“Leech”
Episode 1.12
Original airdate 02.12.2002
Review by Christopher Valin

Cast:
Tom Welling…Clark Kent
Michael Rosenbaum…Lex Luthor
Kristin Kreuk…Lana Lang
John Schneider…Jonathan Kent
Annette O'Toole…Martha Kent
Sam Jones III…Pete Ross
Allison Mack…Chloe Sullivan
Eric Johnson…Whitney Fordman

Guest Stars:
Kelly Brook…Victoria Hardwick
Sarah-Jane Redmond…Aunt Nell
Shawn Ashmore…Eric Summers
Kevin McNulty…Mr. Summers
Tom O’Brien…Roger Nixon
William Samples
P. Lynn Johnson

Directed by:
Greg Beeman

Written by:
Tim Schlattmann

Review:

The only bad thing about a fantastic episode like last week’s “Hug” is that you’re bound to be disappointed the next week. Not that there was anything really wrong with “Leech”-on the contrary, it was quite good-it just didn’t quite get to the heights reached by its predecessor. But I can’t complain too much…any episode with two subplots for Lex is definitely worth watching.

On a school fieldtrip, Eric Summers goes off on his own after being threatened by ANOTHER bully from the Smallville High athletic program (I guess Coach Walt did a good job of training them to be jerks while he was still there) and being verbally abused by his dad, the science teacher. Clark goes to look for Eric and ends up having to save him when he falls off the top of a dam (while holding a glowing, green meteorite). Lightning strikes them while Clark’s pulling him up, and suddenly Clark’s powers are transferred to Eric. This fact is revealed in a number of scenes, in which Clark can’t push Pa’s truck out of the mud, he falls down and actually bleeds, can’t catch up to his bus, gets tired and sore from running in P.E., and then gets a nosebleed. Eric, on the other hand, no longer needs his glasses, is able to stop his dad’s slap without any effort, and benches over five hundred pounds without breaking a sweat. Suddenly, Clark is normal, and once he gets over the fact that his chores are actually hard work, he starts to like being able to play basketball (but how’d he get so good if he never got to play before?) and, best of all, can get near Lana, who’s wearing her necklace again.

Lex comes by to talk to Clark because reporter Roger Nixon has shown him a computer simulation of their accident showing that Clark had to have been hit by Lex’s Porsche. Clark, of course, denies having any special abilities and says Lex can hit him with a hammer to prove it. Eric ends up stopping a guy who stole Chloe’s purse by using his powers in plain sight of everyone and becomes a hero for about fifteen minutes (Chloe’s headline in the Ledger reads “Super Boy”, which Clark thinks it lame). He asks out Holly, the girlfriend of the jock who threatened him, then gets into a fight with the guy and almost kills him before Clark steps in and gets thrown through the air and knocked unconscious. At the hospital, Lex comes by and sees for himself that Clark’s just a “normal” boy, and he later tells Nixon he’s “closing the book” on the matter and putting it behind him. We’ll just see about that. Meanwhile, Eric’s abusive father calls the police, which only causes Eric to get out of control, including throwing a police car on top of the Summers’ house. Clark borrows Lana’s necklace and confronts Eric at the dam, where Eric throws him into a power generator before Clark pulls the necklace out of the lead box it’s in. Eric tries to electrocute him with a cable just as Clark holds up the necklace and the resulting jolt of power transfers Clark’s powers back. Clark tells his dad it was nice being normal, but that Eric never got his two greatest gifts…his mother and father. When Clark returns the necklace to Lana, he gives her the lead box and she decides to keep it in there as a result of a conversation they had earlier about putting the past behind and moving on.

My favorite part of the show was Lex’s second story, wherein he’s double-crossed by Victoria and her dad, Sir Harry, when they buy Cadmus Labs, which he’s been researching for a year (remember when Victoria searched his computer?). They think they’ll have enough money now to buy Luthorcorp outright, so they don’t need Lex’s shares anymore, which was their deal. But Lex double-double-crosses them, and they discover Cadmus is worthless, since Lex planted the false information about it for Victoria to find. So Luthorcorp takes over Sir Harry’s company instead, which finally elicits praise from Lionel, making Lex feel pretty good until moments later when Nixon shows him pictures of his dad having sex with his girlfriend. Oops.

One thing I love about this show is the little things thrown in, such as: Clark wearing blue and red all the time; the “Super Boy” headline and comments about flying; the blue Smallville High crow mascot painted on the wall having a red cape and “S” shield on his chest; the football coach having the same last name as he did on Wonder Years. This week, I don’t think it was a coincidence that Eric’s last name was “Summers,” since actor Shawn Ashmore played Bobby “Iceman” Drake in the X-Men movie, and several other X-Men characters have been named Summers. It makes me wonder how many of these nods I miss every week.

There were more great effects this episode, especially the lightning strike at the beginning. The music, which is always pretty good, was especially noticeable this week. I’m starting to be surprised by how much these characters continue to develop, although it’s about time for an episode focusing on Chloe and/or Pete. I’m already tired of the whole “Whitney moping about his dad being sick” thing, although if it gets him away from the plot every week, I’m all for it. Most important, it was interesting to see what Clark would be like as a normal person, as well as what someone else without his strong parental support and influence would be like with such power. We get to see not only how lucky Clark is to have parents like his, but how lucky the rest of the world is as well.

Quotes of the Week:

Clark: “So, did you come by to make sure I was hurt?”
Lex: “I wanted to make sure you were okay.”
Clark: “Maybe we can go out to the parking lot later and you can hit me with a car.”

Victoria: “It was just business.”
Lex: “You call sleeping with me business? I hate to think what that makes you.”
Victoria (slaps him): “We could have been great together.”
Lex: “I plan on being great all by myself.”

Rating: 4/5 Stars