Episode 5.14: Tomb

Chloe is taking a shower at The Talon when she sees the ghostly apparition of a young woman. When Lois comes in she finds Chloe with her wrists cut. Chloe is admitted into psychiatric care but she denies trying to commit suicide. Lana goes to see Lex because she knows that he received help at Belle Reve. Clark isn't too happy about that so he breaks Chloe out of the hospital. He takes her back to The Talon where she experiences another vision of the young woman, which leads them to finding her body in the wall. When Chloe touches the kryptonite laced bracelet on the body, the spirit of the dead woman enters into her and goes on a hunt for the killer, an orderly from the hospital who ends up kidnapping Lois.

The visions that Chloe sees of the dead woman are actually quite creepy and this episode makes for a pretty effective little thriller. But there are some moments where characters make fairly poor choices, whether it's Lois turning her back to the door that the creepy-ass man has just gone through, or a possessed Chloe going all the way back to her dorm room to get a weapon when she could have just gone downstairs and got one from The Talon kitchen.

I love that Clark protects Chloe in this episode, breaking her out of hospital, and that he puts his trust in her when all the evidence points to her actually being crazy. He knows that there his a history of mental illness in her family but he keeps it secret when the doctors ask, knowing that Chloe would not want that information getting out. It's just nice to know that he can return the favour when it comes to keeping secrets.

There is a moment near the end, between Lana and Clark, where Lana tells him that she can't talk to him any more. But then she throws in this line, "I guess we all have secrets", which seems to come out of nowhere. It just didn't seem very pertinent to that particular conversation. It's like they have to have her moaning about "secrets" at some point during the episode, even if it is shoehorned into the conversation. I think the reason it seems so out of place is because it comes on the back of a moment where she is actually being very honest about the way she was feeling. She wasn't being secretive and Clark wasn't making any accusations that would warrant that response.

The final scene sees Chloe going to see her mother in a mental institution after Clark convinces her to do so. It's a touching moment that Alison Mack really sells in her performance. She's fantastic throughout this whole episode in fact. Fear of mental illness has been something that  has been explore before with the character and it's nice to see them readdress it here. It gives a lot more depth to Chloe's character, especially to see her confront those fears in those final moments.

8/10