NEXT ON SMALLVILLE 7x20 Artic - May 15, 2008 8/7c LEX DISCOVERS CLARK'S SECRET — Kara (Laura Vandervoort) tells Lex (Michael Rosenbaum) he is destined to defeat the Traveler and offers to take him to the Fortress to learn how. Clark (Tom Welling) is stunned that Kara would go to Lex but it is revealed that Brainiac is impersonating Kara and she's actually trapped in the Phantom Zone. Chloe is arrested by the Department of Domestic Security and Lana awakens from her comatose state. Meanwhile, in an epic turn of events, Clark and Lex face off in the Fortress and Lex learns Clark's secret. Erica Durance and Aaron Ashmore also star. QUICK LINKS DI on MySpace: / ZodCast on MySpace: / Fans Around the World / Lois Lane's Daily Journal / Redboots / The Clois Fanfic Archive / Christopher Reeve Foundation / Guestbook FEATURED CLIP TOP AFFILIATES { All Affiliates } BANTER LOG Lois: Clark. Look, I'm not great at this so just keep your mouth shut and listen up. Even though I was kicking butt on the helicopter, it was really nice to have backup, and you didn't have to come after me but you always do, so I wanted to say thank you. You're a really good friend. Oh, and about the Lap dance. If you decide to tell anyone about it, your Elmer Fud nightlight will make a very public apperance. Clark: Aye Aye, Sailor. { All Quotes } SEARCH FOR SMALLVILLE @ Amazon.com @ eBay.com @ AllPosters.com SITE STATS Clois fans online You are visitor # Since 11/27/04 CONTACT US For any news and information or to contact HappyEnding.Org Staff, you can e-mail one of the following: Webmaster: Jerilee Co-Webmasters Nautica7mk, ZodCast and Arwen DISCLAIMER We are in no way affiliated with Tom Welling, Erica Durance, Smallville or The WB. This site is strictly a fansite and nothing monetary is gained. SUPERMAN and all related elements are the property of DC Comics.

Reviews

4:12 Pariah Review

By Zoomway

Warning, I think this one is even longer than last week's! Geez!

As Lois and Chloe belted out I Love Rock and Roll on karaoke night at the Talon, Paula said, "I really loved your energy." Randy said, "I wasn't feelin' it, dawg." Simon said, "That was absolutely dreadful. If world peace depended on you having a good singing voice, the missiles would be flying and we'd be galloping towards a nuclear winter."

Despite their lack of singing talent, the crowd was paid to enjoy their performance, but Clark and Alicia entered the Talon and it was instant buzz kill. The raucous crowd suddenly became silent. All but Lois, that is, who said, "First he married the girl now he's dating her?"

That comment wouldn't have been so bad had it not been spoken through the karaoke microphone. It's a bit like the Dick Van Dyke episode where Rob told Laura he was slapped by a girl in high school. Laura asked what he did to deserve a slap. "I told her that her slip was showing." "She shouldn't have slapped you for that." "Yeah, well, I said it over the school's public address system."

Chloe said, "That was subtle, Lois."

Lana broke the tension by getting up from the table. "I think I've seen enough for one night," she said and began to leave.

Alicia ran after her, "Lana, wait. I just want to apologize."

"For what? Trying to kill me, or not succeeding?"

"All I want is a chance to prove to you who I really am."

"You already have," Lana sniped and exited.

Then the gun turned to Clark, or rather Jason turned to Clark. "I can't believe you brought her here."

"Jason, listen ..."

"To what? Another apology? You think just because she says she's better that everything's gonna be okay? Come on, man." Exit Jason.

Normally I'd write this off as drama queen behavior, but Alicia did try to kill Lana and I actually don't think Lana has any obligation to forgive attempted murder. And speaking of attempted murder ....

Lana, who became enamored of candles last week, lit a few more and hopped in the shower. An unseen assailant entered and tried to suffocate her with the shower curtain. Jason, who seems like he's back to his platonic living arrangement with Lana, broke into the bathroom and saved her.

