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SV 6.13 Crimson
Spoilers ahoy!
I don't have any real analysis of this episode, just a bunch of disconnected reactions to the plot.
This is another episode which I was a little spoiled for and I was kind of dreading, so once again I was pleasantly surprised. Normally I cringe when redK!Clark acts like a jerk, but I actually really loved that confrontation scene at the engagement dinner. It was fun to hear Clark saying stuff we've been saying all season.
I also really, really loved the Clois--both the humor and the more serious stuff. Nitroglycerin and peroxide! Hot fudge and halibut! [And could the Talon have looked ANY tackier? OMG!] That whole scene the next morning when Lois came to the house was *priceless*--Martha's reaction to the way she was dressed, Clark's reaction to her attraction, the CD, Clark running like hell--absolute comedy gold, I thought. I also liked the little iconic bits they stuck in--that Lois and Clark's first kiss was in a phone booth (hee hee!), the fact that Jimmy was the one who could see they would be good together, the flight across the moon. And I loved that Lois recognized Clark's kiss, and that Clark had apparently been jealous enough of Ollie to feel the need to stake his claim on Lois on Ollie's turf. And that scene in Ollie's loft was just *hot*--though poor Lois! She never gets any on this show. And ok, I know it was anvilly times a billion, but I liked the New Age potions woman saying she could sense they had a real connection in the future.
Hey,![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
mahaliem, you got your bare-chested Clark!
The Chloe-Lana scene just confirmed for me the pacing problem of this show. Sigh. It's always two steps forward, one step back--I can't decide if it's just bad writing, or part of the network pressure to have stand alone episodes, that we have to have Chloe and Lana be friends again just to confirm to the viewers that Lex is, in fact, isolating Lana and that Lana knows Chloe is hiding Clark's secret. I mean, I continue to think Lana and Chloe are cute in scenes together, and my Chlana-hopeful heart thinks Lana making Chloe her maid of honor at least creates good fodder for fic, but I do find it kind of implausible that Lana would reconcile with Chloe after that fight they had in "Hydro". Unless of course Lana thinks that getting Chloe to acknowledge there *is* a secret is one step along the road of actually learning the secret. But my joy in the possibility of Lana being that devious and underhanded was undercut by the fact that she actually found out Clark's secret by the end of the episode. (Ok, she doesn't know everything, but she has more evidence than she ever had before). I assume that the way they're going to show Lana is not completely corrupted by Lex is to show that she keeps Clark's secret, regardless of how involved she gets with Lex's other evil schemes.
The Lana-Lex stuff was very, very interesting. Can I just say, I love the Lexana best when it's so complicated and multilayered, like it was today? For example, I loved that we got several scenes that on the surface were sweet, happy Lexana (which I think they need to continue to show to justify why the *hell* Lana is staying in this relationship), but when you examine them they become really creepy.
The nursery scene is a great example of that. On the one hand, it starts out with Lex playfully jumping Lana (playful, but also a little disturbing, to me--in some ways it almost seemed more threateningly possessive than Clark actually kidnapping her, because at least I knew Clark had the redK excuse) and taking her to see the nursery. It's kind of sweet to think of Lex picking nursery decorations and furniture, at least on the surface, even though Lana is obviously still somewhat in denial of the pregnancy, as Lex obviously knows--so it's a bit of a loaded gesture. It has even stronger overtones of creepy, though, because I *swear* that nursery is decorated almost identically to the one we saw Lionel and Lillian standing in front of in--um, it might have been Memoria? I can't remember the episode, but I was looking at screencaps of it earlier this season, and the visual stuck in my head. So we definitely have overtones of Lionel-Lillian, not the least in Lex's apparent enthusiasm for a pregnancy that Lana is clearly ambivalent about (just as Lillian was ambivalent about her pregnancy with Julian).
Then we have the engagement toast/dinner, which although sweet on the surface, takes place at the dinner table of extreme separation. Oh, anvilly symbolism, we must love you or gouge our eyes out. Maybe I should retract my suspicions regarding Lana's reconciliation with Chloe--I'd want someone I actually knew and who was marginally on my side at an event like that, too. (What an odd toast Lex made, too, one that completely erases his two earlier marriages.)
