Exodus (2)

DVD, Smallville S2 (Exodus) (2)

This marks the end of an era for me: the final episode of 'Smallville' to review. Fitting then, that it should be the point at which I pretty much abandoned the series on its first run. I actually watched the first two episodes of Season 3, but decided there was no point in continuing, until a few years later when I started my blog and gave it another chance as something I could write about, even if I didn't enjoy it. But this is the episode where things went off the rails, so I'm surprised to find I quite liked it in the past, because, similarly to 'Calling,' I found it to be less enjoyable now. I can see they were trying to recreate the success and drama of Season 1's epic cliffhanger, one of the high points of the entire series, but what we get instead is a litany of misery for all the characters and it's a real low to end a season on. Again, I can see now why they introduced the plot of Martha conceiving a child - it was to give Clark the most self-pitying moment of his life once he realises he's responsible for her losing the baby, causing him to go off the rails and, effectively, turn to drugs for solace and escape: the red ring of Kryptonite is a drug to him, and never an idea I liked. In fact that was the only thing I remotely remembered about the episode before re-watching, that he's somehow exposed to Red Kryptonite and ends the episode and season speeding off to Metropolis on a bike.

Where did he get that bike, stole it? But that was before he'd put on the ring. Maybe it belonged to Jonathan, something he was fixing up, we know he liked motorbikes. I wasn't impressed with the final shot, you'd think Clark would be speeding off in a rage, but he trundles along quite sombrely, so maybe the ring hadn't taken full effect as he was still so shell-shocked from what had happened. But it isn't the only thing I disliked about the story, a big part of that has to be Chloe, whose business it really isn't that her two friends, Clark and Lana, are together! She stomps around like everything's her business and flies off the handle when Clark won't tell her what she already knows, behaving like a spoilt child, then runs into the waiting arms of Lionel, metaphorically, to do his bidding and accept the assignment to investigate the Kents for him. Just as it shows Clark in a terrible light, not only that he turned to drugs, but also that he made such a bad decision as destroying his own ship and blowing up the storm cellar, it puts Chloe in the role of a petulant character, selfish and stupid. About the only character who gets out of the episode without blame is Pete, who doggedly tries to be a good friend as ever, and Lex, who for once, or once more, has chosen to do what's right and admit his crime to Helen of breaking into her office and stealing the vial of Clark's blood, right before their wedding.

There were a couple of things I liked about these events: one, that sense of irrelevancy and petty little day-to-day tiffs that confronts Clark just at the moment he's involved in something far, far bigger and more important - Chloe interrupts him on the way to putting Lionel's freshly minted Kryptonite key into the ship's octagonal slot, and while I feel Clark should have been more tactful and been able to think up a better pretext to get rid of her quickly, at the same time he is just a teenager, so it makes sense. That was a good part of the scene even if overall it just makes you sick to see Chloe behave so jealously and idiotically, making a fool out of herself. And I felt it was important for Lex to realise that doing good and choosing the right path doesn't mean you get what you wanted anyway (even though he does in the end!), it can mean sacrifice and loss, it doesn't make everything better, but it was still the right thing to do. It was encouraging to see a message like that, and to see Lex continuing to fight the growing drive towards evil within him, as we'd seen a number of times before, and which had made his character so compelling. As I said, in the end Helen returns and they continue with the marriage ceremony (though I don't know what happened to the big dinner we saw the rehearsal of last episode - wasn't Clark still to perform his Best Man speech, or was that it?), but even for Lex we don't end happily as he awakes on the way to his honeymoon just as his plane crashes into the ocean!

There was one other thing that stood out to me in the balance of good about the episode: Lionel being tricked by Pete and Clark so the latter can steal his key in the Kawatche caves. He's just given this smug speech about how people are at their weakest when they're angry and he loses it, almost striking young Pete, just pulling back at the last moment as he realises he's been beaten at his own game. That was priceless as we see so little truth in his character, so when he actually loses control, even for a brief moment, it's very satisfying. Something that can't be said for the rest of the episode and that neatly rounds out my experience of the series as a whole. Because I love the first season and find much to like about Season 2, but that's where it ended for me, and while I give some credit to the series for what it became in the last couple of seasons, and recognise there were occasional standout arcs and episodes in the middle seasons, for the most part it was a miserable cycle of trust and secrets, happiness and distrust, bizarre character flips and poorly thought out writing (much like the current crop of Trek series'!), so that taken as a whole I don't know that I could really recommend the series, though I would still laud Season 1 as being such a strong way to begin a series, so much potential, so much verve and panache.

That's really all there is to it - while Season 3 continues the story, is it really worth going there? I wouldn't mind seeing it again, not to write more detailed reviews as I did with these last few episodes of Season 2 that I'd previously reviewed, but just to see if my recollection of it as the worst season is justified! As for 'Exodus' it pretty much undoes all the good that had been built. Lex' life was about to be ruined, Pete would realise he couldn't help Clark, Lana and Chloe and their circular love/hate of Clark, even Jonathan and Martha and their potential 'happy ever after' comes crashing down. I must say I didn't remember how the baby storyline resolved, only that Clark never had a baby sibling. Nor did I remember what happened to the ship, and for Clark to just destroy his heritage like that… I know he was terrified Jor-El was going to do something to him or those he was close to, and now maybe he can't, but even so, it was a foolhardy thing to do. I have no idea how Jor-El was still able to communicate with him even after the destruction of the ship, but at this point, neither do I care. I'm not saying this was a terrible episode, it's certainly watchable and has some good moments as I've detailed, but it's hard to see Jonathan being more kindly and friendlier to Lex than to his own adopted son, no matter what trauma he and Martha have gone through, and it's hard to see so many characters go off the rails. Sadly, that was 'Smallville' all over, and going off the rails would become a regular occurrence. Even so, I'll always remember the series fondly for those bits it got right, it's bright colours and smiling faces, its depiction of goodness, courage and friendship, and not having it to review any more will be strange.

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