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Smallville Season 7 x01 BIZARRO Review:
By Erika

Score 7/10

Meeting the New Menace - Bizarro

The seventh season opener for SMALLVILLE opened, literally with a bang. The episode opens with events that took place directly after PHANTOM ended last season. The opening sequence had plenty of anvils to make Superman/mythos fans very happy. Clark was worried about the citizens of Smallville from the impending flood caused by damage to the dam. In fact he nearly begs Bizarro to leave him alone so he can help others. This is something that we at OPERATION SAVE CLARK KENT have been very frustrated with during the last ½ of season six. Although Clark’s solution to stopping the flood wasn’t exactly ecologically the wisest thing to do, it further showed that his powers are increasing by leaps and bounds. Clark’s heat vision is by far his most advanced power that he’s the most in control over and it’s always exciting to see what he’s going to do with it next. The smile and nod to the boy, coupled with the Superman horns music was a wonderful nod to Clark’s future as Superman when he becomes the superhero who expects nothing in return for his actions and takes complete pleasure and joy out of helping others.

The first encounter with Bizarro got a burning question out of the way over how SV’s Bizarro would mirror Clark Kent. In the comic books Bizarro usually is brought to life through some sort of lab accident where Clark/Superman’s close by and Bizarro gains all of Clark’s memories but because he’s a warped version of our hero, Superman’s alter ego’s moral center is askew. This was handily taken care of by Bizarro stating that he got all of Clark’s memories when he borrowed a few of our hero’s DNA cells.

Tom Welling deserves proper credit for his creation of Bizarro. Whenever watching Clark’s evil twin in this episode you can see traces of Clark Kent in the performance (which we should considering Bizarro sort of is Clark,) blended with some of his wild crazed RedK Clark characteristics, however, Bizarro is a character onto himself. His voice is deeper, he snarls a lot, but even more importantly he oozes with maniacal confidence that Clark Kent, even on RedK, does NOT possess. There’s no mistaking Bizarro for Clark.

Bizarro’s electrical tower scene further showed us that the phantom is every bit as strong as Clark. Much like when Clark got stabbed through the chest in WITHER last season, we saw that Bizarro was impervious to death even though he should’ve received a mortal wound. The merciless heat blasting of the would be good Samaritan defines Bizarro’s lack of values and helps to show that even though he’s no longer taking over human bodies as hosts, he’s still an evil menace. The FX used for showcasing his wild heat vision were very striking and were one of the “WHOA” moments on the show.

The Bizarro on the farm scene otherwise known as the obligatory shirtless Clark scene for the opener was…well enjoyable to watch and a lovely unnecessary scene in the episode other than to show us that Bizarro sucks the green out of green K when he gets near the stuff.

All Summer comic fans have been wondering what girl Bizarro would fall for. In the SUPERBOY mythos he spends a lot of time chasing Lana, however, in Superman mythology Bizarro is obsessed with Lois Lane. Usually Lana gets most of stories on SV that should goto Lois, so it was a pleasant surprise to see Bizarro become 100% lustful upon seeing Lois Lane for the first time. Other than the Bizarro/Lois scene being a much needed comedy relief moment in the episode it did leave you wondering whether any of the ‘twisted thoughts’ that Bizarro pulled out of Clark’s head EVER included him wanting to grab a hold of Lois’s butt. LOL! Writers Brian Peterson and Kelley Souders further gave us glimpses that Clark might have more unresolved feelings for Lois lurking in his subconscious with this taunt by Bizarro to Clark during their final duel: "You had the existence I could only dream of. Every pleasure at your disposal and you wasted it. You don't deserve this life, Clark, but I do.”

The final duel with Bizarro and Clark felt a bit rushed. Instead of allowing the two supercharged twins to clobber the hell out of each other they spent a lot of time showcasing Clark’s ability to heal in the sunlight. Clark’s final massive superpunch, sending Bizarro out into the upper atmosphere almost seemed rather anti-climactic, however, it was reassuring to know that Clark could at least get the upper hand in a fight.

Kara

All of the talk this summer has been about the arrival of Laura Vandervoort onto the show as Clark’s cousin Kara Zor-El aka Supergirl. BIZARRO gave us our first glimpses of the new blond beauty whose arrival will be throwing all of our characters lives into chaos. Our first introduction to Kara arrived in the “water ballet” scene where a floating blond “angel” arrives out of nowhere to visit a dying Lex Luthor who was trapped underwater in a patrol car. This encounter, though brief became one of the highlights of the episode. Not a single word of dialogue is spoken between either Laura or Michael Rosenbaum. Michael beautifully portrays Lex’s overwhelming sense of wonder at seeing this lovely angel in the water.

Kara’s approaching Lex scene reminds me a bit too much of Ariel coming up to Eric in Disney’s THE LITTLE MERMAID, so much so that I was half expecting her to break into song. The scene did have that fairy tale aspect to it though which explains Lex’s actions later on in the episode. When Lex coughs again and blinks back to where his savior had been looming over him, Kara took advantage of his brief averted glance to lift off into the sky and flew away. The camera pans down on Lex in a way that’s reminiscent of Martha’s shock when Clark flew off from her in CRUSADE. My one question – does Kara’s hair have superpowers? How can it be dry and impeccably curled after only moments earlier being completely submerged in water?

Lois/Chloe/Clark

This season we’ve been promised that the iconic ace reporter Lois Lane will begin to make her appearance on the show. The early scene in the dam with Lois discovering the bodies was wonderfully eerie. There was something spine chilling and tingling seeing THE DAILY PLANET’s future star reporter stumbling across what could be the biggest story of the year. Lois’s look of horror and wonder at her discovery was masterfully portrayed by Erica Durance.

Al Gough stated at Comic Con this summer that we’d see glimpses of Lois and Clark caring for each other throughout the season. The opener here certainly showed that they are very relieved to see each other in a time of crisis. Lois has this wonderfully grateful expression and disbelief on her face when Clark is there to rescue her out of the dam, whereas Clark is intensely worried over his friend being trapped. When Clark sees Chloe his pain intensifies. Tom has had to write a book on showcasing how to emote pain, misery, sadness, and angst over the last couple of seasons, this is one of those scenes where he truly puts his all into his performance and yet never once goes overboard with his expressions.

Lois and Clark continue to show their deepening friendship at the hospital where Clark is acutely aware of Lois’s anguish and concern over her cousin’s condition. The two of them have a heart to heart about what happened inside the dam that shows that Lois truly trusts Clark by telling him about the weirdness of how she was cured. Lois gets herself all in a panic and decides to try to get some dirt on Lex because she just can’t deal with hanging around being able to do nothing for Chloe in the hospital. Clark warns her that Lex is dangerous – a theme that is supposed to permeate through the season with Lois investigating Smallville’s local Billionaire. Lois’s reaction to Clark at the end of the scene seemed somewhat insensitive when Clark got all choked up when he was about to tell her that Lana was dead and instead of listening Lois stops him and wailed, "If this is another heart-to-heart about Lana, I don't mean to be insensitive, but Chloe is fighting for her life and I am barely keeping it together, so one more ounce of emotion and I might just lose it, so make yourself useful for once (ouch) and just stay here and make sure nothing happens to my cuz, okay?" Lois storms off leaving Clark confused and sucking up his pain.

Lois's reaction at the hospital was actually a very mature response to an emotional crisis. How many times in your life have you had horrific things happen to you or horrible news delivered to you at the worst possible time and the LAST thing that you can do is have the luxury of breaking down?

Lois's response to Clark was a defense mechanism. I suppose it seemed "mean" to some people, however, if you can't understand what she did, it's likely you've never been in her kind of situation before.