Skipping ahead, we have Lex concealing a sinister secret about Lana's pregnancy (which I am dying to know--though don't spoil me, please! Did he engineer it with the aid of mutant semen or something? Does he know it's Zod's child? Unspoiled speculation in comments is highly encouraged). Meanwhile, Lana is keeping her own secret about Clark. Ah, I love this relationship in all its fucked up glory.
Of course, the highlight of the whole Clexana triangle was the barn confrontation scene. Did I say last week I didn't like the Clexana triangle? I lied. When none of them are pulling their punches, it's actually a lot of fun. I had a little joygasm when Clark openly told Lana that Lex only wanted her because she had been his. DAMN. Slashers, start your engines. And wow, Lex didn't deny that very convincingly, did he? His denial was almost as lame as Lana's protestations. And ouch, Clark telling Lex he wished he hadn't saved him was painful, but seriously--could that have been any more bitter ex-boyfriend? The slash in that scene just writes itself.
And Martha coolly taking down Clark with the kryptonite while letting Lex think he had actually injured Clark--damn, that was just the icing on the cake of the BEST SCENE EVER. I'm kind of surprised Clark's completely escaping the consequences for kidnapping Lana, though--I half expected Lex to press charges.
I was also spoiled about the Chloe-Jimmy breakup, so it had less of an impact on me than it might have otherwise--but damn, Jimmy actually made me feel really sorry for him, despite the fact that I'm usually more of a Chloe defender. But I definitely can see his perspective--how can he feel anything other than a third wheel, when his girl is spending all her time with Clark, or helping Clark, or defending Clark. And Chloe really is the queen of mixed messages, which is too bad, because the fact that she got him his first bow tie was too cute for words.
I'm actually wondering, now, if the Chimmy breakup is not so much part of a long-term arc where Chloe suffers for being Clark's secret keeper (which is where I thought this plot was going) as it is foreshadowing what Lana's knowledge of the secret is going to do to her relationship with Lex.
I don't have any real analysis of this episode, just a bunch of disconnected reactions to the plot.
This is another episode which I was a little spoiled for and I was kind of dreading, so once again I was pleasantly surprised. Normally I cringe when redK!Clark acts like a jerk, but I actually really loved that confrontation scene at the engagement dinner. It was fun to hear Clark saying stuff we've been saying all season.
I also really, really loved the Clois--both the humor and the more serious stuff. Nitroglycerin and peroxide! Hot fudge and halibut! [And could the Talon have looked ANY tackier? OMG!] That whole scene the next morning when Lois came to the house was *priceless*--Martha's reaction to the way she was dressed, Clark's reaction to her attraction, the CD, Clark running like hell--absolute comedy gold, I thought. I also liked the little iconic bits they stuck in--that Lois and Clark's first kiss was in a phone booth (hee hee!), the fact that Jimmy was the one who could see they would be good together, the flight across the moon. And I loved that Lois recognized Clark's kiss, and that Clark had apparently been jealous enough of Ollie to feel the need to stake his claim on Lois on Ollie's turf. And that scene in Ollie's loft was just *hot*--though poor Lois! She never gets any on this show. And ok, I know it was anvilly times a billion, but I liked the New Age potions woman saying she could sense they had a real connection in the future.
Hey,
mahaliem, you got your bare-chested Clark!The Chloe-Lana scene just confirmed for me the pacing problem of this show. Sigh. It's always two steps forward, one step back--I can't decide if it's just bad writing, or part of the network pressure to have stand alone episodes, that we have to have Chloe and Lana be friends again just to confirm to the viewers that Lex is, in fact, isolating Lana and that Lana knows Chloe is hiding Clark's secret. I mean, I continue to think Lana and Chloe are cute in scenes together, and my Chlana-hopeful heart thinks Lana making Chloe her maid of honor at least creates good fodder for fic, but I do find it kind of implausible that Lana would reconcile with Chloe after that fight they had in "Hydro". Unless of course Lana thinks that getting Chloe to acknowledge there *is* a secret is one step along the road of actually learning the secret. But my joy in the possibility of Lana being that devious and underhanded was undercut by the fact that she actually found out Clark's secret by the end of the episode. (Ok, she doesn't know everything, but she has more evidence than she ever had before). I assume that the way they're going to show Lana is not completely corrupted by Lex is to show that she keeps Clark's secret, regardless of how involved she gets with Lex's other evil schemes.
