Smallville 3.01 - Exile

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It's been a long wait. The season two finale was discussed five weeks ago. I thought I'd miss a few weeks while I was on holiday and have to catch up when I returned, but the podcast was suspended while I was in England.

Season two ended on a cliffhanger, or should I say two cliffhangers? Clark Kent left Smallville, wearing his red kryptonite ring. Lex Luthor was in an airplane that was hurtling downwards over the ocean. It's been at least 15 years since I watched these episodes on DVD, so I couldn't remember what happened next. The suspense was killing me, but I waited patiently to continue watching when Tom and Michael resumed their podcast.

Imagine my shock when the episode began with the words "Three months later". I expected an immediate transition like the one between the first two seasons. What's happened in these three months? Clark is living in a luxury apartment in Metropolis, financed by a life of crime. We see him stealing money from ATMs to buy a Lamborghini for $240,000 which he gives to a nightclub doorman a few hours later. Clark just doesn't care. As long as he's wearing the ring he has no sense of responsibility.

Lex Luthor has been living on a small island for the last three months, accompanied only by another shipwrecked man called Lewis. Or so we think. After an argument Lex kills Lewis, but then realises that Lewis never existed. He was just a figment of his imagination. I've been told that prolonged isolation combined with a poor diet can lead to strong hallucinations, but I can't imagine what it would be like. I've never been in such a situation, fortunately.

After three months of searching in vain for the plane's wreckage, Lionel Luthor assumes that his son is dead and a funeral is held for him. We're shocked to see that Lex's wife Helen is at the funeral. We assumed that she was also lost, because she was in the plane with Lex last episode, shortly before it crashed.

We should have known that she'd be at the funeral. There was a spoiler in the first minutes of the episode. There was a newspaper lying in the road with an article about Lex's funeral. Below the headline it's written, "He is survived by his newly wed wife Doctor Helen Bryce and his father Lionel Luthor". That text is hardly legible even on Blu-ray, so I doubt anyone noticed it when it was on television 20 years ago.

Shortly after the funeral Lionel and Helen meet in the Luthor Mansion. Lionel mocks Helen for saying that she fell asleep in the plane and woke up to find the pilot had left the plane, leaving only one parachute; Lex told her to use the parachute. We already know from watching the last episode that this isn't true. This shows us that Helen was in some way responsible for an attempt on Lex's life, but it isn't clear to what extent Lionel was involved. He seems to be talking innocently, but he's not overly concerned about losing his son. The only thing he admits is that he was paying Helen to spy on Lex. I hope that this is resolved in next week's episode, because it's not something I'd like to be left open for months.

One thing I don't like is the change in Helen since last season. She always seemed sincere, genuinely in love with Lex. Now she's cold-hearted and hypocritical. She wears black at the funeral, but on the way home she goes on a big shopping spree. She's a completely different woman. Yes, she was faking her affection for Lex in the second season, but there were no clues.

One person who hasn't changed is Lana Lang. She's spent months trying to find where Clark has gone. She's at the funeral grieving for Lex. She doesn't need to put on mourning clothes, she shows her feelings through her face.

What about Chloe Sullivan? She's not been completely honest, but we can forgive her. She missed Clark when he left Smallville, and she tried her best to find him. She has greater investigative skill than Lana, so she found him after a month. Clark threatened her, saying that if she told anyone, even his parents, where he lived, he'd leave Metropolis and move so far away that nobody would ever find him.

Now that Clark has gone, his parents' farm has gone bankrupt. They're planning to move into a small apartment. But how can they survive? How can they make money without a farm? Maybe they've received enough money to get by for a few years.

There's no lack of action in Metropolis. A bank is robbed by men in clown masks. Clark bursts in and stops the robbery. Is he the city's new super-hero? Hardly. He walks out of the bank with the money. The police try to stop him, but what can they do against a man who's bulletproof?

The police are led by Captain Maggie Sawyer. She was an underused character in the series. This is the first time we've seen her since the episode "Insurgence". In the comics she played a more important role.

Clark gets even more action at night. He's a regular at the nightclub Atlantis, and he's with a different woman every night. This is his latest conquest, if you can call it that. It's hinted that he never takes girls home. He just enjoys the thrill of teasing and kissing. Is Tom Welling using his tongue? Probably not, it would be unprofessional.

But Clark is having problems. The symbol that was burnt onto his chest in the last episode sporadically starts to glow, hurting him. My guess is that it's a side effect of prolonged exposure to red kryptonite, because whenever it happens he takes off the ring. Not for long. A few hours later he puts it on again. It gives him a rush that he can't do without.

