#8.15 “Infamous” Review

NOTE: You know the drill, read this before viewing the episode you will seriously regret it if you avoid spoilers. There are some HUGE spoilers in this review. So, I’m just sayin’….

This episode seemed tailor-made for a sweeps month. (This year’s February sweeps were delayed until March because of the switch to Digital HD TV having been originally intended for February, smooth move, but Congress had since delayed it to June in yet another smooth move.)

Anyway, this episode included the almost requisite sweeps month stunt-casting and some arguably over-the-top iconic moments. This was, for all intents and purposes, an apparent ratings grabber, especially with drama queen Tori Spelling back on the show as a ‘Special Guest Star’. However, as generally distasteful as this sort of tactic usually is, it seemed to work since the episode more than held its own ratings-wise. It in fact did nearly as well NBC’s fading single-camera comedies “My Name is Earl” and the I-thought-it-had-been-cancelled-already “Kath and Kim”.

As a network, NBC is dying a slow and painful death. New episodes of shows on that network coming close to getting beaten by a series on The CW is a sure sign of it, if nothing else was. Although, it says a lot about Smallville’s staying power that a network that doesn’t even have the same nationwide coverage as NBC came that close to beating one of their shows. Smallville is propping up The CW, being the highest rated scripted show, and they get no respect even as they anchor probably their strongest night, even if it’s strong only in relative terms.

Although, I’m confused why this episode was shown in such an important ratings period (sweeps months help set the ad rate the networks can charge) since this episode seemed to have a fairly trite storyline. Tori’s appearance on the show combined with the give-me-what-I-want-Clark-or-I’ll expose-your-secret storyline made it feel like that the episode would have probably felt more at home in the first season than the eighth. Yet, even that said, I must say that in general the script was far better written, directed and photographed than any episode would have been from the first season. The show certainly is demonstrating why it’s still on after 8 seasons and going for a 9th. The episode was campy, at times, but given the type of villainy Tori’s Linda Lake brought to the table that was probably to be expected.

Despite the stunt-casting and the somewhat contrived and trite ratings grabber kind of a story, overall it was surprisingly enjoyable. Caroline Dries did again what she had done so well in the past, like Action, and dished up some delicious iconic moments, managed to do it tastefully, even when she doled them out for humor’s sake.

As tired as it may seem sometimes for some people, I really love Superman-based in-jokes and allusions like the ones made in this episode. Caroline seems to avoid the most common pitfall of the show when they try this: getting too heavy-handed with it. She has a delicate touch with this kind of thing and I didn’t feel like it went overboard at all…

Added to that, it was fairly amusing at points. I loved that Lois laughed in Clark’s face when he said that he was the Red-Blue Blur. I also like how she jokingly guessed that he’d sneezed the barn door off, and his reaction to that…

Despite the humor, Caroline still managed to get in some pretty serious mythos-centric moments without making it too heavy-handed.
For example, it was awesome that Linda wanted what Lois finally gets: her name being known side-by-side with Clark’s. Yeah, that was humorous, and Linda saying that came off as exploitive and creepy, but it served as a good comparison for what we know will happen later with Lois in its similarities with how Lois will become proprietary with any Superman related news. Her name will become synonymous with Superman’s, like Linda wanted her name to be with the Red-Blue Blur’s…

However it is the differences between what Linda wanted, and what Lois ultimately gets, that are important; not the similarities.
Yes, Lois will be best known in the future for covering Superman-related news in The Daily Planet, but unlike Linda, her motives won’t be selfish or exploitive of Clark. I can see Lois tenaciously taking on Superman news as her territory, but with her it would be because of her ambition combined with her admiration for a hero. She would never want to exploit Clark, or the Red-Blue Blur as Clark is now called, as Linda had wanted to do.

I know that because of what she showed us in this episode. It was, in a sort of an oblique way, another good glimpse into what life will be like for Clark and Lois once he’s wearing the tights and she’s won her Pulitzer Prize. I loved that part of this episode.

There was some good humor mixed into all this on top of that. Like Lois not getting that Clark was the hero until Clark explains it to her. That bit she said about being high the whole time, especially since she used to live with him and worked in the desk across his, was particularly humorous. It was like things that people have said about Lois the whole time she’s been on the show.

I also liked how Lois reacted to hearing that Clark has X-ray vision. That was very funny.

