Rush

DVD, Smallville S2 (Rush)

The only 'rush' here is the speed at which I want to get away from the episode! Only today I was thinking how Season 2 wasn't as bad as I'd thought. Not that I thought it was bad on the whole, especially compared with the following seasons, but there seemed less to do with the Kawatche caves, less of the Clark/Lana/Chloe moaning than I'd remembered, and… oh, that's all turned around in this episode, big time! I suppose I should say that at least it righted one wrong about the majority of the season: that Chloe and Pete weren't given enough meaningful to do. I don't know about meaningful, but they were certainly given plenty to do in this episode, the downside is that none of it's very good. It's like a twisted alternate universe where instead of the trio of Clark, Chloe and Pete going around solving crimes and working out the latest meteor rock mystery, as in Season 1, instead they're intent on dangerous fun, risking their lives for the rush. It was like a continuation of 'Red,' another of the episodes that didn't rank highly in my estimation, and would go on to have a negative impact on the ending of the season, too: Clark's encounters with Red Kryptonite. Let's just stop and ask where did Pete get this little piece of red rock in the first place? The episode began with some good continuity where the caves are being misused as a teen party spot and Pete's worried about it and mentions Kyla, but then it falls apart with things like him having access to both red and green Kryptonite out of nowhere!

That's not the only flaw in the story (where did the blue car come from?), it's just a minor moment, and in an otherwise good episode you could gloss over it, but it's a fallback to unsympathetic, hard-faced Lana, whom we'd already seen at least once this season, and this flip-flopping between Nasty and Nice versions of her is one reason why the series went downhill so much, so fast, added to the circular narrative of Chloe and Lana competing for Clark or distrusting him. They know his character, he's not perfect, but he does so much to help others that they know why he does things even if it's not always clear how, so you'd think they would give him leeway and understanding. It becomes this issue of him not being able to tell them his secret to protect them, especially after this episode where Pete has shown once again what a bad idea it was to tell him, since he uses Clark's weaknesses against him - so because he wasn't one of those that had had a parasite in him (I got a very 'Stargate SG-1' impression from that side of the story, they looked very similar to the symbionts in that), which was causing Chloe and Pete to act like they were on drugs, Lana can't understand what was going on. Maybe he could have told her his secret then, but it would have been purely for selfish reasons, to impress, to get himself off the hook, but he's constantly being punished like this as the series progresses, and it's not about trust, as they claim, it's about prudence.

The caves obviously come to the fore in this one, another negative for me, but it gave Lex something new to investigate instead of the accident he was obsessed about from the pilot episode of the series, and I suppose his was the type of personality that needed obsessions. He had the money, so why not? I did like the example of just what kind of resources and sway he held in the world, that he sees a picture of this Professor Walden (or Dr. Walden as he was on the back of the book he'd written), thanks to Clark's research, and entices the expert to come to his beck and call. He at first tries money, which turns into the lure of these unique cave paintings, but I was fully expecting the doctor to refuse on his stated grounds of disgust and being a bighead that wasn't going to be pushed into anything by anyone, then when he tries to go on his trip to Chile he finds that he can't go through whatever strings Lex has pulled. But that never happened, his interest got the better of him before Lex had to pull any other cards out of his pocket. Rob LaBelle was good as this new recurring character (a veteran of several roles on 'Voyager'), although he turned into a tool that wasn't really that well used as I recall of the season finale.

The episode had the capability to be quite a strong one as we've seen people acting on their innermost instincts and risking their own lives and others against character, most notably in 'Nicodemus' of Season 1 where a very similar story occurred. This time it's narrowed down to just Chloe and Pete, but it's a little worrying that they needed to go back to the same story idea so soon - it would in fact become an easily derided trope of the series, people acting out of character due to whatever outside influence they'd experienced, and reminded me why the series stopped working, at least until the last couple of seasons by which time it had become something very different: the loss of the bond between characters, which mirrored the loss of a sense of community of real people. We'd just lost Sheriff Ethan in the previous episode which was about the last main recurring character to be booted off the series that they'd been part of since the first season, and that community feel was a big part of what made the series work. Instead they'd choose to go much further in the direction this episode took, which was heavily contrived and unbelievable (from a character standpoint and human behaviour, not the fantasy aspects which you have to accept), pushing drama into character friendships that instead of deepening them, put them into miserable conflict.

