Smallville 2.12 - Insurgence

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The photo above shows Lieutenant Maggie Sawyer of the Metropolis Police Department. She's in charge of the police force facing a major hostage crisis. That makes her a strong woman. She's a character from the Superman comics, who first appeared in comics written in the 1980's. Unfortunately, she was only featured in a few Smallville episodes. I felt that they could have made more of her, especially in the last few seasons.

"Insurgence" opens with a beautiful shot of Lex Luthor sitting at his desk, trying to remain calm while seething inside. He's just lost a $150 million contract. He was underbid by his father at the last moment. This is something I don't quite understand in the series. Lionel Luthor is the head of Luthorcorp, whereas Lex is only in charge of a fertilizer plant. Isn't Lex still a Luthorcorp employee? What are the circumstances where they'd bid against one another? The podcast often doesn't answer my questions.

Lex wants to know how his father gained the information he needed to win the deal. He's convinced that he must have had inside information. First he suspects his assistant, but instead of firing him he orders him to find out what happened. Evidently Lex wasn't satisfied with his results, because we never see him again after this episode. When the assistant leaves the room, Lex snaps. We see the same fit of rage that he showed three weeks ago in the episode "Dichotic". He throws his computer off his desk. It looks like an expensive piece of equipment, and computers cost more 20 years ago, but it's nothing compared to the money he lost by losing the contract. It's just a useless temper tantrum. Although in this case, it's not so useless. Lex also knocked a plant over, and when he picks it up he sees a listening device attached to it. His office is bugged. He runs round his office, smashing things and ripping things off the wall, and he finds several bugs.

In the podcast Michael Rosenbaum complains about this scene. He says it's out of character for Lex Luthor to lose his temper, because he's always perfectly calm. I disagree. A person who's calm might just be suppressing his anger, so the longer he's calm the more violent his eventual outburst will be. I've been a calm person all my life, but I remember that when I was at school I meditated in order to remain calm. When I was 21 my mother left home, and I snapped. I smashed my bedroom window with a lamp. That was the anger that I'd been keeping pent up for years. Was it out of character? So it might seem to an onlooker, but the anger had been inside me for years, so it was part of my true character. I've never had an outburst like this since. Is it possible that it'll happen again? I don't know. It would have to be something extreme to push me so far. I don't meditate any more; calmness has become part of my personality.

When he's cooled down, Lex takes revenge in the Luthor fashion. He hires a company to plant bugs in Lionel Luthor's office in Luthorcorp, on a Sunday when the office is closed. On this very Sunday, his father is visiting the office with Martha Kent. This causes arguments in the Kent household. It's Jonathan and Martha's wedding anniversary, but Martha says she has to go because it's important business. At Luthorcorp Lionel offers Martha her own office, which she thankfully declines, because it's too far from home.

He proceeds to hand Martha a wristwatch. I have no idea what brand it is, but it looks very valuable. I thought companies only give their employees a watch like this when they retire.

But look at the inscription on the back. It looks like a romantic gift.

Martha doesn't want the gift, but Lionel tries to win her over with his charm, gently caressing her hands. Today that would be called sexual harassment, but Lionel gets away with it. She gently but firmly turns him down, even when he appeals to her intellect by saying she's a woman whose abilities are wasted on a farm.

The company planting the bugs is already in Luthorcorp. Clark visits Lex and tells him that Lionel and Martha are in the building, so Lex rings the company and tells them to leave immediately. It's a four man task force. The group's leader is a professional, as far as industrial spies can be professional. He tells his team they have to pack up and leave. But they rebel against him. They say that they didn't just come to Luthorcorp to plant bugs. They're in the office of one of the richest men in America, so they want to rob him. They begin to burn open the safe, while one of them is searching the building. He finds Lionel and Martha and brings them to the others.

Lionel calls the police with a panic button. It's what every blind man needs. This doesn't stop them. They continue to work on the safe even as they hear the police sirens below. They have Lionel Luthor as a hostage, so they feel confident they'll win riches beyond measure.

Finally they break into the safe. You can see the disappointment on their faces. Lionel had told them they wouldn't find anything of value, but they didn't believe him. There's no money, and there are no jewels.

All they find are piles of bars with a green glow. Evidently Lionel has been gathering and refining the meteor rocks. Why? At this point of time he had no way of knowing what they could do. He probably had a feeling they might be considered valuable one day, so he collected them in advance. Naturally, the robbers consider them to be worthless junk.

There are a pile of files in the safe. The robbers throw them on the floor in frustration. Martha notices that the top file is about her son. How long has Lionel been investigating him?

The safe also contains the octagonal piece of metal that was first found by Dr. Hamilton in the episode "Obscura". It's changed hands a few times. I didn't realise that Lionel Luthor now has it. The robbers ask Lionel what it is, but he's blind and can't see what they're holding in front of him. Martha knows exactly what it is; it's the key to the spaceship that brought Clark to Earth. She plays dumb and just says it's an octagonal piece of metal, which was already obvious to everyone. Lionel says that it's a worthless keepsake, but the ringleader Pine puts it in his pocket.

Clark super-speeds his way to Metropolis. He sees a way into the Luthorcorp building, but before he can use it he's stopped by Lieutenant Maggie Sawyer. She tells him to leave the operation to the police, because any intervention by civilians could lead to the hostages being shot. Clark sees another possibility. He can leap from the top of the adjacent Daily Planet building onto (or into) the Luthorcorp building. He's never attempted a jump like that before, but it's worth the try to save his mother.

Meanwhile, Lex is on the phone with Pine. He asks about the contents of the safe. When Pine mentions the octagon, Lex tells Pine there's a secret elevator down to a tunnel that leads to a garage three blocks away. He'll pay a million dollars for the contents of the safe. Lionel overhears the conversation, but doesn't recognise Lex, because he's speaking through a voice box and calling himself Mr. Green. Lionel doubles the offer. Pine accepts Lionel's offer, because he knows who Lionel Luthor is, but he doesn't know who the anonymous person on the other end of the phone is. I'm sure that Lionel suspects Lex by this point, but he doesn't make any accusations.

Clark breaks in, but he collapses when he's near the meteor rocks. Martha pushes the trolley with the rocks back into safe. Clark easily overcomes the gang members. Lionel shoots Pine dead. It's a good shot for a blind man. Martha whispers to Clark that he should set the files on fire. Whatever Lionel has written about Clark, nobody should be allowed to read it.

When the police break in, Maggie is surprised to see Clark, but she doesn't say anything. I really like Maggie. She's a strong, no-nonsense woman. She doesn't even let herself be intimidated by Lex Luthor. In the comics she's a lesbian, but that wasn't possible in "Smallville". Television wasn't as progressive as comics 20 years ago.

In the confusion, Martha takes the octagonal piece of metal. She takes it home and hides it in a tin of flour, not telling anyone about it, not even her husband.

Martha no longer trusts Lionel, now that she knows he's been doing research about Clark. She even suspects that he only hired her to find out more about Clark, but I doubt that's the case. Lionel truly respects her intelligence and business sense, and it looks like he wants more from her. She wants to resign, but Jonathan tells her to continue working for Lionel so she can find out just how much he knows about Clark.

There's no guest star on the podcast this week, but Al Gough is on the phone with Michael for six minutes. He watches the podcast every week, just like me. There's a question whether Smallville is named after the family of Henry Small, Lana Lang's biological father. Al doesn't directly answer the question, but he says that he originally intended Henry's ancestor to be one of Smallville's founding fathers. He never followed it up.

Two weeks ago it was Tom. This week Michael says he watched the episode on his phone. Tom tells Michael that "Smallville" was made to be watched on a large screen. Isn't that the pot calling the kettle green?

There was some discussion as to whether Lionel Luthor is really blind. It seems so, even though he managed a perfect shot against Pine. Judging by his acting, I'd say he's still blind, though it's possible that his sight is gradually returning. Maybe he can see light and shadows.

This is a really good episode. After watching it I thought to myself, "If Michael Rosenbaum shits on this episode I'll write and complain". I needn't have worried. He gave "Insurgence" the highest rose'n'bomb rating since the pilot. I think that "Insurgence" is better than the pilot, but that's just my personal opinion.

And there are half price lattes in the Talon this week. I'll drink two!

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