You know, I started really watching the show as “Appointment TV” in the fourth season, the same time when Lois came into the show. The third season ender, Covenant, and the fourth opener, Crusade, were one hell of a combination. I loved that Lois was coming on the show, although I was a bit hesitant on the potential pitfalls, but I think she’s become an excellent addition to the cast. So I love it when she does what she does best. She can help make sense of even the nonsensical, like a future Pulitzer Prize winning journalist not seeing Clark for who he really is even though she works right on top of him.

I liked the way that Caroline had Lois explain why that was so that it made sense, given the versions of Lois and Clark that Smallville has. Lois simply doesn’t see Clark as more than just another cub reporter. He’s certainly nice, but not capable of being a hero to her. He’s not like Oliver, who’s bigger in real life than Clark. Oliver is flashy, rich, far more slick and smooth, and is surrounded by the trappings of his wealth: jets, parties, penthouse apartments, expensive clothes and a leisurely life-style (when not fighting crime that is). Clark is surrounded by cows and likes to wear blue t-shirts and red twill jackets. Of course that comes off as childish in a way, still wearing jeans every chance he gets and being so… unpolished. So, I can understand her stating that he seemed to her to suffer from Peter Pan Syndrome (an adult male who hasn’t really grown up yet). He simply wasn’t acting very adult as far as she could see, so why would she even consider he was really the Red-Blue Blur?

Unlike the comics, Lois hasn’t seen him in action as the Red-Blue Blur. So there is no arguably lame ‘disguise’ (glasses and fixing your hair differently isn’t much of a disguise) to confuse things. He’s not depending on a pair of glasses and blue tights to separate his two identities yet, but I like that he’s moving in that direction.

I also liked how Clark reacted to Lois in this episode. It was where most of the humor of the episode came from, Tom does cute befuddlement about as well as anyone I think I’ve seen. He should probably do a romantic comedy after all of this is over, so I’m glad that Caroline wrote those parts so well.

I’m also glad she wrote Clark being so smart and sure of what he needed to do. In doing an end-around on Linda outing him as the primary colored superhero, he decided to take the bull by the horns and reveal the secret of his true identity on his own terms. Good for Clark. He was being proactive, something he too often is not. A lot of times in this show, Clark reacts and lets events guide his actions. He’s a lot less willing to let that happen anymore.

In the first go round, before his Legion ring reboot, Clark was caught off-guard and didn’t have a counter to Linda’s scheme. So, taking the initiative and scooping her was probably his best plan at that moment. I’m happy he chose Lois to tell his story, even though ultimately her knowing his secret didn’t stick.

But Clark telling his story to Lois says volumes about the trust he has in her. He trusts her with everything the first time out.
How he revealed his powers to her, calmly and showing off a bit, was nice and she took it well. It’s a lot to deal with, truly, and she was a bit freaked about it at first. Unlike Lana, who’d already figured it out, and Pete, whom Clark was basically forced to tell, Lois was completely in the dark so that was understandable. Even after she got past the enormity of Clark’s revelation, she was intrigued more than anything else. Ever the reporter, she wanted to find out more, wanted to know what ‘guns’ he had in his arsenal. It was a perfect way for Lois to react. I loved that.

How she reacted, both initially and later when it all started to go badly, shows how much an iconic Lois Erica’s version of the character really is: even before romance blooms, she’s loyal to Clark without fail. He trusted her with his biggest secret and Lois rewarded his trust in her with a fierce and unshakeable loyalty that was heartwarming. I loved how she wanted to fight for him, she’d protect him anyway she could, and was frustrated when he wouldn’t fight for himself.

Then when Clark decided to turn back time and hit that ‘reset button’ he told her what he was going to do, that broke her heart. She wouldn’t remember it later of course, but he still cared enough to be honest. He had laid it all out for her, he had no more secrets left, so of course he would tell her he wasn’t going to let her know again in the reshaped past. How sad, but I loved how he explained it. It wasn’t because he didn’t think she was special; it was because he did. He was protecting her.

And then, later, after he had fixed things (completely oblivious to Davis’ true nature, and Davis was just as clueless about Clark’s, great twist, by the way), he did what he could to make her feel special and he didn’t break her heart again by going to that coffee house to tell her some lie about how he feels. I loved how that all unfolded. It’s not really sad, it’s more bittersweet because we all know they get together eventually. Clark is merely delaying the inevitable, like that other inevitable thing he’s been trying to not think about (like an 800 pound gorilla in the room that is trying to pretend he can’t fly).

