Smallville 3.03 - Extinction

Click here to watch the podcast.

I have a complaint about this week's podcast. It was made without Tom Welling. Supposedly there was a family matter at short notice, so he couldn't take part. Things like that can happen, but I think the podcast should have been postponed instead of carrying on without him. Smallville fans would have understood.

Ryan Tellez stepped up and became the anchor-man number two, but it's not the same. The Smallville podcast is all about the two main actors, Tom Welling and Michael Rosenbaum. Without them, i.e. without both of them, it's just not the same.

But let's get to the episode. It's the first day of the hew year at Smallville High. Clark and his friends are now juniors, which means they're aged 16 to 17 for the rest of this season.

Lovestruck teenager Jake Pollen has heard that Lana Lang has broken up with Clark Kent, so he plucks up the courage to approach her. He says Hi to her, and all he gets back is a disinterested Hi as she drives off. Without actually turning him down, she's made it clear that he stands no chance with her. A normal young man would swallow his pride and look for another girl, someone who isn't out of his league. Not Jake. If he can't have Lana, nobody can.

That evening Lana goes to the school's swimming pool for a swim. Wow! She's way out of my league as well. I had girlfriends when I was 16, but none of them were as beautiful as Kristin Kreuk. But why is she swimming by herself? Does she have special privileges for after-school activities?

What Lana doesn't know is that Jake is sitting on the bottom of the pool, apparently able to breathe under water. He grabs her leg and pulls her down. She might have died, but an unseen figure shoots him. Before Lana has a chance to thank her rescuer, he throws a piece of meteor rock into the pool on which the word "Freak" is written.

Clark speaks to Jake's best friend, Van McNulty, to ask what his motives are, but he doesn't get any clues. Van only speaks about his father, a war hero who was recently murdered.

Lana and Chloe both think that the mystery shooter was a hero, but Clark isn't convinced. He thinks Lana could have been saved without killing Jake. Chloe reveals that she suspected Jake was a meteor freak. She'd been keeping a file on him. The coroner's report confirms it by revealing that he had gills. Talking with Clark, she puts two and two together, although poorly written dialogue hides the reason for their conclusions.

This news report says that Van McNulty was bludgeoned to death, and the suspect is known to the police, but he isn't named. Chloe talks about Van wanting revenge for his father's murder, but it doesn't make sense. What the episode doesn't mention is that we saw Mr. McNulty's death in a previous episode. He was killed by the shapeshifter Tina Greer in the episode "Visage". That makes it all obvious. Van is seeking revenge on meteor freaks in general.

Clark takes Pete Ross to Van's hunting cabin. They find a large armoury, much more than a typical hunter would own, and information that's been stolen from Chloe's computer. There are files on proven and suspected meteor freaks, including Jake Pollen. The next person in the list is Lex Luthor, suspected because he has an abnormal white blood cell count and is seemingly immune to illness. Clark rushes to Metropolis just as Van McNulty is attempting to assassinate Lex. Clark catches the bullet, which is witnessed by Van. Clark catches Van, but in the struggle meteor rocks fall out of his rucksack, making Clark collapse. Van realises that this is Clark's weakness.

That evening Van smelts meteor rocks to make kryptonite bullets. The next day he lies in wait at the Kent Farm to attack Clark. When the bullet is fired, Clark instinctively tries to catch it, but it pierces his hand and buries itself in his shoulder. Van leaves, assuming Clark is dead. Jonathan Kent manages to pull the bullet out with pliers. Clark rapidly heals.

Van goes to the Talon and tells Lana he's the one who saved her life. He tells her that he's also killed Clark for her own good. The only person worse than a meteor freak, he says, is someone who loves a meteor freak. She rings the police to report Clark's death, after which Van takes her prisoner.

Sheriff Nancy Adams visits the farm and finds Clark alive and well. "The rumours of your death have been greatly exaggerated, Mr. Kent".

Clark knows that Van carries a police scanner, so he uses a police radio to tell Van that he's still alive and wants to meet him at the school. Van says he'll use a whole clip of bullets to kill Clark. At the school Van fires bullets at Clark, but they don't harm him because he's wearing a bulletproof vest made out of lead. Van is arrested and taken to a mental asylum.

In a subplot, Chloe Sullivan tells Lionel Luthor that she no longer wants to do research on Clark Kent for him. He tells her that if she stops working for him she'll fire her father. Lionel is the real bad guy in the series, much worse than Lex.

Lana visits Clark at the farm and tells him that even if he were in some way infected by the meteor rocks, she'd still stand by him. Silly, silly Clark. He could have used this to reveal his secret to her. She's someone he can trust completely. But he backs away again. She's the right girl for him.

In the podcast Michael Rosenbaum calls "Extinction" a freak-of-the-week episode. He's wrong. Van McNulty isn't a freak, he's a normal man. If anything, he's a non-freak-of-the-week. I'm sure Tom would have contradicted Michael, if he'd been there.

Let's hope Tom is back next week.

Always hold on to Smallville.

	Order from Amazon.com
	Order from Amazon.co.uk
	Order from Amazon.de