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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.
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By contrast, the people Lex is holding on an ongoing basis have committed serious crimes; Moira is the only one I can think of who might not have been guilty of anything beyond abusing her daughter...at least, up until she sent Chloe to endanger Lex's life by running him off the road.
Moreover, I have seen no gratuitous torture of Lex's captives. He has tested them, certainly, and no doubt pressured some, when necessary, but not beyond reason; so far as I saw, he did nothing unreasonable to Moira. And there's been tagging and sampling of other mutants who were then immediately released (presumably these are the mutants who have not yet harmed anyone), but clearly these subjects are not badly hurt, either, since they're returned to their homes with no traumatic memories and, evidently, no lingering physical pain. Hardly torture. