#5.16 “Hypnotic” Recap & Review

NOTE: Read no further if you don’t want to be spoiled! I spoil vital plot points… You’ve been warned

Recap:

Scientists extract blood from dead people inside a remote shack in the Honduran jungle. When Milton Fine (special guest star James Marsters) shows, they tell him it’s quarantined and he’s been exposed to a deadly virus. Fine doesn’t care, of course. He takes the blood, kills the scientists, and sets the shack on fire before speeding off.

Lana invites Clark over to the dorm room, it seems Chloe is doing an all-nighter at the Planet and they’ll have the room to themselves. Still avoiding intimacy, Clark claims to have farm work he has to do instead. As soon as Lana leaves, Simone (guest star Nichole Hiltz) bewitches Clark with a magic crystal. He does anything she wants, including making out with her in the alley behind the Talon. Lois catches them and Clark introduces Simone as his new girlfriend. Lex tells Lana that he thinks Fine is the key to finding the space ship. After Clark shows off his speed, Simone asks him to invite Lana over… Lois tells Chloe about Clark’s relationship with Simone and she becomes concerned that something is wrong with him. Clark shows Simone some strength, strips and makes out with her on request. Lana walks in on them and Simone orders Clark to break it off with Lana. He does and Lana is devastated.

Simone meets with Lex in the mansion via remote (he calls in from the Luthorcorp jet on route to Honduras) and it turns out he was behind it all. He’s glad Lana and Clark have broken up but is disappointed that Simone didn’t find out anything about Clark’s powers. He now wants Simone to do him a “favor” in Honduras. She doesn’t want to do it… Chloe confronts Clark about Simone. He defends Simone and tells Chloe to back off. Lex meets up with Fine in Honduras and they talk about the ship and Fine’s clandestine “work” with the government.

Chloe tells Lois what she had discovered about Simone’s powers and they head to the farm. Chloe grabs a green k stone before leaving. Fine shows Lex a carving of a space ship a peasant made, however the peasant later died so Lex can’t interview him about its location. Fine confesses that the “government” needs his help. Lex hesitates so Fine tells him if he doesn’t cooperate and help build the weapon to defend against the aliens, there might not be anything left to defend. Lois shows up at the farm but Clark is still mesmerized and is on the way out of town with Simone. Simone orders Clark to knock Lois out and then orders Clark to kill Lex.

Clark tries to kill Lex upon his return from Honduras. Lex tells Clark that Simone is a murderer and he hesitates, but Simone tells Clark to not believe Lex and kill him anyway. Clark lifts Lex up and is about the crush his larynx when Chloe shows up with the green-k. Clark collapses, helpless. When Lex turns a gun on her, Simone orders Lex to kill Chloe and then himself. Chloe and Lex fight for his gun and it goes off. The bullet hits Simone right in her hypno-jewel. The crystal is destroyed, she is killed and the spells are broken. Now back to normal, Clark talks to Chloe about what happened and why Clark has decided to NOT make up with Lana.

Lana has a heart to heart with Clark and he tells her that he doesn’t love her anymore. Fine drips from the ship again, like he did in the season premiere, only this time he splits into four Fines… The first one tells the other three. “We need more samples.” They all run off. Martha consoles Clark after making his painful decision to break it off with Lana. Martha suggests that maybe Lana isn’t the one for him. Also, Martha said that making Lana angry at him maybe wasn’t a good idea… Devastated, Lana tells Lex about the break-up with Clark. Lex consoles her by saying that maybe she put her trust in the wrong person.

Review:

Cripes. I wanted to like this one, I really did but it was just a disappointment on so many levels. What a let down after the great Cyborg.

First off, the writing: Scribes Todd Slavkin and Darren Swimmer usually produce much better product. On first viewing I actually didn’t mind the ‘A’ story too much, but upon a second viewing it really started to bug me. I even watched it a third time to see if maybe I was over-reacting. I still hated it.

I mean, there’s Simone with a magic crystal that can affect Clark. It’s kind of a sexy idea, having Superman be your love slave. Too bad the sexiest part of the story was having Clark strip to his boxers. Yawn.

Clark pawing Simone behind the Talon was great eye candy, but it seemed gratuitous. It was also a convenient plot point to get Lois to witness the bewitched Clark so the writers could shoehorn her into the plot. As much as I love Lois, and Erica Durance was terrific in this episode, I really don’t think she was needed in it at all. Chloe was the one helping Clark and Lana was the one getting her heart broken… So why was Lois even needed?

Oh, and I hated how they broke up Lana and Clark. I can understand Clark’s reasoning. Like he told Martha, he either had to tell Lana his secret or break it off cleanly. That makes sense and they had been building up to that decision ever since he got his powers back at the end of Hidden. However, the Teen of Steel should have had the backbone to break it off with Lana himself without getting an assist from a mesmerizing lover. Superman doesn’t shy away from difficult tasks. In Hypnotic he became whiny and passive aggressive and it stinks.