Then we have a scene at the medical center, which gets more business on this show than Florida during spring break. There also must be a hotline to cast members to loiter in the hallways whenever any of their number is admitted to the emergency room because Chloe and Lois were already there and they were joined shortly by Clark asking what happened.

Chloe told Clark that Lana was fine, "Lucky for her Jason pulled a T.J. Hooker and broke her bathroom door down." It'll be lucky for the producers if any among their young teen audience even knows who T.J. Hooker is. That name doesn't resonate across the generations like say Captain Kirk, another of Shatner's characters. Fortunately, they had their bets covered, because Chloe said that Alicia could "transport easier than Captain Kirk" when it was revealed that the would-be killer entered a locked room.

Lois, however, was in a particularly snarky mood. She asked if Clark's "arm ornament" had been arrested yet and that "the name Alicia Baker came up more than once in a bunny boiler kind of way" Of course the 'bunny boiler' reference comes from a scene in Fatal Attraction.

Clark protested Alicia's innocence and told them that she wore a lead bracelet that prevented her from teleporting. "And was she wearing something low cut when she spun you that tale?" Lois asked. "Because I'm not sure you're thinking with your big brain, here."

Chloe added, "Just because Alicia says the bracelet keeps her from teleporting doesn't mean it's the truth."

"She was with me when Lana got attacked. I was saying good night in Granville."

"Every second?" Chloe asked.

"She did try to carve a jack-o-Lana before. Cut and dried. Emphasis on 'cut'." Lois added.

"I'm telling you Alicia couldn't have done this. I know her."

Last year he'd have said, "I'm telling you Alicia did this. I know her."

Clark can't get anyone to join the Alicia fan club in this episode. Sheriff Adams paid a visit to the Kent farm and Clark repeated his story that Alicia was with him when Lana was attacked. "I better not find out you're covering for that girlfriend of yours, Mr. Kent. Having you as her alibi is the only thing keeping me from tossing her tail in jail."

After the sheriff departed, Clark moaned, "Sheriff Adams already had Alicia tried and convicted."

This lead to parental tag team conscience wrestling.

"Sheriff Adams has a point, Clark," Jonathan said.

"First Las Vegas and now an assault charge," Martha chimed in. "What are you doing with this girl, Clark?"

"Alicia didn't do this!"

"Son, your girlfriend has problems and this relationship is not healthy. Why can't you see that?" Jonathan asked.

Teen rebuttal technique #1: make what you're doing seem like something your parents taught you.

"You always told me to look for the good in people. To believe in them. Alicia deserves a second chance."

"What I don't understand," Martha said, "Is why do you continue to see her knowing how we feel?"

Teen rebuttal technique #2: list only the positive aspects of getting a car, puppy, or dating a former homicidal stalker.

"She kept my secret. She got shot protecting me. What else does she have to do to prove herself?"

"What if she did this, Clark? What if she attacked Lana like she did before?"

We get no answer from Clark, of course, but he might have benefited from an old Percy Sledge song:

I found a woman
I felt a true love
She was everything
I'd ever been dreaming of
But she was bad, I didn't know it
Her pretty smile never did show it
All I knew is what I could see
And I knew I wanted her for me

She said, "son, take time to know her
It's not an overnight thing.
Take time to know her,
Please don't rush into this thing"

Everyone in the song tells the lovesick boy to take time to know her and while Clark claims to know Alicia, he doesn't really. Even though proclaiming herself cured, she used red kryptonite on him last week to get him to do what she wanted. Clark decided to overlook something so devious and go back to her. That's not only not smart, that's not love.

The next morning at school there's a bit of dialogue between Lois and Chloe that doesn't make sense given their dialogue at the medical center the night before.

Chloe asked Lois why she came to Smallville for the weekend and Lois said she liked spending time with her "little cousin" but added, "Though that doesn't mean I'm ready to buy into your 'meteor makes freaks' theory."

