#8.20 “Beast” Review

NOTE: Keep in mind that this review contains spoilers so read no further if you haven’ t seen the episode yet and try to avoid those.

I’m not sure what I had expected, but this episode was surprisingly good. I say ‘surprisingly’ mostly because I wasn’t expecting much from this episode at all.

Looking at my chart of grades I’ve given past episode 20s, the history of the show almost guarantees the twentieth outing of any season will be a stinker. Even last year, when they only had twenty because of the strike the twentieth episode was possibly the worst season finale ever. Well, at least for the ones I’d reviewed anyway. It is the only season finale I’d given less than a 4. So, I wasn’t holding out much hope for this episode despite how good the episode looked from the preview.

Yet, as the twentieth episode of the season goes, this one is quite far above the rest.

I’ve only been reviewing for KryptonSite since season four’s “Onyx” and that season’s twentieth was the less than successful episode “Ageless.” That was the much maligned ‘exploding baby’ episode. One that was so bad that Writer/Director Steven DeKnight even makes fun of it on his myspace page and in interviews. Then the next season it was somewhat okay “Fade” and in the sixth it was “Noir.” While that episode was beautifully shot, everyone looked awesome and Glen Winter had even won an award for his work on it, I had thought the story had been a muddled mess. Last year’s 7th season was marred, and shortened, by the writers’ strike and the finale, so the twentieth episode of the year had suffered for it. I can even show you. I do have that chart.

As if I needed to provide more proof that I’m a major geek than to admit that I actually have a spread sheet so I can chart my reviews. Well, I do it more out of curiosity about potential patterns than anything else. However the spreadsheet does make it easier to find out what grade I’d given a particular episode than actually trying to remember should someone ask, which they sometimes do.

If you were curious what I’d given “Ageless” for example, I can tell you as long as I have that file handy. (I gave it a 2, which, in retrospect, was probably way too generous.) A few times I’ve posted charts of my review scores online and I talked it about last fall at the Dragon*Con convention, but I’ve never included them in a review before. So, to illustrate my point here is the chart of my scores so far this year:

See the lines above the ’20’? Most dip down from the previous episode, some had dipped down quite a bit (the red line is for the fourth season so that’s the aforementioned “Ageless” hitting the ‘2’ line). Of course not knowing yet what I’ll give “Injustice” and “Doomsday”, the 8th season line terminates on this, the 20th episode.

If you want to know the average grades by season just let me know, but anyway I think you can understand when I say that I hadn’t had a whole lot of hope for this episode. The twentieth installment of every season is nearly always disappointing, even if it’s not completely awful.

I think despite the historically dreck-filled potential of being the 20th episode, this one somehow had sidestepped that fate. It started out so well.

I absolutely ADORED the tease. The real life nightmare that Chloe is living making its way into her dreams was a terrific way to open this episode.

Davis making out with her and then, after she gets reminded that he’s a monster instead of just a sexy EMT, him asking Chloe “What did you think was going to happen” perfectly foreshadowed her dilemma (and the increasing danger Davis poses). Then her finding Clark’s body the way it was positioned, with the red ‘S’ painted on his chest and his arms tied to a pole which echoed Clark’s scarecrow scene from the Pilot episode, was also terrific. It was a gruesome moment, visceral even. What a great Tease.

The story built up nicely from there. Chloe had really dug herself into a hole I’m not sure she can ever really dig herself out of: Davis isn’t going to get better since there likely is no cure for a genetically engineered alien monster.

That reminds me, that one thing I had a problem with was that the scene between Chloe and the doctor when she was looking for a cure. Her looking for a treatment for Davis not only seems foolish, or desperate, but it also just seemed to come out of the blue. All of a sudden she’s looking to Oliver’s doctor-on-retainer to cure Davis when she’d never even mentioned the possibility before. Weird… I guess it makes sense given the situation and her trying to do what she can to get out of her being Davis’ BFF. She wants to save Clark so if Dr. Hamilton could help with that, through curing Davis, even better. However, she’s really reaching for straws there…

Yet what she did to try to save Davis just doesn’t make sense. I find it hard to believe that someone as smart as Chloe would think that the only option left is to leave with Davis, giving up everyone else she loves for a monster. Yeah, given her loyalty to Clark I can see her sacrificing herself, giving up her own chances at happiness, in order to save him and save the world. However I think it’s out of character for her to be such a liar about it.

And weirdest yet, why did she imply to Davis that she loves him? While she never came out and told Davis that she does, Chloe had implied it though her actions. Clark was right to suspect that, but that wasn’t what was going on at all. Maybe it’s because she suspects that he might kill her. I mean that’s what happened in “Infamous.” Davis as Doomsday seemed to have killed her in that alternate timeline after he thought she’d betrayed him out of loyalty to Clark. Maybe she suspects that same sort of thing might happen should she let Davis know the real reason why she’s helping him. Maybe Davis is too close to the brink of becoming the monster full-time that she can’t risk upsetting him. She actually said it herself, you don’t want to get on Davis’ bad side.

