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.

**

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.

**

Accelerate (2)

DVD, Smallville S2 (Accelerate) (2)

As well as this was put together it was marred a little by the fact I was waiting for this big action scene that used terrific special effects, and as the episode went along I realised that must be from Season 3. I'd actually thought little Emily Dinsmore was only in that season until I saw the title, so I thought either I'd mixed up the seasons or she was in two, so I was a little disappointed and the story very much went unresolved. I suppose the closest we come to that is Lana showing up to thank Clark - not for saving her life (!), no, that's something he does all the time, but for believing her when she thought she was seeing a ghost. I don't know, maybe that side of things could have been played up, that no one believed her and Clark was the only one… Chloe barely features other than to show a bit more jealousy, though it was nice for her and Clark to have a scene where they were talking civilly to each other, but perhaps Chloe could have been used as a sceptical sounding board, she and Lana do live together, after all (even though she's usually open to the weird). I like that Clark still felt he could use the Torch's computers, though Chloe pulls him up on it (it made me wonder - wouldn't they have a library at school, full of computers?). Instead there isn't really much of the psychological about the episode, despite efforts to go down that route of atmospheric horror.

It seemed incredibly insensitive of Lana to show up at her childhood friend's Father's house and jump straight into explaining she's seen his dead daughter! I know these are supposed to be teenagers so of course they should be a little naive or unaware sometimes of the effect what they're saying or doing could have on others, but Lana's usually so sensitive. Maybe that's what she meant when she was telling Clark one day he might see the reality that she's far from perfect. I always liked the episode, but on this occasion I couldn't help find little flaws here and there. For example, I felt the story would have been a lot more tragic and therefore even more engaging than it already was, if they hadn't played up the idea that Lana is at risk from this little girl. It's difficult to feel sympathetic towards a child that looked like she'd killed her Father with a metal spike not that far into the story! Okay, so he survived and she wasn't actually his real daughter, and all these other mitigating factors, but there was a really fascinating study to be made of this poor little girl that has no idea of the forces surrounding her, what the reality of her situation is and who's pulling the strings.

I do like that it connects back to Season 1's Level 3 experiments with meteor rocks, LuthorCorp's experiments on people (chilling when Lionel tells Mr. Dinsmore his 'daughter' is LuthorCorp property - hard to believe in any goodness within him after that statement), and may even tie into things way down the line when Lex was eventually cloned? Lionel strides in and out of scenes, causing as much trouble as he always used to, there doesn't seem to be any sympathetic side to him any more, as brief as that was explored this season with his blindness. We're also setting up for the beginning of Season 3 with talk of the honeymoon island he's offered Lex to go and stay on. I'm not sure on the point of that, especially as his turnabout on Helen would be most suspicious, but the biggest lie is when he says he only wants Lex to be happy! Really he only wants to toughen him up, at least that's what I think he wants and believes he wants, until that should get in the way of his plans. Of course it's as much about throwing his son off guard as he sneaks jurisdiction over the almost forgotten Kawatche caves that played such a part in Clark's development, which again is the resolution to his part in the episode, though it feels almost an aside, especially as we get a later scene where he takes over the Emily clone to who knows what ominous effect.

Little Emily was well played, though as I said before, I felt she should have been much more sympathetic rather than a threat. Talking down a frightened, bewildered child, especially one that has the ability to run at Clark super-speeds, would have been just as compelling. Indeed, the scenes where she was interacting with Clark and Lex in particular (and Lionel at the end), were very good, it's only Lana's part that treats her as this terrifying figure and in which the episode focuses too much on. But this is 'Smallville,' of course they're going to emphasise the action, horror or violence over deep exploration of what it means to be a clone, or a child caught unawares, so that would be a big part of why I didn't enjoy it quite as much compared to previous viewings. It's still accomplished, the shot of the rain in the graveyard (poor Clark gets totally soaked at least twice: once there, and then diving into the river to save Lana), was terrific as we see it suddenly stop and hover there as Emily runs away and Clark follows. Pausing a scene for Clark to move at normal speed (for him), had been done many times, but never with such a curtain of raindrops to go through, adding an extra layer of quality. I do wonder how Emily knew where Lana was and what she looked like now, that was never explained (and did they use the same little girl they'd previously had for young Lana as they did with young Clark in some episodes?).

I can level the same complaints against this one as at many episodes this season: the lack of Pete and Chloe. To some degree it is an improvement, because there have been some where they didn't even appear, but they really needed to work in the ensemble better than they'd been doing in this back half of Season 2, though sadly the best days were now behind for the series. Lana's guilt and having felt responsible for her childhood best friend dying was strongly evoked by Kristin Kreuk, but at the same time I felt that side of the story never went anywhere. She never gets to speak to Mr. Dinsmore again, the project is once again secret, and so the scene with Clark in the barn appeared to be trying to draw a line under the episode without it really going anywhere. So although it is an episode on its own, it was also something that couldn't be fully enjoyed that way, it leaves a lot hanging as the series moved towards more and more serialisation and lost that early satisfaction of story resolution or exploring or developing recurring characters to a greater degree so as to give the series a feeling of a community. In going bigger the series would only feel smaller in a lot of ways. But still a good watch, not dragged down by petty teen moodiness and fallings-out.

***

Witness (2)

DVD, Smallville S2 (Witness) (2)

A conventional Smallville High School episode on the face of it, complete with 'monster' of the week, not terribly inspiring, and peppered with teen soap overblown feelings out of all proportion, indeed it could just as easily be called 'Jealous' for all the stuff revolving around poor Lana. And yet, for all that I was still drawn to this episode, it retained a warmth and positivity even amongst all the downers, something subsequent seasons increasingly failed to do, so although I wouldn't class it up there with the strong episodes, this was still a good watch and not the initially poor example of the series at its worst that it seemed. The school student who's using refined meteor rock to increase his strength along with a couple of other criminals reminded me of the tattooed guys from Season 1, except without all the adrenaline rush of chucking Whitney in front of an oncoming lorry, and they were the weakest part of the story since they had no real role other than to be a threat to Clark and his family. The lad is mainly a pawn in the growing adversity between Father and son Luthors and has no sympathetic backstory to his misdemeanours. That whole plot of them stealing the green bars and making a Kryptonite cocktail to inhale for super strength wasn't well developed and only makes its mark in the way the Kent parents are put in serious jeopardy.

Then when you add Chloe's final straw of blowing up at Clark and his not trying to make up as he usually would since he does have a lot to do with Lana at the moment and doesn't need his old friends as much, it could make the episode come across as quite a negative experience. I must admit, I do feel annoyed with people that say they'll do something by a certain time and then don't show up, I'm with Chloe on that, it's just that she comes across as ridiculously jealous of Lana. Clark for his part should have tried to be more understanding, but since we haven't had much of the Clark, Chloe and Pete gang this season, it doesn't have quite the same impact this would have done in Season 1 when they were always uncovering things together. That's one thing in this episode's favour: Chloe and Pete both contribute a little more - I do wonder how he and Clark transported the Kryptonite bars to the woods since the latter doesn't even stand close when Pete's burying them so they couldn't have shared a car to take them there (Clark probably ran, Pete drove, I expect). He's also there when Chloe finds them looking up the bad guy on the Torch's computers. It was tough on her to discover the school newspaper's office had been smashed up, but her reaction suggests it was more than that because we'd already seen the place destroyed at least once (the fire in 'Hothead'), maybe more, so her reaction was a bit much, but she was obviously at a vulnerable time.

