Smallville: Seven Basic Plots (Part II)
Part I of this series of essays on plot structure in Smallville is available here
Spoilers through to Season 5 Reckoning.
2. Rags to Riches
The second classic plot outlined by Booker is that in which a young hero or heroine is 'lifted out of obscurity, poverty and misery to a state of great splendour and happiness.'. In evoking the typical transformation that this plot presents to us, Booker writes, 'Few images in the popular storytelling of our time have fixed themselves more vividly in the mind than the moment when Clark Kent, the weedy, bespectacled newspaper reporter, is suddenly transformed into 'Superman', the all-powerful righter of the world's wrongs.' Although we have seen that the basic plot structure of many Superman stories is Overcoming the Monster, the Rags to Riches plot also lies at the heart of its appeal.
In Smallville the transformation of Clark Kent into Superman is far from 'sudden'. While Clark is hardly in 'rags', his situation in Smallville is certainly 'obscure'. Similarly, he is not exactly miserable, but he is inherently unfulfilled. He exists in a fledgeling state, struggling to understand who he is and to balance his twin desires: to live a normal human life, and to be recognised as 'special' for the use of his unique gifts to help others. Thus Smallville centres on the first two parts of the five-part Rags to Riches plot structure.
2.1. Initial wretchedness at home and the 'Call'.
In this first stage, the plot begins with the hero in their original 'lowly' and unhappy state, overshadowed by dark figures who scorn or maltreat them. The Pilot episode of Smallville gives us this exact scenario. Clark is set upon by a group of school bullies, who string him up as that year's 'Scarecrow'. But Clark has just learned the secret of his identity: his parents found him and the spaceship he arrived in during the meteor shower. This represents the 'Call' for Clark. While this phase would usually end with the hero going out into the wider world, in Smallville, this is represented not by a geographical shift, but with Clark beginning his public role: he rescues Lex Luthor
2.2 Out into the world, initial success.
In the second phase, the hero may encounter new ordeals, but is also rewarded with their first, limited success. In the larger plot arc of Clark's life, much of Smallville falls into this phase. The key to understanding this phase is that the success is 'incomplete'. The hero may overcome dark rivals, and he may encounter his 'Princess', but he has yet to reach complete fulfilment. Smallville explores the full scope of this stage, with its many references to the future. Lana Lang fills the role of 'Princess', but the audience knows that she is limited in her role as destiny figure. It is not until Season 4 that Clark's true 'destiny partner' arrives in Lois Lane, and even then he fails to recognise her. Clark's worldview is thus seen to be still limited. At the start of Season 5, he is finally successful in winning Lana Lang as a girlfriend, but this success is limited in the greater scope of his life. He is still to develop his full range of powers and he has not evolved his final identity as Superman.
The later three stages are:
3. The central crisis.
4. Independence and the final ordeal.
5. Final union, completion and fulfilment.
In the plot of Clark's life, we are just on the cusp of beginning these three stages midway through Season 5. The central crisis requires that dark figures return with new strength. The hero is separated from that which is most important in the world to him and is overwhelmed by despair. In Season 5, Clark is close to reaching such a dark 'crisis'. At the start of Season 5 he lost his powers and he thinks he has gained a mortal life, but he dies, and this opportunity is taken from him forever. He loses his father, his first real experience of grief. Finally, he is close to facing a separation from his desired object, Lana. (Although at time of writing they are still technically dating, a break seems inevitable following Reckoning). Simultaneously, we see the rise of a dark figure in Lex. Lionel too is acting in mysterious dark ways. The crisis that will thrust Clark Kent forward in his journey to becoming Superman has begun.
In stage 4, we see the hero exert new 'independent strength' in a final test of strength, usually involving a battle with a dark figure who stands as a rival between them and their goal. Once this is overcome, the hero can move forward to final union, completion and fulfilment. Clark may be a long way from achieving this end, but we see the glimmers of this destiny. As Booker explains, the Rags to Riches plot is built on 'alternating phases of constriction and expansion'. The greater the crisis the hero faces, the greater their developing maturity. Smallville repeatedly alternates phases of cosntriction and expansion as Clark overcomes small goal on his path to maturity. He grows in terms of inner strength and willpower. As Booker explains, self-reliance is the goal for a hero in a Rags to Riches story.
