#10.5 “Isis” Review

NOTE: I will reveal spoilers in this review. So, read no further if you wish to remain unspoiled before viewing the episode.

I finished my review of the previous episode ‘Homecoming’ only minutes before this one aired and let me tell you, watching this was quite a buzz kill. While it’s not the worst episode I’ve ever seen, I think it is safe to say that this it wasn’t nearly as good as the previous one. Like following pets or kids, maybe ‘Homecoming’ is an extremely hard act to follow. I think they gave it a very valiant try, but there were parts of this episode that I didn’t like much at all. Yet, there were other parts I adored.

Written by Genevieve Sparling, this episode was a pretty mixed bag. First thing that was wrong was in Lois’ scene in the tease: I had recently talked about how well the show had handled several soliloquies and then this episode has an awful example of a character talking to no one but herself. I love Erica; I really do, but what a terrible scene.

And I get it: it is an important talk, confronting Clark about his secret, so I can see practicing it ahead of time. She wanted to essentially think out loud about what she wanted to say. That makes sense, I’ve done it myself, but it just seemed awkwardly handled. It felt forced and contrived and some of the dialogue was ‘on-the-nose’ (which means Lois had said exactly what she was thinking, no one talks like that). I hated it.

Well, that’s not quite true: I hated most of it.

I did like how excited Lois got at the end of the little chat with herself and the imaginary Clark. She was so happy that she was finally going to talk to him about his secret. I’m glad she wanted to try and move things forward instead of just letting things be. Her relationship with Clark had a pretty significant change in ‘Homecoming,’ Clark and her actually saying the ‘L word,’ so it makes sense for her to want to build on that. She’s not waiting for things to happen, she’s taking action, and better yet it fit her character. So, I liked that aspect of the scene a lot.

While the episode didn’t start in the best way, it was an extremely strong episode thematically. Every storyline had something to do with love and what you were willing to risk for it. That idea kept getting brought up over and over again and it helped support the storylines for all the characters as they struggled to deal with the dilemmas they faced in their love lives throughout this episode. Clark and Lois had declared their love in the previous episode, so it makes sense to expand on it in this episode so crafting an entire episode around love makes sense.

For Oliver, he has to struggle with the continued absence of Chloe and the consequences of his announcement that he’s Green Arrow. He talked to Clark and Tess about how his revealed truths had affected Chloe.

Tess was right when she told Oliver that Chloe didn’t mind being caught in the cross-fire if that’s what it took to stay with Oliver: she loves him that much. It was good for Oliver to see that he’s not to blame for what happened (whatever it was). Chloe’s an adult and made her own choices. I think it will be less traumatic than Oliver is fearing, whatever it is that is keeping her away, but I suppose only time will tell. It does seem like their relationship has taken a turn for the worse.

Tess’ conversations with Oliver about Chloe and love helped to give her some direction on how to handle Alexander. She eventually came to the correct conclusion that if she loves the little boy, she needs to do what she can to protect him and love him back. The worst thing to do is treat him like an experiment; keeping him with her is the right thing to do. However, allowing herself to love Alexander makes her more vulnerable and she risks getting hurt. Tess is so careful about everything in her life it will be interesting to see how letting herself love the little boy will affect what she does.

Then all this realization bore some terrific fruit for Tess: in that last scene in Watchtower, in essence, Clark and Oliver showed her loving understanding by giving her a second chance. They both have had their issues with Tess in the past, but to step away from the past the way that Clark had decided to following the events in ‘Homecoming’ was perfect. To not dwell on the past means all of it, Tess’ hurtful actions included. So, it makes sense Clark and Oliver wanted her to take Chloe’s place. She’s smart and can fill the void. She’s not Chloe, and it would be difficult to completely trust her, but I suppose she’ll do in a pinch. It’ll be interesting to see someone cool and business-like (and not as cute and loveable as Chloe is) in that role. The dynamic will certainly be different.

And I must say that this is probably one of Cassidy Freeman’s strongest outings to date. She played Tess as hard-edged, yet vulnerable, in a remarkably effective portrayal of all the different emotional states Tess had been in during this episode. The scenes where Tess cried after talking to Clark and Oliver and then the one where Tess read that book to Alexander were both extraordinary. I adored what Cassidy did in this episode.

For Clark, he had finally figured out that Lois is the one for him, which is a nice follow-on for the events in ‘Homecoming,’ but he still struggled with telling Lois the truth. It may not seem logical that he’s still so cautious, but it makes sense to me.

History has shown Clark that it’s not a good idea to be honest about his secret. People get hurt because they know or turn away from him. Oliver told Lois the truth and they broke up, although Oliver was right that probably wasn’t directly related. Lana knew the truth about him and it didn’t help their relationship much. Knowing his secrets also put her at risk, ultimately being the reason why she can’t be with him. (For more on that, see ‘Power’ from a few seasons ago.) Pete learned his secret and it eventually led to him leaving Smallville. (To see Pete’s denouement in the show, you’d have to go back to season 3’s ‘Forsaken.’)

So, of course he’s going to be cautious. What he saw of his future in last week’s episode has let him know it will eventually be okay, Clark doesn’t have to be afraid of telling her, but it’s still tough. He’s had to hide the truth his entire life, even before he really knew the whole truth himself. It would be a very difficult habit to break, so Clark trying several times before he could talk to her about it makes complete sense.
And I loved that as pre-ordained as Clark telling Lois his secret seemed to be, it was actually the events in the episode (in the here and now) that made him act. That’s awesome. He didn’t tell her because he was meant to, but because he needed to.

Clark was compelled by the threat to Lois’ life to come clean because he wanted to live the rest of his life with her. He was right when he said that he couldn’t expect that outcome if he wasn’t willing to tell her the truth, so I thought that part was handled beautifully.