Morgan Edge is the owner of Atlantis, and he's also the boss of the clowns whose bank robbery Clark interrupted. Is that a coincidence? Probably. Morgan says he's the biggest crime boss in Metropolis and he appreciates Clark's abilities. He wants Clark to steal a box from a vault on the 60th floor of the Luthorcorp Tower. No information is given as to what's in it, but it must be worth a lot, based on the amount Morgan is willing to pay.

Chloe finally breaks down and tells Lana where she can find Clark. Lana asks Clark to return to Smallville, but he refuses and says she can stay with him instead. They share a kiss in Atlantis. It seems cooler than his kisses with his random lovers. Definitely no tongue.

Lana rings Jonathan Kent to tell him where Clark is. Jonathan realises that it would be too difficult to bring Clark back home, so he takes the octagonal key to the Kawatche caves, hoping to be able to speak to Jor-El. He can't find the slot for the key, so he throws it on the ground in frustration. It rises and is sucked into the wall. Jonathan asks Jor-El for help bringing Clark back. The two come to an agreement, although we aren't yet told the terms of their deal.

Jonathan goes to Metropolis and interrupts Clark while he's breaking into the Luthorcorp vault. Clark throws his father at the wall, but Jonathan has evidently been given super speed and strength by Jor-El. Jonathan pushes Clark out of the window, and the two men fall together.

It's good to see the Talkville podcast team back in the studio. I missed them over the last five weeks. Watching the episode and listening to the podcast has become an important part of my weekly schedule.

Welcome back, Michael, forever single. He says that his sister has been married and divorced four times. That's enough to put any man off marriage.

Welcome back, Ryan, as pensive as ever.

Welcome back, Tom, participating by video link from California. He was only ever in the studio for the pilot episode. It would be good to see him back in the New York studio again.

There's no guest star in this week's podcast, but Michael speaks to Al Gough on the phone for seven minutes. The main topic is Allison Mack's hair. She turned up to play Chloe with a new hairstyle. This was unexpected, and Al admits that he was annoyed with her for making changes to her appearance without consulting him first. Personally, I don't see what the problem is. If you look back over the the last two years, she frequently changed her hairstyle from one episode to the next. The problem for Al was probably that she cut her hair shorter, but I still don't think it's a big deal. There was a three month gap in the story, which is enough time for any changes.

Twice in the podcast the message is flashed onto the screen, "This episode was recorded before the SAG-AFTRA strike". Why is that relevant? I thought it was an actors strike, not a podcasters strike. Or is it a union thing? I hope there won't be an enforced delay in future episodes of the podcast.

Always hold on to Smallville.

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Smallville 2.23 - Exodus

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It was difficult for me to pick a suitable photo to headline this post. So much happens in this episode. There are quiet scenes and chaotic scenes, there are romantic scenes and intrigues. It's the season two finale, and it lives up to its expectations. In the end I picked this romantic photo of Clark and Lana. It's the calm before the storm.

It's good to see them so happy after two years of teetering on the brink of a relationship.

The only witnesses of the romantic moment are their horses.

But even the horses look away when their lips lock in a passionate kiss.

Just how passionate is the kiss? In the podcast Michael Rosenbaum says that they were sticking their tongues down each other's throats. Ugh! When he describes it like that, all the romance is gone. I think it's wishful thinking on his part. I don't see any tongues, not even in the close ups.

Tom Welling can't remember using his tongue to kiss Kristin Kreuk. Not that it means anything. He never remembers any of his kisses. I think his mind has blocked them out.

This week's special guest is Kristin Kreuk herself, in her second guest appearance after "Cool" last August. She watched the episode before appearing today. Her exact words were:

"I don't remember the scenes, I don't remember the storylines, I barely remember being on set, I don't remember the outfits, I don't remember anything. It's crazy. How did that happen?"

But does she remember the kiss? No, but she's certain that she didn't use her tongue. She says that it would have been unprofessional.

But all this talk about kissing is getting ahead of myself. Last week's episode ended on a cliff-hanger. A voice called to Clark from the storm cellar, telling him "Kal-El, it is time".  At the beginning of this episode we see that the voice is emanating from the space ship. It's the voice of Jor-El, Clark's father. His thoughts and his memories have been stored in the ship. He tells Clark that by sunset the next day he has to leave Smallville to follow his destiny. Clark refuses, but he's told he doesn't have a choice.

