Rosetta (2)

DVD, Smallville S2 (Rosetta) (2)

It's becoming popular to bring back old actors to play their characters of the past in film and TV of the present - we're getting old Batmen and probably old Spider-Men, not to mention Trek actors returning for more, after decades away, but 'Smallville' did arguably the best recall of something in its family tree of any superhero production long before it was a trend. It doesn't get more prestigious than bringing back arguably the man who started the superhero wave, right at the genesis of the blockbuster era: Christopher Reeve in 'Superman: The Movie' from 1978! Sure, there had been a TV Superman before that, and of course Batman and Robin, but in the late 70s, 'Superman' was the genesis of all the comic book films to the present. We've seen other films come along that reinvented the genre or solidified it as a going concern ('Batman' in 1989, 'X-Men' in 2000, 'Spider-Man' in 2002, 'Batman Begins' in 2005, to name a few key examples), but never had a comic book hero been treated seriously, in full colour on the big screen, and Reeve's legacy is vast. The film series itself may have petered out with the ill-advised 'Superman IV: The Quest For Peace,' but Reeve would always be remembered as the man who had started it all, and for many, myself included, he'll never be replaced as the definitive Superman.

It was incredible that they managed to find Tom Welling for 'Smallville,' someone that looked so much like Reeve and had much of the same style to him, minus the bumbling Clark Kent side. He wasn't the confident, sure Superman, either, but someone you could easily see becoming Reeve's character (as opposed to Brandon Routh or Henry Cavill, the latter especially doesn't ring true to that original clean-cut image). So to bring Reeve in as a guest star was a major coup and this is one of the landmark episodes of the entire series. It's a job to know whether a single episode could hold up under such a mountain of expectations and I was half expecting this to fail to live up to my memories of it being one of the best. It didn't help that some of the effects didn't look so good, specifically Clark flying in his dream (I think the first time he'd flown since the dream he had in the pilot, or was it the second episode?), and we just merge from a beautiful point of view in the air to a gloomy image of the cave, then we're inside the internal set. Then Welling is dangling from wires, looking like he's dangling rather than flying - I know it's on a TV time and money budget, but it wasn't quite right, he needed to be stock still, no movement. And then we have teen soap territory with Lana and Chloe falling out over Clark's preference for the former and the scenes with the Kents early on had nothing spectacular about them, and then Clark defies his Father's explicit command not to put the octagonal key in the cave wall, and…

I needn't have worried. Long before we get to the legendary scene of two Supermen meeting (neither actually Superman, of course), the young and the old actor, only a year or two before his death as the paralysis finally took him, which was as momentous and enthralling as ever, the episode's theme is wonderfully explored through the simple idea of a school project: the family tree. It was ironic Chloe was moaning about it being such an old-fashioned thing to do considering how prevalent and popular such fascination with our personal pasts has become in the years since then, but the flaw for most of the characters was perfectly evoked when Pete is the only one to be from a normal family - Chloe was abandoned by her Mother, Lana's an orphan and Clark's adopted, all three of them have a difficult time with the concept of lineage. It was so well done, too, they just throw it in casually, but the real meat is that none of them really feel a complete part of a true family. The row between Chloe and Lana has the latter coming to the conclusion that she can't pretend to be part of a family she's not part of, while Chloe eventually makes her see that they are as close as sisters. And Clark has his mind on Martha's new baby (he needn't have worried), and that his parents will have a 'real' child instead of merely an adopted one.

It's a powerful exploration of inclusion and identity, wrapped up in the typical teen worries, only Clark's are a lot bigger. For the first time he finds out his true name, Kal-El, and the name of his home planet, Krypton. But while it's joyous to have the answers about his past that he's been craving, it's not all for the good. His planet is gone and his biological Father has apparently sent his son to Earth for the purposes of ruling them like a god, a shocking revelation for a simple farm boy. But it all comes down to whether genetics are the stronger, or how he was raised, his human Father strongly advocating his famous attitude towards choice. I don't think he actually said the catchphrase ("We always have a choice, son!"), but that was the message he was sending. Was there some doubt or concern in his eyes at the end when he was hugging Clark? It seemed to be the directorial intent since they allowed the time to have the camera swing round to Jonathan's face as he embraced his son, and it did seem to me to be a hint of concern over whether it could be that Clark isn't strong enough to prevent the despotic 'destiny' he's been sent into.