The Lana-Lex stuff was very, very interesting. Can I just say, I love the Lexana best when it's so complicated and multilayered, like it was today? For example, I loved that we got several scenes that on the surface were sweet, happy Lexana (which I think they need to continue to show to justify why the *hell* Lana is staying in this relationship), but when you examine them they become really creepy.
The nursery scene is a great example of that. On the one hand, it starts out with Lex playfully jumping Lana (playful, but also a little disturbing, to me--in some ways it almost seemed more threateningly possessive than Clark actually kidnapping her, because at least I knew Clark had the redK excuse) and taking her to see the nursery. It's kind of sweet to think of Lex picking nursery decorations and furniture, at least on the surface, even though Lana is obviously still somewhat in denial of the pregnancy, as Lex obviously knows--so it's a bit of a loaded gesture. It has even stronger overtones of creepy, though, because I *swear* that nursery is decorated almost identically to the one we saw Lionel and Lillian standing in front of in--um, it might have been Memoria? I can't remember the episode, but I was looking at screencaps of it earlier this season, and the visual stuck in my head. So we definitely have overtones of Lionel-Lillian, not the least in Lex's apparent enthusiasm for a pregnancy that Lana is clearly ambivalent about (just as Lillian was ambivalent about her pregnancy with Julian).
Then we have the engagement toast/dinner, which although sweet on the surface, takes place at the dinner table of extreme separation. Oh, anvilly symbolism, we must love you or gouge our eyes out. Maybe I should retract my suspicions regarding Lana's reconciliation with Chloe--I'd want someone I actually knew and who was marginally on my side at an event like that, too. (What an odd toast Lex made, too, one that completely erases his two earlier marriages.)
Skipping ahead, we have Lex concealing a sinister secret about Lana's pregnancy (which I am dying to know--though don't spoil me, please! Did he engineer it with the aid of mutant semen or something? Does he know it's Zod's child? Unspoiled speculation in comments is highly encouraged). Meanwhile, Lana is keeping her own secret about Clark. Ah, I love this relationship in all its fucked up glory.
Of course, the highlight of the whole Clexana triangle was the barn confrontation scene. Did I say last week I didn't like the Clexana triangle? I lied. When none of them are pulling their punches, it's actually a lot of fun. I had a little joygasm when Clark openly told Lana that Lex only wanted her because she had been his. DAMN. Slashers, start your engines. And wow, Lex didn't deny that very convincingly, did he? His denial was almost as lame as Lana's protestations. And ouch, Clark telling Lex he wished he hadn't saved him was painful, but seriously--could that have been any more bitter ex-boyfriend? The slash in that scene just writes itself.
And Martha coolly taking down Clark with the kryptonite while letting Lex think he had actually injured Clark--damn, that was just the icing on the cake of the BEST SCENE EVER. I'm kind of surprised Clark's completely escaping the consequences for kidnapping Lana, though--I half expected Lex to press charges.
I was also spoiled about the Chloe-Jimmy breakup, so it had less of an impact on me than it might have otherwise--but damn, Jimmy actually made me feel really sorry for him, despite the fact that I'm usually more of a Chloe defender. But I definitely can see his perspective--how can he feel anything other than a third wheel, when his girl is spending all her time with Clark, or helping Clark, or defending Clark. And Chloe really is the queen of mixed messages, which is too bad, because the fact that she got him his first bow tie was too cute for words.
I'm actually wondering, now, if the Chimmy breakup is not so much part of a long-term arc where Chloe suffers for being Clark's secret keeper (which is where I thought this plot was going) as it is foreshadowing what Lana's knowledge of the secret is going to do to her relationship with Lex.