valarltd | Entries tagged with smallville

Recap:
Open on football team playing in the rain. And boy is it raining. They're soaked and the rain is so thick they're having trouble seeing. Coach loses his temper when Whitney bungles a play because of bad visibility.

Smallville wins the game and runs raucous and cheering into the lockers. Coach Walt gives them a pep talk before relaxing in his private sauna--bought by alumni--with meteor rock steam.

Principal Kwan interrupts the steam, with the news 7 players cheated on their math midterm. Kwan refuses to cover up the infraction so Walt can win another game. Walt yells a bit, and Kwan leaves. Walt accidentally sets his desk on fire.

Credits.

Chloe has done an expose on the football team.

Lana has a fight with Whitney which Chloe characterizes as a "pompom melt down."
When a player throws a football at Chloe's face, Clark catches it. And Coach sees him throw it back hard enough to wind the player who catches it.

Coach approaches Clark about being on the team. He even flatters Clark, telling him football is in his genes. Clark does his best to be diplomatic and avoid it. Clark finally agrees.

Lana continues her fight and pompom meltdown.

Clark breaks the news to Jonathan. J. stands firm because of the risk. "you were meant for much more than winning football games." And once again, Clark brings the bitchery.
"I don't need to live vicariously through your achievements."
"Why would you? You got to play." OUCH!

This is pure Martha coming through. For all that Clark idolizes Jonathan (even as much as they disagree), this ability to cut to the quick with a couple of well-chosen sentences is purely Martha's tactic. And it's part of why Lex loves him.

Clark announces he is playing football, and Jonathan can't stop him.

Luthor mansion. Lex has just been working out, and comes to the study to find three men waiting for him. Dominic speaks for them all. Lex canceled the meeting, Lionel insisted the men go down for it anyway. Argument, which Lex refuses to take seriously, playing billiards instead. Lex called the advisers drones and Dominic threatens to tattle. Lex encourages it and ends with a snipe about Dominic's sister.

Lana's place, and she's packing away her cheerleading gear.Talk with Nell, and asserting her independence. Nell looks decidedly displeased.

Jonathan shows up to watch practice. Practice goes badly. After a session as a tackling dummy, Clark puts too much behind things.

The cheating plot thickens as one of the boys informs the principal that coach gave them the answer. Kwan has tried getting him suspended, but the connections are too deep. Coach loses his temper and sets the TV on fire. He channels that same anger and sets Principal Kwan's car on fire when Kwan goes to start it. Clark saves the principal.

Dinner fight about the football. Jonathan grumbles and Martha gives him sass. "You were the obedient son who always listened to his father and didn't run away one summer and try out for the Metropolis Sharks." Martha's for letting Clark try it. But Jonathan is afraid of someone suspecting and taking Clark away.

Lana is waiting tables as Chloe, Clark and Pete show up for coffee. Clark and Lana chat about her leaving cheerleading "Time to break the vicious cycle." Lana gets snapped at for not being faster with the waitressing.

Fottball players summoned to a secret meeting. Chloe follows as Lana drops a whole tray of cups.

Coach chews out the players about the snitching. After he backhands the player, the sprinklers shoot fire instead of water. And Chloe is getting pictures.

Luthor mansion and Lionel bursts through the study doors, jovial and quite angry himself. Instead of layoffs, Lex has increased hiring, planning to corner the market. Ouch. "You know perfectly well how I feel about you" as Lex flinches from his touch. That has to be the set-up for about a gajillion Luthorcest fics.
And Lex is more petulant than witty. All the confidence, all the power has drained out of him and he is disengaging from this conversation in every possible way.

A history lesson--Caesars sending their sons to the farthest provinces--and Lex, just shrugs with a "Whatever helps you sleep at night."

Some of the first eye contact in this scene as Lex accepts the challenge to duel to defend his plan. Lex is a lefty. And as he tumbles across the pool table (this purple baize pool table is a major fic fixture) Glover cannot disguise the fact he's fifty-six and not as spry as he'd like to be. The rest of the scene is quick and harsh.

The barn. Night. Clark getting ready for the pep rally and Martha playing peacekeeper. "If the Kent men weren't so stubborn, I wouldn't have to."

Chloe is playing Nancy Drew again and confronts the snitch player. She plans to run the picture of the sprinklers. Coach stops him, asking what he told her. He burns Trevor's arm with his hand and announces he'll take care of it.

