#6.10 “Hydro” Review

NOTE: This review will spoil you rotten… Don’t say I didn’t warn you. As long as I’m warning you, be aware of serious gushing ahead. Stop reading now if that bothers you.

“Hydro” was Tom Welling’s sophomore directorial effort, and he did a beautiful job.

His freshman outing was, of course, the far less enjoyable “Fragile.” He has learned a lot since then but it probably helped that this episode was, in general, better written.

Scribes Brian Peterson & Kelly Souders (“Hidden,” “Blank,” and “Prodigal”) have penned an extremely strong story. The krypto-freak of the week had a more interesting power than normal, but that wasn’t the best part of Linda Lake (played regrettably by publicity-stunt guest star, Tori Spelling).

Her story wasn’t just a lame excuse to create conflict and a morality tale for Clark, unlike most krypto-freaks-of-the-week. Linda’s misuse of her ability was the catalyst for major actions the other characters took during the episode. Her column on Lana affected others in very lasting ways, as did her later discovery of Clark’s secret.

After Clark found out about Lana’s doubts and her lingering feelings for him, I suppose he wanted to tell Lana he loved her in order to put a stop to the wedding if he could. Although we never found out for sure what he was going to talk to Lana about. Her doubts must have seemed like their second (or third or fourth or fifth or tenth) chance and an excuse to get her break it off with Lex. It was heartbreaking that earnest Clark’s hopes were so cruelly dashed by Lex when he revealed to him that Lana is pregnant. Wow, poor Clark.

While I’m throwing a pity party: poor Lex… He’s always coming in second place behind Clark, no wonder he hates Clark’s guts. But Linda’s revelations about Lana’s doubts must have hurt him an incredible amount. It likely solidified Lex’s growing animosity toward Clark in a big way for the long term.

Another consequence of Linda Lake’s column was that Chloe and Lana joined forces to try and put a stop to her evil schemes. It’s been awhile since Lana has been a part of any investigation that wasn’t solely her own or in some part Lex’s. It was a fantastic twist that from Chloe’s confrontation with Linda that Lana found out that Chloe knows Clark’s secret.

The revelations Linda had made, both in her column and later in that scene with Chloe, will no doubt have long-lasting effects for everyone for the rest of the season. It totally nullifies the idea that freak of the week episodes are all filler and it made this a much stronger episode than it would have been otherwise…

I absolutely adored Lex’s speech to Lana about how he hoped to deserve her love. I’m not sure we’ve seen such a character revealing speech from Lex recently. It was beautifully written and the power of those words were helped by it being so well delivered by Michael Rosenbaum and so well directed by Tom. (More about that later…)

Although I really liked Tom’s previous directorial effort, the primary flaw of “Fragile” was that it seemed like Tom didn’t give his all to the acting part of his job. Maybe he was understandably distracted by the stress of taking on first-time director duties, but his performance seemed to be mostly flat in that episode. Such was not the case for “Hydro.”

Tom was extremely effective in this emotional roller-coaster ride of an episode. Clark had to be a lot of different things in this episode, yet Tom played each moment very specifically, at times within moments of one another, and yet made it seem so natural. For example, Clark’s reaction just after the kiss with Lois was amusing, sweet, sexy and romantic all at the same time as he tried to deal with his unexpected feelings. The beauty of the moment was that I could almost see what Clark was feeling even though Tom didn’t say a word.

Later, Tom had portrayed all the emotions Clark was feeling in the loft scene with Lana nearly perfectly. Clark’s bitterness and sad resignation that Lana had to move on came through so well. It was an extremely painful and touching scene to watch.

Not only did Tom do an excellent job acting in this episode, I believe he did a better than average job pulling wonderful performances from all his co-stars as the director. The acting was uniformly some of the strongest I think I’ve ever seen in a single episode.

Erica Durance’s Lois was at times cynical, but was vulnerable and warm too. Erica perfectly sold that Lois is head over heels in love with Oliver, yet was nervous at the thought of him being Green Arrow. Her conflicted feelings about confronting Ollie about his possible double life were endearing and Erica portrayed them extremely well.

I loved Lois’ scenes with clueless Jimmy as they worked together to figure out Green Arrow’s secret identity. Those scenes had a nice foreshadowing of Lois’ and Jimmy’s future working relationship. Also, her playfully derogatory banter with Aaron Ashmore’s Jimmy was humorous. I liked Jimmy more in this than ever before.

