Patman

Episode recap/comments:

This episode is about how circumstances trap people.

The villain of the week is a schoolmate of Clark and Chloe's, named Justin who was run over by a large car/SUV half a year ago. Justin has a warped sense of justice as he's a promising artist with disabled hands as a result of the accident. After 6 months of recovery and rehab, Justin returns to school, still with disabled hands, but has developed telekinesis which allows him to move objects with his mind. He and Chloe correspond via email in the time he was in the hospital. He quickly wins over Chloe, much to Clark's dismay. Clark finally realizes that Chloe is attracted to him, and he now finds himself somewhat jealous of Justin.

(And as circumstances would have it, Lana is becoming distant/bored with Whitney, while Whitney is trying to renew their relationship by being a better boyfriend now that his father is getting better. Lana has feelings for Clark but she can't do much until she breaks it off with Whitney, and she feels that it's a good time now that his dad is better and recovering. Lana and Clark talk about missed opportunities in love.).

Given a clue on the license plate of the car that hit Justin, Chloe's DMV contact produces one viable suspect that leads him to blame Principal Kwan as the person who performed the hit-n-run on him which left him in the state he's in now. Justin confronts Principal Kwan at his home, and proceeds to run Kwan over via telekinesis with the very same car that ran over Justin 6 months ago. Later it is revealed that it was Kwan's son that was driving their family SUV when it hit Justin. The son turned himself into the authorities.

Chloe, unnerved by the news, begins preparing an edition of the school newspaper on this unfortunate event with Kwan. At Justin house in his room, Chloe does a bit of snooping, and finds that Justin has a sketchbook detailing his sense of proper justice (his doctor's hands were severed in a "freak" accident caused by Justin, and he illustrated how he killed Kwan as well in the sketchbook. This freaks out Chloe, and she makes up an excuse to get out of Justin's place. She runs to Clark's farm/barn, but he's at the Talon, she tracks him down to let him know that she know that Justin is the one who killed Kwan. Justin tracks down Chloe at the Kent's barn, rips the cell phone away from Chloe in mid-conversation with Clark, and starts throwing Chloe around like a rag doll (the violence is kind of brutal - as was Kwan's death). Clark showed up as Justin is about to kill Chloe with a powered chainsaw, Clark puts his body between the chainsaw and Chloe and chainsaw explodes as it hits Clark's chest. Clark tells Justin that he killed the wrong man, that it was Kwan's son who was responsible for hitting him. Justin is outraged, but Clark simply throws Justin against a wall and knocks him out.

The other subplot is the re-appearance of Lex's nanny who left after Lex's mother passed away almost 10 years ago. Lex's never forgave her for her sudden departure from his life. He loved her dearly so many years ago. She comes clean to Lex, telling him that his father sent her away, thinking she was just a clingy type of person only after the Luthor's money. Lex doesn't buy her story and when asked for Lex's forgiveness by her, Lex isn't willing to forgive. The kicker for the nanny is that she's developed terminal cancer and just wanted to make things right before she died. Lex finds this out from his father. Lex goes to the hospital where his nanny has been due to her illness. Lex does find the courage to forgive her, and she tells him how proud she is of the man he is today, Lex is gracious in accepting the assessment, all the while knowing that it's a mask he wears, inside, he's still not as moral he could be, and could've use her guidance in his formative years had she stayed.

After settling the Justin mess, Clark and Chloe finally acknowledge that there's something between them, so they decide to give the relationship deal a try. Just when Lana finally strikes up the courage to end her relationship with Whitney, she finds Whitney stumbling into the Talon, white as a ghost. Whitney's father passed away suddenly. Lana bites her tongue, and doesn't pursue breaking up with him right then and there. No, she is trapped by the circumstances, and decided to be the good supportive girlfriend at the funeral for Whitney. She sees Clark in the rain in the cemetary, knowing that she's closing the door on Clark for the time being (probably knowing that Clark and Chloe are now an "item", thus closing off Clark at this time from another angle. Both Clark and Lana sort of acknowledge the state of their non-relationship relationship with a knowing glance between them as the rain falls.

