"Forever" Review!
Written by Triplet

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Brief Recap:

Brendan is the Torch photographer and fears leaving his relatively high profile job of taking photos of the best and brightest of Smallville High for a post-high-school life of disappointment and mediocrity. So, he takes it upon himself to gather up the superlatives into a cage made into a likeness of Smallville High. Lana, Chloe and others have no choice but to cooperate or face being turned into glass by Brendan.

Clark begins to suspect something is up when gung-ho-for-life-post-high-school Chloe isn't first in line to pick up her graduation robes. So, Clark and Lois go on a little Scooby adventure to try and solve the mystery of the missing most-likely-to's...

Meanwhile, back on the farm Jonathan and Martha argue about whether Clark should stay in Smallville and go to Central Kansas A&M or move onto a bigger and brighter future at another University.

But as all that is happening, Jason kidnaps Lionel and Lex. Which helps Mama Teague get what she thinks is the upper hand in retrieving the stone Lionel stole from her.

Review:

This episode was surprisingly much better than I thought it would be. Actually, it was more than just much better: it was an excellent episode!

If I had bothered to remember that the episode was written by Kelly Souders and Brian Peterson and directed by James Marshall, I wouldn't have been worried at all. They rarely disappoint.

Aside from the unfortunate casting of guest star Steven Grayhm as Brendan, who was underwhelming and frankly a creepy Leonardo DiCaprio lookalike, everyone brought out their A game. Director James Marshall did an excellent job of keeping what could have been a dull story fast paced and even added in a few surprises. I actually gasped out loud at several points. This was, except for one lapse (which I'll discuss at the end of the review) another job well done by probably one the skein's better directors.

I think the only failing of scribes' Souders and Peterson efforts here was the complete lack of explanation of Brendan's strange ability to turn people into glass and how that worked. I suppose we are left to assume that its kryptonite inspired and that the power was what it was and leave it at that.

On second thought, maybe that's not such a bad thing.

Less screen time devoted to explaining the odd ways people obtain their strange powers, and the mechanics of the power, means more time for the writers to actually tell their stories. Getting bogged down in writing complicated expository dialogue must be only
slightly less dull than having to listen to it, so we should all be glad they've finally moved past that.

I guess I'm a little curious how his power worked and why it failed upon his death. But how shocking was that head exploding apart into shards of red glass when Brendan threw it down the steps? Wow. That was something… I was actually horrified.

Souders' and Peterson's dialogue was sharp and wholly within character. It was also nice to see Jonathan and Martha get some meatier scenes that didn't necessarily involve Clark.

Also interesting about this episode was all the light bulbs going off in the characters' heads as certain things finally came to light and new information was
divulged.

Hints, some not so subtle, were dropped right and left about things fans (including myself) had only speculated about. Like Lionel maybe remembering ALL the events from Transference, despite his earlier denials. And Lex not knowing his dad had the stone that Jason stole from Crosby. And Genevieve (guest Jane Seymour) having murderous intent toward Lana. And Jason still loving Lana, despite her rejection of him
in favor of Clark.

And just how much does (or did) Jason know about Clark? Is Clark the so-called "Chosen One" that Lionel referred to? Is that why Lionel shot Jason just before he was going to divulge more information about Clark to Lex?

Probably more questions were posed in this episode than were answered but the scribes did an excellent job at juggling all storylines. They also did well with using the FOTW plot about not wanting to leave behind the glory days of school to support the main theme of moving forward. Lionel and Lex; Genevieve and Jason; Clark, Jonathan and Martha all had to deal with their parent-child relationships in a changing landscape.

And the oedipal overtones of Genevieve's interaction with Jason were just plain creepy. How'd you like to have her as a Mom? I thought Lionel was bad, but what a hateful, controlling, and manipulative woman. Yikes.

And it was a very nice touch to have Jonathan tell Clark of him being in the same situation as Clark (staying in Smallville to help out with the farm instead of leaving to go to college) when he was the same age. That extra layer of conflict for Jonathan
is a great addition to his story. And Annette O'Toole absolutely shone in her barn scene with John. She showed some great emotion there.

I loved the scene toward the end where Chloe was taking down the last remnants of the Wall of Weird. It was touching and really felt like she was saying goodbye. But did anyone else notice that the last thing she took down was the photo she took of the Kent
Barn with the Kryptonian symbol for "hope" burned onto its side from Rosetta? I thought that was an interesting touch, and perhaps is a bit of foreshadowing…

The show was beautifully shot and framed and the music was excellent in helping to build the tension and suspense of the episode.

Overall, the episode was excellent but with a few oddities that kept it from being perfect.

4 stars out of 5

Some Editing Weirdness:

One thing that perplexed me was the series of scenes at the end with Chloe, Clark and Lana back at the school.

Now, just before this we had the night time scene in the loft between Jonathan and Clark. That was a great scene, by the way, but it appeared to be at the end of the same day that started with Chloe realizing that she wasn't really in school. Clark and Jonathan were both wearing what they'd been wearing earlier that day, after all…

So, I thought it odd that we then we go to a daytime scene with Chloe taking down the Wall of Weird.

I was very confused.

I mean, Lois had talked to Clark about it being the last day of school earlier in the episode. So why was Chloe in school the next day? The day after the last day of school? And wearing the same clothes she'd been wearing the day before?

So, I paid attention to that when I watched the episode a second time.

Only upon the second viewing did it hit me why that might have been.

I'm really guessing, perhaps an educated guess but a guess all the same, but I think originally the episode all took place within the space of one day: A day that starts with Chloe in Brendan's prison and ends with Clark and Jonathan's scene in the loft.

I think what Marshall did was decide to put the scenes with the kids leaving school at the end of the episode after the night time scene with Clark and Jonathan.

I can sorta see his reasoning behind this, the bitter sweetness of the three friends walking away from their pasts into their futures was a nice ending. It was nicely shot, as well. However, I would have preferred what I think was the original ending: Clark and Jonathan hugging in the loft after their emotional scene.

But that might just be me…

Note: The views of Triplet don't necessarily represent the thoughts and feelings of everyone at KryptonSite. Though we want to know something - wasn't it once said on the show that Jonathan and Martha met in college? Send her feedback - Talk about this review on the KryptonSite Forum!

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