#4.22 “Commencement” Recap & Review

NOTE: This review contains SPOILERS for the fourth season finale of Smallville. If you read this, know that major plot twists and details ARE within.

A lot-less-brief-than-normal recap:

Lana gets attacked by Genevieve Teague and Isobel makes possibly her last appearance in order to kill her. Lex witnesses the aftermath. Clark has a horrible nightmare about meteors and wakes the entire house. Lex hides Lana in the mansion, and probably not only because he’s concerned for her safety.

Lionel cleans up the “mess” back in Lana’s apartment. He then goes toe to toe with Lex over the stone that Lana has as monstrously huge meteors hurtle toward Smallville. Lois helps Clark get ready for his commencement, which Lana fails to show for but dozens of soldiers do. As everyone starts to evacuate the impending meteor shower, Clark feels compelled to confront Jor-El about these events.

Jor-El reveals that it was Clark’s actions that have brought the impending disaster but Clark can do nothing to stop it. His only hope to avoid global annihilation, and his own death, is to unite the three elements.

Clark returns to Jonathan and Martha to tell them that he must stay behind to unite the stones. Lana, perhaps inexplicably, gives Clark the stone from China. They pledge their love for each other in a tender scene then each go their separate ways.

Jason shows up and takes the Kents hostage, trying to force them to reveal where Clark hid the stones.

Lex tries to manipulate Lionel into giving him the stone he has. When Clark puts the element from China next to the one he stole from Lex, all three stones start to put out energy. Lionel has the third one hidden in his pocket and he goes into convulsions as the energy surges from that stone. That stone calls out to Clark with a high pitched whine. Lex has Lionel taken up and put into bed and then puts Lana on a helicopter bound for Metropolis.

Clark superspeeds into Lex’s library and tries to steal the stone, but he gets disabled by kryptonite laced artifacts in the vault where it’s hidden. Chloe finds him and pulls him free of the kryptonite just before Lex walks in. Clark speeds away. Lex finds Chloe’s story hard to believe, so he forces her to go with him down to the caves to try and find Clark.

The meteors start to fall and all intersecting storylines escalate to some great cliff hangers. Lionel lies in a catatonic state in the mansion. Lana barely escapes with her life from the helicopter crash and then finds a huge crashed space craft. The Kents and Jason are all in the Kent Farm House as a huge meteor strikes the roof. When Clark touches the merged stone (now a brilliant crystal in the familiar Superman S-shield shape), he is painfully transported to away in a flash of light. That same flash of light appears to hurt Chloe and Lex. Then, in a scene very reminiscent of Chris Reeve’s first Superman film, where Clark throws a Kryptonian crystal that forms the Fortress of Solitude; Tom Welling’s Clark Kent finds himself alone in a vast, white wasteland. He throws the shield-shaped crystal but we don’t see it land much less see if it will create the Fortress of Solitude…

com·mence·ment 1. A beginning; a start. 2a. A ceremony at which academic degrees or diplomas are conferred. b. The day on which such a ceremony occurs

Review:

A commencement is a ceremony that marks an ending, but it can also mean a beginning.

Many times Smallville episode titles have multiple levels of meaning, if you think about it. (And I do. Yeah: I know. I’m a Smallville geek.) It’s wonderfully elegant to me that they can often fit so much into a single word title…

Anyway, this title is no different and it is perfect for this episode. In this, we saw Clark graduating from his all too human past of being a teen in high school to finally accepting his all too alien future. (More about that at the end of the review.)

The episode got out of the gate with a fast start, with a great cat fight between Genevieve Teague (guest Jane Seymour) and Lana. Isobel makes what seems to be her last appearance as she inhabits Lana one last time to protect Lana. Isobel kills Genevieve with the element and then leaves Lana to deal with the consequences… I must say, that Kristin Kruek really outdid herself in this scene.

I’ve never really been all that impressed with Kristin overall as an actress, she has her moments but she tends to be wildly uneven. However, she really did some impressive things in this first scene. When Genevieve was strangling Lana and Isobel showed up (again, with that amazingly striking lavender sparkle in her eyes), the change in Lana was immediate and obvious.

And after Isobel finally enacted the revenge she’d been waiting 400 years to get on Gertrude’s family and kills Genevieve. Isobel then leaves Lana’s body, Kristin totally sold the petrifying fear and confusion Lana was feeling. It was very well done and she actually kept up the good work for the rest of the episode. So, this was an excellent episode for her.

Michael Rosenbaum’s Lex is clearly stepping into his element here, becoming manipulative, tempestuous and conniving unlike anything we’ve really seen up until this point. Sure, he was helping Lana deal with killing Genevieve, but he was also trying to take advantage of her vulnerability at the same time in order to get the stone from her. I’m not sure that Lana was totally oblivious to his duplicity, but she was still forced by circumstance to lean on Lex.

Michael Rosenbaum and John Glover were both pure joy to watch dueling it out to get the upper hand in getting the stone from Lana. I especially loved Lionel’s great scene in Lana’s apartment after he had cleaned up Lana’s “mess” that she’d left behind. There he said perhaps one of the best Lionel lines ever:

“You know, for a woman without a heart, Genevieve Teague certainly did have a lot of blood.” What a great line.

