![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Entry tags:
Smallville 6.19 Progeny
Edited to add: This review contains material that most would characterize as Lex bashing, so please read at your own discretion.
You know, I've been watching Smallville from the beginning, and Chloe and Lex have always been my favorite characters, and I never thought I could choose between them. But one thing I was certain of, and that was that I would always love both of them. I certainly never thought that Smallville could ever actually make me hate Lex.
Apparently I was wrong. I haven't felt this kind of passionate hatred toward an SV character since Lionel in "Shattered" and "Asylum." I'm sure I'll eventually recover my Lex love--I eventually forgave Lionel, after all, and I do like villains--just not when they're targeting characters I love. I honestly feel guilty, since all season I've been wanting Lex to be an effective villain, and he was nothing if not effective in this episode--downright masterful, really--and I found myself actually wanting Chloe to shoot him. And I was actually happy he got hurt when Clark saved him from the bullet.
Targeting Moira was brilliant, and the way he manipulated her and then the way he kept Chloe from releasing the story--grade A effective villainy. Not only that, but his desire to control Moira made sense--he feels he needs to control the mutants both to reduce their danger to society and to counter the alien threat--I could actually kind of see that in this episode. And I still wanted to crush his skull ever time he was gloating at Moira or Chloe.
ARGH. Cognitive dissonance!! I don't want to hate Lex! I wanted sexy villainy, not really evil villainy, dammit.
I don't actually have a lot else to say about the episode. It was a very effective piece of Chloe characterization; I loved getting to see how similar her 8-year-old self was to her adult self, both in her interest in the weird and her sharp perceptions of people. And it was, of course, heartbreaking to see her regain and lose her mom. I was a little disappointed we didn't get to see what Chloe's meteor power was in this, but I loved that her mom didn't actually abandon her, but had herself committed just to protect Chloe.
When Lex played the motherless card as part of his attempt to manipulate Moira, I realized that at this point every single main character on SV has lost at least one parent, which just serves to reinforce the idea that it's not the loss, it's how you deal with it. And speaking of loss, I wonder how Lana's going to deal with her double loss--first losing the baby, and then losing all faith in Lex when she finds out there never was a baby. She told Clark "I'm going to come through this like I always do," and I actually hope that's true--and that she manages to wound Lex and Lionel on her way out. Look at me, rooting for Lana against Lex and Lionel! It's like the whole world has turned upside down or something.
P.S. I am UNSPOILED for future episodes and would really, really appreciate it if people are careful about what they say in the comments so that I can remain unspoiled.
no subject
Well, how you personally deal with it and your support system afterward. I think Chloe's father protected her from the truth about her mother (what he knew anyway. It's hard to tell what Gabe knows when he's MIA for three years). Lois' dad had a hard time relating to his girls, but he didn't withdraw his love. Martha
is suffering from Alheimersis just confusing, and I think if Clark had been younger losing his dad, he'd be pretty screwed. And Lionel... o.OOi! I'm relating Chloe and Lex more and more to each other. Moira may have thought she was protecting Chloe, but she was also hurting her a lot. I think I'm reading Moira a little differently than you are, but just from what we saw on screen, I think that both Lex and Chloe are sadly better off without their mothers having an active hand in their lives.
Not only that, but his desire to control Moira made sense--he feels he needs to control the mutants both to reduce their danger to society and to counter the alien threat--I could actually kind of see that in this episode.
I do like the continuity of plot, for sure. I think my belief that Lex has good motivation is why I haven't picked a side yet. I really should be angrier at him, but I'm not (I'm biased for both of them). Though I kind of want to kick him for his confrontation with Chloe at The Planet. Lex never bothers to explain himself, and no one ever really asks him why he does the things he does. Chloe should be asking him WHY WHY WHY, and Lex could definitely try to convince Chloe that his experiments are for the greater good. He gets no cookies for choosing to be mean and snarky rather than explain.
no subject
i think you're right about that. moira was not a force for good, so to say.
reposting to fix typos
I'm going to refrain from ranting, because I have Martha issues, but I just have to disagree with you that Clark would have been screwed if Jonathan had died earlier. I do agree that Chloe was definitely better off without Moira, though I don't see her as a completely negative presence because the choice she made actually *did* protect Chloe (whereas the choice Lillian made probably made things worse for Lex, in the long run).
I understand that Lex probably thinks he's defending the earth from an alien invasion, but do you really think that would matter to Chloe, after he has experimented on her and blackmailed her mom? There's no way I'd buy anything he was selling, if that was me.
And even though I think Lex's motives are intelligible--and I'm glad they're actually giving him a motive rather than making him randomly evil--I still can't condone the means he is using. Even if there was a real alien threat (which the viewers know is probably not the case), torturing people, experimenting on them, holding them prisoner and coercing them into his service are not justifiable, in my book.
Re: reposting to fix typos
Re: reposting to fix typos