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Smallville: Sacred

Clark: "How did Lionel know these symbols were about you?"
Lana: "There are two answers to that question, and they're both three time zones away."

Crouching tiger, hidden Lana. I guess you could say this episode was something of a departure.

A little parallel frustration, as both Clark and Lana tried to deal with the fact that they were being manipulated by their ancestors. Clark was trying to protect Lana. Lex was trying to protect Lana. Jason said he was trying to protect Lana. Lana made mincemeat of all of them, which was actually rather fun. And a very impressive fight scene between, of all people, Clark and Lana.

Jason has been acquiring that "I'm secretly evil" feel for awhile. When a beaten Lex told Jason to tell the guards what they wanted to know, that it wasn't worth dying over, I knew immediately that Lex was pulling the strings. But then the Chinese soldiers turned on Lex, and after all the torture and everything, it was hard to tell what was going on, or what anyone's motivation was. I'm still confused.

In fact, this whole huge sojourn to China should have ended with a spectacular resolution of some kind, like the end of Lana's possession by Isobel, Clark acquiring all three stones, something. But there are still stones left unturned. Jason has one stone. There's one in the cave. And Bridgette Crosby has the third. I am of course assuming the three of them together will be a fount of Kryptonian knowledge, and if a human acquired it, it would be bad.

Bits and pieces:

— Dr. Swann died, and left the infamous octagonal key to Clark. Could Bridgette be protecting that stone? I'd rather Bridgette Crosby didn't turn out to be evil.

— Jason and Lex were tortured together in a scene right out of Lethal Weapon. Heavier than we usually see on Smallville.

— If Clark and Lana took the LuthorCorp jet to China, how did Lex get there?

— Clark tossed two Chinese soldiers. There should have been more tossing. Maybe we should count Lana spiraling up into the air all by herself.

Lana: "Hard to take college application essays seriously after the last couple of days, isn't it?"
Clark: "I was just trying to figure out if hidden temples and body-snatching witches fits under community service or extracurriculars."

Fun to watch, but too strange to be a favorite. Three stars,

Billie
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Billie Doux had a love-hate relationship with Smallville, which is why some of her reviews are briefer than they should be.

2 comments:

  1. Is it possible to have a filler mythology episode, because that it what this felt like. We send all (or most -- no Chloe or Lois) of our crew off on an adventure, but at the end, we are right back where we started. At least, more or less.

    Cool special effects, but that was about it. And, I do like Isabelle when she starts kicking ass...

    ReplyDelete
  2. So kind of a big plot hole... How did kryptonite end up in that wall?

    Those stones were said to be hidden there centuries ago, krypton only exploded what 18 years ago?

    ReplyDelete

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