Chloe's computer combusts. She yells for Clark's help, and dives through the flames separating her from the door. Clark saves her and coach is satisfied that her computer melted.

Torch Torched. And Chloe tells Clark everything but he doesn't believe her. She sends Clark in to talk to Trevor.

Lex is reviewing files in the coffee shop and Lana is waiting on his table. Clark comes in and she says she can't make the game. Lex figures it all out. "You're out late waiting for him to go to bed so you can avoid the uncomfortable silence when you get home." Lex feels he has caved where Clark and Lana have stood their ground. They give him some sarcasm "Playing football and pouring coffee, we're a couple of real rebels." "Long live the revolution."

Lex has just the fleck of whipped cream on his lip as he gives Clark the word that Lana brought him nothing resembling his order. He knows it's there because he got the rest. I can't say it's a deliberate offer...

Clark goes to see Trevor who is surrounded by extinguishers. He's really scared now. Clark talks to him and sees the burn. Clark goes to the sauna to talk to the coach. Meteor rock steam isn't good for you, Clark. Coach realizes this and locks Clark in the sauna and goes to win his game

Jonathan finds Clark, who is fine once he's out of the steam. Fight scene. This time with fire, lots of it, and coach self-immolating in the fiery shower.

Lionel marches in, not as big of a barge. He shoves Lex's new proposal at him, even more unhappy with it. Lex offers a rematch. "or are you afraid you can't take your son again." (not touching that!) And Lionel says he gets one chance to be defiant.

As the rescue crews clean up, we get the Kent heart-to-heart. A deep contrast from the previous scene. The difference is Jonathan loves his son and wants Clark to find his own best.

Lana got fired. Clark is reconsidering football. "Sometimes, I just want to scream." in a scene reminiscent of Cabaret, Clark and Lana stand and scream.

Statistics:
Death toll: 1, Coach Walt

Attempted murder: Chloe

Injury: 2, burns, Principal Kwan and Trevor

Destruction: Kwan's car, many dishes at the Beanhole, the Torch, Walt's office and the locker room and the showers

My Commentary:

As a Freak of the Week, this episode is deeper than most, looking at small town personal politics, bullying by authority figures and the worship of football in the midwest. There is also the recurring theme of struggling to grow up, even as adults try to force the characters into neat paths. Lana quits cheer-leading, despite it being a family tradition. Clark plays football, but over Jonathan's fears. Lex defies Lionel over the plant management.

Clark is very much Jonathan's son. His actions and attitudes are almost identical (see the milk bottle in ep 1) But he has Martha's brains and subtlety. He knows when to punch and when to slip in a shiv instead. These skills will serve him throughout the series. Tom Welling is getting better by the episode.

Lana is trying to be more than the pink princess girl next door, and in these early eps we see the potential for her to be. This will vanish midseason, going dormant until about season 4. Am I wrong to be shouting for her to dump Whitney? He's a controlling twerp, even in his teens.

Pete and Chloe are very much sidekicks, still. Useful for one-liners and background, but now starting to get into peril to show Clark's abilities. Chloe's insatiable curiosity is going to keep growing and getting her into trouble.

This episode also gives us some of the first Lex-Lionel interactions. Lex is trying the avoident path, canceling meetings, trying to do things his way, which does not jibe with Lionel's way. Throughout the encounter, Lionel is lecturing, trying to teach, but Lex is tuning him out. The ease with which Lionel beats him at fencing is important here and will be revisited in later seasons.

This episode is still laying groundwork. We'll see fallout from Lex's decision and Clark's and Lana's, and even the attack on the Torch in later episodes. But it also establishes that for a town of 20,000 people, Smallville is still very small, with everyone in everyone else's business.

Previously on Smallville... A recap of last episode.

Note: Clark's watching of Lana is still creepy.

Exterior, night, the Lang house.

Kid in a tree, filming Lana as she tosses a tiara into a drawer full. Impressive for a Freshman. She opens a plain brown paper box on her bed, and it's full of butterflies. they flit around her and stalker!boy films it, seeming pleased at her expression of delight.

He drives an old style Volkswagen Beetle, heading for home. Greg's mom confronts him about his taping of Lana and his bug collecting. She is, as is typical of small towns, more concerned with her own reputation and comfort level than the invasion of Lana's privacy. But she has had it and plans to call a military academy and send him away.