Jonathan and Martha had some great scenes as well and both John Schneider and Annette O’Toole shone. I was glad to see that they were again given some great parenting scenes with Clark, something we had seen too little of this season.

Jenson Ackles, in probably his last appearance as Jason before he moves onto his new show “Supernatural,” really proved he can act in this episode. Jason was at times confused, enraged and so scary in his anger… He was wonderful.

Erica Durance did an excellent job with her more comedic scenes with Tom. As usual she has a great onscreen chemistry with him and she just sparkles as Lois busts Clark’s chops. Her final scene watching the destructive aftermath of the meteor shower was also quite touching, her emotions were clearly raw.

Although, I must admit that I’m getting kind of tired or her constant not-so-subtle allusions to Superman and her future. While some were amusing, it’s getting old… Hopefully, they’ll back off on that next season.

Tom Welling was truly amazing. Not only was he handsome as ever, he’s looking really good with the longer hair (thanks to his movie role in the remake of The Fog), but he sold the confusion and reluctance Clark feels about finally accepting his destiny. Although, I must say it’s about time the 28 year old finally graduated from High School. As gorgeous as he is, it’s getting harder to believe the very manly Tom Welling is a teenager so this is a good thing.

On to my recent fascination with costuming: I must say that I’m impressed that the costume designer had Lex, Lana and Genevieve start out the episode in the same clothes they were wearing at the end of the previous episode, Forever. Good job. Especially given some of the inexplicable costuming decisions made this season…

The episode was beautifully shot, and I was especially impressed with lighting in the apartment scene with Lionel and Lex.

Mark Snow’s music was remarkably effective in this episode. So much so that even my trumpet playing 12 year old said how nice he thought some of the trumpet solos were… I also really liked the drum beating moments he did over the countdown clock, as corny as that could have been the clock counting down with the drum bit helped to build the tension.

As for the story in this episode, I’m a bit confused on how getting human blood on one of the stones started a meteor shower. Also, what the hell is the deal with that ship? And who, or what might, be coming out of it at the end?

There are possibly more questions posed in this episode than were answered but I’m glad some of the ongoing storylines were finally tied up. I actually loved the witch storyline this season, but I’m sure when Lana’s tattoo disappeared there was dancing in the streets from some who have loathed the witch story arc.

No matter: what a ride!

I was almost literally on the edge of my seat as each scene unfolded. Darren Swimmer’s and Todd Slavkin’s script was tight and, despite some groaner references to Superman and that remarkably convenient gift of the stone from Lana, it was remarkably close to perfect.

It’s going to be a very long summer.

5 stars out of 5.

Comparing Superman: The Movie and Smallville: Commencement Fortress of Solitude moments…

Many people online were excited by the similarities between the forming of the Fortress of Solitude scenes in the first Superman movie and here, in this episode. I saw the same similarities and, out of curiosity, went back and took another look at the film before writing this review. (Possibly one reason why it took me so long…)

Anyway, I say that despite some of the main landmarks being the same, these scenes are very different.

In Superman: The Movie, Clark Kent (played by Jeff East in the relatively early scene) is driven by grief for his dead father and a desire to figure out where he fits in the grand scheme of things to take him to the North Pole. The sequence has a slow build up and an epic feel. Clark walks to the North Pole on a trek possibly only Superman could make, very slowly and deliberately. He is not motivated by fear but by an aching sadness. He’s looking for the purpose his adoptive father, Jonathan Kent (so brilliantly played by Glenn Ford), said he should have. After all, dear old dad was right: he wasn’t sent to Earth to just score touchdowns.

He threw that green crystal almost as a challenge to that destiny he didn’t ask for and doesn’t want. He was angry.

Having a destiny that is bigger than winning football games was a lesson Smallville’s Clark Kent learned on his own. John Schneider’s Jonathan had very nearly the same conversation with Clark about it being important that he do more with his talents than throwing game winning spirals.

In Smallville, Tom Welling’s Clark is a much more bull headed, more like his modern comic book self, than was Jeff East’s or even Chris Reeve’s. This Clark doesn’t always dutifully follow his father’s advice. This Clark is forced by circumstance to finally find his way to his destiny. He doesn’t want the destiny determined by his physiology and planned by his biological father, Jor-el.

In fact his alien nature scares him but he is ultimately forced into a quest to find the stones driven by much, much higher stakes: the fate of the world hangs in the balance.

The build up is much more dynamic than what Richard Donner gave us in the first Superman film. No laconic build up; no sweeping wide shots of Kansas prairie and expansive helicopter shots of cracked glaciers. Definitely no introspective marathon walks to the North Pole here.

No, instead we have Clark, in pain, whisked off in a flash to a field of ice and snow somewhere in the arctic. Although initially confused, this Clark becomes very Superman-like and takes charge.

Tom Welling’s Clark grabs that crystal and throws it. Snatching that stone from the air is him grabbing hold of his destiny. That decision, and that amazing throw, is his first step (his commencement if you will) of the final leg of the journey that will see him becoming the man who will one day pull on blue tights.

It was a beautiful scene and I can’t wait to see what happens when that crystal finally hits the snow in four months…

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