Smallville Fortune not review - picspam (image heavy post ahead)
Fortune Thoughts (and an announcement at the end)
So this was a dodgy episode, wasn't it? It wasn't perfect - not by a long-shot, the resolution of the Amos Fortune storyline was less than satisfying for me - well let's just say that whole bit felt incoherent at best and it took me a while to figure out who Amos even was. The whole or the sum of the episode had pacing issues, I couldn't get into the rhythm of it (was that deliberate?), it didn't tie itself up well - for a relatively simple premise that was weird and I often find this with ACS episodes, she needs a really good editor or something. BUT the parts, you guys, the parts - there were some lovely parts. Kind of like a half-cooked omelet, I could see three kinds of delicious cheese and delicious mushrooms, peppers, whatever but it just didn't come together and it was like having soggy egg at some points - and that's just kind of a gross and useless image. Anyway, what I'm trying to say is that even though the execution was SO flawed (how often do we say that with SV?), there were some cool character moments and some laugh-out-loud comedy bits, and I like it when this cast gets to have fun.
I said this elsewhere but the necessity of an episode like this - light, funny, blissfully romantic, quirky, silly even - at this very point in the season will probably become clearer as we rush to the climax and the end. I guess I hope it will. I don't even know - the overall purpose of this episode has little to nothing to do with Clark, it needed to be more focused. But whatevs, I actually let myself go and enjoyed it because - you know - that's my new M.O. with Smallville :DD
This post should just be called Spamalot - because I went a little overboard, even for me but if you're up at 3AM from jet lag, why not make picspams like it's your job, right?
These are just some of my favorite scenes, in no particular order of preference. Actually, they're sequential, but whatever:
Clark: Wow... you look great.
Lois: Thanks! Never hurts to change it up a little bit, except for the ring.. it's my sparkly little ball and chain.
Clark: So you having any second thoughts about your girls' night out?
Lois: Clark, my swingin' single days have swung. It's just all this wedding stuff is very wedding-y - I never thought I'd be that girl.
I love the way he looks at her. That middle cap in the last row, wow. Clark has this way of looking at Lois like she's actually every single thing that matters in the entire world to him in one. It's the whole, "I died when you left" effect and it's breathtaking. My favorites are when he does it in the most mundane moments and in moments where she's totally unaware of it, my heart!!!!
I'm probably the only person in the fandom who loved Lois' dress and doesn't think she looks particularly tacky (except for the accursed bangs). Heck, I'd wear that thing with the boots she had on at the railway line out. So did anyone else laugh when Clark asked her if she'd changed her mind about going out with the girls because we ALL know if she'd said yes, he'd have figured out how to take that dress off with his teeth and celebrated his stag night with his bride-to-be, alone, 100% no-clothing rule. Our Super-friend was not thinking pure thoughts for the majority of this scene.
Also, I love the shots with Tess and Chloe because they're all so pretty in such different ways, and everyone is smiling and happy, and poor Clark doesn't know what to do with the image of Lois gagged and tied to a blow-up doll, and it's just happy-making. I can count on one hand the number of times I've seen the women on this show all getting along, and it's the best feeling - actually. Thank you, show.
The lemur wins at everything. All the awards. Clark running into a wall and then staggering to his feet will never not be hilarious. And Chloe's Madonna circa 1988 wedding dress and her waking up legs in the air in the closet of all places is giggle-worthy. I liked seeing Clark and Chloe trying to figure things out together because the dynamic in their relationship is the best it's ever been. They're both so grown-up and it doesn't feel like a toxic co-dependent thing. Finally just two friends who aren't making unreasonable demands on each other but who love each other and trust each other, and are totally comfortable. It made me realize how far both of these characters have come - the functions they each performed in each other's narratives have evolved FOR THE BETTER.
What else is there to say but - HIGH-LARIOUS? Just drawing little hearts around everything. Personal canon comes to life etc. etc. They have beautiful singing voices, Cassidy's in a band, right? And Alessandro is a super-talented guy, but I didn't know he could sing too. I love that this was the soundtrack during the crazy showgirl fight scene too. I'll be fine if they never make a 'thing' out of this - it doesn't need to become a 'thing', imo. They do have great chemistry and Tess with a man who isn't insane and smiling in any situation makes me happy. And this show makes me ship everyone and I read a fic this morning and it blew my mind so there we go - one more obsession to my long list.
