Smallville 1.18 - Drone

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I was regularly watching and reviewing the Talkville podcasts, but due to my holiday in England I've fallen five episodes behind. I'll try to catch up by watching at least one episode every two days, but that's not something I can promise. It depends on what I'm doing. Believe it or not, I have a social life outside of my room. Not much of a social life, I admit, but there are a few things I like to do apart from watching films and TV series. A few.

"Drone" is an episode which shows a surprising turn in Clark Kent's high school life. Until now I've always thought of him as an outsider with a small group of friends who're also outsiders, Lana Lang being a possible exception. That's the way I spent my school life. I was an outsider who made friends with other outsiders. But in this episode Clark runs for Class President. Not being American, I have no idea what that entails. I can make some intelligent guesses, based on this episode, but I shan't embarrass myself by writing anything that might be totally wrong.

The candidates for Class President are Sasha Woodman, Paul Chan and Felice Chandler. Chloe and Pete sum them up for Clark, which is obviously a way of introducing them to the viewers. Sasha is someone who's highly motivated to become Class President, but in Chloe's opinion she's a worker, not a leader. Paul has all the qualities needed for the position, but Pete doesn't think he'll be selected because "Elections aren't about merit, they're about popularity". That's a powerful quote. This episode has a few outstanding quotes. Felice is a popular girl, the centre of attention. Pete and Chloe agree that she's the favourite to win the election.

Paul is sitting at home designing his campaign poster on his computer. Wow! I shan't comment on it, just make your own thoughts. He's attacked by bees that swarm up from his sink. A a result of this accident, Pete decides that Clark should be a replacement candidate, even though Chloe points out that Paul hasn't officially pulled out of the contest. The next day Felice is attacked by bees in her car, and she does pull out, because her whole campaign was based on her good looks. Chloe suspects Sasha is somehow responsible. A year previously she was stung by 1000 bees, but she was barely harmed. This happened in a crater pull of meteor rocks.

Yes, that officially makes Sasha Woodman the freak-of-the-week. She has the power to control bees, having effectively become the queen bee.

Quote number two: Clark isn't sure whether he wants to become Class President, so he considers pulling out of the race. His father tells him, "Quitting's a very hard habit to break".

Quote number three: Clark visits Lex to talk about the Talon, but the conversation soon comes onto the class election. Lex tells him, "The man of tomorrow is forged by his battles today".

Quote number four: Later in the episode Lex tells Clark, "You don't need to be an elected official to change the world".

Quote number five: Clark doesn't win the election, but he's prepared an acceptance speech, which he reads to Lana. It begins with the words, "If we want to change the world, first we have to change ourselves".

So who wins? It's Paul Chan, the most capable boy for the job. Maybe he was able to win over the voters with his talents, maybe it was just a sympathy vote after his injuries. It was due in part to Chloe endorsing him in an editorial for the Torch. This leads to an (almost) argument between Clark and Chloe. He's disappointed that she didn't endorse him, but she explains that her choice isn't based on friendship, but on an objective judgement of the candidates. That's a fair way of thinking about it, but Clark doesn't see it that way. Neither does Michael Rosenbaum, who states in the podcast that if his best friend were running for office he'd vote for him automatically.

This week's podcast has Zach Moore as a guest. That's a name I've never heard before. He's the host of an ongoing Smallville rewatch podcast called "Always hold on to Smallville". So he's a competitor? Technically yes, but they're all good friends. Zach started first, and he's already up to season eight. He accepts that having the original stars do a podcast there's more inside information on the series. He says that if they'd started at the same time he would have graciously stepped back and let them get on with it by themselves. He's even allowed Michael to use "Always hold on to Smallville" as a slogan.

Michael isn't very happy with this episode. He thinks that it's too late in the season for a standard freak-of-the-week episode, and there should be major story developments leading up to the season finale. Tom doesn't agree, even though he understands Michael's arguments. Also, Sasha is a relatively weak enemy for Clark. The bees aren't anywhere near a match for him. In his rose'n'bomb rating system he gives it a heater, equalling his lowest rating so far. Both Tom and Ryan rate the episode higher.

There are a couple of sub-plots in the episode. These should be considered in the ratings, not just the main story. The Talon is losing customers to the Beanery, the cafe where Lana used to work. That surprises me, because the Talon seemed to be running well until now. Half price lattes is a step of desperation. Lana says that the next step will be topless waitressing. That's something I'd like to see.

Carrie Castle, a writer for the Metropolis Journal, arrives in Smallville to write an article about Lex Luthor. She says it will be flattering, but Lex sees a preliminary draft and realises that it's the very opposite. He accuses her of being sent by his father, which she doesn't acknowledge. He bribes her by arranging for her to be promoted if she doesn't write the article. The only thing wrong with this story is that it isn't continued. I'm disappointed that we never see her again after this episode. It was a wasted opportunity.

Is it a good episode? Michael Rosenbaum might not think so, but I greatly enjoyed it. I don't like rating individual episodes anyway.

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