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SV: Vengeance
For the first half of the episode I didn't think I'd have much to say about this one, but they really packed a lot into that last 20 minutes, didn't they.
Ok, first of all, I never thought I would cry for Jonathan Kent (for Martha and Clark's grief, sure, but not for the man himself), but *dammit*, even though I knew they were being deliberately emotionally manipulative with those home movies, I bawled like a baby when Jonathan said "goodbye."
Second: Oh, Lionel, you are *such* a magnificent bastard. I knew you'd start making a play for Martha, but I *didn't* expect you to play the Lillian card, and that was *masterful.* And I didn't really expect Martha to actually mean something to you--giving up your takeover of Luthercorp? Either you really *do* love her, or you're playing a very deep game, and either way I love that like McArthur, you have returned.
[So: was that statement just a typrical Luthor declaration of war masked as a historical allusion? A sign that Jor-El has been in his body this whole time, and now Lionel is back at the reigns? Or vice versa? At any rate, when he said "Thank you, son" after CLark saved him, I got *chills*].
On the "path to future destiny" watch, Lex and Clark both take a further step down that road. Clark's, of course, is strewn with many cheddar-flavored anvils, but I *did* like to see that he was able to pull back from killing that dude without a Chloe ex machina (which was what I was actually expecting).
And Lex--damn, I CHEERED when he beat his dad. You go, Lex! What are you doing, keeping the barn under video surveillance? (*There's* a story waiting to be written!) At last you're showing some badass mojo. I also loved "If I'd have known you wanted a duel, I would have brought my own pistol." I know Lionel is probably going to die by the end of this season (it makes thematic sense, especially given how he's always been paralled to Jonathan), but I am really going to miss the JG/MR scenes when that happens. (And I must say I *loved* how this episode paralleled the Lex/Lana and Lionel/Martha plots--that's not a connection I was anticipating).
I will leave others to talk about the lessons Clark is supposed to learn from his encounter with the "Angel of Vengeance"--but it's interesting that they seem to be setting up a complicated suicide slums plotline, linked to Lionel. I can't figure out why else we got so much exposition dump about the gangs and Akrata--it was more complicated than it needed to be for just one episode. (I wish their Suicide Slums *set* looked a little less fake, though!)
I'm also really excited about how this plotline opens up an expanded role for AOT (I hope). Is she really going to be Senator? That would make the Lionel romance plot make a lot more sense, and more interesting. I wonder how far they're willing to go with this storyline? As usual, AOT was really good in all her scenes tonight--I especially loved the Chloe/Martha bonding moment. And she played her scene with JG very well--I love how steely-eyed she was through most of it, but then she softened up at the end.
It's interesting, if you think about Jonathan's watch, paralleling Lillian's watch, as a symbolic heritage passed down to the sons. In both case, the heritage is a moral center for them. I think it's significant that Lex's watch got stolen during Lexmas, but Clark had his with him even when he didn't have the physical watch.
Ok, first of all, I never thought I would cry for Jonathan Kent (for Martha and Clark's grief, sure, but not for the man himself), but *dammit*, even though I knew they were being deliberately emotionally manipulative with those home movies, I bawled like a baby when Jonathan said "goodbye."
Second: Oh, Lionel, you are *such* a magnificent bastard. I knew you'd start making a play for Martha, but I *didn't* expect you to play the Lillian card, and that was *masterful.* And I didn't really expect Martha to actually mean something to you--giving up your takeover of Luthercorp? Either you really *do* love her, or you're playing a very deep game, and either way I love that like McArthur, you have returned.
[So: was that statement just a typrical Luthor declaration of war masked as a historical allusion? A sign that Jor-El has been in his body this whole time, and now Lionel is back at the reigns? Or vice versa? At any rate, when he said "Thank you, son" after CLark saved him, I got *chills*].
On the "path to future destiny" watch, Lex and Clark both take a further step down that road. Clark's, of course, is strewn with many cheddar-flavored anvils, but I *did* like to see that he was able to pull back from killing that dude without a Chloe ex machina (which was what I was actually expecting).
And Lex--damn, I CHEERED when he beat his dad. You go, Lex! What are you doing, keeping the barn under video surveillance? (*There's* a story waiting to be written!) At last you're showing some badass mojo. I also loved "If I'd have known you wanted a duel, I would have brought my own pistol." I know Lionel is probably going to die by the end of this season (it makes thematic sense, especially given how he's always been paralled to Jonathan), but I am really going to miss the JG/MR scenes when that happens. (And I must say I *loved* how this episode paralleled the Lex/Lana and Lionel/Martha plots--that's not a connection I was anticipating).
