SV "Gemini"
Once again, story requirements trump characters and plot. Yay Smallville.
I can't fault SV for consistently sticking to a series-long story arc, which I think it did here. (Although, wow, did I just use the word "consistent" and "SV" in the same sentence?) And, hey, speaking of, compared to the trainwreck that was "Promise,", "Gemini" was great. It just wasn't as good as I expected.
The episode.
It got a lot done. Just not very well.
Lots of people have already commented on the plotholes and OOC moments. To sum up:
--EDLois is told Lex Luthor "requested" she write about him (Julian never says the word "expose"), and she doesn't ask why?
--Chloe hands her Luthorcorp research to EDLois with a smile, and we're never told why. (Although she then zings EDLois with that priceless remark about "breaking it off" with Grant, which almost made up for the completely OOC scene.)
--Adrian has been calling EDLois for days or weeks, and again we're never told why Adrian targets EDLo. (We can guess that he picks her b/c he likes her just as much as his "brother" Julian, but it'd be nice if the show made that clear.)
--Chimmy in the elevator. Chloe's kept their photos in her purse all this time? And Jimmy's suddenly OK with meteor freaks? Uh-huh.
--Clark's on ice and Bizarro's on the loose. Again, why?
It's not that there were more plotholes and OOC moments than usual (see, "Promise"), but the spoilers for this episode made me hope for something much more. Color me disappointed. :(
However, there was one bright spot, even though the plot and characters suffered, and that was...
The overall story arc.
In spite of all the nonsense in this episode, I felt that it moved the characters much further along to where they need to be. The reveal about Lex owning the DP was not only completely in character, but also (as many have pointed out) a huge shoutout to "Noir." Lana telling Clark/Bizarro about her own mini Level 33.1 (keeping Casey on ice, courtesy of "my team"), pushed her further into Luthor territory. Meanwhile, Clark's clearly moving along to a confrontation with both Brainiac and Bizarro (although the reason for this is a mystery to me right now).
As much as I hate Chimmy, the Chloe-Jimmy encounter makes sense as part of the "reverse Clana" relationship, especially the last scene where Jimmy clearly isn't OK with Chloe's secret. Also, the Chloiser in me likes it that Chloe and Jimmy get so much screentime, while EDLois, who supposedly is so close to Jimmy in the future, hasn't had any screentime at all with him for months, and had none in this episode.
Which brings me to EDLois, who got a lot of screentime in this episode. I don't necessarily think that's a good thing for ED's character, given what we found out about her in "Gemini." Here's what the dialogue in this episode pretty much hammered home:
--EDLois has never had any legitimate sources for ANY of her stories until now. (Since Chloe's the first "legitimate source" she's ever had, as she herself said.)
--EDLois is lazy. (Why else would she have no other "legitimate sources" for a story on Lex, when she's supposedly had a "vendetta" against him for months?)
--EDLois is a liar. (Highlighted when Chloe congratulated her on getting the Luthorcorp story "fair and square"--which, of course, she didn't.)
--EDLois is unethical. (She's OK with macking on her boss/editor in the storage closet, as long as it doesn't get out. And, in the end, the one who finally breaks it off isn't EDLois, it's Grant.)
--EDLois is incompetent. (As Lex observes, she's a "puppet." She never even suspects that Grant might have Luthor connections, in spite of the unexplained presence of Lex in his office, and the easy way Lex agreed to have her write his story.)
If one of the main purposes of this story wasn't to set up EDLois as a paper tiger, I'll eat my hat. She was showcased as the antithesis of ILL, as noted above, and on top of it all, the episode went out of its way to have her brandishing a pistol at Lex, a la "Action." As much as I like to mock AlMiles, they do foreshadowing very well, and I don't think the similarities between the Lex-EDLo scene and "Action" were coincidence.
IMO, this episode completely destroyed any possibility of EDLois believably becoming ILL. Sleeping with the boss + accepting plum assignments from him + doing no research + having absolutely no remorse about any of this = Not ILL. I think TPTB are signaling Chlois here, loud and clear. If I'm right, then the episode succeeded in what it intended to do.
If I'm wrong, then TPTB are deliberating trashing ILL's character for no reason whatsoever. I know we're talking about SV here, but I still refuse to believe that the writers are quite that incompetent.
