Eric: "Save your strength, Clark. I'm going to need it."Poor Lex! Locked up in an asylum, torn with barbed wire, tasered, confined to what looked like a modern iron maiden, and he wasn't even crazy. Lionel was a right bastard to do this to Lex, and here I am, stating the obvious again. I knew (of course) that Lex would probably end up losing his memory because you can't have Lex remembering Clark crunching a car, but what just happened? Did electroshock turn Lex into a pod person?
The "We hate Clark" club at the asylum was a truly excellent plot device. Usually in shows like this, bad guys just go away and you rarely find out what happened to them. But here we had meteor freaks and the meteor freak assassin creating an alliance to get Clark. And it even worked as a serious threat. Our three bad guys were from three seasons: Eric, from season one's "Leech," Ian from season two's "Dichotic," and Van from season three's "Extinction." Van, unfortunately, was my favorite of the three and got iced first.
A stranger named Adam gave Lana a much needed push with her physical therapy. Unfortunately, it was pretty much a rerun of every other show with someone giving someone else a much needed push with their physical therapy. The actors did their best, but I felt bad for how cliched it was.
I'm not into slash, but even I could see the intense slashiness of this episode. Clark tried to save Lex. Lex tried to save Clark. Both Lex and Clark were tied down and electrified at the same time. And when they hugged in the end, they actually closed their eyes. Yowsa.
Bits and pieces:
— This episode was all about Lex and Lana recovering from stuff that was done to them, but in much different ways.
— Turns out that if Lionel had known Lex knew Clark's secret, he wouldn't have had Lex electrically realigned. How's that for irony.
— Pete is finally back. I didn't miss him much. Sorry about that, Pete.
— The three pots of paint in which Lex hid his pills were yellow, red, and blue.
— Adam was reading a book called The Midwich Cuckoos. I've read it, and there have been a couple of movie adaptations. It's about all the women in a small town becoming mysteriously pregnant and giving birth to a bunch of very strange and powerful kids. You can draw your own parallels to the plot of this episode.
— Someone told me back when this episode aired that they had intended the Ian Somerhalder "Adam" character to be young Bruce Wayne, but couldn't get the rights. It's too bad.
— Eric picked Clark up and threw him, twice. And then he hit Ian across the room. Three points. I may have missed some there.
— Orderly: "Jeez, kid. You seem to know a lot of people in here."
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.
Someone told me back when this episode aired that they had intended the Ian Somerhalder "Adam" character to be young Bruce Wayne, but couldn't get the rights. It's too bad.
ReplyDeleteHow cool would that have been?? But, let's just pause a moment and give thanks that Ian Somerhalder is on our screens at all. Sigh...
Sorry. Shaking myself out my blissful interlude. Love the fact that we had three returning baddies -- and they were the best of the bunch.
I am feeling so badly for Lex these days. I can't imagine subjecting anyone, let alone my son, to such an intense procedure. Lionel really is a sociopath. Too bad he's so interesting to watch; makes him difficult to hate.
When my husband and I first watched the pilot for Lost, we yelled out, "he's from Smallville!" And now, I religiously watch the delectable Ian Somerhalder on Vampire Diaries. Thanks for reminding me which particular episode he was in- I'll have to get S3 out of my basement and research!
ReplyDeleteYou're so welcome, Liz. I'm enjoying your comments.
ReplyDeleteThanks Billie!
ReplyDeleteSo in rewatching this episode and have to stop and rant for a minute. I work in a psych hospital and I despise the way tv portrays it.
1-this ep completely disregards privacy laws. Visitors are not allowed on units or wards-Clark would have waited in a visitor room for Lex to be escorted to him. Forget about breaking Lex out of his restraints.
2-don't EVEN get me started on the antiquated restraints.
3-who lets psychiatric patients have art easels, paintbrush, and rocks? Weapons much?
4-patients are encouraged to wear their own clothes.
5-who gave Ian such an awful haircut? It hurts my heart. I might have to soothe myself with a Vampire Diaries shower scene. :)
Watching this episode today, I noticed a newspaper in the Book Trolley scene appeared to have the headline "Themysciran Queen addresses..." with the rest cut off. I thought it was an interesting easter egg, I don't know if Wonder Woman shows up in this series at all.
ReplyDeleteAlong with the Green Arrow newspaper reference earlier in season 2(?), makes me think I should be trying to catch a glance anytime someone is holding a paper.
You know, looking back on that part in Shattered when Lex sees Clark use his powers, I realized that moment could have possibly changed their future destiny. If Clark had sped Lex back to the barn to get the drugs out of his system for good, Lex would have kept his memory and, as a result, may not have gone to extreme lengths to find out the truth about Clark and/or save the world. Either way, it was pretty harsh of Clark to just leave him there when Clark knew he was drugged and Morgan Edge was actually alive. Speaking of Edge, it was a shame the show never used him past season 3. The actors that played him were great in the role, and his resources combined with his knowledge of Clark's powers and weakness would have made him an interesting foe.
ReplyDeleteAlthough the episode was enjoyable, I'm kind of with Liz on the portrayal of the psychiatric institution. I actually started out the episode thinking it was a dream because surely Lionel would put Lex in some cushy modern facility not something that looked to be fifty years out of date and filled with the criminally insane.
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