And who should take advantage of that time than Lionel Luthor. I didn't really recall anything about this episode so it's no surprise I'd forgotten all about any connection between him and Chloe, especially this early in the series. I think it was just good to see him again after a few episodes absent. I think the implication is that he had some people mess up the Torch so he could come in and fund a rebuilding, which in itself is weird since surely the school has budget for such things? And are there no CCTV cameras at all? Anyway, she's at her lowest ebb, a time when Clark isn't there to warn her against Lionel, and he plants the seeds of cooperation by dangling contacts at the Daily Planet, and so the episode ends. Again, the implication I'd take is that Clark would be at risk more if Chloe was working for Lionel in some capacity so I suppose it was somewhat of a cliffhanger, though it's all very vague and about potential rather than definite reality. The other Luthor has some good screen time, too, for a change without Helen, verbally sparring with Dad as he used to. Funny how Lionel came when she was away, especially if she is actually working for him secretly as that would be a good time to visit Lex and make him seem much more distant to Helen, so a good plan. The moment I really liked about Lex was when he's talking casually to Clark, who's obviously got a bee in his bonnet, and then when he hears the bad guy he posted bail for has hurt the Kents he immediately snaps to the caring Lex we know, one who doesn't want harm to come to them.

There was a lot of potential drama right there, as if Lex had been responsible for loosing a criminal on the Kents and Martha had lost the baby or something else horrible like that, he'd never have forgiven himself. I'm glad he wasn't responsible for anything more than scaring them really, but still it was a shocking moment when Clark goes to the barn and finds them tied up high. His fight with the villains might be described as a little lacklustre, but I just liked the fact that he took them on, three to one, knowing they had the same strength. I suppose they didn't have his resilience since a bunch of pipes banging on his head wouldn't have mattered (as we see with the concrete block!). But if the other guy has the formula why couldn't he push himself out of the pipe Clark bends round him? For that matter why aren't any of them surprised to see him, especially the student guy, since they all chucked him in a furnace! It also makes zero sense that they never said anything about him to the authorities, why would they protect him? They wouldn't, is the answer to that one. All I can think is they felt foolish that Clark had been able to stop all three of them, but they must already realise he's special since he survived the furnace. It's because we, the audience know Clark can survive all kinds of things so they simply didn't think through what a natural reaction would be - cutting corners narratively.

The other side of the episode are Lana's problems. She's already caused her best mate Chloe's jealousy and now she finds out how jealous her real Father, Henry Small's wife, is. It's really nasty, but it's not like she was threatening to divorce him unless he ignore Lana, since it was by chance she saw the woman. I suppose she feels a kind of responsibility in some way that she came to talk to Lana, or was it merely guilt? I liked seeing Henry again, but he does seem as clueless as his wife warned he was earlier in the season. She was saying he moved from interest to interest rather than he was dim, but still, there were clearly problems even then, but he hasn't noticed so he does come across as someone with their head in the clouds, which is strange when you consider he's a practical man when it comes to law, an expert and activist, but his character is flawed. I don't know if this is his last ever appearance, a shame if so as that ended on a low point and I don't think he ever returned to the series later on, so it's one of those dropped plots that could have continued to add the personal touch and the intimate trouble rather than taking the series bigger and more fantastical as they did. It's like when Jonathan mentions taking Martha to a doctor in Metropolis and says he'll probably stay with Clark's Grandfather - they didn't get along and how is he going to explain leaving Clark at the mercy of these thugs?

Martha wasn't in it much, but there was one standout thing she said: about not allowing the knowledge of Clark's secret to be used to intimidate them into silence and doing what they should do, which was a good, moral point to make, though in the end they find a way around Clark getting involved, yet still informing the police about what happened. Ultimately it's the positive qualities that stood out to me on this occasion, where in the past I'd rated the episode quite low. It wasn't even that I had low expectations as I didn't know what to expect from the title. There was the self-sacrifice of Lana recommending Henry needs to talk to his wife and concentrate on her, there was obviously Lionel's contribution to proceedings (I couldn't help thinking of the last time he confronted a broken beam as he does at the Torch: when it was poised to skewer him at the Luthor Mansion during the storm at the end of the first season!), and generally a bright, upbeat tone despite all the soap and misery, and that's what makes the difference: for all that happens, at least things are happy between Clark and Lana, Clark and Lex, Clark and Pete, etc. But I really think Clark should have waited until Lex had finished his phone conversation before he clonked him on the back of the head as you'd think the person he was talking to might be suspicious!

***

Precipice (2)

DVD, Smallville S2 (Precipice) (2)

I didn't remember much about this one other than the axe in the train carriage, but I did remember I liked it. A lot. And I still do, it's one of the highlights of the season, a chance to see a different side to several of the characters, the introduction of the prickly Sheriff Adams who sets the cat amongst the pigeons with her topsy-turvy view of the town, and some resolution on the ongoing storyline of Lex and Dr. Bryce. One thing that wasn't a factor when I last watched it, but has now become a big point of interest was the guest star: Anson Mount, who'd go on to become TV's Captain Pike in 'Star Trek: Discovery' (and soon to get his own spinoff), about fifteen years later. I knew there was a reason I never fully warmed to his version of the classic character - all these years I'd seen him in the role of Helen Bryce's ex-med school colleague with creepily amorous intent! It wasn't completely out of the blue, I'd heard in a podcast Mount was in a Season 2 episode, but it was still entertaining to see him. What I really loved about the episode, however, was the issue of injustice versus the law, and if I was going to call this episode anything else, it would have been dubbed 'Injustice.' 'Precipice' works well, as that's Lex' position at the end of the episode where he almost gives in to his feelings of vengeance, but it doesn't apply quite as much to anyone else, though I suppose it could be argued that the other two plots were on a cliff edge to some degree as well.

Lana's close call with the odious Andy who causes so much stress for her and Clark, and the Kent family who could be sued for what he did to beat up the guy and his friends. No, I take it back, 'Precipice' is a good all-round title, as Clark was just as much on the edge as Lex was, giving in to his ability to teach these punks a lesson they deserved to learn. But the episode comes down heavily against vigilantism and makes you think about all the times Clark's been in that position (a hero complex, says the Sheriff), and has generally managed to hold back and do no more than was necessary to save or protect victims. This time it was Lana at stake and he felt especially protective, but you can see the gleam in his eye when he confronts the thugs in the back alley, that he feels he has right on his side and so he should do what he feels he can get away with. But life isn't as simple as that, and if nothing else it highlights the litigious society we've allowed to strangle the modern world, where perhaps in the past a hard lesson for offenders would have been accepted. But it's a murky issue and not easily unravelled. We love to see the superheroes like Batman dealing out justice, especially when it's for helpless victims, but at the same time the rights and wrongs aren't always as clear cut.

