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Reviews
5:08 Solitude
by Zoomway
The episode opened with Part 1 of the Ford Fusion product placement as Lois dropped Martha off at the farm. Martha thanked Lois for the lift and said her car (truck?) should be out of the garage tomorrow.
"Bummer," Lois said. "I like being your chauffeur. I get to spend a little quality time with my new best friend."
The theme of Lois becoming closer to the Kents started last year, but referring to Martha as her best friend is definitely new and on this show could even be fatal considering there is still someone who has to be killed off to compensate for bringing Clark back to life.
"I'm proud of you, Lois," Martha said, launching into exposition. "Living in your own apartment, buying a brand new car, you've really grown up."
"Oh, let's not get carried away," Lois cautioned. "The car's my safety net. When I screw up and lose my job and my apartment, I'm going to need somewhere to sleep."
This isn't just a self deprecating joke from Lois because she comes perilously close to losing her job later in the episode. This brings up two things that struck me about this episode. One, they seemed to be wanting to rush things along, as if something much bigger was coming and this episode had to create a rapid evolution on some fronts. However, because of that, the second thing I noticed is that the series has hit a character quagmire where almost everyone is more like a reinvented caricature of themselves.
This started with the abrupt coupling of Clark and Lana. She was with another guy almost the whole season last year. Then, even without formally breaking up with the other guy, she trotted over to Clark in the last episode, told him she loved him and then he said he loved her too and --boom-- they were a couple.
In fact, boom relationships happened a lot in old sitcoms like I Dream of Jeannie, Get Smart, and Mork & Mindy among others. One episode it's business as usual and then the next --boom-- a mutual confession of love.
With Smallville, Clark and Lana have become the caricature of an over idealized couple. They're madly in love with each other for reasons most viewers can't even fathom. They've been far more harmful than good for each other over the run of this series and so a lot of their motivations have been blatantly rewritten with the hope that the viewers would be so stupid they wouldn't remember Lana nagging about secrets and lies and offering sex to Jason, or Clark saying he loved Alicia and almost killing a guy over her.
It's because of this caricature nature the show has slipped into, that my illustrations will be a bit different this time.
Moments after Martha exited the Ford product placement, the wind picked up and some type of ball of energy appeared and smacked Martha. Clark whooshed outside to find his mother unconscious. She seemed to recover rapidly and said she must have fainted because she hadn't eaten that day.
This same "more harm than good" quality also applies to Clark and his parents. Except it's Clark who has been harmful to them while they've been nothing but supportive and loving to him. Whether hurting them emotionally while grooving on red kryptonite, or causing his dad's heart problems, or the various nefarious people who have injured the Kents, held them hostage, or put them in comas, it's all due to their affiliation to the whiniest, most self-absorbed Clark Kent in the history of Superman.
After the theme music, Clark apparently whooshed to Metropolis to ask Chloe about weather conditions in Smallville. This aspect hasn't changed, just the location. Instead of going to the Torch, he now travels all the way to the Daily Planet for Chloe to give him answers. I guess his cell phone was recharging.
Clark told Chloe he'd heard a noise like thunder and a bright light and then found his mother unconscious. Chloe asked if she'd been checked out by a doctor and Clark said she had and that she checked out fine. Chloe told him not to worry about it, but when Clark still seemed upset, she asked for the real reason he was worried.
"I think Jor-El might have something to do with this?"
"Your biological father?"
"When I died and he brought me back, he made a deal. He's come back to collect."
Lex was in the Talon having campaign photos taken. These weren't even very casual photos. Lex had photographers, a makeup person, an umbrella reflector and all of it was in the way of people trying to get service at the coffee shop.
Finally Lois had enough. "Don't take this the wrong way, but after 800 pictures, you don't get any prettier."
Lex dismissed his entourage and then turned to Lois. "How about a latte?"