But if that’s the reason why she’s leading Davis on, why lie to Clark about it?

I could probably buy what she told him, that Clark would have tried to stop her if he’d known. He would have, but isn’t the best part of Clark is that he sees the best in people, he tries to find the solutions that will solve the problem while risking as few lives as possible except for his own. Wasn’t that the lesson from earlier this year when Clark argued with three super-powered teens from the future? He refused to accept that Chloe’s death was the only solution. He was right, it wasn’t and he was able to save Chloe’s life with Legion, but he was the only person who had accepted that there were any alternatives. In talking things out, maybe they could have figured out some other solution, but it’s probably a moot point. There is no fixing Davis. He is what he is.

So, maybe Chloe is too close to see the truth and she hasn’t yet really learned that there’s no holding back fate. There is no way she can keep Davis from being what he was designed to be. She will fail to succeed and she should recognize that.

I don’t know, maybe she’s desperate and isn’t seeing the forest for the trees. She’s just too busy dealing with the tiny problems that Davis is causing all over the place (like sneaking out of the basement all the time) to see that the big problem is that he was sent to Earth in order to kill Clark. No matter how Davis feels about her, there is probably nothing she can do to stop the huge confrontation that will eventually happen between Clark and Davis. She is in denial in a very major way, and I don’t think that is in character for Chloe.

Still, I can kinda see why they’re doing it. If Chloe works so hard to try and save Davis (in order to save Clark) that she ends up pushing Clark away in the process, it stretches the storyline out and helps to build tension leading up to the finale. However, it’s a bit of a cheat.
Yet, as a dramatic tool the contrivances of this storyline are working. We know where this is all going, so waiting for the other shoe to drop keeps us tuned in and anxious to see the resolution. That’s good drama. However, the writers are again forcing the show’s characters into acting inconsistently to serve the story. They’re not letting the stories serve the characters, as they should. That’s a shame because if they could somehow do all this with the characters acting consistently that it would make the stories on Smallville much more powerful. In this case, it would illuminate Chloe’s character and reveal more about her instead of just making me scratch my head, perplexed at the twists and turns that got Chloe to protect Davis, an monster designed to kill Clark. On one level it still does work, but on another it really doesn’t.

As for Clark, I can understand his reactions more than Chloe’s: he isn’t completely sold on Davis as a lost cause. He let himself be talked out of sending Davis to the Phantom Zone because he knows what sort of hell it is. He’s been there twice. Getting sent there does seem worse than death and I can see him beginning to doubt that it was the best option. Maybe it’s believable that Clark believes that maybe Chloe was right and Davis is still redeemable.

He wants to believe the best of people, even monsters that were designed to destroy him. Mostly I find it believable that Clark can have those doubts because he doesn’t know what we do. We know that Davis is uniquely capable of killing him without resorting to Kryptonite. Clark only suspects it’s possible, he doesn’t KNOW it.

It’s just like last year with Lex, Clark doesn’t really fully comprehend the fundamental nature of the dangers facing him, although I wish he would remember how well that had gone last season. Now with Davis, we know something he doesn’t so it might be easy to condemn him for being as stupid as Chloe is behaving, but he’s only acting on what he knows. The dramatic irony is running pretty thick leading up to the season finale, so of course Clark’s going to get into trouble before the season finally ends. This is pretty much going in the general direction I’d expect it has been heading all season, but even despite the contrivances and out-of-character actions, the story did it’s job: I can’t wait to see what’s going to happen next.

This is exactly what should happen in the episode three weeks before the season finale. You should be amped up, excited and worried, about where the coming perils for the lead characters are going to end up taking them before the season ends. And this is exactly what never really happens in the third-to-last episode of the season. Year after year, season after season, we get episodes like “Crush,” “Accelerate,” “Ageless” and the others I’d mentioned. They almost seem to throw up their hands and have no idea what to do in that third-to-the-last episode.

Well, except maybe for this year and last year. Last year’s episode 17 (third-to-the-last in a 20 episode season) was the terrific “Apocalypse” which of course ramped up Brainiac’s storyline quite a bit leading up to the season finale. This year, this episode, was pretty much the same: it ramped up the main storylines that has been running through the entire season leading up to the season finale: Davis finally becoming the monster he was born to be and Clark getting a better handle on how to be hero even while living a non-super life. In that respect, the episode was perfect, even if some of the details I had some problems with.

Aside from some of the broader issues, I had no problems with the structure of the episode. In fact, the script, in its execution, was close to perfect. The act breaks cliff-hangers were all awesome, the pace was good and the dialogue was strong. Overall I enjoyed the episode quite a bit. It also bore up extremely well to subsequent viewings. In fact, it might be my favorite episode twenty ever. So in its totality, the episode was terrific outing for Genevieve Sparling.

