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10/09/2003: Smallville Exile and Phoenix
My thoughts after the first two Smallville season three episodes...
Overall I'm really happy with how the season started. As usual there were places where the plot didn't make all that much sense when you look at it too closely, but then I don't really expect that from Smallville. I mean, it's like with superhero comics, some things you just have to overlook. I'm content as long as it is entertaining and not totally moronic. For example, Clark addicted to RedK was fun to watch, and I didn't really expect them to deal with consequences of an alien on a crime spree "realistically" in the first place.
I guess the lesson Jor-El successfully imparted on his son (so that it didn't matter anymore whether he returned to the farm or not) is supposed to be that human rules and laws won't apply to Clark, no matter what. While his actions still have consequences (especially since Clark cares about others) he can commit crimes, then feel bad about them and give the money back, but it is because he decides to try to make things better, not because he had to fear any authorities. That fits with Jor-El's plan to make Clark rule, at least. In a way this sort of attitude is also a prerequisite for the vigilante thing, he does "the right thing" (after wrestling with his "dark" side) and that's enough, regardless of the rules that apply to others. It's not like giving back the money compensates for all the damages either, sort of like the collateral damage of property during superhero battles .*g*
How Clark acted in that barn with Edge and his goons was really dumb. I mean, even if I buy that Clark wasn't sure he could be fast enough to save both his parents, he could have stalled somehow, since Edge didn't seem to know exactly what Clark stole from Lionel. But showing the bad guys who think that you are indestructible and without any weaknesses, what exactly your weakness is and hand it to them as a weapon? Anybody with some brain cells can figure out that they would use that against Clark, and he can't have expected them to just leave with the blood. And even if he anticipated to be taken, and figured he might escape somehow, he couldn't have thought Edge would leave his parents alive once he had Clark. How he acted didn't make sense. However I was mollified by his neat idea to blow up the truck with his heat vision. Which conveniently also derailed Lionel a bit.
The thing with Lana shoving a guy on a pitchfork without showing much reaction to just having killed someone bothered me less than it did others. From a "behind-the-scenes perspective" (opposed to thinking in terms of characters being realistic human beings) I can live with them glossing over the emotional fallout, what I didn't get is why they decided to have Lana kill the guy in the first place, if they don't want to use it for some fallout. It just creates more problems (like that the Kents have to explain another dead body on their farm and why that criminal was there in the first place, unless the Kents dumped the corpse somewhere), when the pitchfork could have just gone through his shoulder, and injured him or something. Then we would have had Action!Lana saving the situation, but no dead guy. But whatever.
I liked the parts with Morgan Edge and Lionel, and the relationship between Lex and Lionel was outright creepy. I enjoy that I can't really tell what Lex's true intentions are (if he even knows himself), and seeing Lex's more psychotic (delirium) alter-ego Lewis only intensified that. I would have liked if the question of Helen's guilt had stayed ambiguous, but watching Lex play with Helen was cool too, and I never cared much for Helen anyway, so I can go with her being evil or greedy or whatever. I mean, the "character turns out to have been evil all along, even though there really isn't much motivation for it" is kind of a classic in (superhero) comics, so maybe I'm just used to it.
Finally the relationship between Lex and Clark in both episodes was just great. How Clark turned up at Lex's funeral, even under the influence of RedK, the scene when they see each other again, then Clark telling Lana that he tried to be the right guy for her, but just can't. Good stuff.
