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SV 6.15 "Freak"
A great directing debut for MR!
Spoilers for "Freak" behind the cut
Yeah, what do I know about directing? I did notice there were a lot more shots with natural light than is normal in an SV episode (like the exterior of Tobias' house the first time Clark and Chloe visited), which I liked. I also thought the night scene with Clark and Lana outside Tobias' house was beautifully lit, and they both looked gorgeous in the multicolored lights. Ditto with the final Chloe-Clark scene--they both looked gorgeous.
To turn my attention to the plot: I was a little bit spoiled for this episode, so I've been playing around with idea of Chloe the meteor freak all week. On the plus side, it will probably make Chloe re-evaluate how she thinks of meteor "freaks," which is probably a good thing. (I noticed a real terminological distinction in this episode; Chloe consistently referred to them as meteor freaks while Clark and Lana talked about people with "meteor powers," which I thought was interesting.)
Lana was surprisingly open toward the meteor infected in this episode; I'm trying to decide how much this is a consequence of deciding Clark is meteorinfected and trying to protect him, and how much this means she *was* faking out Lex in that episode earlier this season when she said she didn't have a problem with him experimenting on them in level 33.1 if in fact he was. Regardless, I loved Lana in this episode. I thought it was really cute that she went bowling with Chloe for her bachelorette party (and also VERY SLASHY--as was the fact that her fiance had her girlfriend best friend kidnapped and anal probed experimented on, as if she were Clark his rival.) I adore these cute Chlana bonding scenes.
I also liked Lana calling Chloe on her suspicions about Lex. Chloe's been doing the dance of avoidance on that score for good reason, but I'm interested that Lana is apparently starting to wake up to the reality that Lex is concealing things from her. In fact, watching her conversation with Lex and her subsequent attempts to save Tobias, I had an epiphany: Lana is to Lex as season 1 Lex was to Lionel. Well, except for the whole marriage and pregnancy thing :cough Luthorcest cough: In season 1 Lex knew that his father was shady, and thought he was smart enough to play his games and win--and yet he was still using the Luthor name and money to try to make things better for the people Luthorcorp hurt, and investigating Clark while simultanously trying to protect him from his father. Now Lex is Lionel, in terms of power, finesse, methods, and desire to protect his power base even at the expense of other people's lives; meanwhile Lana thinks she can play in his league, and she really is getting better at it, but she's really no match for him.
Still, it's fun to watch her try to play. I loved that she was using her Luthorian power to try to rescue Tobias (and rescue Clark in the process)--it almost made up for the burn that now Clark has another go-to billionaire when he needs some financial help to save people. Ouch. That hurt my Clexy heart in a way that Lana doing it did not, for some reason--maybe because I'm looking at her as Lex's good side, since she's symbolically representing him so thoroughly. Did anyone else think that the fact that she almost killed the doctor was supposed to parallel Lex shooting Roger Nixon, or am I stretching things there? (Has Lex ever found a flattened bullet? I'm blanking on this, although I'm sure that scene was echoing something else).
And meanwhile, Lex was thoroughly awesome in his bad-assness in this episode. He's no longer giving his characteristic tells when he lies to Lana; he's become incredibly smooth. And I love that he maintained his urbanity when he threatened the doctor, because *that's* the Lex Luthor I want to see: smoothly evil, powerful, and sexy as all hell. Damn, that last scene? When he's looking at the images of Chloe being tortured and orders that she be watched carefully? Rocked my SOCKS off.
Ok, I guess I should talk a little bit about Chloe, since it was a Chloe-centric episode and all. And after thinking it over for a while, I think I'm cautiously liking the Chloe-as-a-metoer-freak retcon. True, it could end up with her in Belle Reve, but that has been foreshadowed as a possibility for a while, so it's not bothersome. At least now we get a completely new option: superChloe! She can join the Justice League and fight crime! Yay! Let the betting begin on what her superpower is going to be. And if she is a walking time bomb, Clark is going to be her own personal bomb squad. Awww! I loved that scene a LOT.