The next morning Clark goes riding with Lana, which leads to the romantic scene at the beginning of this post. Maybe Clark is afraid that this is his last chance to be with Lana.

The official church service for the wedding of Lex Luthor and Helen Bryce is due to take place the next day. Or is it? Lex confesses to Helen that he broke into her office to steal Clark's blood sample. He wants to break the cycle of deceit and be completely truthful. This revelation is too big for Helen to simply forgive him. She says the wedding is off and walks out. Fortunately she returns at the last moment, so the wedding doesn't have to be cancelled.

Shortly before sunset, Clark returns to the storm cellar. He tells the spaceship that he refuses to leave Smallville. The ship burns the symbol of Clark's ancestors onto his chest and tells him he only has until noon the next day to change his mind. If Clark stays, everyone he cares for will suffer.

The next day Clark shows his best friend Pete Ross the symbol and tells him that the only chance he has to escape his destiny is to destroy the spaceship. The spaceship's key is the same shape and size as the key for the wall in the Kawatche caves. Lionel Luthor has made a new key from refined Kryptonite. When his parents leave for Lex's wedding, Clark tells them that he has to do something first. He doesn't have much time, and he's the best man! Clark steals the Kryptonite key and inserts it in the spaceship.

There's a huge explosion. It destroys the spaceship, the storm cellar and the surrounding buildings. Luckily the farmhouse itself is outside the blast radius. Jonathan and Martha are returning home to look for Clark. Their truck is thrown into a ditch by the blast. They only have minor injuries, but Martha loses her baby. 

When Clark visits his parents in hospital, Jonathan blames him for the accident and the loss of the baby. Clark sees this as a fulfilment of Jor-El's threat that the ones he love will suffer. He steals a red school ring from Chloe's office at the Torch. It's the red meteor ring that takes away Clark's inhibitions. We saw it previously in "Red" and "Rush". Why does Clark want the ring? The logical answer is that it acts as an intoxicating drug. When he's under the ring's influence nothing matters to him, it's like he's in a trance.

Lana finds Clark standing in the ruins of the storm cellar before he leaves.

Clark pushes Lana away. She appeals to him for the sake of their love, but he insists that he's too dangerous for her.

This scene contains the best acting I've seen by Tom Welling and Kristin Kreuk in the series so far. They're both totally convincing in their roles.

Look at Kristin's face. We can read the heartbreak in her eyes. It's amazing that she can no longer remember this scene. In the podcast she said that she recognised herself, but it was like she was looking at a different person in a different world.

Clark slips on his ring and he rides away on his bike.

Tom Welling says that he didn't like the dark glasses because they made him look stupid. He's wrong, completely wrong. They're a symbol of his different personality. Apart from that, they make him look like Arnold Schwarzenegger in the Terminator films. This is the effect that Greg Beeman wanted as director, and it succeeds.

This shot as Clark drives off is such a beautiful scene that I'd like to frame it and hang it on my wall. It says so much without words.

And look at Lana's face. once more it's brilliant acting by Kristin Kreuk.

As Clark rides his motorbike towards Metropolis, he hears Jor-El's voice calling him. Destroying the spaceship wasn't enough to escape from him.

There's a dramatic turn at the end of the episode. Lex and Helen are flying away to their honeymoon in a private plane. Lex falls asleep. When he wakes up the plane is descending fast. Helen has gone, and the pilot has also disappeared. I watched these episodes 15 years ago, but I've forgotten what happened next. I felt tempted to watch the first episode of the third season straight away, but no... I'll wait till next week. Actually, not next week. On Monday I'm going on holiday for three weeks, and I shan't continue to watch "Smallville" until I return. The suspense is killing me.

There's a small but important subplot. In last week's episode Chloe Sullivan refused to investigate Clark for Lionel Luthor. After this she saw Clark and Lana kissing, but in this episode both Clark and Lana insist that they're only good friends. Chloe is so disappointed with them that she returns to Lionel and offers to do the investigation he wants. Is her love turning to hate? I'll find out the answer three weeks from now. Holidays suck!

In the podcast Kristin said that she never liked the love triangle, and when appearing in new television series she always insisted that there wouldn't be another love triangle. She says that it makes women look weak to see them fighting over the same man. Michael Rosenbaum has said similar things, and they both don't get it. Lana and Chloe aren't women, they're schoolgirls. At the start of the first season they were 14, and now they're 16. Young love isn't rational. I believe the roles were played perfectly.

