Smallville 7.15: "Veritas"

Thursday, 27 March 2008

By John Keegan Visit Critical Myth for an archive of John's TV Review archives, with more than 1100 entries.   This season has been unusual by many standards, particularly due to the changes required by the writers’ strike. Episodes have come in such fits and starts that I’m not really sure if there’s a true season arc. While Kara’s presence is a connective thread for the season, a lot of events have been disconnected and scattered. That’s what makes this latest plot twist so ironic. Not only could it have been the season arc, but it should have been a key component of the series. This episode makes the case strongly by linking Veritas to the opening moments of “Pilot”. Veritas as a concept attempts to reframe the entire series as something more than it’s been, and a part of me wishes it were true. Unfortunately, the writing has been so contradictory for so long that nothing can really pull it back together. The value of Veritas as an overarching idea can be felt in nearly every scene. Lionel’s character arc is brought into focus, more or less, and the writers seem to be setting him up for a final redemptive act on Clark’s behalf. As much as I like Lionel, I think it would be a wise move. It’s a bit of a cliché for a morally questionable character to sacrifice himself, but there’s a reason it works. It’s also a staple of comic book tales, and in the end, that’s what “Smallville” is. Brainiac’s attack on Lana, all to blackmail Kara into leaving with him to some unknown but foreboding reason, is also a nice touch. As much as I’ve lost interest in Lana as a character, Clark’s reaction was perfect. If nothing else, it should add fuel to his fire. Whatever Brainiac’s plan is, hopefully it will live up to the measures taken to make it happen. Lionel could be portending Brainiac’s gambit in his latest Jor-El-inspired warning, but I think it would be more interesting (and perhaps more fitting) if it pertained to the long-ignored Naman/Sageeth prophecy regarding Clark and Lex, as seen often in the first few seasons. It’s likely that the contents of the envelope are linked to Lionel’s warning. How would Veritas have known about a future Brainiac scheme? But they would have known the warnings about Sageeth, and the time is coming for Lex’s final descent into true evil. If the Veritas concept does nothing else, it gives the long-suffering fans more hope that the series will eventually come together to make some kind of consistent sense. Clark needs to take a complete journey from farmboy to Superman, and this particular plot element would be a perfect way to push that process forward. Of course, the same has been true of other plot devices, so the direction to be taken with Veritas remains to be seen. But I can say, to my own surprise, that this was the first episode of “Smallville” in a very long time to leave me hungry for more.

 

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