Triplet's Reviews
#9.4 “Echo” Review
Triplet reviews Toyman’s return, Oliver’s descent and Clark’s new power in “Echo”.
WARNING: If you don’t like being spoiled, then you probably want to read this after you’ve seen this episode: I’m going to spoil you rotten in this review.
I probably spoke too soon in the last review when I basically had said that Oliver’s story arc hadn’t gotten too depressing yet. So of course in just in the next episode Oliver’s steep slide into depression has gotten so bad he is suicidal. I hope he finds his way out of this funk soon. This storyline is depressing and is a serious drag on the show.
Written by the usually reliable scribe Bryan Q. Miller, this outing didn’t really show Bryan at his best. While there were parts I really liked, the episode seemed a bit ham-handed at times and the tone was definitely uneven.
For example, it was weird that Oliver’s slide into depression for some reason got him to take a vacation in some backwater village in Mexico. It seems a bit overwrought and probably out of character. Given his deep pockets, maybe it makes sense that his self-destructive drinking binge had turned into an epic grandiose bender that’s apparently lasted for months and had him crossing into other countries. However, why would he need to go to Mexico to get drunk? Even if he felt the need to get some really good tequila in Mexico, why would he go into such a low-rent bar (where their tequila probably is anything but top shelf)? With his billions, I’d think he would prefer going to some elite resort instead of a dive place.
Although I suppose it wasn’t all a waste. Oliver going to Mexico to self-destruct, while speaking somewhat clumsy Spanish, showed that Oliver is a man of the world and that Tess was willing to go anywhere to track him down.
Although I think someone needs to get the props more in line with the dialog. In the bar scene, Oliver asked for something cold, wet, tall and sexy to drink and that nameless dialogue-less bartender poured a couple of short tumblers of liquor and ice that weren’t only not tall, they weren’t at all sexy.
At one point in early Green Arrow comics (back in the 1960’s I believe), Oliver had lost his fortune and had become less like a bow-and-arrow-wielding Batman-esque figure (orphaned billionaire playboy/masked vigilante) and more like a modern day Robin Hood, so there is some precedent for him possibly losing his business. Perhaps this storyline is taking him into that direction, which would make some sense given the character’s history. However, if they’re going to do that, I think it would cause some problems for the show because Oliver’s fortune is bankrolling several different projects which probably wouldn’t be able to believably continue without his money. Like all those trick arrows he uses, Chloe’s expensive Watchtower equipment, the cost of the bandwidth she uses to do all the hacking she does, Tess’ use of Queen Industries’ jets, and Emil’s fees and the cost of his medical equipment and all the tests he runs. Hopefully if Oliver starts having money problems, which looks possible at this point with the downturn in his company’s stock prices, they will make some attempt to explain how they’re still able to afford to keep paying all of those bills.
However, Oliver’s problems (and Toyman’s attempt on his life) only tangentially intersected in with Clark’s and Lois’ budding romance: they talked about Oliver a couple of times and Clark’s need to protect Oliver ruined his not-a-date with Lois. That storyline was more than a bit on the cute side too, a lot of comedy and adorable Clark and Lois interactions in the same episode where Oliver nearly gets killed and actually seemed disappointed when he survived Toyman’s efforts to murder him. If having those two things a few minutes apart in the same episode is not an uneven tone, I don’t know what is.
As for Toyman: his attempt to blow Oliver up only acted like a means to an end. It seemed its only purpose was to show that Oliver had gotten so low he’s actually suicidal.
Overall, I guess the separate parts seemed to work okay by themselves, but together, I’m not sure they made a cohesive whole. Added to this, the logic behind some of the things that happened didn’t really add up.
While I understand the stated reason for Jor-El enabling Clark to use a new power to help train him, but does reading minds even make sense? It’s odd. It’s certainly not a traditional power for Superman, but that is not the reason I found it weird. I’m not sure how that could even happen. Maybe it’d be due to some unimaginably advanced Kryptonian technology or perhaps is a fluke of Kryptonian physiology that makes it possible. I know he’s done other extreme things before, especially extraordinary for a man who died a couple of decades ago and lives on as an Artificial Intelligence construct in the Arctic, but giving Clark the ability to read minds? Why would he?
I’ll grant that it was a cute ability for Clark to have to deal with, especially with his budding romance with Lois, but the AI that is Jor-El had just said only a few episodes before this one that Clark needed to cut himself off from the human realm, whatever that means. Yet, wasn’t what he was really talking about human emotion? He had also said in previous seasons that human emotion is what has made Clark weak and kept him from embracing his destiny. Jor-El has seems very anti-human and anti-emotion. Yet in this episode Jor-El foists an unexpected new power on Clark so he could be more empathetic with the human condition?
On the face of it, that is completely inexplicable. The stated reason Jor-El gave sorta works, Clark needs to get to know human motivations better in order to better anticipate what people will do. The theory, apparently being, that he will better understand people and in so doing, then be better able to protect them. In a way that reinforces an idea Clark brought up a couple of episodes ago in Metallo: he can’t really do a good job protecting life if he’s forgotten how to live it. Yet, that’s not the lesson that Jor-El is apparently trying to teach Clark here. He wants Clark to better understand people. So, in looking at it more closely I don’t think his explanation makes sense. Jor-El apparently holds humanity in complete contempt. Why would he want Clark to better understand people?
Still, the other Kryptonians seem to have a strong intuition of some kind. Zod’s accurate reading of Tess, his reference to Coat’s lack of foresight, and Jor-El saying that Clark hasn’t developed his Kryptonian intuition all seem to support that. So why would Clark listening in on other people’s thoughts help him hone that skill? Isn’t intuition a type of emotion? Isn’t it a sort of empathy to the human condition that allows people to have a strong intuition? Wouldn’t Clark getting a better feel for how humans think work against Jor-El’s attempts to sever his son from the ‘human realm’? I think the last thing Jor-El would want is for Clark to be more in-tune with humanity, so that didn’t work for me.
I did like the results, though: Clark listening in on other people’s thoughts was fodder for a lot of good comedy and some excellent bonding with Lois. The thoughts he heard were generally pretty humorous, but some also helped Clark figure out things. Because of that new skill he learned that Toyman was in on the plot to blow up Oliver’s factory and his employees. It also helped Clark successfully question some of the survivors.
I dunno, I still don’t like the idea much as a concept, but maybe Clark did learn something. At the end of the scene out on the Ace of Clubs balcony, he knew that Winslow wasn’t the guy he was holding over the edge of the building. However, I’m not sure he needed to hone his ‘Kryptonian intuition’ to figure that out. Clark’s smart and I’m not sure listening to Lois’ thoughts really gave him any insights into the mind of a madman. Somehow Clark had learned enough to intuit that Winslow’s MO would use a timer, rather than a pressure plate, and that he would want to live to see Oliver dead and buried. So, Ollie standing on a land-mine didn’t make much sense given what Winslow had done before, he was usually more creative than that, and its good Clark figured it out, no matter how he did.
I took exception to the way that Chloe was written in parts of this script. Ever since the season premiere, she’s become almost shrewish in her criticism of Clark, but maybe the problems go back further since she did that a lot last season too. I don’t like her always nagging Clark. Chloe used to be a lot more fun to have on the show. I guess her harping on him serves a purpose: it gets him to talk about things that are going on, Clark just thinking about it, or worse talking to himself about it, would be tons more boring. Yet, is it always necessary? Isn’t there any other way they could get the two to talk rather than having Chloe calling Clark on his mistakes? I know he’s not perfect, but I hope they tone that particular part of Chloe’s story arc down. It’s getting a bit old.
All that said; the story was still very enjoyable. The action kept up a steady pace, it never really slowed down or dragged, the stakes rose for everyone throughout the episode and the act break endings were all strong. The dialogue was also very good. I loved the banter between Clark and Lois, especially in the ending scene, and I loved Tess’ line to Winslow after she said he needed to leave Oliver alone and she shot him in the knee, “Pretty please?” That was awesome.
And I loved that Tess had manipulated Winslow to get him to leave Oliver alone and to agree to figure out how Metallo’s kryptonite-powered heart worked. I adore that Winslow was ecstatic about working on the heart and seems eager to help Tess out even though she shot him. And I hope this means that they will try to resurrect John Corben.