I will leave others to talk about the lessons Clark is supposed to learn from his encounter with the "Angel of Vengeance"--but it's interesting that they seem to be setting up a complicated suicide slums plotline, linked to Lionel. I can't figure out why else we got so much exposition dump about the gangs and Akrata--it was more complicated than it needed to be for just one episode. (I wish their Suicide Slums *set* looked a little less fake, though!)
I'm also really excited about how this plotline opens up an expanded role for AOT (I hope). Is she really going to be Senator? That would make the Lionel romance plot make a lot more sense, and more interesting. I wonder how far they're willing to go with this storyline? As usual, AOT was really good in all her scenes tonight--I especially loved the Chloe/Martha bonding moment. And she played her scene with JG very well--I love how steely-eyed she was through most of it, but then she softened up at the end.
It's interesting, if you think about Jonathan's watch, paralleling Lillian's watch, as a symbolic heritage passed down to the sons. In both case, the heritage is a moral center for them. I think it's significant that Lex's watch got stolen during Lexmas, but Clark had his with him even when he didn't have the physical watch.
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Same here. It was the good kind of emotional manipulation, though, where you know it's happening, but it still feels organic to the story/scene/moment.
Second: Oh, Lionel, you are *such* a magnificent bastard. I knew you'd start making a play for Martha, but I *didn't* expect you to play the Lillian card, and that was *masterful.*
What I loved was how it harkened back to the first time he showed interest in her, which was, I think, in Skinwalker. He compared her to Lillian then, too, saying that Martha had the same kind of "no bullshit here, please, kthnxbi" attitude. I'm enjoying the way this season is reaching back, not just to other episodes within the season, but to other eps within the *series*, to sustain a sense of emotional continuity/history between the characters in their interactions with each other (although it'd be nice if everyone remembered that Lionel went to prison for murdering his parents, that he tried to kill Chloe, and that he basically kidnapped and subjected his own son to needless radical psychiatric treatment).
And I didn't really expect Martha to actually mean something to you--giving up your takeover of Luthercorp?
I look at it this way: Lionel is a master strategist. If his end game is to secure Martha's affections so that he can have access to *Clark* as a resource/ally (and it's certainly a strong possibility that the leverage he had on Jonathan had to do with Clark, and that the types of favors he was going to ask for would implicate Clark's abilities, etc.), then he can't afford to alienate Martha right now. Her love and grief for Jonathan are so strong right now that I'm not sure that even with his capacity for spin, Lionel could twist it such that she wouldn't hate him if she believed his actions in someway precipitated Jon's death. Alienating Martha is too big a risk, because he wouldn't be able to regain a foot-hold if that info came out right now.
So. I suspect that Lionel decided to concede this round to Lex because he's just arrogant enough to believe that if he eventually wins Martha over, then he can diffuse the threat himself; if she's *in love* with him when she learns, and if she hears it from him with the best Lionel-spin he can give it, then she could probably forgive it. But if she heard it right now, and heard it with the spin *Lex* could put on it? Lionel'd probably be lucky she didn't run him over with one of the farm's tractors.
It was a strategic move on Lionel's part. But like I said over in
but it's interesting that they seem to be setting up a complicated suicide slums plotline, linked to Lionel.
And here's where Lex's attentiveness may end up paying off. After all, it doesn't make much sense that Snake (the thug Andrea killed) would be *lying* when he said Lionel ordered the hit on Andrea's mother, whose activism seemed to be blocking some development Lionel's got brewing. Given their respective positions, it only makes sense that someone like that would cross paths with someone like Lionel *almost exclusively* under shady conditions. So I wonder if this Suicide Slums business isn't the means by which Lex brings about Lionel's fall/destruction. There's a certain symmetry to that, after all, since *escaping* the Suicide Slums life is what spurred Lionel to kill his parents and set out on his Master of the Universe path in the first place. It makes a certain kind of sense that his Reign of Terror would come to an end because of Suicide Slums.
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The "someone like that" here refers to Snake crossing paths with Lionel. Not Andrea's mother doing so.
