#7.7 “Wrath” Review

WARNING: This review is definitely going to spoil you. So, if you avoid spoilers wait to read this until after you’ve seen the episode.

Well, this was a lot better than I had feared… I had a feeling we’d finally find out what Lana had been up to all season and had envisioned not ever really understanding. Also, I had thought the episode would become campy. Yet Kelly Souders and Brian Peterson penned a script that explained it all quite effectively and without heading into camp. (Or at least not getting completely campy…)

That said, I’m not sure I’m entirely happy with the direction this particular episode had taken the characters, but it was a well done episode just the same. Aside from the contrivance of even one sliver of kryptonite getting past Jonathan (Wouldn’t the über-father have made sure the farm was clear of any to protect his son?), the story was terrific.

It had great continuity with mentions of Eric Summers (from “Leech” and “Asylum”) and Jonathan’s health problems after he’d been given Clark’s powers back in Season 3 following the events in the Season 3 episodes “Exile” and “Phoenix.” The health problems continued off and on until Jonathan died in Season 5, actually, so it was great to see that Chloe had been talking to Clark about that. It showed she’d been curious about some of the things that had happened in the past enough to ask him about it. (I don’t think Clark would have brought that stuff up.) It reinforces the idea that some exposition happens off-screen, which makes sense. Usually this kind of stuff isn’t ever referred to so it always leaves me to wondering exactly how much Chloe knows about Clark so I’m glad they touched on that.

Poor Lana has been knocked of her pedestal. However, from what she said maybe that wasn’t such a good place to be anyway and it sounded like she doesn’t mind that so much. It’s interesting that Clark is starting to understand that he had not been seeing Lana for who she really is. It is the next step toward the end of their relationship and it’s a sad realization, especially since they’ve had little chance to be really romantic.

Although Lana’s brief conversation with Chloe did shed some light on the whole almost-platonic-relationship-thing that had been going on between Clark and Lana since she came back. However, I have to ask: why Clark is being so careful?

In the comics, it’s implied Clark is very sexually active with Lois. I have seen panels of Lois and Clark apparently naked in bed together. I know they’re married in those comics, but Clark didn’t have any issues having sex with Lana when he’d lost his powers in the Season 5th premiere, “Arrival.” So it’s not out of some puritanical idealism that is keeping the couple celibate.

After Clark got his powers back, he’d told Chloe that he didn’t want to have sex with Lana unless she knew his secret. Since she knows it now, what’s the problem? Clark’s in enough control of his powers he can shake hands with other people without crushing their bones into pulp or pull their arms from their sockets.

Sex has a whole lot of other things going on than just shaking hands, of course, so I suppose he could lose potentially lose control. But if his control is so shoddy he risks hurting her, how can he have sex with Lois later but can’t have sex with Lana now?

Also, if super-powered sex is the only way Clark and Lana are going to physically fulfill their love for one another, color me dissatisfied. It isn’t as meaningful if they can’t do “it” when they’re both normal.

I would like to add that I don’t think that Clark and Lana staying celibate doesn’t make sense given what has happened up until now. It’s just not well motivated and I don’t understand the reason for it. Hopefully they’ll explain all this.

One thing I did like about the turn of events in this episode was how it affected others. Lionel, Lex and Chloe have all now essentially picked sides.

Lex is on Lana’s side because he sees a bit of himself in her and believes there is still hope for them, despite everything that’s happened and despite all the awful things he’d done to her. Personally, I think he’s fooling himself but Lana’s offices being decorated primarily with shades of Luthor purple (with only hints of Lana pink) is no accident. Lana has become very Luthor-like in her actions of late, maybe he’s not too far off the mark but I guess we’ll see where that goes.

Lionel is still trying to protect Clark anyway he can, even at the expense of his relationship with his son. However, trying to protect Clark from Lana is probably not going to work very well. Despite his hesitation at the end of the episode, Clark obviously still loves her. He will probably be willing to forgive a lot, even if he never agrees with some of the things she did.

Chloe has been through a lot with Clark. She’s loved him almost as long as the show as been on. She’s gone through her fair share of unrequited feelings for him and even had her own troubled times with him. Yet, she’s still an extremely loyal friend to him. She’d defended him as best she could, even when she didn’t know his secret. Now that she does know his secret, she’s been even more protective of Clark so it makes sense that she would warn Lana about hurting Clark. I think she probably was a bit harsh but the situation has probably been exaggerated for effect to some extent. However, if that warning is a hint of a future confrontation between the two it should make for some terrific TV.

I loved that Grant apparently is in cahoots with Lex. Was that part of a spoiler? If it was I’m glad I’m not doing spoilers anymore because I didn’t see that coming, even though I wasn’t surprised. He had earlier shooed Lois off the Luthor-cabin-in-the-woods story and that had seemed a bit suspicious, although I didn’t say anything in my review at the time. His conspiring with Lex instantly made Grant a far more interesting character.

The fact that Milton Fine could possibly be coming back is FANTASTIC!

