#10.16 “Scion” Review

Spoilers Lie Ahead: This review reveals several surprises from the episode, even one especially big one from the end of the episode, so if you read any further you risk getting spoiled in an especially huge way.

As much fun as the previous episode was, this one was a bit of a letdown, but only in contrast. This was also the last episode before the start of the spring hiatus (which will end when the final run of episodes for the series starts on April 15). I’m not sure anything would have completely worked to follow-up ‘Fortune,’ it was just so much lighter than most of the other episodes this season, but this was still a terrific episode…

Even with that said, the episode, written by producing/writing team of Al Septien & Turi Meyer, was a solid effort. I had worried about the consequences for Alexander, Tess and Clark when it was revealed at the end of ‘Beacon’ that Alexander was Super-powered (obviously part of his DNA having been contributed by Clark). I had realized as soon as that needle bent on Alexander’s skin that he must be Conner Kent. It was a shock and it came completely out of the blue, but it really makes so much sense. (And for me, unfortunately it ruined the power of the reveal at the end of the tease.)

For those not familiar with the comics, the original Conner Kent was different than how he has been portrayed in “Smallville” (he was a human that had been bio-engineered to have Superman-like powers), but in later versions ‘Superboy’ Conner Kent was the result of a clone that combined the DNA of both Lex Luthor and Clark Kent, which is exactly like the show.

I don’t know if the show had this character in mind when that little six year old version of Lex helped Tess back in ‘Lazarus,’ but it makes perfect sense if they did. However, if they hadn’t known where the character was going to end up, kudos to the show’s writers and producers for making him work out perfectly.

Not only does it make complete sense that Lex (or his scientists) would try anything to make the clones survive by using Clark’s DNA after all those failed ones died. It also ties in very nicely with the show’s past, so it let Al and Turi exhibit their excellent sense of the show’s continuity. (The restorative powers of Clark’s blood had played a big part of earlier seasons and even helped Zod recover his abilities last season.) It’s also fantastic how well it explains why Conner (previously known as Alexander) survived the cloning-caused ‘accelerated mitosis’ when all those other clones did not.

I loved the acting opportunities that were provided by the script. Not only was there some humor, which all actors perfectly portrayed, but there were some awesome Lionel scenes. It’s episodes like this that remind me of how much I adore John Glover. He was terrific in every scene and the actors he played against (Lucas Grabeel, Cassidy Freeman, Erica Durance and Tom Welling) all had fantastic moments in the scenes they had with him. I was especially impressed with Erica Durance in the meat locker scene between Lois and Lionel. She acted her heart out. How scared she played Lois, yet still so defiant of Lionel despite the vulnerable position she was in. It was a beautifully acted scene by Erica and John both.

Lucas Grabeel had another fantastic turn as Alexander, now known as Conner. It’s saying something that he can hold his own acting opposite John Glover and can even handle action scenes like a pro with Tom Welling. Although, he seemed a bit stiff at times in that first barn scene with Tom, Lucas believably pulled off the red-k infection. He played Conner with just the perfect amount of maniacal-Lex, very similar to how Michael Rosenbaum had played the evil Lex back in ‘Onyx’ in Season 4.

The script was nearly perfect, there were so many things that I loved. I loved John Glover’s scenes as the Lionel and the Lionel/Lex contentious dynamic was back in full force as Lionel dealt with ‘Alexander.’ One of the things that made the earlier seasons so terrific for me was their twisted father/son relationship and the confrontations that arose because of Lionel’s or Lex’s scheming. So I’m glad that Lionel is still scheming and it makes sense that Alexander, now Conner, wasn’t as willing to play along as he had been in ‘Beacon.’ That was a nice touch too since the half of his nature that was part of Clark has become more prominent.

And it was clever that the writers brought Red-K into the mix. It’s just the sort of thing that the mirror-universe Lionel would do. He was not above using Clark’s major weakness against him, so it makes sense that he would use any known weaknesses against Conner. Lionel manipulated Conner and told even bigger lies than Clark had. And Conner had no idea about that until his final confrontation with Clark.

I love that Clark’s earlier heat vision lessons only succeeded when it was really vital that Conner show some control over that power. The stakes had risen quite nicely though out the entire episode and Conner finally getting control of that power only when Clark’s life was in danger was perfect. It showed that Conner is a lot like Clark and that his part of Conner’s genes (like the comics) is the dominant side rather than Lex’s.