2.3 The dark version
Booker explains how a Rags to Riches hero is essentially good-hearted. Their ascenscion to a state of 'riches' involves their good nature being recognised by others (think Cinderella, David Copperfield, Jane Eyre). However there is also a 'dark' version of the Rags to Riches story, in which the hero is in some way self-seeking rather than good-hearted, yet the story of their life follows the same pattern as that of the standard 'light' Rags to Riches plot, 'but in some way fails to arrive at its fully rewarding conclusion'.
In Smallville, Clark Kent is not the only character whose plot follows a Rags to Riches structure. He is mirrored, or shadowed, by Lex Luthor. When Smallville begins, Lex too is in an impoverished state, not financially but emotionally. The son of a wealthy businessman, Lex has not earned his superficial riches and is deeply unhappy. We learn that he has been living a debauched and empty life. When he is sent to run a fertilizer plant in Smallville, Lex's 'Call' arrives in the form of Clark Kent. Clark saves his life and Lex turns over a new leaf.
The main dark figure in Lex's life is his father, Lionel, and the patterns of constriction and release recur in Lex's ongoing conflict Lionel. At first Lex experiences dreamlike success; then Lionel ups the ante. It's a pattern we watch time and time again. These patterns often mirror the stages in Clark's own life. For example, in the season finale of Season 3, Clark is sucked into the cave wall and Jor-El tells him that he will be 'reborn'. At the same time, Lex collapses poisoned. Both curl up in mirrored embryonic posture. The mirrored poses at the end of Season 3 are typical of Smallville's use of powerful visual imagery. Both characters endure a central 'crisis' before emerging again for the cycle of success and frustration to continue.
So does Lex fit the mould of the dark version of the Rags to Riches story? In many ways he clearly does, but there is one fundamental difference between the dark version outlined by Booker and the plot presented to us in Smallville: Lex Luthor is not inherently self-seeking at the start of the series. Unlike the typical hero of a Rags to Riches story, his essential nature changes as the show goes on. So the shift is not one of society coming to recognise his good qualities, but of the hero gradually coming to reflect the negative projections of society about him.
2.4 The dark characters
Booker argues that the dark figures who overshadow a hero in the Rags to Riches stories fall into four categories, archetypes that we can recognise in the Smallville plots.
1. The Dark Father
An older male figure with power or authority over the hero. In Lex's case, Lionel is the obvious archetypal Dark Father. In Clark's case, things are more ambiguous. Dark Fathers are traditionally often stand-ins for a hero's real lost father (e.g. Copperfield's stepfather) but in Clark's plot it is his real father, Jor-El, who first appears as a threatening figure. However Jonathan Kent often holds Clark back from embracing his destiny, so the structure reflects some ambiguity here.
2. The Dark Mother
Mothers in Smallville are commonly the forces of light, a concept that is explored at the beginning of Season 4, when Martha fights to get her son back. Lex lost his mother, Lillian, at a young age and the implication is that he was defenceless against his father's dark influence. So Dark Mothers are not common. In Season 2's Lineage, Rachel Dunleavy initially appears as a potential Dark Mother. We learn that she took over a 'stepmother' like role after Lillian's death. But she proves ultimately harmless. In Season 5's Lexmas, the vision of Lillian was ambiguous: was she a force of darkness or light? The Dark Mother is perhaps the rarest of the four categories in Smallville. However, she occasionally crops up in the second-tier of characters, Genevieve Teague being the most obvious example. (If anyone can think of other examples, please let me know!)
3. The Dark Rivals
Young characters of roughly similar age and status who act as oppressors. In Clark's life these are frequently 'freaks of the week'. In Lex's life we saw a potential dark rival in Lucas, Lionel's illegitimate son. Dominic, one of Lionel's henchmen, was another dark rival in the early series, competing for status in Lionel's eyes. In the Season 4 plot arc, Jason Teague was a rival of both men, not just for the magic stones but for the 'Princess' Lana Lang as well. Dark Rivals can also be more general in nature: the derision or scorn of the world at large. This is something that Lex confronts constantly. Clark experiences not scorn, but an equivalent in misunderstanding, since he cannot reveal his powers.