Here's an example: Say you're at work and are in the middle of an important meeting and have just been delivered the news that someone close to you had died - it's not appropriate to just break down and burst into tears because you might lose a big client or lose face in front of your boss. What do you do? Well you feel like you're drowning but choke through what you need to do and PRAY that nobody mentions something that might make you think of the horrific news that you've just been given...you hold on until you get home where you can THEN finally bawl your head off.

THIS is why Lois said what she did to Clark. Her wanting to run to Lex's was to give her something to do to put off falling apart.

Again, this is what makes LOIS Clark's future partner, she can keep a cool head in a crisis and push aside her own emotions in order to get the job done. It's why she can handle being Superman's wife - by putting up those emotional walled barriers she'll give away nothing to the outside world, even though she might be screaming inside with pain and worry.

The Chloe resurrection scene in the hospital was great and harkens back to HIDDEN when Clark “died” and was brought back to life. We got our next great scene with Clark using his powers in a new way. Had Clark not had his super hearing ability he wouldn’t have heard Chloe’s pleas for help.

Allison Mack did an amazing job in this scene. Not only were her screams hair raising, but after she’s been saved, we got to see a new side of Chloe that we’ve never seen before – that of a frightened victim. In the past when Clark rescued her from a strange situation she would’ve just grabbed him and started crying. Instead she tries to get as far away from Clark as possible as she tries to make sense of what has happened to her. I’m rather excited about seeing what they do with Chloe this season after too many seasons of having very little character growth from her. Seeing her react to having special abilities and having to constantly worry about what other people think of her will be exciting to watch.

The Talon scene a bit later was something that we’ve been dying to see coming as well. For once Chloe was there basically just as a sounding board for Clark to ping ideas off of, however, unlike the last couple of seasons, she doesn’t magically have the answers to point Clark on the right path on how to fix his problems. Instead he turns to Martian Manhunter for answers.

At the end of the episode Chloe is there for Clark when he confessed that he’d been traveling down the wrong path at the end of last season – that he wanted to kill Lex and for once understood what it meant to allow anger to be your ally, that it was “clean.” The use of the word clean is interesting because it implies that it’s easy to cleanse one of all responsibility for one’s actions. That actually was a very astute observation on Clark’s behalf. Clark is now acutely aware that he’s different than humans and exploring his Kryptonian side will hopefully become a large theme for this season. This scene ends with Lois arriving and comforting Clark over losing Lana. Having recently lost her own friend, Wes, she gives him some heartfelt advice that the pain will subside. Clark, as always, is rather befuddled over how Lois can always seemingly tell him the right thing when he needs to hear at the right time.

Clark/Manhunter

The two conversations between Clark and Manhunter in the episode were filled with hard questions that have been posed to Clark that we’ve been desperately missing on the show since Jonathan’s death. For anyone who watched the deleted scenes on the Season 6 DVDs there was a scene in LABYRINTH that was cut that showed Manhunter ripping into Clark for allowing his quest to be human to weaken his character. Although Martha has been there for her son in season 6, she could really only foster his humanity, and indirectly by advising him to follow his heart she assisted in sending him down a dark and scary emotional path last season. Now Clark’s got someone new to align with who not only knew his birth father but who he can relate to Manhunter because the Martian is NOT human and shares similar abilities to Clark and most understands what he’s going through in life by being different.

Hopefully one of the key themes of this season will stem out from this conversation w/ Clark coming to terms w/ the fact that he’s an alien and won’t view that w/ disgust like he has in the past. The conversations w/ Manhunter in BIZARRO certainly did give us hope for this.

The Luthors

Lionel who was knocked out at the end of PHANTOM only made one brief appearance in this episode. The mystery of what happened to Lionel was not further addressed in the episode other than Lex wondering what happened to him. There is a bit of a continuity where Clark goes to the dam to look for Lionel and then up and forgets about him for the rest of the episode. Poor Lionel some thanks for remaining Clark’s ally all of this past season.

Lex’s “religious experience” has obviously left a mark on him. The scene with Lex in Luthorcorp was beautifully done. The Luthor office rather represents secrets, lies, lust for power, and morally ambiguous wrongdoings. Michael perfectly portrayed the part of the humbled man who was trying to make sense of something that made no sense. His voice absolutely oozed with remorse. This certainly is a different man from even a few hours earlier who was arguing with his wife and menacingly trying to hold onto her even though she wanted to leave.

The Bizarro/Lex scenes were great and right out of the comics where Lex and Bizarro usually share a strange alliance/friendship. Again, we see Bizarro taking pieces from Clark’s past and twisting them around for his own selfish needs. Instead of hating Lex, he plays on the former friendship of the two adversaries because he knows that Lex can provide him with the meteor rocks that he needs to stay healthy & give him extra strength. Lex, as always is tempted for his deepest desire is to gain back Clark’s trust and friendship.

Even after Clark nearly strangled the life out of Lex in CRIMSON and PHANTOM, it’s interesting that Lex would say that he’d never help Bizarro to kill Clark, some part of Lex is obviously still holding out that their friendship can be restored. For all that Lex is trying to change his ways, his nature can’t fully change and he while holding a rifle on Bizarro he demands to know where in the hell Bizarro is from and why he’s interested in Clark.

Our parting shot is of Lex being led into his prison cell and his looking at a picture of him and Lana, who we find out is of course not dead but is hiding out in China.

Final thoughts

The episode ends with Clark staring at the moon, obviously lost over where the next step in his journey will take him and this then cuts to a lonely and contemplative Kara sitting on top of a Smallville watertower. She spends a moment nursing a Kryptonian bracelet and slips into onto her wrist. She then stands up, plants her fists on her hips, and flies off.

We can only hope that the end is symbolic that Kara will become a force of action in Clark’s stagnating life and help him to move forward towards his destiny.

Overall the episode felt rather rushed being it was only 41 minutes long w/ 2 of that recapping the end of season 6. Because the episode was shortened there were some inconsistencies in the storytelling that prevented the episode from becoming one of the great season openers. However, overall the episode was solid and addressed many concerns that fans had with the quagmire of emotional muck that made up the end of season 6.

Clark seems to be getting back on track, or at least has admitted to many of his failings over the last year, and that is the first step on leading him back towards the right path towards becoming Superman.

7x02 KARA
Rating: 8.5/10

Alright so I have to say that I really loved this episode, and I fear it will be the last episode that I'll whole heartedly adore for a VERY long time. This episode reminded me why I LOVE Smallville.

The opening sequence was so adorable w/ Clark and Lois. I really think that Clark took Lois's trying to save face at the end of CRIMSON too literally and he took it to mean that she has zero feelings for him. He's finding out the hard way that she does care about him...a lot more than she's willing to admit and that puzzles the hell out of him.

I really loved Kara/Clark butting heads - literally and her flying off into the upper atmosphere was way cool!

Loved Clark being overly concerned for Lois when they got back to the Talon and even Chloe being concerned for Lois's health. So long as Lois isn't hedging in on her life otherwise, Chloe is more than happy to keep things great between them, however the second her leggy gorgeous cousin invades other areas of her life - all bets are off. We should've known that the green eyed monster would return for Chloe considering she wore green throughout the entire episode. Isn't that ironic? Don't you think our newest meteor freak would want nothing to do with wearing green?

I might be committing sacrilege as a Clois fan, but I really LOVE Grant. Seriously the interviews I saw w/ him and pictures I was SO unimpressed. But I like the guy's voice, he's tall, and they polished him up enough so that he looks much older than the pictures that I'd seen of him.

