#8.3 “Toxic” Review

NOTE: You know the drill, this review is going to spoil you rotten so, if you don’t like spoilers, take a look at this episode and then come back when you’re done.

I wasn’t sure what to think of this episode at first. It wasn’t the typical freak-of-the-week episode, that’s for sure, but I knew from the first time I saw it that it’s clearly not Caroline Dries (“Nemesis,” “Oracle,” and “Gemini”) best work for Smallville either. Although, I have to remind myself that she also wrote “Sleeper,” so I guess even Caroline has her off days.

This episode did have some good points, but in the end the episode failed to get across what should have been the most important part of it. For what it was meant to show, Oliver’s origin, it didn’t effectively demonstrate how and why Ollie got to where he is right now, or why he risks his life to do the right thing.

That part of the story was largely told through flashbacks during his poison-induced delirium. We did see some of what he’d gone through on the south Pacific island he was stuck on for two years.

Ollie apparently was a billionaire playboy before he was a vigilante archer. He was so hedonistic that he actually partied so hard with his buddies that he wrecked his yacht and they all died. Oliver got marooned on that island for two years and it was there that he learned the skills he needed to survive and that had also led him to become the Green Arrow.

Although it’d been stated a couple of times that Ollie had been a different person back before he’d gotten stuck on that island, I’m not sure I saw much evidence of Oliver’s previous party-boy ways. There was little to establish that he’d been such a self-indulgent, egocentric person before. Or rather, there was little established other than what people said about him. It didn’t help that what they said was sometimes extremely tedious expository dialogue.

I’m not sure what could have been added to the story that might have helped establish his previous hard partying ways, but something should have happened to show us the spoiled rich brat he had been. With what Caroline had written, the epiphany that led him to fight injustices came off a bit flat. There was no obvious arc, no definitive change, in Oliver’s character that was demonstrated more than it was discussed…

Acting as an origin story, a story ostensibly designed to enlighten us about who Ollie is and how he got to be where he is, this story failed. Not because we didn’t learn anything new about him, which we did. No, it failed because there was no obvious difference between the man he was in to the man he is now.

Clark wasn’t in this episode as much as I would have liked, but he was in it more than I had expected. And I must say that I did like that he seemed more proactive than in previous Clark-light episodes had been in the past. Getting the antidote was huge, and the fact that he found it all on his own, without more than just some guidance where to look from Chloe, was just icing.

I love Chloe, I really do, but Clark is supposed to be very smart. He shouldn’t have to be spoon-fed things as much as had been done in previous seasons. The writers depended too much on Chloe figuring stuff out and telling Clark what he needed to do. Each effectively using their unique skill-sets, I like it much better when they work together to solve a problem like they did in this episode.

I thought it was strange that it wasn’t really spelled out that Clark stole the serum from Brazil, but where else would he have gotten it? I thought however he had gotten it would have been addressed by Tess. A reported break-in at the Luthorcorp lab down in Campo Grande, Brazil just after she’d told Clark about the lab would have probably gotten her attention.

I guess the thing I hated about this episode most was the ridiculousness of a paramedic and a former reporter trying to treat Ollie. I might have bought it if Davis hadn’t made grandiose pronouncements like “The best I can do is keep him alive a few minutes longer…” Or him ordering the nurse to “Get me 40 CCs of Nitro, stat!”

He’s not a doctor. So, how did he know he could keep Ollie alive for a little longer and how did he know what dosage of nitroglycerin to give? But why did he order it in the first place? It’s a drug used for heart pain, not for cardiac arrest.

So, not only was it the wrong medicine, it seemed like the completely wrong dosage. Maybe it was Sam misspeaking his lines, and thus not Caroline’s fault, but 40 CCs (that’s short for cubic centimeters) doesn’t sound right. I’m definitely not a doctor, I was a film major and currently work in the battered mortgage credit industry (luckily I still have a job), but that seems like an awful lot.

I’ve seen more than my fair share of medical procedural shows so I know that nitro (or nitroglycerin) is given in tiny little pills or on patches or little spray bottles… Patients don’t get big injections of several ounces of it.

I know this is a show about an alien with super powers, but still…

Would it have been that hard to call up a medical specialist and ask someone whether it’s believable for a paramedic to order medicines or what medicines should be ordered if he did? Maybe watching a few episodes of House or spending ten minutes on the internet researching this stuff (like I did) might have been helpful…

Maybe it doesn’t really matter in the grand scheme of things, but I thought at least part of the point is to make the show at least somewhat believable. It is set in a fairly realistic world, even if it’s one that’s populated with aliens and people with superhuman abilities. When my willing suspension of disbelief is broken this badly, it makes it much harder to see the rest of the episode in a positive light.

Another thing that I found a bit worrisome is that there is still secret and lies kvetching going on. Oliver apparently knows almost everything else about Veritas/Traveler sub-plot from last season and Lex’s attempts to control Clark. There was that reference he’d made on the plane in “Odyssey” about Clark losing his powers being the better option than Lex having the “remote control for a Clark-bot”… (A line I liked a lot, by the way.)

Maybe it’s understandable that, despite Oliver’s knowledge of the whole Veritas/Traveler thing, Clark wouldn’t fess up Lionel’s murder of Ollie’s parents. He feels guilty about it since it was because of Clark (The Traveler) that Lionel killed them.

