Smallville 2.09 - Dichotic

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The special guest star on this week's podcast is Sarah-Jane Redmond, pictured above, who played Lana Lang's Aunt Nell. She's a week late. Last week's episode, "Ryan", was her last appearance for three years. Nell told Lana she wanted to move to Metropolis with her new husband Dean.  Lana arranged to live with Chloe's family so that she could stay in Smallville and be close to her friends. I don't know how much time has passed in the series, but this week's episode shows Lana moving in with Chloe.

Sarah-Jane's most interesting memory concerns the pilot episode. She appeared with Jade Unterman as the three-year-old Lana Lang crying over the death of her parents. Jade gave a terrific performance, but Michael wanted to know how Jade was able to cry like that. Sarah-Jane remembers it well. One of the crew members showed Jade her favourite doll. Then he took it away and told her she couldn't have it again. That made her cry. Was that cruel? It sounds cruel, but I'm sure her mother was on the set and was able to calm her down afterwards.

The podcast was broadcast on 8th March, but it was recorded on Valentine's Day. That's appropriate, because Michael Rosenbaum used to have a crush on Sarah-Jane Redmond, as he's already mentioned more than once in the podcasts. I'm surprised that she didn't call him out this week. That would have been an interesting conversation, to hear how they feel about one another 20 years later.

This episode's freak-of-the-week is Ian Randall, an ace student at Smallville High. He plans to graduate early and get the Luthor Foundation Scholarship for his further studies. But he has a secret. He has the ability to split himself into two identical selves. These two selves can study at two places at the same time and share their knowledge. How this happens isn't explained in the episode. Do the two selves combine at the end of the day, or does one of them, Ian B,  just wither away? It's left open. Maybe the writers didn't think it through. Maybe they didn't think it was important.

Ian doesn't just use his ability for double-studying, he uses it for double-dating. His two selves date Chloe and Lana at the same time.

Should I boo and hiss at Ian, or be jealous of him? I admit that I'd find it difficult to decide between these two Smallville beauties. Why choose if I could have both of them at the same time?

But Ian goes too far. When they discover his secret (with a little help from Clark Kent) he decides to kill them. Clark arrives on the dam at the last minute and manages to save them. He catches Chloe when she's thrown off the dam, and he pulls Lana back when she's hanging from the dam's railing.

The dam scene was filmed at the Cleveland Dam over the Capilano River, but I don't know how it fits into the geography of Smallville. The town and the surrounding scenery is all flat, so where would a dam fit in? That's a question for experts in Smallville topography. Was a map ever included in the comics?

In a sub-plot, Lex Luthor has a very uncharacteristic outburst of anger. A policeman gives him a parking ticket, so Lex smashes the police car's headlight with a golf club. Nobody in Smallville is above the law, not even someone who employs 2500 people in the town, so he's sent to anger management classes. He gets to know Dr. Helen Bryce, a woman who we'll see more often in upcoming episodes. She's in the classes for drop-kicking an incompetent orderly. Wow! And the hospital didn't fire her?

Jonathan Kent has an accident while working on his tractor. He's angry with his wife for not being there. He says that she's putting her work for Lionel Luthor in front of him.

Clark has designed a giant letter S in his school metalwork class as a new logo for Smallville High. This is one of the infamous Easter Eggs that are strewn through the series. It's the same S that's used on Superman's costume.

It looks okay on the costume because it's encased by a shield, but as a standalone image made of metal it's butt ugly. It breaks every rule of typography. No capital letter would have a slab serif at one end and a bulb at the other. The teacher only awarded Clark a C for his creation. It's bad style.

Lana must still feel sentimental towards Byron from the episode "Nocturne". She's kept his poem in her school locker.

Chloe writes a gushing article about Ian Randall for the Torch. She got so emotional that she had to repeat herself. In the middle of the second paragraph she repeats text from the first paragraph, "But not only does Ian maintain his 4.0, he is also a member of several different extracurricular", etc. That's sloppy.

Here's a photo of Kristin Kreuk as Lana Lang because... do I need a reason? She's beautiful!

The Talkville podcast is financed in part by commercial inserts from companies such as Athletic Greens, Indeed and Betterhelp. Michael and Tom praise these companies to the listeners. If you pay close attention you can tell which products they're genuinely enthusiastic about. They both love their Athletic Greens products. They also seem to be in favour of Betterhelp, an organisation that supplies therapists. Therapy is a big deal in America. Michael says that he, Tom and Ryan all speak to therapists. Later in the podcast Michael tells us how he was treated by his mother, things I'd rather not repeat here, so I can see why he needs therapy.

I'm not against therapy. I had a therapist for eight years after I left hospital. His name was Paul Greaves. If he's reading this, I hope he can leave a message. At first the visits were weekly, but then they were reduced to monthly, and finally even less frequently. I needed help because I was a recluse, with no friends, and I barely left my house. It must have been frustrating for Paul to talk to me, because I never acted on his advice. I didn't make an effort to crawl out of my shell until about three years after he stopped visiting me.

Nevertheless, I'm glad about the therapy I received. The difference is that in England the therapy was free. In America people have to pay for everything.

One of the listeners who called in was Micky from the United States, who wanted to know if a real dam was used in the episode. Yes, it was real, and Tom remembers that Kristin Kreuk was really dangling from the side of the dam, supported by a rig, of course. What I like about Micky is that she used her video question as an opportunity to promote Stan Lee. I love her! She also has a question about Tom Welling's hat written on the wall behind her. Tom should have answered the question.

The Smallville Talon is offering two for one latte specials. Is that an offer for couples? I could drink two myself. I've been publishing snapshots of the Talon signs every week, but if too much footage is reused I might stop. Let's see what happens in future weeks.

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