At least they're smart enough to bring on James Marsters for the next episode. If nothing else, that's worth waiting until February. :)
I can't fault SV for consistently sticking to a series-long story arc, which I think it did here. (Although, wow, did I just use the word "consistent" and "SV" in the same sentence?) And, hey, speaking of, compared to the trainwreck that was "Promise,", "Gemini" was great. It just wasn't as good as I expected.
The episode.
It got a lot done. Just not very well.
Lots of people have already commented on the plotholes and OOC moments. To sum up:
--EDLois is told Lex Luthor "requested" she write about him (Julian never says the word "expose"), and she doesn't ask why?
--Chloe hands her Luthorcorp research to EDLois with a smile, and we're never told why. (Although she then zings EDLois with that priceless remark about "breaking it off" with Grant, which almost made up for the completely OOC scene.)
--Adrian has been calling EDLois for days or weeks, and again we're never told why Adrian targets EDLo. (We can guess that he picks her b/c he likes her just as much as his "brother" Julian, but it'd be nice if the show made that clear.)
--Chimmy in the elevator. Chloe's kept their photos in her purse all this time? And Jimmy's suddenly OK with meteor freaks? Uh-huh.
--Clark's on ice and Bizarro's on the loose. Again, why?
It's not that there were more plotholes and OOC moments than usual (see, "Promise"), but the spoilers for this episode made me hope for something much more. Color me disappointed. :(
However, there was one bright spot, even though the plot and characters suffered, and that was...
The overall story arc.
In spite of all the nonsense in this episode, I felt that it moved the characters much further along to where they need to be. The reveal about Lex owning the DP was not only completely in character, but also (as many have pointed out) a huge shoutout to "Noir." Lana telling Clark/Bizarro about her own mini Level 33.1 (keeping Casey on ice, courtesy of "my team"), pushed her further into Luthor territory. Meanwhile, Clark's clearly moving along to a confrontation with both Brainiac and Bizarro (although the reason for this is a mystery to me right now).
As much as I hate Chimmy, the Chloe-Jimmy encounter makes sense as part of the "reverse Clana" relationship, especially the last scene where Jimmy clearly isn't OK with Chloe's secret. Also, the Chloiser in me likes it that Chloe and Jimmy get so much screentime, while EDLois, who supposedly is so close to Jimmy in the future, hasn't had any screentime at all with him for months, and had none in this episode.
Which brings me to EDLois, who got a lot of screentime in this episode. I don't necessarily think that's a good thing for ED's character, given what we found out about her in "Gemini." Here's what the dialogue in this episode pretty much hammered home:
--EDLois has never had any legitimate sources for ANY of her stories until now. (Since Chloe's the first "legitimate source" she's ever had, as she herself said.)
--EDLois is lazy. (Why else would she have no other "legitimate sources" for a story on Lex, when she's supposedly had a "vendetta" against him for months?)
--EDLois is a liar. (Highlighted when Chloe congratulated her on getting the Luthorcorp story "fair and square"--which, of course, she didn't.)
--EDLois is unethical. (She's OK with macking on her boss/editor in the storage closet, as long as it doesn't get out. And, in the end, the one who finally breaks it off isn't EDLois, it's Grant.)
--EDLois is incompetent. (As Lex observes, she's a "puppet." She never even suspects that Grant might have Luthor connections, in spite of the unexplained presence of Lex in his office, and the easy way Lex agreed to have her write his story.)
If one of the main purposes of this story wasn't to set up EDLois as a paper tiger, I'll eat my hat. She was showcased as the antithesis of ILL, as noted above, and on top of it all, the episode went out of its way to have her brandishing a pistol at Lex, a la "Action." As much as I like to mock AlMiles, they do foreshadowing very well, and I don't think the similarities between the Lex-EDLo scene and "Action" were coincidence.
IMO, this episode completely destroyed any possibility of EDLois believably becoming ILL. Sleeping with the boss + accepting plum assignments from him + doing no research + having absolutely no remorse about any of this = Not ILL. I think TPTB are signaling Chlois here, loud and clear. If I'm right, then the episode succeeded in what it intended to do.
If I'm wrong, then TPTB are deliberating trashing ILL's character for no reason whatsoever. I know we're talking about SV here, but I still refuse to believe that the writers are quite that incompetent.
At least they're smart enough to bring on James Marsters for the next episode. If nothing else, that's worth waiting until February. :)