"Cyborg"
Review!
Written
by Triplet
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NOTE:
Read no further if you don't want to be spoiled! There is a killer
of a cliff-hanger at the end of this episode which I spoil; big
time. Don't say I didn't warn you.
Recap:
Victor Stone
(guest star Lee Thompson Young) is released from a secret lab
by a sympathetic scientist. He breaks through steel doors to escape
his pursuers right before he gets hit by Lana's car.
Victor takes
Lana to the hospital. Then Martha gets a mysterious package with
a DVD player that shows something that disturbs her, they don't
show what she sees at first. After talking with Lana, Clark soon
catches up with Victor and discovers his metallic inner workings
using x-ray vision. Martha gets a phone call about the video she'd
received just before Lionel walks in. He offers his help with
whatever it is that is upsetting her; she refuses and says she
can handle it.
Clark and
Victor talk about how Victor came to be at the lab. Clark researches
the lab with Chloe's help and it turns out that the company running
the experiments, Syntechnics, is owned by Luthorcorp. Furious,
Clark goes to Lex to confront him about the experimentation. Lex
denies any knowledge of the lab or its research.
Lana visits
Victor to ask him about his girlfriend just as two bad guys show
up and shoot Victor. Clark knocks them out but Victor is hurt
and "bleeds" a black oily substance. Clark and Lana
take Victor to Lois' apartment. Victor reveals the fluid he's
bleeding runs his power cells and that he'll die if it isn't repaired.
Clark leaves to try to find the doctor that helped Victor before.
He goes to
the doctor's house where he finds the doctor dead just before
Lex shows up. They fight outside about the experiments done on
Victor. Clark reveals that Victor was shot and is dying. Back
at Lois' apartment Lana tells Victor about the doctor being dead.
Discouraged, Victor goes off to find his girlfriend so he can
see her "one last time." Lex lays in wait and captures
Victor. Lionel shows up at the money drop and scares off Martha's
blackmailer. She reluctantly agrees to accept Lionel's help. Back
in the lab, Victor is repaired but Lex tells him that they will
put in a chip that will dampen his emotions. After discovering
Victor had gone, Clark rescues Victor just as the evil doctor
was about to install the chip. Clark confronts Lex about what
he's done and Lex finally gets the last word and walks out on
Clark.
Clark and
Lana get Victor together with his girlfriend, Katherine. Martha
talks with Lionel about his having taken care of the extortionist.
She thanks him and says she's glad he's her friend. Clark and
Lana have a talk about the state of their relationship.
Finally, Lionel
pays off the black-mailer and then looks at the video Martha received.
It was tape of Clark saving Lana from the explosion in Lockdown.
Lionel looks at a freeze frame of Clark holding Lana in the firestorm
of the explosion and says "Your secret is safe with me
Kal-El."
Review:
Whoa
what a great cliff-hanger which ended this episode, but I'll talk
about that more at the end of the review (that's my own little
version of a cliff-hanger
) since almost everything leading
up to it was great too.
I don't think
that it's possible to say enough good things about this episode.
Everyone did an excellent job starting with the marvelous guest
star that played Victor, Lee Thompson Young.
It's easy
to criticize many of Smallville's guest stars, many of them haven't
been all that great at acting to be honest, but Lee Thompson Young
was awesome. Lee could easily have played Victor much more dour
and glum. He's been changed into something not entirely human,
even if it isn't readily apparent to anyone who hadn't just hit
him with their car. That would be enough to depress anyone and
Victor was perhaps understandably wishing he had died in that
car crash that killed his family. Also, it would have been easy
for Lee to turn the Cyborg character into one that is more of
an automaton: a mechanical and emotionless person, influenced
unduly by his unique physiology. However, Lee had unexpectedly
added a wonderful tenderness and humanity to his portrayal that
showed a unique insight into what someone like Victor might be
going through. Here's hoping that Victor (and Lee Thompson Young)
makes a return appearance sometime in the future.
I usually
save the comments on the director 'til the last part of the review,
but I'm going to mention helmer Glen Winter earlier than normal
because he did such a wonderful job. Although actors can still
put in a good performance even with a bad director, rarely do
they excel the way everyone did in this episode. Everyone from
vets Annette O'Toole and John Glover on down did excellent work
and I think that's thanks to the stellar directorial debut of
Glen Winter.
Normally one
of Smallville's two directors of photography (Barry Donleavy is
the other), this episode saw Glen Winter sit down in the director's
chair for the first time. I am always impressed with the photography
in the show, so much so that I usually mention it in my reviews.