"Don't you find this just a tad sleazy? Holding a campaign photo shoot where Martha Kent works?" Of course it's sleazy, he's Lex Luthor. "You might as well go out to their farm and milk their cows."
"In case you don't know where your paycheck comes from," Lex said as he rose from his chair, "I own the Talon."
"What don't you own?" Lois asked. "I guess now you want to own the government."
"Wow, why are you so angry, Lois?" Lex asked. "What have I ever done to you?"
"You just remind me of a lot of the pseudo-politicians I grew up around. You know, men who bought their way into office? Do you really think you can beat Jonathan Kent? There must be enough dirt on you to create a land mass the size of Texas."
"Please, grab a shovel and start digging. I have nothing to hide," Lex lied.
"Let me give you a little friendly advice," Lois said as Lex was departing. "Bow out of the race now before a pesky little squirrel digs up one of your rotten acorns."
Lois's comment was somewhat akin to Glenda telling the Wicked Witch of the West to get out of Munchkinland before someone dropped a house on her. And while needling Lex Luthor relentlessly isn't a healthy thing to do, it is a good way to see his true colors emerge.
"Thanks, Lois. You know there's nothing more valuable than the savvy political advice of a muffin peddling college dropout."
Zing, a muffin peddler was put in her place for daring to question Lex's political motives. However, it did seem to indicate that the lowly muffin peddler had struck a nerve. It's too bad the writer didn't remember that Lex had been thrown out of school, too. Of course billionaires don't have to peddle muffins when that happens.
The scene then shifted to Clark questioning Fine about Jor-El.
"I think he's done something to my mother."
"Is your concern based on the bargain Jor-El made with you?" Fine asked.
"How did you know about that?"
"I know more than you can imagine."
This is where Clark should have rubbed together a couple of brain cells and gotten a spark of a clue. Without being able to read minds, or without being in contact with Jor-El, or without Jor-El being someone other than who he claims to be, how would Fine really know about the 'bargain' that was struck?
No matter, Clark wasn't suspicious and Fine wasn't giving out any information and so the scene switched to the Kent farm where Jonathan at least asked why a Kryptonian was teaching history and told Clark to steer clear of him. Clark said that he wanted to know more about Jor-El.
"I'll tell you everything you need to know," Jonathan sniped. "Every time you've come in contact with a Kryptonian, they've been hell-bent on death and destruction," and added, "Clark, we have no idea who this professor really is."
"He's done nothing but help so far," Clark replied as his brain slowly oozed from his ears. "He told me the truth about Lex. He saved Lana. He took the silver Kryptonite out of me."
"But why, Clark? We have no idea what his motives really are," Jonathan countered, proving there really is no genetic link between him and his leaky-brained adopted son.
Suddenly Martha dropped a tea kettle and said she couldn't feel her hand and that her shoulder was burning. She pulled her shirt away from her arm and it had a blotchy mark on it.
The scene instantly shifted to the medical center. Come on, we all know it had to put in an appearance. Since Martha's vital signs were normal, she was given some antibiotics and sent home. No samples to wait for results? No observation?
Then a weird little scene took place at the Daily Planet. Chloe was shutting stuff down when Lionel appeared.
"Mr. Luthor, what are you doing here?"
"You have made it to the major leagues," he said, and produced a bouquet of posies. "Congratulations."
Chloe took the flowers. "Thank you."
Lionel looked around. "Very, very nice. You've done quite well for yourself. I am quite certain that sooner rather than later you are going to be working upstairs under the Tiffany lamps. A big story would certainly accelerate the process," he continued and picked up a newspaper. "Not that obituaries and wedding announcements don't inspire scintillating journalism."
Chloe decided Lionel only wanted some type of self-promoting puff piece and began to leave.
"Miss Sullivan, your creative passion will always be for the bizarre and inexplicable. That's why I think you're the perfect reporter for this story."
Chloe paused in the doorway. "You have one minute. The clock is ticking."
