As a red blooded male, I have to admit this episode got my pulse racing. It was kind of dull - it felt a lot more like a filler episode, like they needed to move the Lois and Clark chemistry forward a bit to fit a schedule.
I liked how Clark reacted when he read the letter, he almost seemed regretful that he missed out - but he moved on from that moment. He genuinely seems really happy for Chloe and Jimmy (which he hasn't really up until now, which was good as well since Chloe's meant to be his best friend, it's not easy to feel something taken away from that level of friendship/trust - it adds a really realistic quality to the Clark/Chloe relationship), even so far as covering for Jimmy's indiscretion.
I have to say though, not in Jimmy's defence, Maxima wasn't really using any powers to snare men, just that she looked hot, and was eager for a happy ending.
I did like the stuff between Clark and Maxima, I just felt there should have been more of it. More of a fight, or more of a moral dilemma. This is Clark Kent, pre-Superman - it's okay for him to be tempted to go with her, it's the ultimate sacrifice of not that was important. We only saw the briefest of moments of that - like it's a foregone conclusion over who Clark is, rather than Clark striving to achieve it.
Aside from the briefness between Clark and Maxima, there were some things that really did bug me. Firstly, Cassidy Freeman's character (Mercy, or so we're lead to believe), gone back to having no real character. It's one step forward with the last episode, and two steps backwards with this one. She might have been a add-on character for Lex's corporate holdings in the animated series, and add-on to comic cannon thereafter, but in Smallville they've brought her in to the position of being a central character, and a power player in Clark's destiny. We don't need another Lex, but you do need to have something special. Next there was the dress from Ollie. Oliver Queen so wouldn't buy a dress for someone, that they manifestly would never wear, or look good in. He's far too bright, and attentive for that. The sole purpose was to get Maxima out of the modern sci-fi Amazonian leather and bare flesh gear, and into something sensual that show her thighs later on. It just didn't work for me, it's like a slip in logic - we need to get from A (Maxima hot leathery goddess) to B (Maxima sensual Clark tempting woman), but we have no reason for her to go shopping! " I know, we've got a scene with Tess, maybe she can steal her clothes?" "No, Maxima wouldn't wear such conservative business clothes." "Hmm... Well Tess and Ollie have a thing, maybe Ollie plays it super cool, and sends Tess something to wear for a date?" "Ah... okay, that sounds smooth like Ollie." And that's where the thinking stopped.
Lastly, something that's been bugging me which was emphasised in this episode. I don't so much mind Chloe developing super brain powers, it makes sense in some ways. She's hacking way above her weight limit otherwise. Brainiac is an obvious, explainable, and believable source for this power. Now, it's easy to infer anything from Brainiac is bad... but they don't know if Brainiac intended for this to happen, or if it were some kind of mistake. Or we don't anyway. Clark seems to know, and Chloe agrees, though she doesn't want to do anything about it because it makes her special. Clark seems to know more than we do - like we missed something between episode one and two. They don't know if it's something Brainiac actively did to Chloe, or if it's just a side affect of the interaction (given Chloe's powers to heal - it's possibly she healed herself into the position she's in after immediately following Brainiac). Clark knows different though, he knows Brainiac's infected her with a disease, he knows she's dying from it. In a way it's believable I guess - after what happened with Brainiac - maybe Clark blames Brainiac for Lana leaving him when she recovered? Maybe he associates anything touched by Brainiac as evil? I could buy that, but it doesn't feel that way - it actually does feel like we've missed an important part of an episode where Chloe reveals the transformations within her brain are actually killing her.
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I liked how Clark reacted when he read the letter, he almost seemed regretful that he missed out - but he moved on from that moment. He genuinely seems really happy for Chloe and Jimmy (which he hasn't really up until now, which was good as well since Chloe's meant to be his best friend, it's not easy to feel something taken away from that level of friendship/trust - it adds a really realistic quality to the Clark/Chloe relationship), even so far as covering for Jimmy's indiscretion.
I have to say though, not in Jimmy's defence, Maxima wasn't really using any powers to snare men, just that she looked hot, and was eager for a happy ending.
I did like the stuff between Clark and Maxima, I just felt there should have been more of it. More of a fight, or more of a moral dilemma. This is Clark Kent, pre-Superman - it's okay for him to be tempted to go with her, it's the ultimate sacrifice of not that was important. We only saw the briefest of moments of that - like it's a foregone conclusion over who Clark is, rather than Clark striving to achieve it.
Aside from the briefness between Clark and Maxima, there were some things that really did bug me. Firstly, Cassidy Freeman's character (Mercy, or so we're lead to believe), gone back to having no real character. It's one step forward with the last episode, and two steps backwards with this one. She might have been a add-on character for Lex's corporate holdings in the animated series, and add-on to comic cannon thereafter, but in Smallville they've brought her in to the position of being a central character, and a power player in Clark's destiny. We don't need another Lex, but you do need to have something special.
Next there was the dress from Ollie. Oliver Queen so wouldn't buy a dress for someone, that they manifestly would never wear, or look good in. He's far too bright, and attentive for that. The sole purpose was to get Maxima out of the modern sci-fi Amazonian leather and bare flesh gear, and into something sensual that show her thighs later on. It just didn't work for me, it's like a slip in logic - we need to get from A (Maxima hot leathery goddess) to B (Maxima sensual Clark tempting woman), but we have no reason for her to go shopping! "
I know, we've got a scene with Tess, maybe she can steal her clothes?"
"No, Maxima wouldn't wear such conservative business clothes."
"Hmm... Well Tess and Ollie have a thing, maybe Ollie plays it super cool, and sends Tess something to wear for a date?"
"Ah... okay, that sounds smooth like Ollie."
And that's where the thinking stopped.
Lastly, something that's been bugging me which was emphasised in this episode. I don't so much mind Chloe developing super brain powers, it makes sense in some ways. She's hacking way above her weight limit otherwise. Brainiac is an obvious, explainable, and believable source for this power. Now, it's easy to infer anything from Brainiac is bad... but they don't know if Brainiac intended for this to happen, or if it were some kind of mistake. Or we don't anyway. Clark seems to know, and Chloe agrees, though she doesn't want to do anything about it because it makes her special. Clark seems to know more than we do - like we missed something between episode one and two. They don't know if it's something Brainiac actively did to Chloe, or if it's just a side affect of the interaction (given Chloe's powers to heal - it's possibly she healed herself into the position she's in after immediately following Brainiac). Clark knows different though, he knows Brainiac's infected her with a disease, he knows she's dying from it. In a way it's believable I guess - after what happened with Brainiac - maybe Clark blames Brainiac for Lana leaving him when she recovered? Maybe he associates anything touched by Brainiac as evil? I could buy that, but it doesn't feel that way - it actually does feel like we've missed an important part of an episode where Chloe reveals the transformations within her brain are actually killing her.