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Oh, good point! I'd forgotten about the comparison to Lillian in Skinwalker. (Probably because I've *never* rewatched that episode--the A plot was so lame). And I agree with you about the schizophrenic continuity. They're doing an *amazing* job maintaining continuity *within* this season--the best the series has ever done, I think--and like you said, they're hearkening back to a lot of things from season 1, but sometimes it seems like they're just ignoring a lot of major things that happened in between.
I look at it this way: Lionel is a master strategist. If his end game is to secure Martha's affections so that he can have access to *Clark* as a resource/ally (and it's certainly a strong possibility that the leverage he had on Jonathan had to do with Clark, and that the types of favors he was going to ask for would implicate Clark's abilities, etc.), then he can't afford to alienate Martha right now.
It does seem likely that he's trying to get access to Clark's powers. (He was *so* creepily avuncular in that scene after Clark rescued him, too! *Flails*) But I'm sure he wouldn't balk at access to alien abilities + influence over a state senator (if they're actually going that way with Martha--I'm unspoiled about that. I really wish they would, though, because I'd *love* to see AOT get a chance to expand her role in the show.)
he'd better hope Lex doesn't have some other little stinkbombs hidden here and there, just waiting for the right moment to deploy them
I think you're right--clearly Lex has people watching Lionel's every move, and as you said in your review, Lionel thinks they're playing the same old game when Lex is no longer playing.
After all, it doesn't make much sense that Snake (the thug Andrea killed) would be *lying* when he said Lionel ordered the hit on Andrea's mother, whose activism seemed to be blocking some development Lionel's got brewing. Given their respective positions, it only makes sense that someone like that would cross paths with someone like Lionel *almost exclusively* under shady conditions. So I wonder if this Suicide Slums business isn't the means by which Lex brings about Lionel's fall/destruction. There's a certain symmetry to that, after all, since *escaping* the Suicide Slums life is what spurred Lionel to kill his parents and set out on his Master of the Universe path in the first place. It makes a certain kind of sense that his Reign of Terror would come to an end because of Suicide Slums.
That would be poetic justice indeed. (I wonder if they're going to structure it so Clark & Chloe are trying to pursue this independently of Lex's own attempts to bring Lionel down--in which case this episode could be foreshadowing Lex killing Lionel while Clark attempts (in vain) to stop him.)
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I'm really glad you mentioned the watch parallels. This really got to me, because Martha getting mugged seemed such an obvious Lexmas parallel. And yet I couldn't make out the *point* of it. Certainly the missing parent working as moral compass thing is at the heart of it, and you made the leap that I didn't in pointing out that Clark's functions without the need of an actual physical memento. Whereas Lex has rejected his mother's moral function after losing the physical memento.
So here's my crazy speculation(!): Lionel could be behind Lex's mugging/shooting too. I know really that this is just the nurofen and my Lex-fixation combining with weird consequences (I really can't bear the fact he lost that watch and Clark got his back even though he didn't really want it!) but my mind kept going there...
no subject
Ok, like I said, wish fulfillment, because I'm sure no one gets to be on Lex's side. *Sigh* Back to responding to your comments:
I'm really glad you mentioned the watch parallels. This really got to me, because Martha getting mugged seemed such an obvious Lexmas parallel. And yet I couldn't make out the *point* of it. Certainly the missing parent working as moral compass thing is at the heart of it, and you made the leap that I didn't in pointing out that Clark's functions without the need of an actual physical memento. Whereas Lex has rejected his mother's moral function after losing the physical memento.
I'm sure Lex losing Lillian's watch in that episode is just foreshadowing the choice that he eventually makes--but if you're looking for parallels, I'll call your "Lionel was behind Lex's mugging" and raise you one "Martha is going to lose *her* moral center" (for a little while, anyway). I can't figure out why else they stuck in that odd conversation with Chloe where she says she feels like she can't keep Clark's secret without Jonathan. I think Martha is going to slip, somehow, with Lionel. (It won't really matter, I suspect, because he already knows, but it will matter to Martha.)
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I think you might be right about Martha. The way the barn scene with Lionel played out was uncomfortable for me. She seemed genuinely vulnerable to him in a way that I wouldn't usually expect from her. I can't say I love the idea of Martha losing her moral centre in the wake of Jonathan's passing (I just baulk at her being shown as that dependent) but I think it might be something they go for. She reached out to Chloe, but it may be that Chloe proves to be less reliable and dependable than Martha thinks.
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I think the post I just made on "Splinter" and foreshadowing is on more solid ground on the foreshadowing front, so I'm interested to see what you think of that.
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