So, for me, the good far outweighed the bad in this script: I adored all the stuff that happened between Clark and Lois and the drama gave Justin Hartley and Cassidy Freeman plenty of scenery to chew. So overall I think this was a very enjoyable episode, even if it wasn’t a great one for Bryan Q. Miller.
Tom Welling did an excellent job as Clark. I liked how he played off Erica’s Lois. In the tease after he’d saved the workers in the plant he teased her about nearly hitting him. His timing was perfect and the way he delivered that line in reply to Lois’ question about missing ‘him’ was funny, “If by ‘him’, you mean me: barely.” I also loved the banter between Clark and Lois. Tom and Erica have a terrific chemistry.
Probably my favorite scene of his was the final scene. The way he had Clark holding out the olive branch to Lois was terrific. He delivered the ‘hypothetically speaking’ line flawlessly. He had Clark speak in a quiet tone that was apologetic, yet clearly affectionate. I believed Lois’ letting him off the hook for what he’d done with how Tom portrayed Clark’s reactions the way he did. The whole scene was perfectly played.
Allison Mack did a terrific job as Chloe. I loved how resolved she was to protect Lois, no matter if it meant busting Clark’s chops. While I wasn’t wild about some of the choices the writer made for her character, I have nothing but love for what Allison did with her part of the episode. My favorite part of the episode for her was when she was talking to Clark after he’d discovered that Winslow was behind the bombing and was likely after Oliver.
Erica Durance was outstanding as Lois. She and Tom have a wonderful chemistry and she delivers romantic banter better than almost anyone I think I’ve ever seen. My favorite scene from her is probably the ending one in The Daily Planet with Clark. She played it light and teasing, but still made it clear that Lois meant business when she knew that ‘hypothetically speaking’ that Clark wasn’t going to get away with standing her up again, yet she was very open to him trying to make up for it. I loved that scene for her.
Cassidy Freeman was awesome as Tess. She plays the cold, cruel part of Tess perfectly, especially when she stood up to those thugs in the bar and later in the last scene she played with Toyman. I loved how she said ‘Pretty please?’ after she’d shot him in the leg. Yet, she also played Tess as so genuinely concerned for Oliver. When she was talking to him, she gave Tess just the right amount of edge (a business partner coldly trying to bring Oliver out of whatever funk he’d found himself in) and also the right amount of heart as she tried to console and comfort him. It was a fine line to walk and I thought she hit it out of the park. When he shot her down, the way that Cassidy played it I could tell when Tess decided to turn the coldness back on when she said she need him to address the share holders. This was another wonderful performance from Cassidy.
Justin Hartley did an absolutely remarkable job as Oliver Queen. In fact, I think in this episode Justin delivered possibly one of his strongest outings ever as the Emerald Archer. His two best scenes were ones where he didn’t actually do much talking: the scene in the bar alone with Tess and the one in the Ace of Clubs while Oliver was alone with the bomb and his thoughts.
In the second scene at the bar, Justin faced the camera as Cassidy stood behind him delivering Tess’ lines. I think that might have made it harder for Justin, no one’s face to play off of, so it was all in his head essentially. Yet that scene was so effective and every line she spoke had a clear affect on Oliver. He seemed close to falling to pieces right in front of her. It was a terrific job of acting from Justin. I could almost tell what Oliver was thinking as he reacted quietly to Tess’ lines.
The Ace of Clubs scene was another terrific scene for Justin as Oliver read Toyman’s words from the teleprompter. His words said one thing, yet the way he played the subtext underneath those words was fantastic. I almost could tell what Oliver was thinking as he delivered those lines, he clearly was torn. He didn’t want to admit to his own faults, Oliver had been running away from himself lately, so the way Justin portrayed Ollie’s forced, yet reluctant, confession (first reading just to read, and then slowing down as the meaning of the words sunk in) was perfect. I also really liked the ending balcony scene as Oliver talked to Clark and then tossed that tumbler at the image of Lex in the window. Justin did a wonderful job.
Chris Gauthier did his usual scenery chewing best as Winslow Schott. His Toyman reminded me of Wallace Shawn’s performance as Vizzini in “The Princess Bride.” He had the same over-the-top maniacal glee at times. I loved how happy he had Winslow being at the end of that scene in the jail with Tess. I completely bought that Winslow was going to be happy with going to solitary because of Tess, a woman who shot him in the knee, as long as he got to play with his new toy. That was awesome. I’m glad he might come back as he works on Metallo’s kryptonite heart for her. I think he’s perfect as Toyman and look forward to seeing Chris again.
Director Wayne Rose makes his Smallville directing debut with this episode, but he’s hardly new to the job description. Going from his profile on IMDB, he has experience, primarily as a Second Unit director on “Battlestar Galactica” and even worked on some”Smallville” episodes. He’d directed a few episodes of the BSG prequel show, “Caprica” and then also directed several episodes of BSG. I’m not sure that I’m in love with some of his choices and the bit players didn’t deliver very good performances, they were either dull or their faces were expressionless. There was also a lot of looping.
‘Looping’ when the actors have to go back and rerecord lines of dialogue that somehow didn’t record right during production: usually either because of too much background noise or perhaps the microphones didn’t pick every word. It’s called ADR, or Automated Dialog Replacement. I don’t know how or why this episode had so much, but I do know it seemed like it had far more than usual for Smallville. Usually, that sort of thing is so unobtrusive that it’s hardly noticeable, but not so here. I don’t know who’s to blame for that, the sound engineers for not getting it right the first time or the director for not having time to do another take with better sound… But no matter whose fault it was, I think the looping in the Talon apartment scene as Lois was getting ready for her not-a-date with Clark made it feel flat. The looping completely negated whatever emotion that Erica had originally been trying to portray vocally.
I loved the outfits that Costume Designer Melanie Williams had put Erica into. The costume she wore in the first scenes, the silvery gray suit with the satin ribbon trim and melon colored blouse, worked well and fit Erica perfectly. I also liked Lois’ pale gold cocktail dress. It was beautiful and suited Erica’s figure well. She looked great in it.
I usually don’t like the short-jacket-with-a-longer-shirt look, I think I’ve even complained about it in my reviews before, but I actually loved that pale green three-quarter sleeve herringbone jacket that Allison wore in this episode. I mean I (all CAPS) LOVED it. Nicely tailored, it fit her well and, being a touch whimsical with the wide ribbons of banding used as trim, it suited her character perfectly. It didn’t hurt that Allison looked great in it.
However, I absolutely loathed Tess’ weird leather vest that looked like a backpack from the front, but like a vest from the back. It didn’t suit either Cassidy’s figure or her character. And, yeah: I get the reference, it made her look like Lara Croft from the Tomb Raider films and video games (and Tess is tough enough she could probably take Lara on), but the idea didn’t work as well as the end result. I hated it.
Although I haven’t had too many problems with the hair this season, I think something weird was going on with Lois’ do in the first act. I’m not sure what Sarah Koppes is doing different, but Lois’ too smooth and too stiff style in the earlier acts just makes it look like she was using too much hair product. Erica has very nice hair, I like it better when it’s looser and bouncy and it looked much better once her hair was down.
On the other hand, I have no such complaints about the men’s hair: Justin looks just plain adorable in his artfully messy do and Clark’s hair has been awesome this season. Again, not sure what Sarah’s doing different, but Tom’s hair makes him look even more handsome than he already is, which is saying a lot, so kudos to her.
Louis Febre did a fantastic job composing the show’s score. I think my favorite parts were the scenes between Clark and Lois and the scene between Tess and Winslow. I loved the mix of strings and guitar in the more romantic scenes and I adored the bit of ‘Metallo’s theme’ he put into the last part of that scene in the jail. It was terrific.
Not even close to a perfect episode, but I did largely enjoy this so I’ll spot it a point or so. I give this episode 4 Animatronic Winslow Schotts 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.