Winter has shot some of the more beautifully filmed episodes in
the series, recent standouts "Lexmas" and "Vengeance"
among them, so I was looking forward to this episode a lot. I
figured it would be a good looking show, if nothing else, but
it was more than that: It was well-paced, exciting, beautifully
acted and tightly directed. Winter has a lot to proud of in his
directorial debut. I hope he gets added to the roster of regular
helmers for the show.
Tom did a
fantastic job in this episode, as is usual for him of late, but
he especially excelled in the scenes with Victor and Lex. With
Victor, Clark came off as more of a mentor, a boy who is just
coming to terms with his "otherness" and needs guidance
and help. Clark provided that to Victor and Tom played perfectly
the protectiveness Clark felt for Victor.
In his scenes
with Lex, Clark was his normal sanctimonious self, but this time
Lex finally fought back. The interplay between the two men was
terrific. I love how Tom plays the resolute nature that Clark
has recently developed. His confrontations in this episode with
Lex were more like the openly antagonistic relationship that typifies
Clark's dealings with Lex in the comics. He's becoming more and
more Supermanly each episode and I'm loving every minute of screen
time he's getting lately.
Michael Rosenbaum
must be ecstatic that Lex is finally now openly revealing his
evil side. Lex's involvement with Victor's captivity and the unethical
experimentation on an unwilling human subject was pretty damn
evil. Michael's playing the duplicitous Lex with a finesse that
is a lot of fun to watch. And I ABSOLUTELY LOVED that Lex finally
got the final word in the library scene with Clark and left the
room saying "You can let yourself out." That was fantastic
and Michael played Lex's impatience with Clark's self-righteousness
perfectly. What an incredible scene for both men.
I find it
interesting that Clark is about the only person that knows what
Lex is up to. Even the normally conspiracy-minded Chloe was skeptical
that Lex would have anything to do with the evil-doers that had
changed Victor without his consent. The speed of the build up
to whatever it is that will finally cause the rift between the
former best friends has picked up and it's a good thing. I can't
wait to see what will finally pull the two men irretrievably apart.
And how creepy
was Lionel? Yikes
I'm not sure what to think about what
he did in this episode. Was Lionel manipulating Martha for some
nefarious purpose so he had hired the man to blackmail Martha?
We know that he lied about not knowing what the extortionist had
on Clark. And how had Lionel known Clark's birth name? Is he still
channeling Jor-El like he did in "Hidden" or does he
actually remember what happened when Jor-El had controlled him?
Or has he figured that out in some other way? And how terrific
is John Glover working with this story arc? Both he and Annette
O'Toole have given us some fantastic interactions to watch and
watching John Glover play this far more subtly manipulative Lionel
is pure joy.
Scribe Caroline
Dries, in her apparent professional writing debut, gave us an
episode that was better than usual. Victor's story wonderfully
echoed Clark's and gave Clark some things to think about. The
act break cliff-hangers were fantastic and the dialogue was better
than the normally solid work other Smallville writers produce.
And that was one hell of a cliff-hanger for the spring hiatus.
Damn but I want find out more about what Lionel is really up to
and I don't want to wait the six or so weeks we've got until the
next new episode airs. Kudos to Caroline for writing such an excellent
script! Every writer should have such a wonderful episode as their
first.
Director of
Photography Gregory Littleton, also in his own Smallville debut,
shot a beautiful episode. The lab scenes were wonderful, especially
at the opening of the tease when Victor was alone in the dark
lab restrained in the cage. The scenes between Lionel and Martha
were great. I found it interesting that Lionel was lit from behind
in several of the scenes. The scene in the first act when he first
walked in on Martha and stood in the doorway he was lit from behind
and there was some haze in the air that made the light beams visible.
The haze and the beams coming into the room from over his head
and shoulders gave him an almost angelic appearance. Does that
mean he's just trying to help Martha like he claims?
But I think
my favorite moments from the photographer came in the tease during
the chase scene. The beginning of the chase had low angle tracking
shots combined with some hand-held shots and dramatic lighting
(along with some quick cutting from the editor) helped heighten
the tension during that chase. Later in the chase when Victor
ran through what looked like an abandoned warehouse there was
dust in the air and the light beams from the sun cut through the
haze in the dark rooms. It was beautiful and dramatic.
The special
effects were wonderful, especially the jump that Victor and Clark
take off the roof and the X-ray peek into Victor's body. As long
as they couldn't duplicate the implants into Victor's body showing,
like the way they are on Teen Titans, it was a nice touch that
the implants inside his body were similar to the cartoon version.
What a terrific
episode and I think the only thing I had a problem with it was
that Tom wasn't in this more, but that probably isn't really any
reason to mark the episode down so I give this episode 5 secret
evil labs out of a possible 5.
Note:
The views of Triplet don't necessarily represent the thoughts
and feelings of everyone at KryptonSite. Send
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