Episode 5.11: Lockdown

Two former police officers bust into the Luthor mansion and demand to know where Lex is hiding the alien ship. But Lex jumps into a panic room. Clark and Lana are still having trouble because Clark keeps pulling away. They have an argument in which Clark learns that she has been working with Lex on the ship. She storms off and rings Chloe, to complain about him, before being pulled over by the female officer who had broken into the Luthor mansion. The officer takes her back to the mansion and puts a gun to her head to force Lex out of the panic room. Lex manages to get Lana into the panic room with him but is shot in the process. The sheriff finds Lana's abandoned car. At the same time she recieves a call about an alarm at the Luthor mansion. When she goes to the mansion she is shot and killed. Lana takes the two officers to where the ship used to be in order to lead them away from Lex. When they get there they get into a fight, accidentally arming the bomb they had brought, but Clark manages to get there in time to save Lana thanks to some help from Chloe.

The villains in this episode are totally relatable. You can definitely understand why they have been brought to this place and, while never condoning their methods, I sympathize with their reasoning. These are two people whose lives have been destroyed, and who have been made out to be total whack jobs, all because Lex and Lana have not come clean about the truth. The male officer saw all of his friends on the force get taken out by the two kryptonians that came out of the ship. I love that the female officer is his fiance. You could easily tell this story just from their side of things and make them into the protagonists, heroes in their own right, who love each other enough to make you root for them.

I like that Lana has a good go with these guys at the end. It's always better when she isn't merely the damsel in distress. Since the season 2 episode, 'Precipice', she's always been a bit more willing to get stuck in, often prooving herself to be quite the badass. But they make the right move here in having the former police officers overpower her given these are two trained individuals.

Jonathan learns that Martha took money from Lionel and does everything in his power to pay it back, selling some of his land that's been in the family for generations. Normally I would talk about how stubborn he is being but I'm on his side this time around. He's right to not want to be in someone's pocket, especially if he is to hold political office, and it was wrong of Martha to keep something like that from him even if she had the best intentions.

There is a moment in this episode where Clark is talking to Chloe about stuff and he asks her to spy on Lana. I love that she says "no". It just makes me respect her character all the more. Yes, she loves Clark and is totally faithful towards him. But she is not willing to do things for him that cross the line, especially when they are against other people she calls friends. And given how much resentment she could have towards Lana for being the object of Clark's affection, I think she shows a great level of maturity here, instead choosing loyalty towards Lana.

There is actually another moment when Clark is talking to Chloe about Lana and he talks about how much he loves her and how it's something Chloe won't be able to understand. You can literally see how this cuts like a knife through Chloe's heart. But, again, she has the moral fibre to not let any negative emotions get the best of her in that moment. It's beautifully played by Alison Mack.

In the final moments of the episode we can see that it's crunch time for Clark. If he doesn't tell Lana soon then he might lose her forever. Lana getting close to Lex is the thing that is now pushing Clark towards doing something. But if Lex wasn't in the picture then Clark would probably carry on coasting along without telling Lana the truth. So the fact that he is being pushed into telling her, rather than choosing to tell her without any pressure, is quite revealing. It tells us that she isn't 'the one', otherwise he wouldn't need to be pushed into it.

A great episode.

10/10