Smallville 2.04 - Red

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This is a new look for Clark Kent: a black leather jacket and dark sunglasses, riding a motorbike with a beautiful blonde. No, it isn't Chloe. It's Jessie, a new girl in Smallville High. What nobody knows is that Jessie and her father are in witness protection. He intends to testify against financial fraud, and he has the evidence on computer discs that he's carrying with him. Wouldn't it have been more sensible to leave them with the police? Maybe he was worried about the police being corrupt.

Clark's story starts with the school's Ring Day. Is this a common thing in America? I know that high school students wear rings at graduation, but Clark is only in tenth grade. Apart from that, the purchase of the rings is voluntary. Ruby rings are offered to the students for $350 each. Clark's father says that the ring is a waste of money, but he leaves the decision up to Clark, expecting him to make the right decision. Clark doesn't. He buys the ring.

This is the ring as Clark puts it on.

21 years later Tom Welling still has a Smallville ring. When I watched the podcast, I thought it was the same ring that he'd kept as a memento, but they look different. One is squarish, the other is round. Or is it just the angle in the photos?

But the ring isn't a genuine ruby. The company that sold the rings cut costs by using worthless red meteor rocks instead of rubies. Worthless? As it turns out, they're much more valuable. When Clark puts the ring on it changes his personality. The expression "Bad Clark" has been used for the way he acts, but he isn't really evil. All that happens is that he loses his sense of responsibility. Maybe that really is evil. It's a matter of definition.

As we see in the episode, Clark says and does things that he always thought about, but he was too responsible to act on his thoughts. Maybe too timid as well.

Clark finally makes a move with Lana, the girl he's been pining over for years. He asks her out on a date, and then he pulls her into his arms to kiss her passionately. That's a good thing, isn't it? Lana is surprised by Clark's untypical behaviour, but she likes it.

The trouble is that he's also flirting with the new girl Jessie. Why have one girl when you can have two?

Maybe Jessie is the better match for the new Clark. She shares his lack of responsibility. When Clark takes Lana on the date he's disappointed that Lana doesn't want to drink alcohol – she's only 15 – but Jessie likes to drink. He sends Lana home so he can have fun with Jessie instead.

Clark takes his father's credit card and goes on a spending spree. He says it doesn't matter "because we don't have to pay for it yet". Believe it or not, I have a friend who defends her credit card debts with exactly the same words. In contrast, I use credit cards all the time, but I pay off the balance in full every month. Some people are responsible, some aren't.

When Jonathan tries to talk sense into his son, Clark throws him against his truck. Not hard enough to kill him, of course. That would be really evil. It's only enough to give him a sore back. Pete Ross has to help him stand up.

Back on the farm, Martha has to put an ice pack on her husband's back. This is the first time we get a look at John Schneider's manly naked chest. That's gratuitous semi-nudity for the ladies.

Clark borrows Lex's Ferrari to go on his date. The acting by Michael Rosenbaum is outstanding. He says more with his facial expressions than he could with a long speech. At first he's appreciative of Clark's new assertiveness, but then he realises that something is wrong. He goes to the farm to tell Clark's parents about his concerns. In this episode Lex shows that he's a true friend for Clark.

This is also the episode in which Lionel Luthor first meets Clark. He's suffering from (temporary) blindness, but he realises that there's something special about Clark.

Without going into too many details, Clark is healed in a confrontation with Pete and Jonathan. Pete weakens Clark with green meteor rocks while Jonathan smashes his ring.

In an epilogue, Clark visits Lana to apologise for the way he was acting. It's not a satisfactory apology, as far as Lana is concerned. Clark tells her that he regrets what he did, but he can't tell her why it happened, because he'd need to tell her about his powers. She's disappointed. She thought they could finally have a relationship, but now they're back to way things were before.

The Blu-ray has not one, but two audio commentaries. The first is by Al Gough, Miles Miller and Jeph Loeb, while the second is by Greg Beeman, Tom Welling, Michael Rosenbaum and Kristin Kreuk. There's no date on the commentaries, but they talk about the series as ongoing and frequently mention the third season My guess is that the commentaries were recorded for the season two DVD, which would have been about a year after the episode was made. Everything is still fresh. The cast haven't forgotten the episode yet. In the podcast Tom Welling says that he can't even remember kissing Kristin in the episode. That is so strange. What he does remember is the motorbike scenes. Tom couldn't ride a motorbike, so his stunt double had to alternate with him.

The podcast's special guest is Jeph Loeb, the writer of the episode "Red". This was the first episode he wrote, and he wrote many more episodes as the series continued. Unlike Michael and Tom, he has no trouble remembering his time on the series. Admittedly, he was detached from the filming. He worked in an office in Los Angeles, while the episodes were filmed in Vancouver.

Jeph began his career as a comic book writer. Most of his early work was for DC, and his later work was for Marvel. Interestingly, his mini-series "Superman For All Seasons" was the inspiration for "Smallville". After watching the podcast I read the series, and I can see the influence. It's appropriate that he was asked to write episodes for the series. It was a new experience. This was his first job writing for network television. He had to grow accustomed to the four-act rhythm from one commercial break to the next. Each part had to build up to a semi-climax before the break, and then continue slowly after the break.

Supposedly "Red" is one of the highest rated episodes in the series. I assume they're talking about the IMDB rating. Tom agrees, and he gave this episode the highest rating since the Pilot. Michael disagrees. He says it's a good episode, but not one of the best. Ryan Tellez is somewhere in the middle.

One thing worth pointing out is the excellent acting by Tom Welling in this episode. Each week in the podcast he emphasises that he was a novice actor, not up to the level of the show's other cast. I understand that. However, in "Red" he shows real maturity. He manages to play Clark as a completely different character. It's not just about putting on dark sunglasses; the way he talks and everything else in his personality has changed. He's become a different person.

I apologise for my delay in writing this week's review. I had it all planned out. I scheduled time to watch the episode and the podcast on Friday evening, then write my review before the White Nights Festival. It wasn't until I turned on my Blu-ray player that I saw there were two audio commentaries. That meant an extra 90 minutes, and when I finally finished the podcast it was too late to write anything.

This week the Talon is advertising a monster movie marathon. Is the cinema still operational?

I would have been a regular at the Talon, if only to ogle the beautiful girls. Lana is the waitress, and Chloe is a regular visitor. Oh wait, I forgot they're only 15. I should be ashamed of myself!

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