Smallville 5.13: Vengeance

Before Martha goes to drop some of Jonathan's old clothes off at a shelter in Metropolis, she tries to give his old watch to Clark, but he refuses to take it. Once in Metropolis Martha is mugged by two thugs. The thugs are run off by a masked vigilante, whom Chloe later names the "Angel of Vengeance", but not before they take Jonathan's watch. Racked with guilt, Clark goes on the hunt for the thugs, but must first track down the vigilante to help him find them. Meanwhile, Lionel begins to move back into Luther Corp tower, under the complete confidence that, due to some wheeling and dealing as well as the fallout from Lex's costly bid for the senate seat, he will be voted back in as CEO. But Lex threatens to expose the truth about him visiting Jonathan just moments before he died, forcing him to vacate the building and give up his previous expectations of returning.

The scene with Lex threatening Lionel is pure brilliance, with Rosenbaum on top form, giving us a great look at Lex as master manipulator. His delivery of the line, "Hope you enjoyed your short stay", is just perfect.

There are a few moments in this episode that are incredibly moving. The final moments of Clark and Martha holding each other while a video of Jonathan plays in the background literally brought a tear to my eye and got me all choked up. Welling is great in this scene and it really does play, not just as a farewell to Jonathan, but to Schneider as well.

The scene where Lana returns the watch to Clark, having "searched every pawn shop in Metropolis" for it, was also very touching. I really liked Lana in this moment to be honest.

The Angel of Vengeance does take more than a few cues from Batman, not least of which is a piece of the Batman movie score, that plays over the top of one particular scene with her. But it also makes me wish they'd have just used an actual Batman character like Huntress. The actress who plays her is fine in the role but it feels like she spends a lot of time trying to cover up an accent. It would have been nice if they had have worked it into the character in some way.

While this is an episode all about the difference between justice and vengeance, giving way to a lot of heavy emotions in regard to loved ones lost, there are still some moments of humour to keep things light. The scene where Clark pretends to mug Chloe, in order to get the Angel of Vengeance to show up, is hilarious. Chloe's facial expressions as she reluctantly tries to keep it going are particularly amusing.

A great episode that is better than I remembered it being.

9/10