The important part of the story, though, was the sense of Clark becoming his own man. Yes, he was wrong to go against his parents' wishes and do something dangerous, and because of him Dr. Walden is put into a catatonic state, but it was also a turning point in his life. While Walden's removal may be beneficial in the short term as it means he's not going to be unravelling any more clues about Clark and his people, and Lex' plans are curtailed for the moment, at the same time it would come back to bite him at the end of the season. But there were so many things to like about the story and how it was handled - I loved how the key itself was calling to Clark, not like the One Ring in 'The Lord of The Rings,' a malevolent attempt to ultimately get itself back to the one who imbued it with power, but an insistent instinct to learn what he needs to progress in his life, plugging into the cave wall and taking that knowledge of Kryptonian language. I also loved how Dr. Virgil Swann, Reeve's character, has that same insistence that now is the time, now or never, he needs to make a decision. I'm not sure he had to go alone, but at the same time that was like another instinct: that it was time to grow up and stop relying on his parents for everything, to take his birthright, in a way.

Was that email account a joint one for everyone at the Torch, because it seemed to be Chloe's, yet Swann has sent all these messages for Clark! It's a wonder she didn't go through and open them all. I suppose it would have been the same symbol of hope in each one so it wouldn't have done her any good, and it seemed Clark wasn't replying to Swann from within that account, which was why he could do it with Pete hooked up to the internet in his barn. But these things need explanation! There was a sub-theme about personal space and privacy going on, ironically from Chloe - Lana looks at her pictures, which was bad of her, you don't start snooping about on someone's computer if they let you borrow it, it's an unwritten rule that doesn't need to be said, but who snoops on the snooper? Lana snooping on Chloe, Chloe then snooping on Lana (did she deliberately come back in to see if her friend had been tempted or did she forget something she needed?). Then later in the episode she's back to her full journalistic integrity, not keeping the Kents' barn fire a secret, despite them being friends, after Clark's seared symbols on there with his heat vision. It's like she can separate her nosy-Parker stuff as being right, but Lana looking at stuff is wrong. I suppose she does have a case, but as Clark says, it certainly was unhelpful for their family with all the UFO enthusiasts showing up.

I liked what was going on there, and it was mirrored in Lex, who similarly is feeling out of the loop with Clark because he very likely knows things about the cave paintings he's not telling and refuses to be honest. True, Lex has done his fair share of that, especially in Season 1 with the obsession over the accident Clark saved him from, but although he skirts close to accusing Clark of lying or hiding things, he never comes right out and says it, when he probably has the justification since Clark is pretty poor at coming up with evasions or excuses. I liked the idea of Dr. Walden having to work with him, but I don't know if Clark would have ever agreed to it, though it was a moot point by the end of the episode anyway, as Walden is out of the picture. It takes a long time to eventually get to Christopher Reeve, and it is sad that he'd only return once after this, I believe, he was the sort of character who could easily have been worked in as a recurring ally for Clark, someone to help him reach his next stage in life that his parents can't do, but of course they couldn't go down that route, partly I imagine Reeve wouldn't have been able to do a lot of episodes, and partly it would be necessary to use the character sparingly because it's a special moment for the meeting of two heavyweight figures in the Superman mythos coming together.

Clark wears more red and blue than ever, we hear those magical strains of John Williams' iconic Superman theme, and the series just felt closer to the mythology we knew than ever before. Sadly, apart from occasional, intermittent moments, or later in the series when it's him and Lois working for the Daily Planet in Metropolis, the series chose to travel an entirely different path that was far more outrageous and wacky so that there was no way it could fit into the Reeve films as a prequel, even if it was meant to (which it wasn't - always very clear of exact dates when the series was set), but until things went completely out of control it still felt like a relatively grounded, realistic portrayal that could connect to the past thematically, but became so far out and teen soapy, etc, that it's a real shame what became of it. That doesn't take away from the potential that was shown here, from the music and Reeve, to the opening of the spaceship with the little grooves where baby Kal-El had been plumped, and Jonathan having some strong Father-son moments of faith in himself for the way he and Martha had brought Clark up, and in Clark who'd shown himself to be the kind of person they'd intended him to be. In the end this wasn't really a cliffhanger jumping off point into something great, but the episode can't be judged for that and is unquestionably one of the most powerful of the series, heartfelt, genuine and presenting hope, while tinging it with the reality of effort to do good being required and chosen. And I also didn't realise that last week's episode marked the point I began reviewing the series, twelve years and more ago, so I've now done reviews for every episode at least once and completed my own 'destiny'!

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