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Smallville: Eternal
Wow, that was epic! I think this episode is probably in my top 5 Smallville eps of all-time, just for the way it used the mythology.
Integrating Davis into the Smallville mythos: Davis and Lex, Davis and Clark
My brain is still probably too full of squee to analyze this in any depth, but I have to say I was completely blown away by how seamlessly they interwove the Davis backstory into the core mythology of the show--not just the Veritas stuff but all the flashbacks to the Pilot. And not only did that elevate the dramatic promise of the Davis' endgame, but it was a really lovely way to bring back characters many of us are missing: Jonathan and Martha and Lionel and, most of all, Lex.
BTW, did they reshoot/greenscreen in/or otherwise use tech to have child Lex in the cornfield played by the current actor? Because I swear he looked different in the Pilot
I haven't read any reviews, so I don't know how Lex fans overall are reacting to the replacement of Lex with Davis in the Kawatche cave myth of the doubleheaded figure, but I think that the way they developed young Lex's backstory with Davis in this made this feel less like they were robbing Lex of his mythic role and more that they were doing what Smallville loves to do: create a character who shares elements of both Lex and Clark to show the way both of their destinies could have gone.
The Clark parallels are in fact even more striking--Clark himself calls attention to them. Davis experienced both of Clark's greatest fear: (1)getting captured by Lionel Luthor, put in a cage, and experimented on; and (b) being abandoned in a world with no loving parents to guide him on the right path, and therefore ending up a monster. I think recognizing those parallels added a special urgency to Clark's attempt to persuade Chloe not to kill Davis. Of course Clark wants to see the good in everyone, even serial killers whom he's deeply suspicious of, but he also feels a level of responsibility once he's learned about Davis' origins.
But Davis, like Lex, has a "destiny" to go evil--his destiny being far more predetermined than Lex's because he literally *cannot* control the monster inside of him. And yet still he struggles, and we see the parallels to Lex's struggles early in the show. How bittersweet to have those flashbacks to little Lex back when Lex was still full of heroic impulses--to be like warrior angel, to slay the evil dragon like St. George. And Davis, too, loved warrior angel [no telling why he should--I guess he was programmed to speak English and have pop culture while in the pod?] and was willing to play the dragon, but knew he must be slain. Oh, god, my heart *ached* for both of those little boys in that scene. *Sobs* I just want to kidnap them both and feed them cookies and keep them far, far away from Lionel and his ilk. Though even that wouldn't save Davis in the long run.
Tess
And speaking of Lex parallels: WOW. Wow wow wow wow wow. Honestly? The way they're going with Tess is the way I wish they'd gone with Lex, at least some of the time. She makes blowing up trucks look *sexy.* Seriously? That scene where she thinks she's killing Davis to save the world? In my notes it says "holy fuck I have never seen murder look so hot." Like Lex, she's doing bad deeds for the betterment of humanity, but unlike Lex she is not troubled by her conscience. Guh. I probably should be more disturbed that I think this is hot, shouldn't I?
She's going to die by the end of the season, isn't she? (DON'T SPOIL ME, I AM ONLY SPECULATING). She knows more about Clark's secret than anyone besides Lionel does, yet she has the fanatic devotion of Lex in his first blush oftrue love obsession, and with a lovely soupcon of religious fanaticism that's her own special touch. I can't decide which I love more, "I forget: what's the prayer for dismembering a body", or her decision that Jesus Clark needs a little Judas in his life to fully embrace his heroic destiny?
And DAMN. All the confrontations she has with Clark, where she pulls no punches and tells no lies, and he fences back so persuasively (or it would be persuasive, if she didn't know everything)? HOTTER THAN HELL.
Chloe
You know, it was almost worth the whole damn triangle bullshit, and even the marriage to Jimmy and its subsequent disintegration, just to get to this episode for Chloe, where she has several really nuanced moral choices to make and makes them completely in accordance with her character and with the decisions she's made all throughout this season.
1. I guess we have the resolution to the question of whether she or Brainiac killed that guy in the hospital: Chloe will, in fact, kill to protect Clark.
