#9.9 “Pandora” Review

SPOILER WARNING: The spoilers in this review are HUGE. Don’t read any further if you don’t like to learn important plot details before viewing the episode.

Actually this episode turned out pretty much how I thought it would just based on the preview at the end of ‘Idol’. Well, except for Chloe becoming completely unlikeable in the future.

I know that a red sun means no powers for Clark, although I was curious how Zod and his minions got powers, I guess we’ll have to chock that up to whatever it was that Jor-El had done on the cloning technology that made Zod and his minions even possible. It looks like a Red Sun gives them powers now, instead of a yellow one, like things are reversed.

Yet, if that’s the case, then other things have become problems… This episode is another case of the show doing a retcon not to shed new light on an old question, but to write the show out of the canonical corner they’d painted themselves into. They may have gotten out of that corner (how Alia had powers when the other Kandorians didn’t, how she got Jonathan’s watch and why she thought that Clark was going to destroy the world), but the end-result was that they then created other continuity problems.

As I start to write this, given all the problems I saw with the episode (which frankly became more and more apparent with each viewing), I’m not sure how I feel about it. Written by new scribes to “Smallville”, Andrew “Drew” Landis and Julia Swift, it had wonderfully high and escalating stakes for everyone. The act breaks were some of the best so far this season. Yet, if you look at the story from the perspective that the memories shown from Lois’ mind in this episode had for happened immediately following her disappearance in last season’s finale episode, ‘Doomsday’; like you need to ignore the previous 8 episodes, things don’t really add up. In fact, the episode doesn’t really make sense at several points looking at it that way.

The first problem popped up in the tease: Lois seemed to know that shirt hanging off of that post in the tease was the Red Blue Blur’s when the Kandorian pointed it out to her. Why did looking at that affect Lois so much? How did she know that the shirt had anything to do with the Red-Blue Blur? Clark hadn’t worn that until after Lois went to the future. Going by what she’d known at the end of last season, a blue t-shirt or a red jacket would have been more meaningful to her. It was a nice moment, both acting-wise and mythos-wise, but one that really makes very little sense.

And exactly why had Tess thought that supporting Zod, and betraying her own people, would help anyone other than Zod? I don’t get how helping Zod take over the planet would save humanity. Clark said that a lot of people died because of what happened. Maybe it makes sense if you knew her reasons, but they didn’t even attempt to explain it. I wonder if the writers even had a clue what Tess’ motivations had been. Certainly something could have been said, some small thing could have indicated, why Tess had done what she’d done. It seemed to have just been only because she needed to believe it in order to make Tess support Zod. It isn’t at all justified, not with the way things played out. It was just a big contrivance.

Also, I hate that this episode made me absolutely loathe Chloe. What was the theory behind that? Clark betrayed her and walked away from his humanity so she not only becomes completely unlikable, but also arrogant and ego-centric well? I don’t understand why Clark’s actions, whether or not he had actually betrayed anyone (and I don’t think he had), would have made that big a change in Chloe’s personality. It shouldn’t have been a light switch moment there. I know that a lot had apparently happened in between Lois leaving and Clark doing whatever he had done to get Zod so angry at him and the point of when Lois showed up again, but would any of that have really changed who Chloe is on a fundamental level? I wouldn’t think so.

And why had Lois, even with all the evidence mounting that there was something different and special about Clark, not see the truth finally? It would have made sense for her to have figured out something with Chloe, Oliver and Clark talking around the issue right in front of her. I didn’t buy her being that dense about Clark’s secret. She could have learned the secret without doing any harm to the show. They had Emil blanking her memory about the future later so her learning Clark’s secret wouldn’t have changed a thing.

How did Stuart survive what looked like a gunshot wound to the back of the head? His hair blew forward, just like he’d been hit in the skull with that shot. Yet, Chloe later said only that he’d lost a lot of blood, like the wound wasn’t really serious otherwise. Although I’m not sure that’s really a writing problem because it was the way the stunt was staged that made the shot look it had been a fatal one, so I’ll cover that more later on.

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And how exactly could what happened to Zod, the removal of his powers and returning Earth back to the way it was, be construed as ‘destroying our world’, as Alia had said in ‘Savior’ and Zod said again here. It doesn’t make sense. I don’t see what happened as destroying any world, except maybe in a metaphorical sense. I mean, how could Clark going to remove Zod from power, return the Earth he was subjugating back to the way it was and save a lot of lives in the process, be turned into him somehow destroying the ‘world’? That’s a bit hyperbolic.

And speaking of Alia: given what had happened at the end of this episode, Zod apparently losing his powers almost as soon as the red sun returned to being golden yellow, how could that explain how she still had her powers when she followed Lois back into the past? If Zod had lost his powers, why hadn’t Alia also lost hers? It’s yet another contrivance in an episode filled with them.