His butterflies are gorgeous, but rather too green. He's got meteor rocks in some of the habitariums. Thinking to take his collection somewhere save, he loads them all into his beetle but a stop sends one to the floor. The swarming wasps cause him to have a car accident, and the screams continue from the glowing green interior of the Volkswagen.

So, this is our set-up. Creepy stalker kid with a passion for bugs, gets hit with bug bites and stings compounded by meteor rocks. It's our first true Freak of the Week episode.

A cricket crawls on his broken glasses. A poster reads "Greetings from Californication" as Mom comes looking for him, only to find the habitariums gone. (this will be important later) Greg, looking about 30, sporting a lot of stings and marks, is plaster in the corner of the ceiling.

Opening Credits. The six kids: Tom, Kristen, Michael, Eric, Sam and Allison are billed. Annette gets a "With" credit and John gets an "As" credit. (I had to go to TV Tropes for this next bit, and I escaped unscathed) Tom Welling has top billing, because he is Clark Kent. The "With Annette O'Toole" indicates she is a better known actor, but has a smaller part. The "As" credit is much the same. Coming last, it means they are banking fairly heavily on John Schneider's name. More credits. This is first season, John Glover is still being credited as a guest star. Since he's not, expect no Luthor tension.

Chad Donella is Greg Arkin, the bug boy. He's been in Final Destination, Shattered Glass and Taken 3

Flying montage, right into Lana's room, where she is sleeping in a pretty white camisole embroidered in pink and yellow. She's on her back, her hair is perfect. She isn't snuggled down, drooling into the pillow with bedhead. He's hovering over her bed. She says "It's all your fault, Clark." Then Martha calls his name, Clark wakes and lands face first on his own bed, breaking it.

I've heard about sex dreams, but that was a lulu. Flying is nearly always a sex indicator, as is the presence of Lana. The fact Clark has actually achieved levitation indicates he'll be washing those jeans out before breakfast.

Homecoming banter at the farmer's market. And Clark brings the bitchery! Whitney tries passing the scarecroww bit off as a joke, but Clark isn't having it. he wants Lana's necklace back and Clark tells him to go to the cornfield and find it.

Lana is admiring stained glass butterflies when Greg steals up on her. he looks a l;ot better without the glasses and ferocious acne. This whole bit lends credence to my theory that Lana is herself a meteor mutant whose power is making everyone fall stupidly in love with her. And on some level she knows this, because when he proposes working on his paper at his house, she says library. His flat stare and intensity make him scary, even when asking for homework help. Whitney shows up to do the macho possessive thing.

And Lex appears, plucking an apple out of Clark's basket, complimenting him on his taste in women, and inquiring about the previous night. "You were tied to a stake in the middle of a field. Even the Romans saved that for special occasions."

Jonathan hesitates, but shakes Lex's hand this time. Lex comments on this. He stares after Lana, while taking a particularly large and symbolic bite from the apple.

Whitney is driving alone. Greg leaps into and then out of a tree, landing on the roof of Whitney's Ford truck. Whitney goes through a LOT of trucks this season and this may be the first casualty. Yep, it ends on its side, roof caved in, windows and windshield broken. Whitney unconscious on the airbag and a small fire on the undercarriage.

The Kents happen along. Jonathan grabs his extinguisher, but Clark is already pulling Whitney out. The truck explodes and Clark shelters Whitney with his own body. (That sounds a lot gayer than it is. OTOH, They're practically spooning in the middle of the road and Clark has his arms around Whitney as the fireball overtakes them) Jonathan burns his hand touching Clark's shoulder, but Whitney isn't even singed. Clark's sooty.

Father/Son talk time. He's worried about freaking Martha out. And he confesses the floating thing, wanting explanations. "As soon as you start breaking the law of gravity, we're in uncharted territory." Clark is afraid of the things that are happening.

Cut to Luthor Mansion and Lex examining the necklace before putting it into a box.
Cut to Lana on her horse, galloping and then walking him into the stables. Lex is there and offers advice. She's already seen more of Lex than Lex is comfortable with, after catching him skinny dipping about 5 years before. (And why would Lionel be having Nell stay over?)
The conversation is a lot of Lex playing dumb, getting answers that he already knows from Lana. And he drops the suggestion she ask about what Whitney was doing before the game.