"It's not just a theory, Lois. Alicia Baker attacked my best friend twice and it was her meteor induced abilities that allowed her to do that," Chloe said. "Did you know Lana's bathroom door was locked? Who else could have gotten in, or out for that matter?"

Okay, wait a minute. At the medical center Lois was fully aware of Alicia's transporting abilities, yet the next day Chloe acted as if it was all new information. Continuity errors from episode to episode might be inevitable sometimes, but within the same episode?

Clark sauntered into the scene. "Chloe, we need to find out of there's anyone else in Smallville with abilities similar to Alicia's."

"Clark, I'm sorry, but even if there is someone else like Alicia, what would they have against Lana?" Man, that's a loaded question.

Then the real villain entered. I'm not saying he's the real villain based on the rest of the episode's outcome, but rather the fact that he was merely a random person Lois chose to sing her karaoke to and then he showed up again in this scene with actual dialogue. He seemed to know everyone and even handed Chloe an article to publish in the Torch. We know we'll be getting his motive later.

In the meantime, he asked Lois to have coffee with him. Lois was somewhat railroaded into accepting the date by Chloe, but she agreed.

As the villain turned to leave, Clark stopped him. "Tim, you were at the Talon last night. Did you see anything suspicious?" Besides the crappy singing?

"No, nothing out of the ordinary. Your mother was there cleaning up and that blonde girl you were with was in the alley. Maybe they saw something."

The seeds of doubt rained down in sufficient quantify to yield an acre of suspicion.

Alicia visited Clark in the loft. Clark told her about someone seeing a blonde girl in the alley right before Lana was attacked.

"Then somebody saw another blonde girl in the alley, because it wasn't me. There's bound to be suspicion, Clark. People think I did it."

"You couldn't have done it. You were with me and you were wearing your bracelet." Clark said as he groped her wrist. Oops, no bracelet. "You lied to me."

Teen rebuttal technique #3: justify a lie by making it a non-issue.

"I didn't lie. I didn't think I needed it."

Teen rebuttal technique #4: explain that you can't obey a particular rule or restriction because the alternative is worse than the rule.

"You don't understand. Not having my powers is worse than being in prison."

Teen rebuttal technique #5: avoid giving a direct answer by asking a question instead.

"What would you do if somebody told you you couldn't use your abilities?"

"I don't know, but I'd give them away in a second before I'd use them to hurt someone."

This back and forth continued ending with Alicia swearing she didn't hurt Lana.

Clark then went to the Talon to pick up Martha where Jason and Lana were in the midst of a disagreement. Jason didn't want to leave Lana alone while he went to the university library to work on his history homework. Lana didn't want Jason to flunk history by hanging around to protect her. Marvelous Martha solved the problem. "Why don't Clark and I stay with Lana?"

The problem solved, Jason went out to his car and was attacked by a muffler. No, not the car's muffler, one of those scarfs worn around the neck. Wouldn't you know it? It was Alicia's scarf. Clark ran to the rescue and saved Jason and recognized the scarf. Back to the medical center ...

I'm tossing in this screen capture to let overseas fans know how hard it is to even see the episode sometimes. In this scene where Jason's mother Genevieve comes to visit him at the medical center, this big ad banner appeared advertising James Denton's (Desperate Housewives) guest appearance on Reba. Not only are they big, they're animated. Now back to our regularly scheduled program ...

This was a scene straight out of daytime soap operas. The interfering powerful mother telling her son she's not interfering in his life. She makes it clear she disapproves of Lana as his girlfriend, or "gullfriend" as she pronounced it. That's about all the more there was to the scene and so the intrusive ad banner was the most exciting part.

Back at the Kent farm, Clark began fashioning a lead bracelet out of fishing sinkers. Alicia strolled in and told him it wouldn't work because the other bracelet released trace amount of lead into her bloodstream. Since symptoms of lead poisoning includes effects on the brain, it didn't seem like a sound medical choice.