NOTE: If you don’t like to learn important plot details before you see the episode, then reading this review before you see the Finale is probably the very last thing you need to be doing. Go watch the series finale and come back when you’re done. Also, keep in mind this is the longest “Smallville” episode review I’ve ever written, so you might want to get comfortable…
Foreward
I started reviewing “Smallville” at the beginning of season 4 in September 2004, when I was writing reviews for the pre-cursor of TV.com, TVTome. Those reviews aren’t online anymore since they didn’t get moved to their new site and that’s probably a good thing. A few years ago Craig had offered to host them so I looked at them again. They’re pretty bad, so I told him that it probably wasn’t a good idea. Also, back then I was still learning and it’s best that they’re no longer available to read. (I didn’t start writing for KryptonSite until the next spring with my review for the episode ‘Onyx.’)
However, in writing the review of the finale, the final act of Clark’s journey, it’s made me think of how much I’ve changed since I started. Those old horrible reviews just underscore how much I’ve grown as a writer. I think I’ve gone way above where I had been. I’m a far more capable than when I had started, but I also have a stronger appreciation (and better understanding) of TV that is beautifully made and a story that is well-told.
More than that, the show has meant a lot to me on a lot of different levels, as a writer, a fan and as a person, so it’s with a heavy heart I write my last review for an episode of “Smallville.” This was an epic outing for the show and I hope I am up to the task…
Review
Although this two-hour episode was actually two that were filmed apart (having the same Director of Photography for both parts is a huge clue that they weren’t filmed back-to-back), it felt pretty cohesive. The first part was written by the producer/writing partners of Al Septien & Turi Meyer, and part two was written by executive producers/ writing partners Brian Peterson & Kelly Souders.
The episode started out perfectly, with Tom Welling introducing the episode (“And now: the series finale of “Smallville”) and the flash-forward with Chloe reading a Superman comic to her son. The flash-forward isn’t a device I’m fond of (it’s usually used so poorly), yet it was done well here.
While I think the comic was awesome, I loved the image of Clark on the bridge from events that happened in the Pilot and the illustrations by Gary Frank were beautiful, but I’m not sure how realistic it was. Would Superman really want the world to know early in his career that he grew up among humans in Smallville, Kansas? It would probably be too easy for people to figure out he was Clark, which would endanger the secret behind his carefully honed mild-mannered reporter alter-ego.
Still, the comic was extremely effective, especially given how that later tied into events in the second hour and it underscored the importance of Smallville to Clark, as his home town, in his development into the man who would one day pull on tights.
Although at first I didn’t quite get why they started with that since the first hour was mostly about Clark and Lois and their pre-wedding day jitters, but I’ll talk more about that later in the review…
As I had said in my ‘Prophecy’ review I had thought that Lois telling Clark she didn’t want to marry him was more than a bit contrived. Yet, I have to say that it worked out.
The way that the story of the first hour had unfolded was nearly perfect storytelling. I saw the episode with my two triplet sisters while I visited up north and even my older triplet sister said that first hour was very powerful TV. This was coming from someone who never watched the show more than once or twice.
When my older sister said that (well she’s only a few minutes older, since I’m the youngest triplet), she has never spoken truer words. The first hour had so much going on, yet it didn’t feel rushed or contrived at any point. The pace was steady and the stakes for Oliver, Lois, Tess and Clark rose throughout the episode.
The introspection that Lois’ blind-side had forced Clark into had probably more than made up for the fact her getting cold-feet so late in the game was contrived. In fact, it turned out to be the strongest part of the episode, even though in ‘Prophecy’ I couldn’t understand what the writers were doing when they had Lois break off the wedding with Clark. Lois’ stubborn insistence on not marrying him made Clark take a closer look at just how the superhero gig is going to fit into his life. It made him doubt himself in a one sense, even as it gave him a renewed resolve to become a hero.
The way that Al and Turi had brought in so many aspects of Clark’s life to complicate the conflicting emotions he was going through was the perfect way to handle that.
Bringing in his mother, the ghosts of both of his fathers, his friends and even Lois being so bull-headed and stubborn about her decision, all forced Clark to work through the dilemma and come to a resolution. Of course he decided to do the wrong thing, leave Lois, but it was awesome to see all the different people in Clark’s life giving him input. And it was good to see both Kents, Annette O’Toole and John Schneider were perfect, if only to remind Clark that he couldn’t step away from the parts of the past that helped form the man he is.
It perfectly built upon the foundation that had been slowly formed during the course of the season: the idea of what you are comes from what you remember and what you’ve done and where you’ve been. Clark isn’t who he is solely because of the things he can do. If that were so all Kryptonians would be like Superman. It’s because of Clark’s moral compass and that was mostly due to the parents who raised him, not his biology, as Jor-El correctly reminded Clark in the second hour. It was because of the parents who had raised him who had helped him be a hero, and he would have been one with or without his powers.
Clark’s reactions after the talk with his mother and his little graveside monologue to his father gave the complication with Lois some context. His increasing doubts, perfectly indicated through the ‘talks’ with his parents and his confrontation with Oliver in the graveyard, made his reconciliation with Lois all the more touching.
As contrived as it was, the wedding day jitters gave the show some awesome drama and let us get to know Clark a little better. The tenderness and loving care with how that progressed from Clark and Lois being apart to them finally getting to the church together was perfectly handled. The vows were wonderfully and beautifully read aloud by Tom Welling and Erica Durance. Clark’s vows gave me probably my favorite single line from the series:
“I believe in you. And when you believe in someone, it’s not for a minute, or just for now, it’s forever.”
Not only did Tom perfectly read it, but the best part of that line was that it wasn’t just about his love for Lois, or her love for him. It’s the fact that it’s also reflective of what his parents and Lois feel about him. Even better, despite the fact it might seem a bit of an exaggeration, the line also boils down to its essence the sort of unconditional belief that people have in the show, Clark Kent and Superman.
That’s probably hyperbolic, but maybe I’m not the best barometer of whether it is or isn’t. I’ve watched the show regularly for most of its ten year tenure and have put down more than 300,000 words on it (that’s roughly equal to three novels’ worth of writing) not including innumerable forum posts and tweets… To say that I’m a huge fan is probably not an exaggeration, so my bias is definitely showing.
So, that line meant a lot to me on several different levels and I teared up each and every time I saw those scenes because Clark’s belief in Lois, and her belief in him, was so emotional. It was very satisfying as a fan and as a romantic.
In the comics Clark and Lois have an epic love affair. His love for Lois is strong and one of the only things that is true in almost all iterations of the character. Even when things don’t quite work out between them, I’m looking at you “Superman Returns,” the profound love they have for each other is a huge part of Clark’s and Lois’ lives. As a fan of the character of Clark Kent, not just of the version of him in this show, that also made the Superman fan inside me very happy.
I also adored that Lois didn’t walk down the aisle alone. It was perfect that Clark was there beside her. After taking her hand and looking at her so lovingly I loved that they walked down the aisle together, Lois by Clark’s side as he had said she was earlier.
Given what had happened in their relationship before, it was exactly the right thing to do.
The wedding was so beautiful, with the bride and groom so happy, it just figures that Oliver would come along and spoil it. With “Smallville” it’s just par for the course, so that wasn’t totally unexpected, especially with that earlier scene with Oliver getting the gold kryptonite ring from Desaad. I didn’t mind that the nuptials got ruined by Oliver’s Darkseid-fueled scheming.
It was a fantastic way to help dredge up Oliver’s darkness in a huge way. It not only threatened Clark’s and Lois’ happiness, but threatened Earth’s people with subjugation to a dark overlord that Granny Goodness had earlier attributed stories about Lucifer to.
Darkseid isn’t just the big bad guy, he’s been around so long and is so intensely evil that he inspired stories about Lucifer… Not sure how other folks felt about that, but I liked Granny ascribing stories about Kali and Lucifer to being really about Darkseid since it painted a picture. That shows that Darkseid isn’t just a bad guy, but that he’s the very personification of evil.
Yikes and what a way to up the stakes.
It was awesome Oliver was Darkseid’s pawn and that Clark, with his unswerving belief in Oliver (like the unswerving belief in Lois he had just talked about in his vows), was enough to pull Oliver from the brink. Then right after Clark saved Oliver it was great that Darkseid’s dark planet was about to fall into Earth’s atmosphere, ready to ruin everyone’s day (if not their lives). Talk about rising stakes: that’s really falling out of the frying pan and into the fire.