God I loved him belittling the hell out of Chloe and her lack of killer instinct. I laughed my ass off when he asked Lois what she'd want to be "star reporter" or Lois blank married to an insurance agent w/ four kinds and forty more pounds on her. I of course, immediately pictured Clark in that scenario and pictured that would be his boring life w/ Blahna. I then shouted out "CAN YOU PLEASE GIVE THAT SPEECH to CLARK???" LOL!

I suppose I like Grant because I'm sick of people being so freaking phony and nice on this show. I'm THRILLED that someone has taken Saint Chloe down a few pegs and appreciates Lois's skills. I loved how he admired her prose - something that Chloe never gave her credit for. Anyways w/ Clana about to invade and stink up the screen I'm all for letting Lois have a great time.

Kara - god how can you not love her? I love that she's a royal pain in Clark's mighty fine ass. I love that she's a show off and yet Laura's already bringing this wonderful vulnerability to her role. I really loved the scene with Clark/Kara on the roof w/ the super-hearing lesson, the fx were really great and visually exciting to watch.

I love that Kara's already not impressed with Chloe which again falls into my belief that her opinion of Chloe will sink even further when she hears that she broke Jimmy's heart. They're so paving the road for Kara and Lois to become friends...because Lois is resourceful like she is.

The barn scene w/ Clark and Kara was so adorable. Seriously - I literally pounded my armchairs when he flashed her that sweet dazzling smile of his. I literally screamed "SEE Clark CAN be happy WITHOUT LANA!!!" AUUURRRGGGGGHHHHH!!!!!! Hell Clalrk was even all ready to goto his training and he wasn't depressed about it.

I'm not even going to bother mentioning Lex/Lana other than to say I loved Lex's last scene...he closes the door on one obsession and opens the door to a new one.

Anywhoo - I thought the writing overall was much better in KARA than BIZARRO. The episode wasn't as disjointed feeling and was very well edited.

Episode 7x03 FIERCE Review

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Rating 4/10

Seriously the episode was a cheap filler - when I say cheap we had what, 4 FX shots throughout the whole thing?

What was up w/ that sappy emo John Tesh wanna be crappy music that assaulted our ears throughout the whole episode? God we're going to have to hear that ALL season, aren't we? Was that Shelby howling and wondering where his Lois is?

Thank god we saw Shelby and he barked and backed away from Lana! Good dog! WOOF!

Clark's been 100% Lanafied again - the second he saw her his brain went out the window. It looks like after 1 conversation w/ Lana, Lex managed to get wonked by it also as he pleaded to Kara to "be honest with me." ::)

Did you all notice the absence of the line "I'd never lie to you Clark?" I bet from here on out they're cutting out all of Lana's evil deeds so that Clark can go down as the bad guy in their relationship ::)

I have to say I'm rather enjoying EVERYONE taking Chloe down a peg or two. Although I'm confused on why Clark was leaving it to Chloe to come up w/ a legal way to get Kara out of jail. Did her "night classes" at MetU suddenly involve taking Law courses??

The saving grace in this episode was Jimmy and Kara. Could their stolen glances BE any cuter? God I loved Jimmy unwittingly putting the fear of god into Chloe by calling her out on being prejudiced towards freaks and declaring open season against them all. The green eyed monster flared for a second there when Chloe saw Kara and Jimmy gazing at each other.

I do have to say my favorite moment in the episode had to be the heat vision lesson. I laughed my ass off when Clark got covered in watermelon [image]

Seriously - I NEED an animated gif of that [image]

Seriously Clark always wanted a younger brother - bet he never bargained on having to basically raise a bratty teenage sister

BTW anyone else notice that the shirt that Clark was wearing was the one he wore in the Lois loft scene at the end of CRIMSON and it's now so small that it can't even be buttoned? Nice to know Tom bulked up all summer so he could have the most physically challenging thing to do in this episode was stoop over a quarter of a mile to hug Lana and to get thrown onto the ground and get greenK fried.

Kudos to the GreenK (which IS a main character/actor in the opening credits afterall) for a stellar performance for once again bringing down The Dork of Steel and being successfully blown up by Kara.

Aww cousin love...I love Kara, if we're going to have to endure Blahna thank god that she's there at least to soften the boring blahzone...Seriously, could the Lana/Clark scenes have BEEN any more boring? Compare those to Clark/Lois's first scenes together where even when Clark's all down in the dumper emotionally his brain at least worked beyond 1mph.

New things to count for the season:

Clark getting beat up by a girl: 2 (KARA in KARA , and freak in FIERCE)
Clark being saved by a girl: 1 (KARA in FIERCE)

This was a totally forgettable episode. It's bad when the highlights include seeing Shelby and Kara blowing up a watermelon...all over
Clark. However, those 2 scenes actually managed to earn this episode a four - because once again we got to see that Shelby is smarter than his owner.

Cure 8 x 04
Rating 8/10

Obligatory shout out to Svfan who currently has hi-def, hi-res gallery of CURE caps now available for download!

Alright well what a difference a week and a major star on an episode can make. Seriously, I mean it. Other than hoping Dean Cain would make a much bigger impact on the episode than Lynda Carter's turn in PROGENY last season, I didn't have very high expectations for this episode. Thankfully my fears were misplaced and the episode was enjoyable from beginning to end.

Dr. Knox

Dean did an outstanding job as the seemingly mild mannered, human benefactor doctor who wanted to rid freaks of their powers so that they could live normal lives. This of course is SMALLVILLE and nothing is as it appears to be. Instead Dr. Knox finds special freaks and chops them to bits, stealing their rock infected organs to place into his comatose girlfriend in the hopes of making her immortal like he is so that he won't have to spend eternity alone. Does Frankenstein come to your mind?

I was rather happy to see that they chopped out the gross dissection of the bee girl from the Director's cut, that was rather unnecessary, especially considering the final confrontation with Clark where we got to see Knox crying after he destroyed the machine that was keeping his girl alive and ended up killing her instead showed him in the end to be a desperate man.

There were some truly wonderful moments – like Clark waiting in Lex's hospital room to get information out of him about Dr. Knox. For all that Clark's view of Lex has severely changed since earlier seasons, he still begrudgingly believes him. When Lex told Clark that Knox was immortal there was this very strange moment where you could almost feel that had things not gone sour between the one time friends, it's very possible that they could've been the greatest of allies. Lex planting the seed of doubt about Lana's motives to Clark actually had zero malice or jealousy attached to it – but it did something very unusual and selfish for Lex, it served as a genuine warning to be careful of trusting her too much.

The other brilliant moments were the now lingering realization for Clark that he will outlive everyone that he knows. Seeing the horrible extremes that Knox would goto to preserve the life of his love only made Clark further see the darker side of obsession for love. You could even almost hear him wishing that Knox wouldn't have been so evil as he shouted out to him “we're not as different as you might think.” It might've been nice for Clark to have another friend who will also never grow old. Alas that didn't happen.

Clana Bliss

Here's something I would've never thought I'd say – but I think the Clana scenes were some of the most interesting parts of this episode.

Back on the farm things seem to living in Utopian bliss with Lana and Clark united. Lana acted like the dutiful wife making Clark's favorite breakfast food and talking about their relationship to his cousin. Later we see Lana in the barn working on her computer and cutting and arranging floral displays for the home. Very domestic indeed, and shockingly not as nauseating as it could have been.

I found myself wondering why in the hell I felt like I was reliving Deja Vu with the Clana storyline in this episode and then the arrival of Manhunter reminded me why.

The Clana scenes directly mirrors last winter's disappointing LABYRINTH, the episode where Clark is possessed by a Phantom and conjures up a fantasy dreamworld to live in where everyone thinks he's nuts for claiming that he has powers and Lana is a perfect little china doll, unblemished or tarnished because she never knew Lex Luthor.