2. And yet she was clearly deeply, deeply conflicted about her decision to help Davis kill himself, which I was glad to see. She had been deeply shaken about her trust in him--especially considered she had to come to grips with the fact that Jimmy had been right, and she was in fact responsible for the destruction of their marriage because she trusted the wrong man--and yet I still think that her decision to help Davis die was more of an act of love than simply a decision to protect Clark. And honestly? In her position I probably would have made the same decision--I'm curious to see what other people think. If I had just discovered someone I loved was (a) a serial killer (b) who wanted to stop and couldn't and (c) was a significant threat to the whole world because he was too powerful for normal prisons and (d) was a specific threat to my best friend? And (e) that person really, really wanted to stop even at the cost of their own life? I can't say for sure, of course, but I'm inclined to think I would have chosen as she did.
Still, it's going to cause a real rift between her and Clark, if not now, then eventually--especially given that she presented it to *him* as suggesting that in refusing to wipe out threats to himself, he was endangering the world. That's just not compatible with the Superman philosophy.
3. Her decision at the end, to stay with Davis, is an interesting one. Of course it can't work in the long run, and I'm really curious to see if they're going to play it more as Chloe embracing a Clarkian sensibility, that everyone can still be saved; as her really having deeper feelings for Davis than she thought she did and that she's deceiving herself; or that she's a martyr, offering herself to David to save the world and ending up in a bad place (or maybe even dead?) because of it.
In conclusion: this episode totally rocked the house. And I'm all in favor of more flashbacks to bring back dead characters/characters whose actors have left, because I MISS THEM. I didn't realize just how much until tonight.
Integrating Davis into the Smallville mythos: Davis and Lex, Davis and Clark
My brain is still probably too full of squee to analyze this in any depth, but I have to say I was completely blown away by how seamlessly they interwove the Davis backstory into the core mythology of the show--not just the Veritas stuff but all the flashbacks to the Pilot. And not only did that elevate the dramatic promise of the Davis' endgame, but it was a really lovely way to bring back characters many of us are missing: Jonathan and Martha and Lionel and, most of all, Lex.
BTW, did they reshoot/greenscreen in/or otherwise use tech to have child Lex in the cornfield played by the current actor? Because I swear he looked different in the Pilot
I haven't read any reviews, so I don't know how Lex fans overall are reacting to the replacement of Lex with Davis in the Kawatche cave myth of the doubleheaded figure, but I think that the way they developed young Lex's backstory with Davis in this made this feel less like they were robbing Lex of his mythic role and more that they were doing what Smallville loves to do: create a character who shares elements of both Lex and Clark to show the way both of their destinies could have gone.
The Clark parallels are in fact even more striking--Clark himself calls attention to them. Davis experienced both of Clark's greatest fear: (1)getting captured by Lionel Luthor, put in a cage, and experimented on; and (b) being abandoned in a world with no loving parents to guide him on the right path, and therefore ending up a monster. I think recognizing those parallels added a special urgency to Clark's attempt to persuade Chloe not to kill Davis. Of course Clark wants to see the good in everyone, even serial killers whom he's deeply suspicious of, but he also feels a level of responsibility once he's learned about Davis' origins.
But Davis, like Lex, has a "destiny" to go evil--his destiny being far more predetermined than Lex's because he literally *cannot* control the monster inside of him. And yet still he struggles, and we see the parallels to Lex's struggles early in the show. How bittersweet to have those flashbacks to little Lex back when Lex was still full of heroic impulses--to be like warrior angel, to slay the evil dragon like St. George. And Davis, too, loved warrior angel [no telling why he should--I guess he was programmed to speak English and have pop culture while in the pod?] and was willing to play the dragon, but knew he must be slain. Oh, god, my heart *ached* for both of those little boys in that scene. *Sobs* I just want to kidnap them both and feed them cookies and keep them far, far away from Lionel and his ilk. Though even that wouldn't save Davis in the long run.
Tess
And speaking of Lex parallels: WOW. Wow wow wow wow wow. Honestly? The way they're going with Tess is the way I wish they'd gone with Lex, at least some of the time. She makes blowing up trucks look *sexy.* Seriously? That scene where she thinks she's killing Davis to save the world? In my notes it says "holy fuck I have never seen murder look so hot." Like Lex, she's doing bad deeds for the betterment of humanity, but unlike Lex she is not troubled by her conscience. Guh. I probably should be more disturbed that I think this is hot, shouldn't I?
