#7.9 “Gemini” Review”

WARNING: Believe me when I tell you this: even if you’re only mildly spoiler-phobic, avoid reading this until after you’ve seen the episode. The spoilers I reveal in this review are HUGE.

REVIEWER’S RANT: For my previous review of “Blue,” I got a lot more PMs about for that than for any other review I’d written recently so I want to clear up a few things.

I will never speculate on future events, or possible spoilers, in a review. I tried to do that once after I first started reviewing for KryptonSite and Craig, the site Overlord, slapped my wrist for possibly spoiling future episodes and asked me to never do it again. He had a point and, since he is the boss, I won’t do it again. So, please don’t bother asking why I didn’t bring upas an explanation for a particular WTF moment in an episode.

While I’m on that topic: please don’t send me spoilers as a way to explain why I was wrong to be so hard on an episode. I may not reply to all PMs I get, but I do read them all. So, please don’t spoil me in a PM, whether it’s just speculation or not.

Also: I cannot grade an episode based on future spoilers, whether I know them or not (which I hope I don’t), for slightly different reasons. I have to write a review for an episode based on its own merits (or lack thereof), not within the context of something that hasn’t happened yet in the show. I’m not clairvoyant, I don’t read spoilers, and (unfortunately) no one sends me advance copies of the episodes, so how could I even do that anyway?

— trip

DEFINITION OF RETCON: for the non-comic book geeks out there, it’s a term that is short for “retroactive continuity” which is when a writer retroactively changes established character history to fit the story they are trying to tell. I’m explaining this because I’m going to use that term in my review to follow, so this is just an FYI.

REVIEW:

Caroline Dries is now officially my favorite writer on Smallville mostly because, in this terrific episode, she helped me recover from my traumatic experience with “Blue.”

Okay, maybe I was a bit hard on “Blue,” but the way she wrote this episode the whole Grant-really-being-Julian thing sorta makes sense. Yeah maybe Grant being a clone is a serious stretch, but at least it does make some sense.

Before I get some I-told-you-so’s in my PM box, I have to tell you I had thought of Grant being a clone even before more than a few people told me in PM that they thought he was. I definitely had my suspicions, even though I didn’t say so in my review. (See the above RANT for why not.) What else could Grant have been other than a clone, after all?

I mean, only a total idiot would retcon Memoria out of existence, right?

It’s one of the best Smallville episodes ever, in my opinion. Although I don’t think that Al & Miles are complete morons, unlike some fans online, I must admit that I was worried given the twist revealed in “Blue.”

Actually, Grant being a clone of Julian makes some sense given what had happened previously on Smallville. Lana had that clone of herself that was “never alive,” so it wasn’t that big a stretch to think that Grant might be one. Once Lex has his mind set on something, he would very easily keep on trying to make it happen. That his “brother” being the final stage of a successful experiment that would give Lex someone who can truly love him goes far beyond anything he’d ever done before. In fact it is seriously creepy.

It also shows how broken he is inside and how desperate he is for love. Clark doesn’t even like him anymore and he was the only true friend Lex ever had. Lana certainly doesn’t love him any longer, so it’s chilling he’d gone to such lengths to get someone, anyone, to love him.

Yeah, Grant being a clone wasn’t exactly a surprise and probably isn’t all that great a story arc, to be honest. It’s a bit of a cheat, actually, but the way she revealed the truth to Grant was brilliant.

In discovering the bad guy, Adrian, was really an earlier version of him, Grant could really see himself through Lex’s eyes. It’s disturbing that Lex would go to such lengths to clone a long dead brother. When he shot Adrian because he was a mistake, denying he was really his brother (not that Grant really is either), Lex had just upped the stakes on the evil-doing business. He’d never really killed out of spite before. Before, unless my memory is failing me (which is possible), he’d killed out of desperation or because circumstances forced him to it, but never because of total malice. And poor Grant! To see his “brother” shoot his twin dead had to have been more than a little bit unnerving.

If Lex could shoot Adrian for not measuring up to whatever ideals and hopes Lex had for him, how could Grant ever hope to avoid the same fate? What if Grant failed to pass some test Lex set for him? What if Lex were already working on a replacement brother in case Grant didn’t work out for some reason? How long can he depend on staying in Lex’s good graces and be allowed to live?

Grant was right to cut Lois loose and maybe save her from becoming collateral damage should things go badly enough between him and Lex. It also serves Lois’ character well. Later in life she initially resists getting involved with Clark because they work together, it gives her reasoning for that so it’s a good addition to her future back-story.

