#8.9 “Abyss” Review

NOTE: Don’t you dare read this before seeing this episode, especially if you like to stay blissfully unaware of important plot points ahead of time! This review contains HUGE spoilers. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.

I’m not sure what I had expected from this episode, but I am sure it surprised me in how much I enjoyed it.

I think I’ve said before that generally, and for reasons I don’t understand, I do not like Chloe-centric episodes. And it’s not because I don’t like Allison Mack or Chloe, because I do. I like both the actress and her character very much. Maybe Allison tends to get stuck with episodes that just aren’t all that good. Think of a recent example from the end of last season, “Sleeper.” I loathed that particular Chloe-centric episode for a variety of reasons, most of which hadn’t been directly related to either Allison or her character.

So, I hadn’t had high hopes for this episode simply because it was a Chloe-centric one. Maybe that’s not fair, but given my history with them I don’t think you can blame me. So, to simply say that this episode exceeded my expectations is probably a massive understatement.

I was completely blown away by this. I LOVED this episode, well, except for a few things…

I’ll talk more about that later, but now I’ll talk what I loved. I loved the dilemmas the writers put the characters in with this episode. To start with, Chloe went through what would have been an almost literal hell for her.

I loved how Don Whitehead and Holly Henderson had shown Chloe’s world slowly get chipped away. They had terrific assists from the DP, Barry Donlevy, the special and visual effects, director Kevin G. Fair, Tom Welling, Sam Witwer, and Allison, of course.

The writers started the tease with Chloe having already lost her memories of Lana. That’s fairly significant right there. She was one of her best friends, so we knew right away that something was seriously wrong. However, in talking to Jimmy about the upcoming nuptials, he brought up the engagement party and the scene segued into a part of the engagement party we hadn’t seen before. As they danced and avowed their love it was very sweet and romantic. So the horror of her memories getting overwritten as we watched was clear, both with how Allison played it and the way the scene unfolded.

Her fear and confusion as she came out of that ‘blackout’ was very real. As the episode progressed, the horror only increased and Chloe’s fear and confusion almost became palpable.

One of the things I like about Chloe as a character is her passion for things, for life, for discovering mysteries… The Brainiac-induced increase to her mental capacity actually fit her. She must have found a lot of satisfaction in suddenly knowing so much and have some very difficult tasks unexpectedly become ridiculously easy for her to accomplish. It must have really seemed like a gift, like she’d told Clark in “Toxic.”

What sort of torment would it be for her not only to lose that, but part of herself as well? She’s very smart and lives her in head a bit and she depends on her mind, her knowledge, for so much of what she currently gets out of life. I think that’s probably why the earlier storylines for Chloe and her mother’s insanity was brought up such a primal fear for her. How scary would it be for her to think she’s literally losing her mind? Only this time she wasn’t going crazy, she was going through something far worse: she was losing who she was. What you remember and what you know helps shape what you are. She was losing herself and for Chloe that must have been worse than hell.

As her memories continued to degrade, of course she leaned more on Clark, since he was nearly the only person she remembered. He tried to convince her that reconstructing the fortress, even with a tampered crystal, was the way to go. She was understandably cautious, no matter what happened to her.

It’s an interesting at that point she brought up the idea that Lex might have been the one who had sent the crystal to Clark. I hadn’t thought of that when I’d written the review for “Bloodline,” but maybe that makes sense. I mean, I suppose Lex might have been able to corrupt the crystal so that instead of just creating the fortress, it would also send Clark to PZ. Lex might have figured that was a way to keep Clark from being a threat to mankind without killing him, but how did he steal it, if so? I guess we’ll see, but I hope they explain that and don’t let it drop.

After that part, I loved that Chloe told Clark that she wouldn’t give up her memories of him for anything. He had made her life better and it was only because of him that she helped the world. I can only think she was referring to the Isis Foundation work she had been doing perhaps combined with her work with Oliver and his nascent Justice League. I found it touching that given losing the world, she still depended on Clark for the comfort and safety that he offered even in a perplexing and terrifying situation with no clear way out.

However, her dependence on him this time cost her big time. She began to lose her memories of Clark because of her thinking back to when she learned of his gifts. Clark had been close to going off to the Arctic anyway, but then when she lost some of her memories about him and could no longer argue against it, he really had no choice left. Despite the risk, he had to trust that Jor-El would be able to help.

I’m overjoyed that Clark took a more aggressive tact with his AI of a dad and laid down how things were going to change. I’m also happy Jor-El explained why he had the Fortress destroyed at the end of last season. I’d almost forgotten about that, so I’m glad they finally addressed it.