There were things to love about this episode, even with all my gripes. I loved that they gave a fairly plausible explanation for why the Kandorians had no power under Earth’s yellow sun (their DNA had been manipulated in some way that had made red sunlight do what yellow does). I also liked the scenes between Clark and Lois a lot, they were iconic and evocative of some comic panels I’ve seen. Also, I think Drew and Julia have a good handle on how to write the banter between the two. The final scene in the Daily Planet was a very good one. In addition, the ending cliff-hanger, Clark going to Zod and the Kandorians bending down on one knee to him, was intriguing. I really don’t think that will accomplish what Clark seems to think it will, but it should make for an interesting start of the next part of the season.

Despite having some things I loved in here, this probably wasn’t the best introduction for two new writers. I hope Drew and Julia do better with the show’s mythos the next time they write for “Smallville”.

Tom Welling did a terrific job. Clark was passive for a lot of the episode, made powerless and held captive by Zod, but I thought Tom had done well with what he’d been given. Probably my favorite scene of his was the one with Lois in the wrecked apartment. He had Clark be gentle and caring and regretful. It was a very nice scene for him. I also liked when he confronted Zod in that last scene in the future. He portrayed the pain Zod was putting Clark through very well and then his earnestness when Clark tried to convince Lois to leave him behind was terrific.

Erica Durance was, frankly, a bit uneven. While I liked a lot of what she did, there were some off moments for her. She smiled too broadly when Clark had asked her if she still had the ring, and there was something about when Lois hugged Oliver that felt wrong to me.

I did like how easily she seemed to bring about tears, I know that’s not easy so kudos to her for that. The scene with Zod when he was trying to intimidate Lois was perfectly played. She got Lois so upset her chin was actually trembling like a little girl. Erica did a terrific job.

Allison Mack did well with what she was given, I didn’t have problems with her performance, I suppose she did a good job, but I had a huge problem with the direction the writers had sent Chloe on. She had become extremely unlikeable in the future. She was arrogant and unforgiving and harsh. If Allison was trying to make Chloe disagreeable, she hit the nail on the head.

Cassidy Freeman also did a wonderful job with what she was given, but I had issues with her final scene. The death scene was well acted, I guess, but I just don’t see Tess feeling that sorry for herself. Ever. She’s had some tough times in the past and she’s always seemed to at least try to be strong, even when she had her vulnerable moments. So even though Tess was dying, I thought her breaking down so completely like that was out of character.

Callum Blue I think did probably some of his best work so far in this episode. I loved how silky smooth his menace was in the scene with Lois in the mansion library. He had Zod almost be seductive with her when he ate that chocolate after taking it from Lois. Callum made Zod seem happy that Lois knocked Tess around a bit.

Justin Hartley did a good job with what he was given too. But again, I don’t see him getting as upset at Tess dying as he did. It seemed over the top and out of character. He can do a pretty good job of dredging up tears when needed, but I just didn’t think they were needed to quite that extent.

Unfortunately, I think a lot of the problems with the acting (so many moments just seemed wrong) probably have to be laid at director Morgan Beggs’ feet. Normally a 1st Assistant Director, I’m not sure this is Morgan’s best work. There were just too many problems from actors that usually give pitch perfect performances. Not problems because of lack of skill, but using the wrong intent in a scene, making things seem out of character or over the top. I wonder if how Tess’ shooting Stuart was staged (a puff of air blowing his hair) was also the fault of the director. I don’t know, but I thought he was dead. While a lot of these little problems weren’t probably big deals in and of themselves, they just kept happening. It just added up to a rather big mess that I believe probably could have been avoided. Morgan generally did a much better job with his freshman directorial effort, ‘Bulletproof’. Hopefully when he directs again, he’ll be able to pull out of this sophomore slump.

I loved Glen Winter’s photography of this episode. I liked the bright down light in the lab scenes, with the high contrast ratios that brought along with it. I also really liked the reddish tint to everything in the scenes from the future

James Philpott did a fantastic job with building a gulag style prison in the Kent barn set. It’s really a multi-functional space. It has had a wedding in it and now a prison and it looked great.

Tina Teoli did a wonderful job with make-up. I think I will love her forever for finally leaving the blood on Clark’s face after he heals. They’d of course shown Clark healing healed before, but somehow the blood disappeared. If that were possible, to heal a major gash almost instantly, I don’t think it would affect the blood on the skin, so good job.

Sarah Koppes did a terrific job with the hair in the episode. I just loved the softer, less groomed look of Tom’s hair in the future scenes. It was more realistic than if he’d had his normally very polished style.

I really liked what Louis Febre did with the music in this episode. Possibly my favorite scene was the wrecked apartment scene with Clark and Lois. The soaring, romantic strings were perfect.

Now I get down to the grade: I have wrestled with it on this review. I have to give a score because that’s what I do, but this one was difficult… I loved a lot of this episode but there were so many head-scratching moments. Yet, in the end, I think in general I enjoyed this less than I had ‘Roulette’, which I had given a 3.25. So, I will have to give ‘Pandora’ 3 sets of Kryptonian Dog Tags 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.