NOTE: be aware that major plot spoilers are revealed in this review! If you haven’t seen this episode, and don’t want to spoiled, well don’t say I didn’t warn you…
Brief Recap:
Chloe tries for an internship at the Daily Planet, but hard as nails managing editor, Pauline Kahn (special guest star, Carrie Fisher) isn’t impressed and tells Chloe to bring her a story instead to prove she’s worthy of the post. Lana, much to Clark’s consternation, decides to go to Met U at the last minute and can’t find a place to live. In desperation, she decides to pledge at an exclusive sorority, Tri Psi. The Tri Psi’s, however, are immortal vamps and they turn Lana into one. Meanwhile, Lex takes exception to Professor Fine (special guest star, James Marsters) investigating Luthorcorp and they spar a couple of times over what Fine’s past really is and what Lex has really been up to.
Clark, suspicious of Lana’s radical change in behavior, helps Chloe dig more deeply into just what is going on at Tri Psi. They go to a costume party at the sorority house and snoop around. Chloe pulls Lana aside to confront her but Lana bites her. Clark saves Chloe, but not before Buffy (guest star Brooke Nevin) sees him witness Lana’s attack on Chloe. In retribution, Buffy orders Lana to bring Clark back to the house so they could all feed on him. Clark discovers, thanks to Fine, that Chloe’s and Lana’s symptoms match a Luthorcorp experiment, Project 1138. Clark confronts Lex but learns Luthorcorp actually helped victims of the unusual strain of rabies that was mutated thanks to (what else) kryptonite and that he has a cure.
Lex just happens to have the serum handy, which is (coincidentally) kept active by kryptonite. Weakened by the green-k, Clark gets bitten by Lana. Inexplicably, Lana somehow absorbs Clark’s heat vision. Just before losing consciousness, Clark manages to grab a syringe before Lana takes him back to the sorority. Buffy insists Lana kill Clark, but Lana refuses because he’s special and should be “turned.” They fight and Lana wins when she blasts Buffy into a puff of smoke with her newly acquired heat vision. About to turn Clark into a vampire, Lana leans over to kiss him but before she can Clark plunges the syringe into her heart. Clark thanks Lex for helping out with the girls. Ominously, Lex warns him that Professor Fine may not be the friend he pretends to be. All is well by the end and Clark and Lana reaffirm their love for each other and Chloe gets her internship at the Daily Planet.
Review:
To be honest, this one was a lot better than I had expected it would be. It was hardly the best episode this season but was an improvement over last week’s disappointing mixed-bag of Aqua. The whole vampire thing, despite some campy acting by the sorority sisters from Sunnydale… err… Met U, wasn’t nearly as awful as expected. Although Brooke Nevin won’t win any Emmys for the role of Buffy, she kept her performance to the tone of the episode and did pretty well, considering.
The story was a bit uneven but overall was a pretty solid and well paced piece of storytelling. Writer Steven S. DeKnight came to Smallville after writing for several years for Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel. That experience probably made him the logical choice to pen this episode and the Buffy-verse references were humorous at times, and even laugh out loud funny at others. The nods to Clark someday pulling on the tights, but pointedly not a mask, were much more entertaining references to his future Superman self than the more awkward references from Aqua. Chloe’s talking about “future superheroes” and going “up, up and away” was especially nice.
At first, I was initially a bit wary of the voice over thing with Chloe. It smacked of being too obvious a tool to cover up the fact the episode was all a flashback. (Another one of my pet peeves, I normally hate flashback episodes.) But somehow, it worked. It added a nice layer to the episode that helped explain the campy feel. When seen through Chloe’s eyes, I’m sure vampire sorority sisters would be worth some heavily derisive commentary, so her snarky voice over effectively pulled the whole thing together. Even better, it made me not even mind that the whole thing was a flashback.
Allison Mack was excellent in her Veronica Mars… err… Sex in the City … err… Nightstalker (the original) series debut. I’m not sure how hard it is to narrate an episode and still make the lines sound so conversational and natural, but she did a marvelous job with it.
You know: Maybe it’s not easy, especially since voice over dialogue is usually deadly dull (one of the main reasons why I hate that device) but hers just wasn’t. Allison made that natural delivery seem effortless. She’s a gifted actress and it’s always a joy to watch her do her thing.
As Pauline Kahn, Carrie Fisher didn’t have much screen time but what time she did have she made good use of. I wasn’t fond of how harshly her make-up was done, but she played the hard-edged managing editor very well and she and Allison had a good chemistry. I hope she can find her way back for another appearance later in the season.
Again, the Professor Fine scenes sparkled. The lecture from Fine to Clark’s class was brilliant and multilayered and Marsters played that wonderfully. Fine’s speech included interesting foreshadowing for Clark’s future as Superman. How Marsters played that against Lex standing right there, being referred to as a modern day tyrant that maybe Clark would have to fight to protect the world, was beautiful. I like Marsters more and more every time I watch him play Fine. The scene in the Luthor mansion where they played pool was brilliant. Fine out-manipulated Lex and Marsters played that scene smoothly and with grace. He took what was already a well written scene and pushed it up to a whole new level.
Michael Rosenbaum also did extremely well in this episode. In playing a increasingly complicated Lex, he’s coming more into his own. Lex sparring with Fine was every bit as delicious as I thought it would be. The two evil-doers trading pot shots, testing each other, manipulating each other; it was great fun to watch. I can’t wait to see them do it again!
Tom Welling was gorgeous, as always. He was absolutely stunning in that Zorro costume, once he took that mask off anyway, but his performance was a bit uneven. I thought he did great when playing an off-balance Clark in the classroom. His scenes with Kristin Kreuk’s Lana were excellent. He also performed beautifully in Clark’s scenes with Lex. Admittedly, he was a bit flat in the scene with Fine in Chloe’s hospital room. I just couldn’t tell what he was feeling there.
Kristin also turned in an uneven performance. She did a wonderful job with some of Lana’s more intimate moments with Clark. However she failed to balance those effectively with the campy feel of the vampire sorority scenes.
Also, I loved what Lana had to say about feeling the love, warmth and inner strength of Clark’s heart when she bit him. She played that moment well. However, when I took another look at the bite scene I just didn’t see Kristin playing even a hint of that emotional epiphany.
I didn’t have any problem with that scene initially, but I found that scene seriously wanting upon a second viewing. It was an important moment for Lana, Clark and for, well, the fans. That moment should have been given more emphasis within the scene. We shouldn’t have depended on Lana explaining it later to learn its importance.
I loved Mark Snow’s music for this episode, and the selections for the pop songs were excellent. Snow’s music was light and fitting with the less-than-weighty storyline.
David Willson’s Daily Planet sets were beautiful. I hope we get to see them a lot from now on.
Overall, this was an entertaining episode, despite some plot expediencies like tropical rainforest vampire bats living in the temperate plains of Kansas…
I hate to give it the same score as the far less fun Aqua (but that one was graded on a curve) so I’ll have to let this one also fly in at 4 kryptonite infected vampire bats out of a possible 5.
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