Jimmy was just trying to help anyway he could and he didn’t understand Clark’s motives for leaving Chloe behind, but in the end taking her to the hospital was probably the worst thing he could have done. The cute radiologist with that adorable accent suggested that Chloe think of the happiest she’d ever been. You know, to get her mind off being inside an MRI.

So, of course she thinks of the times she’d kissed Clark.

That was just too funny, but I’m not sure they meant to suggest that Chloe still has romantic feelings for Clark.

No, thinking about it a bit, I think what they had intended to show was the love and comfort Clark had given her over the years. That’s probably true especially since that scene built into the final sequence as she ran through her memories trying to save what was left of Clark in her memories.

And I loved that she fought to keep her memories of Clark. He is her closest and dearest friend and she loves him probably more than anyone else, even if she’s not in love with him. So that made sense that she would battle to keep her memories of Clark.

The part of Brainiac that was left inside Chloe had to work very hard to pull those memories from her mind going from the violence of those scenes. The set pieces weren’t just erased in a flash of green like they were in her memories of Jimmy; her memories were ripped apart as Clark was violently pulled from Chloe’s mind.

Her final memory of Clark coming from Dark Thursday was not only touching, it was also a very smart move by the writers. Dark Thursday was a time where the world was falling apart and she depended on Clark to save her along with everyone else. It obviously had made a huge impact on Chloe.

She had been very vulnerable back then, like she was in this episode. He was a person she could look toward for comfort and safety, then like now, even when the world is literally falling down around her. In a world gone mad and being destroyed bit by bit, Clark showed he was still strong and that she could depend on him. If nothing else had proved it by then, Dark Thursday had shown Chloe that she could not only trust Clark with her life, but she could trust him to save the world. To have that memory violently deleted and replaced by Davis was a terrific choice by the writers.
And if you’re going to co-opt Chloe’s mind and make her to trust someone else as much as she trusts Clark, what Brainiac did is probably really the only way to go. He removed everyone else from her memory and replaced them with Davis.

That whole scene was terrific. It added layers of meaning to what was outwardly just the loss of her memories of Clark. Ultimately, that scene showed her losing any sense of safety. It made believable the unthinkable, that Chloe would trust Davis over Clark.

It also brought up, at least in some minor way, Brainiac and Zod and the destruction they can bring. To have Davis almost menacingly step out of the shadows after Clark was violently pulled out from Chloe’s memories (keep in mind that memories of Jimmy getting rewritten wasn’t in anyway violent) was chilling.

Yet, only once Clark was completely gone had Davis stepped out of the shadows in the memory. When he showed up, he was dressed in a way that he’d never been dressed before. His wardrobe and manner made me think of Brainiac.

That whole scene was beautifully done the way it intersected all aspects of production, special effects, visual effects, lighting, photography, acting, directing and writing. It was an extremely powerful scene which packed not only a visual wallop, but an emotional one as well. Her fear and desperation after she woke up after that was heartbreaking.

In the next act, Davis tried to temper his joy to be the one that Chloe had depended on for once with what seemed a sincere concern. Even as he took Chloe home to Jimmy and Clark, he hinted at his growing animosity toward Clark and his disdain of Jimmy. It was a chilling moment after he had given Chloe that sedative against her will.

I understand his stated reasoning, he wanted to keep her from running away from him since she might be a danger to herself, but man just how disturbing was that? I’m not sure how easily he was willing to painfully and unexpectedly inject her with a sedative says much about the kind of friend he is to her… I think it ramped up Davis’ level a bit on the creep-o-meter.

As for Clark’s choice to protect Chloe by having Jor-El not restore her memories of him, I’m torn.

When I had initially seen the episode as it aired, I had just finished my review of “Bloodline” where I’d just said how much like Superman Clark had gotten. Then they go and have him ask Jor-El to alter Chloe’s memories.

*sigh*

I knew he would have more mistakes to make before the series ended. I had even just said that in my previous review. It’s a drama series and there is no drama without conflict because conflict reveals character, so the characters making completely boneheaded moves that will cause huge problems kinda comes with the territory.

So, I can understand him still not being perfect and making mistakes, but hadn’t Clark gotten past this point? Hadn’t he learned this lesson over and over again since like 3 seasons ago in season 5 when he had Jor-El manipulate time to save Lana? He found out then that the power Jor-El and the Fortress gives him over the lives of others shouldn’t be used lightly. Yeah, dear old dad helped him save his girlfriend, but he ended up losing his real father. Nothing is free, not even Kryptonian Deus Ex Machina saves….

