Smallville 7.6 "Lara"

[norwich36]

Overall I liked it, though I don't think I loved it. Oddly enough, I was more interested in some of the future plotlines the episode seems to be setting up than the revelations about Lara, which really surprised me.

Things I liked

--Lana's plotline, which continues to thicken. I wonder if the Isis foundation is doing any good whatsoever, or is it just a front for Lana's spygames? Even though the the Chloe-Lana interaction made me a little fearful about the future of the Chlana doomed! doomed by secrets and lies and obsession, alas! , I was very happy that Chloe was smart enough not to reveal her secret to Lana, and that she was able to tell that Lana was concealing the truth about something. And Lana has gotten very deft with the "I can't tell Clark, he's so overprotective" excuse.

--Kara's attempts at being stealthy. What can I say, I was amused by her attempt to seduce the information out of the Homeland Security guy, even though in the end she was not particularly subtle.

--Kara and Jimmy, who continue to be very cute. Though Kara really has to stop using Clark's signature vanishing move (just like she really has to stop moping in midair and putting planes at risk).

--Chloe, for being brave and trying to get help with her meteor affliction. And I don't blame her at all for not telling Lana why she was really there; it may have been a failure of courage on her part, but it's going to turn out to be a very wise decision, I'm sure.

--Lex, who was pretty convincingly badass in that opening scene with Agent Carter. Apparently he does have real power; not only is he effectively hiding his projects from Lionel, but he can waltz into highly secured Homeland Security sites without permission, and have agents fired at will. Well, that won't be necessary now, but it was still very Luthorian. And I liked his attempt to come to Kara's rescue, not only with Carter but in his lies to his dad.

--Agent Carter. Sure, he was doomed once he found out Clark's secret, but damn! Those Kryptonite cuffs (and his eagerness to use them) were pretty impressive, and even more so was his acquisition and improvement of Summerholt technology. It's really too bad he's dead, because he was a great villain.

Things that made me go "huh?"

--What's with all the weird platitudes Lionel is spouting to everyone? "In its darkest hour the soul is replenished?" Come on, Lionel, you can do better than that. And that scene with Lex again makes me wonder what the hell his true motives are. His schizophrenic attitude about Lex (cautioning him at the same time he condemns him) seems to make even less sense than normal, if his goal is to worm his way into Lex's confidences again.

I did like that he pointed out the obvious, though, that everyone Lex goes after is connected somehow to Clark. It's like they remembered some people watch this show for the subtext, ro something.

--The whole Lara plotline. Um, yes, it makes sense that we find out more about her because Kara knew her, and it was interesting to get the backstory about why exactly Zor-El hated Jor-El, but a love triangle? SERIOUSLY? Could they possibly come up with something more cliched? Oh, yeah, how about having Lara visit the Kent farm. Because honestly, ALL OF KRYPTON visited the Kent farm at some point--and soon we will get flashbacks of that, too.

Ok, despite my totally inability to suspend disbelief on that point, I did think Lara was lovely, and I kind of sort of even liked the idea that she knew the plan and wanted to see where her son would grow up--but honestly? This seemed like so much overkill it kind of spoiled the Lara memories from "Memoria" from me. It was better, for me, just having hints of her. The only thing that may redeem this plotline for me is the "Lara's DNA" plotline. My God, the fact that CLARK STOLE IT and HE TALKED ABOUT WANTING TO SEE HER AGAIN SOMEDAY makes me think of really crazy but fun plotlines--is Clark going to try to clone his mom? That would of course be completely awesome the most whacked-out plotline ever. If anything, I think Lana and/or Lex is going to get their hands on the DNA, make the clone, and insert Brainiac's brain in it or something of the sort.

--Lionel gets Clarkhugs? Seriously? I was very glad, though, that Clark didn't spill Kara's secret to Lionel. At least he still has a little caution.

--Kara gets to name Kal-El? Oh, please.

--I really didn't like the CGI for Krypton. It reminded me of bad early Star Trek sets, sorry.

So basically, I probably hated all the things we were supposed to like most about this episode, because it seemed like way too much retcon for one episode. If they had spread out the Lara revelations over a longer period, maybe I wouldn't have had such a negative reaction?

Comments

[latxcvi.livejournal.com]

My problem with the love-triangle was the cloning thing. They were obviously paralleling Zor-El and Lex, and their cloning the woman they loved without her knowledge. Which made Clark so proudly showing the crystal with Lara's DNA to Lana just so... weird to me.

I know what you mean because I felt that same twinge of "buh?", but I'm pretty sure we're supposed to think Clark doesn't actually know why Lana's DNA was all over the explosion site. So maybe Clark doesn't see how ... bizarre it was to so proudly display something like that to Lana even if I can see it. It was odd, though. So many other aspects of the screenplay respected prior canon, you'd think the creative team would have realized what an odd and, frankly, insensitive thing that was of Clark to do IF he actually knows the full story of how Lana faked her death.