I also really loved Clark in this episode. He's starting to be able to investigate stuff on his own (at least if hacking skills aren't required), and I thought he played that hospital scene where he got the laptop very well. Smart of him not to just vanish! And wow, that scene where he used his heat vision to remove the tag from Chloe was also really well-played. My favorite scene with him, though, was actually that scene with Lana, where he lies/tells the truth very convincingly ("I don't know where you got the idea I'm a meteor freak") while at the same time thanking her for protecting him. That was a very sweet scene--I loved that Lana saying he was still the same Clark Kent, meteor powers or not. Will that carry over into knowledge that he's an alien, given her negative encounters with all the Kryptonians? Hard to say, but I am liking her character growth, nonetheless.
And finally, Jimmy was wonderful in this episode! I had a feeling Chloe was going to turn up in her own bed like all the others, but I loved how worried he was and that little conversation with Clark about playing it cool and not telling her how he really feels.
Spoilers for "Freak" behind the cut
Yeah, what do I know about directing? I did notice there were a lot more shots with natural light than is normal in an SV episode (like the exterior of Tobias' house the first time Clark and Chloe visited), which I liked. I also thought the night scene with Clark and Lana outside Tobias' house was beautifully lit, and they both looked gorgeous in the multicolored lights. Ditto with the final Chloe-Clark scene--they both looked gorgeous.
To turn my attention to the plot: I was a little bit spoiled for this episode, so I've been playing around with idea of Chloe the meteor freak all week. On the plus side, it will probably make Chloe re-evaluate how she thinks of meteor "freaks," which is probably a good thing. (I noticed a real terminological distinction in this episode; Chloe consistently referred to them as meteor freaks while Clark and Lana talked about people with "meteor powers," which I thought was interesting.)
Lana was surprisingly open toward the meteor infected in this episode; I'm trying to decide how much this is a consequence of deciding Clark is meteorinfected and trying to protect him, and how much this means she *was* faking out Lex in that episode earlier this season when she said she didn't have a problem with him experimenting on them in level 33.1 if in fact he was. Regardless, I loved Lana in this episode. I thought it was really cute that she went bowling with Chloe for her bachelorette party (and also VERY SLASHY--as was the fact that her fiance had her
I also liked Lana calling Chloe on her suspicions about Lex. Chloe's been doing the dance of avoidance on that score for good reason, but I'm interested that Lana is apparently starting to wake up to the reality that Lex is concealing things from her. In fact, watching her conversation with Lex and her subsequent attempts to save Tobias, I had an epiphany: Lana is to Lex as season 1 Lex was to Lionel. Well, except for the whole marriage and pregnancy thing :cough Luthorcest cough: In season 1 Lex knew that his father was shady, and thought he was smart enough to play his games and win--and yet he was still using the Luthor name and money to try to make things better for the people Luthorcorp hurt, and investigating Clark while simultanously trying to protect him from his father. Now Lex is Lionel, in terms of power, finesse, methods, and desire to protect his power base even at the expense of other people's lives; meanwhile Lana thinks she can play in his league, and she really is getting better at it, but she's really no match for him.
Still, it's fun to watch her try to play. I loved that she was using her Luthorian power to try to rescue Tobias (and rescue Clark in the process)--it almost made up for the burn that now Clark has another go-to billionaire when he needs some financial help to save people. Ouch. That hurt my Clexy heart in a way that Lana doing it did not, for some reason--maybe because I'm looking at her as Lex's good side, since she's symbolically representing him so thoroughly. Did anyone else think that the fact that she almost killed the doctor was supposed to parallel Lex shooting Roger Nixon, or am I stretching things there? (Has Lex ever found a flattened bullet? I'm blanking on this, although I'm sure that scene was echoing something else).
And meanwhile, Lex was thoroughly awesome in his bad-assness in this episode. He's no longer giving his characteristic tells when he lies to Lana; he's become incredibly smooth. And I love that he maintained his urbanity when he threatened the doctor, because *that's* the Lex Luthor I want to see: smoothly evil, powerful, and sexy as all hell. Damn, that last scene? When he's looking at the images of Chloe being tortured and orders that she be watched carefully? Rocked my SOCKS off.
