"Abandoned" Review!

Written by C.M. Houghton ("Triplet")

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NOTE: There is probably at least one huge spoiler in this review and there may be others.  Proceed at your own risk if you don't like to learn important plot details prior to viewing the episode.

Andrew (Drew) Landis & Julia Swift wrote this script and it was about as solid a writing job as the show gets.  This seemed to be such a solid script, everything was so tight and I had zero problems with the writing.  Well, maybe except for one or two things, but I'll talk about those later.

The tease started out so wonderfully, injecting some mystery into Tess' origin.  The show had not gone this far into her past before.  I believe the only references she'd made previously about her childhood had been vague ones, last year Zod had said that she seemed to have been accustomed to abuse when he had first met in her in 'Savior.'   Other references seemed to indicate her childhood hadn't been a very happy one. 

I'm not sure I needed to know more about her, but still it's nice to get her backstory fleshed out more.  Revealing a bit of the mystery of her childhood that was more sinister than we had previously seen was a great start.  Yet, when the dream started I don't think I ever really thought it was 'just a dream,' but her seeing that music box certainly proved that it was real.  What a great tease.

Clark and Lois' involvement in the story here at first glance probably didn't seem connected to Tess', but it was related.  I mean, Tess was trying to figure out why she had been abandoned as a child (even though it had initially been news to her) and Clark and Lois both had issues from when they were 'abandoned' (each in their own way) by their own parents. 

It was terrific to see Teri Hatcher as Lois' mom.  She does resemble Erica Durance in a broad sense, and it's wonderful to have another significant actor tied to a previous live-action version of Superman's story come into this show.  It's especially nice that it's in this final season, but what a well-written and beautifully acted scene for both Teri and Erica.  I cried the first time I saw it.  It was tremendously well done scene by everyone involved.

In the aftermath of that, as things go from bad to worse for Clark and Tess, it made sense for Lois to become more reflective about the state of her relationship with Clark and try to fix any remaining issues he had with Jor-El up in the arctic.  He is more resolved on his decision to be with Lois (going from her not wanting to really move in), but maybe she had also needed to re-assess things from her past after her hearing what her mom had to say.  In a small way, it was much like how Clark had dealt with his past.

Then as Tess' story unfolded, there were so many revelations right from the get-go.  Tess found out not only that she had indeed been at the orphanage, but it had been her birth parents that had put her there.  They had then pulled her out and put her with the parents she grew up with. I'm glad that Granny Goodness also explained what had happened back in 'Salvation' and how Tess had woken up burn-scar-free in 'Lazarus.'   
I had been looking forward to finding out what had exactly happened when Tess had been saved, but was (to be honest) worried that the explanation wouldn't really make much sense or was going to be contrived.  Yet, how Drew & Julia wrote that bit it made perfect sense and it seemed logical given what I know about Granny Goodness.  
Granny Goodness, if you don't know, is a follower of Darkseid and the girls she trains are part of a group called the Female Furies.  One of which is Mad Harriet, played beautifully here by Justin Hartley's wife Lindsay.  In Granny's origin, she had a warrior dog she had trained named Mercy so that's kind of funny considering Tess' nickname is 'Mercy.' 

Granny was beautifully portrayed by Christine Willis, so sweet on the surface, yet believably evil and controlling too.  She did a terrific job, can't wait to see when she comes back.

So Granny Goodness didn't save Tess out of altruism; she saved her because she has plans for Tess to come and fight for Darkseid.  How certain she seemed that Tess was going to join her, whether she wanted to or not, was ominous.  I doubt that's just a threat either, it's a promise.  This whole thing really ramps up the stakes for Tess this season too. 

However, how is the huge revelation that her birth parents were Lionel Luthor and Pamela Jenkins going to affect Tess?  That's bringing up some really old continuity.  Pamela Jenkins was Lex's nanny when he was young and was sent away soon after his mother had died (as explained in the episode we last saw her on her death bed in season one's 'Crush'). 

Lionel having more than one illegitimate child probably isn't surprising, although the show has seemed to have forgotten Lex's half-brother Lucas, but I'm not sure it completely makes sense.   Pamela had been loyal to Lex's mother and had apparently been dismissed because Lionel wanted to raise Lex completely free of his mother's influence, even if it was only through Pamela.  I'm not sure I would have believed her getting into a relationship with Lionel, but I don't think that necessarily makes Tess being Lionel's illegitimate daughter a retcon.  I can see how as Pamela lay dying she might not want to bring his half-sister up with Lex.  I guess that begs the question of whether Lex knew.

Tess had been a VP in some hinterland division of Luthorcorp before Lex's disappearance.  Is that why Tess had been brought to become Lex's acting CEO in 'Odyssey'?  I'm not sure his reasoning had ever really been explained, so this is a very interesting twist for her character.  When Clark and Oliver find out, how will the fact affect her new position of trust with them at Watchtower?  This sets up some seriously intriguing complications for Tess.

I think probably my favorite part of this episode was the projections of Jor-El and Lara in the Fortress. I'm not sure I was totally in love with Helen Slater's performance in her previous appearances on the show as Lara, but I have absolutely no problems with her performance here.  She did a great job and I don't know if they had Helen in mind when they'd cast Julian last season as Jor-El, but boy did they do it right.  They looked great together and, as short as that scene was, they had great chemistry.

I also loved how strongly it evoked similar scenes from the original Superman films with Christopher Reeve.  Julian Sands isn't Marlon Brando, and who would want him to ape that performance anyway (actually he seems a kinder and gentler Jor-El than Brando had), but the scene just felt right.  Also, the acting was top notch by everyone involved in the scene, Erica, Tom, Julian and Helen.  The fact that it has further helped Clark become less angry at Jor-El was terrific. 