Clark behaves badly to people because he's under the red rock influence, and I'm sure some found that to be compelling, but to me it was just lazy writing, a bit like some of the Mirror Universe episodes of Trek, which could be fun in their way, but were not of value to the greater whole and now have ended up doing more harm to the franchise than good. It's also the fact that the episode ends in misery rather than the warm, hopeful outlook that so many stories achieved. It seemed designed more to inject concern into viewers so they'd come back to find out what would happen next, rather than the optimistic and upbeat feel that the series began with and successfully repeated so many times. I'm not saying it's not there at all - it was good to see Pete come and apologise to Clark and his parents, even though it wasn't his fault, and they reiterate that he's still part of the family. Honestly, I thought he was coming to announce he was leaving town because he's been in far more episodes than I remembered (I was under the impression he left quite close to the start of Season 2, but then he wasn't given the chance to make much impact in most episodes so it's no surprise I thought that), so I was glad he's not been written out yet. I also wondered if this was why he left, that he'd got some superpowers from the bug, as I know that's how the character ended up later, but no.

I'd like to know how the Kents sorted out their financial problems, as is so glibly stated in this episode! Jonathan is being especially draconian for some reason and telling Clark he has to stay in and do homework instead of going to study the caves or meet up for a rendezvous with Lana, although with Martha's urging he relents on the Lana side of things. Good to hear Principal Reynolds' name, even if they couldn't be bothered to show him. But the Kents were having money troubles, one main reason why Martha went to work for Lionel (who does not appear), and has since left his employ, so you'd think they'd actually be worse off, but somehow everything's fine again, with no explanation. You can't throw in big changes like that without reason or warning, it doesn't make sense! There are also problems with Clark apparently unable to either restrain Pete (who didn't appear to have any green meteor rock on him at the time - I don't think it had occurred to him to exploit Clark's weakness at that point), or keep up with him - I understand they were out in the middle of the road with a crowd watching, so he couldn't use his strength there, but how could Pete elude him, he can move much faster, and yet Pete runs off into the crowd and Clark doesn't know where he is! Senseless.

I did like the effects of Chloe falling backwards off the loft in the barn, Clark effortlessly catching her, and catching the car she and Pete were in was another good moment, but these representations of his powers can't gloss over the episode's shortcomings in both sense and tone. We've seen characters acting up before, too, and it's such a big change from their usual behaviour that it's hard to believe that someone like Clark, for example, doesn't immediately realise something's wrong. He seems to think Chloe's just annoyed with him for hooking up with Lana and yet she's being beyond weird for her character and he never suspects a thing. Did Lex suspect Clark had also been affected by the parasite in the cave since he was behaving so rudely and out of character? He did suggest they'd all been taking something and that should have been the angle Clark played on - he should have told everyone Pete spiked his drink or something and had given him something to make him lose his inhibitions, but that would be too sensible a cover and too easy to overturn the badly chosen dramatic angles they were going for, wouldn't it! It also felt like they wasted revealing Clark's powers to Chloe. I know she doesn't remember, conveniently, but it somehow cheapens when Clark does eventually tell his secret to certain people, it's not something to be taken lightly and this slightly undercuts the specialness of that. Also, it's not usual for meteor rock to have immediate impact on Clark, is it? Pete hits him with it and punches him to the ground, but shouldn't he have felt something before then as it was only in his fist, not a lead-lined box?

I would have to say this was the worst episode of the season so far, not because it had nothing good within, just from the myriad problems and the further beginnings of all the irritating angst and interpersonal issues between characters that would dog the series from now on until Lana finally left. It's such a shame, because she was such a nice person and lovely to be around, but it was also played overly melodramatic this time, Chloe going out of her way as the infected version, to dig in on Lana, and Lana herself being too childish and easily upset, unwilling to listen, all the usual things. Until Clark will find a way to get forgiven again in the next episode or a couple of episodes down the line, and then the whole process starts again. And that's not why I watch the series! At least it reminded me why it's not worth seeing the other seasons again, so I should be grateful for that as I have been enjoying it enough that I was contemplating going further.

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