"It seems there is someone at Central Kansas University who has the astounding ability to run at virtually the speed of light. Have you ever heard of such a thing?" The speed of light?
"School's located in Smallville," Chloe replied calmly. "The meteor freak capital of the world."
"This person can lift an automobile with one hand. Can create fire with the blink of an eye. It's extraordinary."
If Chloe had been wearing a necktie, she'd no doubt have loosened it. "Sounds like a bit of a stretch even for me," she covered. "Do you have any proof?"
"If we have proof, there wouldn't be any need for investigative reporting, now would there?" Lionel asked. "The person's name is Milton Fine. He is a professor of world history and ..."
"Why did you come to me?"
"Frankly," Lionel said and his tone actually seemed playful. "I didn't think Time Magazine would be interested."
This scene indicates that Jor-El still has some kind of control over Lionel. The actor did seem to be portraying Lionel differently. He was actually jovial rather than sardonic.
The scene then cut to the next day and Clark running up to Fine. He told him about the mark that appeared on his mother's shoulder.
"Did it start on the left shoulder?"
"Yes."
Fine sighed loudly. "Your father tortured dissidents on Krypton the exact same way."
"What?"
"I don't suppose I can hide the truth from you any longer," Fine said and shook his head rather vigorously. "He was a violent dictator. He ruled over Krypton with an iron grip of fear and intimidation. Anyone who spoke out against him was locked away. Even the great hero of the people -- Zod. Maybe if he hadn't been captured, Zod could have stopped your father from eviscerating the planet."
"My father destroyed Krypton?"
"Billions of people died, but he made sure his only son survived. All so that one day you could conquer the human race and recreate Krypton on Earth."
"Why should I believe you?"
What's funny is that this is one thing I wouldn't blame Clark for believing. Jor-El has used an iron grip of fear on Clark and there was that translation of the Kryptonian text that talked about him conquering Earth.
"Believe what you will. My concern is with your mother's health. I need to see her immediately."
Jonathan was not happy to see Fine show up. He kept insisting that they take Martha back to the hospital, but all the while Clark kept rooting for Fine to save Martha. No sooner had Clark said that it could be a Kryptonian disease than Martha went into convulsions.
"She needs a meteor rock," Fine said. "Do you have a meteor rock?" Doesn't everybody?
Jonathan got the meteor rock out of the closet and placed it on Martha's forehead as directed, which made me laugh for some reason. It seemed to do the trick. She calmed down and could breathe normally, but Fine said it would only ease her pain, but it wasn't a cure and in a matter of hours Martha would be dead.
Okay, didn't Clark think it was weird that a chunk of kryptonite would make Martha feel better? Did Kryptonians who were afflicted on Krypton put their foreheads on the soil to ease the pain? I mean meteor rocks are just chunks of the old home planet.
Clark said he would contact Jor-El, but Fine told him Jor-El would just lie again. Then Jonathan asked if Jor-El was responsible for Martha's illness.
Clark sighed. "When Jor-El brought me back to life, he warned me that someone close to me would have to die."
"Why didn't you tell me about this before?"
"I didn't want you and Mom to worry." Yes, sudden death without warning would be more pleasing for them.
This was followed by several short scenes. First, Clark went to Jor-El, who denied doing anything to Martha, but did mention the wheel of fate was already set in motion. Then a scene of Lionel letting Lex know that he knew what was in warehouse 15 and warning Lex that the electorate has little use for a candidate obsessed with little green men. Then a quick scene of Chloe in a trench coat (I'm not kidding) tailing Fine.
While I'm not exactly the most sentimental person in the world, I can be touched by an honest heartfelt scene, but this scene between Clark and Martha was anything but honest. It wasn't as bad and contrived as the deathbed scene they whipped up for Lana visiting Clark in the hospital after he'd been shot because that scene required all of Lana's motivations over the years to be completely rewritten, but this mother/son scene required the viewer to believe things that never really existed.