"I guess it's the thought that counts," Alicia said. "It's a pretty ugly thought."

Clark told her that Jason was attacked and showed her the scarf.

"I don't know how that got there, but it wasn't me."

When it comes to a leap of faith, Clark couldn't leap a tall mushroom much less a tall building. "Alicia, you have to turn yourself in."

Why didn't Clark ask himself what motive Alicia would have for killing Jason? If anything, Alicia would be happy that Jason was Lana's boyfriend. He'd be keeping Lana off the Clark market. Oh, well, logic and faith aside, Clark insisted that Lana go to the sheriff and explain everything. "She'll understand and it'll all work out." Since when has that sheriff understood anything?

Alicia agreed to tell the sheriff if Clark agreed to tell the sheriff about his powers too. "I can't do that."

After a "truth shall set you free" speech, Alicia vanished.

Clark decided to go to the sheriff with the scarf. "It's Alicia's."

"So now you think your girlfriend is guilty?"

"Maybe."

"Sorry to disappoint you, Mr. Kent, but Alicia Baker was locked in an interrogation room with me at the time the second victim was attacked."

Time for that kid from the Simpsons to pass through and say "Ha! Ha!"

Chloe was burning the midnight oil at the kiddie press when Alicia teleported in.

"Chloe Sullivan. You write all these articles about the people you call freaks and you don't even realize that someone close to you is one of them. Why are you ignoring what's right in front of your face, Chloe? Don't you want to know the truth about Clark Kent?"

"Everyone knows you're crazy. Why should I believe you?"

"You don't have to, I'll prove it. Then you can write the story of a lifetime," she said and teleported herself and Chloe into a car. She revved the engine and began speeding down the road. She got on her cell phone and called Clark, gave her location and pretended that the car wouldn't stop and needed his help.

She and Chloe then teleported to the side of the road and hid as Clark arrived. "Oh, my God," Chloe whispered as she saw Clark stop the car with his bare hands and then super speed away.

Remember last week I said Lois wouldn't be the one to figure out the secret because she said "oh, my God" during the preview? Well, they got around it by not having Chloe say it in the preview ***snork***

Meanwhile, Tim gave Lois the grand tour of the Smallville Historical Museum. Yeah, they have a museum. This is where we get Tim's motive. He believed that the meteor shower brought evil to the town. Actually, he's right about that. However, he went off on a nutty tangent about the decay of morality in the town.

"I mean like a football coach dating a student. That's not right."

Lois leaned in and whispered, "they're both over 18."

Tim laughed. "That doesn't make it right, Lois. Rules are rules for a reason." At this point his voice took on a definite Tony Perkins lilt. "If those two got away with it, then other people would try. It's a good thing they were punished."

"So you think they were attacked because someone thought their relationship was immoral?"

"I think they got exactly what they deserved."

Lois said she had to return to the Torch and left abruptly. Reverend Tim turned into the Sandman, or rather turned into a man composed of grains of sand and vanished.

Lois hotfooted it to the Talon looking for Clark and found Chloe staring blankly into space. "Have you seen Clark?"

"Have I seen Clark do what?" Chloe asked nervously. "Uh, yeah, I've seen Clark."

"Where?"

"Why, did something happen?" Chloe asked, still jittery.

"Bad date," Lois replied. "I'm starting to think that Alicia isn't our resident psycho-killer. I need to find Clark."

Chloe's eyes darted back and forth. "He's probably zipping around looking for Alicia."

"Are you all right?"

"Yeah, fine ... uh ... he's probably at Alicia's house."

"Okay, I'll swing by her place."

Do obsessed teen stalkers have to register with the cops? Is that how Lois, an out-of-towner knows where she lives?

A comment on Chloe's weird jumpy state. It didn't work for me. Part of it is I don't think the actress has the right comedic flair for it, but mainly because Chloe has suspected Clark had special powers since the Mxyzptlk episode. Instead of "Oh, my God," she should have said, "I knew it!"

