#8.18 “Eternal” Review

NOTE: This episode will spoil you rotten. Don’t read it if you try to avoid learning important details before viewing the episode. Don’t say that I didn’t warn you…

Well, I didn’t know what I had expected, but I’m not sure this was it. Written by Show Runner/writing team of Brian Peterson & Kelly Souders, this episode was quite a bit darker than the last episode, “Hex.” The contrast was a bit startling, actually.

I suppose its okay, though. It’s good to lighten up a bit in between darker episodes, but when an installment gets this bleak, it can still be a bit of a shock.

This episode wasn’t just a bit heavy either; it was also a bit on the preachy side. It might surprise you with some of the things I’ve previously said in my reviews, but I’m not normally much into entertainment that moralizes or that tries too hard to be meaningful.

Yet, in the end I really didn’t mind how dark this got or how much Tess compared Clark/Doomsday and Jesus/Judas. Maybe it did get a bit heavy-handed, I think they could have done with less of Tess’ ruminations on the subject, but in a very broad sense, I can see the similarity so maybe it’s fitting. However, I would think that they’d want to steer clear of any Jesus/Judas comparisons. Christ metaphors were so thick in that Superman film from a few years ago. Seeing how well that had gone as a theme, they probably should avoid doing the same thing themselves. In any case, they need to keep in mind that with heavy handed metaphors a little really goes a long way.

And I do agree that a hero needs to have a villain in order to be more heroic. Tess is right about that. In fact, it is a pretty standard thing in various forms of literature, so that is true in a literary sense, not just in a metaphorical one. I know I’ve even talked about it before in my reviews. The good guy needs a bad guy to battle in order to be the hero of the story. It just makes him or her be more heroic.

As for Smallville, as the seasons have gone on they’ve had a variety of villains and evil-plots for Clark to try and foil. Most of the bad guys would only be around for one particular episode, so Clark’s main nemesis up until this year had always been a Luthor, whether Lionel or Lex, but that’s not an option anymore. They’re both gone: Lionel is dead and Lex, while perhaps still living, is no longer directly a factor. Clark has to have bad guys to fight to give him reasons to be heroic, so they bring in both Davis and Tess to replace Lex.

So, for Davis, or rather Doomsday, to be Clark’s ‘Judas’ is fitting. He is the perfect antithesis to Clark as he has been portrayed by Smallville: a mindless weapon of destruction pitted against a more introspective instrument for preserving life. So, as they’ve been portrayed, Doomsday is nearly a perfect foil for Clark.

I like that Clark just being in the same room with Davis seems to negate Chloe’s positive presence. That’s awesome actually.

But it’s interesting that Tess has decided to be Davis’ enabler to his coming confrontation with Clark. She’s taken it upon herself to push the two men into going against each together to further Clark’s development into his destiny, to be the savior of the Earth, at the risk of Davis reaching his, to become the destroyer of worlds like he was in the comics. We all know where this will ultimately go. While it’s something that already has a determined ending, Davis can’t win or the show would be over (and we know that everyone is up for at least one more season), I can’t wait to see where exactly this storyline is going to go in the end.

Clark said it himself, it wasn’t much of a fight with Davis in this episode, but now that Chloe is playing Beauty to his Beast, I wonder how this is going to end up. It certainly doesn’t look like Davis is going to escape his fate anymore than Clark will side-step his. It will likely end up being a very bad thing for Chloe to end up in the middle between the two men.

Probably my favorite part of this episode was that I liked the way they used previous canon and twisted it just enough to show us a different version of events. Yeah, Clark’s arrival on Earth was retconned, but they’d already done that back in Bloodline when Zod’s wife Faora possessed Lois and told Davis that he arrived at the same time as Clark.

However, I like the way they brought up old canon and had events and dialogue in this episode mirror what was in previous ones. Lex and Davis playing together as kids and Davis killing Lex’s bird? Lex actually playing that Davis is a beast that needs to be killed? That’s chilling, but could it also be foreshadowing of some kind? I guess we’ll see…

The Veritas storyline getting revived and repurposed was awesome. I had been sorry they had apparently dropped that, the only thing that had been left from that storyline until now had been the Veritas version of the Luthor family crest on the leaded glass window in the mansion library.

