Smallville 1.15 - Nicodemus

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This is yet another episode without a freak-of-the-week. Instead, it has a flower-of-the-week. A hundred years ago the settlers in the area that would become Smallville were intoxicated by the aroma and/or pollen of a plant they called the Nicodemus plant. It made them violent and sexually aggressive for a day or two, after which they slipped into a coma and died. The US army destroyed the plants to make the area habitable for future settlers. Dr. Hamilton, who we first saw in the episode "Craving", has used meteor rocks to bring the plants back to life from samples that have been preserved. The plants strike back.

This brings up something that wasn't discussed in the podcast. Were the meteor rocks directly responsible for the new violence and death in Smallville? I think not. The plants were deadly years before the meteors fell in Smallville. On the other hand, the pollen sprayed at the victims has a green tint. This would be a question best answered by the screenwriters of the show, Al Gough and Miles Millar, because I doubt Michael Rosenbaum could guess any better than me.

The episode begins with a man called James Beels driving to Lionel Luthor with a plant that he's stolen from Dr. Hamilton's cabin. He's already intoxicated by the plant, and he flies into an extreme road rage. He rams Jonathan Kent's truck, before wrecking his car in a crash that's remarkable for Smallville's limited budget. Jonathan pulls him out of the car – the first save of the week – and is infected by the same plant.

There's something important in this scene that Tom and Michael missed. Lionel has sent someone to steal from a project sponsored by Lex. This is the first time we see that Lionel is directly working against his son. It'll happen more often in future episodes.

Dr. Hamilton complains to Lex. He (wrongly) thinks that Lionel and Lex are working together, so he accuses Lex of undermining his research. Lex is annoyed, because Dr. Hamilton is only supposed to be doing research into meteor rocks, not extinct plants. When Dr. Hamilton says someone pulled Beels out of his car, Lex immediately assumes it was Clark. That's the person who saves everyone in the town, including Lex himself in the Pilot episode. No, this time it was another Kent. You don't need super powers to be a hero.

Back at the Kent Farm, Jonathan is acting strangely. He's unusually frisky with his wife, kissing her in the kitchen when Clark walks in. That's a good thing, isn't it? It's just out of character. Then he abandons his chores, which is even more out of character, and goes to bed for a nap. The next day, Jonathan gets a phone call that his request for a bank loan has been turned down. He heads to the bank with a rifle, and the worst could possibly happen. Clark stops him, and Jonathan shoots Clark in the chest. It's lucky that Clark is bulletproof. It's not an accident, Jonathan has lost control of himself. Clark takes his father to the hospital for treatment.

The next to be affected is Lana Lang. She turns into a sultry temptress. First she tries to talk her boyfriend Whitney into skipping school. When he says No, she hurts his feelings by saying he's been no fun since his Dad got sick with cancer. Then she makes a play for Clark, stripping down to her underwear in the school baths and kissing him passionately.

Tom Welling has forgotten a lot of things that happened 20 years ago, but this isn't one of them. Kissing Kristin Kreuk has imprinted itself on his memory for life. He didn't say how many takes were needed for the kiss. That would have interested me. He says that a body double was needed for part of the scene. Lana Lang jumps into the water, and it's not convenient for an actress to get wet on a busy filming day, so a replacement was needed. It's filmed perfectly. (Better than the blunders in "Buffy the Vampire Slayer"). Even when I went through the scene frame by frame I couldn't see when it wasn't Kristin Kreuk.

Clark refuses to go any further, but not until he's enjoyed the kisses. Next she approaches Lex, who has better self control. She only puts her hand on his chest, and he resists her advances.

Next, Lana tries to climb a windmill, something she's always been afraid to do. She falls while she's climbing, so Clark carries her to the hospital.

And then the fourth victim is Pete Ross. His reaction is to grab a gun and storm into Lex Luthor's mansion to shoot him. Luckily Clark arrives just in time to save Lex.

Dr.  Mortimer has found an antidote for the effects of the Nicodemus plant that was known to the Native Americans and has been written in a book. It's not clear who wrote the book. I don't think that the Native Americans wrote books in English. It's too late to save Beels, who dies while in a coma, but the other three victims are cured.

Clark knows about Dr.  Mortimer's involvement through Chloe's research, so he asks Lex if he's in contact with him. Lex denies it. This is the first time that Lex has told Clark a direct lie. It's led Lex to be more secretive about his involvement with the meteor rock research, as well as exercising closer scrutiny. In future Dr.  Mortimer has to continue his research in Cadmus Labs, the mysterious company run by Lex, often mentioned but never shown. Not yet, at least.

Michael Rosenbaum has a dirty mind. He's almost as bad as me. In the episode Chloe talks to Clark about his infatuation with Lana and tells him he should move on instead of staying in his barn playing with his telescope. Michael immediately says she's talking about his penis. Okay, I know that a telescope is a phallic object, but that's not what Chloe means. She knows that Clark uses his telescope to spy on Lana.

Wow! Tom Welling looks cool in these dark glasses. It's a shame he only wears them briefly at the beginning of the podcast. They look good on him. When Michael asks him how he watches the episodes, he says that he has the series on DVD and Blu-ray, pointing at the boxes behind him. When I originally watched the series, it was only available on DVD. The first season that was released on Blu-ray was the eighth season. That's probably because that's when the first episodes were filmed digitally. Now I have the complete series on Blu-ray. The early episodes aren't full HD quality. It's obvious that they haven't been remastered, they've just been rescanned for Blu-ray. Nevertheless, this is still an improvement in quality. After buying the Blu-ray box set I compared the Pilot episode on DVD and Blu-ray, and I could see a slight improvement. This is in complete contrast with "Buffy the Vampire Slayer", which fans say looks worse on Blu-ray than on DVD.

So far Tom's been watching the episodes on DVD, but he says he doesn't own a Blu-ray player. What??? Someone should buy him one for Christmas. I don't see how anyone can do without a Blu-ray player today. A 4K player would be even better. I hope Tom's friends are reading this.

Tom also mentioned that his wife is no longer watching the episodes with him each week. She doesn't have the time. I understand that. They have two small children, and she does most of the work. But it's still a shame. She ought to binge on the series when she has a few hours time. I wonder how she'll react to seeing her husband kiss Kristin Kreuk. "It was only work, darling, she did nothing for me". Yeah, right!

I think that the podcast would benefit from Tom watching with his wife. She's never seen the series, so her ideas as a new viewer might help Tom prepare for the next podcast with Michael. They live together, so they have the opportunity to exchange thoughts over a cup of coffee.

Here are a few last thoughts. We see the Talon again. It has poetry readings on Thursdays! It's become a really classy establishment, much better than the Smallville Beanery. What's happened to the Beanery anyway? I don't remember it ever being mentioned again. Has the competition from Lana driven it into bankruptcy?

The Talon has a waitress called Rose, played by Nicki Clyne. This is her only appearance in Smallville, but she made a big impression. 15 years later she married Allison Mack, the actress who played Chloe Sullivan.

In the final scene, Clark takes Lana to the top of the windmill so that she can gaze at Metropolis in the distance. Does he carry her up the steps? Probably. One of the idiosyncrasies of the Nicodemus plant is that when a person is cured he has no memory of what he did while affected. So Lana doesn't remember kissing Clark. And he's too polite to tell her about it.

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