#5.3 “Hidden” Recap & Review

NOTE: If you haven’t seen this episode and don’t want to be spoiled, don’t read past this point! Go get yourself in front of your TV, warm up your TiVO or pop that tape into your VCR, and watch it right now! You don’t want to put this off any longer than you have to. It’s fantastic!

Brief recap:

Gabriel (guest Johnny Lewis) takes over a missile silo and tells Chloe he’s going to get rid of Smallville forever. Clark and Lana get caught in a very cute “morning after” scene. Lex confronts Lana about what she knows about the space ship. Clark, still superpower free, helps Chloe track him down. Lex tries to open the Kryptonian ship but can’t. Chloe and Clark rig her car to look like she was in an accident to lure Gabriel to meet Chloe. Lex wants Lionel to tell him what the symbols mean that he’s drawn all over his cell in Belle Reve. Gabriel shoots Clark and takes Chloe away to the missile silo. Clark gets taken to the hospital where he fights for his life. He flatlines and somehow that brings Lionel out of his fugue state and he escapes from Belle Reve. Clark gets whisked away to the Fortress of Solitude by Lionel (who’s channeling Jor-El). He learns that he has a high price to pay for his refusal to obey his birth father but Clark saves the day in a surprising way, his powers fully restored. Lana defends Clark’s normalcy to Lex while Chloe tells Clark he needs to reveal his secret to Lana if he hopes to have a real relationship with her. (Well, duh.)

Review

Wow… And I mean: WOW!

Al Gough said in several interviews that this episode would be one of the best of the series and he wasn’t just spouting hyperbole. He was telling the truth because there is no exaggeration needed. This is possibly one of the best episodes of the series.

The episode started out quick with the unstable Gabriel taking over a missile silo near Smallville. His cryptic phone call to Chloe was seriously creepy. Not only was his acting above the norm for the normally throwaway guest starring role (no freak this week), but the actor had something to work with too.

Scribes Kelly Souders and Brian Peterson actually managed to craft a guest starring role that had some depth, despite him not having much screen time. It’s a pleasant change of pace. There were even some unexpected twists in Gabriel’s story that were nice to see.

Too bad the same can’t be said for the inexplicable involvement of Sheriff Adams (Camille Mitchell) in a military operation. That detail was perplexing but not really worth more than mentioning. The writers got everything else just about perfect.

Mark Snow’s original music was beautiful and the selection of songs played was also very effective. The music in Smallville is always excellent and this episode was no exception.

Director Whitney Ransick delivered for Smallville a stellar second effort (he also directed the far less successful Spirit last season). He kept up a tight pace and made this episode thoroughly engaging from start to finish. The scenes where Clark was shot and subsequently died in the hospital were heart breaking to watch.

DP Glen Winter shot another beautiful episode. I especially liked the natural lighting in Gabriel’s house and the soft photography in the Fortress of Solitude. The slow motion camera work was amazingly effective to boot; which surprised me, frankly.

Slow motion photography is an often overused device to say “something important is happening here.” And because it’s so common, any emotional impact slow motion might have as a visual storytelling method is seriously lessened. You see it almost every week in some otherwise wonderful TV shows. And personally I got sick of it in the final Lord of the Rings movie. (I hope the DP for the new King Kong movie restrains Jackson’s use of it.) It’s such a hackneyed technique; it can totally pull me out of what would normally be an emotionally charged scene. Not so here.

The scenes where Clark got shot and then when he saved the day both used slow motion beautifully. It was especially effective in the scene where Clark gets shot. It was so visceral and gut-wrenching…. I had trouble remembering to breathe, actually.

And then there’s the scene where he saves the day.

Wow!

Clark Kent Flew!

Well, maybe it was sort of a cross between a humongous leap and flight but it was still awesome… I actually screamed out loud.

The special effects in that scene were amazing too…

It was a totally jaw dropping moment and probably the most exciting single minute in the whole series! That was Smallville at its best.

Everyone seemed to kick things up a notch, especially the actors.

Tom Welling was very Supermanly in this episode as things got rough for Clark in more ways than one. With one minor lapse, he was nearly perfect.

From the cute, funny and charming “morning after” scene; the embarrassment of answering his mother’s question whether he’d been “safe” when having sex; Clark’s horrified surprise at getting shot; his confusion when talking to Jor-El/Lionel (Lion-El?) in the Fortress of Solitude; his resigned acceptance of his change in destiny when talking to his parents in the kitchen; to his wonderfully conflicted scene with Chloe as they talk about the consequences of his actions. He was terrific.

My only complaint with Tom’s performance was when Lana, Kristin Kreuk in a very devastating moment btw, came to his bedside at the hospital. I should have been bawling my eyes out, she was so wonderfully devastated. And her confession of why she’d always pulled back from him was so sad and poignant, there’s no reason for me to stay dry eyed. Except that Clark looked more like he was stirring from a pleasant sleep than coming around after getting shot.

Maybe I can kind of see the point of that almost ethereal look on his face, a friend explained what she thought it meant, but it still pulled me out of the scene. He just didn’t look like he’d just been shot to me. Meh… It wouldn’t have been a choice I would have made anyway.

Anyway, Kristin Kreuk also brought out her A game in this episode. While I’ve been hard on her in the past, I have no complaints on her performance this time out. Her grief at Clark’s death was believably, and heart wrenchingly, painful and her shocked surprise at his resurrection was both subtle and intense. She did a brilliant job.

Michael Rosenbaum’s Lex Luthor is definitely moving into darker territory, and I think Michael is having a lot of fun with it. Lex’s attempted manipulation of Lana in trying to push a wedge between her and Clark is self-centered and downright mean. He’ll certainly succeed eventually. And in an awesome scene, he got so wonderfully angry with Lionel in his cell at Belle Reve. It was beautiful to watch Lex being so bad. He’s becoming more and more evil with each passing episode…

Was it really Lionel that showed up in the mansion to drink up Lex’s scotch? I’m not so sure it was and I would love to know what Lex was thinking there, he seemed to snap out of his surprise at seeing Lionel far too quickly. I don’t think Lana is the only person Lex will be trying to manipulate this season.

John Glover was awesome as well, as were all the rest of the supporting players. John Schneider and Annette O’Toole were terrific in how well they portrayed the emotional roller coaster ride the Kents were on. And Allison Mack was wonderful. Well, wonderful except for her screeching after Clark got shot.

I just have a thing about grating noises and that harsh voice sent shivers up my spine. Sorry, Allison.

But never mind, because everything else she did was perfect.

I especially loved Allison in the loft scene at the end. She was the supportive friend I always thought she should be for Clark. Too bad he didn’t listen to her about telling Lana. I have a feeling that decision will come back to haunt him and may play into Lana’s eventual disaffection with Clark.

I do want to say a couple of things about the hair design this show. I absolutely love Clark’s hair this season. It’s so nice that it’s being brushed back off of his face now. The bangs were getting old, so I’m glad they’re gone.

As good as that hair design choice is; the choice for Jonathan is horrible. Will someone give John Schneider a hair cut, please?

John is not 20 and isn’t jumping ravines with his car anymore. I liked his shorter look from previous seasons so much better. Here’s hoping he gets a trim real soon.

The Sheriff’s hair isn’t much better, by the way. I’m not sure what to advise there but something needs to change.

This is possibly one of the best episodes of the series, despite some minor lapses, so I give this episode five out of five big Superman leaps!

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