4. The Dark Other Half
The fourth and most serious contender that the hero encounters. Usually of the opposite sex, 'this character holds out the possibility of union with the hero but is in fact self-seeking and treacherous or in some other way inadequate.' In Smallville, Clark's Dark Other Half is Lex Luthor, which is perhaps the strongest argument for a slash reading of the show. In the following ways, Lex fits the mould of Dark Other Half:
- he 'seduces' Clark with gifts and with generosity
- he declares their friendship as 'special' and 'destined'
- he promises union: 'our friendship will be the stuff of legends'.
As we explored above, the situation is further complicated by the fact that Lex is not yet self-seeking and treacherous, though we know that he will become so. The Smallville writers are in the unusual position of being able to exploit the audience's privileged knowledge about the character to present this ironical pardadox.
So who is Lex's Dark Other Half? The answer would seem to be Clark Kent. While Clark does not actively seduce Lex, he exerts an irresistable pull over Lex's attention that deepens into obsession. Unlike Lex, he is frequently self-seeking as we see in his pattern of asking Lex for help and giving little in return. This becomes increasingly exaggerated through the seasons. His 'treacherous' nature comes to the fore in Season 3 when Clark lies to Lex about knowing that Lionel killed his parents and about what happened when Lex was in Belle Reve. Although Clark's motives for doing so are complex and not purely 'evil', the result is that Lex remains in danger from another Dark figure, Lionel. So in practice, if not in substance, Clark functions as a Dark influence in Lex's life.
2.5 Summing up
In presenting the young life of Clark Kent and Lex Luthor, Smallville follows the pattern of the early stages of the Rags to Riches plot. It also plays on the audience's familiarity with future canon, encouraging them to project and imagine the completion of that plot in the future. However, Smallville breaks the mould of this classic plot in the following ways:
- one single moment (the car crash on Loeb bridge) symbolises the moment of the 'Call' for too different chracters
- in the 'dark' version of the Rags to Riches tale Lex Luthor is not always evil, but becomes so
- the two lead characters function as the Dark Other Half of each other.
Much of Smallville's appeal and interest lies in these unusual twists on the classic plot structure.
Spoilers through to Season 5 Reckoning.
2. Rags to Riches
The second classic plot outlined by Booker is that in which a young hero or heroine is 'lifted out of obscurity, poverty and misery to a state of great splendour and happiness.'. In evoking the typical transformation that this plot presents to us, Booker writes, 'Few images in the popular storytelling of our time have fixed themselves more vividly in the mind than the moment when Clark Kent, the weedy, bespectacled newspaper reporter, is suddenly transformed into 'Superman', the all-powerful righter of the world's wrongs.' Although we have seen that the basic plot structure of many Superman stories is Overcoming the Monster, the Rags to Riches plot also lies at the heart of its appeal.
In Smallville the transformation of Clark Kent into Superman is far from 'sudden'. While Clark is hardly in 'rags', his situation in Smallville is certainly 'obscure'. Similarly, he is not exactly miserable, but he is inherently unfulfilled. He exists in a fledgeling state, struggling to understand who he is and to balance his twin desires: to live a normal human life, and to be recognised as 'special' for the use of his unique gifts to help others. Thus Smallville centres on the first two parts of the five-part Rags to Riches plot structure.
2.1. Initial wretchedness at home and the 'Call'.
In this first stage, the plot begins with the hero in their original 'lowly' and unhappy state, overshadowed by dark figures who scorn or maltreat them. The Pilot episode of Smallville gives us this exact scenario. Clark is set upon by a group of school bullies, who string him up as that year's 'Scarecrow'. But Clark has just learned the secret of his identity: his parents found him and the spaceship he arrived in during the meteor shower. This represents the 'Call' for Clark. While this phase would usually end with the hero going out into the wider world, in Smallville, this is represented not by a geographical shift, but with Clark beginning his public role: he rescues Lex Luthor
2.2 Out into the world, initial success.
In the second phase, the hero may encounter new ordeals, but is also rewarded with their first, limited success. In the larger plot arc of Clark's life, much of Smallville falls into this phase. The key to understanding this phase is that the success is 'incomplete'. The hero may overcome dark rivals, and he may encounter his 'Princess', but he has yet to reach complete fulfilment. Smallville explores the full scope of this stage, with its many references to the future. Lana Lang fills the role of 'Princess', but the audience knows that she is limited in her role as destiny figure. It is not until Season 4 that Clark's true 'destiny partner' arrives in Lois Lane, and even then he fails to recognise her. Clark's worldview is thus seen to be still limited. At the start of Season 5, he is finally successful in winning Lana Lang as a girlfriend, but this success is limited in the greater scope of his life. He is still to develop his full range of powers and he has not evolved his final identity as Superman.