Clark entered and Martha put her kryptonite ice pack back in its lead container.
"Your father told me about Jor-El, Clark. I want you to know that I am more than ready to give up my life for the life of my child."
"Don't talk like that, Mom."
"You've given me so much happiness, Clark."
When?
"I don't know what I would have been without you."
Healthy.
"Without me none of this would have happened."
Bingo!
"Don't ever feel guilty about this, do you hear me? I wouldn't have it any other way. You're going to be fine. Look at you, you're a man now, Clark. A wonderful man. My job is done."
Oh, brother. Clark has hardly been a man, wonderful or otherwise, this season. If anything he has regressed. Martha doesn't remember Clark sneaking downstairs like a fifteen year old after having a girl in his room? Not to mention his chronic lying in general, which is no longer confined to protecting his secret.
The scene dragged on a couple of more lines and both actors seemed to be trying hard to work up tears, but weren't successful. They couldn't because there was hardly an ounce of sincerity in the exchange of dialogue. As mentioned earlier, Clark has caused more woe for the Kents than happiness. Some other series could have a montage flashback of all the happiness a mother and son shared over the years, but not Smallville. This is the son who slapped his mother across the room last week!
The scene thankfully shifted to the Daily Planet where Lois delivered some chow to Chloe and asked a favor. "You once mentioned that Lex spent a little time in the cuckoo's nest. Why not write an expose on the mental stability of great bald hope of Kansas?" That must be a record, two movies alluded to in one sentence (One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest and The Great White Hope).
"I think that would make a great story if I could find a shred of evidence, or a source that would actually talk."
"There has to be something."
"Well, there's lots of sex, lies and videotape (another movie reference) in Lex's vault. The problem is he sleeps with the key under his pillow. Why the sudden urge to take down Lex?"
Lois sat down next to Chloe. "I'm just sick of rich power mongers who think they can win an election with their checkbook," Lois said, but softened slightly. "Not to mention he called me a muffin peddler."
Chloe smiled. "So basically he hurt your feelings."
"Well, sort of, but that's beside the point. Come on, you have to have something on that little hard drive of yours."
Then Chloe brought up Fine investigating LuthorCorp. She said she had followed him to a LuthorCorp warehouse, but due to security, she couldn't get near it.
"Well," Lois said, "now you have your trusty sidekick along for the ride."
So the intrepid cousins headed to the warehouse and Lois distracted the guard at the gate with Part 2 of the Ford Fusion product placement. As Lois pointed out features, Chloe snuck into the warehouse where she saw a puddle of black goo turn into Fine. Unfortunately she was caught and Lois had to clobber the guard she'd been flirting with and crash through the gate and rescue Chloe.
The scene then shifted to Clark and Fine talking at the university the same night. Clark insisted there had to be a way to stop Jor-El from killing his mother. Fine said there was a way, but wouldn't recommend it because it required Clark to destroy the Fortress of Solitude because Jor-El's will is contained in the crystals.
"All he's ever done is try to ruin my life," Clark whined. "I want him gone." It sounded like the first couple of bars of the Halloween piano theme played.
Then the scene clipped to Jonathan telling Martha she'll pull through and Chloe interrupting asking where Clark was. Jonathan said he went to the cave with Fine.
"Fine isn't your ordinary Ph.D.," Chloe said.
"I know all about him," Jonathan said. "He's trying to help Martha."
"I don't know how helpful he's actually going to be," Chloe replied and headed out after Clark.
Meanwhile, Clark put the octagon disk in the stone in the cave and he and Fine were transferred to the fortress. Fine gave Clark a black crystal and told him to stab it into the pipe organ of clear crystals and said that Jor-El and his fortress would be forever gone. "It was created to defeat your father, but Zod was a man of peace. He would only use it as a last resort. There was never a chance."
"There is now," Clark said without ever once wondering why Fine couldn't jab the crystal in place himself. "He'll never hurt my family again."