Check this out: [Cue up sappy, crappy John Tesh elevator music...]

Lana plays the dutiful, sweet, pure, chaste even girlfriend by applying very boring pecks on Clark's cheek.

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Lana hangs out in the barn as her place for finding solitude and quite contemplation. (Note the close-up pic – they even used THAT Lana photo in tonight's episode that Clark found just lying around...one I may add that I don't think we've seen in any other episodes.)

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And she sweetly says things to Clark...that he wants to hear all of the while hiding darker purposes.

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[Screeeecchhhhhh! Music ends.]

Much like LABYRINTH things aren't as they appear to be. Several things of note from the first scene with Lana/Clark in the kitchen – first off Lana was quite the bitch and told Kara that she made pancakes for Clark and didn't appear to be willing to offer any to Kara. When she said they were out of syrup Clark supersped and got some causing Kara to scold him for doing exactly what he keeps telling her NOT to do which is needlessly show off your powers. As usual, enter Lana onto the scene, Clark's mind goes blank over anything and everything except his perfect little princess.

When Clark mentioned that Manhunter was from Mars, Lana's eyes grew wide and I believe she gulped. **Chip** **Chip** **Chip** Living with two Kryptonians is one thing, but will Lana be able to deal with the circle of friends that Clark associates with? It makes you wonder who Oliver will be bringing with him mid-season. Could it be someone else who's an alien or strange being to completely freakify out Lana?

The scene in the barn was far from sweet – Lana was privately Iming someone and wiring money to them. When Clark asks about things, she shuts off her IM sessions, covering her wrong doings and must backpedal when she inadvertently lets it slip that she knows of Dr. Knox. She tells him that she's trying to help the meteor freaks. Clicking off screens, coming up w/ smooth cover lies – Lana learned well from the master of such arts – her ex-husband, Lex. In fact the scene almost could've mirrored one of the earlier seasons Clex scenes w/ Lex smoothly covering over something he was doing and Clark bought into the lie. **Chip** **Chip** **Chip**

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I actually really enjoyed the last Clana scene it was very well acted out by both Tom and Kristin. Lana of course was back to wearing pink while she was putting an arrangement of flowers together. Clark, who appears to somehow have managed to magically grow up over the last few (nights? Weeks?) turned on his disapproving Jonathan Kent stare and confronted Lana about the 10 million dollars. Lana pulled another Luthor trick card out of her pocket and instantly created a diversion stating that Lex was trying to put a wedge between them and then followed it up with a pretty lie about using the money to help the freaks. I mean, my god, how many times has Lex told Clark that he was doing something to help others when in fact he was lying right to his face? No wonder Clark didn't appear to accept her words at face value. Then as she snuggled up to a rather unconvinced Clark, she told him that she'd never hide anything from him and the look on Lana's face as she said the words spoke volumes of her complete awareness that she was deceiving Clark.

What makes this all of the more nefarious and devious on Lana's part is that Lex is still in his remorseful, repentive stage for the season – so even though Lana does have valid reasons for thinking Lex might want Clark and Lana apart because he certainly was squirrelly enough in the past to do every despicable thing that he could think of to do so, this go around, he wasn't.

Lana's motives for lying to Clark are entirely her own. We found out at the end of the episode when the real Lana Luthor re-emerges – hair tied back into a severe ponytail dressed completely in black, that she's got a secret room set aside in Metropolis where she's got her own funhouse of horrors to spy on Lex; the same way that Lex secretly used to have his own room to gather all of his evidence to spy on Clark in season 3.

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Mrs. Luthor may have left the mansion permanently and will likely leave her married name behind – but she is a Luthor through and through.

Manhunter/Kara

So the first dice has been cast in opening up the can of worms for the messy past of the house of El. Clark's stupor for not knowing what to do and diplomatically trying to stay out of the battling crossfires of Kara and J'ohnn's battle ended up causing Kara to fly off in disgust. I truly enjoy Manhunters showing up occasionally to spout out wisdom to Clark and offer help. Clark's confusion over what to believe with his Kryptonian family is so far is very believable.

Kara/Chloe/Jimmy

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In some ways I found the quest for Chloe's cure to be rather boring in the episode because there was little suspense in her getting trapped by Knox – we all know she wasn't going to die or go through with the surgery. About the only real interesting thing that we learned was that Chloe's powers come from the fact that her heart is filled with meteor rocks. This explains why her power is so heavily linked on her emotions and why it only manifests when she's severely stressed out or emotionally in pain. I also did love Chloe telling Clark to put a sock in it when he came to her to ask for help to locate Kara's crystal. It's about time that she finally stands up for herself and stops dropping everything all of the time to be Clark's beck and call girl.

Instead the most interesting parts of the episode with Chloe surrounded the Chimmy relationship. Allison and Aaron truly sparkle on the screen together. Allison has these very cute smiles that she reserves only for Aaron and it's very apparent that Aaron loves working with Allison.

The box of memories was so cute! I loved the photo strip where they obviously had someone photoshop in season 3 pictures of Chloe w/ a younger Aaron. One of the things I really love about Chimmy as a couple – although they got together way too young, when they met up again they struck up their romance again. Chloe's only been w/ one guy in her life and truly he's a knight in shining armor...a knight who Kara can't keep her eyes off of.

For all that Allison and Aaron have great chemistry together – tonight sealed the deal for me that Laura and Aaron positively CRACKLE with life and energy that I sometimes feel is missing w/ Chimmy. It's not that I don't love Jimmy/Chloe together but I sometimes just don't “feel” it. Kara and Jimmy on the other-hand pulsate with chemistry. It will be a lot of fun seeing how they develop over the season.

The Chimmy breakup probably has to go down as one of the most engaging moments on SMALLVILLE. I found myself absolutely moved by both Allison and Aaron's performances and couldn't take my eyes off of the screen. Both of them have grown so much as actors, it truly was a remarkably bittersweet scene to watch. Truly, you understood why Chloe was so reserved in saying anything – being Clark's confident for so many years taught her the power of self-preservation. If Jimmy hadn't jumped on the “all freaks are bad” wagon, she might've been able to trust him...however, his gusto in believing her old cause was every bit as real as Clark's fears in revealing his true self to Lana when she openly spat out her hatred for aliens in season 5.

Overall a very solid episode – it almost puts the stain of last week's crap out of my mind. Thankfully my hope is getting restored in the show again. Let's hope that they keep up the quality and keep the Clana sappiness to nill.

7x05 ACTION

Rating: 3/10

SV Fan's ACTION Gallery is up!

Well we were expecting this to be a filler episode and shocker Al/Miles delivered with another Blahna episode that completely focused on her, even when she wasn't in the scenes it seemed like EVERYONE was talking about Lana, Lana, Lana...thankfully Lois didn't bring her name up once. This script had originally been designed by DeKnight last year and it's obvious that Millar/Gough pulled it out of mothballs and used it to stick it to all of their “Internet & Comic Book fans” who have been complaining about the direction of the show (yeah as admin of OpSaveCK I can tell you – I'm REALLY pissed.) The whole episode stunk of their disdain for those who disapprove of what they're doing to our future Superman – from Lana being the center of “Angel Warrior's” universe to the crazed internet stalker fan wanting to kill Lana. Ben was used as a means of trying to show us that killing Lana isn't the problem – the problem is Clark as was illustrated in the last scene. But we'll get to that later.

Early spoilers said that there would be references to the “no flight no tights” rules and making fun of Warrior Angel's future wife appearing in the film before she was supposed to. Obviously, they decided that Lois wasn't even worthy of making fun of and Clark, well his future identity got ripped to shreds. Other than seeing him save Rachel Davenport a couple of times – oh and of course save Blahna in a highly stilted and poorly, poorly acted scene by Kristin (hello why did she calmly just lay rigid looking around w/ huge doe eyes as she plummeted to her death??)

