Smallville season 5 disc 5
These four eps were much of a muchness, quality-wise. I’d probably give ‘Void’, another horror-tinged episode, the edge.
5.16 Hypnotic
Another episode where Clark isn’t feeling like himself and gets shirtless.
Simone, the villain of the week, broke Clark and Lana up, and Lana was incredibly understanding about this when it was revealed Simone had a special necklace that meant she could hypnotise people to do her bidding, even for someone from Smallville. Everyone was quite blasé about it except for those who knew about Clark’s powers.
Meanwhile Lex got all protective and wouldn’t let his so-called partner come to Honduras to look for Fine. He was also Simone’s backer, but underestimated her. Unlike him, she managed to discover Clark’s secret in one episode. Heh. Fine lied to Lex, and the audience got a few more titbits about Fine than Lex did.
There were a couple of concussions and a few plot holes. That ever-shrinking road between Smallville and Metropolis got travelled a few times.
Clark decided to stay broke up with Lana and Martha gently pointed out that there may have been reasons (Lois) why his heart wasn’t ready to share his secret with her. Lana turned to Lex for comfort, and he tried to hide the smile from his face. I was more exercised by how Clark doesn’t deserve Chloe’s BFFness.
5.17 Void
In which recently dumped Lana became crazy-eyed and started acting like she was in a horror movie. The break-up had sent her running to med students who had a Kryptonite-enhanced cocktail that could keep you dead and put you into contact with dead loved ones. It turned Lana into a junkie, but apart from that metaphor, it reminded us that Lana, like Lex and Clark, was orphaned, and of the girl in season 1 who went to her parents’ cemetery.
Inevitably, the other two both got injected by the drug and had their own contrasting visions. Lilian showed a hint of steel as well as heartbreak as she told Lex off for not listening to her in Lexmas because his destiny was now pain and death. Special guest star Jonathan told Clark his destiny was to save the world…and Martha from Lionel.
(Lana has no destiny.)
One second Chloe was a genius, the next she was admitting Lionel fed her the info that Fine was still alive and in Honduras. Lionel was also trying to smarm his way into Martha’s good books. She was trying to draw red lines, but let him cross a few.
The Goth girl med student was effective and the make-up department had fun with Kreuk, but the chemist/med student had to turn into a violent cliché, didn’t he? It was more because that’s what villains do on Smallville at that point of an episode than his character up till then. Hs demise was gruesome.
I vainly wished that the show were more interested in the female characters’ relationships with each other here.
5.18 Fragile
(Tom Welling directed this episode, which is a sign a show has been running quite a while if anything is.)
It started off with Martha’s chief of staff, who we’ve never met, being a foster mother to a selectively mute girl, Mattie, who could psychically control glass. Yeah, it’s about that level of convoluted. They were having problems, the foster mother was killed BY GLASS, the Kents stepped in and Clark just knew all was not as it seemed, and spent the episode being charming to the little girl and honouring Jonathan. But he was never going to be a stable figure in her life, so I was all, ‘Resist his charms, Mattie!’ And don’t get me started on how they handed her over to her birth grandmother.
Meanwhile Chloe walked in on Lex and Lana on the verge of something/kissing and handled it badly. Lex was mean and I was annoyed that he got to throw the fact the show won’t give her a love interest at her and she was all devastated, when HE is the one with two failed marriages to his name and she’s in her first year of college and spending all her time at The Daily Planet. So, I was irked at the writing and at the show’s choices around Chloe.
Still, the very fact that Callum Keith Rennie turned up to be Mattie’s bad dad was entertaining.
As for Lois becoming Martha’s new chief of staff, even in the madness of 2017, that is still stupid.
5.19 Mercy
This is the one where Lionel is put through the wringer/Crystal Maze with no regard for health and safety by a masked puzzle-maker he wronged. Martha was dragged into it, so Clark and Lex were drawn together in worry over their missing parents.
I was convinced that Rosenbaum was doing the voice of the puzzlemaker, even though it was obvious he would turn out to be the underling.
So, Martha and Clark were struggling with the fact that Lionel knew Clark’s secret and not sure what he’d do with the knowledge. Lex overheard Lionel make a speech about how special Clark was AND Lionel later stuck that knife in deeper about how Lex wasn’t special on purpose. Glover was reliably excellent. As Lionel started acting funny, a suspicion as to why he kept calling Clark ‘son’, which was understandably annoying Clark, occurred.
To be honest, I spent a lot of this episode realising I haven’t been tracking what’s been going on with Lex and Lionel lately at all.
Clark was self-righteous, I was rude about Jonathan, Chloe was a genius-level hacker this episode and there was a boring Lexana scene.
I hope to watch the last disc and finish of this season by the end of the year.