Shortly after Clark put the black crystal in place, he felt weak. He turned around to see Fine holding green kryptonite.
"I couldn't have done it without you," Fine gloated. "You were the only one who could affect the fortress. Now that you've accomplished your task, you're nothing more than a petty annoyance." While I tend to agree that this Clark has little brains or value at the moment, what Fine said and his actions reminded me of Jor-El's words and actions in the episode Covenant third season.
Jor-El had brainwashed a teen girl into believing she was Kryptonian in order to lure Clark to the caves. Once she accomplished her task, Jor-El zapped her into oblivion and said, "She has served her purpose." He had also said Jonathan had served his purpose and started strangling him with some type of electric charge, which kept Jonathan in a coma for three months.
In that episode Clark had shouted, "Leave my father alone!"
This is what I wrote in my review from two years ago:
"Come forward, or he will die. Come to me, Kal-El." I almost expected him to say "Kneel before Zod!"
If this Jor-El doesn't turn out to really be Zod, I'll be surprised. He's always been a vindictive figure on this series and only the Jor-El who possesses Lionel seems to have any good intentions for Clark.
Anyway, noting Fine was holding the kryptonite, he made a brilliant comment. "You're not even Kryptonian, are you?"
"I was created by Kryptonians, but I'm a whole lot smarter." That's not saying much. From what I've seen of Kryptonians on Smallville, even a box of hammers would be a whole lot smarter.
"You are free!" Fine shouted. "General Zod!"
Clark flopped down on a slab in the fortress. "Zod?"
"The one true Kryptonian," Fine said as he held the kryptonite close to Clark's face. "Finally he will rid this febrile planet (yes, he said febrile, I had to use closed captions because I thought he was saying 'verbal' planet) of the scourge of humans and create Krypton on Earth."
"Everything you said to me was a lie," Clark said. "When you were talking about Jor-El, you were really talking about Zod." Gee, ya think so, Clark? "Jor-El didn't infect my mother, did he? You did."
"To think that you would sacrifice your Kryptonian heritage for a single homo sapien." To think the actor could say this with a straight face.
He then told Clark he was a pitiful disgrace and plopped the kryptonite on his chest and then started summoning Zod through some worm hole looking thing.
Fear not, it was time for the real hero to show up.
Chloe ran into the cave, took out the octagon key and then put it back into the slot which transported her to the fortress. She hurried to Clark and took the kryptonite off his chest and chucked it. Clark got up and removed the black crystal and the worm hole vanished. Then Fine and Clark had a fight which ended with Fine being impaled on the crystal pipe organ.
He glowed a bit and then vanished and the spaceship also vanished at that moment and Martha got cured at that moment. Then, after the sneak peek at the new Superman movie, Martha and Clark had another moment and he referred to her as his heart and his soul. This is generally the kind of line they would have Clark waste on Lana, so it was probably a good thing she wasn't in the episode.
Then the scene shifted again in this very choppy episode. Chloe was trying to defrost in front of the fireplace and Clark brought her a cup of coffee (hot chocolate?) and Chloe explained she got to the fortress with the octagon key and handed it back to him. "Seriously, Clark, you've got to be more careful. If I can get up there, anyone can."
"You know, Professor Fine said that human beings were insignificant and couldn't be depended on. He obviously didn't know you very well."
"Oh, please. Robo-Professor knows as much about human nature as R2D2 (our Star Wars reference for the episode)."
Chloe then asked what Fine was since she'd seen him form from nuts and bolts out of the spaceship. I guess the writers/actors didn't know Fine's special effect would be an oil stain instead.
"I guess he was some sort of Kryptonian artificial intelligence."
"What did he want with you?" A line about artificial stupidity would go well right here.
Clark explained that Fine was using him to free Zod and then asked how Chloe got on Fine's trail.
"You're not going to like this very much. Lionel Luthor gave me the lead."
"How'd he know about Fine?"