The later three stages are:
3. The central crisis.
4. Independence and the final ordeal.
5. Final union, completion and fulfilment.
In the plot of Clark's life, we are just on the cusp of beginning these three stages midway through Season 5. The central crisis requires that dark figures return with new strength. The hero is separated from that which is most important in the world to him and is overwhelmed by despair. In Season 5, Clark is close to reaching such a dark 'crisis'. At the start of Season 5 he lost his powers and he thinks he has gained a mortal life, but he dies, and this opportunity is taken from him forever. He loses his father, his first real experience of grief. Finally, he is close to facing a separation from his desired object, Lana. (Although at time of writing they are still technically dating, a break seems inevitable following Reckoning). Simultaneously, we see the rise of a dark figure in Lex. Lionel too is acting in mysterious dark ways. The crisis that will thrust Clark Kent forward in his journey to becoming Superman has begun.
In stage 4, we see the hero exert new 'independent strength' in a final test of strength, usually involving a battle with a dark figure who stands as a rival between them and their goal. Once this is overcome, the hero can move forward to final union, completion and fulfilment. Clark may be a long way from achieving this end, but we see the glimmers of this destiny. As Booker explains, the Rags to Riches plot is built on 'alternating phases of constriction and expansion'. The greater the crisis the hero faces, the greater their developing maturity. Smallville repeatedly alternates phases of cosntriction and expansion as Clark overcomes small goal on his path to maturity. He grows in terms of inner strength and willpower. As Booker explains, self-reliance is the goal for a hero in a Rags to Riches story.
2.3 The dark version
Booker explains how a Rags to Riches hero is essentially good-hearted. Their ascenscion to a state of 'riches' involves their good nature being recognised by others (think Cinderella, David Copperfield, Jane Eyre). However there is also a 'dark' version of the Rags to Riches story, in which the hero is in some way self-seeking rather than good-hearted, yet the story of their life follows the same pattern as that of the standard 'light' Rags to Riches plot, 'but in some way fails to arrive at its fully rewarding conclusion'.
In Smallville, Clark Kent is not the only character whose plot follows a Rags to Riches structure. He is mirrored, or shadowed, by Lex Luthor. When Smallville begins, Lex too is in an impoverished state, not financially but emotionally. The son of a wealthy businessman, Lex has not earned his superficial riches and is deeply unhappy. We learn that he has been living a debauched and empty life. When he is sent to run a fertilizer plant in Smallville, Lex's 'Call' arrives in the form of Clark Kent. Clark saves his life and Lex turns over a new leaf.
The main dark figure in Lex's life is his father, Lionel, and the patterns of constriction and release recur in Lex's ongoing conflict Lionel. At first Lex experiences dreamlike success; then Lionel ups the ante. It's a pattern we watch time and time again. These patterns often mirror the stages in Clark's own life. For example, in the season finale of Season 3, Clark is sucked into the cave wall and Jor-El tells him that he will be 'reborn'. At the same time, Lex collapses poisoned. Both curl up in mirrored embryonic posture. The mirrored poses at the end of Season 3 are typical of Smallville's use of powerful visual imagery. Both characters endure a central 'crisis' before emerging again for the cycle of success and frustration to continue.
So does Lex fit the mould of the dark version of the Rags to Riches story? In many ways he clearly does, but there is one fundamental difference between the dark version outlined by Booker and the plot presented to us in Smallville: Lex Luthor is not inherently self-seeking at the start of the series. Unlike the typical hero of a Rags to Riches story, his essential nature changes as the show goes on. So the shift is not one of society coming to recognise his good qualities, but of the hero gradually coming to reflect the negative projections of society about him.