In a way it was a case of unjust law enforcement, but then Adams is coming to a tight community as an outsider who doesn't know the people and so could be impartial when Sheriff Ethan was a bit more liable to leniency, but even he, hat in hand and in an embarrassed way, would hold up his badge of office and not play favourites, it's just that Adams is so cantankerous and caustic in comparison, a sharp, hard older woman who's probably seen it all. Clark gets on the wrong side of her, but it's difficult to see a good side to get on! I couldn't help thinking that Lana would be able to bring charges against Andy, especially with Clark as a witness. Sure, he had the backups to swear against it, but the evidence was there: the smashed shelving and Lana's bruises, as well as her and Clark's good name in the community, whereas you feel pretty sure Andy and his mates would have been in trouble with the law at some point, probably many times. I suppose they didn't have as much CCTV in those days, either. And as for suing the Kents, surely some kind of official medical diagnosis would have been essential before such a suit could be brought to court, and Andy's story would have fallen through as soon as he was checked independently, wouldn't it? I felt the same thing about mad Paul - they could have just checked his motel room, found the broken mirror with his blood on it and understood he'd caused his own injury, but the progress of law can be slow, too slow to keep up with unlawfulness, another lesson perhaps that shifts the balance in favour of taking it into your own hands. In fact there are points on both sides so it's not a simple case.

I really liked seeing Lana take back some of the control she has over herself and her surroundings by learning some karate. I don't remember it being a continuing story, but it makes sense after all the times she's been in danger from various troublemakers, and it was important to stress that it's not about becoming a crime-buster or seeking out trouble, merely a form of defence when there was no other way out, and she performed admirably - it was fun that in her own way she saves Clark for once. Perhaps it was going too far to outright say that in dialogue, but it was still a pleasant turnaround. Clark is punished for his rashness in dealing with the bullies and it's a reminder that you need to be as wise as a serpent when dealing with evil people because they'll always find a way to hurt you, malevolent as they are and comfortable to lie and cheat to get their way. It was tough for Clark because the litter-picking was one chore he couldn't use his abilities to speed up as it was in front of the whole town. On the other hand, if he'd thought it through maybe he should have gone out after dark, whipped round the town picking up all the litter, then when he actually came to do it officially in the daytime there'd be little or nothing left… Too devious for him? There was a slight sign of the traces of Evil Clark of the Red Kryptonite in the threatening behaviour he pulled on the bullies - it's always been a question of what he can get away with and how close he is to doing someone serious damage, which is why he can't do sports, and this was like the next level up from that.

As he grows and becomes a man it's the kind of issue he needed to be clear on, not to give in to even just feelings that would endanger those who deserve it, but to keep a level head at all times. At the same time, like the Dark Side of the Force, it's beguiling and seductive to give in to such impulses even if at first they're for the sake of good, and that's the same position Lex is put into. Now that I think about it, and Lionel is pointedly absent again, could Paul's arrival on the scene have been a deliberate ploy by his Father to bring Lex closer to Helen and make him realise how much he cares for her? I'd never considered that before, but it's plausible for Lionel to use an uncontrolled unfortunate to carry his plans forward. It's gratifying to see Lex continue to choose right - sure, I could imagine him instructing his man to beat up Paul, and that would likely have been the plan eventually, but even while this man takes every opportunity to kill him, he just can't pull the trigger, and it was all for the affections of Helen, whom he knew couldn't accept him if he'd killed her ex-friend, no matter how insane he was, which would only make him fall harder when the truth came out in Season 3, a cruel and disturbing turn of events that helped to stop Lex being that fascinating character walking the tightrope between his dual natures which made him so compelling in the first two seasons.

And he really is fascinating, pleasing the way he threatens Paul (that's not a threat, this is a threat!), and thrills the way he looks like he'll do anything and stands up to the Sheriff when all she seems to be doing is preserving the rights of the wrongdoers in the town, stalking away from her, coat tails flapping. And it was a well directed episode, about the only negative I could say about it is the continued lack of Pete especially, and Chloe, who barely register. I feel in the past they'd have found ways to involve them, perhaps Chloe would've been the one to find out Andy was faking his injury, and Pete would have accompanied Clark on his community service (okay, maybe just for a short while, he probably wouldn't want some girl thinking he was doing time!), but the point is they'd have been included. Even the parents could have done with more, but Jonathan gets to show a different side, the same as Clark, Lana and Lex, when he orders Clark to sit down, clearly master in his own house when the Sheriff comes a-calling. Nice callback to the 'destiny' of Clark to rule these flawed humans, the attitude he immediately sinks to in his disgust at the injustice that's been dealt him. It's good to see people put through an ordeal if they have a chance to learn from it, and I felt all three of the main characters did that, it was a valuable set of life lessons, something that comes more easily in episodic structure - even though there are serial stories travelling along through the season, most episodes are largely self-contained and have the chance to do something, instead of merely moving a plot along.

****

Visitor (2)

DVD, Smallville S2 (Visitor) (2)

Traditional 'Smallville' on the face of it, at least at first, and I had the impression this was going to be a weaker episode of the season. But that was probably the result of not really liking the story in the past, and perhaps that lessened my expectations, because this time I found it to be quite a lovely instalment that threw up various ideas, was beautifully shot, well acted, and kept me guessing all the way through whether Cyrus was an alien or not. It starts with a spot of bullying in class, that's the main reason it seems classic 'Smallville,' but instead of Cyrus turning out to be a vengeful psychopath with murderous tendencies, and whom Clark has to deal with, it's quickly apparent that he's not on the list of meteor freaks that have required intervention. In fact it soon becomes apparent that Cyrus could actually be a fellow Kryptonian. Now I didn't think that was likely, but I did wonder if he might be from another planet - hey, if Clark can drop on Earth and grow up a farm boy, why couldn't a similar thing have happened to Cyrus? Obviously Clark finds it hard to believe, but you soon realise he wants to, he wants a connection to the newly discovered world he was from, which Dr. Swann (who gets a mention), had informed him about in only the previous episode. I like that he has various people to talk to him about the situation from various degrees of understanding: his parents are one angle, Pete is another - he knows the secret, too, and he's someone Clark can discuss things with who isn't in authority over him and can talk man to man.