"I have no clue, but I hope he doesn't know about the spaceship. You know, Clark, you really should get hold of that thing before somebody else beats you to it."
Clark explained he already went to the warehouse and the ship was gone. So the scene switched to Lex stewing about the missing spaceship. He accused Lionel of taking it, of course, and then voiced a suspicion that ever since the meteor shower Lionel was somehow more connected to what had been in the warehouse than he ever realized. I'll also say that Lionel seemed to be completely himself in this scene. No hint of the more jovial version from earlier.
Lex departed and then Lionel played three notes on the piano. It sounded like Three Blind Mice. It could be some kind of clue, or it merely means Lionel is a fan of the 3 Stooges.
Then, yet again, the scene shifted to the Daily Planet. Lois entered asking Chloe if she had dug up anything on Lex yet.
"I told you, Lois, Lex keeps his dirty laundry in a cast iron hamper."
"Look," Lois said. "I might have done this at first because of pride, but as I started thinking about it, I started to worry what would Lex Luthor do with the power of public office? Before we know it, he's going to try and rule the world."
"If you're that worried about it," Chloe responded as she looked through photo slides, "why don't you do something?"
"I plan to, but one thing I am not going to do is poke around his warehouses. I can't believe after that whole Charlie's Angels escapade all you found in there was a bunch of fertilizer." This must have been Chloe's cover story to Lois after finding the Amazing Morphing Fine.
"It wasn't a complete waste of time," Chloe insisted. "You got to experience the chills and thrills of journalism."
"Thanks, but no thanks. I don't know how you do it, chasing story after story that only leads to dead ends. I'd never be able to let go."
Chloe smiled at Lois. "That's usually how it starts."
Then, as a decidedly Supermanish trumpet started playing, Lois looked over her shoulder at the Daily Planet logo and smiled.
What is funny as a side note here is that the Smallville fandom is busted up mainly into shipper (relationship) fans. Clana (Clark and Lana), Chlark (Clark and Chloe) and even the Chlois constituency who believe that Chloe is the real Lois Lane. Now I can understand the last bunch being upset by Lois considering journalism. Anything that moves Lois in her destined direction is another coffin nail in their theory. And Clana fans, of course, will always hate Lois no matter what since she is the one who ends up with Clark. However, the Chlark fans were generally supportive of Lois ... until she smiled at the Daily Planet logo in this episode.
They believe Lois will be usurping Chloe at the Planet, which is funny when you think about Chloe's love of journalism being ripped off from the real Lois in the first place. But what I noticed in this episode is that Lionel, or Lion-El was able to put Chloe on Fine's trail in the first place by presenting Fine as Wall of Weird material, which he correctly identified as Chloe's true passion.
In fact, Chloe's actions in this episode had nothing to do with journalism. She was helping Clark, which is admirable, but she is not an ace reporter at the Planet right now and if she keeps charging out on Clark crusades while he's slowly growing a brain, she could find herself on the outside looking in again very soon.
Lois would always help Clark/Superman, but she was the top reporter at the Planet when she did and she also managed to get the story, too. We're to believe that Chloe is doing her intern work at the Planet and keeping up her courses as Metropolis University while running around at all hours helping Clark. Unless she really is Super Woman, and we all know only Lana holds that title, then something's gotta give soon.
Finally we get the last scene, a heart to heart between Jonathan and Clark. It seemed like we were being set up for Jonathan's imminent death as he told Clark that "we should just live life to the fullest. Make sure you spend as much time as you possibly can with the people we love." Then the fadeout had this ominous tone.
Final thoughts on the episode ... well, I think Clark is lucky to have Chloe and Chloe is lucky to have Lois. It took all three of them again for the problem to be averted. Are they the Three Blind Mice, or just the 3 Stooges? I don't know, but I still like Chloe and Lois interaction and the interaction between Clark and Chloe has reached a level of comfort that should trouble Lana if she's not a blind mouse herself.
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