She's going to die by the end of the season, isn't she? (DON'T SPOIL ME, I AM ONLY SPECULATING). She knows more about Clark's secret than anyone besides Lionel does, yet she has the fanatic devotion of Lex in his first blush of
And DAMN. All the confrontations she has with Clark, where she pulls no punches and tells no lies, and he fences back so persuasively (or it would be persuasive, if she didn't know everything)? HOTTER THAN HELL.
Chloe
You know, it was almost worth the whole damn triangle bullshit, and even the marriage to Jimmy and its subsequent disintegration, just to get to this episode for Chloe, where she has several really nuanced moral choices to make and makes them completely in accordance with her character and with the decisions she's made all throughout this season.
1. I guess we have the resolution to the question of whether she or Brainiac killed that guy in the hospital: Chloe will, in fact, kill to protect Clark.
2. And yet she was clearly deeply, deeply conflicted about her decision to help Davis kill himself, which I was glad to see. She had been deeply shaken about her trust in him--especially considered she had to come to grips with the fact that Jimmy had been right, and she was in fact responsible for the destruction of their marriage because she trusted the wrong man--and yet I still think that her decision to help Davis die was more of an act of love than simply a decision to protect Clark. And honestly? In her position I probably would have made the same decision--I'm curious to see what other people think. If I had just discovered someone I loved was (a) a serial killer (b) who wanted to stop and couldn't and (c) was a significant threat to the whole world because he was too powerful for normal prisons and (d) was a specific threat to my best friend? And (e) that person really, really wanted to stop even at the cost of their own life? I can't say for sure, of course, but I'm inclined to think I would have chosen as she did.
Still, it's going to cause a real rift between her and Clark, if not now, then eventually--especially given that she presented it to *him* as suggesting that in refusing to wipe out threats to himself, he was endangering the world. That's just not compatible with the Superman philosophy.
3. Her decision at the end, to stay with Davis, is an interesting one. Of course it can't work in the long run, and I'm really curious to see if they're going to play it more as Chloe embracing a Clarkian sensibility, that everyone can still be saved; as her really having deeper feelings for Davis than she thought she did and that she's deceiving herself; or that she's a martyr, offering herself to David to save the world and ending up in a bad place (or maybe even dead?) because of it.
In conclusion: this episode totally rocked the house. And I'm all in favor of more flashbacks to bring back dead characters/characters whose actors have left, because I MISS THEM. I didn't realize just how much until tonight.
no subject
Yes. It was reshot. They used the same actor that they used for all of little Lex's scenes last season. The boy they used in the Pilot is probably about 16 by now.
My brain is still probably too full of squee to analyze this in any depth, but I have to say I was completely blown away by how seamlessly they interwove the Davis backstory into the core mythology of the show--not just the Veritas stuff but all the flashbacks to the Pilot. And not only did that elevate the dramatic promise of the Davis' endgame, but it was a really lovely way to bring back characters many of us are missing: Jonathan and Martha and Lionel and, most of all, Lex.
I think I would have to watch this episode about 6 times before I could get my head around all of that stuff, not to mention all the religious analogies. I'm hoping that one of the great meta-reviewers who get this stuff, will make my job easier by interpreting everything for me. Feel up to the task? :D
And DAMN. All the confrontations she has with Clark, where she pulls no punches and tells no lies, and he fences back so persuasively (or it would be persuasive, if she didn't know everything)? HOTTER THAN HELL.
I love Tom and Cassidy's chemistry. I hope she sticks around next season so we can get more of it. I would even love it, with her biology background and knowing about Clark, if she became Clark's personal Physician. :)
no subject
I'm hoping that one of the great meta-reviewers who get this stuff, will make my job easier by interpreting everything for me.
I'm kind of hoping that too. (Where *are* the reviews of this ep, anyway? This is the first time in weeks I've actually had any time to collect reviews for eat_crow, and there are barely any!)
love Tom and Cassidy's chemistry. I hope she sticks around next season so we can get more of it.
Me too. In fact, I could even get behind a Clark/Lois/Tess love triangle, because it would be far more interesting than normal given that Tess has chemistry with Lois, too. (In fact, it would be eerily reminiscent of the Lex/Lana/Clark triangle, only from the femslash side of things).