Yet, Lana and Chloe had both suffered last season thanks to Brainiac because of knowing his secret. This season, his attack on Chloe continued and in this very episode proved that knowing Clark’s secret is dangerous for others. It puts them into the line of fire. That’s clear and has been proven time and time again.

So, in looking at it that way, I think Clark made a very hard decision. He knows Chloe was hurt thanks to his secret. He can’t mind-wipe everyone who knows his secret, but because of the unique circumstances he could at least have Jor-El protect Chloe. It was an extremely painful decision for Clark, but one made with the best of intentions.

John Jones was right when he said even saving people might have consequences you don’t expect. Maybe that comment was foreshadowing this decision.

We haven’t seen the ramifications of what Clark had done yet. It seemed happy at the end with Chloe and Jimmy and Clark not using his powers to get her payment to the florist in time. (Oh, more about ‘time’ in regards to that later…) Initially, it might seem that he’s only hurt himself by removing Chloe from the short list of people that know Clark’s secret. It hurts him to not share fully with Chloe after years of depending on her. That said, he is forgetting all the things that knowing his secret has done for her.

With the way things usually go in Smallville, I think what he did here will be something that will bite him in the ass. He’s going to regret it, but will he be able to fix it? Will Chloe get her memories back? I don’t know, but I am interested in seeing where these events will take both Clark and Chloe and how that will fit into what Davis is going to be up to. Going from the scenes of the next episode, “Bride,” that showed at the end of this one, I don’t think we have long to wait to find out at least some of what’s going to happen.

This was, writing-wise, yet another example of a well-structured, multi-layered episode that had all the plots intersecting. There was hardly a wasted line of dialogue in the whole thing and the script was pretty tight.

All that said, I’m not sure this episode was completely without its share of missteps.

One thing that got my attention was Chloe’s stated driving distance to Metropolis from Smallville. In that final scene in her apartment, she said it was a two hour round trip. Since when?

The driving distance between the sleepy hamlet of Smallville and Metropolis was retconned to a shorter distance last season in “Veritas.” Like I had said in that review, I was happy… No, ecstatic about the retcon.

A retcon, if you don’t remember when I’ve defined it before, is short for ‘retroactive continuity’ and is when something in a current story retroactively changes already established fact. They also did a pretty major retcon earlier this year with Jor-El now being Brainiac’s creator, when last season in “Persona” it had been revealed that Brainiac had been created by Dax-Ur. It worked out here, I suppose, allowing Jor-El to save Chloe, but still…

Anyway, about the distance thing: it was silly thinking that Chloe and Lois would need to drive what had previously been a six-hour long round trip to work, but that’s how Chloe had described it in “Truth.” So, I was happy that they retconned that when Lionel had described Smallville as a small town ‘just outside the city’ in “Veritas.” Now it’s gotten further away again and it’s a two hour long round trip…

Do they not keep track of their own retcons? They’re retconning their retcons less than a season later…

This kind of stuff makes my head hurt. I wish they’d make up their minds.

That aside, Don Whitehead and Holly Henderson had penned a terrific episode with escalating stakes for all characters and wonderful act break cliff-hangers and they closed the final act with that awesome ending. Brainiac infecting the Fortress, suppressing Jor-El and swearing to end the House of El once and for all was a terrific moment.

As Brainiac strangles Jor-El’s call for help from his son, Brainiac says, “Your son is destined to fail. Soon a new age will dawn on Earth. An Age of Power, of Strength and the fall of the House of El.” Brainiac turns the crystal command console black and concludes with, “Doomsday is coming.” Then the camera pulls back to see the entire Fortress turned black and then they put the Doomsday symbol up on the floor of the Fortress… Wow. I love a good cliffy better than almost anything, so I can’t wait to see what happens with that! What a fantastic ending! Don and Holly did a marvelous job with this episode.

I’m going to switch things up. This is where I usually talk about the actors and I have almost always started the actors section by talking about Tom, you know, since he’s my favorite person in the show, plays my favorite character and is first in credit order, but this was really Allison Mack’s episode. My Tom Welling blinders don’t keep me from seeing the rest of the pretty things in the show so don’t be totally shocked, but I’m going to talk about her first.

Like I said at the beginning of the review, for some reason I don’t usually like Chloe-centric episodes and it’s through no fault of Allison’s, but I really hope this episode is the start of a new trend for her character. I loved this episode and Allison did such a wonderful job in it. Chloe went through the torments of the damned in this episode, going through a wide range of emotions, and Allison played every moment perfectly.