This entry was originally posted at https://shallowness.dreamwidth.org/308878.html.
5.16 Hypnotic
Another episode where Clark isn’t feeling like himself and gets shirtless.
Simone, the villain of the week, broke Clark and Lana up, and Lana was incredibly understanding about this when it was revealed Simone had a special necklace that meant she could hypnotise people to do her bidding, even for someone from Smallville. Everyone was quite blasé about it except for those who knew about Clark’s powers.
Meanwhile Lex got all protective and wouldn’t let his so-called partner come to Honduras to look for Fine. He was also Simone’s backer, but underestimated her. Unlike him, she managed to discover Clark’s secret in one episode. Heh. Fine lied to Lex, and the audience got a few more titbits about Fine than Lex did.
There were a couple of concussions and a few plot holes. That ever-shrinking road between Smallville and Metropolis got travelled a few times.
Clark decided to stay broke up with Lana and Martha gently pointed out that there may have been reasons (Lois) why his heart wasn’t ready to share his secret with her. Lana turned to Lex for comfort, and he tried to hide the smile from his face. I was more exercised by how Clark doesn’t deserve Chloe’s BFFness.
5.17 Void
In which recently dumped Lana became crazy-eyed and started acting like she was in a horror movie. The break-up had sent her running to med students who had a Kryptonite-enhanced cocktail that could keep you dead and put you into contact with dead loved ones. It turned Lana into a junkie, but apart from that metaphor, it reminded us that Lana, like Lex and Clark, was orphaned, and of the girl in season 1 who went to her parents’ cemetery.
Inevitably, the other two both got injected by the drug and had their own contrasting visions. Lilian showed a hint of steel as well as heartbreak as she told Lex off for not listening to her in Lexmas because his destiny was now pain and death. Special guest star Jonathan told Clark his destiny was to save the world…and Martha from Lionel.
(Lana has no destiny.)
One second Chloe was a genius, the next she was admitting Lionel fed her the info that Fine was still alive and in Honduras. Lionel was also trying to smarm his way into Martha’s good books. She was trying to draw red lines, but let him cross a few.
The Goth girl med student was effective and the make-up department had fun with Kreuk, but the chemist/med student had to turn into a violent cliché, didn’t he? It was more because that’s what villains do on Smallville at that point of an episode than his character up till then. Hs demise was gruesome.
I vainly wished that the show were more interested in the female characters’ relationships with each other here.
5.18 Fragile
(Tom Welling directed this episode, which is a sign a show has been running quite a while if anything is.)
It started off with Martha’s chief of staff, who we’ve never met, being a foster mother to a selectively mute girl, Mattie, who could psychically control glass. Yeah, it’s about that level of convoluted. They were having problems, the foster mother was killed BY GLASS, the Kents stepped in and Clark just knew all was not as it seemed, and spent the episode being charming to the little girl and honouring Jonathan. But he was never going to be a stable figure in her life, so I was all, ‘Resist his charms, Mattie!’ And don’t get me started on how they handed her over to her birth grandmother.
Meanwhile Chloe walked in on Lex and Lana on the verge of something/kissing and handled it badly. Lex was mean and I was annoyed that he got to throw the fact the show won’t give her a love interest at her and she was all devastated, when HE is the one with two failed marriages to his name and she’s in her first year of college and spending all her time at The Daily Planet. So, I was irked at the writing and at the show’s choices around Chloe.
Still, the very fact that Callum Keith Rennie turned up to be Mattie’s bad dad was entertaining.
As for Lois becoming Martha’s new chief of staff, even in the madness of 2017, that is still stupid.
5.19 Mercy
This is the one where Lionel is put through the wringer/Crystal Maze with no regard for health and safety by a masked puzzle-maker he wronged. Martha was dragged into it, so Clark and Lex were drawn together in worry over their missing parents.
I was convinced that Rosenbaum was doing the voice of the puzzlemaker, even though it was obvious he would turn out to be the underling.
So, Martha and Clark were struggling with the fact that Lionel knew Clark’s secret and not sure what he’d do with the knowledge. Lex overheard Lionel make a speech about how special Clark was AND Lionel later stuck that knife in deeper about how Lex wasn’t special on purpose. Glover was reliably excellent. As Lionel started acting funny, a suspicion as to why he kept calling Clark ‘son’, which was understandably annoying Clark, occurred.
To be honest, I spent a lot of this episode realising I haven’t been tracking what’s been going on with Lex and Lionel lately at all.
Clark was self-righteous, I was rude about Jonathan, Chloe was a genius-level hacker this episode and there was a boring Lexana scene.
I hope to watch the last disc and finish of this season by the end of the year.
This entry was originally posted at https://shallowness.dreamwidth.org/308878.html.