If only there had been more scenes for Pete like the one he gets in this one. It's not that it's anything special, but it does illustrate the point of having him be there as a confidant. Chloe is next in line, she's part of the gang, but not on the inside, so doesn't know Clark's point of view, and then there's Lana and perhaps Lex, who are on the periphery and have the good or the bad side when it comes to Clark. The good, in that Lana was slyly hoping Clark would offer to stable her horse at the Kent Farm, the bad, in Lex showing girlfriend Dr. Bryce his secret room that contains the car that smashed into Clark and various pieces of evidence about him and his family. That's another fascinating situation being developed: Helen clearly seems to want to be around Lex, unlike a lot of people, but at the same time she's garnered Martha's trust for not giving her boy away after the strange blood sample he'd given. Jonathan doesn't trust her, yet Martha, whether through the difficulties and changes in herself from pregnancy, goes against his wishes and confides in Helen, and it's putting the doctor in a very delicate position: two opposites both trusting her and being willing to invest that trust. I have the feeling she turns out to be a spy for Lionel (who doesn't appear again this time), so it may not be genuine affection for Lex, but even if she were working for the other Luthor, she's still at a kind of opposite ends of the spectrum at the same time.

It was these little character developments that were popping up in the episode that enamoured me with the episode, but it was also the story of Cyrus, this outsider who believes he is from another planet where his real parents are waiting for him, the traditional wish of the orphan, and just the idea that he and Clark could in some way be connected is a huge thing at this point in the series when it was so much more realistic and you didn't have all kinds of Kryptonians popping up, which got ridiculous. It was a small, personal story, and yes, there is another of those weird non-meteor rock powers, like Ryan had: Cyrus can heal, but it's not, seemingly from the meteor rocks, unless he was outside when they fell, which is how Clark explains him being able to draw the ship that brought him. It doesn't really need explanation I suppose, it's more important that he uses the healing and is put in a position where he could have refused to save the nasty bully that had caused so much grief. He chooses to set aside his own compelling desire to be at the top of his tower where he believes he will have that one chance to rejoin his kind, in order to sacrifice it all to save the life of someone that doesn't deserve it. It's an inspiring moment, worthy of the kind of quality inspiration that 'Star Trek' used to do so well before it became mere shoot-'em-up fantasy in recent years, and I respected it and enjoyed the episode so much more because it was able to successfully conclude the episode.

I even loved the moment Clark pulls the tower back upright and the vehicle trying to topple it is pulled along, too. It was a simple, but great use of his powers. When the lads surrounded him and Cyrus at school you really want him to go all 'Karate Kid' and beat up the four or five of them, however many were there, but you also know that's not the right thing to do, not because violence breeds violence, or that he couldn't explain his being able to do that, but because Clark is a man of peace and it wouldn't fit with his character - even in the hallway when the bully jibes at him or mocks Cyrus, the ordinary reaction, especially if you were big and tough as we know he is, would be to give the bully a piece of his mind, a tongue-lashing, if not an actual physical assault to make him think twice, and I feel like if the series had been made today that's what the audience would demand, but that's not the right course and I really admired his restraint in all things. I feel like TV and film has turned a corner in the years since (maybe even during), the series, with anti-heroes more and more popular, and evil getting an upper hand over other evil more desired than true heroism: not being baited, not giving in to revenge, doing good even to those that do evil to you, it's practically Biblical in its message here.

For all those reasons I really took to this episode, it seemed especially well presented, I don't know whether it was the direction or just that sense of beauty in so many shots, gorgeous lighting and an impression of goodness even in the landscape. I noticed that whenever Cyrus was there and things seemed so uncertain, the camera would be a lot more jittery, bobbing around to emphasise the mood in stark opposition to other serene images in the episode. And the way Lex just turns up at places and has that slightly sarcastic smile or tone, it really went back to Season 1 in him seeming like an unknown quantity: is he after the Kents, is he a good guy, is he serious in what he says to Helen…? It could be that with lowered expectations it stood out more, or that I hadn't watched something as uplifting for a few weeks, but whatever the reason it did work for me this time and I was completely wrong to dismiss it before. Sometimes you need a gentle, positive story, and this had no violent death or major issues, it was about identity and the give and take of secrets and trust. Even though it almost ends with Helen put in that difficult position, having said there should be no locked doors between her and Lex, at the same time she's keeping deep, dark secrets from him, it still took the time to end more positively with Lana and Clark in the barn looking at the stars. It may still be uncertain, since she confesses if Cyrus had really been an alien she'd have been unsettled, but it's not an all-out horror at the concept, so maybe Clark should have opened up at that point, the perfect opportunity?

***

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'!

****

Fever (2)

DVD, Smallville S2 (Fever)

'Fever'? More like 'Fever Dream'! This was one that I had no recollection of from the title and even when the episode had gone some way in I didn't remember what it was about or what happened, and I think I know why: it was quite uneven, some momentous things happen, but at the same time they don't really turn into much and there's a strong side order of teen soapiness that jars a little bit. I mean, one moment you've got Jonathan Kent breaking into the Disease Control Authority, full of soldiers clumping around with drawn weapons, and the next you have Chloe spilling her teenage girl's guts all over an unconscious Clark, only for him to utter the one word in response: "Lana?" Right from the start I'm questioning characters. For instance, Martha opens the episode sneaking down to the storm cellar to bury the tin of flour that was carrying the Kryptonite key that was hidden under the sink (keeping up?), since Jonathan's fixing the tap. Why didn't she tell her husband and son about it? Similarly, I'd forgotten she was supposed to be pregnant (did we know that, I can't remember?), so why didn't she tell her husband and son about it? At least, and this is a big point in the episode's favour, they didn't drag it out over multiple episodes as a modern series would probably do, we have the questions raised and within a few minutes Jonathan's at her side as she wakes up in the Smallville Medical Centre, and what does he do right away? Asks her about these very two questions.

This was a relief. I'm not saying Martha's answers were particularly compelling or full of the kind of homespun good sense you'd expect from a farmer's wife like her, but it chimed with her character to some degree, even if usually she doesn't keep things from her family and was being a bit silly. But we can forgive her for some feminine eccentricities and it all comes right in the end so no real harm done. But there could have been. There could have been great harm done! How many moments in this episode is Clark and his secret put at severe risk by his parents? Obviously the farm being searched by the DCA in their hazmat suits was the first big threat, but fortunately Pete was able to pull through and help his friend by stashing the Kryptonian ship at his place and proving what a good friend he is. But then Clark is also affected and Dr. Bryce pays a home visit to see to him while Jonathan starts babbling about how Clark is special and she can never tell anyone about him and she can't take a blood sample… Oh! She did. Well, she can't send it off anywhere and she can't tell anyone… Why trust her? I suppose there was no way to prevent it, but it's very awkward since she's Lex Luthor's girlfriend. But at least she's very strict on doctor-patient confidentiality - did Mr. Kent know she would be, or, as he says about something else later in the episode, is he just grasping at straws?