This is typical Lex behavior. Many times, I think he's asking to see how honest people will be so he knows how to treat them. A hazard of growing up around a pathological liar. Lana's candor in this scene seems to have won him over.

Greg's mom comes home to find the heat set at 103. Her white walls are covered with handprints and Greg's room is full of webs. Greg, looking disturbingly like Christian Bale, shows up, shirtless, and possibly entirely naked. A brief, fairly brutal scene with a lot of unsavory implications, ends with him spewing webbing.

Clark examines Lex's mock up of the Siege of Troy. It was a gift when Lex was 9 to prepare him to enter the modern battlefield of business. Because it's Troy, he gets in a bit about a Whitney stringing Clark up out of jealousy. As he stands entirely too close... and he works those eyebrows. Also, his face is lookin down while his eyes are looking up at Clark. This is classic flirtation, but again, a feminine position
(Note: it's always "The Quarterback" never Whitney or Fordman.)

Lex tosses out a sociopathic suggestion, that Clark should have let Whitney die in the accident. It would solve his problems. He rounds on Clark to check the response and reminds Clark he's kidding. Except he looks totally earnest. He then offer's Lana's necklace to Clark and observes that Clark is completely NOT fine around that necklace. The box is made of lead, and when it snaps shut, Clark is back to himself.

Lana confronts Whitney about the scarecrow. Whitney confesses he's lost the necklace.
And now Greg waylays her. She forgot the study date. He has a jealousy reaction over Clark.

Clark, meanwhile is experimenting with the necklace, only to find Lana in his loft. His "fortress of solitude". Clark asks why she's there. She apologizes for the scarecrow thing, even though it's not her fault. We get the story of the necklace again.

"Life is about change. Sometimes it's painful. Sometimes it's beautiful. Most of the time, it's both."

Cut to Greg sloughing off skin in the shower. Eww.

Jonathan is fixing a disc harrow. Clark comes down to help, and Greg jumps him. They hunt for Greg in the rafters. Greg pushes Jonathan through the loft rail, directly over the harrow. (saw this one coming. Lots of dangerous stuff on a farm) Clark gets between Jonathan and the harrow, bending several discs out of shape.

Clark is an expensive person to have around. He can do chores in 5 minutes flat, but he is destructive in the process of saving people.

Kent parents and Clark trying to figure out what is going on. Clark and Pete used to hang out with Greg in grade school. Now, Greg is leaving gooey green footprints on their barn ceiling.
"I dunni, seems kind of out there."
"This coming from a man whose been hiding a spaceship in the storm cellar for the last 12 years." I adore Martha's sass.

Clark tells Jonathan about the Wall of the Weird. He blames himself for the meteor shower. Jonathan suggests LuthorCorp is responsible for the weirdness. Cue serious bit of talk about feelings and being human.

School. Clark checks with Chloe about Greg. Brief cuteness.Then Research.

Greg's house. It's a mess, at odds with his neat freak mother. We hear about the tree fort. Chloe does B&E. They find bits of Greg in the drain. They piece together that Lana is in danegr, and find Greg's dessicated mother.

Whitney comes to talk to Lana. Jealousy caused him to choose Clark for the scarecrow. Greg shows up, tosses Whitney into a stall and approaches Lana who has the sense to be afraid.
Clark finds Whitney and they're off to the rescue together.

Or not. Clark gave directions and vanished as Whitney started up his new truck.

Lana under webbing. Greg is observing. And Clark is trying to reason with him. Greg knocks Clark out of the treehouse, and vaults the foundry fence. The foundry was hit in the meteor shower, so it's full of rocks. Clark is very sick when Greg hits him with the iron pipe.

fight and chase scene. Clark takes refuge in a lead crucible. greg pulls the wrong chain and gets squashed into millions of smaller bugs.

Whitney rescues Lana from the web. Clark watches him get the hug and cuddle.

Clark hangs the necklace on her doorknob and vanishes.

Death toll: 2. Greg and Mrs. Arkin
Property damage: Whitney's truck, the disc harrow, Greg's Beetle, Clark's bed.

Information gained: Clark is very allergic to meteor rocks. They make his veins glow green. Lead blocks them out. Lana knows what Whitney's capable of. Lex discovers he likes Lana. And Clark can levitate, but only when sleeping.

Not a terrible episode. It's not as rich as they will become, but for a new show trying to find its feet, this is a good one off.