Frankly, I found the whole movie set stuff to be really, really boring and Chloe seemed to have zippo in the way of actual content in the episode. From what we could tell she didn't get a huge byline either, so other than again sporting green tank tops and jewelry and acting all star struck and acting as Clark's choogler – she had little to do. I really don't get why they keep dressing her in green considering she should loathe the color because it represents her freakness. I'd think once that she embraces that part of herself (if she ever does) then she might be willing to sport the color, but having her wear it practically every episode right now is just WEIRD.

Christina Millan was alright – sweet, but utterly forgettable. The B line story was about the only redeeming thing in the episode. Michael Rosenbaum, Erica Durance, John Glover, and hell even Michael Cassidy gave top notch performances for their parts of the episode.

Lois's headstrong determination to go after her Luthor lead was so smart and right on with her character. I loved her flashing one of her usual “yeah right” looks after Grant told her to lay off of the story.

Her undercover foray into Lex's office was AWESOME! Erica makes one sexy as hell uptight office chick in glasses and a bun ( I guess if Clark won't don his real disguise, we'll settle for Lois to man up for us and take his place too.) The 2 minutes of sparring between her and Michael deserved 3 of the 3 stars that I gave this episode alone. I so can't WAIT for them to start really going after each other all season, Michael and Erica have great chemistry and can carry off facing off as intellectual equals, which is something that he never had with Lana. You have to love that for all that Lex tried to smack Lois and put her into her place, she still managed to get the upper hand w/ knowing about Lana's secret land purchase. Lex knew he was bested by a woman he once belittled as a “muffin peddler.”

I enjoyed Lois's final exchange w/ Grant. I don't know what the hell he's up to – is he a Lex stooge? Does he just have his own agenda? I don't know. I do like that whatever his mission is in being there, he's obviously distracted by Lois, I actually rather enjoy watching him wriggle with happiness whenever Lois rips him a new one – nice to see that at least someone around the show appreciates her for her wit.

Poor Lionel! Seriously I couldn't watch as he ripped his hand out of that bear trap...ewwww! Nice lady that Lana hired – not only did she get a psycho but a major pot grower. What was she hoping that Lex wouldn't only get framed for kidnapping and holding his father hostage but they could throw on an illegal drug charge as well??? NICE Lana. I really do have a problem w/ them constantly having things happen in “forests” - hello – exactly how many forests are there in Kansas? Not that many!

I'm just glad that Lionel's back, the show's been lacking w/o much in the way of adult influence on it. His final scene with Lana in the barn was wonderfully balanced – menacing, yet with a strange undercurrent of fatherly emotion. John Glover really is a class act.

I guess this leads us to Blahna. First off the director on this episode should be SHOT for allowing this cut of this scene to make it to film:

Exactly HOW tall WAS the box that Kristin was standing on? Unless she jumped onto one of the fence posts that Clark was banging into the ground and straddled it, there is no way that shrimpy Lana could ever look Clark in the eye like that. Bad, BAD editing/directing!

That being said that scene was AWKWARD. Clark kept avoiding her suggestive comment, their “banter” just came off as icky and gross. Compare that to Clark/Lois in CRIMSON and their banter was very frisky and mature – Clark/Lana talking about anything remotely like sleeping together makes one's skin crawl. Tom's got that doped out Clana grin down pat and it just makes it that much more creepy to watch him gaze all googley eyed at her when it seems quite obvious that he's really not that into her.

As for Lana – she's back to bald faced lying to Clark. The scene on the phone just had me shaking my head. Her whacking Lionel with the shovel and then acting like nothing happened later on was almost an exact mirror of Lex killing the doctor in PROMISE and then acting like he had no idea what Lionel was talking about when Lionel slapped him later and confronted him on his actions. Lana tried to sugar coat her cover story of being in China but you can tell that even she realized that her faking her death plans just sounded lame when spoken aloud.

Has Lana just gone insane? She's certainly acting like it...she's as crazy as Lex was last season, however, it's even worse because she's deliberately doing all of this and keeping what she's doing from Clark. Her wearing her baby doll WHITE tops is just nauseating. The girl isn't fit to wear even white panties because her soul is so gray/black now.

She didn't even crack when Lionel questioned her. I guess we can understand why Clark's so blindly devoted to her, Lana has become the greatest actress in the world – convincing EVERYONE that she's a sweet angel and playing her part as susie homemaker, however, you can get glimpses where she's just screaming inside. Like her suggesting that Clark and she go and get busy – obviously we're getting back to season 5 where she hounded him week after week to have sex with her and got rejected. BURN!

No Clana kissing either. That's just weird because Lana usually initiates it and slobbers all over Clark...excuse me, no she tries to inhale his lips off of his face. You'd think that after he jumped off of a 40 story building to save her scrawny ass that she'd be all aglow and want to kiss him, but no, she settles for a nose rub. Yeah I usually give my dog a big kiss on his nose as a reward when he went outside and did his business – you'd think the brat would at least kiss the guy who just saved her from becoming road splatter. I personally think that both of them know that they're just not into each other anymore but are so used to playing their roles that they're refusing to let go. Whatever...Clana bores me.

Onto Clark's last scene. So they gave us this promo picture of Clark looking all happy at the cape:

And instead they air this grumpy faced scene:

To add final insult Clark takes it and dumps it on a fence post and defiantly marches back towards the house to chase after a woman who wasn't even the slightest bit interested in finding out what was in the box. What the hell kind of a girlfriend does that? There's nothing else to do on the farm, wouldn't you think that she'd be curious on what's inside of it?

Why did this particular scene piss me off? OpSaveCk mailed in over 100 letters with this picture on it and sent in ripped capes to Millar/Gough.

They gave Superman fans something we've been wanting to see for eons, Clark holding a part of his iconic costume...and they crapped all over it. They again reminded us that Clark is holding himself back and that Lana is only a symptom of extremely passive reluctance to do anything about accepting who he is. Lana is an excuse, tied up in a pretty white shirt to give him a reason to stay put on the farm and not become the man who he needs to become. Lana even gave him an out, telling him that she didn't want to be the one holding him back. This actually doesn't bother me that much – Lana in the comics usually gets it that Clark's future is bigger than her pea brain can handle, so for once they're actually giving us a glimpse of Lana becoming her iconic self.

Frankly, I don't know how in the hell the writers are going to get out of this black hole that they've written w/ Clark's character. He's so freaking insecure and unwilling to embrace the rest of the world around him and acknowledge that other people might need his help – I don't know if there is anything out there that will manage to actually launch him on his journey.

I guess we're all like Ben...stuck in our padded cells waiting...waiting that some giant lightning bolt will blaze out of the sky and burn Clark's butt and make him realize that there is life beyond the farm. Once he embraces who he is, he'll find that peace that he's been so desperate to find all of these years and the normalcy that he's been so desperately craving. Right now, Clark makes me sick. He's a shell of the man who will become Superman. Tom Welling looks the part, yet with the way the writers are continuing to pigeon hole him into passive, dopey, farmer Kent mode – even Tom's huge biceps aren't enough to make me find Clark to be the slightest bit attractive. And unfortunately, I fear that the character assassination will only get worse before we are even offered the slightest shimmer of light in the darkness that Superman is coming.

7x06 LARA
aka "When Creepy Kryptonians Attack!"

