hils | Smallville

The only things I really enjoyed were shirtless!Clark and the 'Kryptonian Wand' comment ;)

Shirtless Clark was nice but I hated that porny elevator scene

The Maxima stuff was very like the comic it was taken from, which still begs the question why use it?

Liked the Clois very much.

I didn't realise it was from a comic. I still hated it

I think they're pushing the Clois stuff forward a bit too fast but I am enjoying them

It's not like they're making out in an elevator or anything ;)

Hehe! Well, that's true!

Oh, I liked it a lot, but I thought Maxima was terrific and I loved the Clois and Chloe finally moving on!

(But, then again, maybe I liked it because of my affection for Tom's bare chest.... We only got a glimpse, but it was a tasty one.)

Hehe! Yeah, Tom's bare chest was about the best thing in this episode

Wasn't it just an overall dull and bad ep? At least we had Clar's shirt open.

Yeah, that was one of the few good bits about it

There are so many little crystals and keys and things like that that it's blatantly ridiculous.

Hee! So true!

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.

I strongly suspect, the direction Chloe's powers are going, are part of the crystal story line. Clark's going to get in trouble, the kind of trouble where his life is on the line, and the only person that can save him is Jor-El, Chloe's going to die (in a sense) repairing the crystal, but bringing Jor-El back. I say in a sense, I think effectively she's going to evolve to a point, where she is the computer, and she'll merge with crystal, or part of her will. As a result, the crystal is partly Chloe, and Clark's remembrance of her will be to rebuild the fortress, so that she'll live, and he'll have Jor-El back in the process, to teach him the ways of his powers, the extents, and properly the responsibilities, and proper use.

That would certainly be a way around things. They're going to have to get rid of her somehow since she's not in the main Superman canon. Unless she runs away with Lana to resume the lesbian relationship they had in the early seasons when they lived together ;)

*pukes* Thanks, you've just sullied Chloe for me, she's one of my favourite characters. She would never sleep with Lana. Though, if it weren't for the fact they're cousins, Chloe/Lois would be appealing.

I think it's probably the only way they can really go - it's also something Clark would have to learn to live with. An important lesson in itself - Superman doesn't go round being all mopey because he couldn't save someone (you can't save everyone even if you are the Man of Steel, and the embodiment of Truth, Justice, and the American way), so Clark has to move on emotionally. Also, the only thing that really ties Clark back to his old life in Smallville is Chloe, she's the tie that binds him to his life. Once that's severed he can recreate himself as Clark Kent, the bumbling nerdy reporter, who lives a parallel life as Superman.

Clark's already moving that way, which is the only reason I stuck with Season 8 for more than one episode. It actually feels sort of like Superman now

Smallville didn't need a sudden move on though - it's finding the proper reasons and motivations behind that moving on which is what series 8 is about. With the proper reasons, and motivation, with the correct heartaches, and tragedies, you really make Superman. It wouldn't actually be the Superman of the comics, but just like DC comics, various incarnations of the Superman mythos have been set in different worlds (as exemplified by Crisis on Infinite Earths, but referenced much earlier), Smallville in effect sets itself on it's own world. This allows things to be similar, characters to be there - but gives you the scope for difference. Superman of Earth 1, and the Superman we know today are very different, as was Superboy of Earth whatever. They bring different legacies, different MO's, sometimes different powers - but the moral beacon, is there. How it got there is the ignored but important bit.

Which is why I think sometimes Smallville gets too raw a deal from the cannon brotherhood, while sometimes losing itself in the freedom a new mythos allows. It's both good and bad in other words.

In some ways, it bugs me that Dean Cain was used for Vandal Savage - because they could have had a mini-Crisis, with the Superman crossing into Clark's world. It would have been ace - though DC would probably have had a fit at the very thought.

Heh! Yeah, I've noticed DC is very twitchy around Smallville, not letting them use Batman or Wonder Woman for example

I actually think it's franchise protection. I suspect they were convinced, in heavy sales people/producer tactics, to allow Smallville to go head (rather than younger teen based series based on Superboy which had been mooted at the time), so they negotiated back hard for high cost of the license, in negotiating down to an affordable cost, certain stipulations were put in place, based on what was original told to them "It's a series about Superman before he becomes Superman", ergo he can't fly, and he'll only encounter minor heroes (not that GA is all that minor, but he was never quite in the league of your principle DC characters).

Ahh! Ok, well that makes sense I guess. Besides, if they introduced Batman they'd only fuck it up ;)

Batman doesn't fit into the model of what Smallville is doing, he's far too deep and dark for Smallville, plus his exploits as a young man are actually quite adult. He kind of skips the teenage years, and his early 20's - pretty much jumping from the point where his parents died to having a big rubber suit. Though I think briefly there was a comic series about a teenage Bruce Wayne, but I could be mistaken.

As to Wonder Woman, her powers are built on magic, and Smallville is all about the sci-fi, so she can't fit into that universe as it is now.

Besides, Smallville got Batman's standard replacement (though in my opinion superior) character in Green Arrow. Similar history, similar MO's, equipment, except Green Arrow is more of a fun guy, and a genuine skirt chaser (while Bruce simply plays the part), he's also more of a social thinker, and a do gooder so he can fit into the brighter world of Smallville.

It would be interested to see Clark's view of the world, and justice pushed by Batman though. It would be a toughening experience for the young Clark Kent.

