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Thursday, 15 November 2007 |
By John Keegan
Visit Critical Myth for an archive of John's TV Review archives, with more than 1100 entries. Now that the season arc elements have been established, a number of brewing conflicts are finally coming into the forefront. As long predicted (since late in the fifth season, in fact), Lana’s slow but steady personality shift is becoming an issue for Clark, especially now that they’ve finally been in a situation where honestly is finally possible between them.
Frankly, when the writers decided to give Lana a darker edge, the character became a lot more interesting to me. For one thing, it undermines the overly familiar Clark/Lana dynamic and sets the stage for their eventual final break. The writers are doing a surprisingly good job of placing the shift in her psychology in context. Clark’s moral failings in the past have largely been the consequence of his desire to protect his loved ones. Lana’s current choices are similarly justified.
But while Clark has been slowly but surely learning that personal concerns are not the best justification for taking action, Lana has adopted the Luthor “ends justify the means” credo. This was introduced in the sixth season but applied inconsistently to the character. This season, Lana has been using Luthor-esque tactics since the moment she returned to Smallville.
This opens the door for more bitterness between Clark and Lex. Clark may resent Lex for influencing Lana and her choices, pushing her into taking action to protect Clark’s secret in sinister ways. Lex, on the other hand, resents Clark for stealing away a woman who was, from his perspective, the perfect match. By slowly but surely shifting Lana out of the role of “object” and into a more proactive role, the writers make that conflict more interesting and more viable for long-term exploration.
While the Dark Lana plot element takes most of the priority, the writers also included an interesting matter for the future. It seems Lex was keeping a piece of Brainiac around for experimentation and study, and by the end of the episode, that piece escaped into a lab technician (in a scene reminiscent of “The X-Files”). This would appear to give the writers the opportunity to follow-up on that fifth season plot arc without the need to cast James Marsters, who has been in demand of late.
After a very shaky start, this episode brings the season back into focus by making one of the less impressive character dynamics from the sixth season a lot more interesting. The continuity references were well done, and if the writers can continue to explore these dynamics in the future, this season could come to a strong finish. Hopefully enough episodes are left in the can for the series to rebound before the effect of the writers’ strike takes hold.
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