Lois & Clark Forums Forums General Discussion Lois & Clark Nov 5 Smallville ep

I'm a little surprised no one has posted about Smallville this week, but I was talking to someone else about it this weekend, so I thought I'd open a thread to see what people thought of the episode.

At first, I was annoyed when I saw the set-up because I was expecting that we would find out that Jor-El was the bad guy who killed the woman (maybe accidentally) which would make Clark the "loser" in the flashback sequence (like in Fly Hard, where the "Lois" character betrays the "Clark" character in favor of "Lex" -- such a Thania St. John episode!). So I was pleasantly surprised when Jor-El turned out to be such a nice guy, the tragic ending notwithstanding.

Yet I can't figure out how they are going to justify this storyline, that Jor-El picked the Kents to raise his son and has positive feelings for at least some of the people of Earth, with that of the S1 finale/S2 premiere, where Jor-El is abrasive, egotistical, domineering, aggressive, etc. Why would this nice sweet guy "Joe" years later send his son to take over the world? Is he bitter that they took his lover from him? Sorry, buddy, but you were going to leave her behind. (And I have to admit, I did get a kick out of him telling Louise, "don't leave me!" when she's dying in his arms ... yes, Louise, don't leave him ... he wants to be the one to leave you, apparently, when he goes home. )

But there were some other interesting parallels to L&C besides the Fly Hard-type flashback. Did anyone else notice the "flying into the moon" thing? Gee, I guess they liked it so much when our L&C did it that they gave Joe the same idea. <g>

But what really blew me away was that they would do the episode in the first place. If I remember correctly, this was an exact storyline that L&C's producers wanted to do early on (maybe the first or second season?) and as I heard the story, DC Comics gave them an emphatic "no way". Apparently, TPTB had proposed doing a flashback episode where Jor-El comes to Earth and meets the Kents and basically scopes out where he wants to send his son, but DC had a fit when they heard and wouldn't let them do it. Of course, apparently it was also supposed to be Lana Lang that L&C met up with in GGGoH (instead of Sheriff Rachel Harris) but the way the story went at the time, they were told they didn't have the rights to use Lana Lang because she belonged to the Superboy series. Now how this all worked when it came to S3 and "Tempus Anyone", I'm not sure ... when TPTB were asked at that time, their answer was something along the lines of "Gee, we didn't ask ... we just did it" so I guess these things change quickly. <g>

The other L&C parallel I saw in this episode had to do with Lionel Luthor. I suspected exactly where they were going with it when he said that his parents had died in a fire; all I was waiting for was for him to say he was only 13 at the time or whatever. <g> But that is definitely one part of this show that I find very interesting, that Lionel is the classic "Lex Luthor" character and Lex is his more sensitive son, trying to fight against his genes. Hmm, maybe if "Mr. Smith" character in L&C hadn't been deformed, this is how he would have turned out. <vbg>

Anyway, I was just curious what everyone else thought, and if they'd noticed the L&C parallels.

Kathy

We were discussing this episode a little on IRC, so if I'm repeating myself, please forgive me.

Overall, I thought this episode was OK. Generally, I don't have strong feelings about the Clark/Lana relationship one way or the other because I know in the end, he leaves her in Smallville. What I find amusing is that TPTB over in Smallville's head office feel the need to use stuff like flashbacks to history in order to get Tom Welling/Kristin Kruek together. Kind of like feeding people's desire to see Clark and Lana together without actually have to deal with a real relationship. I personally loved the love scenes between Jor-El and Louise because I think Tom Welling is beautiful, and to see him in such a situation is just devine <g>.

The one thing that has been totally driving me nuts in every episode this season is the attempt on somebody's part to convince me that Clark and Lana had some kind of big romance and now it is over <sob>. What, they were a couple all of two days before Clark went Red-K and took off? So why all of the drama about The Breakup. TPTB act like this was the romance of the century, and when Lana is waxing all maudlin about how great it was and what they shared, I just keep thinking "Did I miss a few episodes in there?"