Kristin Kreuk’s Lana had a pretty tough episode. She’s still hesitating over Lex’s proposal because of her enduring feelings about Clark. Although I’m not sure I’d really seen any evidence of her feelings for Clark still being that deep before this episode, I thought that Kristin had played Lana’s dilemma well. Her best scene was probably in the loft with Clark, where she confronted him about her lingering feelings and the truth about his.

Clark, being Clark, didn’t come clean with her, but Lana’s pain at Clark again not telling her the truth was visceral and real. It’s probably some of the most subtle acting Kristin has done in this show and it was heartbreaking to watch.

Michael Rosenbaum’s Lex was awesome in this episode. I haven’t been as in love with Lex lately as I used to be, I’m not sure why. Maybe it seems a bit like Michael’s heart really hasn’t been in the performance lately or maybe it’s because I’m sick of him always getting kidnapped or shot. Thankfully no kidnappings or shootings here…

However, I loved him in “Hydro.” Lex was as manipulative and controlling of Lana as ever, and he seemed to actually enjoy stabbing Clark in the back by revealing Lana’s pregnancy. He was oily and evil and yet played the ending scene with her so well. Michael actually choked up when Lex said that maybe he wasn’t a good enough person to deserve Lana’s love. Yet he seemed sincerely happy when she finally said yes. Until that scene, I wasn’t sure that Lex truly had feelings for Lana but I think Michael has finally sold me.

Allison Mack’s Chloe was also having a rough few days in this episode, and Allison actually made it enjoyable to watch. I loved when she took Clark to task for expecting so much of her. I’d be angry too if my alien best friend was angry at me for keeping someone else’s secrets when he expects me to keep his. Speaking of Allison, I must say that she looked absolutely gorgeous in this episode. I wasn’t wild about some of her clothes, but her hair and make-up were fabulous.

As for the director, Tom Welling has a surprisingly subtle touch for a newbie director. In “Fragile” I felt he was a bit too in love with some ideas that maybe didn’t work very well. He’s clearly learned a lot since then.

I thought probably the best thing he did as a director in “Hydro” was the loft scene with Clark and Lana. The scene was very intimate, having extreme close-ups of both Clark’s and Lana’s faces, during the very emotional scene. Organic pauses and natural sounds, including soft sighs and intakes of breath from the actors, were retained while the cutting was kept to a minimum, letting the each moment build on its own…

As interesting a choice as I’ve seen ever in Smallville, it didn’t appear that Kristin had stood on the ever-present apple crate in her scenes toward the end with both Tom and Michael. I don’t know if most people are aware of the boxes the girls stand on, but the extra four or five inches of height makes the standard over-the-shoulder shot easier when you have a five foot nothing actress in the same scene with a six foot something actor. Kristin looking up at the men she shared those scenes with made Lana look smaller, which is exactly the effect the box helps to minimize. Tom apparently having Kristin forgo the height raising box may have seemed an unusual idea in the very image conscious TV world, and might have made the OTS setups less pretty for DP David Moxness, but it helped underscore Lana’s vulnerability.

Also, it would have been so easy to have show composer Mark Snow lay down some heavy handed music to enhance the emotional impact in that loft scene, but there was almost none. The lack of an obvious soundtrack left the two actors to carry the emotional load of the scene alone but that choice, unusual as it was for Smallville, made it seem more real. It was a refreshing change of pace that the music had started in so quietly in that scene that it seemed no music had played at all.

The last scene between Lex and Lana was also well directed by Tom. Despite the over-the-top music, the speech where Lex told Lana about wanting so desperately to deserve her love was powerful. The scene was made more potent by the atypical decision in the very cut happy Smallville universe to have the camera linger on Michael rose from a seated position and crossed over to Lana as he spoke. The take was long enough for Michael to deliver the dialogue the way it needed to be delivered. Kudos to Tom for letting Michael do his thing…

I’m glad it looks like Tom’s been added to the regular rotation of directors for Smallville, even though I’m sure it’s a logistical nightmare to get him time off to prepare for his helming duties. I know I’m not alone in disliking it when Clark’s storylines are minimized in the episodes leading up to the one Tom’s directing, but if he can keep delivering above average episodes like Hydro I guess I can’t really complain too much.

This was a terrific episode that was far better than I had expected, but still not quite perfect: 4.5 rumor-mongering articles out of a possible 5

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