And Chloe, she was awesome. I loved that, her own life in danger, Chloe risked taking time to warn Clark about Davis. I don’t know what happened there with the car, was Doomsday going to kill her? That was quite a switch, but in that version of the story, she’d told him goodbye before that ill-fated meeting in the Isis Foundation. Maybe that was why he was going to kill her, she’d abandoned him to deal with his demons on his own. That bodes ill for her later in the season, and also might be foreshadowing, but I’m glad that didn’t stick. Davis shouldn’t know about Clark yet and Chloe should make it.

While I’m a bit sorry that Clark didn’t apparently hear enough to make him at least suspect Davis of something. I guess they’ll find out about each other eventually, the whole season has been building toward their confrontation, after all. It’s good that even despite the reset button of that Legion ring that some serious movement was made on the Davis/Doomsday front (he’s embracing his inner-beast).
In a way, I’m glad the ring was destroyed. It’s too easy to use as a quick fix and I can’t see Clark taking a vacation to one thousand years in the future in any case.

And I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE the fact that the episode came full circle when Lois and Clark were again getting wet after she flies back in after spending time with Jimmy. It showed, instead of telling, how much Clark had learned during the course of the episode. Yes, he reset time back to where he could do things differently, but the second time he took time to show Lois that he thinks she’s ‘special’ by being there when he said he would, by showing her that she could depend on him. The hint that he felt something for her was enough for her to extend an olive branch in their little cold war of unresolved romantic (and sexual) tension and invite him to coffee.

Giving that she’d opened the door for further the relationship, even if only a little, she was sad when he didn’t show for coffee, but I didn’t mind that so much. They got another season to keep them in a holding pattern as a couple, so keeping their tension high isn’t necessarily a bad thing.

Some older shows, namely “Remington Steele,” “Moonlighting and the previous Superman show, “Lois & Clark”, were probably all pretty much killed by their leads getting hitched. The fun of their flirting was completely deflated by them committing to each other. Some shows can still tell interesting stories with couples in full established relationships that still have some spice left, like “Medium” with Allison and Jack, but I don’t think Smallville will ever be one of them. The missteps in how the show had Lana and Clark act as a couple is certainly proof of that. Better Clark and Lois stay apart until later, maybe even not until much later, not getting together until sometime in the vague future after the show ends.

While not a perfect episode for writer Caroline Dries, I’m not sure Linda Lake ever really needed to come back, she more than made up for it with strong act breaks, good pacing, a terrific sense of humor, and some touching moments too. I LOVED that Martha at least talked to Clark over the phone. They should do that more often. It showed a terrific sense of continuity with the show’s previous episodes and showed that Martha still matters to Clark, even if we only ever see his side of a phone conversation with his mother. It was a highly enjoyable episode.

Tom Welling was terrific. I loved how determined he had Clark be for this episode. It was a hard episode for Clark, he had been put into an awful position, but Tom made Clark’s probably questionable choices in this episode seem understandable. It was wonderful to see how affirmed Clark was by the love and admiration the public showed him at first. What an awesome scene for him. Then later, when it all started to go to hell, he played Clark as so sure of what to do. Even as Linda Lake tore Clark down in the media, he played Clark as resolved to get the true story out. I loved it when he stepped out into the porch to face the media, showing how determined Clark was to try and defend himself against her baseless accusations.

Although, my favorite parts of the episode were the Clark and Lois scenes. Tom played Clark as slightly befuddled and trying very hard to please Lois. It was sort of like Christopher Reeve’s portrayal of Clark in those Superman movies in how off balance he was, even as he was trying to tell her the truth, yet it wasn’t like Reeve’s. The problem with Smallville, compared to the other live-action versions of Superman, is that he lives in a far more realistic world. Yeah, there are meteor freaks and plots to take over the world and aliens and beings with super powers, but it’s still more realistic.

Tom, being a smart man, I think sees that Clark needs to be more realistically based too. He’s a bit on the bumbling side with Lois, but not too much. It’s not over the top and campy. As much as I loved Christopher Reeve’s version of the character, it is from an earlier time and it fit that series of movies. That same approach wouldn’t have fit in Smallville.