Oliver: The jury's still out but I'd say we just survived the world's greatest bachelor party.
Lois: Ahaha, no offense - but speak for yourself. My dream soiree would end waking up with someone a little taller, darker, and a different kind of handsome.
Oliver: Well, no surprise there. How the hell did we end up here anyway?
Lois: Ugh, I have no idea but with that. But in that green get-up of yours we're gonna stand out like a hooker in a church.
Okay, these two also win at everything and deserve all of the awards - all of them. I think that Justin Hartley and Erica Durance have the best comic timing, their faces, the physical comedy - they play off each other incredibly well. I loved their scenes. You know, seeing these two together reinforced exactly why they don't work as an actual couple in the long term. They'd drive each other batty. But as friends, again, such effortless chemistry. Justin's "Ohh, boobies!!!" face is hilarious.
In that second scene, a great callback to "Siren", I loved the two of them bringing up how hard it is to live in the shadow of 'perfection'. This has been a long-running theme for Oliver, I think, last year he was deriding Clark but he seems to have come to a level of self-acceptance about it and his self-worth as a hero. I wonder if that particular insecurity will be one of the pressure points the Darkness will try to push in the coming episodes with his dark mark and all.
Similarly, I thought Lois articulating her own insecurities regarding Clark's 'perfection' was an inspired choice. This is something we've seen in the comics, in nearly every incarnation of this pairing: Lois struggling with her 'wacky worldview' in the face of seemingly perfect Superman. And it is a continuous struggle, and incredibly realistic, methinks. Thing is, Clark Kent isn't perfect (and she knows and loves that even though it's easy to forget it because he's... well, Clark Kent) and those flaws she's so worried about, the ones that make her so incredibly human (and baller) those are what he loves most about her. And when Clark tells her at the end of the episode that he'll wait for her no matter how long it takes (swoon) - it IS the perfect thing to say, and that feeling of knowing someone loves you like that, warts and all, that's what's perfect. Except I kind of wish directors on this show would let them cut loose more - I mean at the DP I get it but when they're at home, surely they can be a bit more demonstrative with each other...? I dunno. It's just odd sometimes, someone is making dodgy choices.
I love that Ollie ran to Lois to use her gambling skills to get a ring for Chloe. Aw, bless.
Oliver: Way to go all in, gorgeous.
Chloe: Back at ya, hot stuff.
Lois: And we have a winner.
Love. This. Scene. I only wish Clark had been there - but I guess it would've been over in two seconds if he was and I wouldn't have gotten Oliver's bra ripped off or Lois crawling about on the floor or Chloe shooting shit up. I wonder where she learned her gun skills (yeah, the show went overboard this time) but I just loved the farcical elements of the scene so much that I forgive it. I love how it's just so them - Clark and Chloe are really the straight (wo)men to Oliver and Lois' general insane wackiness, and this was a pretty visual reminder, lol. I need fic of Clark's reaction to Lois' outfit. K, thanks.
Smiling is such a rarity on this show. Savor it. With the preview for next week's episode, we'll probably be staring longingly at shots like these.
LOL at Clark's voice when he says that bit about Lois being cold and then stealing the Lexcorp sign (Clexers everywhere were no doubt overjoyed). Oh, Clark. And Chloe when she squeals, "A monkey!!!!" and runs for it. Tess and Emil, I SEE you - where's the fic? Clark and Oliver bromance for the world, Clark's toothy grin at Emil and his camera in that toilet is hilarious.
So my heart, people. My heart was breaking. I honestly thought they'd just let Chloe walk off into the sunset without clearing things up with Ollie and I was ready to cry and rail. And then this scene happened, and I actually wept - and have had tears in my eyes every single time I've seen it since (which is remarkable only because I've rewatched this scene an obscene number of times).
Oliver: Let's get outta here.