2.4 The dark characters
Booker argues that the dark figures who overshadow a hero in the Rags to Riches stories fall into four categories, archetypes that we can recognise in the Smallville plots.
1. The Dark Father
An older male figure with power or authority over the hero. In Lex's case, Lionel is the obvious archetypal Dark Father. In Clark's case, things are more ambiguous. Dark Fathers are traditionally often stand-ins for a hero's real lost father (e.g. Copperfield's stepfather) but in Clark's plot it is his real father, Jor-El, who first appears as a threatening figure. However Jonathan Kent often holds Clark back from embracing his destiny, so the structure reflects some ambiguity here.
2. The Dark Mother
Mothers in Smallville are commonly the forces of light, a concept that is explored at the beginning of Season 4, when Martha fights to get her son back. Lex lost his mother, Lillian, at a young age and the implication is that he was defenceless against his father's dark influence. So Dark Mothers are not common. In Season 2's Lineage, Rachel Dunleavy initially appears as a potential Dark Mother. We learn that she took over a 'stepmother' like role after Lillian's death. But she proves ultimately harmless. In Season 5's Lexmas, the vision of Lillian was ambiguous: was she a force of darkness or light? The Dark Mother is perhaps the rarest of the four categories in Smallville. However, she occasionally crops up in the second-tier of characters, Genevieve Teague being the most obvious example. (If anyone can think of other examples, please let me know!)
3. The Dark Rivals
Young characters of roughly similar age and status who act as oppressors. In Clark's life these are frequently 'freaks of the week'. In Lex's life we saw a potential dark rival in Lucas, Lionel's illegitimate son. Dominic, one of Lionel's henchmen, was another dark rival in the early series, competing for status in Lionel's eyes. In the Season 4 plot arc, Jason Teague was a rival of both men, not just for the magic stones but for the 'Princess' Lana Lang as well. Dark Rivals can also be more general in nature: the derision or scorn of the world at large. This is something that Lex confronts constantly. Clark experiences not scorn, but an equivalent in misunderstanding, since he cannot reveal his powers.
4. The Dark Other Half
The fourth and most serious contender that the hero encounters. Usually of the opposite sex, 'this character holds out the possibility of union with the hero but is in fact self-seeking and treacherous or in some other way inadequate.' In Smallville, Clark's Dark Other Half is Lex Luthor, which is perhaps the strongest argument for a slash reading of the show. In the following ways, Lex fits the mould of Dark Other Half:
- he 'seduces' Clark with gifts and with generosity
- he declares their friendship as 'special' and 'destined'
- he promises union: 'our friendship will be the stuff of legends'.
As we explored above, the situation is further complicated by the fact that Lex is not yet self-seeking and treacherous, though we know that he will become so. The Smallville writers are in the unusual position of being able to exploit the audience's privileged knowledge about the character to present this ironical pardadox.
So who is Lex's Dark Other Half? The answer would seem to be Clark Kent. While Clark does not actively seduce Lex, he exerts an irresistable pull over Lex's attention that deepens into obsession. Unlike Lex, he is frequently self-seeking as we see in his pattern of asking Lex for help and giving little in return. This becomes increasingly exaggerated through the seasons. His 'treacherous' nature comes to the fore in Season 3 when Clark lies to Lex about knowing that Lionel killed his parents and about what happened when Lex was in Belle Reve. Although Clark's motives for doing so are complex and not purely 'evil', the result is that Lex remains in danger from another Dark figure, Lionel. So in practice, if not in substance, Clark functions as a Dark influence in Lex's life.
2.5 Summing up
In presenting the young life of Clark Kent and Lex Luthor, Smallville follows the pattern of the early stages of the Rags to Riches plot. It also plays on the audience's familiarity with future canon, encouraging them to project and imagine the completion of that plot in the future. However, Smallville breaks the mould of this classic plot in the following ways:
- one single moment (the car crash on Loeb bridge) symbolises the moment of the 'Call' for too different chracters
- in the 'dark' version of the Rags to Riches tale Lex Luthor is not always evil, but becomes so
- the two lead characters function as the Dark Other Half of each other.
Much of Smallville's appeal and interest lies in these unusual twists on the classic plot structure.