And Lex buying the Planet is brilliant. He’s got Lois where he wants her. She is under his control so he can keep any of her anti-Luthor crusading investigations from seeing print. She’d have to go back to the Inquisitor to write anti-Lex stories now, which I don’t think she will do. Lex being the new publisher of the Daily Planet also sets Lex and Lois up for having more direct confrontations which is fantastic! The two actors have a wonderful chemistry, so I’m looking forward to seeing them butt heads more often.

And how creepy was Lex using some of his dad’s tricks on “Julian”? He was the one who had always told Clark he didn’t want to turn into his father and there he was, freakin’ fencing with Grant of all things! That was awesome because it was so over the top melodramatic and was reminiscent of the strained father-mentoring-the-son thing that Lionel and Lex had going the first few seasons. Grant even called Lex on the ridiculousness of it. He’d expected dinner instead of a fencing lesson.

Lex fencing with his “brother” in order to teach him something that had nothing to do with learning how to hold a foil is so like Lionel. I especially liked the ending line of the scene, “I always find a way to win in the end.” That was very Lionel-like. Lex has indeed turned into his father and wants to try to turn Julian into a true Luthor.

Good thing Grant saw through the fiction Lex had talked himself into believing, that he really loves Julian/Grant. No one does what he does out of love, it has to be because Lex wants something he can’t have. He did the same thing with Lana last year with the baby. The ends justified the means, never mind that manipulating people you “love” in such profoundly disturbing ways really means that you don’t truly love them at all. If Lex truly did love the people he claims to love, either Lana or Grant, he wouldn’t play with their lives the way he does.

It’s ironic that Lana, finally, was ready to move past her obsession with Lex and exposing his evil plans and then “Clark” was saying, “No, you were right… He’s a bad man and needs to be put away.” (More on that later) She took it well, but then she went and exposed yet another maybe not-such-a-good-thing she’d done by hiding Brainiac’s victim in the basement. Maybe Lana isn’t as over obsessing over Lex’s evil ways as she had thought she had been.

As much as I wasn’t surprised by Grant being a clone, I was completely floored that Clark was actually Bizarro. I did suspect something was up from the first moments of the episode when they didn’t show Clark’s punishment at the fortress. As soon as he stepped onto the screen, however, that suspicion was confirmed. If that had really been Clark, he would have dramatically run into Lana’s arms after suffering whatever traumatic punishment Jor-El had dished out up in the arctic. He would have been happier to see her safe if only because of his guilt over his inability to protect her while he was away. He would have said something about what had happened, even if he hadn’t explained everything. Clark explaining his time away as just losing track of time was so unlike him (and such an obvious lie) I knew something was wrong.

Scene after scene, they dropped hints, and still I didn’t see it coming.

I thought maybe he’d been reprogrammed by Jor-El like back in season 4’s premiere, “Crusade.” Clark just wasn’t acting normally and then he had his hero moments wearing a red t-shirt and dark blue jacket, instead of his Superman uniform stand-in of a royal blue shirt and red jacket. He at times acted very strangely, like taking too much blame for Lana’s actions in wake of Lex’s evil-doing and he’d also been a bit too lovey-dovey with Lana in the last scene in the kitchen.

Anyway, I was so confused what was going on with Clark that I had actually been thinking maybe Tom wasn’t delivering his usual quality work! (I know, I know. Me think that? It’s a rarity, I know… I felt disloyal.) And then the truth was revealed and it was like someone throwing cold water on you while you’re in the shower, it was a complete shock.

As soon as his face changed it was shockingly clear that it hadn’t been Clark at all, but Bizarro playing at being Clark, and not doing a totally convincing job of it. I actually yelled “Whoa” out loud to the TV when I saw his face change, I was that shocked.

In looking back over the episode, some of “Clark’s” lines take on different meanings when you realize it was Bizarro talking and not Clark. The part about falling in love all over again with Lana seemed so sincere, especially after he’d just talked about feelings, good or bad, never going away.

Bizarro is made from Clark’s DNA and, genetically, is his twin but he also has all his memories and thoughts. What if Bizarro has Clark’s feelings too? Is it possible Clark’s history, his thoughts and memories, has colored Bizarro’s outlook on the world? I find it oddly romantic, even if a bit creepy, that he seems sincere when he said that he loves Lana.

It’s interesting that he seems to want Lex to pay for what he’s done to Lana, and that is perhaps proof he does love her. Did he really save Chloe because of what he told her, he didn’t know what he’d do without her? Does Bizarro really have the same feelings for her, and Clark’s other loved ones, as Clark does? Or is it all maybe part of some plan? Is he manipulating everyone to believe that he really is Clark in order to serve some as of yet unknown purpose? Or would it be possible, given enough time, for Bizarro to take over Clark’s life and essentially become Clark? And where does looking for Fine come into his plans for Clark’s life?

