You Will Bow Before Me, Son Of... Well, Me

Alright, let's get Smallville Season 2 out of the way before I have a huge backlog of Smallville to write about.

Before we go any further, I do want to apologize for lack of updates lately. Usually, I like to do at least three posts a week, but due to work and becoming co-host for a TGWTG fan/geek talk stream, I haven't been writing as much as I used to. As such, from now on, I will be dropping my output to at least one post per week. That doesn't mean I won't do more than one per week, just that one will be the new bare minimum. Doing the stream leaves me with two less days of writing, since I'm often doing research the day before the stream. 

If anyone wishes to join in, here's the site: http://www.livestream.com/anettohasawebshow 

We go live every Friday at 8 PM EST (or if you're Australian like me, 10 AM Saturday).

So, where did the show leave off? Well... OK, at this point, if you're a new viewer like I am, things might get a little spoilery. I mean, there isn't much to spoil in the first season, due to a lack of arcs and season-long subplots. Season 2, however, things pick up a little. So, consider this a spoiler warning, since I will be bringing up events from the Season 1 finale, which might be the only episode that has anything close to being spoiled.

So, after Season 1 ends with tornadoes tearing up the town of Smallville, Clark rescues Lana, Lex rescues his father (more on him later) and Clark's secret identity is still safe (maybe I should have done a brief overview of the last episode of Season 1, too). This season, the focus is on Clark finding out where exactly he comes from, why he's on Earth and what secrets the spaceship holds.

Let's check in with our characters, see how they've developed (I'll forego adding the names of the actors since they're the same throughout the show's run thus far. However, any new characters I will mention their actor):

• Clark goes through... well, I wouldn't call it an identity crisis, since he knows who he is, to a point. However, with the revelations made this season, Clark shows a larger desire to find out why he was sent to Earth above every other planet.
  This season, the superpower he develops is one of his most well known: heat vision (in the episode named... Heat. Well, it delivers what it promises. And at least it'd be easy to find when you want to watch that particular episode again). The funny thing about the episode, the Buffy-vibes I mentioned in my last post kicked in again. Class about mating rituals of animals, attractive young teacher takes over from older teacher, said young teacher turns out to be a villain... really, I actually felt like skipping ahead to find out if she was a bug lady (spoiler alert: she's not). The effect itself isn't that crash hot (no pun intended) but it's neat that he has one of his best powers (and my personal fave of his abilities) this early, which will make for some interesting combat situations in the future.
  Also introduced this season: red Kryptonite (though it doesn't go by that name at first). Whereas green weakens to the point that it could concievably kill him, red is a personality changer. In its debut episode, Red (again with the on-the-nose episode titles), Clark buys a class ring that has a red rock, said to be a meteor fragment, just with a red rock instead of green, and becomes a lot less inhibitive. He basically becomes the bad boy of school, acting like a rock star and scoring dates with multiple women (Lana included). He talks back to his parents, and acts like he's being held back from using his gifts.
  Not entirely unlike the comics (it's more of a physical transformation, from what I know. It was a pre-Crisis thing anyway, not sure if the effects carried over post-Crisis), this was an interesting element to lift, and works on some level as a drug metaphor, too. Whereas Red covers the whole “good guy does pulls a 180 personality-wise” angle, Rush goes with the idea of people on drugs being thrillseekers who have little to no regards for the consequences. Only in Rush, it's not just Clark, but Pete and Chloe too. While it wasn't utilized all that much, the potential for good stories is there, provided they don't abuse it (no pun intended again)
• Pete actually gets to find out that Clark has superpowers early on (third episode, Duplicity) and this gives him a little more to do, being a confidante to Clark about these powers. Otherwise, no real change in his character. He is a good character, he just doesn't have much to do besides support Clark.
• Chloe, however, not only still has a role to play, but gets more character development and remains being awesome. The development comes in the form of wanting to be more open with Clark about how she feels, something she gets to achieve- in a way- with the aforementioned episode Rush, in which she and Clark are constantly making out, though they don't address these events once the episode concludes.
  Chloe takes the initiative in the episode Fever, telling Clark how she feels while he's sleeping, and she is just so heartfelt that you feel like slapping Clark and saying “Forget Lana, date her!”
• Speaking of Lana, would you expect a little positive character development? I know I did. And you know what? Nothing. She remains pretty much a living prop for people to fawn over (small spoiler alert), before finally deciding to be with Clark. For about two episodes, if that.
  Also, she was given this stupid subplot about a man who might be her real father, that doesn't really amount to anything, so it was just a waste of time. Jury's still out on whether or not she's even truly needed in this show.
• Lex maintains being cool and witty. Nothing much else to say here, except he gets a love interest late in the season. Who he marries. So, no prizes to guessing what happens to that.
• The Kents... again, nothing changes much for them. Well, besides Martha working for Lex's father and Jonathan becoming stricter.
• Now for a new player: Lionel Luthor, played by John Glover. He appeared a fair bit in Season 1, but becomes a bigger player starting this season. The relationship between Lionel and Lex is akin to that of Norman and Harry Osborn, the biggest difference being a lack of a Peter Parker-esque character for Lionel to hold in higher regard. Even when Lex manages to show up his father, Lionel is never easily impressed.
  For the first half of the season, Lionel is blinded, though this does not make the character undergo an epiphany on past misdeeds. And even though he soon recovers, he keeps up the charade of being blind to see how people act around him. Lionel is an observant creature, and that's why he's always on top of his game.
  Despite being antagonistic, he is not the central villain of the show, or the season in fact. Give him time, though. I'm sure something's going to happen to push him into a major role.