Anyway, before Lois could swing by Alicia's place, Tim had already swung. Alicia caught Tim going through various items. "What are you doing?"

"Oh, I'm looking for evidence to leave at the next murder," he said, his tone nonchalant.

"It's you! Everyone thinks I'm guilty because of you."

"You are guilty," Tim replied. "I mean this used to be such a nice little town (of 45,000 people)."

"You don't understand what you've done. Even Clark thinks that I'm guilty. You're not gonna ..."

Tim grabbed her and put a cloth soaked in chloroform (I presume) over her mouth and nose. "I already have."

Have what? I suppose Alicia was going to say "You're not gonna get away with this," but never finished the line. Not to mention I have no idea why Alicia didn't just teleport out of his grasp.

Let me slow the excitement down to a crawl here. Genevieve paid a visit to Lex and wanted his help breaking up Jason and Lana. Lex said he wasn't going to interfere with affairs of the heart. Since when?

Genevieve took a different approach. She told Lex she had information on how Lionel extricated himself from prison. "Information you might find very interesting."

I'm going to stick the next Lex scene in there because they're brief and not terribly interesting. Lex invited Jason to the mansion and offered him a job that pays 100,000 dollars a year.

Jason was amused. "Because I'm obviously qualified for a 100,000 dollar a year job," he said and added, "My mother put you up to this, didn't she? She's trying her best to come between Lana and me"

"She's trying to do a lot more than that, Jason. That's why I want to work together. To find out what she's really up to."

Still amused. "You want to team up against my mother?"

"The enemy of my enemy (is my friend)."

"And how do I know I can trust you?"

"You don't, but what other choice do you have?" What a surprise answer.

Alas, Clark found Alicia. She had been murdered. We then got the traditional "Superman holler of grief and anger."

It sort of looks like a macabre opera as Superman shouts his heart out. The difference here, of course, is that they were grieving the loss of Lois Lane, not a reformed psycho stalker. However, Smallville's version of Lois Lane did show up. She told Clark she knew who killed Alicia and where to find him. Considering Clark's state of mind, probably not the wisest thing to say.

The showdown took place in the museum. They had the set and didn't want to waste it on just one scene.

"Hey, even you thought she was guilty, didn't you?" The villain taunted and knocked Clark across the room. "Try not to feel so bad. She did try to kill your girlfriend last year."

Clark staggered to his feet. "She tried to kill Lana, what does that make you?" That seemed like a lame comeback line.

"Understand, Clark, I did what's right for Smallville. I have to make things right"

Sandman turned into a choking dust cloud, but Clark used his heat vision, which should have turned Tim into a glass statue, but it did at least solidify him. All the better to choke him with. Choking was a repeated theme in this episode.

"You killed Alicia. I loved her and you took that away from me. All she wanted was a chance."

Clark's declaration of love for Alicia after she was dead, but not once while she was alive, rang a bit hollow here.

Lois began running towards Clark. "Clark, stop!"

She tried to pull Clark away from Tim. "You're killing him," she said. "Stop," she repeated, but in a whisper.

He finally released Tim and Lois tried to comfort Clark. "It's gonna be okay," she said and then repeated the line.

"Clark?" Martha called form the loft stairway. "You've been up here for two days." Everyone knows the mourning period for dead girlfriends is 6 hours.

Clark said nothing. He sat on the floor bouncing a baseball off the wall.

"Clark," Jonathan said, "what happened to Alicia isn't your fault."

"If I'd believed her, she wouldn't be dead."

"Clark, she was framed, there's no way you could have known that."

Then a long speech: "I should have trusted her. Did you know Alicia wanted me to go with her to the sheriff and tell everything? Alicia thought if people knew the truth about me, they wouldn't be so quick to judge her, but I didn't go. I was too afraid of what people might think. How they would react. What if she was right? If people knew what I can do and who I really am, maybe she'd still be alive and I just can't forgive myself for that"

This speech illustrates Clark's immaturity. By that I don't mean he's being immature for his age, just that his lack of experience keeps him from seeing what he'll see in the future when he looks back on this incident. He feels guilt now and he'll feel guilt in the future, but for now he's feeling it for the wrong reason.