However, what isn’t understandable in the secrets and lies department is Chloe not fessing up to Jimmy about her change in powers. Given what had happened before with her healing powers, it just doesn’t make sense. Maybe it’s because the way she got the new power (from Brainiac trying to take over her brain). Maybe telling Jimmy about that might bring up things that are too close to Clark’s secret.

If that’s why, it is understandable. She’s again protecting Clark, but I hope they’re not holding her back from telling her new secret to Jimmy because she’s worried how he’ll feel about it. That would mean that she hasn’t learned a thing since last season and that would not be a good thing.

Despite some of its more glaring shortcomings, there were things I really liked about this episode. I liked the fact that Oliver called Tess “Mercy.” (Mercy Graves was Lex’s bodyguard/assistant in the Superman Animated series and later appeared in the comics.) Oliver calling her that also was an appropriate nickname for a more humane Tess from when they’d first met, the marine biologist and serious student. Yet her license plate that said “NOMERCY” reinforced the fact that she is no longer the sweet, defenseless marine biologist that first met Oliver all those years ago…

I also liked Clark’s and Lois’ banter. It was awesome that when Clark came in with a cup of coffee with his name on the side and Lois assumed he had gotten it for her. Clark just rolling with it and letting her take his coffee without complaint was cute.

I also liked it that Chloe was sorry that she wasn’t the one circling Clark’s typos. It was something she probably used to do back in high school. However, Lois pointing out Clark’s typos is strange. Isn’t she the one with a legendary lack of spelling skills?

All in all, the episode was okay, but only just because the good only barely outweighed the bad.
Tom Welling was gorgeous again in this episode. I love him in a suit, but I’m not sure how well he did acting-wise. I don’t think he was phoning it in, per se, but in some scenes (especially earlier on in the episode) I’m not sure he was really feeling it either. Parts of the episode came off as uncharacteristically flat for him. Things seemed to pick up for Tom after Clark was doing more active things, like investigating the missing date and trying to figure out how to get hold of the antidote, so I’m not sure what the problem was.

I did like how supportive of Lois he played Clark, but possibly my favorite scene was the last one between Oliver and Clark. He played Clark as torn about Oliver finding out about Lionel murdering his parents, yet careful to try and still cover it up.

Allison Mack was terrific as Chloe. I like her super-computing power more and more each episode. It’s a perfect power for Chloe and Allison seems to portray that part of her so well. The rapid-fire delivery she has taken to giving Chloe lately is perfect for her new powers. I also like how freaked out she plays Chloe by the powers.

I’m not sure that Justin Hartley’s heart was in this episode. He just seemed flat to me for a lot of it. He has put forth better work before on Smallville, so I know he can act. He had turned in a stellar episode in “Odyssey,” for example.

However, this episode (unlike that one) seemed largely designed to show off Justin’s bare chest. Oliver had his shirt open or wore no shirt for large parts of this episode. I can’t begin to guess what was going on in Justin’s mind, but maybe he might have turned in a stronger performance if such a key episode for Oliver had been better crafted and hadn’t been so obviously designed to show off as much skin as possible.

I don’t know…. Maybe if Justin were a stronger actor he could have put more into this episode and added to what hadn’t been written on the page. I think that is what was needed to flesh out his character arc more, but it just wasn’t there. This episode was Justin’s chance to show what he can do different and he just didn’t do that.

However, Cassidy Freeman had apparently gotten the memo about showing a different part of her character in the flashback scenes. Cassidy did an excellent job showing us a kinder, gentler Tess in the beginning flashbacks. Those scenes in fact helped her in the later scenes when she confronted Marcos. She was ruthless and, although she was scared, she controlled her fear and managed to fight back. Something she wouldn’t have ever done before, as the vulnerable, passive Tess in the flashback scenes demonstrated. Cassidy had believably sold that character arc, that definitive change in Tess from then to now. She was completely awesome in this episode.

Erica Durance did a terrific job as Lois. I loved the speech she gave as she watched over Oliver. Her tender care of Oliver showed the affection she still has for him. The way she delivered the lines showed Lois’ regret that she had to leave him. What an awesome scene for her.

I also loved the banter, as always, between Lois and Clark. Erica gives Lois a harder façade as she ribs Clark mercilessly, even taking his coffee, but still manages to imbue her with a real vulnerability and warmth. There is no doubt she cares for Clark, despite the snarky banter. I think that is part of the appeal of her particular portrayal of Lois Lane. Previous Lois portrayals lacked that same warmth. I am more and more in love with her Lois every episode.

I think the only thing I can say about this episode’s design was a few WTF moments, mostly to do with props and scene design. James Philpott usually designs flawlessly, making what is a likely shoe-string budget stretch an unbelievable amount, but what was the deal with that tent?

Okay, so Marcos and the unnamed guy with the shot gun were drug-running to Thailand, right? So along with a pair of kidnapped girls they just happened to have a ginormous military surplus canvas tent which they then setup and filled with crates, packing blankets and fishing tackle? Yet after they went to that trouble they were going to leave with Ollie and Tess and not take the tent, and all that junk that was in it, with them?

That makes no sense.

It was beautifully lit and shot by Glen Winter. I loved the hazy, over-exposed look in the flashback scenes especially. However, as a design choice that huge tent was probably not realistic.

This episode, while enjoyable for the most part, had some problems with logic and seriously strained my suspension of disbelief several times, so I have to count it down for that. I give this episode 3 thorny toxic flowers 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.