Now that was an fantastic cliff-hanger to take us into the next (and the final) hour of the series. The entire first hour was completely awesome: it had building stakes, compelling drama, romantic reconciliations, a beautiful wedding, poignant dialogue perfectly delivered and destiny-forging confrontations… The first episode had given the entire cast, and the returning regulars, all terrific opportunities for acting.
Probably my favorite part of the episode was the sequence of events that led up to Clark’s and Lois’ failed attempt to marry in the church. It was fantastic drama and the actors really delivered. It started with the scene in the Planet bullpen between Lois and Chloe. I cannot remember being so touched by such a quiet scene before. It was just Erica Durance standing there as Tom read those wonderful lines in a voice-over. I don’t know how she did it, especially since she probably didn’t have the help of “Breathe Again” by Sara Bareilles playing in the background, but Erica did a remarkable job with that scene. Then that shot toward the end of that scene of Allison as her eyes filled with tears just put me over the top. The scene was extremely powerful emotionally.
What fantastic work by both actresses.
The later scene with Clark and Lois at their apartment door was right up there too. What a powerful amount of emotion and the way it was shot, staged and acted all added to the emotional impact. The wedding perfectly paid all of that off, but I’ll talk more about that in the section on photography. (Directing, editing and the cinematography played a huge part in why I thought those scenes worked so well.) The entire episode gave a chance for all of them to shine. It was all so terrific, what was even better was just how well it built into the second hour. Al & Turi did a fantastic job.
Brian Peterson & Kelly Souders had done a fantastic job working with the beautiful start the first hour had given them. While the middle sorta sagged a bit with a lot of talking, and perhaps the shoving match between Clark and Darkseid could have been a little more involved, still the episode was nearly perfect.
I adored that the idea of Clark wanting to step back from his past, putting his family history (on both the Kryptonian and human sides) behind him, was brought back strongly and it so nicely tied into Tess dealing with her own familial legacy. Tess had always resisted the dark side of her nature and I loved that they brought John Glover back as Lionel (and Michael Rosenbaum as Lex) to show Tess just how dark the Luthor side could get.
Lionel’s reappearance gave the show a reasonable explanation of why Lex could come back, but it also forced Tess to face the facts of her parentage and what that really means. Granny Goodness coming to tempt Tess in the first hour resonated with Clark’s own struggle with his ancestry and how it affected who he had become.
I really liked that both Tess and Clark both came up with the same conclusion (albeit for slightly different reasons): your biology doesn’t decide your fate.
While it’s something that’s not new in genre fiction, I do like how the show dealt with the two characters’ struggles with the idea. There are other examples of this same dilemma from different fictional universes, but the biggest example I can think of is that Harry Potter also had to struggle with that in terms of the huge influence that Voldemort had unknowingly wrought upon him.
So, like Harry, Clark had to finally internalize that no matter how he felt about the tough love that the AI in the Arctic gave him, it was the nurturing his adoptive parents had given him and his choices in life that made him who he really was. And Tess finally came to terms that no matter who her father was; she isn’t like him because she didn’t make the same choices he would have. Sadly, that conclusion came almost too late for Tess. However, Clark’s epiphany was just in time.
Some people online seemed to have thought that Clark’s confrontation with Darkseid was too one-sided, and perhaps they have a point. Darkseid throttling Clark only a little and then throwing him across the barn was a bit on the minimalist side as confrontations go, yet I didn’t mind it. Perhaps that’s odd given the thrashing I gave the non-fight in my review of ‘Doomsday.’ Here, beating down Darkseid wasn’t really the important part of that scene, or even that key a part of the episode.
The embodiment-of-evil Darkseid being downsized to a Hitchcock-like McGuffin (a desired goal that isn’t really the point of a story, even though at first it seems to be) is probably understandably unsatisfactory to some viewers. However, for me it didn’t matter that much because of that other little thing that happened in that scene: Clark finally accepting his ‘destiny’ and freakin’ flying.
I adored how that came to be. I had always thought that Clark would finally learn to fly when the life-or-death stakes were really high and they have never really been as high as this before now. So, for me, it makes complete sense that he finally flew in reaction to this Darkseid-inspired epiphany. After having a little chat with Jor-El in the blink of an eye, he was able to fly and through that destroy the husk of what was left of the mirror universe Lionel, taking care of those threats. Then a couple of scenes later, Clark rose to the skies and save Lois, the President of the United States and then the entire world.
That was complete awesomeness.
And I really liked that when Clark’s life flashed before his eyes when he was faced with impending defeat by the Darkseid-possessed Lionel. Some key memorable moments from previous episodes flashed in front of Clark, reminding him that he is as much a result of his past as he is of his biology. I’m not sure I would have expected that, but it really worked.
That was contrasted nicely by Lex’s at the end of the next scene when he lost his memories of Smallville. Literally his life flashed before his eyes, but instead of accepting those memories like Clark did, for Lex they only came to him just as he lost them. I really liked the symmetry of both men going through the same sort of experience as they get a major step further along their journeys to their destined Superhero-hood and Super-villainy.
Although, I’m not completely happy that Lex lost his memories. I had liked the idea of Lex knowing who Clark was and having that history with his old friend. Although it would have been a different take on the mythos, certainly, if they had kept that. I think it would have given the possibilities in their future relationship more of an edge…
So, maybe they were lining up the series’ future more with the comics, since the few times in the comics that he had known Clark in Smallville later Lex somehow forgot who Clark was. However, it’s a future we will never see, now that the show is over, so I’m surprised they worried about it. Is that why they killed Tess? Did they kill her because Lex doesn’t have a sister named Tess or with the backstory of Tess in the comics? Or is it because dying was the only way that Tess could be redeemed? This isn’t some 1950’s western where the reformed bad guy had to die in order to earn his redemption. Tess could have lived, but again it’s probably not really that big a deal to me.
I would have liked Tess to have survived the events of this final episode, maybe to have gotten the redemption she’d been so urgently looking for, but this way she died protecting Clark and was solidly on his side. So, despite the fact that I didn’t really love Lex developing amnesia, by taking Lex’s memories, Tess protected Clark. It will make Clark and all of his loved ones safer if Lex doesn’t know that Superman was his old best friend, so again, it was something I understood even if it wouldn’t have been a choice that I would have made.
The writers of the second hour had also done a good job in providing the actors with some fantastic drama. John Glover was perfectly creepy in his return of Lionel. I don’t know if the shaggy beard and unkempt, long hair were for this episode, or for some other role, but John looked very, very creepy and a tad bit nuts because of that. It was a fantastic choice.
That scene, and the later scene with Michael Rosenbaum’s Lex, gave Cassidy Freeman a real chance to shine. The scenes were tense and all the actors did a fantastic job. I adored every scene Tess was in. Cassidy did an outstanding job especially in the scene with Michael Rosenbaum. Her death scene was tastefully restrained.
And while Michael Rosenbaum had a very small part in this episode, I loved what he did with it. The scene with Tom was like old times. I’m not sure I completely bought the bald cap, so I’m glad they minimized the close-ups, even as terrific as Michael was in his return. I liked that Lex brought up the line from the Pilot, that Lex and Clark had a destiny together. While leaving Lex to almost be a footnote in the series finale might not have been a perfect choice, I thought the writers did an excellent job with what they had to work with (only one day of shooting with Michael because he had been working on another show) and gave Lex’s and Clark’s intertwined stories some closure for the series.
As for the Clark’s BIG Superman moment, finally pulling on the suit, I thought the way they handled that, with Jonathan and Jor-El helping Clark to finally get to the point where he pulls on the suit, was perfect.
And I understand why some fans weren’t happy with the very tiny bit we had been shown of Clark in that, but I was satisfied. Maybe it’s unexpected, but I really don’t think we needed to see it. Not really.
While my baser instincts miss what I might have seen of Tom Welling as he wore a skin-tight, royal-blue body suit, I must say that the restraint the show exhibited in not showing that was commendable.