Ok, I guess I should talk a little bit about Chloe, since it was a Chloe-centric episode and all. And after thinking it over for a while, I think I'm cautiously liking the Chloe-as-a-metoer-freak retcon. True, it could end up with her in Belle Reve, but that has been foreshadowed as a possibility for a while, so it's not bothersome. At least now we get a completely new option: superChloe! She can join the Justice League and fight crime! Yay! Let the betting begin on what her superpower is going to be. And if she is a walking time bomb, Clark is going to be her own personal bomb squad. Awww! I loved that scene a LOT.
I also really loved Clark in this episode. He's starting to be able to investigate stuff on his own (at least if hacking skills aren't required), and I thought he played that hospital scene where he got the laptop very well. Smart of him not to just vanish! And wow, that scene where he used his heat vision to remove the tag from Chloe was also really well-played. My favorite scene with him, though, was actually that scene with Lana, where he lies/tells the truth very convincingly ("I don't know where you got the idea I'm a meteor freak") while at the same time thanking her for protecting him. That was a very sweet scene--I loved that Lana saying he was still the same Clark Kent, meteor powers or not. Will that carry over into knowledge that he's an alien, given her negative encounters with all the Kryptonians? Hard to say, but I am liking her character growth, nonetheless.
And finally, Jimmy was wonderful in this episode! I had a feeling Chloe was going to turn up in her own bed like all the others, but I loved how worried he was and that little conversation with Clark about playing it cool and not telling her how he really feels.
no subject
I liked it that they showed Lana spending some time with him and talking to him (the "lip gloss and pom-poms" exchange was super-cute) because I think that's important for her growth and maturation. As long as she thinks of Clark as an Exception, she can't reach true acceptance of meteor mutants. So I think it was very smart of the writers to give her that time with Tobias, to have her being protective of both him and Clark so that when she got the reveal that Clark wasn't a mutant, she wouldn't also necessarily lose any capacity for acceptance she was developing -- because she'd still have her brief but meaningful interaction with T to think back on.
Are you really expecting Lana to marry Lex? I'm not spoiled on this point, but I think that horrible clunky encouragement from Chloe for Clark going to the wedding is to set up some awful The Graduate -esque scene at the wedding.
:::groans::: I don't mind her calling off the wedding at all (especially given the fact that Lex is manipulating her via the pregnancy), but I really hope we're not going to get something like that or the horrible Spider-Man 2 nonsense where she leaves him at the altar with a note she doesn't even have the decency to hand to him face-to-face (my hatred of movie-verse!Mary Jane was forever cemented by that image of her running from the church to be with Peter with a ginormous smile on her face, nevermind that she'd left Mr. Jameson's perfectly kind and loving son standing at the altar humiliated in front of hundreds of wedding guests). If Lana doesn't go through with it, I really hope the creative team has the sense to have her end it in a manner that does not make her look like a thoughtless asshole. Even if she does it on the day of the wedding, I at least want her to look Lex in the eye and articulate why she's not going through with it. The only way I'll give her a pass for being heartless or thoughtless with it is if it comes on the heels of learning that he manipulated her via the pregnancy, 'cause under those circumstances, she absolutely gets to be as bitchy as she wants to be about it. But if it's just Lana realizing she can't marry him if she doesn't love/trust him, then I want her to at least be adult about it.
the deleted scene from Scare (I really have to stop lending out my DVDs and not getting them back) but wasn't Lex's biggest nightmare in that scene Lana leaving him at their wedding? Or was it turned into marrying his mother--I haven't seen it, so I don't remember which was the actual scene and which was the leaked spoiler that turned out to be false.