Kristin points out a personal problem with the love triangle. It made her unpopular with many female fans. They took the side of either Lana or Chloe, and they hated the other one. When Kristin says fans, I assume she means young fans. Teenage girls. They weren't being rational when they blamed Kristin for breaking Chloe's heart, or when they blamed Allison Mack for breaking Lana's heart. They were getting the characters and the actresses mixed up.

In the podcast Michael Rosenbaum pointed out a mistake that I missed while watching the episode. Clark roars off on his motorbike in his Terminator gear, made reckless by the red meteor rock ring, but if you watch the road markings you can see that he's only driving slowly. Michael estimates that he's driving about 15 mph. He should have been driving at least 100 mph, an easy feat for Clark's stunt double Chris Sayour.

When Kristin appeared as a guest star last year I criticised the quality of her webcam. She must have read my blog, because she's upgraded now. Her new webcam is every bit as good as Tom's new webcam, and it's better quality than the webcams Michael uses in his studio. A beautiful woman like Kristin should be shown off. She was beautiful 20 years ago, and she's still beautiful now.

Tom Welling seemed to be showing some relief that he's got to the end of the second season. Didn't he think he'd make it? Up until now Tom and Michael have recorded 47 podcasts. There were only 44 episodes, but the first season finale was split into two podcasts, and there were two "Best Of" podcasts before the second season began. Unless there's a nuclear war, they should be able to finish the series within the next four years. I'll be watching all the episodes with them and following their podcasts.

Always hold on to Smallville.

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Smallville 2.22 - Calling

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This episode features the return of the linguist Dr. Walden. I didn't expect to see him again after he was blasted by the cave drawings in the episode "Rosetta". The experience rendered him catatonic, an information overload. I wonder sometimes how much the show runners, Al Gough and Miles Millar, planned in advance. When they wrote "Rosetta", did they already know that Dr. Walden would return five episodes later?

The episode has a few intertwining stories, each so important that they can hardly be called subplots. I'll describe them individually, rather than giving a play-by-play of the episode.

When Dr. Walden wakes up, he's obviously mentally unhinged, but he's also gained knowledge. First he rambles on that "The day is coming", and he's written this sentence repeatedly on the ceiling in Kryptonian. He can not only read Kryptonian, he can write it. He fires a ray blast from his hand that breaks the glass of the room where he's being held for examination. He returns to the Kawatche caves to examine the symbols again. With another ray blast the symbols rearrange themselves to form new information: "The day is coming when the last son will begin his quest to rule the third planet". He recognises that the last son is Clark Kent, and he sees it as his duty to kill him.

Clark hears a ringing in his head that tells him someone is tampering with the spaceship's octagonal key. He rushes to the farm and finds Dr. Walden holding it in his hand. Dr. Walden says that he has to kill Clark before he goes too far, and he fires handblasts at him.

The rays are even strong enough to lift Clark from the ground, and they obviously hurt. Clark defends himself with his heat vision. When Dr. Walden fires again he misses Clark and hits a gas tank, causing an explosion that kills him.

Let's not be too harsh on Dr. Walden. He thought of himself as a hero, defending the Earth against an alien conqueror. Even Clark has expressed doubts in himself. His parents have faith in him that his good upbringing will lead him to make the right choices.

Lionel Luthor visits Chloe at school to tell her that he's arranged for her to write a weekly column for the Daily Planet. In return he wants her to do research for him on Clark Kent. Chloe refuses. Lionel is impressed with her loyalty to Clark, but he obviously won't give up.

Chloe still has feelings for Clark, and she fondly treasures the photos that were taken at the Spring Formal in the episode "Tempest". She knows that Clark loves Lana, but she still thinks she has a chance with him. In the podcast Michael Rosenbaum says that this annoys him and she should move on. Evidently he's forgotten what it was like to be 16. When a young person is in love, he or she isn't rational.

When visiting his fiancée at the hospital, Lex finds Helen's office has been ransacked. The only thing that's missing is Clark Kent's blood sample that was taken in the episode "Lineage". After this she drives to the farm to tell Jonathan Kent what's happened. She says that she kept the blood in case Clark ever became sick, but it wasn't labelled, so nobody else could connect it with Clark. She accuses Jonathan of stealing it, but he blames Lex. She defends Lex, saying that he's not like that.

Is Helen really sure about Lex? Back at the mansion, she searches his desk and finds the confidential medical report about Martha Kent and her pregnancy. She begins to suspect Lex, but he says he didn't do it. Later in the episode we see that Lex has Clark's blood sample.