That kind of thing kept on happening too. Like the footage from the Pilot showing the Kents finding Clark getting played again and that contrasting and mirroring with how Davis arrived and was found by Lionel Luthor’s men. I loved how they did that.

Clark was taken away, wrapped up warm in a blanket in the arms of a loving woman. Davis was taken away by men with guns and put inside of a cage. That was a terrific thing for them to have done. It makes a lot of literary sense too, even despite the major retcon required to bring it about.

The Kawatche Indian myth of Naman and Sageeth getting dredged up by Tess in talking about Clark and Davis was terrific. Then, later, it was even better when Chloe had brought up the same thing. It must have been hard for Clark to hear that Lionel and Lex had been wrong about whom Clark’s nemesis really was… Then after Clark left her alone in the barn, Tess said almost the same thing to Clark as Faora had said to Davis back in “Bloodline.”

She said that Clark isn’t ready yet, it’s too early, but when it’s time she’ll be there for him. Yeah, I’m not sure I believe she has his best interests at heart, but she thinks she’ll get Clark to trust her if she is sincere enough. That was excellent, even though I doubt it will ever happen.

I mean, she’s all in his face about Davis being his Judas and Clark’s destiny to destroy Davis. Then she has the stone that Lex had used against Clark in “Arctic” last year…. She’s definitely up to no good when it comes to Clark. I can’t wait to see where that is going to go too.

And what the heck was Chloe doing with Davis? I think I understand her reasoning, that she ‘killed’ Davis to protect Clark and was now forced to do what? Shack up with him to protect Clark again? That was an amazing choice for her to have made and it’s a perfect ending to the last episode before the spring hiatus.

Probably the biggest retcon was the fact that it looks like Clark won’t fully be a hero until he defeats Davis. That isn’t how it happened in any other version of Superman and Doomsday. In the comics and also in the animated film about Doomsday, Clark was a full-on hero, wearing the tights, flying around, working at The Daily Planet, before Doomsday killed him.

It’s interesting that it seems that is where they’re headed. I’m not sure what I had expected when I had first heard of Doomsday coming to Smallville, but that probably wasn’t it. I knew certainly that Clark was going to have his work cut out for him in defeating Doomsday, it might even mean that he ‘dies’ in the attempt (I expect he’ll manage to pull through, they wouldn’t kill off Superman after all), but his battle with Davis becoming the fire his hero-hood is forged in?

Well, maybe that’s a bit of a stretch. He’s already a hero, the now famed Red-Blue blur, but will his fight with Davis push him to the next level? That really isn’t anywhere close to how that happened in the comics, but maybe it’s not necessarily a bad thing. It seems like they’ll be pushing Clark to his limits. Although, I would think that something like what might be coming up for Clark would be more fitting for a Superman show’s series finale instead of being the launch pad for yet another season as this one ends in likely what will be a major cliff-hanger. I guess they hadn’t planned on a ninth season going into this one…

Anyway, as much as there were things to love about this episode, there were a few things that I hated. Like how the heck did a nine or ten year old Davis learn to speak English almost instantly? I’m not sure how that’s plausible, yet newly-arrived-on-the-planet Davis yelled ‘No’ as Lionel’s henchmen pushed him into that cage. Then only a few days later he was speaking to Lex like he was born here. I guess I can sorta see that: Doomsday adapting quickly and learning language almost as though he absorbed English syntax and vocabulary through his skin would probably fit for him as a character, but it strains credulity.

Also, didn’t the writers remember that Lex had first seen the lead box he later gave to Clark when he was 12? “Memoria” is one of my favorite episodes, so I’ve seen it a lot. I took another look at it again as I worked on this review, so let me give you a refresher: Lionel had given Lex the box at his disastrous 12th birthday party which we’d seen in a flashback in “Memoria”. In that scene it was clear that the then twelve-year-old Lex (played beautifully by Wayne Dalgliesh) hadn’t recognized the box. He had dismissed the gift as just ‘an old box.’ Neither had he seemed to have known anything about Saint George until Lionel had explained more about St. George and the box’s alleged provenance as wrought from the dragon fighter’s armor. (I say its alleged origin since no one had never made armor out of lead, it’d be stupid. It’s too soft and too heavy to be practical for armor.) So, why did nine-year-old Lex seem to know all about that box in this episode?