Two actors from the Superman film series were brought on board in supporting roles: Christopher Reeve himself played Dr. Virgil Swann, a scientist who had deciphered the Kryptonian language and appeared in the episode Rosetta, helping Clark uncover a little more of his origin.

The other actor was Terence Stamp, in voice only though, as Jor-El, Clark's biological father. It's kind of amusing that the actor who once said the son of Jor-El would bow before him is now expecting his son to... obey his commands without question and act like Clark is meant to rule.

...Yeah, I can see why there was a theory it was General Zod in disguise. Still, when you want an authoritative voice, Stamp delivers. Though don't expect too much from him this season, as he speaks to Clark towards the end of the season.

This season also contains some “sequel episodes” featuring one-shot characters from last season. The episode Ryan is a sequel to Stray, which was about a boy with the power of mind-reading, who was living with lousy parents who abused his gift. Both episodes were great and I liked the character of Ryan.

Also, Visage was the sequel to X-Ray, involving a shape-shifting villain obsessed with Lana (gee, what a shock). It reminds me of the comics themselves, with recurring villains who will often be away for extended periods to lick their wounds and as such, it makes for great continuity and storytelling opportunity.

If there is one gripe I have with this season (besides Lana and the school still being pretty much a backdrop), it's that some of the one-shot villains have powers and abilities that aren't meteor-powered, and their explanation is absent. So... we're already introducing metas and magical beings? Bit early, don't you think?

Take the episode Redux. The villainess sucks the lifeforce out of a victim to keep herself young. She's been doing this for about 80 years. So, unless another meteor hit back then, this is something that needs explanation.

But anyway, Season 2 is a little better than Season 1, which I didn't hate. It still maintains the “freak of the week” feel but introduces little things over time to start a proper arc.

And with the finale of Season 2 (spoilers here) involving Clark defying Jor-El's commands, leading to the explosion of the spaceship Clark found about last season and the subsequent departure to escape the situation, things can only get more serious from here.

My top episodes: Rush, Exodus, Red, Heat and Ryan

Least favourite: Witness, Skinwalker, Accelerate, Nocturne and Prodigal

Next post: the third season and the return of the prodigal son (no pun intended)