Right from the opening scene of this episode
I'm just like, "Uggghh!" It paints Lana as incredibly weak, that she
would turn into a junkie so soon after Clark's mistreatment of her, and
it undoes so much of the great work they've done with her character this
season. That is something I cannot often say. While she has been
weaving in and out of the bigger plotlines with Clark and Lex she has
been given some pretty decent stuff to do. But once we get a
Lana-centric episode, such as Thirst and now this one, it always seems
to go down the toilet.
Lana has been many things over the course of this series but, even at her most unlikeable, she's always struck me more as a fighter than as someone who retreats into addiction. Whether it's not letting the death of her parents stop her from succeeding at school, learning self defence to take care of a man who knocked her down, or her ability to keep on moving forward in the face of an alien threat, she's always had a quiet inner strength that just makes this whole episode seem to come from a place of disengenuousness.
The female med student who is helping to put Lana under is also addicted to the same procedure but, as she is further along in the addiction she looks like an absolute mess. It's not even the least bit subtle. It seriously begs the question, how in the hell is she still attending college without raising serious questions with the faculty? One look at this girl just screams "junkie!" Surely there would have been some kind of intervention at this point!
I like that Martha tells Lionel very directly here that the two of them will never be more than just friends. I feel like it should have come sooner but I'm glad she is now at least attempting to lay that position down on the table.
I love Lex's facial expression when Lana tells him what she's been doing. The moment she tells him that she saw her parents he gives a look that tells us he believes her. And he believes her because he has literally gone through a very similar experience in the episode, 'Lexmas', not so long ago. I feel like, when Lana mentions seeing her parents, it takes Lex right back to everything he experienced with his own mother when he momentarily died.
Of course, we do get a more direct callback to that specific episode, when Lex sees his mother once more after being injected with the serum. Her crushing disappointment in the choices he has made, ignoring all of her prior warnings, is a tough deal for Lex. Nobody wants to feel their parents disapproval, especially when it comes with a further warning that you are on the path to killing many people. As usual Rosenbaum sells the moment.
Lance's death is needlessly over the top. In fact, it's needless to have him killed at all. Why write a scene like that when you could so easily just have Lana knock him out then let him get arrested by the police? Instead, they make it much messier by having Lana be responsible for manslaughter, a fact that will never be addressed at any point. It wouldn't be necessary to address it if they just had the guy arrested. It's stupid!
It's nice that Clark gets to see Jonathan again. I like that he gets to say he's sorry for the choice he made in Reckoning. But I like Jonathan's response even more, as he tells Clark he's nothing to be sorry about and that he can do life without him. It's like a final passing of the torch from father to son. But it also keys Clark in to Lionel's involvement in his father's death. The shot of Lionel as he says goodnight to Clark, before leaving with Martha, is filled with a palpable tension that paints Lionel as a possible threat, like a cobra poised to strike at any time. I love how you never know from one episode to the next which side Lionel is playing for. It makes him one of the most consistently interesting characters to watch.
Clark dies after being injected but then he comes back. We are later told by Chloe that, "Apparently dying neutralizes the kryptonite in your system". What. The. Heck!!! I hate this! So, with one line of dialogue the writers have pretty neutralized any threat that kryptonite has towards Clark in the future. It makes no sense at all.
With all of this stuff going on, as with the previous episode, the stuff concerning Fine in Honduras sort of feels like background noise, though it does seem to be heading somewhere. It's just hard to make it stick in the memory when it isn't part of the A-plot.
The most tragic part of the episode is when Lex tells Lana that his mother told him she was, "very proud of the man I'm becoming", not because he is lying to Lana, but that, with these words, he has all but pushed aside the memory of the woman who had always seemed to be the most important person in his life up until recently.
I like that the final moments of the episode plays without music. It makes it so much more effective in creating distance between Lana and Clark, rather than going the more obvious route of having some soppy emo ballad playing over the top of it.
For the most part this is a very good episode. But junkie Lana and a few other stupid creative decisions really drag it down. A few tweaks here and there and this genuinely could have been a truly classic episode.
7/10Lana has been many things over the course of this series but, even at her most unlikeable, she's always struck me more as a fighter than as someone who retreats into addiction. Whether it's not letting the death of her parents stop her from succeeding at school, learning self defence to take care of a man who knocked her down, or her ability to keep on moving forward in the face of an alien threat, she's always had a quiet inner strength that just makes this whole episode seem to come from a place of disengenuousness.
The female med student who is helping to put Lana under is also addicted to the same procedure but, as she is further along in the addiction she looks like an absolute mess. It's not even the least bit subtle. It seriously begs the question, how in the hell is she still attending college without raising serious questions with the faculty? One look at this girl just screams "junkie!" Surely there would have been some kind of intervention at this point!
I like that Martha tells Lionel very directly here that the two of them will never be more than just friends. I feel like it should have come sooner but I'm glad she is now at least attempting to lay that position down on the table.
I love Lex's facial expression when Lana tells him what she's been doing. The moment she tells him that she saw her parents he gives a look that tells us he believes her. And he believes her because he has literally gone through a very similar experience in the episode, 'Lexmas', not so long ago. I feel like, when Lana mentions seeing her parents, it takes Lex right back to everything he experienced with his own mother when he momentarily died.
Of course, we do get a more direct callback to that specific episode, when Lex sees his mother once more after being injected with the serum. Her crushing disappointment in the choices he has made, ignoring all of her prior warnings, is a tough deal for Lex. Nobody wants to feel their parents disapproval, especially when it comes with a further warning that you are on the path to killing many people. As usual Rosenbaum sells the moment.
Lance's death is needlessly over the top. In fact, it's needless to have him killed at all. Why write a scene like that when you could so easily just have Lana knock him out then let him get arrested by the police? Instead, they make it much messier by having Lana be responsible for manslaughter, a fact that will never be addressed at any point. It wouldn't be necessary to address it if they just had the guy arrested. It's stupid!
It's nice that Clark gets to see Jonathan again. I like that he gets to say he's sorry for the choice he made in Reckoning. But I like Jonathan's response even more, as he tells Clark he's nothing to be sorry about and that he can do life without him. It's like a final passing of the torch from father to son. But it also keys Clark in to Lionel's involvement in his father's death. The shot of Lionel as he says goodnight to Clark, before leaving with Martha, is filled with a palpable tension that paints Lionel as a possible threat, like a cobra poised to strike at any time. I love how you never know from one episode to the next which side Lionel is playing for. It makes him one of the most consistently interesting characters to watch.
Clark dies after being injected but then he comes back. We are later told by Chloe that, "Apparently dying neutralizes the kryptonite in your system". What. The. Heck!!! I hate this! So, with one line of dialogue the writers have pretty neutralized any threat that kryptonite has towards Clark in the future. It makes no sense at all.
With all of this stuff going on, as with the previous episode, the stuff concerning Fine in Honduras sort of feels like background noise, though it does seem to be heading somewhere. It's just hard to make it stick in the memory when it isn't part of the A-plot.
The most tragic part of the episode is when Lex tells Lana that his mother told him she was, "very proud of the man I'm becoming", not because he is lying to Lana, but that, with these words, he has all but pushed aside the memory of the woman who had always seemed to be the most important person in his life up until recently.
I like that the final moments of the episode plays without music. It makes it so much more effective in creating distance between Lana and Clark, rather than going the more obvious route of having some soppy emo ballad playing over the top of it.
For the most part this is a very good episode. But junkie Lana and a few other stupid creative decisions really drag it down. A few tweaks here and there and this genuinely could have been a truly classic episode.
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