Although, in looking at “Memoria” again I must admit that retconning Lionel’s obsession with Clark to starting after he’d first arrived sort of works. Lionel had been always very interested in finding out more about where exactly Clark had come from. He seemed to know more than he had ever said he’d known, even back in earlier seasons.

Well, maybe having Lex know about the box before he had been 12 is not that big a deal, it worked well for that play-duel scene with Davis, but another thing that really strained my willing suspension of disbelief was what Clark had said about nightmares he’d had when he was a kid.

How did he have a bad dream about being left alone in the field where his ship had landed before he had even known he had a space ship? I don’t know if you remember, I do (although I guess the writer’s don’t), but Clark hadn’t learned that he was an alien and even had a space ship until he was a freshman in high school. In fact, he had found out in the Pilot episode. Funny that it’s the same episode that they themselves brought up in Davis’ flashbacks. Did Clark mean back then? That doesn’t sound right. A twenty-something I don’t think would refer to his teen years as ‘when I was a kid’, or at least most people don’t. I think he’d say something like ‘back in high school I used to have nightmares…’ Maybe that’s just me, but that was a bit of a reach…

Another thing that I didn’t much like was the child version of Lex. We only before saw Connor Stanhope’s version of child-Lex in flashbacks that had happened prior to the meteor shower, so I don’t see why he was essentially the same little kid as before. He was silly and his dialogue was insipid. Would Superman’s future arch villain really call his pet bird a ridiculous name like ‘Feathers’? I don’t know about you, but I’m skeptical.

Also several times in earlier seasons Lex had said that his whole world changed the day the meteors fell. Yet it wasn’t clear here that Lex was going to be a future villain. I suppose there were hints, like child-Lex dejectedly wishing he was like Warrior Angel and yet playing games where he ‘kills’ Davis almost casually. Still, aside from that I didn’t see that he was much different than he’d been in previous flashbacks of Lex’s childhood that had happened before the meteor shower, which we’d seen in “Fracture” and “Veritas”. I was a bit disappointed that wasn’t handled better. So while I liked the bit of the foreshadowing, like Lex calling Davis a ‘beast’ in their game, I didn’t see much menacing about this post-meteor-shower child-Lex.

Overall, Brian and Kelly did a really good job with this episode. It wasn’t a happy tale, but I guess in the long run Davis’ story won’t ever be. Despite a few picayunish things, I did enjoy this. The scribes did a great job remixing old canon into the new story and the act ends were all fantastic. They answered some questions and yet posed more that will need to be resolved in the episodes leading up to the season finale. Also, it served as an excellent origin tale for Davis/Doomsday.

Tom Welling was almost perfect in this episode. He convincingly played Clark as Supermanly, as always: resolved to do what’s right, strong and unwavering in his convictions.

I especially liked the scenes Clark had with Tess. With the one in her hospital room, I loved the way that Tom played Clark’s caution in talking to her with the need to find out what Tess knows. The dialogue helped, but he never really lied to her any time he talked to Tess. But my favorite scene of his was probably the last one in the barn. The cat is almost assuredly out of the bag, yet Clark can’t trust Tess with the truth. Yet, the way Tom portrayed Clark’s resolve to not tell her more than she might already have guessed was awesome.

The only thing I’d have to complain about would be the scene in Dr. Grohl’s lab. I didn’t quite buy the way Tom had portrayed painful kryptonite poisoning and he usually does pain so well. However, that’s a minor nitpick on the episode: this was another terrific performance for Tom.