Rating: 6/10

Well I wasn't bored watching the episode, but there was a lot in it that left a very bad taste in my mouth. I had to watch the beginning after watching the episode because I'd missed Kara's space out moment. Anyways - Kara is by far the most interesting character on the show these days, there's just no way around it, so much so that I'm wondering if in fact this season is all a plot by Millar/Gough – to make Clark into a total brainless toadstool so that everyone would end up cheering for Kara which would inspire the CW to greenlight her spin off show for next year.

Seriously...don't you think it's a possibility?

Tonights episode was at least consistent story-wise with CURE a part of that being that I've developed a growing apathy towards Clark. My sister who's on the road called me and said that she's figured out his problem - Clark has spent so many years relying now on Chloe and others around him to provide answers for him, that he's completely lost his own sense of curiosity in the world around him. Tonight's episode certainly showcased that to its fullest extent. Not to mention the fact that he's become creepily selfish and greedy...we'll get to that later.

The episode opens w/ Kara daydreaming about her last moments on Krypton and her last loving exchange w/ her seemingly benevolent father giving her some very wise advice before putting her into her own lifeboat. Suddenly she's awakened by the sound of plane engines and narrowly misses flying into a plane, which of course ended up alerting the wrong people that she's out and about.

Enter Clark and Chloe – Clark arrives and tries to figure out if Chloe knows anything about Kara's whereabouts...again because the human Chloogle machine should really be doing the thinking and investigating for the most powerful ~~human~~ being on the planet (insert major eye-roll.) Clark takes one look at her screen for Lana's “foundation” mentions it and when Chloe tells him to blow it off, he does. Here we go – case of Clark not caring about anyone else's problems that don't directly relate to his own, which is of course ironic considering that we know Lana's “foundation” is a front for something nefarious that she's got squirreled up her pink and perky sleeves.

But I digress...Of course Chloe has an answer, adorable Jimmy shows up and asks about Kara...nice to know someone is genuinely happy that she's on our planet and is curious over what happened to her. Clark grills Jimmy – Jimmy spills the beans on what Kara and he had been investigating and Clark leaves to go seek out help elsewhere. I was happy to see Clark not go all postal on Jimmy which would've been a last season response from him. Now he's just been so Blahnaified by life that he has very little passion to do anything.

Chloe btw is rapidly earning a one way ticket on the CrapExpress in my book. WTF was her problem tonight with blowing off Kara being in trouble “You're her cousin not her father Clark.” Hellooooo if ANYONE should understand why Clark is worried about Kara being a loose canon and risking exposure to our 2 VERY dense Kryptonians, it should be Chloe. The girl is obviously clouded w/ growing jealousy and is also infected by the “it's all about me” virus that has taken hold of Clark.

But again, I digress.

Lionel/Clark Reunion

Seriously what the hell is up with Clark? He seemed genuinely happy to see Lionel up and about and back amongst the living and then proceeds to lie right to his face TWICE within a matter of 2 minutes of their conversation. Luckily Lionel is smart enough to see through Clark's lies. Some thanks that Lionel gets for telling Clark the complete truth about the missile silo and later getting the BDA and Kara's butts out of the fire oh yeah and working on needling his son again to advise him to back off from the Kents. **Sigh**

Clark depresses me.

Moving on...

Kara's Investigation

So here is everything that is right about Kara and wrong about Clark. Kara who's only been on Earth for a few weeks manages to score one tiny tip off of Jimmy and then launches her very own undercover investigation on unearthing her crystal. Her coming onto geek boy was adorable and would make Lois proud w/ how handily she got him to cough up the whereabouts of her crystal. I can only infer that before Clark actually bothered to LOOK for his cousin he in fact hit the lab himself, somehow got in and stole the crystal w/o alerting security...nice plothole guys.

Anyways once again we have Kara giving the verbal smackdown on Clark and winning in spades. She also showed her Kryptonian might by blasting her idiotic cousin into the wall and flying off leaving him to stare up at the sky and scowl.

Kara returns to Metropolis and further enlists Jimmy's help in her investigation and shows that in a short period of time, Kara has developed mad hacking skills that put madam Chloogle to shame. Kara goes to the Luthor manor looking for her crystal and gets caught by Mr. Nasty Government guy. Lex tries coming to her rescue but of course gets himself zapped w/ a dart and is useless...as he continues to be for the season so far. Obviously the pink Kryptonite still runs freely through his veins and is preventing any blood to reach his testicles.

Kara wakes up and finds herself trapped in a Frankenstein lab of horrors. I was rather pleased to hear the allusion back to Summerholt and the tank from MEMORIA – it actually was a very nice way to tie back to what was inarguably one of the best episodes ever for the series. We got the further tieback later w/ Lex telling Lionel that he learned how to treat women by watching his example with how he treated his wife, Lillian. It's a rare thing for SV to actually dip far back into it's memory banks to recall anything that happened even 2 episodes prior to the one currently running – but FOUR seasons? Good job! Must've been the fact that this episode was partly written by a new writer and he probably spent his summer watching all of the seasons and like most people, probably really loved MEMORIA (which of course was our first introduction to Lara.)

Anyways off to shiny dreamland we go and we get to see the very lovely and radiant Helen Slater who barely looks mid 30's much less in her 40s. Of course I'm sure the fuzzy, bright filters helped with that – just ask Jane Fonda, they take YEARS off of a person's appearance. For some VERY strange reason when they decided that this blessed event – the Birth of Kal-El would take place in 1986 and Kara popped up through the portal, she arrived wearing 80's preppy clothing...pink (was it Izod?) polo shirt w/ the collars flipped up and hair in a 50's throwback ponytail. Kara is a smart cookie and figures out how to use a Polaroid camera (one that I am happy to say looks like it could've been made in the late 80's...way to go prop guys.) It is assuring to know though that if Chloogle was to croak tomorrow and if Clark didn't further piss off his cousin, Kara could probably become his seeing/doing eye dog for him. Then again thankfully, Kara would never put up with that crap.

We also found out that Kara suggested the name for Clark - more reasons to really, really detest Clark when he's acting like a jerk around her.

Enter Mr. Creepy. Ok Zor-El seemed like a great guy in Kara's dream, but seriously the man was disturbed. In true Goughlar fashion we learn that the El brothers did not battle over political ideology like they did in the comics...no they sparred over...LARA! No wonder Clark's so hopelessly lost in trying to go forward in life when it's in his very DNA to be trapped inside triangles on top of triangles.

The problem is now I don't know who's creepier Zor-El or Clark. Seriously, I remember thinking “WTF is he talking about?” when he mentioned to Kara later at the farm “I hope to see her again someday” in referring to Lara. His proudly showing off Kara's crystal to Lana and proclaiming that his mother's DNA was in it just left me speechless. I mean Kara was going crazy trying to find that damned thing because she desperately needed it to find a bit of peace in what happened to Krypton and instead her cousin stole and hid it from her. I know he was supposed to find it and bring it to Jor-El, instead he's keeping it for his own selfish purposes.

Instead of Clark focusing on his mother's disgusted and fearful cries over Zor-El experimenting on her, Clark seems to think this is A-OK???? Good lord no wonder he's not the slightest bit interested in investigating Lex for his illegal cloning experiments, if he knew what Lex had done, at this point, I think Clark would actually ask him to help bring his mother back to life and clone her. At that point I'd say ADIOS SV, you're no longer associated w/ Superman. Please let him run off and marry Lana and let's just have the Supergirl show...please, because unfortunately Superman is dead.

I'm seriously thanking god that we've got spoilers coming along that show that this little creepy plotline will be taken care of right quick. Clark did absolutely nothing redeeming in this episode – I don't consider him pounding Kara back to life as a heroic act because if indeed he DID swipe the crystal before Kara went into that lab he should've really shown his love/trust for her by handing it over to her in the first place which would've avoided her getting caught.