Tom Welling was terrific as Clark, even though he wasn’t in this as much as I would have liked. He directed the next episode, “Injustice,” so I can see the need for him to get some needed time to prep so Clark wasn’t in this episode much.

Tom portrayed Clark’s inner turmoil perfectly. Clark got believably angry with Oliver and frustrated with Chloe. I loved the scene in the Isis Foundation as Clark talked with Oliver. That was probably the best part of the episode for Tom. I think he added more to the scene than was there on the page. Not that I’ve read the script or anything, but he played quite a variety of emotions during Oliver’s harangue that I’m not sure could have been all included in the script. Clark didn’t say much during their confrontation, but Tom’s face said volumes about what Clark must be feeling, as he did during his call with Chloe. But probably my favorite part during that scene was when he got so angry and smashed the filing cabinet. I think they should let Clark get angry more often.

Allison Mack was absolutely awesome as Chloe. I loved how fragile Chloe seemed at times. She played Chloe with a real sense of vulnerability. At times she was so close to crying when she was forced to lie to Clark and to Oliver, or when things were getting out of control, that it was touching. She did well the entire episode, but probably my favorite scene was the one between Chloe and Clark on the phone. She played Chloe as so resolved on her course of action, it’s the only way she can see to save Clark. It was a heartbreaking scene to see how broken up Chloe was, so there was a tinge of pain under the resolve. It was a wonderful episode for Allison.

Aaron Ashmore actually made me believe bland Jimmy could handle himself. The look in his eyes was so chilling when Oliver revealed that Davis was the monster at his wedding. If looks from a mediocre photographer turned failed bartender could kill Doomsday, he would have been dead on the spot. It was an excellent outing from Aaron.

Justin Hartley played Oliver as more capable business-wise than before. Yet even as he handled those business associates with apparent ease, there was the hint of the vapid billionaire playboy in there too. I really liked what Justin did throughout this episode, but probably my favorite scene was Oliver’s confrontation with Chloe in the Talon. He played Oliver as irate at Chloe’s foolishness and his passion was terrific to watch.

Sam Witwer was great as Davis. He’s getting ever creepier as each episode goes along. The way he played the line in the tease, “What did you think was going to happen,” was terrific. It was like he was saying to Chloe, “D’uh.” Later on, I loved in the basement scene with Jimmy and Oliver when he was trying to kill Jimmy. The look of regret on Sam’s face as Davis recognized that Oliver was right and he could never kill Jimmy was great. Then the frustration was and then he pounded him, like he wanted nothing more than to see Jimmy’s blood paint the floor red. That was awesome.

Director of Photography Barry Donlevy did a terrific job shooting this episode. Everyone looked great and the way Clark’s body in the tease was shot made that even more chilling. Of course that shot got some Visual Effects help from Entity FX and Entity FX North and probably some make-up help from Natalie Cosco, but Tom looking so pale and the scene being so dark made the sight of his body more startling. I also really liked the Fortress scene. The high contrast ratio worked really well in that scene.

Oh, I LOVED Chloe’s nightgown in the Tease. It was beautiful and very romantic, even old-school Hollywood glamorous. It fit both Allison and the intent of the scene perfectly so Costume Designer Melanie Williams should get some serious kudos on that.

And Clark so easily smashing that cabinet was certainly was a good bit of work from the Property Master Aleya Naiman and Production Designer James Philpott. It didn’t look any different than the other cabinets next to it. It’s usually pretty easy to tell when you have a break-away prop, the color is different or it looks out of place. That cabinet looked like it belonged so Clark crushing that was a bit surprising. That was very well done.

Louis Febre’s score for this episode was terrific. Again, back on the Tease I love how the music helped to build the tension until the reveal of Clark’s body hanging from that pole. It was awesome. And there was something in the music that sounded a bit like dripping liquid, I’m not sure what made the sound, some sort of timpani instrument, so the dripping blood from Clark’s body that Entity FX put in was reflected in the score. What an awesome scene.

I loved the song that played a couple of times in the episode, “What you Feel” by Chris Levy. First it was played in the Tease and then later at the end of the episode. The slow, pain-filled song fit the moods of the scenes it played under nearly perfectly. “What you feel, what you know, You’re not in control, If you just let it go, There’s a peace you’ll know.” Chloe and Clark were both in situations that they’d lost control over, so the lyrics even fit. Playing that at the beginning and end brought the episode full circle, so it was a nice touch.

While not quite perfect, I’m not sure I completely bought Chloe’s reasoning for acting so out of character, but it was a beautifully executed episode and was far better than other episode 20s I’d previously reviewed. I give this 4.5 chocolate heart shaped lollipops 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.