I actually can't be coherent about it. All I can say is that Chloe's M.O. for a long time on this show has been about giving up what she wants in order to be what she thinks someone needs. This isn't news. I find it striking that in this instance she's both doing that and yet she isn't. As Oliver points out, she didn't get a job in Star City for nothing, there's something in that. This is not Chloe as usual, and that's important. But I think another element is that Oliver doesn't let her run away or give up anything. This same Oliver who for as long as we've known him on this show treats commitment like the proverbial plague. His M.O. is to keep people at a distance until they get tired enough of it to leave him or to do the actual leaving himself. But he's different here, and he's been different in this relationship from as far back as "Escape". Also, the dude's already experienced what it means to not have Chloe - and I don't think anyone wants a repeat of that (mainly because it's sad and would suck but also because I didn't fancy Oliver's ST dedicated entirely to pining in the Watchtower in the first few episodes this season and I don't need a re-run).
Also, I like the symbolism in the joining of the two torn parts of the marriage certificate. These two haven't done things in the most conventional or 'pretty and perfect' manner. None of the 'high romance' with all the mythic weight you get with Clois, this is neither a good or a bad thing, it just is. And it's part of what I enjoy about it when the writers get it right with them, like here. Just understated, sparse dialogue without any heavy declarations of anything, but just two people connecting. Long story short, that's the point. This shouldn't work - it wouldn't work for many but somehow it does for them, and the show got that. We don't know if it will last, we don't know what will happen to them a few years down the line, but again - that's why it works and my heart did dolphin flips.
Perfect song, with shiny eyes - SHINY EYES!!!!! And then walking away with the lovely street lights, the parallels to the last scene of Checkmate are kind of key here but I won't bore anyone with a ramble, I've gone on long enough.
Random thoughts:
1. Clark should have been the first to meet Bats and Wondy, but I liked the reference. And in the end, he's the one who will bring them together to form the Trinity of Awesome, so I'm over it.
2. That last Clark/Chloe conversation was so incomprehensible to me for the first few watches but it's actually not all that terrible - just some dubious writing choices there that made me wince - I don't like the way things were phrased. But what I took from it was what I said above, these kids have come so damn far. And I keep seeing Chloe and Clark (with Pete) in Pilot and comparing to what they are now, and (except for the glaring absence of Pete, stupid show), it's quite nice. And that hug, with the beautiful light in the barn, I smiled a little. Revisionist history is the M.O. of the show, I'm now just deadened to all of it - I expect nothing better so whatever to a whole lot of this conversation. And would it hurt for them to emphasize a little how Clark has inspired her? I guess they did that in Beacon but still...
3. I loved Chloe stating out loud to Tess that Watchtower is in good hands - I like that she's moved on from that and it's not some bitter thing. Also, with her new career choice, they managed to retain some of the girl she used to be with the whole journalism but also keep a lot of the experiences of the woman she has become, the woman she is. It's a decent balance, I think. I don't even know.
4. I adored Tess saying, "But oddly, Clark, very human." Clark holds himself to such high standards, he strives to be so much to so many people and sometimes he fails. And that's all right, the point is that he keeps trying. It was so great to see that little character moment there but not have it become a ZOMG!MORAL LESSON OF THE DAY TO PUSH CLARK KENT TO BECOME SUPERMAN!!!! We weren't bludgeoned to death until our ears bled. Smallville's not exactly known for its subtlety. I found this episode to be full of little nuggets like this for almost every single character and relationship.
5. Amos was just kind of lame but he felt like a very comic-book villain - a little crazy with his lucky charms and pet lemurs and dumb thug minions. Also, was he gay or was he genuinely attracted to a more ... erm, muscular woman in Ollie? Either way, awesome.
6. I like the kooky Silver Age elements so I was bound to like this episode more than most.
7. Yay, Emil back story!!!! Where's my fic??????
8. This episode was really pretty.
9. Forgot this - Clark and Lois having parallel fears and insecurities in this episode was goodish too (although sometimes it felt contrived) and both pretty legitimate concerns.
That's all, sorry for the silliness of my posts with SV - it's that kind of year, I'm afraid.
And now pimping:
10 Years of Smallville Comment Ficathon!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
In honor of our beloved show (with all the ups and downs), I'm hosting a 10 Years of Smallville Comment Ficathon for every single character that has ever appeared on this show, open to any and all 'ships (canon, non-canon, platonic, romantic, threesomes, moresomes), and ratings galore. Please spread the word, leave as many prompts as you can, and participate! You'll see the post up in a bit, it starts today and I think it might go up until the finale, we'll see.