I thought maybe the blood would show up as normal since Clark was under the influence of the meteor spores (which never gets fully explained - how did it get underground, isn't the storm cellar older than the time of the meteor shower?), the doc did manage to spike him with a needle and draw the sample, which ordinarily wouldn't be possible and was what I was expecting to happen which would prompt Jonathan to be forced to tell Helen all about Clark and his abilities. Instead she's just flabbergasted by what she sees in his blood (we're not privy to that), but at the end is happy to wave it all away as a miracle that Martha recovered and Clark's blood is weird in some way we're not told. Or was she just fobbing them off in order to have time to think about what she's going to do next? The next time Clark was put at risk was when his Father tries to break into this DCA facility to get the ship's key - would it really be that highly guarded or do they share it with a military base of operations for the local area (the car chase doesn't seem to go on very long!), because that was the most unbelievable moment in the whole thing! Mr. Kent doesn't have a military background, I'm pretty sure, he's a farmer, and yet he's confident in his ability to break into this top security compound, cutting through wire, sneaking around like a spy (should have blacked his face up), rolling under doors and then ransacking the correct storage room - how would you even track down stuff in a place like that in the dark!

If it wasn't for Clark showing up against orders, he'd have been caught, and this and the moment Pete is similarly caught on the road a bit later were the most cartoonish parts of the episode: you're pushed to the limit, you think it has to be the end of the line, how are they ever going to get out of this one…? And then Clark knocks out the guard who's interrupted Jonathan, and it turns out Pete is driving the Kent pickup. But how suspicious was the whole thing, I was really expecting the head of the DCA investigation to show up and act like he thought Mr. Kent was to blame: the soldiers who saw him had given some kind of description because Pete doesn't match it, one guard, the guy who got clunked on the head was quite close, and Mr. Kent's stuff is the bit that's rifled through… His pickup is the one that's seen leaving, or so they think, and why is this kid driving it out here at this time of night. It was a whole shady, crazy thing, culminating in everything's gone back to normal so the DCA aren't going to come back and establish what really happened there? Utterly ridiculous! I know, I know, this is a comic book series, but it's a tribute to the actors and the writing of the first couple of seasons that for the most part it came across quite realistically and wasn't played up melodramatically.

If we want melodrama then we have to wait for Chloe's emotional outlet as she apparently comes to sit with Clark for a bit. Not very long, as it turns out! I couldn't help feeling when I saw her pink page (so we know it's not just any printout as Lana has to find it later), had been typed on a word processor! Somehow this seems like the kind of thing that should be written out lovingly by hand, not the cold, detached form of the printed page. It is quite touching, but it's also a little sickly and you just wish they'd stop with all this love triangle nonsense and get back to the characters just being good friends and dealing with mysteries. Another strikingly unromantic moment comes much later, near the end of the episode, when Lex leaves a little present on Helen's desk (why does he keep showing up at her work, is that the only time she has available to see him - it's a bit weird), she fails to notice it and so he has to hand it to her and you think it's going to be an engagement ring. Let's not forget he'd already been married and had an annulment once this season (albeit meteor rock power induced, or was it just the woman's own weird freak power, I don't recall), so why not get married again? But no, instead it's a door key to the Luthor Mansion (I'm still not sure, is this Lex' place again or does it belong to his Father?), a far cry from a ring and a sign of the kind of morality of the times…

To cap it all off we have some odd cross promotion with a band called 'Steadman' playing at the Talon with Pete acting as DJ. The scene was clearly designed to feature this band (whom I've never heard of, not being a music type), but it lands rather discordantly when thrown in at the end of the episode and doesn't entirely work. Then there appears to be product placement when Pete hands Clark a CD of the Talon Mix, or whatever he called it, which smacks very much of merchandise for the series - I wouldn't be surprised. After an episode of bizarre moments, moments that could have thrown Clark's secret out to the world, we get an advert for some pop music? I didn't even mention Jonathan and Clark taking the ship on the back of another pickup right outside the hospital before popping the octagonal key in, causing it to hover above the vehicle, glowing white and sending a wave of light rushing through the hospital. I know it's supposed to be the middle of the night, but a hospital is one place where there are always people coming and going: staff ending or starting shifts, having breaks, patients being brought in! Anyone at all could have witnessed this amazing event and then the Kents would have had serious questions to answer. We never even heard whether the ship healed every single person in the hospital with its ray, or if it was only Clark and Martha since it has the power to neutralise Kryptonite as we'd seen before with the red variety. They could have said how miraculous it was every patient was healed that night, which would have been really cool and now the place is empty of the sick, but they didn't.

In the end I didn't quite know how to take the episode and it's no surprise that it didn't stick in my mind as the majority have from this season: because while the things that happen are huge (key meets ship! Helen knows Clark isn't normal! Martha's having a baby!), they're presented in quite a laid back way as if it's not that big a deal. So you're left in some ways disappointed that things didn't add up to more, and yet at the same time it's an episode that isn't hiding things from the audience and expecting us to wait on tenterhooks to see when things will be resolved. Apart from Helen being a grey area for the Kents everything is fine by the end, except for the silly girly stuff of fighting over Clark (ooh, it was so unsettling to see you ill because you're never ill). I respect Jonathan taking on any risk in order to have even the slightest thread of a chance of saving his family, even if it was bizarre and the lack of consequences at the end were even more farfetched. Hence why I think of it as this very uneven story. But the balance is the thing, and in that scale, good just about wins out over wackadoodle, there aren't the misery moments or depressing stuff that has been occasionally creeping in this season, so it's not bad overall. There was a very good moment of truth in the episode, right at the beginning when Jonathan says that for all Clark's abilities they're no substitute for a tap washer, a small thing that has one purpose and does its one job perfectly. I wish that had been a theme that had been developed throughout instead of being a throwaway line, but that's 'Smallville'!

***

Prodigal

DVD, Smallville S2 (Prodigal)

Brother versus brother, and when that comes to the Luthors you know things aren't going to go well. This was quite a confusing episode, not just for the financial goings-on, Lex' riches to rags to riches again (presumably), but also what it meant for the characters. And not just the Luthors, either! In my previous review I was saying how the trouble between Lana and Clark was bound to be resolved in the next few episodes, putting them back to square one again, but I didn't expect it to be at the start of the very next episode! I mean that was bizarre - Clark just turns up at the Talon hoping for a job? I know his pizza and rose gifts of reconciliation at the end of the last episode were an attempt to get back into Lana's good books, but she rejected them straight off, and yet she now gives him a job? It couldn't even have been that long since the rose is still in the metal bin right where she threw it. Maybe she just bounced out the right side of the bed this morning, full of forgiveness and ready for a fresh start. Or maybe she got hit on the head and only half remembers what happened in 'Rush.' It was nice of Chloe to give Clark a helping hand in the reference department, especially as working for the Torch is a kind of job. It's just sad that we never see Chloe, Pete and Clark actually doing work on it any more. Well, Chloe scenes are fairly often at the office in the school (another sad thing - that's about all we get of their school life at the moment), but we don't see them working together and uncovering investigations like we used to.

