#5.1 “Arrival” Recap & Review

NOTE: If you haven’t seen this episode, and don’t want to be spoiled, stop reading right now and go watch it. It’s a great episode.

Brief recap:

In the wake of a devastating meteor shower, Clark gets transported to the Fortress of Solitude, but doesn’t realize Chloe did too. Dying in the bitter cold, she interrupts his “training” session with Jor-El. Her plight forces Clark to make a deal with Jor-El to save her life. Lex wakes alone in the caves and wants to know more than anything what happened to Chloe.

Jonathan can’t find Martha in the wreckage of their home, so Lois pitches in to find her. Lana sees two Kryptonians (guests Alana Del La Garza and Leonard Roberts) emerge from the ship, and barely survives a super powered attack. Lex tries to convince Lana she imagined the ship. He is also extremely hurt and angry that Clark lied about being in the caves. Lana, with the help of Lionel, lures the two Kryptonians to the Luthor mansion but the trap she sets fails miserably. There, the Kryptonians have a confrontation with Clark who then reneges on his deal with Jor-El in order to save Lana. Lex finally finds Chloe. Best of all, Brainiac (special guest James Marsters) arrives…

Review:

I had predicted that the great cliff-hangers in the Season 4 ender, Commencement, would make for a very long summer and I was right. And, dare I say it? The episode was well worth the wait.

There was a lot of eye candy on the screen in this one and major set pieces from the Superman mythos were key story elements. For a lot of fanboys (and fangirls *ahem*) who disliked the witch/stones story arc from last season, this episode will likely get the sour taste of Isobel and the search for the stones out of their mouths.

The show opened strong, with Clark seemingly alone in the arctic, as the Fortress of Solitude emerges from the ice. In probably one of the biggest set pieces from the Superman mythos, the formation of the Fortress was jaw droppingly spectacular.

However the CG, while good, wasn’t perfect. The crystals forming didn’t look totally “real,” but given the technical and budgetary limitations of the medium (most TV shows can’t afford special effects at all, much less can afford such an extensive CG sequence), it was remarkably well done.

The dramatic rise of the huge crystals out of the snow was amazing. It was a nice touch that the “camera” was placed in the middle of the formation, unlike the similar moment from the first Superman film by Richard Donner, Superman: The Movie. In that film, only the crystal dropping to the ice and the initial phase of the formation was shown close up. The rest was done in an extreme long shot. The long shot and obvious model work in the original film were underwhelming by today’s standards, actually. So Smallville’s special effects team got it right. The sequence was exciting to watch.

As most Superman movie fans will probably recognize, while not an exact replica, the inspiration for the design of Smallville’s Fortress of Solitude is clearly the iconic set from the original films. Production Designer David Willson did a remarkable job with the design and implementation of the Fortress. It’s a beautiful set and is, from what series star Tom Welling said in a recent interview, a total joy to work on. I’m glad it will be featured throughout the season.

The new opening credit sequence is beautiful and is an improvement over the previous sequence, which had been largely unchanged since Season One. The considerably more vibrant credit sequence is probably fitting to what promises to be a far dynamic season here in Smallville’s fifth year.

The episode had a rushed feel to it, especially in the first act. Maybe that’s understandable, with scribes Darren Swimmer and Todd Slavkin trying to bring the audience up to speed quickly following the devastating meteor shower. There was a lot of stuff they had to get through and they had to do it fast. The rush to deliver a lot of story quickly is probably the major problem with this episode. Unfortunately, the Kryptonian invaders bent-on-world-domination plot line suffered the most for it.

The Kryptonians that emerged from the ship were totally unsympathetic, perhaps on purpose, but what was worse they also lacked even a hint of depth. The episode was so much about getting through all the stories for the show regulars they seemed to forget to make the villains really villainous, or even to make their crimes truly shocking.

To make matters worse, the final showdown in Lex’s library between Clark and the Kryptonians was anticlimactic… It was far too easy for the teenaged Clark to banish the fully adult invaders to the Phantom Zone. That’s something I’m not sure I buy, especially given that Clark isn’t in control of all of his super abilities just yet.

If these baddies ever do come back, which I suppose is possible, let’s hope the next time they give Clark a more exciting fight.

Things seemed more settled, and the actors less harried, starting with the second act.

In another able performance, Tom Welling was rock solid as Clark. In the scene with Chloe in her hospital room, Welling superbly portrayed Clark’s fear and confusion at being found out, even by a friend, and his regret at not telling Chloe himself.