I loved James Marsters take on the Brain Inter-Active Construct so the little bit of him taking over that lab assistant was chilling. So how is Brainiac going to take it when he learns there is more than one member of the House of El to possibly control? I can’t wait for James to come back so that I can see.

All these things could set up some interesting storylines for the rest of the season. However, if the writer’s strike goes on for too long, the season will be shortened and we’ll only have another 8 episodes after this one. The writers probably had their work cut out for them getting all the scripts ready that they did, some shows will only have eight or ten episodes done while Smallville will have fifteen, so I hope they were able to wrap things up satisfactorily in such a short amount of time.

All in all, this script was one of the strongest of the season so far, even if I didn’t always like where it took the characters. There was some much needed humor with Lois and Grant, there were some great act-break cliff-hangers, some terrific drama for Clark, the pace was good and it kept my interest the entire time. This was another excellent entry from Brian Peterson and Kelly Souders.

Tom Welling had another excellent episode. Not only did he look fabulous (more about that later), but Clark’s journey was a very difficult one this episode. He went from pastoral bliss with Lana at the beginning of the episode to the hurt caused by him doubting their relationship at the end. One of my favorite parts was when he went to go see Lionel. Clark clearly didn’t want to be there but he felt he had resort to it for Lana’s sake. It was difficult for Clark to ask Lionel for anything and Tom played that so naturally, it would be hard to see that he’s really acting at all. I think the unusual choice of him sitting during the first part of that interview helped that scene out a lot.

Normally, when Clark is making demands or confronting someone else about something, he stands. For his talk with Lionel, he remained seated for the first part until it was clear that Lionel wouldn’t be able help him and was in fact attacking Lana. When he sat down, he was below Lionel physically and that was exaggerated by him leaning forward. He had to look up as he talked to Lionel and it put the other man into a superior position physically which might have helped Tom in the scene… I wonder if that was Tom’s choice or the director’s, but what an excellent scene!

Also, Tom totally kicked some woobie!Clark butt in the final scene with Lana. Tom didn’t play Clark as angry with Lana so much as he played that he was disappointed in her. It would have been so much easier for him to use anger but that is a much stronger emotion and probably would have been out of place. Disappointment is so much harder to play well since it is more subtle and Tom portrayed that beautifully. He looked so hurt as Clark is apparently beginning to accept that his destiny shouldn’t be put on hold for Lana, despite what he told Lionel.

I loved the scenes Tom and Michael had together. The subtext becoming text was totally fabulous and I love how both men played it. Clark was so hurt during all of their scenes. And when Lex told Clark that getting rid of an obsession was difficult, Michael Rosenbaum played it like he wasn’t really talking about Lana. Michael made that clear that it’s Clark’s love is what Lex can’t give up. They were once best friends and there is nobody a person can hate more than a person he used to love. That bitterness came through but Michael didn’t overplay it. It was perfectly balanced and that made their scenes together a pure joy to watch.

Kristin Kreuk was awesome as a super-powered Lana. She was playful with the powers at first, entranced by the allure of the abilities and racing Clark and convincing him to have sex. Then she played it more Machiavellian and wanted to turn the power into a tool in her war against Lex. As Lana had told Chloe, it was something to employ to help tell her story; to help expose Lex’s evil-doing to the world. I think it could have really been overplayed and become campy, but it didn’t. Kristin actually played Lana as more real in this episode than I had really expected. Given how poorly served the character has been, her motivations at times vacillating wildly with the needs of the story, that is probably a pretty neat trick.

I think my only problem with Lana’s scenes with Clark was that the few times she kissed him, she showed little real passion. I’m not sure it looks like Lana enjoys kissing Clark.

Before anyone shoots off a PM to me about me being shallow or being too hard on Kristin, let me explain. I just think if you kiss your boyfriend you should probably look like you enjoy it or feel passionate about it. With how Kristin played it, to me it seemed like Lana showed more passion in her hate for Lex than she showed Clark with her love. If she still does love Clark, shouldn’t she be more passionate about him than Lex? Maybe that was a directorial choice and not an acting one but it seemed an odd one to me.

The other actors were also fantastic in this. Allison Mack and Erica Durance were both awesome. I loved how protective Chloe was of Clark. Allison played Chloe’s promise to protect Clark from Lana less like a threat than like a statement of fact, which I thought was the perfect choice.

Erica Durance was funny and provided some much needed comic relief. Her scenes with Michael Cassidy were great. He’s as charming as ever and I like him more each episode he’s in.

Director of photography Brian Pearson, in his Smallville debut, shot a beautiful episode. No doubt playing pinch hitter for Glen Winter who’s directing the next episode, “Blue,” Brian made the very pretty cast of Smallville look even prettier. I’m not sure what Brian did exactly, but I would love for him to come back. If anyone can make Tom Welling look even better than he normally does, his eyes looked especially gorgeous, I would love it if they bring him back for a return engagement.

Overall, I loved a lot of this episode and thought the script was terrific but it wasn’t quite perfect so I give this episode 4.5 suspiciously convenient hunks of kryptonite 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.