Tom’s performance is different, but not in a bad way. Trying to judge them is like comparing apples and oranges, they are nearly completely different. However, as perfect as Christopher Reeve’s version of Clark was, I also think Tom also perfectly portrays his version Clark. So much so, I can’t really imagine anyone else having done as well as he has. If anyone had been cast as Clark, I’m not sure this show would have lasted this long. This episode proves that yet again. Tom plays the nearly perfect Clark and I’m glad he’s going to be back to give us another season.

Erica Durance was terrific as Lois. She played her as amazed by Clark, yet intrigued and unwilling to let the story get away from her. She was perfect. Probably her best scene was the barn scene. She had Lois as so resolute and determined that Clark could make it work and that resetting the world, turning back time, wasn’t the right thing to do. Yet, when he explained what he was going to do, the way Erica portrayed Lois, despite the fact that it was clear she still understood his reasoning, it was also clear the devastation that she felt at not being special enough to him to learn his secret the next time. What a heartbreaking moment. This was yet another terrific performance from Erica.

Allison Mack was awesome. Man I loved what she did here. She played Chloe as a loving and supportive friend of Clark’s, no matter what. When stuff all started to go all to hell, she really brought that loyalty and loving support to forefront. Even when trying to deal with the implications of Clark’s revelations to Lois, she still tried to help Davis even as she worried about Jimmy coming to the hospital. Then, when Davis confessed what she had to give him wasn’t enough, I loved it when Chloe told him that it meant she had to say goodbye. That was a terrific moment from Allison.

Probably my favorite scene of hers, however, was the one with Davis in the Isis Foundation. She was trying to help her friend even though she was worried about Clark, then the horror she played Chloe having at learning Davis was Doomsday was astounding. Then, Allison to run full tilt while acting and yelling lines into a cell phone all at the same time? I don’t know how she did that, but I loved that whole scene.

Sam Witwer was awesome as Davis. He is clearly a man pained by the changes in himself that he’s dealing with and he’s trying to work around them. Like Allison, he didn’t have a whole lot of screen time, but I liked the character arc he had. Because of what Clark altered, it changed what Davis did. Instead of continuing to struggle with his ‘condition’, like he did as he confessed his secret to Chloe, he found a more certain way to resolve the issue: kill a sinner. Doing that was a more certain way to hold back the monster inside him just a little while longer. The conflict he was going through was awesome and I could almost tell what Davis was thinking as he held that pillow down on Linda’s face and then as the realization hit of what he did and the affect it had him, the relief, the epiphany, the horror of it, was fantastic. This was another terrific episode from Sam.

Stunt-casting aside, all-in-all, Tori’s performance wasn’t too bad and seemed to have improved for me on subsequent viewings. In the end, I thought how her character was written, and what she did with it, had some campy appeal. Say what you like about her, at least she was entertaining. Linda was villainous in a hammy sort of way and Tori’s over-the-top characterization fit the episode pretty well. Probably the main drawback of her performance was that she played nearly the entire show all at the same pitch (like talking loudly even when quiet is needed), there was no modulation in her level of acting. I would have liked to have seen some quiet menace, but when the scene called for her to be more manic I thought she was perfect.

Director Glen Winter directed another wonderful episode. His episodes are always a lot of fun and I think he has a good take on the Clark/Lois relationship. I like the varied setups he brings to the show, including a more than usually mobile camera, and he almost always gets good performances out of everyone.

Director of Photography Gord Verheul shot another beautiful show. His episodes are always very cinematic and I loved some of the more dramatic lighting in this episode. I liked that he went darker with the normally warmly lit Kent Farm. I liked the low angle shots, used sparingly and to great effect, especially the one when Clark walked out to the porch to talk to the media. I especially loved the bright, slightly overexposed scene with Davis and Linda. (The light parts of the scene were very bright.) It looked terrific and was perfect.

Production Designer James Philpott is one of my favorite guys… I LOVED that he had those people holding up those ‘Believe’ signs of Clark that looked like those ones of Barack Obama that are subject of a lawsuit by the Associated Press. You know, the red and blue one poster of Obama that had the word ‘Hope’ along the bottom that Shepard Fairey had designed during the most recent American Presidential Election cycle. Also I LOVED that sign that said ‘Save Me!’… That was completely awesome! I actually laughed out loud at that when I saw that. Is the crew as tired of listening to that song in the credits as I am? He added such nice, subtle touches of humor in the props in this episode.

Maybe this wasn’t perfect, but there was so much to love with this episode I’m going to grade it high. I give this 4.5 Shepard-Fairey-inspired Clark Kent ‘Believe’ paintings 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.