Smallville 3.10 - Whisper

I like this scene at the beginning of the episode with Clark Kent standing below an American flag. It's very appropriate. Despite not being human and only being an American by an illegal adoption, Superman is always considered a symbol of American patriotism.

He's standing looking through the window of the Smallville Jewellers. It's a shame that Americans have never learnt how to spell correctly. There are two L's in jewellery. Don't forget it.

Oops! I almost forgot something as well:

Click here to watch the podcast.

Now to the rest of the review. This episode returns to the freak-of-the-week format. Clark goes into the shop to buy a gift for his mother. The friendly jeweller – note the spelling! – recommends a pendant made of green meteor rock. Not a good idea. Clark backs away. At this point there's a robbery. A young man called Nathan Dean enters the store, while his partner, Walt Masterson, waits outside. Nathan has the ability to create a sonic boom which deafens everyone and shatters the showcases. Even Clark is momentarily stunned. Walt walks in and threatens everyone with a shotgun. Clark fires heat beams at Walt's gun in small blasts. Walt drops his gun, but the green pendant is flying through the air, and one blast is reflected back at Clark's eyes, blinding him. The jeweller pulls out a gun, and Walt surrenders while Nathan slips away unnoticed.

Everyone is pessimistic about the blindness. Clark's parents assume he'll be blind for the rest of his life. Clark isn't willing to see an eye doctor, for obvious reasons.

When Clark returns to school something strange happens. Everything around him is loud, deafening him. But he can hear a telephone call by Chloe with Lionel Luthor in the Torch office, so there's some differentiation of the sounds, even if Clark can't control it. Back at the farm, Clark can practise. He turns on all the farm equipment to make a racket. His father whispers words to him from a few feet away. Clark hears him.

This isn't just a temporary compensation for his loss of sight. It's a new power, super-hearing, which has been triggered by the blindness.

Clark goes for a walk in the fields. Pete finds him, and they begin to talk, but they're interrupted by the arrival of Nathan. Nathan does his sonic boom, stunning both youngsters. He kidnaps Pete.

Sheriff Nancy is called to the farm to discuss the incident. Clark can't identify the assailant because of his blindness.

In walks Abigail Ross, Pete's mother. She's also Smallville's judge. We've never seen her before this episode, but she's often been mentioned. She says that she's received a phone call telling her that Pete will be killed unless she dismisses the charges against Walt.

The next day Jonathan and Clark go to the Talon to ask if there's any news about Pete. Clark waits in the truck while his father goes in. Lana sees Clark and gets into the truck. She tells him that she'll always be around if he needs a friend. Clark misunderstands her. He says that he's always pushed her away because he was dangerous for her, and he puts his hand on hers. Not cool. What he's saying is "I didn't want you before, but now that I'm blind I need you to look after me". She pulls her hand away and tells him that she's met someone else. She's referring to Adam Knight, who she met in the clinic last episode.

Clark recognises the sound of the tow truck that Nathan drives. He climbs onto the back, and it drives to the scrapyard where Pete is being held prisoner. As a blind man he's no match for Nathan. Nathan knocks off Clark's sunglasses and waves a blowtorch in his face. Clark collapses, and Nathan takes Pete to another location. When he recovers, Clark finds that his sight is returning, probably as a result of the heat in front of his eyes.

At the courthouse, Clark overhears a telephone conversation between Walt and Nathan. He says that Pete will be a piece of junk after the trial. There was never any intention to free him. Clark races to the scrapyard, finding Pete in the trunk of a car in the crushing machine. Nathan stuns Clark, who falls back against a pile of cars. The cars fall onto Nathan, killing him. This gives Clark a chance to rescue Pete.

The next scene is Pete in the Talon boasting about how he escaped. I'm assuming that he rang the courthouse to say he was out of danger. We don't need everything to be explained.

Subplots? "Smallville" always has them. Almost always. In the above mentioned phone call with Chloe and Lionel Luthor we heard Lionel saying that Lex would be given a job at Luthorcorp, but his only authority would be sharpening pencils. Clark told Lex what he'd heard, without naming the source. Then Lex challenged his father about this, also not naming the source. So the information was going round and round. Lionel calls Chloe to his office and accuses her of telling Lex about the conversation. She denies it, but Lionel takes revenge on her. She's sacked from the column she writes for the Daily Planet, and her father is sacked from his job at Luthorcorp.

Unlike the last two episodes, I didn't get much out of listening to the podcast. There wasn't anything Michael and Tom said that I didn't know already. There's just one small thing: Tom said that he watched the episode on a plane. That means he watched it on his phone. That's not the way to watch "Smallville". He should be sitting at home on a comfortable sofa watching each episode on a large screen.

Always hold on to Smallville

and...

Bring back the Blu-rays.