We're back to the new norm of Season 2 once again, where it's all about Lana and Clark or Lex and Clark, Pete and Chloe getting short shrift after their brief spell in the spotlight last time. At least Lionel makes an impression as there do seem to be a few episodes where he's not involved at all - no surprise that it's hard to integrate a multi-millionaire business mogul into a high school drama! At least his shenanigans were true to his character - not only has he regained his vision out of nowhere (and I was surprised it was Lucas Luthor who threw the pool ball, a scene I'd thought was Lex'), he's also playing his two sons against each other. I wasn't entirely sure where Lucas came from in terms of deciding now was the time to be unearthed. I know it was a power play by Lex to try and get leverage on his Father's company, and then ultimately we find out it was Lionel preempting him for a similar reason, to fight back against Lex' plot. But things like that gambling scene didn't make a lot of sense - did Lucas own the joint? Otherwise how could he have set up a camera in the golden lion bust or have an accomplice sending him intel on his opponent's cards? It didn't seem like he owned the place and it was odd how his assistant was discovered - what, he dropped something on the floor which alerted the bodyguard?

Lucas we'd heard of before just a few episodes prior so I suppose it was good to have him in the story, but why would Lex protect him, and how? In the end he's safely out of his Father's influence, but Lionel was looking after him in his own way, paying off his troubles over the years. He did seem to want some kind of connection to his Father so perhaps his life was becoming too shallow for him to stomach and had reached an age when he realised he needed more, but I just don't buy that he and Lex would end up trusting each other. Unless Lex could read him, seeing himself in the younger son and having empathy for how he feels in regards to their Father. It was complicated and I'm not sure the series could pull off something like that, it didn't come across quite right. I suppose we're supposed to be concerned that Lionel noticed the dripping hole of burnt metal from where Clark heat-visioned Lucas' hand when he thought the guy was going to shoot Lionel. But in later seasons we learn (I think), Lionel knew, or guessed Clark's secret, though that never made much sense to me. It's not relevant here anyway, but it adds further confusion to what we're supposed to be making of these events.

The episode does have some lovely moments - all the stuff with Lex being accepted into the Kent Farm as a houseguest, doing chores (I don't remember ever seeing animals in the barn and yet he's got to muck it out?), being grateful to Jonathan in particular, and the ultimate accolade of Mr. Kent complimenting him by saying he'd have made a great farmer (fascinating to see how different people react to life there - Ryan, for example got up and made everyone pancakes for breakfast). That was all terrific, but I felt they needed to eke this storyline out a bit. He's there in his fancy suit on the doorstep requesting asylum, then it's the next day and he's hard at work and then he's out again. Having Lex on the farm is the kind of great idea that should have been an arc in itself. Imagine him sitting round as they all read of an evening (that's what Mr. and Mrs. Kent were doing when he stopped by), the conversations, the mealtimes… It's too juicy to have let pass in the space of a few scenes, as good as they were. Similarly, the idea of a social experiment where one brother has everything and the other nothing was the kind of thing the episode should have delved deeper into, it had such potential.

That's probably why I wasn't quite as impressed with the episode as I used to be. It's still a good entry in the season and it has that superb sequence where we see Clark actually being faster than speeding bullets as he knocks the motorbike assassin off his bike, then proceeds to swat away each bullet in turn before they can take out Lucas in the alley behind the Talon (always a bad place to go!). If I'd been Lucas I think I'd have run back into the coffee shop, not taken off down a long dark alleyway when the guy chasing him is on a motorbike, but then he was young and you're probably not going to be thinking too clearly when an assassin with an automatic is bearing down on you. It gave new meaning to the phrase don't turn your back on someone, as Clark knows he has the smoking impacts of several bullets on the back of his jacket which he doesn't want Lucas to see - in parallel, Jonathan won't turn his back on Lex while he's staying on the farm, which is exactly what Martha said they couldn't do, but she, too, had a different meaning! The production value came to the screen - even though they only showed a little bit of that asian area of Edge City, it was effective. But could Lex really lose every single thing he owns (other than the little he could pack into his car), that doesn't seem possible? And does he own the Mansion again at the end, or not? There's no explanation of how Lionel can see again - he claims he's had his sight back for a few weeks, but who knows if he's telling the truth.

That was one of the big twists in the series I always found hard to believe and things were starting to unravel for me as this series being realistic enough for me to suspend disbelief for all the other weird things we were used to - it needed the grounding in people that it had to begin with in order to make everything else acceptable and when you have some major change like that it undermined reality (a bit like what happened with Sheriff Ethan - you can believe it's possible, but they needed to do more to sell it). I also don't think it helps that Lucas is as obnoxious and entitled as they come, because we needed to feel at least some kind of sympathy for him. I don't think he ever came back, if he did it didn't make an impact on me, but there was a strong angle of playing that abandoned child side of things, just as it's so sad when Lex looks over and sees the idyllic Kent family and wishes it were so for him in various episodes, but they didn't do enough to make Lucas a victim. What did Lex say to him to make him change his position and trick Lionel into revealing what really happened in his past? It must have been good for them to carry out the enactment of potential murder. I liked Lionel having enough conscience and attachment to Lex that he can't go through with killing him, even when forced to do so at gunpoint, but in the same scene we also see his true ruthlessness as he turns on the fallen Lucas and shoots him twice. It makes sense that Clark couldn't hold down the job at the Talon since he's always got to dash off and save someone, and I liked Lex' reassuring words about his own Father taking over the world, but Clark's will inherit the Earth, a sort of Biblical influence that mirrors Lionel's own reference to the Prodigal Son.

***

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.

**

Suspect

DVD, Smallville S2 (Suspect)

Inventive, I'll say that for the manner in which another recurring character is written out of the series - it's like they hate being landed with so many familiar faces that make up the community of Smallville that they feel they must dispatch them one by one! We lost Principal Kwan, and there was Dr. Hamilton, and of course Aunt Nell. Whitney, if you want to count him, Ryan, maybe others I've forgotten. At the same time, going against the grain, they also bring back a recurring character from Season 1, Dominic Santori, which is nice continuity. It also means there's a fourth suspect in this potential murder mystery, although it becomes only attempted murder since Lionel pulls through. And that in spite of taking two large calibre bullet wounds to the torso, then falling one storey to crash through a glass table in the most spectacular fashion. You can't accuse the series of not thinking big, at least in this case! It's not an episode that relies on special effects, it's much more attuned to the knowledge regular viewers have of the people that make up the town. It's only a shame that Mike the barman hadn't been previously established as he was suspicious right from the off. It just goes to show, if there's one lesson to be learnt from this story: don't drink and drive! Not even a little bit, because if Jonathan hadn't gone to the Wild Coyote for his half, he wouldn't have been in that situation in the first place.