Following the death of Jonathan, Clark has taken on many more responsibilities and has become far more adult in his outlook. Why wasn’t he capable of breaking it off on his own? If making Lana hate Clark was the goal, wouldn’t Clark telling Lana straight out to get lost have been just as infuriating than what he did? What he did was contrived, out of character and a disservice not only to Clark as a character but to his relationship with Lana. They both deserved a better break-up than that.

The only saving grace for the writing in this episode was the terrific Fine/Lex interaction. The writers moved the Fine/ship/evil Kryptonians storyline along quite a bit, adding in a dash of Lexian manipulation of Lana to boot. There were important developments in this episode, and Fine’s plan is brilliant. He’s roping Lex in using the things he’d certainly be fascinated by, like shady government agencies building secret weapons and alien spaceships carrying alien invaders set out to destroy the world. Lex loves to conspire and Fine creating a conspiracy for him to be part of is brilliant. Lex isn’t even angry with Fine for investigating him anymore. It’s the perfect plan to get Lex on his side.

Usually, I don’t have any problems with Tom Welling’s performances, so this will be one of the rare exceptions. I actually disliked most of the performance that Tom delivered in this episode. Yeah. Me.

However, I really don’t think it was his fault. He probably would have done better if he had been given better direction.

I was confused on why sometimes the mesmerized Clark was an automaton just waiting for a command and yet at other times he seemingly enjoyed his magical enslavement. He shouldn’t have been laughing at the idea of leaving for California or enjoying the thought of killing Lex. Clark would never be happy at leaving his mother alone, enslaved or not. And as much as Clark hates Lex right now, would he actually relish the thought of killing him? I don’t think he would… The “joy” Clark showed at times while under Simone’s hypnotic spell just didn’t seem well motivated to me.

I think Michael Rohl’s direction of the episode was mostly to blame for the problems Tom had because once Clark was back to normal, and back in more familiar territory for his character, Tom did much better. Actually, he was close to brilliant in that final loft scene with Lana. In that final shot of him after she left, his face evoked so many emotions I could almost tell what he was thinking without a single word of dialogue being spoken. It was a powerful moment.

Also, another clue to me that the director wasn’t helping anyone out was the uneven tone. The scenes in the house both Annette O’Toole and Tom showed a totally different, almost campy, take on being hypnotized than what Tom did for the rest of the episode. Why were the effects of the hypnotic charm so different from scene to scene and from character to character? It was very strange.

That said, there were some more successful performances in this episode. Kristin Kreuk actually turned in probably one of her best. Kristin has really matured this season as an actress and she played the emotional roller coaster that Lana went through ably and with confidence. I was impressed with how well she pulled off Lana’s devastation after she’d found Clark and Simone together. I actually got teary eyed seeing her sob and she was nearly perfect in that final scene with Lex. Exasperated with Clark and looking to Lex for someone to vent to, she played the many different emotions Lana was going through in that scene magnificently.

Kristin was also just about the most gorgeous she’s ever been in this episode. I don’t know what they’re doing different with her hair and make-up but they should keep it up. She was gorgeous.

Allison Mack and Erica Durance both turned in excellent performances. I like it when Lois has scenes with Chloe; the two actresses have an almost sisterly camaraderie that I love to watch so maybe I shouldn’t complain too much when Lois gets shoe horned into an episode using contrived plot points… Oh, well.

I am possibly one of James Marsters biggest new fans. I absolutely love it whenever he shows up. Fine making three copies of himself was totally out of this world. What a great effect and what a fantastic escalation of events. With Fine manipulating Lex into helping him and the new story arc with the virus samples, the stakes are getting higher for Clark and he doesn’t even know it yet. I can’t wait to see what will happen next with Fine.

Michael Rosenbaum was at his sexy, evil doer best in this episode. I just love how easily he lies to Lana even while telling her he wouldn’t ever… Michael plays Lex smooth as silk, even as he was getting duped by Fine. I love to watch him work.

I am confused about something. They had the whole “previously on Smallville” thingy at the beginning of the show which spent quite a bit of time going over the Martha/Lionel dynamic and Lionel knowing all about Clark’s secret, but neither of those situations even came up. The Magnificent Bastard didn’t even appear in this episode. So, why take time to remind us about this? I found that odd, in retrospect. They’ve only got 42 minutes or so to tell a story. Why give even a second away if you don’t have to?

Despite some excellent performances and the fantastic escalation of events surrounding Fine, I’d say this episode (on the whole) was a bust. I give this one 2 electric blue magic jewels out of a possible 5.

NOTE: This episode was dedicated to the memory of Dana Reeve, who lost her battle with lung cancer on March 7th. Never a smoker and only 44, Christopher Reeve’s widow had still continued her tireless work with the foundation her husband had started even after she had been diagnosed last summer.

The world is a lesser place without Dana Reeve in it.

Donations can be made in her name to Christopher Reeve Foundation at www.christopherreeve.org.

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