However, does Conner blowing up a piece of kryptonite mere inches from Clark make sense if you look at it closely? I mean, the kryptonite was right next to Clark and yet he stood up like nothing happened. As it blew apart, wouldn’t the kryptonite shards coming from the exploding rock have injured Clark? The Special Visual Effects had even shown bits that shot off as it exploded. Why wasn’t Clark skewered? I see the point, I really do, but that bit turned out more than a tad bit contrived.

And before that, why hadn’t Lois allowed herself to be rescued by Clark? She left as soon as he showed up when I would have thought that she would have let him take her away… I dunno. Maybe she thought Clark could better handle his little half-clone if she weren’t around to worry about, but it seemed a bit out of character.

Another thing I am not sure was completely in character was Clark not telling Conner who he really is. Clark is more or less Superman now and the Man of Steel isn’t scared of Lex Luthor. Even if that weren’t the case, I suppose it’s arguable it’s not, ten years of this series should have shown Clark that lies and secrets only lead to bad things. I would have thought that Clark would know better than that by now and he would have known Conner needed to know he was half Lex.

Despite those things, I really enjoyed this episode: it had a little bit of everything: humor, drama, great opportunities for the actors and crafts people to shine and the script was tight. There wasn’t a single stray piece of dialogue that didn’t fit or seemed to hang out by itself, like what can sometimes happen. Al Septien & Turi Meyer did a terrific job.

And Man! That was a fantastic cliff-hanger at the ending. It’s been an episode or two since Darkseid (or his minions) had appeared in an episode, so it was fantastic that is now tied to the mirror-universe Lionel. Now that Tess out maneuvered him (showing Lionel beautifully that she is a worthy scion of the Luthor family) and he’s out of control of the Luthor family fortune and Luthorcorp, it makes Lionel a prime recruit for Darkseid. So that was perfect way to bring Darkseid back into the show, even if only for a few seconds. His appearance right after Lionel said that he would ‘give anything to have’ Lex again by his side right before the Darkseid showed up was chilling. It sets up what will possibly be some fantastic complications for the show leading up to the series finale in May.

It probably helped the script seem so tight that co-writer Al Septien made his directorial debut on this episode. For a newbie, it was nice to see that he was able to side-step many of the problems that have seemed to plague first time helmers on the show. It wasn’t plodding or too talky and he had great shot coverage too. The episode showcased some awesome acting by everyone and it looked great too, it was a very visual episode.

That was probably helped by the fact that Glen Winter shot the episode. He always makes everyone look so good and there were some awesome moments. I loved how cold the light seemed in that meat locker Lionel was keeping Lois in. The light was a lot colder in all of Lionel’s scenes, actually, and the contrast ratio was higher. The contrast with how warm the scenes at the Kent farm were was terrific.
And I loved the crane shot in the barn at the end of the tease. After Clark and Tess entered the barn, the reveal of Conner holding up the tractor was drawn out by the camera starting up high, obscuring at first why it was sitting on-end. As the camera moved down, it moved around the tractor and then revealed how it was being held up by Alexander/Conner… That was a beautiful shot that was perfectly executed. I like how that shot was used almost exactly in reverse (right side of the screen instead othe left) when Lionel was standing at Lex’s grave. That was a nice touch. I also liked how the reveal of Darkseid arose from that. As Darkseid revealed himself and materialized in front of Lionel the low angle gave that shot a lot more power.

I usually don’t have any problems with Production Designer James Philpott’s work, but I have to wonder where he got those sides of beef in the meat locker. They were awful. I hope they were found (purchased) rather than built since they didn’t look even the tiniest bit real. Maybe he did the best he could with what he and the Set Decorator Andrea French and Property Master Aleya Naiman had to work with, but maybe the extremely fake sides of beef could have been more in the background or something. They were terrible.
However, James and his crew more than made up for that with the terrific redress of the Luthor mansion library set. That must have been fun. That set has been in heavy use since the second episode of the series, ‘Metamorphosis’ (the Luthor mansion scenes in the Pilot were shot on location) and to be honest, it had been looking a tad bit tired the past few seasons. Season 1 production design I’m not sure totally holds up to 10th season HD photography, so I’m glad the set has been put to such good use after it had gotten destroyed toward the end of ‘Beacon.’ I bet it might have been cathartic to smash it up in a super-powered fight in this episode, so kudos to them.

While this wasn’t a perfect episode, it was a very strong one and I really enjoyed it. It was a strong directorial debut for Al Septien and the script was incredibly satisfying, despite a few missteps. There was great acting all the way around and I especially loved that awesome cliff-hanger at the end. I give this episode 4.5 Red Kryptonite rings out of a possible 5.

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