The original script sides (which I kept screencaps of for the longest time prior to deleting them late last year) -- which were for the officiating minister -- featured Lex and Lana at the altar and Lana telling Lex "I could never love you." The actual filmed scene, of course, was Lex and Lillian and Lillian had this whole speech about how Lex ruined everything he touched, blah, blah, blah (and as you know, that got cut in favor of a kickier, trippier version of the Lexocalypse from Hourglass). So technically, I suppose the Lex/Lana version of Lex's nightmare was the foiler; that was the version of the scene used to cast the minister, but by the time it came to film the scene, it was changed to Lex and Lillian.
no subject
ITA with you about Mary Jane in Spiderman 2--her poor groom had done nothing to her, and it was pretty heartless of her to do that in the way that she did it.
I'll be a little less judgmental if Lana runs off at her wedding, though, because although I agree, it would be more mature to break it off beforehand, *I* know (even if she doesn't) that Lex has been doing something hinky with her pregnancy, so I'm less concerned about his hurt feelings. However, if Lana looks up at Clark when the minister asks "can anyone show just cause why these two should not be joined in matrimony" and runs--yeah, that will seriously suck. I hope if she runs it's *because* she finds out about Lex's manipulation of the pregnancy.
A little piece of me thinks it would be cool if Lana finds out about the pregnancy manipulation the night before, thinks about running (a la Helen), tells Lex she's decided to come to the wedding after all, and then dumps Lex at the altar precisely like it was originally scripted in "Scare." Because that would be an awesome callback to "Exodus" and it would be an amazingly Luthorian form of revenge.
no subject
I won't be judgmental of Lana, but I will have a problem with the creative team, because it's the Jason Problem all over again. Yes, the audience knew as of the end of Spirit that Jason Was Evil Now but Lana didn't. As far as Lana knew, they were just having problems with their relationship but she wasn't ready -- or at least hadn't articulated to anyone yet that she was ready -- to break up with him. So when she went to the prom and was all snuggled up with Clark while still technically dating another boy, it made her look bad and a lot of the fandom judged her harshly for it. And in that instance, I didn't particularly think the harsh judgment was unfair because Lana didn't know what the audience knew, so that behavior was questionable on her part.
I don't care about Lex's hurt feelings. But I do care enough about Lana as a character that I think the creative team shouldn't squander whatever sympathy she deserves from the audience if she ends a relationship that means something to her even if it's not the love of her life. Lana being a bitch to Lex in how she ends it only makes sense intra-textually if Lana herself knows about the way he's manipulated her via the pregnancy. If the creative team pulls a Jason Version 2.0 with her, where her actions are questionable but questionable in a way that's not justified by what she actually knows as a character, then Lana's the one who's going to suffer for it in terms of episode commentary, not Lex (even if Lana ends it the day of the wedding I'm going to be on her side because she shouldn't marry him if she doesn't love or trust him; I just don't want her pulling an MJ or The Graduate unless it's specifically to get back at Lex because he hurt her).
It's lazy writing to rely on what the audience knows when the characters don't know the same thing just for the sake of an emotional moment. The writers have to earn Lana being a bitch to Lex when she breaks up with him if that's the way they decide to play it. That means letting Lana in on it that she was manipulated via the pregnancy. Otherwise, her being a hosebeast to Lex in breaking up with him doesn't make sense intra-textually. It's not an issue with the character per se, but it will be an issue with the creative team, 'cause they should know better than to repeat a mistake she's already been dinged for in the past.
A little piece of me thinks it would be cool if Lana finds out about the pregnancy manipulation the night before, thinks about running (a la Helen), tells Lex she's decided to come to the wedding after all, and then dumps Lex at the altar precisely like it was originally scripted in "Scare." Because that would be an awesome callback to "Exodus" and it would be an amazingly Luthorian form of revenge.
That would be amazing and it would make internal sense.
no subject
To clarify, I mean that it's lazy writing to do it this way when you want the character to have the same reaction that your audience is likely to have, but you don't let the character know what the audience knows. I draw this distinction because a lot of SV's emotional power does come from the audience knowing how the story ends, something the characters themselves can't know; that's not the kind of thing I'm talking about with something like the Jason Problem. The Jason Problem was an instance of the creative team wanting the audience to feel the romance of that Clana moment without respecting the fact that Lana ... really shouldn't have been a part of that moment while still dating Jason. But they basically thought, "Well, Jason's evil now, so it's okay," nevermind that they hadn't hipped Lana to the fact that he was evil.