Even though getting possessed is a very tired story-telling device, it’s been used far too often (you know I’ve complained about this before), but I think one of the episode’s strong points was how well the trope was handled. Isis being in the body of Lois, the woman he loves, forced Clark to be very careful. He couldn’t hurt Isis, because that would hurt Lois. So, he had to think of another way around using physical force. It also forced him to talk to her, to try and reason with Isis, so that he could get Lois back. It gave Isis the chance to talk to him about how she felt about love and how his caution might signify lack of commitment or passion. As contrived as the plot-device is, it certainly helped get home the point of the episode. It also gave Erica a chance to shine. I’m not sure that I’ve seen a better performance from her. Erica’s performance was amazing and being possessed allowed Isis to say what Oliver didn’t (or couldn’t): Clark has to be willing to bet it all, and potentially lose everything, if that’s what it takes to keep Lois.

That lesson was important for Clark to learn. Oliver telling him that wasn’t enough, he had to feel it. And forced to deal with the danger to Lois’ life made him act to try and protect her anyway he could. He couldn’t go on with the lies and secrets and hope to be in a serious relationship. It’s poisoned his past relationships, especially with Lana. Yet, to an extent, everyone close to him had been harmed by the secrets more than helped by them. It was fantastic that the final scene didn’t unfold quite the way that Lois had thought back in the tease. Things rarely go exactly as planned, but the way that scene was written was so beautiful.

It was possibly the biggest moment of Clark’s life: fully trusting Lois and finally telling her his secret. It’s only from here they can move forward. It will also save us from something like the awful will-he-or-won’t-he-tell-his-secret merry-go-round the show had with Lana that soured me on the show so much I almost stopped watching back in season 3.

I thought the entire scene was beautifully done. It was touching, heartfelt and it was so significant. It was probably another one of the best moments of the series. Tom played that so well and it was beautifully written too. It also matched Lois’ description of when he told her as being romantic and such a beautiful day. I can’t wait to see how Clark is around Lois now that he knows she knows.

I liked how Cat Grant was handled in this episode; she was less of a caricature. I also liked how well her parts of the episode tied into the main stories. Her interactions with Tess, Clark and Lois were all terrific.

While there were some fantastic things in this script, there were also some very stupid things: There was the aforementioned uncomfortable scene with Lois talking to herself, but then there was the idea that the Isis necklace somehow ended up in Lois’ bag, yet no one noticed until weeks later? It’s not like that dig looked like it was scientifically sound (Shouldn’t they have been wearing white cotton gloves to protect the ancient artifacts?), but seriously? Someone thought the crew only realizing the necklace was gone when they started to unpack was realistic? I would have thought they would have noticed right away it was gone. It’s a priceless ancient artifact, wouldn’t they notice it wasn’t around to put it in the box to begin with?

And why wasn’t Carter Hall in this? It was about Isis and everlasting love, it would be perfect for him to be in this, with his own ties to Egypt and his own fatefully tragic love-life. Maybe Michael Shanks wasn’t available, so maybe the show made the best of a bad situation. Yet, Carter’s absence made the episode feel like something important was missing.

Probably not the best episode Genevieve has ever written, but I think in the end I liked it a lot more than I hated it. The beautiful parts of the episode had more than made-up for the uglier parts.

Director James Marshall hasn’t directed as many episodes the past few seasons as he used to and I usually love his stuff, but I think there were a few missteps here. I’m not entirely sure if he was to blame for this, I have zero experience on a professional set (well, at least one that didn’t involve news readers, a sports guy, a weather man, and teleprompters), so I might be wrong at completely laying this at his feet, but I didn’t like how some of the scenes were staged.

First, it was completely obvious that Keri Lynn Pratt was standing on boxes in most of her scenes. The whole cast is so much taller than her, so I understand that it would be standard operating procedure to make her appear tall enough to put her in the same shot as Tom or Erica. Yet, I think it was a missed opportunity to let her be her own height. In the past, the show had at times eschewed the boxes to help make shorter cast members seem smaller and more vulnerable. I don’t know why that wasn’t applicable here. It could have helped make her seem more vulnerable, especially in the scene she had with Isis. It didn’t that it was obvious. She was actually taller than Erica in that final Daily Planet scene she was in. It looked ridiculous.

Also, the way that Isis stood with the dagger held up by both hands probably would have made it impossible for Oliver to shoot the necklace from her throat. Her arms and shoulders would have blocked it and the lamely obvious Visual Effects work didn’t help that at all. The moment completely pulled me out of the scene, not good when it’s the climactic action sequence of the episode.

Costume Designer Melanie Williams had designed a gorgeous costume for Lois to wear as Isis. It was skimpy, as would be expected (it seems like if Justin doesn’t take off his shirt in an episode, Erica has to show off her cleavage), but it fit Erica beautifully. It wasn’t anywhere close to accurate to the period, I’m sure, but it conveyed a similar style to what ancient Egyptians wore and looked fabulous on Erica.

Music Composer Louis Febre wrote a fantastic score. I think my favorite part was the final scene between Clark and Lois: it was vital to their relationship and the romantic nature of the ending bit, right after Lois leapt into Clark’s arms and knocked him over, was perfect. It started out so soft and delicate, then built, the music rising to being romantic and fuller-sounding. What a terrifically scored episode.

This episode was a bit hit or miss, but I enjoyed it for the most part. The great acting from everyone involved, especially Cassidy, Erica and Tom, along with that fantastically epic final scene, have pushed this up a point or so. I give this episode 4 Amulets of Isis out of a possible 5.

Note: The views of Triplet don’t necessarily represent the thoughts and feelings of everyone at KryptonSite. Send her feedback.