Alicia, who said she'd never betray his secret for as long as she lived, which wasn't long, did betray his secret and for her own selfish reasons. She betrayed him to Chloe, a person known for printing things first and grappling with the moral implications later. Alicia used red kryptonite on Clark, again, for her own selfish reasons.

What Clark should feel guilty about in the future is his selfish needs. He should have known that getting involved with Alicia again was a terrible idea. Red flags should have been slapping him in the face. If Alicia wasn't quite cured enough, and apparently she wasn't, to handle a relationship again, especially with the object of her obsession, then Clark should have been the strong one and stayed away from her.

Even if she was cured, Alicia was simply a wrong choice all around. Yes, most people deserve a second chance, but that generosity usually doesn't include someone who tried to murder you and a friend of yours. This is where Clark's selfish needs came into play and why he couldn't understand his parents' disapproval, or his friends' derisive comments. It would never be okay with them and it shouldn't be.

The only reason Clark couldn't see that is because he didn't want to see it. If he had looked at it honestly, he wouldn't have crossed that line again in the first place, but having crossed it last week, he should have stepped back after Alicia drugged him with red kryptonite. He didn't, he pursued a relationship yet again.

Clark didn't lose a great love, he simply lost someone as desperate for acceptance as he was and their mutual selfishness led to Alicia's death. Not to mention a contrived villain.

Lois entered the Torch and informed Chloe that she was heading back to school. She noticed Chloe putting files away. "Looking for clues about Tim's ability? Things we should have seen before blaming Alicia?"

"I think maybe I've seen too much already. I've spent the last four years ferreting out meteor freaks, trying to expose them. I never should have started this wall."

"Chloe, you're a reporter. You investigate and expose. That's who you are."

"Yeah? Well, then I guess it sucks sometimes being me." Chloe said, displaying more of the misplaced guilt running rampant in this episode.

"Lois, if you found out something about someone, something they didn't want you to know about them, would you tell them?"

Lois stepped closer. "That depends. Is that person someone you care about?"

"Yeah"

"And does keeping this secret hurt anyone?"

"No"

"Then my answer is no," Lois said after a thoughtful pause. "If I really cared about that person, I wouldn't tell them that I knew, but I would go out of my way to be supportive of them."

Chloe looked surprised. "No offense, Lois, but that's the last thing I expected to hear from you."

"I've learned the hard way that people keep secrets for a reason. Even from the people they're closest to," Lois said and tipped her head to the side. "Chloe, is there something you want to tell me? Are you the one with the secret?"

"No, it's not me."

"Okay, then I'll see you in a couple of weeks," Lois said, but noticed Chloe still looked sad and confused. "I'm sure whoever you're talking about will tell you when they're ready."

Chloe smiled. "Thanks."

Chloe joined Clark in the cemetery. You knew there had to be a brooding graveyard scene.

"Hey, Clark. I just wanted to say I'm so sorry for everything."

Clark said nothing.

"It must have been so hard being so different. Having everyone judge you before they even know you. Knowing that there are some people that might never accept you. I want you to know that I'm here for you if you ever need to talk."

"Thanks, Chloe, I appreciate that."

--The End---

This episode wasn't bad, just not terribly honest. Clark and Alicia confused a desire to be accepted for who/what they are with love and yet Clark was never completely honest with Alicia. He never told her he came from another planet and landed on Earth in a shower of meteors. The very meteors that turned her and others into freaks. That by itself implies he feared she wouldn't accept him if she knew the whole truth.

Chloe now knows the secret the way Pete Ross did in the old Superboy comics. Pete saw Clark changing into Superboy during a camping trip, but never told Clark he knew. As far as I know Clark never confided in him and Pete never admitted he knew the truth.

Next week ... Lois is in trouble, Lois is in trouble.

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