#6.3 “Wither” Review

NOTE: Be warned that this review discloses major plot points. Stop reading this instant if you don’t wish to be spoiled. Don’t say I didn’t warn you…

Last week I said this:

Well, probably the best thing I can say about “Sneeze” is that it wasn’t the worst episode ever. Despite being highly entertaining at times, I’m not sure it was an entirely successful episode.

I should have saved a comment like that for this episode because if I say that again about “Wither” it will definitely not have the same bite…

Oh, well.

Anyway, despite some less than spectacular moments in this episode, I think it was a strong debut for new Smallville scribe Tracy Bellomo. This looks to be Tracy’s first professional writing credit. IMDB has her listed as only having worked as a writing assistant for the TV series Alias and Angel (uncredited) before this.

I liked that in this episode we’ve finally seen that Clark wasn’t the only person who escaped from the Phantom Zone when he opened the gateway. It was also refreshing that Gloria (Amber McDonald) didn’t get her powers from kryptonite. However, it was a shame that she wasn’t a better villain. Despite wanting to kill off as many males she could in order to procreate, I’m not sure she was really evil. It might have helped if she’d been more bent on seeking revenge for being locked up in the Phantom Zone at the expense of the only handy Kryptonian.

One thing that I especially liked in this episode was the character development for the main characters… It was awesome to see Lex finally showing real animosity toward Clark while not under the influence of some outside force. Some of the problems I had last season with the growing rift between the two men was that it seemed to come and go, depending on the needs of the story. Sometimes Clark still went to Lex and asked for favors and other times he would go out of his way to show Lex how much he distrusted him. Hopefully Lex’s confrontation with Clark in the greenhouse meant that won’t be a problem this year.

I LOVED that Lana acknowledged that her trust issues with Clark maybe weren’t his fault. I always felt that Lana’s high expectations of complete honesty from Clark were understandable to an extent, especially given her past, but maybe that the writers had previously put too much emphasis on that being an issue between them. I mean, if Clark and Lana needed to have a disagreement about something the “trust” issue seemed to be the go-to point of conflict for the writers.

I like Lana a lot more than some fans do online, but it’s crazy how needy and weak person she can be sometimes while other times she’s portrayed as independent and strong. Her uneven characterization is frustrating. As much as I didn’t understand her decision to stay with Lex despite not totally trusting him, I think I’m seeing the appeal more after this episode. She feels that the nagging doubts she has about Lex are because of her issues with trust, not because he’s been lying to her. That shift is thanks to the epiphany she’s had about her relationship with Clark. I love the irony.

She just doesn’t see that Lex is the real villain of this story even though we all know who’s wearing the black hat and who isn’t. It should make for some great TV when she finds out just how much Lex has been manipulating her because of her bitterness over the bad break up with Clark.

Also, Tracy wrote some great flirty scenes with the three younger women on the show. The easy companionship all three found with their respective love interests contrasts really well with how alone Clark is. He really doesn’t have anyone to talk to anymore, except for his mom. There’s no one to help him work out the moral of the story in the final act loft scene like he used to. Jonathan is dead and the Fortress is gone so there is no available father figure in Jor-El either. He can’t talk to Lex anymore and he admitted that Lana is now like a stranger to him. While Chloe would probably love to still be his sounding board, she now has a boyfriend to keep her busy. Clark’s emotional world is narrowing and I thought Tracy did a good job setting up the situation for that to play out believably in the heartbreaking final scene.

As good as Tracy’s writing debut for Smallville was, she did make what looks like a fairly basic mistake. In the scene were Lex talked to Lana about all his previous ‘women’ he told her “I’ve never asked any of them to move in with me…”

Uhm.

MEMO to Tracy: Not true.

Lex had previously asked Dr. Helen Bryce to move in with him. Now that was way back in Season two during the episode “Fever,” but he’d done it before.

Mistakes like that written into episodes are annoying. Even if Tracy hadn’t known of Helen moving in, it was from a story arc almost four years ago, shouldn’t have someone else remembered it?

Or could it a deliberate lie on Lex’s part?