I don't even know how to end my review. I can't say that I liked this episode although there were a few bright spots – I love Kara pulling off the silky red dress. Laura is so wonderfully muscled and FIT – it's a refreshing change on TV to see a girl who's not skin and bones as a role model who's got nice shapely calves and arms. I loved Jimmy's reaction when Kara kissed him and when he blew off Chloe. I did like the fact that Lana maybe had 5 minutes screen time total in this episode which is something to savor considering that she'll probably be in every scene next week. Nutshell – Kara rocks, Jimmy rocks, dead Lara Rocks, everyone else blows.

7x08 BLUE
Rating 8/10

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I am blue no more....

Obligatory shout out SV fan has caps up for BLUE!

*Opens medicine bottle filled w/ my bi-polar meds, chug a handful*

Well I didn't watch last week's crapfest...hence no review. This week I was fully expecting to be royally pissed off again and was thiiiiiisssss cloossseeee to swearing off this show for good. ^$@#^%$@^!$% Millar/Gough!

*Chugs second handful of meds *

Alright so seriously, this episode ROCKED! The main theme of this episode seemed to be all about choices and even though there was a lot going on, it was mostly about CLARK!

First off after weeks and weeks of being subjected to Clark's doped out Lanathesia smile, it appeared to be 100% gone in this episode – that being said, something miraculous happened...Clark suddenly became hot again! (Of course I'm free of all images of him from last week so that might've helped.)

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Anyways, we open with Clark staring at a photo and this time it's of Lara instead of Lana (seriously S&S should be shot for how many characters they gave practically the same L names, don't you think?)

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Gotta love this season where they continue to at least mention characters even when they're not around. Kara coming in and chatting up her surfing date w/ Jimmy was way cute and was a good explanation on why he wasn't available to help Lois w/ her stakeout of the Mayor. I really liked the first interaction between Kara and Clark I felt like that they were mostly done w/ their battling. Granted, Clark was a dumbass during part of the episode and didn't trust her, but you know only so much can seep into that thick gray matter between his ears.

Anyways Clark sensing his parents calling out to him and confiding that w/ Kara was a wonderfully warm moment, particularly her reply that her parents would always be with her – a comment that becomes haunting as the episode unfolds for her.

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Clark of course goes into the barn and does his dorkbutt move of taking the crystal up to the Fortress and once again ignores Jor-El's warning that he can't save his mother because she's already dead. Clark of course, once again doesn't listen to Jor-El, slams the crystal into place, gets zapped by a blue light and Lara is brought to life.

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I liked the continuity of Clark getting an energy ray shot through his body for Zor-El's evil DNA test to work.

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The arrival home was nice, Lara was of course happy to start with and we got a happy Kara/Lara reunion. Then of course Clark had to do what I'm sure he was fearing the most, earning the blistering disapproving stares of BOTH Kara and Lara when they both learned that Clark used Zor-El's crystal to create a replicated form of his mother.

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I have to give props to Tom and Laura in this scene, Laura did such a wonderful, wounded animal impression when she realized that Clark had betrayed her by hiding her crystal from her. Tom gave one of his signature guilty expressions that we haven't seen since the days of Jonathan. I think it might've been that moment that the icy walls that had started to build around my heart for Clark began to melt and started to let the love back in. Granted the man-boy currently has horrific taste in women, but well he does get away with a lot because he's pretty...rather like my Golden Retriever used to after he'd swiped something that he wasn't supposed to and ate it.

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Next we cut to the DP and Lois and Grant are discussing some photos that she took of the mayor and his nanny. The photos came out atrociously fuzzy and Grant suggested that next time she goes on a stakeout, she take Olsen with her. This firmly puts Lois out all night on a stakeout, hence her absence at home. She then gets a smooch from lover boy and asks if he hired her just because he was hot for her and he returns w/ her article on the fight club from COMBAT and said that he'd been wanting to hire her since then.

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Let me mention 2 things – one Erica looked amazing in this episode, even w/ her hair all messy thrown back in a bun she was very polished. And this shot of her and Grant kissing might be one of the hottest shots ever taken on the show...very adult, sensual, and sexy as hell.

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Chloe then manages to sneak a peek into Lois's hidden love life and appears to be (quite rightfully) rather stunned by the revelation. Gotta give props to Allison for beautifully depicting the shock over her face w/o over acting.

Poor Kara – the girl is completely distraught over knowing that her evil father is on the loose and when she confronts him she doesn't know what to do. Kara's had no problem being disobedient to Clark but we can infer that she was always the dutiful daughter to Zor-El and knowing that he's on the loose and ready to make trouble was very unsettling to her.

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Kara seemed to be at a crossroads when he arrived and tried to sweet talk her but we've learned that she's made of tougher stuff – her decision to head to the Fortress was one of desperation and a desire to try to learn more of what her father's plans were, not her loyalty to him.

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Next scene – Lionel/Zor-El. Once again Lionel's office becomes the showdown headquarters for Clark's crazed enemies to arrive at. This time Jor-El's vessel found himself staring up the long arms of one pissed off replicated evil freaky Kryptonian hell bent on exacting revenge on his brother. I have to say, I really like Zor-El as an enemy. The actor who plays him is creepy and plays his part w/ a wonderful blend of Pyscho meets Sylar. Poor Lionel gets beat up AGAIN this season and thrown across his office. He's going to need to reserve his own room in the Lana Lang head trauma wing at Smallville General if this continues.

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Thank god for Clark's arrival and he super kicked Zor-El out of the window like yesterday's garbage. The window shattering was rather a nice homage to PHOENIX when he and Jonathan took a leap out of the window together or in VENGEANCE when he saved Lionel's life. Clark was utterly selfless and didn't immediately ask for anything from Lionel. The fact that he showed up when he did suggested actual thought on his behalf that he figured out on his own that Lionel might become a target.

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Back to the DP and the awkward Cousin showdown. I have to say that I was rather behind Chloe and her verbal smackdown of Lois. For so long Lois has skidded into jobs and flitted in and out of things with a smirk and a wise crack. I actually felt that Chloe's disapproval might've been the first real flicker of her returning some love to her cousin in the way of wanting to encourage her to stay on her current career path. I felt the Chlo-Lo love back. Her advice was sound and Lois did heed it....almost.

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I loved the exchange at the copy machine – Lois was genuine in just wanting to have some fun and trying to keep the 2 things separate and I think that Chloe was just tired of her friends coming to her w/ uncomfortable love life problems and she's just tired of being in the middle of it all.

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We then head to Ollie's apartment and the Lara/Clark conversation about Zor-El, yatta yatta. Clark gets the lovely story about the ring from his father as being a symbol to be passed on.

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Having Clark actually put it on it is a big step for him, it seemed as though he's starting to sense w/ Lara around that maybe Jor-El isn't such a bad guy- by accepting the ring it's a first, baby step towards him moving in the right direction of his destiny.

Then of course we get the mythos inconsistency w/ the blue Kryptonite stripping him of his powers when in fact it's supposed to do nothing. But hey – looky how pretty his eyes looked.

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The Zor-El vs Clark showdown was a lot of fun.

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Again we got to have Zor-El get all grandois and try to convert Clark (like all Kryptonians do and fail) and then Clark promptly gets the snot beat out of him.

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The awakening of Clark from his nightmare continued as he stared at his face in horror and muttered “my powers.” Clark realized that without his powers he'd be helpless to save those around him. This is the first time where Clark has actually lost his abilities and immediately wanted the back (well he did in SPELL but that didn't really count.) This is a huge step for him, instead of seeing them as a curse he felt naked without them.