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no subject
//This was the most I've liked Lana all season because she was smart and capable and an active agent in her own life. Proactive!Lana is one of the best incarnations of the character. //
It was nice that I actually enjoyed Lana for an episode. I wouldn't go as far as to say "liked", but at least I felt as if she was moving the plot along instead of halting it.
//At the same time, I wish she would just dump Lex because I honestly can't understand why she's marrying him. She cares about him, but she doesn't love him and it's clear that she doesn't trust him (I don't think she believed him at all at the end, but I think she's resigned herself to the fact that he's going to keep things from her). I suppose the money's an angle, but she really doesn't seem to care about that.//
That's why I can't get into the Lexana. Why is she even with him? And I don't buy the "she loves him" idea, either. We're talking about a girl who told the guy she is supposed to marry to his face that she also loves another guy. I wonder if she's just with Lex to get back at Clark and got in way over her head.
Furthermore, they've actually given her a storyline that's interesting but not dependent on her romantic feelings for either Lex or Clark. She wants to know Clark's mystery, yes, but that really is different from wanting to be with him. She can pursue that storyline without being tethered to Lex.
no subject
I certainly think the best thing to do if you have doubts about getting married is to postpone the wedding before the wedding day. But if it takes getting to the wedding day for you to realize that you can't go through with it, the least you can do is to tell your fiance/fiancee this information face-to-face and before he or she has made it to the altar. Otherwise, it's just needless additional hurt and humiliation. I mean, you're already hurting them by saying you can't get married to them; why rub salt in the wound via ditching them at the altar?
That's why I can't get into the Lexana. Why is she even with him? And I don't buy the "she loves him" idea, either. We're talking about a girl who told the guy she is supposed to marry to his face that she also loves another guy.
I try not to reach for super-textual explanations for things before coming up with intra-textual ones, but I can't help but wonder if the weirdly sexless, passionless nature of the Lex/Lana isn't a network-mandated sop to the very vocal contingent of Clark/Lana fans who expressed their displeasure at Lana hooking up with Lex so soon after breaking up with Clark. Gough mentioned in an interview that they got approximately 250 angry letters from Clark/Lana fans and while that may not seem like a lot. I remember reading an interview with a studio executive once where he said that the rule of thumb in the industry is to assume that for every one letter you get, at least 100 other fans feel the same way. So that was basically 25,000 people telling the network/show-runners that they didn't like Lex/Lana. For a struggling network like the CW, 25,000 viewers isn't anything to sneeze at. So I do wonder if the tonal shift in Lex/Lana in this last handful of episodes -- because they weren't like this with each other at the start of the season -- isn't a way for the series to play out the Clark/Lana/Lex triangle that was always part of the game plan without stepping on the toes of Clark/Lana as the show's true Great Romance. It's a very juvenile idea of love -- this notion that you can only ever deeply love one person in your entire life and for Lana that person is Clark -- but it's a mindset that's sadly consistent in a lot of contemporary pop culture media (and especially in the comics).
I wonder if she's just with Lex to get back at Clark and got in way over her head.
Possibly, but you know, if we're really supposed to think they don't love each other, then Static was a complete waste of everyone's time. Because the emotional point of that episode seemed to be the idea that Lex and Lana Really Do Love Each Other, given that they confessed their feelings at points when they weren't even sure the other could hear it (certainly the plot-based point of the episode -- the existence of 33.1 -- wasn't dependent on Lex/Lana to be a revelation).
My fanwank is that Lana does care about Lex (she always has, since late S1), she's just not in love with him. But her constellation of personality traits and emotional needs dictate that she be in a relationship and, well, he's the one offering. She'd rather be in a friendly marriage than completely on her own. By the same token, I think Lex cares about her in his Lexian way, but his involvement with her is clearly about his larger and more emotionally charged chess game with Clark.