There have
been few single episodes of a show that have emotionally drained me as much as last week's Reckoning. I thought the first half was perfect, and
the second was perfectly devastating. I love Kristin Kreuk, and Lana's character (a lot more than most), but if they
could have left it with her dying, I think it would have shown some real cajones and really splintered Smallville from every other Superman mythos out there. The anger that Clark and Lex
have towards each other would be tangible. They could have played with Johnathan struggling to do the right thing with
his power, wanting to destroy the Luthor's, but still do the right thing. Don't get me wrong; last week's episode was
great, and everyone's performances were perfect. I just think an even bigger change to the status quo would have been
to let Lana die. So, on to this week's episode. Much like after any loss of a loved one, everyone seemed to just be
going through the motions. It was an OK episode, but it could have happened two weeks ago and still been in place. On
with the show!After Martha was mugged taking some of Jonathan's clothes down to the homeless shelter, Clark became very angry.
Jonathan's watch had been stolen and Clark was bound and determined to get it back. He had exhausted every legal means
of finding the gang-members who mugged his mom, when a young vigilante Chloe and the Daily Planet had dubbed
"Angel" burst into his life. Angel had been the one who initially saved Martha from the muggers. Although she
was definitely an angel of justice, she took a much more hard-edged approach than Clark normally would. Because of his
recent loss though, Clark was able to look past her violent ways. He went along with her vigilante ways until she
killed the man that killed her mother; coincidentally, the same man that mugged Martha. Angel learned that her mother's
murder was just a setup by a Luthor, which one, we don't know. She escapes leaving Clark to help Lionel, who she had
just thrown out the window. Realizing just how close he had gotten to the edge, Clark reasserts himself to the
"good fight".
Again, this was a fine episode. If I had seen it any time before Reckoning, I
probably would have thought much higher of it, but the bar has been set so much higher now, it's gonna take a lot more
to impress me. I really want to see the agression between Lex and Clark amp-up. They set a lot of things up, and I know
last week was a very Lex-heavy episode, but Michael Rosenbaum's presence was sorely missing this week. I'm also getting
very sick of the yo-yo between Clark and Lana, yet another reason I would have rather seen her go last week. All in
all, it's like I said at the beginning, everything seemed to have a very "gray" overcast, I can't wait for
them to get back into color. Maybe the primaries... some Red, Yellow, a little Blue perhaps? Let me know what you
think.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
4-03-2006 @ 9:44PM
ger said...
eh has no one else noticed how crap the once off actors on the show are becoming? they have had people in the past who were really good such as the guy from the oc and lost, but that angel just took the biscuit, seriosuly bad, apart from the last week the show is becoming embarassingly bad, angels bumbling clark kent mirror image was awfull as was her "whatever" clark being alergic to meteor rocks. oh and did anyone else notice the battyesque music playing throughout? a la batman and batman returns as scored by danny elfman or was that just me?(anybody cop the blind as a bat gag to back this up??)
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2-03-2006 @ 3:22PM
Rob said...
Totally agree. I was kinda disapointed that the writers didn't do the daring thing and stuck with the obvious option. Lana needs to be taken out of the picture. The only reason they keep her around is because they rely on her to give the show it's 'sex appeal'. Besides,.. John Schneider was a great credit to the show.
As far as this episode is concerned, is was alright. My wife loved the interaction between Angel and Clark. One question though,.. What's the deal between Clark and Lionel? Does Lionel know clarks secret, or is he still under teh power of Jor-El? Especialy in that last scene where Clark zips up to keep him from falling. What's going on? Did I miss something?
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2-03-2006 @ 4:37PM
Mark Kawakami said...
I think I liked it more than you did, but, man... did you catch the hideously clunky Acuvue product placement? Ughhhh!
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2-03-2006 @ 5:21PM
Brandon said...
I can't agree that they needed to kill Lana off to "splinter" the show from the Superman mythos. That mythos is sacred to the dedicated Supes fan (like me). Deviate a little to keep it contemporary and that's fine. Change the whole story to boost ratings, and you commit heresy. You will constantly hear us say "In the comics...", and I've enjoyed the nods to the original mythos the writer's keep adding. It lets you know they haven't flown too far from the nest.
I don't like Lana's character on the show, the naive damsel in distress gets a bit old after a while. She's been painted into a corner and hence her blandness is reviled by viewers. I also think the carrot-on-a-stick writing about Clark's "secret" and almost telling Lana is a very tired plot.
Pa Kent had to die. The original (early 40's) Superman, he lived to a ripe old age. Later, they needed to justify Supe's values and made him more of a critical character by killing him after Clark's graduation. It just made sense: people would ask "Why is Superman a 'Good Guy?'" and there was no easy answer. Rewriting the continuity to show it was because of his modest upbringing by good-value parents was genius. Breaking this on Smallville would be jumping the shark and carry the story into a flow that just isn't Superman.
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2-03-2006 @ 5:44PM
Tim said...
I don't agree that preserving the previous Superman mythos is reason enough to keep Lana instead of Pa Kent. I think it hinders creativity and makes the story predictable to blindly stick to the pre-ordained myth.
As much as it might disappoint the fanboys, I prefer surprises as long as they are good surprises.
Killing off Lana would have made for way more interesting final episodes. Instead it was such a typical sci-fi show cop-out: put in some kind of big, jump-the-shark, no-going-back event, and then use some kinda time-manipulation/mind-erasing thing to make it seem like it never happened.
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2-03-2006 @ 8:01PM
Tweaq said...
I thought this episode was more sad/tear jerking that the 100th. the 100th EVERYONE pretty much knew what was going to happen.
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2-03-2006 @ 8:15PM
Dave D said...
"Angel learned that her mother's murder was just a setup by Luthor, which one, we don't know."
Pretty sure the thug specifically said Lionel Luthor...
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2-04-2006 @ 11:37AM
Scott said...
I've enjoyed this series so far, and I was excited that the last episode was going to possibly be a strong one that lifted the series to a whole new level. I'm really glad to read someone else have the exact same impression as me.
Unfortunately, I think the consequences are that I am quickly draining of interest for this show. This weeks episode was a reflection of season one with it's one-off super hero/baddy story.
It's pretty clear that the writers think it's more important to keep the series alive than to do right with the plot development.
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2-05-2006 @ 1:02PM
Louise said...
I also hoped for a more daring choice and was betting that Martha would be the one to die first--as she did in a long-ago comic that I remember. Martha is a great character, but her demise would have been the creative twist I was looking for. Besides, the core of Smallville IS Clark-and-Jonathan, and John Schneider put his heart into the show. I don't know that it will survive without him.
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2-06-2006 @ 1:01AM
amazo said...
does no one else find it odd that clark showed his powers to lionel and no one cared? does he know that lionel knows? did i miss that?
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2-06-2006 @ 1:25AM
Dorv said...
Yeah, so I'm one of those guys that thinks it would have been better to kill off Lana, pushing the issue between Clark and Lex in a direction that I think would have been pretty cool (albeit pretty final).
This episode was kind of lackluster in my opinion, but a necessary evil in following such a "mythos altering" show like last week. Maya (or Drea, or whatever they changed her name to from the original script) didn't really stand up in FOTW arena (I'm not a big comic fan, but would a Marvel person back me up on this: Did she seem like Black Cat to anyone else?).
I do like the deepening of the relationship b/w Martha and Chloe (but then, I think Allison Mack can make walking across the street interesting), and am still very curious as to the possiblities of this whole Martha/Lionel thing.
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