So how did Lex know that Helen had Clark's blood? She never told him. Has he been spying on her?

It's the wedding of Lex Luthor and Dr. Helen Bryce. He hasn't invited his father to the wedding, so he asks Jonathan and Martha Kent to sit in the place where the bridegroom's parents would traditionally sit. Clark is asked to be best man. I understand this, because Lex and Clark are close friends, but it must have seemed strange to the guests that a multi-millionaire businessman would pick a 16-year-old schoolboy as his best man. Clark makes a short but profound speech.

"I think Lex picked me to be the best man because he knew how comfortable I was speaking in front of people. I've been looking through every book from Socrates to Shakespeare, trying to find someone who can put into words the way Lex and Helen feel about each other. But what I realised is, there are no words for it, that when you have it, you trust it. You believe in it. You take a chance on it. You're willing to sacrifice anything to keep it, no matter the cost".

These words are soaked up by Lex and Helen, but Lana takes the speech to heart, applying it to her own feelings about Clark.

At the beginning of the episode Lana brought Clark a birthday cake, seven minutes before midnight, so that she could be the first person to celebrate his birthday with him. Clark says that it's not really his birthday, it's just a random day his adoptive parents have picked. Lana says that it's still an important day, because they're celebrating the day he came into their lives. In the comics Clark's birthday is 29th February, but this isn't verified in the series. Is it possible that in the series Clark's pseudo-birthday is the day of the meteor shower?

Clark says he doesn't need to blow out the candles and make a wish. He's been wishing the same thing every day since he was five, but now the girl he wants is standing in front of him. They kiss passionately.

So they live happily ever after? Not quite. The next day in the Talon, Lana says that it was a mistake. They need to take things slower. Clark turns to Lex for advice, and he's encouraged to make another attempt.

Clark talks to Lana while she's out riding Donatello. She still feels unsure about what she wants. It isn't until she hears Clark's wedding speech that she realises that she has to hold on to what she has with Clark.

Lana visits Clark after the wedding to tell him how she feels. They share another passionate kiss. Tom Welling was actually paid for this? What they don't know is that Chloe is in the barn watching them.

At the end of the episode, after Lana leaves, Clark hears a voice calling him. A bright light is shining out of the storm cellar. The voice tells him, "Kal-El, it is time".

And the episode ends with the ominous words "To be continued". Next week is the season finale.

In the podcast Michael Rosenbaum presents a limited edition Lex Luthor figure. It sure looks creepy! Tom Welling has also been sent a Clark Kent figure, but he hasn't opened it yet. I don't blame him. If anyone ever made an action figure of me, I wouldn't open it either. I'd hide it in the cellar for 20 years, and then I'd sell it for a fortune on Ebay.

Ryan Tellez should try harder to keep up. The recording of the podcast had to be delayed to give him time to watch the episode. I can understand Tom and Michael being busy, because they visit a lot of comic and sci-fi conventions, not to mention their roles in film and television, but what is Ryan doing? No, I have to take that back. I know almost nothing about him, so he might have a busy schedule outside of the 50 minutes a week he spends on the Smallville podcast. 

Michael says that when he's travelling with Tom they don't sit together on the plane. I hope that's a joke. I thought their friendship is the stuff of legend.

Once more, Tom and Michael admit to not having watched the episode until now. If I understand correctly, Michael never watched the episodes after they were made, and Tom only watched them occasionally. The only exceptions were the important episodes like "Rosetta" for which they were invited to do commentary tracks. When asked about the explosion scene, Tom confirmed that it was filmed with his stunt double. That was obvious. But he also said that he wasn't present for the filming. He always stayed away from scenes with explosions. On the one hand they were dangerous for onlookers, and on the other hand it gave him a few hours off.

Michael remembers this episode because he had problems in the scenes with Rob LaBelle as Dr. Walden. Whenever Rob stretched his hand out and made a terrifying face, Michael couldn't stop himself laughing.

Since they can hardly remember making the episodes, they can judge them objectively. Tom Welling can cheer on his character for finally having the courage to kiss Lana. It's taken him eleven years to get there, not counting the out-of-character kisses caused by red meteor rocks ("Red") and the intoxicating flowers ("Nicodemus").

This week there's no singing by Michael Rosenbaum, but there are pre-recorded jingles for the different segments, such as the patreon questions and Ryan's favourite scenes. They're amusing, once. I hope they won't be used on a regular basis.

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