I doubt very much I'd have guessed the identity of the attacker until late in the episode except it was 'spoiled' by listening to a podcast ('Always Hold On To Smallville' - recommended), which reminded me of what was going to happen. I'd seen it a couple of times before so it wasn't like it was brand new, but it had been well over a decade since I last went through the season. Knowing the identity in advance I did notice a couple of clues as the story unspooled: that the barman had 'connections,' which Clark reveals or speculates on when he and Pete go to the bar, and that a couple of people are said to be old school friends of Jonathan which makes a previously unknown connection. It's just such a shame that it should be someone like that who was trusted by Jonathan and the community, but was simply 'strapped for cash.' There's another lesson there: either look after your finances, or don't get involved with money men that promise good things, it never works out. I did like that Pete is with Clark so much as they go investigating, and really it only needed Chloe to tag along to make it just like the old 'Scooby gang' style of stories they used to do in Season 1 before things became more complicated by Chloe's issues with Clark, or Pete's inside knowledge of his abilities. It's such a shame we couldn't have had the trio as I'm sure Pete could have covered for his buddy, distracting Chloe if Clark needed to 'find' something, but as it is she's hardly in the episode at all.

Lana gets a little more to do, and I appreciated that they both brought in Henry Small, her Father, as someone in a position to help Mr. Kent from a legal perspective, and also that we learn something about him, another person whom the talons of Lionel got fixed upon, though for different reasons than the murderer. As it should be the characters mostly revolve around Clark in this story and he is proactive in his involvement even though it's a very adults-only narrative since it's all about the law and nothing to do with school students or secret meteor rock powers. In that sense it's a cut above the average episode, playing on the series' continuity, but also crafting a well directed (by Kenneth Biller), drama that had that noir-ish feel - you just needed voiceovers from a visiting detective to make it complete, although I must say I found the thunder crashes to be a little over-loud and intrusive to the dialogue. Maybe dial that back a bit next time! But the multiple versions of the same event worked really well and all were plausible (except for Jonathan or, really, Lex), plus it gave them the chance to show off their favourite stunt for the episode as Lionel tips over the balcony in the Mansion to topple to the glass table below, multiple times - they really got a lot of play out of that one, but it did deserve it, even if you can sort of tell it's not John Glover in the bit where the stunt man is actually collapsing through the table.

It wasn't the only memorable stunt, however, as Clark gets to save Pete when what looks like his friend's brand new car is pushed off the road to slam into a field (fortunately an empty one with no trees around the edge!). They had a fortunate escape with that one, but the danger isn't over as someone aboard the massive lorry takes a potshot at the car, which promptly explodes, but not before Clark has time to smash the door off and rip Pete out of there, protecting his friend from the ensuing blast of hot metal and flame. I don't think that was meant to be the guy who shot Lionel, more likely someone he hired, but I suppose it could have been. It's just I can't imagine him doing that. The saga of LexCorp apparently comes to an end, a short-lived life lesson from Lionel that his son should never oppose him, as he somehow bought out the company meaning Lex is back to square one. There's some familiar, if pointed, commentary on the making of a bad person between Clark and Lex, and thinking you can trust someone you've known so long. Obviously we're referring to the future that was only imaginary at this point before the series became much more cartoonish in future seasons, and it's better for it to remain that way as we think of these two people being nemeses as adults.

Martha and Jonathan get heartfelt scenes about loyalty and he opens up about his flaws and faults most strongly, Martha responding even more to him for his honesty and vulnerability, so it was good for everyone, and I liked how it tied into previous episodes such as Lionel's watch he gave her being so integral. In the end it's a fairly straightforward kind of story with the main draw being the style it was shot in and the good use of almost everyone, and for the fact it feels like a turning point, but I'm not sure it would hold up quite as well on repeated viewings simply knowing what's going on, even if it is nicely done and well acted. It's still hard to believe Sheriff Ethan would stoop so low… whoops, I finally gave it away, I couldn't keep it in any longer! But he was always such a sympathetic guy just doing his job. Sure, there was the fact he represented the authorities that Clark was always being hid from (and how come they didn't seem worried when they had police all over the house - they might easily have checked out the storm cellar!), but he was, or he seemed, a good, honest type, much like Jonathan. Was he a secret gambler and got himself into debt? Was it a painful divorce? Who knows, but if he'd trusted his friends in the community he might have found help and then he wouldn't have got into that mess with Lionel in the first place, so there's another lesson, I'm sure. This was a strong example of the series when it was good and we've had a successful run of episodes in this middle of the season patch, but how much longer can it go on?

***

Insurgence

DVD, Smallville S2 (Insurgence)

Now this was one episode I remembered favourably, but didn't realise how much I'd enjoy it - it was almost like a 'Smallville' film, with generous production value, great use of the characters and locations, and filled with a pounding, dramatic pace right from the opening scene where Lex sinisterly bawls out an employee (played by Paul McGillion, later Dr. Beckett of 'Stargate Atlantis,' and not the only 'Stargate' name in the episode!), then proceeds to tear apart the Luthor Mansion for the bugs he's realised his Father has installed to spy on him. There was an energy and a verve to the direction of the piece from beginning to end, and one that kept the attention rapt on what was happening with no scenes of dead space, no time wasted. Unfortunately, this means Chloe and Pete are entirely excluded, and this could be seen as a prototype for the typical episode later on when it was all about Clark and all about Metropolis to the detriment of the other characters and the small town setting. But right here it was a breath of fresh air, especially after some considerably basic stories that were very much in the Season 1 vein of meteor freaks and small town or 'High School' troubles. This one, in contrast, was like some of the more adventurous stories from that year, the ones where they did try something different, where they upped the ante, and made it much closer to Clark's Super destiny than it had been.

I love the folksy episodes, that's where the series was generally at its best, but when they were able to break out of the mould and yet also keep the character work and the intelligent writing, that was where the series could fly - we saw that in episodes like 'Zero,' which were among the best of the best, and this one follows that style with developments galore and the strong culmination of various character arcs or setups for the future. I have to say, before I forget, though, why did Martha keep the octagonal ship key hidden from her husband and son? More to the point, I hope she washed it before putting it in the flour tin! Who knows what alien microbes could be on it, not to mention the grubby hands of Pyne (if that was his real name), the insurgent of the title, or at least the main one! Was it because she was afraid Clark would fly off and fulfil his destiny elsewhere, was she trying to protect him until she'd had time to think about what it all meant? I can't remember, but I look forward to seeing what happens now the season has truly got going! Martha has a sizeable presence in this story and it's all about her simple little PA job with Lionel becoming something more as the man oozes with foul charisma and his diabolical methods of ensnaring what he wants.

It was a low thing to do, to take Martha away from her husband on their very anniversary (a Sunday, too!), whisking her away to Metropolis to present her with a promotion and a jewel-encrusted watch to seal the deal in her new city office. You'd think he'd have realised he was pushing her into an impossible position, but he's never been averse to taking risks and it shows how little he truly understands this good, country woman. Her family comes first, even above the opportunity to realise her full potential in business, with all the money, prestige and satisfaction that would bring. It's been a fascinating journey to see Martha given this chance to shine, able to bring in her qualifications and catch sight of a life that she thought she'd sacrificed for ever for the simpler existence as a farmer's wife and all the community involvement we know she's had in the town. Lionel is devilish as he hovers over her shoulder whispering these promises of a golden future for her and at a time when she's already conflicted about what this is doing to her marriage. The fact that Lionel brought her to the offices on a Sunday makes me wonder, and this was a theory I developed as I watched: did Lionel actually own Pyne, was he secretly pulling the strings? Because what better way to bring Martha onto his side than with sympathy and sharing the bond of going through a life or death situation together.

