Clark: "I'm an illegal immigrant, Mom. You've been harboring me for over seventeen years."It's been a long time since we got an episode centered around Clark. And what do we get? Farmer Chet the meteor freak meets Children of the Corn.
Come on. A "serial killer farmer with a dirt fetish" and slave labor on the Farm of the Damned right next door, and Clark never noticed? The scenes with Martha and with Javier's mother were almost unbearably hokey. And the final capture of Farmer Chet was outright anti-climactic. Clark covered with dirt? A little underground Superman special effects might have made it more exciting. No, I take that back. I don't think anything could have made this episode more exciting.
Lex and Lana stole the show again. Lana is much happier. She thinks she's in love with an occasionally domineering but basically a good guy billionaire who can fund her attempts to help others on a great big scale. She doesn't know what's under Lex's surface (okay, literary parallel with Farmer Chet there), but we're finally starting to see it. The writers have basically been flirting with Lex turning evil during the entire series, and his actions have been shown as ambiguous many, many times, but I honestly think that the last scene was the first time that we saw Lex as outright, dyed-in-the-wool Evil, with a capital E.
The continuing romance between our Chloe and a surprisingly sexy Jimmy Olsen was another highlight of a poor episode. Rose petals and whipped cream? Really? My only complaint is that Chloe's obvious delight in Jimmy's romanticism has her off-balance and acting sort of un-Chloe-like. But new things can be fun.
Bits and pieces:
— Clark barging into Lex's office again was like old times.
— All those upright bodies in the dirt were creepy, I'll grant you.
— As Javier was running off, Dan said, "No, you don't run out into the middle of a field when there's a guy who can travel through dirt."
— And we have yet one more person, Javier, who knows Clark's secret. That's a pretty big club.
— If the farm had been pummeled by meteors, why weren't all the workers meteor freaks, too?
— Dr. Bowers is the latest in a long line of Lex's scientific minions. Dan thinks Lex is building an army of meteor freaks. Which would be the perfect reason for a superhero league of some sort to start forming. Which was, coincidentally, strongly hinted at in the previews for upcoming episodes.
Quotes:
Lana: "Nice strategy, boss."
Lex: "Only if it works."
That says it all. Lex is subtly bribing Lana with the power of money in order to reel her in. And it's working.
Clark: "Your English is perfect."
Javier: "I watched a lot of American TV."
Jimmy: "I'm your bro, not your foe. Ring that bell."
One star episode, even though the last two minutes of Lex in the hallway of 33.1 were really something,
Billie
---
Billie Doux had a love-hate relationship with Smallville, which is why some of her reviews are briefer than they should be.
For those who watch this episode, and have NEVER watched Smallville before ..... burn this episode out of your memory. Might be the worse of all 230 episodes made. Smallville is a great series, just do not judge it by this episode. Ben Hubbard would not approve either.
ReplyDeleteNot only was Javier's English remarkably good, his Spanish was remarkably bad. It distracted me and convinced me he was sort of impostor. I don't know why they couldn't hire a child actor who was bilingual. Judging by her pronunciation of names, I'd guess Chloe spoke better Spanish than Javier.
ReplyDeleteHaving first seen Aaron Ashmore in Killjoys I wasn't surprised to find him sexy. Though I think he's grown into his looks a bit since Smallville.
Since I'm a Spanish teacher, this incongruity really bothered me.
ReplyDelete