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I'm not sure I know where to start. If I was coming into this as a new series with no knowledge of the characters or their past, I would probably say, "Wow, that's a pretty kick ass heroine. Not so sure about the tall guy standing next to her."
And that's why this episode fails for me: because this isn't an episode of Lanafu, it's a show called Smallville about Clark's journey to becoming Superman. And I couldn't see anything in this episode that contributed in any way to that journey. Further, I just hate it when Tom Welling is made a guest star on his own show. I'll be interested to see the screen time minutes but even if Clark's are in the teens, it'll be because of meaningless scenes where he finds out the truth about Lana's last eight months but doesn't actually DO much rather than shout at people. I mean, even when he arrives at the lab at the last minute, its not him who stops the bullet. No, Lanafu gets that honour. And then our two erstwhile heros leave Tess behind so she can probably kill the somewhat sympathetic Dr. Grohl. Good job guys.
I don't want this to come across as Lana hate, though it is all to easy to give into that urge. Even spoiler free, I'd suspected for a while that the writers were going to find a way to explain the Dear John video at the end of S7 to Lana's advantage. I think the Lex fans in particular must be utterly outraged at the idea that HE was the one who kidnapped her, and by implication had always planned to use her as a guinea pig. That's just not at all consistent with the Lexana history we saw played out in previous seasons. Come on guys: Lex's multi-faceted character was one of the show's greatest elements. Don't destroy it just to provide a convenient boogey-man.
Anyways, Lana gets away and rather than going back to Clark for help, decides she needs to make herself strong. OK, I can buy that - Lana doesn't want to be a victim anymore. You go girl! And I really enjoyed the scenes between her and her sensei (sorry, can't remember his name.) So now we know why Lana could defeat Tess in last week's battle. Good stuff, all this training sequence. Kind of reminded me of the original Kung Fu series (yeah, I'm dating myself with that comment.)
But here's where the trouble starts. Rather than becoming a "normal" superhero like Ollie or a certain other billionaire from Gotham that we'll never get to see on Smallville, Lana still wants MORE. Much, much more. She wants to be like Clark. She remembers the power she had in Wrath and she wants it back. She wants it so badly that she puts herself in LuthorCorp's hands and volunteers for a highly experimental procedure. Who can tell if Dr. Grohl was ultimately working for her or Lex. I don't think it matters because if there's one thing I know, its that LuthorCorp technology isn't good for people. Just the name of next week's episode should serve as warning: Requiem.
So we end with Clark once more kissing Lana. If I could forgive him for last week's kiss, why do I find this one so much harder to accept? I guess it was Lana's delight that all of her machinations had paid off so she was now Clark's "equal", just as last week she was Lex's "equal". This isn't just Saint Lana any more: its a disease. And Clark was clearly worried before about what she was doing, but now its suddenly OK? I don't get it. Here's hoping there's a massive payoff next week.
To conclude, my problem with this episode was the script, not the acting and certainly not the directing. I thought Allison did a fine job on her directorial debut. Alas, Tom didn't have much to do this episode. I was kind of hoping that when Clark confronted Chloe about keeping Lana's secret, Chloe would fire back with a challenge on the memory issue. That would have given both actors some meaty business to deal with. No such luck: they really are going to ignore this it seems. Cassidy Freeman did another good job, particularly in the scene where she killed Regan. Utterly devastating how she just kept kicking him and wound up spattered in blood. I can kind of see future Lex doing a slight mind wipe and turning her into the iconic Mercy. As for Kristin, she did a fine job in the training scenes, and I'm going to La-la away the rest. Only one more week of this run to go.
And that's why this episode fails for me: because this isn't an episode of Lanafu, it's a show called Smallville about Clark's journey to becoming Superman. And I couldn't see anything in this episode that contributed in any way to that journey. Further, I just hate it when Tom Welling is made a guest star on his own show. I'll be interested to see the screen time minutes but even if Clark's are in the teens, it'll be because of meaningless scenes where he finds out the truth about Lana's last eight months but doesn't actually DO much rather than shout at people. I mean, even when he arrives at the lab at the last minute, its not him who stops the bullet. No, Lanafu gets that honour. And then our two erstwhile heros leave Tess behind so she can probably kill the somewhat sympathetic Dr. Grohl. Good job guys.
I don't want this to come across as Lana hate, though it is all to easy to give into that urge. Even spoiler free, I'd suspected for a while that the writers were going to find a way to explain the Dear John video at the end of S7 to Lana's advantage. I think the Lex fans in particular must be utterly outraged at the idea that HE was the one who kidnapped her, and by implication had always planned to use her as a guinea pig. That's just not at all consistent with the Lexana history we saw played out in previous seasons. Come on guys: Lex's multi-faceted character was one of the show's greatest elements. Don't destroy it just to provide a convenient boogey-man.
Anyways, Lana gets away and rather than going back to Clark for help, decides she needs to make herself strong. OK, I can buy that - Lana doesn't want to be a victim anymore. You go girl! And I really enjoyed the scenes between her and her sensei (sorry, can't remember his name.) So now we know why Lana could defeat Tess in last week's battle. Good stuff, all this training sequence. Kind of reminded me of the original Kung Fu series (yeah, I'm dating myself with that comment.)
But here's where the trouble starts. Rather than becoming a "normal" superhero like Ollie or a certain other billionaire from Gotham that we'll never get to see on Smallville, Lana still wants MORE. Much, much more. She wants to be like Clark. She remembers the power she had in Wrath and she wants it back. She wants it so badly that she puts herself in LuthorCorp's hands and volunteers for a highly experimental procedure. Who can tell if Dr. Grohl was ultimately working for her or Lex. I don't think it matters because if there's one thing I know, its that LuthorCorp technology isn't good for people. Just the name of next week's episode should serve as warning: Requiem.
So we end with Clark once more kissing Lana. If I could forgive him for last week's kiss, why do I find this one so much harder to accept? I guess it was Lana's delight that all of her machinations had paid off so she was now Clark's "equal", just as last week she was Lex's "equal". This isn't just Saint Lana any more: its a disease. And Clark was clearly worried before about what she was doing, but now its suddenly OK? I don't get it. Here's hoping there's a massive payoff next week.
To conclude, my problem with this episode was the script, not the acting and certainly not the directing. I thought Allison did a fine job on her directorial debut. Alas, Tom didn't have much to do this episode. I was kind of hoping that when Clark confronted Chloe about keeping Lana's secret, Chloe would fire back with a challenge on the memory issue. That would have given both actors some meaty business to deal with. No such luck: they really are going to ignore this it seems. Cassidy Freeman did another good job, particularly in the scene where she killed Regan. Utterly devastating how she just kept kicking him and wound up spattered in blood. I can kind of see future Lex doing a slight mind wipe and turning her into the iconic Mercy. As for Kristin, she did a fine job in the training scenes, and I'm going to La-la away the rest. Only one more week of this run to go.
