"Blank"
Review!
Written
by Triplet
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Quick
Recap:
Kevin (guest
star Jonathan Bennett) has this strange ability to wipe the
short term memory of people. However, in trying to avoid being
caught by Clark for robbing the Talon, and wiping Lois' memory,
Kevin ends up wiping out all of Clark's memories. Clark doesn't
remember his name or even what he can do. Chloe tries to help
him figure out how to use his abilities while also keeping them
a secret from others. Meanwhile, major movement on the Stone
storyline front as Jason showed more of his dark side. Finally,
Lex is beginning to really connect with his inner evil genius
as he tries to take advantage of the situation and trick Clark
into revealing what he knows about the caves.
Review:
What a beautiful
episode.
From the
spoilers and the trailer, I had been expecting a good episode
but I was very pleasantly surprised. It was far better than
I had even hoped it would be.
Episode
scribes Kelly Souders and Brian Peterson rarely disappoint (Delete
being probably their only complete miss) and this outing no
exception.
NOTE:
The long time writing team
was recently profiled in an excellent article in the most
recent Smallville magazine, issue #8. The article is a must
read for people wanting to better understand the writer's
perspective on a network TV show.
First off,
what a wonderful premise for an episode!
Having Clark
forget who he is and what he can do provided the writers and
the actors an opportunity to examine their characters (and their
relationships to Clark) in ways that can't really be done in
a regular episode. Clark was shed of his all too human cynicism
and ingrained distrust of others. Clark's character was distilled
down into what surely must be 100% pure Superman: honest, trusting,
and nearly completely guileless.
Tom Welling
has proven yet again that he isn't just another pretty face.
His portrayal of Clark at his most vulnerable and innocent was
truly remarkable and understated. It would have been easy for
him to just put on a "blank" look and let Clark be
passive, yet he was still the Super Boy Scout we all know and
love.
His rediscovering
Clark's powers was also fun and probably better than the first
time he discovered them. The heat vision moment was hilarious,
especially given Smallville's sexual subtext take on that ability.
Also, the
purity of his love for Lana shone through in the scenes he had
with her. It was beautiful and romantic.
Tom did
a great job.
Allison
Mack outdid herself in this episode as well. And thank goodness
Chloe looks to have finally moved past her incessant Clark lusting
into being more of a friend. Her taking care of Clark helped
her to better understand just how much more powerful he is than
she thought. The complexity of his life and dealing with all
the abilities he has surely put a whole new spin on her relationship
with Clark.
Chloe's
reactions to seeing Clark use powers she had no idea he had
were priceless. "And the super Wheaties abilities keep
on coming!" Very funny.
Lex is finally
embracing the evil side we saw in Onyx. His taking advantage
of the newly guileless Clark to try and discover the secrets
of the caves was about as duplicitous as we've seen the undivided
Lex ever get. His taking Clark's drawing of the caves showing
the location of the secret room even more so.
Kristin
Kreuk's Lana wasn't really in this episode much since she was
more involved with Jason, but she's getting into more complicated
emotional states than before. Kristin is beginning to come into
her own as an actress, I believe. She's shown some growth this
season and her reactions to Clark's wanting to renew the relationship
were wonderful.
Jenson Ackles'
Jason has also moved a lot darker than I would have thought
he would have from the beginning. His confrontation with Lana
in her apartment was really scary. He seemed to show that the
man who could kill to get hold of one of the stones (from last
week's show, Spirit) isn't going to let a silly teen's romantic
fickleness get the better of him.
What was
most interesting on that front, however, was what he told her:
"You are the one person who made me forget what I turned
into."
There are
only three episodes left in the season and that statement could
mean so much depending on what you believe will happen with
Jason between now and May 18th.
Is there
more to Jason than meets the eye? I guess we'll see soon.
Guest star
Jonathan Bennett was surprisingly good as Kevin. Usually the
Freaks of the Week (FOTW), get short shrift in the character
arc department. So it was a pleasant change of pace to have
one that actually changed and learned over the course of the
episode. He did an excellent job as the troubled young man betrayed
by his father
As wonderful
as I thought the script was I do have one complaint: they missed
a golden opportunity to let Clark reveal real insight into the
reasons why he is such a do-gooder.
Kevin is
understandably perplexed on why Clark tried so hard to help
him. After all, he had wiped Lois' memory, stole money from
the Talon and "86'd" Clark's memory almost totally.
Why would
Clark help him?
Clark's
lame answer was "Maybe it's because I know what it's like
to be missing part of your life." Really lame.
Comic book
writer Mark Waid wrote a wonderful essay on the motivations
behind Clark/Superman's do-gooder-ness. You can read that here:
http://www.newsarama.com/general/SuperPhilCh1Pre.htm
I'm not
sure any episode prior to the series finale, which would logically
have Clark finally ready to pull those blue tights, would delve
too deeply into Clark's motivations for being a Super Boy Scout.
However, it would have been nice for them to have touched on
that a bit.
Overall,
one of the best episodes so far this season, but probably just
shy of a home run.
4 ½
stars out of 5.
Major
Episode Faux Pas:
Just where
is Summerholt located? I thought from the previous times it
was on the show, it was in Metropolis. That city is supposedly
a three hour drive away from Smallville based on comments made
in previous episodes, most notably mentioned in 3rd season episodes
Whisper and Truth. Yet Kevin's dad supposedly commutes to Metropolis
from his home in Smallville and Lowell County Sheriff Adams
apparently has jurisdiction up there if her threats to the receptionist
were any clue
Note:
The views of Triplet don't necessarily represent the thoughts
and feelings of everyone at KryptonSite. Send
her feedback - Talk
about this review on the KryptonSite Forum!
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