Then in possibly one of the best episode ending cliff-hangers within a season, Clark is shown frozen (or in stasis) up in the Fortress. Wow. What the heck is going on there? Has Bizarro somehow taken advantage of the consequences Clark is suffering for not obeying his “father”?

Or has the Fortress, and the Artificial Intelligence that is “Jor-El,” been somehow been corrupted by Bizarro? He is, for all intents and purposes, Clark and the Kryptonian technology has been shown that it can be limited to respond only to a certain bloodlines or even to certain people. Did Bizarro reprogram the Fortress to trap Clark so he could take over his life and give him time to find Brainiac? Why does he want to find Brainiac anyway?

It’s going to be hell waiting more than a month for all these questions to be answered! I hope I can stand it….

What a wonderful episode that Caroline has written! The act breaks were terrific and the final five seconds (the completely cliff-hanging reveal) was incredible. Her multi-layered dialogue was as fantastic as ever as well. What a brilliant episode.

Tom Welling wasn’t in this episode as much as I would have liked, but what little screen time he did have he made excellent use of. He was fantastic as Bizarro. The hints he’d dropped in his performance that he wasn’t really Clark were so subtle I didn’t understand them the first time I watched the episode. That’s great acting from a fantastic script. Smallville doesn’t always do twists well unfortunately (remember Lucy?), so it was all so well done here and Tom’s performance supported the writing beautifully.

He just… looked different and at first I couldn’t figure out why he did or how he achieved that. In looking at the episode again, it seemed to me that Tom actually changed his physicality. He changed how he held his body, the types of facial expressions he made and how he spoke to make Bizarro appear different from Clark, yet not too different. None of the changes were glaringly obvious, not like he was back in the season opener when Bizarro was clearly a different person wearing Clark’s face and body. No, this time Bizarro had to be more subtle. He had to try and blend in so he could take over Clark’s life, but Tom had to make it understated enough that the viewer wasn’t keyed in on the deception until the reveal in the final seconds of the episode. Yet, he had to make it different enough that once the twist was revealed, that his performance would still make sense. I think it was probably a fairly fine line he had to tread so he did his job perfectly. That was very well done.

Also, Tom looked great in this episode. I’m not totally wild about the shorter hair cut, but I like the way it curled on his forehead, its very Supermanly.

This episode was very Lois-centric and Erica Durance turned in yet another wonderful performance. Lois went through quite the roller coaster ride in this episode and every single moment she was on screen she was perfect. Probably her best scene, however, was the break up scene with Grant. Erica made it clear that Lois was devastated, but still got across the point that she also wasn’t going to let the end of the relationship slow her down.

I must say I’ve liked Lana better in this episode than I have in the last several, mostly because I think Lana is acting more like herself. I have to give Kristin some credit for showing that, despite Bizarro telling her what she wanted to hear, that Lana is a bit suspicious. It was clear something was up, so I’m glad Kristin didn’t let it play like it was all just more sitting under the oak tree again.

Allison Mack was fabulous in this episode. Chloe had some tough moments to deal with. Chloe telling Jimmy about being a meteor freak, and then later when she showed him her powers were some great moments for her. She was vulnerable, yet strong, and played both sides of Chloe almost perfectly.

Aaron Ashmore was fantastic as Jimmy. I loved that he played Jimmy as relieved that Chloe was back with him, yet he couldn’t also showed a touch of being completely weirded-out by her ability at the end. That little look at his healed finger said so much, it was a nice touch and well played by Aaron.

I really like Michael Cassidy more each time I see him. He’s got great chemistry with both Erica and Michael, so I’m hoping that this won’t be the last time we see him.

I wasn’t wild about some of the costume choices Costume Designer Caroline Cranstoun made in this episode. I really hated the satin top Lois wore at the start of the episode. However, I loved the suit she later wore in the scene with Grant and Lex.

I loved the special effects. The slow mo scene as Clark ran through the Planet’s Christmas party was awesome. It’s interesting that was the director’s cut online because you get more of an idea how the special effects are done before they add the sound track and blur motion behind Clark as he’s running. It must seem a bit surreal to do most of it in camera like that, having everyone hold still while Tom runs through the scene, but it looked great.

I don’t think I’ve mentioned this yet, but I’m so glad they’ve stopped zooming into the inside of Clark’s ear when he uses super hearing. I LOATHED that effect, the turn of the head and a slight zoom to indicate he’s listening to something is more than enough. If it saves them time and money so they can spend the cash and screen time on something more important, like Clark flying, even better.

This is probably the strongest episode so far this year. I give this five frozen Clark-sicles 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.