God, yes, they bicker about it plenty in the comic

Batman: Doom
Superman: Hope
Batman: DOOM!
Superman: HOPE! *slap*
Batman: *gets out the kryptonite*

That's interesting actually. I never heard them mention anything about a disease. Have you been reading spoilers and your mind is filling in blanks? All I got from it was that Brainiac has done something to alter Chloe and as far as Clark's concerned that can't be a good thing, hence his need to try and fix it. I don't think Chloe knows anything about it killing her, if she did I think she'd be more eager to fix it. No matter how special it makes her feel I don't think she'd want to die for it

I didn't mean it's something that we've missed - it's not been mentioned, or actually hinted at - it's the way Clark's behaving round it. It doesn't feel right/true unless something like that were known.

It will drive a wedge between them at this rate though - if Clark becomes hell bent on fixing Chloe, she'll likely as not turn away from him, because as far as she's concerned this is the best thing to ever happen to her. Though, one does wonder where she's getting money from. She doesn't seem short of it for someone who's currently unemployed (unless Lana left the Isis foundation all the money she got from Lex?)

They never explain these things. Like how Lois and Clark both got journalism jobs despite the fact neither of them went to college.

Lana has never had a job from what I can tell, yet she could afford to go to college and art school before she started sponging off Lex

I think they just consider the materialism to be a distraction from the actual story - but the omission bugs me. There's no way as a simple struggling reporter that Jimmy was covering her (well financially anyway... I don't need to know about the bedroom thank you). Of course, Lois did live with Chloe for a bit - but it's a bit of a sucky thing to do, just live off your house mate because you don't want to/can't get another job. Of course, if she were hacking computers to earn a living, that would make sense, and spoil her in Clark's eyes. More fuel for the drift between them later on?

Lois I can actually understand, you'd be surprised how easy it is to work for some of the rags, she starts off at the Enquirer, which is supposedly notorious for it's sensationalism, and outlandishness, and lack of journalistic integrity - they saw Lois as a chance for more alien/weird things stuff, which is what she took to them to start with. From there, she just had to worm her way into the Daily Planet as an existing reporter. Gets you round the university/college issue (trust me I know, I don't have a degree, and do a job that most others I know that do it have a degree - work experience, and title on CV can be worth as much).

As to Clark, this also makes sense, and they've covered it pretty well (after Clark's character was spoilt by pulling him out of SU), Lois gives him the application, and she expects he'll start down in the reporters pool, where they spend most of their days hoping for a story, and a byline, while mostly photocopying, and researching for the big dogs (regular by-liners, features, and opinion writers). The reason Clark's rocketed upwards is Lex. They may not have been getting on at the end of their relationship, but Lex could have easily left instructions for him to be taken care of - if you want it from a slash point of view. More realistically (and still kind of slashy), Tess would have known about Lex's interest in Clark (though not fully understood it), and when his application came in, she decided to put him where he is. Knowing that this would either gain her brownie points with her mentor when he returns, or keep Clark in a position for Lex to deal with him. It means she has pretense to be in contact with Clark, while she suspects him of having something to do with, or knowledge of Lex's disappearance. What Clark does with this opportunity though, is he becomes a real reporter through it, and like Lois, once it's there, it's there - qualifications regardless.

It makes a bit more sense with Clark, I guess, since he has the journalistic experience of The Torch and before he got this job he was being supported by his parents.

No one seems to know where Gabe has disappeared to and I suppose Lana's Aunt Nell could have paid for her college and art school but they never explain these things.

This is my main issue with Smallville, the gaping plot holes. It's like no one can be bothered to think about this stuff. All it takes it a throwaway line of dialogue now and then

The Torch wouldn't really be considered much experience, unless it was for an internship - which his job isn't.

I reckon, he'll take a break from the Daily Planet at some point, when he goes off to become Superman, which allows the Chlois to die down, and Lois to bury her feelings. Perry can come in - re-hire Clark based on the degree he's going to pretend he has (which will be the reasoning behind him disappearing - or some further relevant work experience abroad), and the comic story takes over from there.

Of course we won't see past him disappearing, but it's nice to know that season 8 is going in a proper direction for this to happen, after certain producers really lost their way with the Superman legend - different Earth or no.

Aye, in the Superman Birthright book (which is ace) Clark spends his first few years out of Smallville travelling the world and using his powers to help people whilst writing stories about it at the same time, which is what gets him his job at The Planet.

I haven't read that one - but it makes sense in many ways. Clark would find it difficult to attend university - being a reporter is fairly easy as he needs to be out and about a lot, he does need to be where the action is, etc... but as his responsibilites grow, and the risks - he'd miss a lot of university. And though he can write very fast, it would increase the risk of him being noticed.

Travelling the world, and writing is the perfect thing - it's training, it allows him to learn what there is in the world, what he'd be saving beyond Metropolis, and gives him experience to get a job.

Thusly, Smallville, actually isn't far off a pretty perfect explanation of how a corn boy from Kansas (or whichever state Smallville is in this week), can become a world class reporter. That and his connection with a certain caped hero of course.

Hehe! There's always an explanation. Like Peter Parker and his Spidey photos

Yeah - sometimes they don't say these things, because they expect you to work it out, or for it to be natural knowledge.

I forget it's name, I've not seen it in years, however there's this fantastic Japanese war film I once saw. It seems to start in the middle, but this is because people in the West don't know Japanese history, so the fact that it's just a segment of history, and we're meant to know the back story going into it was lost on me.

Similarly, we wouldn't need an explanation of how the American, or British civil war's began, it's ingrained knowledge we carry with us.

In a way, how Clark and companions make some of the social and economical movements should be expected by us, we can fill in the blanks without being told. Rather than wasting air time, when the situation, or object in question isn't necessary. Just like we don't see heroes going to the loo - it's a given that it happens, and it's not going to affect the plot.

I do think it's a bit careless in Smallville though, you can make too many of these assumptions on behalf of your audience.

Oh, yeah, I definitely think there's too many gaps

Like Al Gough being surprised that people didn't immediately assume it was Lex who had faked Lana's pregnancy

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