Allison Mack was fantastic as Chloe. She went through a lot in this episode and Allison played it all so well. Probably my favorite scene was the one with Davis when he wanted to die. Allison played Chloe as so reluctant to kill, to go against what she knows is right (even though he probably deserved it) and only went to kill Davis when Clark was in danger. She cried so believably in that scene, and in others in the episode, it was a torturous journey for Chloe and Allison did a beautiful job portraying all of that.

I loved Cassidy Freeman in this episode. I loved the scenes she had with Davis. The scene when he first woke up and she told him she had wanted to kill him was chilling. I also liked the way she’d played Tess’ epiphany on the role Davis is playing in Clark’s life. And Cassidy is terrific when she’s playing scenes with Tom. Their chemistry is terrific and every minute was a joy to watch as Tess and Clark both danced around the truth of Clark’s origins.

Sam Witwer was completely awesome as Davis. I loved how conflicted he played Davis. It’s interesting that Davis is a monster but it’s almost like he’d been raised deeply religious. Yet, he had been so sure that dying was the right thing to do. I loved the way he’d read the line about it not being about what you have, but what you’ve done or will do. Sam was fantastic in this episode.

Connor Stanhope was good to see again. He is a very good as young Lex. And Alex Ferris was excellent as the young Davis. He looked like a lot like Sam Witwer, so it was an excellent job of casting.

DP Barry Donlevy did beautiful job with this episode. I really liked how well the new scenes meshed in with the old ones. The show was shot differently back then, but somehow it had all seemed to fit. The old footage flowed well into how Davis’s flashback scenes were shot.

It would appear that some sort of trickery went on with color correction to get the old footage to match the new scenes, the original Pilot episode hadn’t been that overexposed and cold looking (Peter Wunstorf’s photography of the Pilot episode was very warm and bright, I know… I dug out my first season set and checked, which is also how I found his name), so the changes they’d done made those scenes fit in well. The whole episode was also shot with a high contrast ratio (the whites so white they’re overexposed and the blacks so inky and dark) that fit the episode perfectly.

Also, I’m not sure why, I liked seeing only Davis’ mouth in the rear view mirror as he kissed that crucifix. It had a cinematic feel to it. And Tess almost popping out of the dark when he turned on his headlights was terrific. I also liked the part of that scene when Tess blew up Davis’ truck. I loved the way that Barry pushed in on Tess when she held out her hand and then pulled focus onto the detonator just as she pushed the button and Davis’s jeep exploded.

Oh, and I absolutely adored that long tracking, or was it a crane shot, at the end of the tease that went from a toddler Clark and lead to us to Davis curled up on the ground. It was an extremely long take, more than a minute long, and it was a beautifully choreographed shot. I LOVE it when they do stuff like that. It was a beautifully crafted shot, but also had a deeper meaning in terms of helping to set up the rest of the episode. It visually tied Clark finding his future parents moments after he’d landed to Davis’ arrival, where he ended up curled up on the rocks; cold, naked and alone. It spoke volumes about the differences in how the two of them had grown up. This was a beautifully shot episode.

I really liked the egg, or whatever it was, that Davis had emerged from. It looks like Production Designer James Philpott had a little Visual Effects help from Entity FX, or Entity FX North, in that scene (with the goo turning into child-Davis) but the egg opening up so much like the eggs from the Alien movies had done was a terrific choice. I’d be curious to find out what that goo was made from, but how it slowly opened and discharged a substance that looked so alien made Davis’s arrival on Earth seem even more menacing.

I also liked how the journal pages morphed into scenes from the Pilot and other scenes from Davis’ past. The drawings were well done and I also liked the book itself, so kudos probably needs to go to Property Master Aleya Naiman as well.

Costume Designer Melanie Williams also did a terrific job. I really liked the dark, purple colored sweater that Tess wore in her scenes with Davis. It was very Luthorian (okay so that’s not a real word, but it should be) and the color acted as a reminder of whose prodigy she is. That was fitting for this episode where Tess continues Lex’s and Lionel’s legacy of obsessing over Clark and his origins.

While not quite perfect, some of the retcons in this episode were a bit hard to swallow, I still give this episode 4.5 Lionel Veritas journals 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.