Honestly, I am almost glad they didn’t show the suit. It just would have been too easy.
However, if they had they would have run the risk of alienating some segment of the show’s fandom by showing a suit that too strongly resembled one particular previous version of the suit more than it did another. If they had put Tom into the “Superman Returns” suit, I know I wouldn’t have been happy. I have stated more than once how much I hated that suit, for a variety of different reasons. If they had put him in that, I would have been annoyed because it would have tied the show to what I thought was a terrible film, but I might have been persuaded if he looked absolutely fantastic in that. However, I’m skeptical he would have.
Not that I think that Tom would look ‘bad’ in anything, but there are some outfits even the best looking person in the world can’t quite pull off. For me, the one thing Tom Welling might not have been able to look good in would have been the “Superman Returns” version of the suit.
Yeah.
I hate it that much.
Yet, for some people who adored that movie, they would have had their fandom validated in a huge way by Tom wearing that suit. Those fans would have been deliriously happy. Still, would the choice to use that particular suit have left the more traditionalist fans out in the cold?
There are some, no doubt, that might have wanted the suit to look more classical; more like the suit that Christopher Reeve wore in the first Superman films. Or some might have preferred the slightly updated classic suit that Dean Cain wore in “Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman.” Or maybe somesuit from the comics… If it resembled none of them, if they had done something uniquely from “Smallville,” then the armchair quarterbacks of the fandom would have still picked it apart.
So, I don’t know if a full body-shot of Tom Welling in one particular suit would have made everyone as deliriously happy as some have supposed. This way it’s better in at least one sense: only getting a brief glimpse of the suit means that each fan can mentally put Tom Welling into whatever suit they would have most preferred. Maybe it’s not ideal, but in the end it’s in part because of this that I don’t really mind what they did.
However, the biggest reason I didn’t mind that was that the show was never really about ‘Superman,’ per se. It was about Clark Kent before he finally pulled on the tights and the last minutes of the show gave us a series wrap-up that completely and beautifully fulfilled that concept.
In the end, even though I had a few problems with some details with the writing of the second hour, I thought as endings go, it was a nearly perfect one. I adored that in the final Fortress scene, Clark faced both of his fathers’ ghosts. It was good it finally struck home with Clark that his heroic destiny wasn’t forged only by his physiology, although being bulletproof and able to fly certainly helps, but by the town where he grew up and the parents who had raised him. What Jor-El and Jonathan said in that scene, and what the ending of the comic finally showed, was that it was because of his time in Smallville that helped make him Superman.
The best part of the episode, the part that got me smiling every single time I saw it: was the final few minutes. The flash forward to the scene with Lois at the Planet, with a brief cameo with Aaron Ashmore as the ‘real’ Jimmy Olsen, was terrific. And although we didn’t see Michael McKean (Mr. Annette O’Toole) as Perry White, I did like the little voice-over he did. The brief scene show-cased Perry’s bellicose side perfectly, without Michael needing to step on set.
Then when Clark and Lois literally bumped into one another on the steps, as John Williams’ well known theme for Superman played underneath, we got a better glimpse into a future that we won’t be seeing: Clark and Lois being adorably in love and Clark playing the fumbling alter-ego perfectly. I adored that how well Tom and Erica played that sort of interaction. I loved that they had turned his secret into something private, a sort of in-joke, and that Clark and Lois could have fun with it. Then to see Clark race to the roof to again save the day as he pulled off his shirt and tie as John William’s Superman theme came to a crescendo… What a great moment.
When I reviewed the ‘Pilot’ a few months back, I had said that a series Pilot has an important job to do. It has to set the stage, establishing characters, storylines and themes that will carry a series. The series Pilot of “Smallville” did that job very, very well.
Yet, at the close of a show, the series finale has an even more important job: it’s got to wrap things up and make an ending for a series that fans will accept and appreciate. It’s especially important that a series ending for a genre TV series like “Smallville” has got to be, more than anything else, satisfying.
That’s the real trick. You have got to fulfill the promise of the series ending for fans that are notoriously hard to please and still wrap up the story that you had been telling for ten seasons. That’s probably not an easy thing to do.
Maybe it isn’t if you have characters with a less well-defined character arc. Love or hate the convoluted path that Clark took getting from the ‘Pilot’ to the ‘Finale,’ he’s had one of the best series-long character arcs on TV.
Despite some missteps along the way, and more than a few loose threads left hanging, the show had a definite place it was heading toward: Clark finally pulling on the tights. And I think they pulled it off with this last season, and this final episode, as they tied so much of the past in together with Clark’s future. They made me believe that Clark really became the hero he was meant to be.
I’m not sure they satisfied everyone with their decisions in the final hour, but in my book I was completely satisfied. They brought in continuity from the show’s past and not only made those references to Clark’s past in Smallville extremely relevant; they made them matter to Clark in a huge way.
They took “Smallville” as a show and turned it around on Clark and made it self-reflective. They made clear that the show called “Smallville” was about how ‘Smallville’ the town helped form the man who would be the fictional ‘leafy little hamlet’s’ best known hometown boy: Superman. I am amazed at the economy Kelly & Brian used to bring all that together and tie up an entire ten-year run into a neat package in the space of a single episode.
Even if some of the talking belabored the point a bit, the end-result was a beautiful piece of writing. Kelly & Brian did a fantastic job and I felt inspired and awed by the final moments of the show. Clark pulling open that shirt while running into the camera as the iconic John Williams music from the Christopher Reeve’s films played, it was the perfect shot. It was only icing that the beautiful slow motion made Tom Welling looked so awesome in the warm light from a fading sunset.
While the episode wasn’t completely perfect, how Kelly & Brian tied Clark’s past in Smallville into helping form the hero that Clark became still perfectly ended the series. This Superman fan was very happy with the entire two hours, and even deliriously giddy during that last few minutes.
Both directors did an outstanding job. Kevin Fair directed the first hour and working with Director of Photography Glen Winter and Editor Andi Armaganian, the entire series of scenes that took Lois from reading Clark’s vows up through the wedding ceremony was fantastic. The voice-over of Clark reading of the vows, which were perfectly delivered by Tom Welling, then the door sequence, with that moving camera and Erica Durance doing a wonderful job with the voice-over of Lois’ vows, then later the wedding itself was all perfectly shot and edited together.
I’m not sure, to be honest, how much of the door sequence was practical and done in the same take (all done in camera) or whether they used some sort of sleight of hand when editing different takes together.
If it was done all in one take, I’m extremely impressed. The wall looked solid (likely thanks to Entity Visual Effects) even as the camera moved ‘through it.’ Then the camera movement was done so smoothly, the actors staying in focus (well, mostly) as the camera moved around them, it was an awesome job by all involved.
If it was done with multiple takes (a ‘take’ being when the camera is stopped, film reloaded, or whatever it is they do with digital HD cameras, or moved to the ‘take’ the next bit of the scene), I’m still very impressed: the camera movement appeared to be completely fluid because the different takes were matched so perfectly. It looked like a single long take.
Either way that was a stunning scene in execution, but how it was filmed also reinforced (combined with Music Composer Luis Febre’s beautiful score) the emotional impact of Clark’s and Lois’ reconciliation and reaffirmation of their love. I am seriously tearing up just thinking about that.
I also loved the wedding scene and the way that it was shot. Once the new act started, and the vows were read by Tom and Erica, I liked how the vows were intercut the way they were. And I loved the almost lazy slow-motion and the moving camera with the lap dissolves, or cross-fades, between them. It was a gorgeously shot and beautifully executed scene.
Lap dissolves more normally indicate a passage of time, which it didn’t here. However, it was very nicely nice choice to use that technique in that scene since it supported the emotions the show was trying to convey. The slow motion also allowed the scene to be stretched out a bit to better underscore the importance of the moment. Yet, the romantic mood moved so seamlessly into the menace that came when Oliver held out that gold kryptonite ring.
I seriously think people need to get Emmys for this, it was that good.
The warmth of the lighting and the romantic colors of the earlier scenes were contrasted nicely by the harsher lighting and darker shadows once Apokolips came closer to Earth. I just adored that moment when Lois and Martha stood at the window at the Kent farm. It was a gorgeous shot. The framing was perfect as the two women stood looking out of the window and the shot finished out great as the camera moved and refocused to bring Clark into the shot.
