Smallville 3.08 - Shattered

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The guest stars in this podcast are Al Gough and Miles Millar. It's always a pleasure to see them. Their presence lifts the podcast to a different level. They appeared by video link for 26 minutes in the middle of the podcast.

The regular team is all present. Ryan Tellez has returned from a camping trip with his father.

Tom Welling is back in his main room after having a guest stay with him for four months.

Michael Rosenbaum is chewing gum all the way through the podcast. It's annoying.

There's something special about the episode "Shattered" that nobody mentioned. It's the first episode in the series so far that only tells one single story. What I mean is, there are no subplots.

The episode opens with the return of Morgan Edge, who was seemingly killed in the episode "Phoenix". He's given plastic surgery so that nobody can recognise him. As Al Gough explains in the podcast, this was a last minute addition to the script, because Rutger Hauer didn't have time to appear in the episode. Plastic surgery is a neat way to swap actors. Lex Luthor finds him and forces him at gunpoint to confess to having killed his grandparents. Morgan says that he blew up their building on instructions from Lionel Luthor. That's all that Lex wanted to know. He wants to put his father into jail.

Back in his mansion, someone breaks in through a skylight. He fires a gun at Lex, but as we can see from the erratic red pointer, he's deliberately missing. We see it, but Lex doesn't. His security guard Darius is killed, so Lex dives out of the window. He hides at the Kent farm. Clark isn't even allowed to tell his parents that he's there.

The next day Lionel Luthor comes to the farm, saying that he's looking for Lex. He says that Lex is having a psychotic breakdown and needs help. After Lionel leaves, Clark find Lex singing a lullaby to a rolled blanket, claiming that it's his brother Julian. Clark finds it necessary to inform his parents that Lex is hiding in the barn.

Lex says that he needs to find Morgan Edge to prove he's not crazy. Clark and Lex go to the warehouse where Morgan received plastic surgery, but they find a sweatshop full of illegal immigrants. Then they go to Luthor Mansion, and they find Darius still alive. Lex's psychiatrist, Dr. Claire Foster arrives and attempts to give him a sedative, but he grabs a gun and threatens everyone.

Clark suspects that someone is drugging Lex, so he hides him in the Smallville Stables. He wants to investigate his suspicions, so he asks Lana to look after him. Lex doesn't trust her and throws her into a horse stall, where a horse tramples her.

Clark gives Chloe a sample of the sedative that the doctor wanted to administer, but Chloe has it examined and finds out that it's harmless. Clark goes back to Luthor Mansion and forces Darius to confess. He says that a psychotic drug was put in Lex's scotch.

Lex goes to his father and threatens to shoot him. Lionel says that it was Morgan Edge who drugged him. Lionel gives Lex Morgan's address.

This is the cottage where Morgan is living. Wow! It might be smaller than Luthor Mansion, but it has a lot more style. It's the sort of house where I'd like to live.

An assassin is waiting for Clark at Smallville Stables. Clark overpowers him and forces him to give him Morgan's address.

Lex arrives at Morgan's cottage first and questions him about the drugging. Morgan says it was all Lionel's idea. Morgan wanted to kill Lex, but Lionel said it was better to drug him and drive him insane. Lex is about to shoot Morgan when Clark arrives and saves him. Clark is helpless against Morgan, because he's carrying rosary beads made of kryptonite. Lex shoots Morgan, wounding him, but he's still able to run away. Then he threatens to shoot Clark, thinking he's part of the plot against him. Seeing that Morgan is running away, Lex chases him. Morgan attempts to run Lex over, but Clark stops the car.

Clark blocks the car with his body.

Lex looks on in shock. This is proof that Clark isn't human.

At this moment Claire Foster arrives with two men. Lex tells her what he saw Clark do, but Clark has already left. She tells him he's delusional. because Clark was never there.

And Lex is taken away screaming. This is a tragic scene that almost made me cry. Lex has been declared insane, although we the viewers know that he was drugged. Or maybe he really is insane, but it's the result of the drugs.

Lex ends up in Belle Reve Sanitarium, staring at his reflection in the glass.

Is Claire Foster innocent? No. In the hallway she talks to Lionel Luthor. She promises that as a result of his treatment Lex will lose his short term memory. That seems strange to me. Wouldn't it be more effective to wipe out his long term memory?

Maybe there's just one small subplot. Clark visits Lana in hospital where she's recovering from her injuries. She says that she finally understands it's not safe for her to be close to Clark.

The podcast begins with Michael Rosenbaum sharing pearls of wisdom. Venus is the hottest planet in our solar system, even though Mercury is the closest planet to the Sun. He must have been watching the Discovery Channel. Then he said that it rains diamonds on Uranus and Neptune. That sounded weird, so I looked it up. Michael presents it as a fact, but it's only a hypothesis. Scientists have performed experiments that suggest the atmosphere on the two planets might cause diamond rain, but the phenomenon has never been observed.

Michael remembers the episode quite well, because it was his biggest part in the series so far. It was very demanding for him to play a man who's going mad. One thing that annoyed him was that when Lex threatened his father he wasn't allowed to point the gun at his head. Al Gough said that there were certain absolute rules at the time, and one was that guns should never be pointed at someone's head. Huh? American television is strange. Another rule was that nobody could be shown smoking. Now that's a sensible rule! It was allowed to show someone with a smoking cigarette in his fingers, but it wasn't allowed to be shown in someone's mouth.

Miles Millar highly praised "Smallville". He said that it's a timeless series that will always be popular. He also said that it's better than any Superman films that have been made since. I strongly agree. No actors have ever been better at portraying Superman or Lex Luthor. Miles isn't just making empty boasts, he's absolutely right.

Al Gough and Miles Millar also praised Michael Rosenbaum for his outstanding acting in the episode. He should have been given an Emmy award, but "Smallville" was being broadcast on the CW channel, and nothing on CW was ever given an award. I don't understand that. Quality is quality, or so I thought.

I greatly enjoy the cinematography in this episode. Look at this beautiful scene at the Kent Farm. It's a 22-second scene in which the camera slowly moves down towards the Kents as they're discussing Lex. Beautiful.

And look at this shot of Allison Mack as Chloe Sullivan. It's as if the camera is caressing her face.

In my opinion, this is one of the best episodes so far.

Always hold on to Smallville

and...

Bring back the Blu-rays.