Calling (2)

DVD, Smallville S2 (Calling) (2)

A very confusing episode in light of future revelations. I don't remember Season 3 well enough to be sure, but I'm under the impression Helen was working for Lionel, who planted her to get at Lex, to be his own personal spy in his son's midst, I suppose. Yet in this episode he talks with her as if they don't know each other (unless that was staged for the Mansion's security cameras…?). And again, he's later revealed to know all about Clark and was part of a group looking after the secret, or something along those lines, and yet… Sometimes an episode can be coloured by subsequent knowledge and events, and while I liked this one well enough in the past, I don't think it works as well today. On top of the confusion, not a lot is happening as this is the first of a two-parter, and as well as that we have a lot of teen romance that was exactly the kind of thing I imagined the series would be before I saw it, and which put me off in the first place! It's enough that Clark and Lana are gooey-eyed over each other, and then Lana gets worried about it, but they also have to throw in the constantly jealous Chloe who apparently stalks them now to see if they'll smooch. Come on, she's better than that! I know she's just had a run in with Lionel and made an enemy of him by refusing to spy on the Kents (I suppose the senior Luthor isn't a subscriber to Apple technology since the computers he's donated to the Torch look like ordinary PCs, even if they are aping Apple iMac colours!), but still…

One good thing does come out of the episode, and that was the Dr. Walden storyline being concluded, although even that was over a bit too easily and simplistically: he's read Clark's destiny of world domination and now he somehow has powers to kill him. The whys, hows, or wherefores, we know not, it just is. That's comic books for you, there doesn't have to be rhyme or reason just as long as there's spectacle. Not that there's much of that either, Walden is burned up by his own mistake in hitting a fuel container that then explodes. We're reminded of where the spaceship's key is, or was, as Clark was keeping it in the barn until Walden steals it, then Clark takes it back from his hot, dead hand. A hand Lionel wants boxed up and sent to him, please. Why? It's hard to watch the series with Lionel as the villain because it's uncertain if he is, from future seasons, so I just don't know what to think. I didn't even understand what this rehearsal dinner was all about - was it a dress rehearsal for the actual wedding reception? It just seemed odd, maybe it's an American thing.

I think the whole thing just put me off, and once again we have the same flaws of certain characters barely being there. Pete looked like he needed a scene with Chloe explaining herself. He needed something. What it did remind me is how long he's actually been in the season! I genuinely believed he left within the first few episodes after learning Clark's secret and finding it was too tough to be constantly on the ball about it. I must be remembering Season 3, perhaps that's another reason why I didn't like that one and consider it the worst year of the series, it's certainly where I stopped watching on original transmission. But it's no surprise I forgot Pete was in most of this season because he hardly ever is, and he almost never gets any meaningful scenes, so I can see why the actor wanted to leave - for all the money he must have got for the role, he no doubt expected to be challenged a little in the acting department! And Chloe's only there to act miserable because Clark hearts Lana, which is hardly new news. At least she did come to the barn and try and make up, make up, never, never break up, by suggesting he could come back and work for the Torch. But I don't know if this is Chloe being genuine, Chloe trying to pry into what went on between him and Lana, or the writers back-peddling, thinking they'd be doing another season next year so maybe it wasn't such a good idea to write Clark off the Torch.

However you look at it, it's more laying down of the building blocks that would make the series so hard to like from Season 3 on, with the countless circular fallings out, friends again, another issue crops up, just this miserable, irritating round of unhappiness that blighted the series and took away its brightness, chirpiness and joy. It should be no surprise this was written by Ken Biller, a name I learned not to respect from his days as show-runner on the last year or two of 'Voyager,' where he kept that series safe, secure and far from reaching its full potential. I'm not accusing him of never writing a good episode, I haven't paid enough attention to his specific writing credits (plus that's only a guide, many writers will have input on scripts they didn't get credited for), it's just that the two series' I've seen him take a hand in have been ones that I loved and then went downhill…

But back to this episode: Lex and Helen are about as shaky as Clark and Lana, both the females getting concerned and cold feet, which is tough to understand, especially for Helen's case. If it was all a ruse to manipulate Lex then why would there be all this back and forth, just to clear any suspicions Lex may have had? And why did he take that particular vial of blood, I certainly don't recall that storyline's conclusion in future episode's. If it had one, it may simply have been dropped and we're meant to forget about it. Lex isn't an idiot and any fool could see Clark was lying when he claimed not to be able to read the language of the Kawatche caves, it's become laughable that Lex believes him, or that Clark believes he's fooling him. The series became stunted because of these things that they focused on too much. And I never really understand about Lana and Clark talking about the fact he has secrets. He doesn't even deny it. What secret could a teenage boy have that are so terrible he keeps them to himself? It's just pushing the suspension of disbelief to new limits of destruction!

There was one good thing about the episode, and that was the chill that creeps up your neck when you hear Terence Stamp's voice as Jor-El and the strains of the well known Superman theme play. I knew Clark was going into that storm cellar and we wouldn't find out what was going to happen until the next episode, because that's the most dramatic way you could end. Even though the episode had a surfeit of endings with various characters. It's just hard to identify with so many of the characters now or the direction they took through this season. I do like that Lex has got to a point that he can invite both Jonathan and Martha to his special meal in the place of honour of his parents, and that they even accept, and it was good to see a little more of them than we have done in some recent episodes, but it still reminds me of the days when they'd become merely there for the occasional scene of cheerleading or advice, with none of their own story. Yes, there's the dead end of Martha's pregnancy, to which I don't recall the conclusion, but which obviously wasn't good. But I haven't liked the way the cast has been handled in general, one reason it became a slightly lesser series after the great Season 1, and then dropped off a cliff for me in Season 3. This was the middle ground and they've had their good moments and periods, but reevaluating this particular episode has led me to conclude that it doesn't work as well as I thought in light of the bigger picture.

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