination, believing that it's all her fault that everyone seems to leave her: her parents, Nell, now Whitney - it was all quite affecting, and while the episode had dipped in my estimation thanks to all the brutality and creepiness, it went back up thanks to the last few scenes.

It's also worth saying that the main cast did a fine job of portraying Tina being them, because while I immediately knew whenever it wasn't the real person, whether that be Lana in the corridors at school (I guess they had no CCTV there and no one close enough to hear Pete being flung headfirst into the lockers by the extra strength Tina had - so weird to see such a slight, doll-like figure heft a chunky bloke up against the wall and fling him all the way down the corridor!), Jonathan fixing his tractor, or Chloe (even though we see her change into her), and Clark, too, they carried off that evil glint and self-satisfied smugness really well. The actress who played Tina didn't actually get to do much in the episode at all since it was mainly Whitney! A downside of the episode is that Chloe and Lana chatting together in their bedroom does turn the series into girly soap opera, and I much prefer when they're being friends rather than confidants, but that's just my perspective. And I will say this for the episode, it integrated the cast better than some this season, even if this is another not to feature Lionel (other than in photos). I still can't help but feel it was a missed opportunity to deal with Whitney better, but then again what would they have done with him if he had come back? I suppose it would have been nicer to have a clean break with Lana, but then this isn't called 'Niceville.'

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