I don't know if most people would agree with that, but I like that Clark's journey away from the darkness of his past isn't completed in just one episode, even one as fantastic as 'Homecoming' was.  I like that's being handled in stages over a series of episodes.  After ten seasons that makes a lot of sense.  I mean, he's got a lifetime of issues to resolve, so it's good that it's not a light switch moment when Clark finally breaks through them.

I like the closure seeing his birth parents, and hearing them speak of why they sent him to Earth, seemed to give him.  Maybe it was that which allowed him to decide to follow through with his plans for asking Lois to marry him.  He seemed so happy in that last scene with Lois, but that's probably not going to last long.  I guess we'll just have to wait and see what happens next.

Also, it was FANTASTIC in Jor-El's little speech he explained that he had only sent along his knowledge, without his ego and regrets, to help guide Clark.  However, like what Clark had told Granny Goodness any pain in the past helps to form the person you become. That's probably truer of an AI (artificial Intelligence) than it is for a real person.  Stripped of his living breathing counterpart's emotions and frailties, the version of Jor-El in the fortress completely makes sense now. 

Yeah, maybe his real-life birth father may have had as many issues with Clark as the AI version of him has had, but any anger or disappointment would have been tempered by love and compassion.  Without that, the AI version of the man is an inhumanly strict father-figure incapable of empathy.  It's a fantastic way to explain why the AI version of Jor-El has been so hard on Clark.  It's amazing how easily a few words strung together can negate eight or nine seasons worth of not liking Jor-El.  Or maybe it's not amazing, since they were very well written words that were also perfectly delivered.  That was a powerful moment.

And so, the show comes back to the idea of a person being formed by their memories.  That idea was expanded on beautifully in Jor-El's speech. Clark fought Granny Goodness to keep his memories.  Given what he'd learned in 'Homecoming,' losing his memories was a huge risk for him.  If he'd forgotten his past, it would have changed who he was.  It certainly would have been easier for Darkseid to come in later to influence him like he had tried to do Gilbert Godfrey in 'Supergirl.' 

Tess' storyline tied into that as well, even though it was more like a mirror image to what Clark and Lois had discovered in this episode.  Her sense of self wasn't strengthened by her past, opening up those buried memories was devastating to her and Cassidy Freeman played that part of the episode beautifully. 

It was also a nice touch to have that 'Somebody Save Me' on the wall.  It was so true and was a nice nod to the show's theme song by Remy Zero.

Oh, and I almost forgot to include that I loved that we finally got to meet Desaad.  As short as that scene was, it was a terrific introduction to the man.  He's a torturer and enforcer for Darkseid so it was nice to see Desaad show up after the oblique references to him earlier in the season in 'Supergirl.'  It's interesting that Godfrey has fully embraced Darkseid's plans for him.  It was nice to see Michael Daingerfield again and I like Steve Byers as Desaad a lot.   I'm very interested in seeing where all this will be going.

While for the most part I really enjoyed this episode, I did have a few problems with it.  After Clark had escaped with Tess, why hadn't he taken that little girl away he had freed?   He had promised her that he was going to come back for her.  Wouldn't Clark have at least tried to save her from Granny Goodness' schemes? Maybe it's not that big a deal, maybe it is, but the thought had struck me that I think Clark would have saved her.   Getting a happy ending for at least one of the girls would have been nice, even if he couldn't save them all, especially since had told her he was going back. 

I guess there was one other problem: there wasn't enough Clark.  However, the writer's handled Tom's decreased availability far better than the show had done in the past (he directed the next episode after this, 'Patriot,' and needed time to work on his pre-production duties).   This wasn't another 'Static' where not only had Clark's story been far too brief, it had next to nothing to do with the main storyline, so kudos to them for handling that limitation so well and tying all of the storylines in together like they did.

The issues I had with this episode were relatively minor and in the long run it probably didn't really affect how I felt about the writing.  Drew and Julia both did an excellent job.

Director Kevin G Fair turned in another terrific outing.  I liked how the little girls were in the episode and I know it's hard to direct kids.  Visually, it was a very strong episode.

The photography by Cinematographer Glen Winter was terrific.  He always makes the cast look so awesome, but there were moments that stood out as so gorgeous.  I loved the scene in which Lois was watching the video of her mother.  It was softly and romantically lit, such warm colors, and Erica looked amazing.  The scenes in the orphanage's basement were also terrifically stark.  I like the touch of the greenish tint to the solar lens flare when Mad Harriet told Clark he was the only person needing saving.  That was a subtle touch, perhaps helped out with some Visual Effects work, but I liked it a lot.

I adored the little glass dove (or whatever kind of bird that was) that Lois' mom had on her kitchen window sill being almost the exact same color as Clark's shirt: the classic royal blue of the Superman costume.  That was awesome.  I tried to Google to see other examples of this kind of bird and just got a lot of results trying to hook me up with Russian mail-order brides.  Funny, but the results were not especially helpful.  Maybe this bird being the symbol for hope in Russia isn't true, but it doesn't matter to me much.  Having that bird being almost the same color as Clark's shirt was a nice touch so kudos to James Philpott (or to his Property Master Aleya Naiman) for that.

The score by Louis Febres was beautiful.  I loved the incorporation of Tchaikovsky's 'Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy' (from his ballet "The Nutcracker") with its delicate music-box like sound. It's an upbeat, almost child-like piece of music.  It was fitting for episode and he blended it in well with the rest of the score.

This is probably one of the strongest episodes not only for the season, but for the series.  I adored this.  It held up extremely well to multiple viewings, so I give this 5 Russian blue glass birds 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