And I absolutely adored the scene between Tess and Lionel. The stark overhead lighting coming through a grate light like that gave the scene a nice texture. Also, there had been a lot of bright lights and dark darks in that scene, the high contrast ratio being perfect when light and dark were fighting (in a metaphorical sense) during the scene. Louis Febre’s score was also flawless, dark and chilling, and it really added something to it. I liked the low tones he used and the addition of a few non-verbal vocal bits… His score was gorgeous.
And I LOVED the scene in the Daily Planet when Clark met up with Lois on the steps. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, go back and watch the scene again, but once Clark and Lois moved down the steps into the bullpen it was the start of a long, single take that lasted more than a minute…
It was a beautifully done piece of choreography with the camera operator and the actors. There were more than a dozen extras in that scene along with Tom and Erica. It was an amazing bit of photography by Glen and his camera operator (the A Camera Operator was listed in the credits as John Davidson) kept the camera moving and in focus and perfectly framed the entire shot. Director Greg Beeman did a fantastic job with the blocking of the scene and the coordination of the camera movement with the actors.
The fight choreography by Stunt Coordinator Jacob Rupp was fantastic, especially with the scene where Tess fought to escape from Lionel and his doctors… It was nice to see how bad-ass Tess could get and it’s terrific to see how physical Cassidy Freeman can get. The later scene when Lois and the other people onboard Air Force One were getting bounced around was a great stunt and is the sort of thing you don’t usually see on TV, so it was probably outrageously expensive. Jacob did a good job with that.
And Production Designer James Philpott did a fantastic job with the sets in this episode. I loved the church from the first hour, James and his Construction Coordinator Tom Hunt and Set Decorator Andrea French all did a terrific job.
Throughout the episode there was so much money on the screen. The Visual Effects by Entity (save for the less than believable pool of black in the baptismal font in the church) were all terrific. I loved the shots of Apokolips in the sky about to collide with Earth. It was gorgeous, if chilling.
Costume Designer Melanie Williams did an outstanding job. I adored Lois’ wedding dress, it looked terrific on Erica, and her reception outfit was equally terrific. I also liked the three piece suits that Tom wore in the episode. He looked extremely handsome.
Key Hairstylist Sarah Koppes and Key Make-Up Artist Tina Teoli did a fantastic job making all of the women on the show look awesome. I didn’t like Chloe’s hair extensions (or wig or whatever that was) on Allison Mack in the flash-forward scene. It didn’t look real, but her shorter do in the rest of the episode did look fabulous on her.
I’m not sure what I had imagined this episode would bring, but I must say that was completely enraptured by it all: I thought that while there were a few things that weren’t flawless, overall the two hours were perfection. I completely enjoyed this outing and, as sad as I am to see the show go, I’m thrilled they did such a wonderful job wrapping up the season and the series. Everyone involved with the show deserves a huge ‘thank you’ from all the fans of the show. I’m not sure how easy it was to get the show through to this point, but they did a remarkable job and gave the show the kind of epic finale it deserved. It didn’t quite turn out like I had thought it would, but it was still everything I had hoped in the end. If it were possible to give a TV show a standing ovation, I would have. So, instead I give this episode 10 Superman shirt rips out of a possible five.
Take a look at a gallery of images from the episode!
Note: The views of Triplet don’t necessarily represent the thoughts and feelings of everyone at KryptonSite. Send her feedback
Triplet's Reviews
#10.20 “Prophecy” Review
Triplet’s review of Supergirl, Toyman, and superpowered Lois in “Prophecy”.
NOTE: This review contains spoilers, so read no further if you don’t like to learn important plot details before viewing the episode. This is a good one, so just come back after you’ve seen it.
AND ANOTHER NOTE: This review was started before the airing of the May 13 “Finale” so some comments and questions posed have since been answered.
I didn’t know much going into this episode since I am trying to avoid spoilers now more than ever. However I had seen some images of Lois holding up a sizable chunk of the Fortress. (How is there any of that thing left? Is it so huge a few beams falling down occassionally don’t negatively impact the structural integrity of the thing? Maybe fortress magically repairs itself, it formed by itself so maybe that’s not that big a stretch…)
Anyway, I will tell you right now that I am probably not the biggest fan of this particular episode, but I’m perplexed at the logic behind it. Maybe my confusion is inexplicable to some. I’m sure some people loved this episode, but for me there were just too many problems. Perhaps it is typical of this particular kind of episode since the problems I saw in this episode, I’ve seen in others shown at about the same time every year.
I don’t know if there is an actual term for this, but this one is what I’d call a ‘bridge’ episode. I mean, what happened in this episode largely depended on storylines introduced in previous ones, while also doing a great deal of setting up of future complications. So, it acted as a bridge between the events of the previous 19 episodes and the series finale. I suppose that might be arguable, but I think it’s clearly the case mostly because not much was resolved in this episode. It’s main goal clearly was to help flesh out the complications that will be resolved at the series end.
Usually, this is the type of episode that is typical of the 20th one of the season and is probably why so many of the 20th episodes tend to tank in my reviews. Although to be fair, that trait hasn’t really stuck the last few seasons.
Despite the fact that this type of episode is needed (there’s a reason they had episodes like this every season), it’s still largely a thankless task to try and build an episode that tells its own story yet helps setup future ones because it’s probably hard to do well. Bryan Q. Miller and Anne Cofell Saunders really had their work cut out for them. Unfortunately, I’m not sure they were completely successful.
First off, the way that Kara showed up only to leave without too much complaining about it seemed inexplicable. I get why she was there to begin with, however.
Not only was it nice to have Laura Vandervoort back, if only for a few minutes in this episode, but Clark was powerless and busy dealing with Lois getting his powers so bringing in Kara was a great way to balance out Oliver’s darkness. There’s a lot of balancing out that needed to be done. The recurring idea in the episode of tipping the scales made it perfect for Kara to show in order to counter Oliver’s darkness: Dark and Light, evil and good, an agent of Darkseid and a Kryptonian do-gooder… It was very nice and I liked the way that worked a lot.
However, the explanation of why she wasn’t going to be around when Clark finally confronts Darkseid was sorta lame. Her going to the future sort of makes sense given what happens in the comics, but her abandoning Clark in his time of need with hardly any fuss maybe not so much.
While I actually liked Lois’ trying on Clark’s powers for a day, it is reminiscent of a storyline from “All Star Superman” series of comics (and probably other instances I don’t know about), I wasn’t sure that I completely bought Winslow Schott’s scheme. Water rights are not parceled out the way that the show had it. I’m no lawyer, but I used to live in Colorado and California and I’ve read stories on disputes about how water rights are bought and sold. In a relatively arid plains state like Kansas I’m sure it’s a big deal, like it was in both Colorado and California.
Protecting the water that allows a city’s citizens to quench their thirst is a municipal responsibility of vital importance so I doubt any law would exist that allows a business to control even a portion of its water rights. Rural rights might be different and I am no lawyer or water rights specialist, so I could be completely wrong, but still… That story doesn’t really make much sense.
Added to that it isn’t logical for Winslow Schott, the Toyman, to hold the city hostage with a scheme that doesn’t have anything to do with toys. I guess making members of the nascent Justice League become living, breathing marionettes sorta works, but the goal of the plan itself was too nebulous. The stakes weren’t high enough for Toyman to go to the lengths he did, so it didn’t completely work as a conspiracy.
And I didn’t completely buy the reasons Clark stated for turning off the AI in the fortress. He clearly isn’t quite ready to put on the Superman suit, or he wouldn’t have anywhere to go in the final episode, so I’m thinking turning off Jor-El was a bit premature. I guess we’ll have to wait and see what happens.
Lois taking that diode from Winslow Schott doesn’t make much sense. She’s not stupid and she knows he’s not at all trustworthy. I don’t at all buy her believing his lies. She would have done some fast thinking and figured another way out to make sure Clark wasn’t hurt while he was vulnerable. I don’t think the writers did a very good job at selling Lois making that choice.
