Episode 6.20: Noir

When Jimmy Olsen is knocked unconscious by an unknown assailant, he "wakes up" in a fantasy world, a world shaped by his love of old detective noir thrillers of the 1940's. In this fantasy world he is a reporter trying to get to the bottom of a story that has parallels to real world events that took place before he was assaulted, namely, the shooting of Lana Lang.

The 1940's period detail is incredible in this episode and the black and white cinematography is quite beautiful. Unfortunately, everything during these sequences feels far too drawn out. It really doesn't add much that a simple conversation between Chloe and Jimmy, about the evidence that was found at the crime scene, couldn't have provided. This is a conversation they end up having anyway so take the dream sequences out and it wouldn't really affect the narrative all that much.

One interesting aspect of these sequences though is the exploration of the ways in which the subconcious mind can work things out sometimes in ways that the concious mind has not. It has been said that, "dreams are answers to questions we have not yet learnt to ask". I feel this is conveyed quite nicely through Jimmy in this episode, even if I'm not quite fully engaged with the story that unfolds inside Jimmy's subconcious mind.

The fact that Jimmy instantly recognizes Clark with glasses does highlight the ridiculousness of the very idea that anyone could be fooled by such a disguise.

The real world scenes are more entertaining for me and feel a lot more meaty. Although, unless I missed something, I don't believe the question of who shot Lana, and why, was definitively answered. We are merely presented with a few possible candidates behind it in Lex, Lionel, and a senator working with Lex.

I like that we see Jimmy's passion for old movies reflected in his ability to quote, word for word, scenes from The Big Sleep. It is an endearing quality in a character that, so far, I've not found all that endearing.

This episode tells us that Lionel's reasons for blackmailing Lana were to protect Clark. Lionel has told us this much already, which has always left open the possibility that he is really one of the good guys. But his methodology of protecting Clark by using the woman he loves, as a pawn to get close to Lex, tells us everything we need to know about the man. He is still manipulative. He is still careless with other people's lives. He still has his own agenda and he is still not to be trusted.

7/10