Smallville 8-14 Requiem

[jlvsclrk]

And so it ends. Not with a bang but, well, I guess it was with a little bit of a bang. Requiem was certainly a recovery from the dregs of Power but it was also one of the bleakest episodes we've ever seen. Not exactly the reason I signed on to Smallville, but at least the Clana run is over. I'll give it a "here's hoping for the future" B-.

The production team showed its ambitions here and delivered a tragic ending to not only Clana but Lex as well. Perhaps the biggest disconnect for me as a viewer was the disparity between the treatment of these two climactic events: more on that later. We're also shown Ollie sinking in his ends-justifies-the-means philosophy, dragging Chloe down with him. Clark has been trying to pull him back from this attitude but then Lex's vicious attack strikes to the core of his heart. In his sorrow and rage, Clark goes to "stop" Lex. I don't believe that he could ever have brought himself to actually kill Lex, though we all know he has come close in the past. All Lana really needed to do was get him to stop and think for a minute. But the weakness of this entire arc lies in PS3's peculiar fascination for Lana-the-best-at-everything. She delievers a wholly redundant speech showing how much she has learned, making Clark look kinda dumb by comparison since he'd just recited all these points to Chloe a few scenes earlier. And that's just not acceptable to me. Clark is the experienced hero here and he's the one who's gone through far more painful life lessons. He's the one who should have been teaching Lana the limits of her power. But instead the positions are reversed to give Saint Lana one last chance to shine at the cost of the star of the show. Very peculiar. But the writers sometimes know their stuff and the preachy moment is suddenly cut short as the Luthor mobile HQ explodes into flames: now that I did not see coming.

As you might guess from my user name and newly favorite icon ( taliosi_x  rocks!), I love Clark. I love to see his heroic moments, when you see his inner strength and compassion most clearly. In small doses, I'm willing to go through his darkest trials with him because through suffering comes learning and thus ultimately hope of a better future. But mostly I want him to be happy, so I did not begrudge him the romp with Lana that starts the episode. Its only their second try at super-powered sex so its not surprising they wound up breaking the bed, and yes I did find that amusing. Then Lana tells him that for an encore, she wants to join him on a patrol of Metropolis. He resists based on a lifelong pattern of wanting to protect her but when she persists, he reveals that he's always dreamed of being able to share his life with a partner the way his parents had. And for the Clois fans out there, that doesn't mean she'll never be his first choice because she doesn't have powers too. Quite the opposite I'd argue, since Clark Kent the reporter is every bit as important to the future as the man in the blue and red costume. He just needs to find that balance.

But I digress. Chloe delivers the news that Ollie's been injured in a bombing and the new "power couple" whoosh off to the hospital. A gratuitously shirtless Ollie is obviously being evasive but only Lana notices: she's had a lot of experience. I did enjoy Oliver's very pointed warning to Lana that she would be Lex's prime target after stealing his last chance at survival. I really don't think she'd thought that through: she still thinks physical invulnerability will protect her from all harm. After this, there's a very good patch where Clana try to fit together the clues to the bombing while discovering an unexpected ability of Lana's power suit: it apparently neutralizes kryptonite. Realizing that Lex was designing a weapon against Clark, Lana soon confirms with Dr. Grohl that the suit instead absorbs kryptonite. I sense an elegant Luthor trap! And indeed, Clana's trail leads them to the top of the Daily Planet, where last week they shared a kiss and dreams of saving the world at each other's side. Lex has set a trap whereby only half that dream can survive. Clark makes the choice: save the city from the bomb. And because of her heedless pursuit of power in the previous episode, Lana is now literally poison to Clark. Dreams turn to dust.

Meanwhile, Ollie has been pursuing a much darker course. He convinces Chloe to help him take down Lex because of the threat he poses to Clark, masking his own motivation of vengeance for an act that Lex wasn't even remotely responsible for. Chloe is currently standing at the edge of a moral divide, one we first saw last season in Quest and most recently in Identity: how far can the good guys go to protect themselves and their own? How can we guarantee the safety of the ones we love? There's no easy answer as Chloe is finding. And although Clark talks her around into helping him find Lex, I think she also went to the hospital to share the information with Ollie. Meanwhile, Ollie survives a confrontation with Toyman by being so obnoxious that the villain stays around to get caught rather than letting his bomb do its job. Ollie leaves the hospital with the bomb and plants it in Lex's mobile headquarters. Boom! No more Lex (for now at least) and Toyman framed for the deed. So elegant, almost Luthor-like: Ollie, don't you know what is said about the road to hell? Lex no doubt had his own good reasons for the things he did: we all know there are real threats out there that will need to be stopped. But the ends do not justify the means. The depth of Ollie's fall is measured by his threat to Chloe when she puts the pieces together. Ollie winds up staring at a Luthor ring: is that kryptonite I spy? How can he possibly redeem himself?

For me, the most moving scene of the episode was not the one where Clark put himself through incredible agony to give Lana a farewell kiss. I found that kind of creepy actually, though I was moved after he collapsed and she moved away, leaving him to stare back at her in bewildered hurt. And the part where she said she wasn't strong enough to stay without being able to touch him, that resonated and felt very much in character for both. But no, the part that moved me nearly to tears was the brief scene where Clark combed through the wreckage of the Luthor mobile HQ and let the ashes fall through his fingers, a clear call back to the graveyard scenes in Reckoning and Descent. Clark's face is contorted by sorrow at this tragic ending to a relationship that began with such promise on Loeb bridge. I felt like Clark was asking himself where he went wrong and how he could do things better. I wanted more, but perhaps it wasn't necessary. This version of Clark and Lex met too young and got too close and made too many mistakes to be able to co-exist. Their happily-ever-after can only come through fan fiction now but what a run the show gave us. Vive la Clex!

PS, you know Lex isn't REALLY dead. He kept himself alive long enough to clone himself and then, well, "They Saved Luthor's Brain!" (That's the title of a comic from the nineties.) I think he realized the Prometheus suit wasn't going to do its job properly so came up with a plan that punished Lana for all the pain she's caused and being smug enough to fall into the trap. From his POV, the bonus side effects of the scheme were giving Clark a near fatal blow to his heart plus bringing Ollie down to his level. In some secret lab somewhere, he'll continue to watch as this year's story plays out. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.