I really liked that Lois getting Clark’s powers brought her a much deeper understanding of how Clark perceives the world. So, it even makes sense for her to pull back.
Then Lois abandoning Clark when she knows how much he depends on her doesn’t seem to be completely in character. Clark and Lois have talked about how much he needs her and that he can’t do what he does without her support. I just don’t see her deciding to not marry Clark.
Yeah, it was a profound discovery for her to see the important decisions he has to make almost every minute of the day. Yet, even as it was a beautifully acted scene (especially by Erica Durance), it was also contrived. Lois telling Clark she won’t marry him is something I think was only done because it gives the couple somewhere to go in the series finale. Clark and Lois will have a happily-ever-after, at least eventually, so on top of how out-of-character that was it’s not really much of a cliff-hanger. We all know where their story goes in the end.
While this episode had some things I didn’t really like much, there were other things I did. I liked the humor of the episode, Anne and Bryan did a good job injecting some comedy into what was overall a pretty dark episode. Lois getting Clark’s powers to catch up on work was funny and her model of the city was humorous. Oliver losing what looked like his one shot at redemption isn’t exactly a happy storyline so having the lighter side of the episode balance out the darker side was a very good thing. (More balancing of scales, so thematically that was also a win-win for the episode’s scribes.)
And bringing in Granny Goodness to ruin Oliver’s day was a terrific idea. She is really good at using your weaknesses against you. I loved that she showed up to take away Oliver’s chance at redemption, also giving Justin Hartley a chance to do some pretty good acting…
I liked the brief look at all the bad guys, even ones we hadn’t seen before, even if none of them actually talked. It’s nice to see that the bad guys are banding together here like they do in the comics.
And as evil cliff-hangers go: Oliver finding that chunk of rare Gold Kryptonite was a doozie and I did say that Lois telling Clark she wouldn’t marry him makes sense in a way, so I am still amped for the series finale. I’m glad they’re not spilling too much about the last episode. So I guess only seeing that one will help me really decide how effective this one was, but I have to judge an episode on its own merits and to be perfectly honest I just don’t see how some of this will play out in the next episode.
I suppose part of me is going to have to trust that the writers knew what they were doing. However, there were too many head scratching moments in the story for me to say that this episode was completely a successful one for Anne and Bryan.
Director of Photography Gord Verheul shot another beautiful episode. The actors all looked awesome and the scenes in the chamber with Kara and Oliver were terrific. I loved the bright overheard light when Kara was trapped by that bright circle of light. The rotating light pattern above her when she was trapped was a great choice. Oliver using the flashlight in those scenes was nice: it was so bright against the darker background, so that was beautifully done. I also really liked the sunset scene as Lois was trying to kill Clark, with the warm light coming in from behind Tess.
Production Designer James Philpott did a great job with the ancient chamber Oliver found the bow in. It looked older and I liked the design elements carved into the floor and onto those columns. And I also liked the bow a lot, so kudos probably need to go the Property Master Aleya Naiman as well.
I loved the clothes the Costume Designer Melanie Williams had put the cast into, Tom Welling looked awesome and that red suit Erica wore fit her perfectly and she looked great in it. However, I have an issue with a couple of costuming choices that had actually conflicted with wardrobe mentions in the dialogue.
For example, in the opening scene between Clark and Lois as she tries to figure out why she lost her crab cakes, Lois wore that terrific red suit with awesomeboots with high heels. Well, she later complained to Clark that the number of heels she had broken while super-speeding was ‘out of control.’ Unless she has 20 pairs of identical boots, her wearing what looked like the same pair every time we saw her in that suit makes no sense.
Also, Lois refers to herself as the ‘Burgandy Blur’ in that one scene where she and Clark were sitting at the café table. Nice and alliterative, yet the suit she wore wasn’t burgundy: it was red.
I know complaining about things like that might seem to be picky, but that kind of stuff bothers me. I mean, if certain wardrobe is referred to in dialogue, it certainly would be nice for them to follow through in the Costume Design. Or at maybe the writers needed to get a call about changes that were needed to be made so a little rewrite could be done.
Composer Louis Febre wrote a terrific score. It was full and helped support both the lighter and darker moments in the episode, and I don’t think that would be easy. He did a great job.
While I was disappointed that this episode wasn’t better given it’s the second-to-last one ever, I think the writers succeeded in most respects. I give this episode 3.75 Bows of Orion out of a possible 5.
Take a look at a gallery of images from the May 13 SERIES FINALE of Smallville!
Note: The views of Triplet don’t necessarily represent the thoughts and feelings of everyone at KryptonSite. Send her feedback
Note: This review contains spoilers, so read no further if you don’t like to learn important plot details before viewing the episode. This is a good one, so just come back after you’ve seen it.
When I heard that Zod was coming back onto the show, I was curious, exactly, how they were going to do it. It makes sense that he was supposed to join the long line of previous characters making their final bows on the show, but I had no clue on how they could fit him in so that it made sense. With the script by John Chisholm, the way this story brought him back was really pretty good. Zod somehow getting banished to the Phantom Zone by the other Kandorians might be a bit of a stretch, but if it were possible that completely makes sense. He was making everyone angry at him by the end of last season, so it worked. I know that if I had been one of the Kandorians, I probably would have sent him to the Phantom Zone too.
Zod figuring out how to trick Clark into coming to him was pretty smart as well. Even though initially I thought it was weird that Zod had done that. Why not use the crystal to send himself and all those criminal Kryptonians to Earth instead? That is just what Zod would do, so tricking Clark to come to the Phantom Zone didn’t really make sense. Well, at least it hadn’t until Zod had his little chat with Oliver and explained what Darkseid had wanted from him. That was a well-written scene that was well-acted and directed too. It was perfect. Zod gets to rule a world and all the man had to do was to kill Clark, something he wanted to do anyway. It was like a win-win.
On Earth it wouldn’t have been so easy to take over management, even given an army of Kryptonians. The criminals from the Phantom Zone would be unstable and hard to control in addition to the equally hard to control and ungrateful humans he’d encounter trying to rule Earth. So, the offer Darkseid gave Zod probably seemed more like a sure thing.
John did a great job in being sure that made perfect sense. Yeah: initially it seemed out-of-character, but it wasn’t. And the fact that Zod knew about Oliver’s dark mark after Oliver managed to come along with Clark to the Phantom Zone probably wasn’t a coincidence, but I guess only time will tell how deeply Darkseid had orchestrated the whole thing.
Although I think the gladiatorial matches were a bit odd since “Smallville” doesn’t usually do anything like that, but in thinking about it still worked well. Actually, it worked really well. The slow motion photography by Director of Photography Gord Verheul helped that out a lot. It was very well done. And I liked that there were touches of “Gladiator” (with that one combatant’s helmet) and a bit of “Spartacus: Blood and Sand” (with Oliver fighting using two swords) in the gladiatorial match scenes.
In that I would like to think that the show paid homage to sword and sandal gladiatorial epics partly because a former producer and writer for the show, Steven S. DeKnight, is the show runner (series creator and head writer) for the Starz shows based on Spartacus’ infamous slave rebellion. Well, at least I’d like to think they’d did that because I love both shows so much.
As hackneyed as ‘gladiatorial’ matches are they do make for great dramatic stories (heck, DeKnight has done a great job of turning the drama of a gladiatorial match into a series). Other shows have used the occasional one-off gladiatorial type of fight (friends forced into a fight to the death). Think of the several times that “Star Trek” the original series did it, Kirk fighting Spock to the death in the pon farr episode “Amok Time” was probably the best example they had.
However, as trite as the idea is of having two friends fight to the death is, what John did with this was pretty awesome. He turned the genre TV trope into a terrific platform for exposing the effects the Omega symbol has had on Oliver, at the same time putting pressure on his relationship with Clark. By putting Clark and Oliver through that ordeal, it was the perfect way for Zod to pry the two friends apart so he could get what he wanted (Clark dead).
Yet, it was also a dramatic gold mine for the writer: Zod was a great foil for Clark, as he has always been. Yet, by forcing Clark to confront Zod, John made him expose a little bit more about himself in the process. Clark learned more about how he is like Zod, but he also learned just how he is different. That was another good thing for him to learn leading up to the end of the series. Added to that, we also got better look at just how close giving into the darkness Oliver really is. It was truly a beautiful part of the episode.
