Smallville: Prey

[norwich36]

This was the first episode this season that I was really unimpressed with.

There were a few things about it I loved
First and foremost, it was great to see Clark really stepping up to the hero role, and being committed to saving everyone. And I was unspoiled for the reappearance of J'onn J'onzz, and was really happy to see him again and excited that he took a job on the force mainly to help Clark. Yay! for Clark having smart allies. ETA: And I actually cheered when he flew jumped to the top of that building. So supermanly!

And in theory I like the idea of Chloe and Clark going in different directions in a way that pushes Clark to take more responsibility for doing his own research and in general turning into Clark Kent, reporter, not just Clark Kent, superhero. It was great watching Clark listening to the police band and in general researching on his own, since Lois was at a monster truck rally. (Hee!!)

But there were many, many things I didn't like about the episode

First of all, when the hell did Metropolis become Gotham? The crime rate seems a little extreme, and some of that stuff (like the teenagers mugging the little kid? In the middle of the night?) was pretty damn unbelievable.

Second, the conflict between Chloe and Clark seemed extremely manufactured to me. I can see Chloe being protective of her "kids"--though I am still finding this whole Chloe-rehabilitating-mutants storyline really uninteresting, like Chloe has just adopted Lana's role--but Chloe is perfectly aware that not all MA folks are perfectly stable, AND Clark has made a whole career of putting his faith in people's he's only just met, so the actually substance of their argument seemed unlikely to me. Though partly I just want Chloe to back to some sort of investigative job and stop trying to be Mother Theresa. Ok, her statistic about the 327 mutants she investigated--and the zero that she saved--was kind of moving, and in some ways I like how they're setting her up to be the anti-Tess (or setting Tess up to be the anti-Chloe, whatever), but....empathetic counselor Chloe BORES me.

And while the Chloe-Davis chemistry is fun to watch, I really actually don't understand why she instinctively trusts him. And obviously he's going to turn out to be a bad guy, so she's just getting set up for a fall.

And Clark's whole speech to Chloe about how he's not interested in singing kumbaya? Wow. I actually wanted to slap him. I liked his apology to her at the end, but I was pretty mad at the writers for making that necessary, because I can buy him getting obsessed with saving people, but his particular level of jerkiness to her seemed very OOC to me.

Things I am suspending judgment on for the moment

I kind of like Jimmy investigating the mystery hero--for one thing, I like any plotline that gives Jimmy something non-romantic to do, and besides which Jimmy has good investigative instincts. I just fear that he, too, is just getting set up to be shot down (like when he was investigating Lex Luthor), since we all know Clark's identity isn't going to be revealed. ETA Oops, I may have spoken too soon, since I missed the preview for next week's ep when I flipped over to watch Grey's, and didn't see it until I watched my recording of SPN.

The Davis mystery is interesting, but they better go somewhere with it soon or I will get very impatient.

I really missed Lois and Tess in this episode, dammit!