Lex hired the spy guys (including Colin Cunningham, Major Davis in 'Stargate SG-1' - shame there were no scenes for him with Chloe's Dad as he was also in that series!), led by 'Kern,' but it's Pyne who has made a previous arrangement with the others in the group that they've gone along with despite working together before. I love how Kern is the consummate professional surveillance guy who knows all the tech, even when he's being held captive he keeps pointing out things that only an expert would know, until Pyne executes him. It was a thrilling twist that the plan changes, and Lex' plot to do exactly as had been done to him becomes a desperate bid for the survival of his Father and Martha. This also plays in beautifully to events earlier in the episode where once again Clark and Lex fail to read the situation and realise that the best way to make amends to Jonathan for missing his anniversary picnic (great reference back to last year when Clark had his house party while they were gone!), is not to get another Luthor involved! We'd seen it before, in Season 1, Lex wanting so much to be accepted by the Kents and yet Jonathan always finding fault, only this time he isn't so needy, he's angry, with his Father, perhaps with all Fathers, and when another good deed is slapped away he stands up to Jonathan and is showing the subtle steps down the dark path of destruction, much more believably and intelligently written than later seasons would be in forming his nature.

At this stage he's still good Lex at heart, he does bad things, like bugging LuthorCorp, but only because he's learning these ways of industrial espionage from his main teacher, his Father. But he says to the guy at the beginning he's not going to ruin him as his Father would have, and he's eager to help Jonathan, but the biggest and best moment that shows his goodness remains intact despite how fragile it's becoming: when Jonathan sheepishly eats humble pie and shows up at the Mansion to request a helicopter ride to Metropolis after seeing what's happening on the news (I was wrong, the Kents do have a TV in the living room, we just never see them use it, usually!). He lets Jonathan stew for a few seconds, then cuts him off before he can make the full request. He does wait a moment, but then he wholeheartedly jumps in and saves him from the awkwardness, and I loved it! Jonathan gets to show his angry side again and you can see how they were building towards him one day having his heart attack (as we've seen the impetuous rage within him on occasion), he's not happy about Martha being swept off on their anniversary, such an important day, and it is unreasonable for Lionel to make her work unless it was for just that reason of getting between husband and wife, and she does behave rather selfishly saying her work is just as much about the future of the family as the sacrifices he's made for the farm, but is it really? It's her way of expressing herself and fulfilling potential, but she accepted the farming life that Jonathan offered so it's like she's going back on that so it's right that her husband should feel aggrieved.

When he first sees the news and is almost whipped into a panic and rushes for the door you wonder what he's going to do and it's like seeing Clark's own impetuous response calms him down a bit and gets him to talk some sense into his son that is also giving voice to what he needs to hear himself: don't go rushing in and mess things up even more. Clark being there was like a safety valve for him to check himself and remember his role, not to charge off and bawl out the police or whatever he was heading toward. I don't know what Lex thought about Clark not coming and how that was explained away, because obviously he can get there quicker on foot, and you have to presume Lex and Jonathan came together, but in all the confusion it's probably not something that was thought of unless they talked about it on the way and Jonathan would have had to make up an excuse, like he'd already sent Clark to the city for something before they'd heard the news. For that matter why was Lex sitting in his Mansion, but then I suppose he didn't want to incriminate himself (as he almost did later when Jonathan caught him on the phone to the kidnappers), and kept his distance until he saw he'd have to go. Then of course you have that same scene we've witnessed before of Lex feeling that rejection from his cold Father and seeing the care and warmth in the Kents as the family embraces at the end.

Clark gets to almost be Superman since he not only goes to the roof of the Daily Planet (I think that's the first use of that set which would get much play over the years - the same goes for the LuthorCorp office, though I can't recall if we'd already seen it yet or not), but also takes a run-up and launches himself across the gap to smash into a window in the LuthorCorp building in heroic style. I don't know why he had to show himself to the goons instead of just knocking them out without showing his face, but he is still amateurish at this hero stuff. My big question is whether Lionel had regained his sight by this time, because he never seems too concerned, another reason why I wondered if he'd instigated the whole thing. If he could bug Lex into undercutting LexCorp's deal or whatever he did, might he not also be aware Lex had found the bugs and know that he'd try and hire a team to do the same to him, and so plan this insurgency from within that group? He claims not to see the octagonal disk and doesn't seem to notice Martha's concern over the file on Clark, but did he? It's difficult to know.

It's also difficult to know what was going on with Lana's little subplot, the C-story I suppose it could be called, after the A-story of the hostage situation and B-story of the failed anniversary. Clark gives her all the encouragement she needs before she goes to meet with Henry Small's wife, and it was lovely to see them so warm and positive around each other with so much negativity to come in season after season, but it wasn't enough to counter Mrs. Small and her viperous attack on Lana. The poisonous thing is it's done in such a clever way without any sense of malice or deviousness, but Lana just isn't old enough to appreciate what's going on or react quickly enough to stamp down her own authority and confidence that she could get to know her biological Father. Mrs. Small claims she doesn't want Lana hurt because her husband is so flighty and doesn't stick to things, which shows what a low opinion she has of his work and family life, she uses Lana's own good nature and desire to please and win over, to make her doubt it could ever work. Lana thought she was going in to try and win this woman over, but there was never any prospect of that: she had her entrenched position and doesn't want Lana involved. It was a hard truth to learn, but you can't win with some people, especially if you go in hoping goodness and kindness will make them look favourably on your wishes.

I was undeniably impressed with this one, liking it more than I had before, enjoying the definition in the characters, the interplay between them and the intelligence and creativity in the script that squeezed in so much and yet left so much to develop, the kind of things that worked so well in the series, as opposed to the romantic gnashing of teeth and accusing misery of so much of the middle seasons of the series. It was robust, it was adult-oriented, eschewing the students and petty little worries like villains who are going to kill off other students - the scariest moments are when one of the main characters, especially Martha, is put in danger, and this got her there, and in a logical and grounded way that was as much about the difficult moral situation she's put in as it was the physical danger. The scope of the filming was terrific with all those police, cars and citizens that made it feel huge and film-like. They introduce the police woman that would return later, building the pieces of Metropolis slowly but surely. It's not the fault of these episodes that what came later derailed so much of the series and lost this verve and dynamism that twanged through the episode like an electric guitar. In short, it was one of the best episodes so far this season, level-pegging with 'Lineage' as most impressive, and a reminder that Season 2 still had something to offer - not as consistently as the first, but well worth going through when you get drama like this!

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