That was because of all the great opportunities for acting that aspect of the story had provided the cast. Every single member of the cast, especially Callum Blue reprising his role as Zod, did a fantastic job. The interplay between all the characters along with the charged dialogue let the actors shine. I loved that Oliver had to trick his way into going to the Phantom Zone, it set up some conflict between him and Clark and gave their interaction in the episode a bit of an edge, which both Tom Welling and Justin Hartley did a terrific job at playing.
Callum Blue was awesome as Zod. Callum makes the man so complicated: he’s not just another cold-blooded killer. Zod has very little regard for the lives of others, yet part of what he wants is simply to be accepted and loved. In this episode it was a nice touch for John to write Zod striving to find in Oliver what he’d lost with Jor-El and never got with Clark: someone who could be like a brother to him. Despite his sociopathic behavior, that innate need to be accepted and loved seems to be a major flaw for him as a character. So it’s good that John used that to bring some good drama to this episode.
Another thing I really liked about this episode was the physical peril that Clark and Oliver were in. The violence helped to counter-act them being pretty passive in the early scenes after their capture. It also allowed the men to show off their physical fitness. I know that Oliver is a very physical character, so it makes sense that a fit guy like Justin would love playing him (like he seems to do).
What about Tom? I don’t know the guy, although I would never turn down a chance to meet him, but it has to be frustrating for such an obviously physical guy to always have any sign of strength by Clark always be some sort of parlor trick. Clark’s show of abilities is heavily supported by special effects (both practical and visual) to show feats of Clark’s physical strength.
Yet, in this episode they had probably some of the most physically challenging fight choreography that Tom’s had to do in almost the entire series. (Well, with a heavy assist from his stunt double, no doubt.) The fight between Oliver and Clark was fairly long, as it needed to be since an important fight shouldn’t be over in 45 seconds (I’m looking at you: the non-fight in ‘Doomsday’). Added to that, it was more physically involving than usual for Clark’s fights.
Maybe Clark isn’t as smooth a fighter as Oliver, he doesn’t really do much hand-to-hand combat on Earth so it makes sense that he isn’t as good, but it was nice to see Clark wasn’t a complete push over despite that. It was nicely written aspect of the episode and a perfectly realized scene by the cast, crew and the freshman director.
And I don’t know if that was hard work for Tom or whether he found it fun (the sword fighting, jumping, rolling around in the dirt, and hand-to-hand combat with guys holding swords), but it was probably a blast. It’s not often he gets to be that outright physical in the show so it must have been satisfying, if not cathartic, to have not just one, but two, really physically intensive fights in the episode.
Then it was beautiful that without his powers, Clark ultimately beat Zod by outthinking him. I think it would have been easier for Clark to beat Zod up, as a character he is more likely to solve a problem by smashing things or throwing opponents through a wall rather than work out a problem by thinking it through. It was nice to see Clark use some of his intelligence to solve a problem that seemed unsolvable. Although, the way that Tom played it Clark looked really surprised at how well Oliver was playing the part Zod wanted him to. Of course Clark doesn’t know Oliver has been marked by Darkseid, so when he does find out, it will make sense.
I don’t want to leave Erica Durance and Cassidy Freeman out of mentions, but they also turned in terrific performances. The tension between Lois and Tess in that scene when Lois held Tess at gun point was awesome. I loved Tess’ desperation and Lois’ determination so both women played their parts in that scene perfectly.
As much as I love Erica, I did have a bit of a problem with her toward the end. I thought that when Clark showed up in their apartment after coming back from the Phantom Zone that Lois wasn’t happy enough to see him. Her running into his arms seemed too reserved, maybe it was too rehearsed, for me, but it was probably the only moment I had problems with anyone’s acting the entire episode.
Well… There was probably one more: when Zod had dragged the sword down Clark’s chest, the blade didn’t even cut the skin, much less that blue t-shirt, yet it looked like that caused Clark agonizing pain. That didn’t really make sense given what we were seeing. I don’t think he would have been in real pain until Zod started pressing the sword tip into that wound at the end of that little bit, although that part Tom did completely sell me on the pain Clark was feeling there.
However, those two things were probably the only acting moments I had problems with. This was such a solid script by John Chisholm that it must have made first-time helmer Justin Hartley’s job easier. Despite the fact that the script started out a bit awkwardly with Clark and Lois getting interrupted in their unpacking (maybe writing romantic banter isn’t John’s strong suit), it really picked up from there. The act breaks were strong, the stakes kept rising for all the characters, and the action was very well-done.
This episode just didn’t let up. Not even when Zod was doing all that talking in the middle part of the episode did it seem like it dragged. So, John delivered a very strong episode that managed to serve up a ton of expository dialogue from Zod without it seeming like an info dump, but it also had good action and surprising twists and turns. I also liked how (again without Darkseid ever showing his face) the Omega/Darkness storyline was brought in and then the stakes were upped even higher.
With only two more episodes left in the series (three if you count ‘Finale’ as being two) John helped craft an episode that will help build up to the coming final confrontations of the series. I can’t wait to see how Oliver’s dark mark affects him as the series comes to its close and how Clark will react when he discovers the truth. While this wasn’t a perfect episode, John certainly turned in another solid effort that was extremely enjoyable.
Freshman director Justin Hartley probably had a relatively easy time of things, despite his inexperience, because this was such a strong script. This turned out to be probably the most solid freshman helming effort of any of the cast members. It showed Justin had a sure hand when it came to directing his co-stars (with only two acting missteps, in my opinion) and he even had a good visual sense.
The Director of Photography Gord Verheul having a very cinematic flare helped, I’m sure. However, if I hadn’t known a first time director had helmed this episode (aside from maybe one or two shot choices that didn’t seem to make sense) I don’t think I would have been able to guess. He did a very good job on both sides of the camera, which in and of itself is something many freshmen actor/directors don’t do well. All the time he’s been acting on the show Justin apparently was paying attention to more than just learning his lines and hitting his mark. He has learned a thing or two and it showed. Justin did a very good job.
Director of Photography Gord Verheul also did a very good job. The slow-motion sequences in the fight scene between Oliver and Clark were well done. It was very reminiscent of how the fights were shot for the two Starz Spartacus-based series. It wasn’t identical, it doesn’t look like “Smallville” has the same super-high-speed cameras “Spartacus” uses since the look of the shots weren’t quite the same, but it had a similar feeling. It was beautiful too, which made it just icing. The de-saturated colors and the slow-motion tableaus that Clark and Oliver made while fighting were perfect and it made both men look very good.
Costume Designer Melanie Williams did an outstanding job with the Zoner costumes, likely buying a lot of those costumes (I don’t think she made that many costumes), but the almost steam-punk look of the long coat Zod wore was a good choice. It was different than the homespun, almost Arabic-look from previous visits to the Phantom Zone, but there were some costumes that echoed that choice too. It was a nice mix that I liked.
Normally I don’t have too much negative to say about Key Hairstylist Sarah Koppes, but I really hated Erica Durance’s hair throughout this episode. I’m not sure what’s different, maybe it was the pulled back look looking too groomed, but it really went beyond hate and moved into loathe territory… It seemed like it was a really bad wig, actually. Maybe it was. Maybe they did something with Erica’s hair in the ‘Finale’ two-parter (the last three episodes were filmed out of sequence, although I’m not sure of what was filmed when), so it appears they had to use a wig for some reason but did they have to have such a horrible one? I know the series has wrapped by now, but hopefully that look isn’t done in any of the remaining episodes.
As much as I hated that, I thought the Tom’s and Justin’s hair in the Zone scenes was fantastic. Just tousled enough to sell the post-Apocalyptic desolate feel of the Phantom Zone without going too far…
Composer Louis Febre’s score was awesome. I loved every minute of it, but I especially like the non-vocal choral parts in the fight scene between Clark and Oliver.
This wasn’t a perfect episode, but it was pretty close. I give this 4.75 escape gate console crystals out of a possible 5.
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