I thought probably my favorite parts of the episode from her were the ones where Chloe was scared and looked lost, like when Clark had left Chloe alone in the loft. Allison had played that like Chloe was more alone then than she had probably ever been ever in her life. The world had turned strange and scary and Clark removed his comforting presence from the loft inexplicably fast. That shock, fear, and aloneness all showed on Allison’s face.

She performed the entire episode flawlessly, but it was that scene which really broke my heart for Chloe as Allison’s eyes welled with tears. Then she actually topped that scene with the one where Chloe found Davis after losing her memories of Clark was just amazing to watch…. words actually can’t convey how that affected me and in Word’s thesaurus only has so many synonyms for ‘heartbreaking’. Allison did a fantastic job. I don’t think it’s hyperbolic to say this is probably her best performance in the series. She was a joy to watch every moment.

Tom Welling also did a wonderful job in this episode. He played mostly a supporting role for Allison, who had more screen time than he did, but he did a wonderful job in this episode. My favorite part was the scene in the fortress where Clark had asked Jor-El to not restore Chloe’s memories of his abilities and real origin. When Clark had said, “You’re the best friend and ally I could’ve had, Chloe. The truth is you’ve saved me more than I ever could have saved you.” Then he kissed her and said, “I’m sorry to go back to hiding the truth from you. The best way I know to protect you is to let you go.”

My gosh… what a moment! I literally cried, it was so sad, and let me tell you that I don’t cry often at any TV show, not even Smallville. The way Tom had played that scene was just right. Just wow. Way to go, Tom.

I do like Aaron Ashmore, don’t get me wrong, but I’m not sure he knows how to play a multi-layered romantic lead. He hit a few sour notes, unfortunately. I think the weakest part of his performance was whenever he had to pull back and be very serious. He lost any modulation in his voice, it was like he’d talk through clenched teeth and his voice would get this strained, hushed monotone. I don’t know, I’m not quite sure I entirely bought those parts of his performance. I liked him much better when he was being the overly earnest and excitable Jimmy. He was absolutely adorable in the happier scenes in this episode.

Sam Witwer did a fantastic job. I think the Smallville powers-that-be have to be happy with how well he’s turned out as Davis. He delivered a remarkably varied performance with a touch of creepiness and menace, yet somehow managed to make Davis someone who can still be vulnerable and sympathetic. He was completely awesome.

I’m ECSTATIC that James Marsters will likely be making a return visit. He had only a brief voice-over as Brainiac, even though he had been uncredited, but what a few seconds! It’s good to have him back, I hope he comes back in more than just one episode.

While I’m talking about voice-talent, it’s nice to get Terrance Stamp back as the voice of Jor-El. I missed him and the deep timbre of his voice. It must be nice for Terrance to not have Jor-El be always serving up the Kryptonian-brand of tough love. I hope he likes voicing a gentler, kinder AI.

Melanie Williams put Sam into a terrific looking all black outfit that was perfect for that scene in Chloe’s memories. Key Make-Up Artist Natalie Cosco and Key Hairstylist Sarah Koppes both combined to make sure that Allison looked marvelous. Silly as it sounds, my favorite hair and make-up scene was the tease. Allison looked like she’d just woken up, yet she still looked beautiful. What a way to juggle those two things, beauty and bed hair.

Melanie and Sarah also did a terrific job in the flashback scenes. I don’t know how easy it was recreating Chloe’s very singular style from past seasons, but they blended her old hair styles nearly perfectly despite her distinctive new cut. And the kids from when Chloe and Clark were in the 8th grade looked terrific. The wig was good and the costumes were outstanding. Tom’s longer hair must have been a challenge to try and imitate his hair style from earlier seasons, but he still looked good. Although, I must say that the stylish and sleek hair style he’s been sporting lately looks good with a suit, but I’m not sure I quite buy it looking quite so neat and smooth when he’s wearing The Hated Red Jacket.

Oh, and nice touch that Property Master Aleya Naiman wrote the fictional tome that Chloe had lost and Clark retrieved in a clever use of speed. That was awesome. I love it when they do stuff like that.

I’m not sure who designed the Doom symbol, whether it was James Philpott or someone else, but I loved that symbol. It sorta looks like Doomsday and has an ‘S’ as part of the design, as if it was trapped inside the rest of the symbol. Thematically, it fits with the situation that Clark will no doubt find himself in. Also, the way the symbol was designed it sorta looks like the head of a monster. Simple, yet complicated. It was a very nice design choice, no matter who created it.

What an awesome, awesome episode! Everyone, well not quite everyone since I had a few quibbles, brought out their A Game. A few nit-picks notwithstanding, I give this 5 Black, Brainiac-infected Fortresses of Solitude 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.