If it was a deliberate choice for her to have Lex lie about that, why wouldn’t Lana have asked about Helen moving in? Shouldn’t have Lana, who was Lex’s business partner at the time Helen was Lex’s SO, known about it? Smallville is a small town. Wouldn’t the resident billionaire’s son shacking up with a prominent local doctor have been news? It’s perplexing either way…

Also, I thought that Chloe’s use of metaphors has gone over the top. I usually like her use of those kinds of lines, however the “newly minted pimple popper” line was a bit much. How did the “we planted our flag on the summit of intimate territory” line even get through all the network and studio hoops scripts go through before Allison Mack had to speak it in front of a camera? Only Allison could say that mouthful so well it almost didn’t sound dreadful. Hopefully that kind of over the top metaphorical dialogue will be dialed back in future episodes.

Anyway, the acting was probably some of the best in the series. Tom was gorgeous in this episode and did a beautiful job. He did an especially good job at the end of act five when he was up in the loft, looking like he was really lonely for the first time in his life. It was a painful moment and Tom played it so tenderly. Too bad we didn’t see more of him.

I loved Michael Rosenbaum in this episode. He played the bitterness of Lex trying to deal with the overly cautious Lana so well. Michael also did a great job in the party scene. Lex went through a very wide range of emotions. He started by looking lost when he was looking for Lana; then amazed when she showed up looking so beautiful; then was cold and business-like with Oliver, yet with a hint of a pain in his eyes. If that short exchange between the Lex and Oliver is any indication, any future scenes the two will have together will be a joy to watch.

I loved Kristin Kreuk’s work in this episode. She was warm and sexy in her love scene with Lex, which was a nice switch since the last couple of episodes I’ve found their “love” scenes oddly cold. I also liked the way Kristin played Lana’s resolve to live more fully and stop worrying about the lies the men in her life are telling her. That change came too little, too late for poor Clark.

I absolutely love Erica Durance in this episode. Not only was Lois her usual snarky self but Erica played contrition well when Lois unknowingly treated a billionaire like a gopher. Her comic timing is excellent and Lois’ scenes were light and amusing when needed. She did an equally good job playing the more serious side of Lois, especially after she’d committed yet another egregious mistake in front of Oliver.

Justin Hartley did tons better this week than last, both in terms of acting and in his charisma. Maybe he just needed to warm to his role a bit. His Oliver Queen is charming and sexy, yet arrogant and a bit of a hot head. In the scene at the party, Oliver showed some hints of being a bully while Lex tried to play it cold as ice. That dynamic was very entertaining to watch. Justin also has great chemistry with Erica Durance and Oliver’s scenes with Lois sparkled because of it. It was funny and exciting when Oliver shot the arrow through the soda can top! Justin had a playful twinkle in his eye that added to the moment.

It was wonderful to see Chloe flirt with a guy who won’t be trying to kill her later. Aaron Ashmore and Allison seem to have developed a nice easy going thing between Chloe and Jimmy. I loved how she beamed at him, like a “newly minted” girlfriend might. Their scenes were a pleasure to watch.

Aaron showed some nice touches of the easily flustered Jimmy from the comics without him going too broad with it. I hadn’t been sure what to think of him from his appearance in “Zod,” but I liked Jimmy a lot in this episode.

With how much as I loved Carolyn Cranstoun’s costumes from “Zod,” I’m surprised how much I absolutely hated Lana’s Cleopatra costume. It wasn’t flattering to her figure at all, which is an odd choice in a scene where Lana has finally decided to “do it” with Lex. Also the headpiece looked like an upended gold bucket. The make-up was oddly over the top and made Kristin so dark she looked like she’d had a cheap spray-on tan and was performing in a Vegas show.

I’m perplexed by how unattractive Lana’s make-up and costume was in comparison to Lois’, which looked so good. Her costume and make-up both had a softly romantic, old-time movie feel to them like she’d stepped out of an Errol Flynn movie.

Although this episode was not a slam dunk by any means, “Wither” was still a solid piece of work from new scribe Tracy Bellomo and the cast.

3.5 alien men-killing vines out of a possible 5.

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