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Just like in ZOD, Lana became canon fodder for power crazed Kryptonians and was thrown unconscious. Thank god we only had to hear Clark talk about taking her to the hospital and we weren't forced to watch that scene – luckily there was no time in the episode.

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Kara was up at the fortress w/ Lara decided who should slice and dice her dear old psycho Dad when he arrived and showed his true colors and decided to exterminate humanity.

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Poor Kara had to be subjected to her father's very creepy obsession w/ Clark's mother. Lara agreed to be his love slave so long as he didn't hurt Clark...ewww indeed.

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Kara was grossed out.

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This triggered the eclipse. Clark and Chloe's trip back to the barn had one shining moment of AGAIN consistency as Chloe brought Clark the key for the caves so that he could hi-tail it to the Fortress w/ his powers gone.

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I'll get to the Luthor boys later...back at the Fortress Kara confronts her father again after he half-heartedly returned in his quest for Clark. Kara gave him the verbal smackdown that he was wrong that humanity was worth fighting for and protecting. I cheered for her – that was the Kryptonian spirit! Kara was ready to face her destiny! Right?

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Well yeah except that her father began to strangle her for her disobedience.

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Like a true hero Clark arrived in the nick of time armed w/ the foe to all Kryptonians – a hunk of green K and proceeded put Zor-El out for a while....

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...Long enough for Lara and he to have one last heart to heart and Lara had to remind him that he'd lost her long ago but that she'd always be there for him. He had to destroy the crystal or all would be lost. She plead with him to kill the crystal and Zor-El. Kara jumped at he father giving Clark enough time to man up and shatter the crystal and ring to bits.

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Poor Kara got the short end of the stick on this little adventure – she woke up soaking wet in the middle of Detroit w/ amnesia and all alone. Good news? She doesn't remember that her father tried to kill her, bad news she doesn't know who she is. So much for Kara being a step towards becoming the true Supergirl. Now at some point Clark will likely have to reteach her heritage to her or help her to remember. Her Kryptonian heritage and memories are all that she has - for her to lose them is heartbreaking.

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So I guess we should talk about the barn Clana scene. I loved that poor Clark was distraught over Kara, Lana of course had to turn things around and try to convince Clark that his desire to see his mother again wasn't a bad thing. It's a wonderful reminder of her lack of thought about anyone else but her own selfish desire to find her parents again in VOID and nearly killed Clark in the process.

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Clark of course forgave Lana for being a twit and excused her by saying that everyone does things that they regret. There did seem to be a difference in the scene though – Clark told her something to the effect that she had a choice not to fall on the wrong path. The way that he said it had undertones of Jonathan Kent lurking in there – slightly challenging, peppered with guilt, and even threatening her to chose the right path. It was again a step in the right direction for him. Clark wouldn't/couldn't ever become Superman if he didn't forgive Lana for her crimes – Superman's all about forgiveness, so it would actually be out of character for him not to forgive her. I do have a feeling that this was his final gauntlet that he threw down to her, however, “get on the right path or you'll be hitting the street.”

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Lana also was wearing VERY gaudy, very Luthor gold eye-makeup. I don't think that was a makeup malfunction – I think it's a sign that she already knows which path she has chosen, but isn't yet ready to walk it.

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Lois & Chloe – well I forgot to mention Grant/Lois not breaking it off, Lois ended up lying to Chloe that she did break it off after Grant ripped her a new one over her seriously slow typing skills. Chloe was staunchly supportive of Lois's decision and when Lois's phone beeped and she saw Grants message, her parting smile that led to a frown was all that we needed to know that Lois/Grant are officially history. Lying doesn't become Lois – I have a feeling we'll see the breakup in GEMINI.

We'll move onto Clark in the Fortress – I loved Clark's overwhelming remorse and concern for Kara and his getting angry when Jor-El dismissed her disappearance. I loved Jor-El bitch-slapping Clark for not listening to him and that he couldn't help w/ Kara because HE had nothing to do with her disappearance. You've also got to love his grumbling annoyance at his son for refusing to listen or LEARN from any of his mistakes. Clark has needed to be told by authority figures that he's been acting like an ass and I'm very glad to report that Jor-El took up the sword handily and smote his simpering boy a mighty blow.

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The little blast at the end was completely unexpected and I found myself cheering for Jor-El slapping some Kryptonian tough love onto his son. Poor Clark, I mean would it have hurt to have humbly apologized to your bodiless father? What in the hell did Jor-El do to him? I doubt he would take away his powers, at this point that's not going to help him grow up any. I have no idea what he did but I'm now anxious for Gemini to find out! Maybe he gave his son his balls back...I don't know.

Finally we'll close with Lex/Grant and the Julian riddle.

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There are a few possibilities for this making sense:

1)Grant is Julian Luthor. He's actually Jullan Luthor and everything went down as Lex said: Lionel put him up for adoption after Lily went nuts.

Pros for argument: Yeah...I can't think of any either.

Cons for argument: Lionel LOVED Julian more than anything, even if Lily went crazy he would've NEVER given away Julian. Just because he did that w/ Lucas (right?) doesn't mean he would've done it again, particularly since Julian was a blood, legal, legitimate heir.

2) He is a Clone. In his ever growing madness Lex created a clone of his long dead brother, came up with a slightly plausible storyline on how he would've lived, filled the clone's head w/a backstory and is keeping him as his personal pet.

Pros for Argument: They're really bringing up MEMORIA again this season and we know that losing Julian has always been the biggest of Lex's personal tragedies in his life. The story of Julian just being left for adoption is again a throwback reminder of Lucas and in Lex's mind is a tact that his father would take. The fact that he desperately wants to hide that Grant's Julian from Lionel would also seem to indicate that he knows everything is a ruse and knows that Lionel would figure it out.

Cons for Argument: It would be REALLY dumb/risky for Lex to do this, particularly after his Lana clone idea went bust and failed. People would figure it out. Would explain why he was terrified of Grant dating "Pit Bull" Lane.

3) Brainiac is behind it. Somehow Brainiac created Grant in order to ingratiate him into Lex's world again knowing that Dr. Fine would NOT be welcome. Grant could act as a middle man, recon agent to find out what's going on. Grant could've actually been a real person who Brainiac killed and assumed his identity and set things in motion.

(This theory could run for any Kryptonian that AlMiles pulled out of their butts - btw.)

Pros: Makes Grant that much more nefarious and interesting.

Cons: What was the deal w/ the black oil stuff last week if Brainiac is already around?

4) Grant is a Power Hungry Weasel: Grant wants to crack the story of the Luthors wide open and he cooked up this whole story on his own and wants to take down Lex himself and not share the glory with anyone.

Pros: Would explain why he would constantly try to keep Lois away from the Luthors and knows that she could get hurt by pursing them. He saw early on that she had a nose for sniffing out Luthor stories - hired her to use her for her instincts and romanced her in order to throw her off from pursing Lex.

Cons: That would officially make him the craftiest/weaseliest person on the show - which of course would explain why he must die - we can't have anyone that smart competing w/ Blahna or Lex as the smartest person in SV.

I'm going with the idea that Grant is a clone. This would be a great way to showcase Lex is going completely bonkers. After hearing Lana whine about wanting to see her parents again, my sister came up w/ a wonderfully maniacal thought on how Lex could win Lana back – what if he promised her that he could bring them back AS clones? Clark's arrival to earth killed her parents and through science, Lex could bring them back. It would show in his twisted way how much he “knows” and “cares about her.”

BWAHAAHAH!

In the end - I believe the tide is turning and the stink of the previous episodes is washing away - bring on the Lex/Clark stuff baby!

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