Snake Plissken

They made Clark act like a tool this episode. What the hell was his problem?

Clark, stop being a damn fool. Get with Chloe! She would worship the floor you walk on! That is one hot girl.

Flay

I enjoyed this episode. And it's obvious that Clark will never choose. Chloe said it herself. He will always be there in times of danger, but never on a emotional level.

Anyway, next week's episode looks very entertaining as did the teaser for the May 21st episode. I'm guessing the May 21st episode will be the season ender, by the look of things.

CaptainMarvel

Did I miss the explanation for how getting run over by a car gives you telekinesis? Was he run over by a car with kryptonite fragments embedded in the tires?

Flay

Yah, you missed it.

1. Kryptonite had nothing to do with it.

2. He said he developed the telekinesis to make up for the loss of his hands. For instance, a deaf person's other 4 senses are heighted to make up for the lack of hearing. Basically. He found another way to draw.

Kind of a lame excuse, but then again, how is a person supposed to devlop telekinesis anyway?

mikehunt

goat nuts
I set the vcr for the wrong channel

Pac-Rat

Great review. Patman.
I missed the first 30 minutes (stupid TiVo), and your post answers the questions I had, like who the woman was that Lex visited.

Patman

Loved the line from Chloe (paraphrased): "Clark, Men are from Mars, but you're from some distant galaxy or something!"

tofu

thanks for the review Patman. I missed the show last nite 'cause of the playoffs.

mdc3000

I loved the line at the career fair, where the airforce guy says to clark

"I can see you wearing a uniform and flying through the air sometime in your future" or something to that extent... HA!

MATT

smallville continues to RULE

Draven

I keep thinking that I should be thinking that this show is uber-cheesy, but I keep coming back to it and enjoying it.

I think it's mostly to do with remembering high school, those crushes, those moments where you make a choice about someone, opening one door and closing another.

To see Clark's "nice guy" to Lana finally pay off, only to have him realize that Chloe doesn't need any work to fall for him, and Whitney (whom I will refer to as "Tool" for the rest of the show) shows up and ropes Lana back into that relationship.

God, that stuff is so FRUSTRATING! I once dated a girl in high school for 6 months but I wanted to break up with her two weeks into the relationship. But I stayed with her because she had a host of problems and kept saying that I was the only thing that was going right in her life. I finally got up the courage to end it, but it wasn't easy.

And any scene with Lex and Clark is just BRIMMING with hidden meanings, since we all know what kind of enemies they will become.

It looked like one of Justin's drawings had something that looked vaguely like Superman's costume, but I didn't run it back to check.

As always, the music and the special effects were well done as well.

Iron_Giant

Did you also catch Chloe looking at both Clark and Lana during the rain scene. I think she knows that she has no chance of really winning Clarks heart.

I hate to say it, but I love Lex's character. He really does have a heart. I hope this shows last for a few years so we can find out what turns him against Superman.

The next 2 shows look great. Someone finds Clarks Spacecraft and the Storm hits.

Patman

That Chloe realizes she's the "tweener" wouldn't surprise me because she's well aware that Clark's always had the hots for Lana, but as circumstances would have it, Lana is stuck with Whitney for a while longer, else she'd come across as a cold heartless beeyotch in the town.

calhoun07

In the comic books, and I can't say I am an avid reader so I am basing this off of what I know so don't shoot me if I get something wrong, Lana never became more than just friends with Clark. GOOD friends, as I think Clark revealed his secret to Lana before he left for Metropolis, but just friends. Chloe has something Clark needs. They share the same interests in journalism and helping people and investigating bizzare things. And Lana, while hot, I don't think she's got as much to offer Clark.