I did like that Jor-El came to Earth at an earlier point in time, thus offering up a rationale behind why Clark ended up with the Kents. I try not to look too hard at the amazing series of coincidences that would have had to occur for it all to happen - what if Jonathan and Martha hadn't been the ones to find Clark's ship? Jor-El's grand plan would have been totally blown.

My favorite part of the whole epi was when Jor-El was describing Krypton to Louise. "We have colors you've never seen. The moons are so close they fill up the night sky. And we have sunsets that last for hours." I probably don't have the words exactly right, but I thought it was great.

As for Jor-El himself, I haven't decided for sure that he's a malevolent being even though he came across as pretty heavy handed in S1/S2 and beginning of S3. Perhaps going through the decline of Krypton and having the knowledge of the fact that his home was going to be destroyed made him a little tougher than the Jor-El that came to Earth. Again, I'm having to really turn a blind eye to all of the time/space continuum stuff that mathematically makes it hard to believe that Jor-El found himself on Earth that way. I especially hate the Cave of All Answers that conveniently comes up with paintings and hidden compartments when needed to fill a plot hole.

As for Lex and Lionel, I may be the only Smallville fan alive who absolutely does not see the appeal in Lionel Luthor/John Glover. I don't know if it is that I think John Glover is a bad actor, but I don't know why Lex would ever believe the bag of lies Lionel shovels out every episode. He has to be the most insincere character I've ever seen. And why does Lex even care about his grandparents? He'd never met them, had no relationship with them. Unless he wants dirt on Lionel for future use, I just didn't buy the motivation for his actions. I think they are using this as more fodder to drive Lex down the street to the dark side.

I have to take a lot of what goes on on Smallville at a very surface level and not think too much. I watch if for the mythos, which I always think is pretty well done, and to see Tom Welling who I think makes an excellent teen-age Clark. As for the rest, meh.

Lynn

I really didn't like where they'd been going with the series since around the middle of last season, but I really liked this episode. I liked how they are attempting to enrich the mythos with more background (ie, Jor-El chose the Kents) without desicrating the characters (ie Jonathan and Perry).

Ditto. Completely.

The thing I got the most kick out of in the ep, however, was The Flamingos. The same song that was played during LnC's almost first date was played during one of the Joe/Louise scenes. My roommmate couldn't hear the tv, so she thought I was nuts when she heard me yelling "The Flamingos!!" at the tv.

~Anna

Well, in general I just enjoy this show.

I am a Superman fan; comics, movies, tv...all of them! But I'm not a purist, it doesn't bother me when the canon gets bent a bit to create something new. In fact, I really adore it, which is why L&C and now Smallville hold real appeal to me.

However, I hate to see it badly done, and half way through this epi I was a bit worried. For me, though, the pay-off, the "it wasn't an accident, you were chosen" was so worth it.
I loved that! Adds new layers which will be fun to dig through. And it surprised me, which was even better.

I,also, really like that Lionel Luthor is our classic Lex. I think Smallville's Lex is spinning a web around him, and we'll see this will be his eventual fall to the dark side. The new king kills the old...

Oh, and John Glover totally works for me. I see I'm the minority on that!

Last thing- in his visions of the past Clark saw Jor-el fly. That is what I'm waiting for. I want to see some flying! No more of this running at superspeed from place to place, let's have lift off!!

CC

I really liked this episode, although the parallels to L&C did sort of stun me. I also noticed a nod/parallel to the "Buffy" episode "I Only Have Eyes For You," because not only did they play that song in that Buffy ep, but the ep revolved around forbidden lovers from forty-odd years ago, and a murder of one of the lovers... and flashbacks (for the audience). But... maybe I'm reaching.

Ems

I hate to disappoint you, CC, but TPTB have vowed never to show him flying until the very end of the show. The creators motto was "No flights, no tights." He'll never fly, and he'll never wear The Suit.

I did hear, however, that they envision the last moment of the series finally being of Clark flying. So it probably will come, but don't hold your breath.

~Anna