Allison Mack was pitch perfect in that scene and Chloe’s reactions were just what I would have imagined from a loyal friend of Clark’s. His coming out to her was a much more satisfying exchange than his coming out with the strident Sam Jones III as Pete in the second season episode, Duplicity. What an excellent scene for both of them.

Welling also convincingly portrayed the selflessness of Clark throughout this episode. He chooses to protect the people he loves from the dangers they’re facing, rather than blindly obey Jor-El. And Clark had a high price to pay for his stubborn loyalty to his friends: Jor-El took his powers when Clark failed to return to the Fortress by sunset.

Skillfully portraying the confliction Clark felt, Welling especially shone in the scene where Clark has to choose between saving Lana and returning to the arctic as Jor-El ordered. Welling seems to have learned a thing or two this past summer while filming the two movies he has upcoming, and this is a sign of good things to come from him. He is getting better and better every season and is as handsome as ever.

And throughout this whole episode, Tom’s voice and bearing seemed to have had developed a more commanding air. He’s showing, in Clark, a new maturity that is better suited to the Superman he will become, than the teen he has been up until now. This progression is highly welcome, I’m sure, both for him as an actor (especially since he’s looking more his age) and for Clark as a character.

I’ve never been a huge Kristin Kreuk fan. Despite her beauty, she can be wildly uneven at times, but in this episode she put her best acting foot forward. She was remarkably subtle at times and delivered probably one of her most powerful scenes in the hospital room with Clark. She sold not only Lana’s fear, but her love for Clark as well. It will be an interesting dynamic for Kristin to play now that Clark is pledging that there will be no more secrets between them even as Lana has one pretty serious one to hide herself.

The always spot on supporting players, Michael Rosenbaum, Annette O’Toole, John Schneider, and John Glover were no exception either. They all performed at their best. I especially liked Rosenbaum’s portrayal of the increasingly manipulative, untrusting and angry Lex.

At the end of the show it’s revealed that the ship has been taken away and hidden deep in bowels of the Luthorcorp plant. This, combined with the ominous note he left for Lana and his creepy demeanor at Chloe’s bedside, certainly suggests that Lex’s scheming ways are definitely being kicked up a notch this season, as promised….

Erica Durance will only be on 13 episodes this year as Lois, despite being added to the credits, but given what she delivered in this episode that is far too few. She didn’t have much screen time but still made the most of it. She played Lois as her usual hard as nails self after also delivering some very touching moments when with the Kents. The scene in the hospital had Lois at her Clark-chops-busting best, and I look forward to more scenes with them together.

James Marshall delivered another excellent episode as he showed how well he can pull tender moments out of his actors, despite them being in the midst of a fast-paced, plot driven episode. Pacing probably could have been handled better, especially in the first act, but all in all this was an excellent turn for the veteran Smallville helmer. Glen Winter also delivered another beautifully shot episode. I always look forward to the shows he photographs, he rarely disappoints.

James Marsters, although credited at the beginning of the show, only appeared for a few moments at the very end of act five. The CG introduction of Brainiac was startling and creepy. From underneath the ship, he arises from a pool of fluid in a brilliantly conceived special effects shot.

Echoing the formation of the Fortress of Solitude, Brainiac emerges from black crystalline forms that grow upward from the pool on the floor.

The black crystals that became Brainiac at the end of the show are actually a nice contrast to the white crystals that formed the Fortress at its beginning. This visually reinforces the idea that Brainiac and the Fortress (and Jor-El) will become opposing forces for good and evil in Clark’s life. Caught in the middle, he will likely have to struggle with their conflicting agendas throughout the season.

The episode answered most of the questions left over from the season four finale, but also posed others that are still left to be answered. However, if this episode is any indication, Smallville’s fifth season will be a ride that Superman and Smallville fans alike will enjoy.

I can’t wait to see what they deliver next week and I hope we hear what Chloe tells Lex about how she came to be in the Yukon.

All in all, and despite the short shrift given the Kryptonian bad guy plot line and some storytelling expediencies, I give this episode 4 1/2 stars out of 5.

Of special note:

This episode was dedicated to the memory of Sam Loeb, 1988 – 2005. A Real Superboy.

Sam, son of former series producer and famed comic book writer Jeph, was a rising comic book star in his own right even at his young age.

A boy with a bright future ahead of him, he died way too young this past summer after losing a long battle with cancer. His is a great loss.

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