Now as for where I think the series will go, or at least should go, I think Clark needs to pursue Chloe. It looks as if he's going to, and Lana is suddenly getting all jealous. Well, she needs to get over herself because she had all this time to act while she kept pushing Clark off and going for Whitney and now Clark is bustin a move on Chloe, Lana has no right to get the jealous b!tch approach going. So I would put Clark and Chloe together, but at a cost. Because of his closeness to her, she ends up being the tragic figure in all of this, and getting killed off near the end of the series, due to carelessness on Clark's part. He moves on to Metropolis, takes up journalism and tries his hardest to make up for her loss, and when he meets Lois Lane, he falls for her because she has to offer all the things, and perhaps more, he had in Chloe.

That's what I think anyway.

elias

Aw sh*t, they killed Chloe, er Kenny er...whatever.

I don't know that they should kill Chloe but I do know that I LOVE Lana. That girl is HOT.

My fanboy proposition is that Pete finds out Clark's secret and helps cover for him in times of crisis. This could give Pete a bigger part in the series and make his character more interesting. Make it so Pete finds out but Clark doesn't know that Pete knows, so Pete keeps it secret from Clark as well as everyone else. Does that even make sense? Ah, you know what I mean. It would be fun.

Patman

I've been saying all along that Chloe is the prototype for Lois Lane once Clark makes his way to Metropolis, gets a job at the Daily Planet and meets Lois.

TruGator

i totally agree with you. I think the actor who plays lex does a perfect job, and he comes off as kind of nice...for now. I will be disappointed when lex starts to turn evil, because i like his character so much right now. every scene with lex and clark is awesome.

also, what was clark thinking? go after Lana, she is way hot!!

the_dude8

one of the best ep so far. LL finally has the gut to break up with whitney, she realizes that she is falling for CK. did you guy see LL face when CK was holding chloe hand?

Snake Plissken

Lana is acting as if she is trapped being with Whitney because of his father's illness. She thinks shes soooo sweet that she cant deliver a second blow to Whit while hes already done. Well, his father is dead now.... i guess its time to dump him.

elias

We see little hints of Lex's evil seep through every now and again, but he continues to fight against it. Trying to think like a TV writer, I'd have Lex feel betrayed by Clark to the extent that he begins to realize that all of his altruism has been for naught, the people in his life are not worth his effort, he truly is his father's son. Then I'd have him kill his dad and take over the company.

As to what Clark is thinking re: Lana, maybe it is that she is unattainable. All his life he's pined over Lana with nary a response from her. Now she's even deeper in with Whitney because it would be a low blow to dump him right after his father's death. Maybe he's beginning to think that his dream girl Lana will only be a dream to him. He has feelings for Chloe so he feels that being with the number 2 girl on his list is better than wasting time on a dream. Hell, I don't know! I wanted to see him hook up with Lana, but this Chloe thing may work out in terms of story development at the very least.

Professor Frink

I gotta say, that's a great plot idea. Because, let's face it, Chloe is very Lois Lane-ish. We all know the Clark/Lex storyline is destined to end in tragedy, so having something tragic like you described happen between Clark and Chloe would be pretty powerful. It would help to further mold the eventual character of Superman.

Patman

Plus, it'll reinforce into Clark the notion that he must keep a secret identity so that those close to him won't become targets to get at him for being Superman. I've been tooting this since the show's inception.

calhoun07

Then he needs to do more than just wear glasses when he's in his "secret" identity! Of course, 99.99999% of superhero disguises would not work in real life.

RaMMaR

If calhoun07 & Patman's predictions for Chloe becoming a tragic figure hold true, could she become the catalyst that eventually leads to the irrevocable break up of Clark & Lex's friendship?
i think elias' suggestion of letting Pete in on Clark's secret sounds like a great idea. Maybe they could further explore his feelings of being a "third wheel" (as mentioned in a prev. ep.) when compared to Clark's closer friendship to Lex. Could Pete become the tragic figure/catalyst instead (he has had a longer friendship w/ Clark and still harbors some resentment at the Luthors)?
As for Clark & Chloe's burgeoning romance, you could tell at the end of the ep. that Chloe knows it's not gonna last because he still carries a torch for Lana....

Patman

Supposedly Pete Ross is Lex Luthor's Vice President in current DC comics Superman continuity.

I could see how they could use Chloe unfortunate demise to drive a wedge between Clark and Lex.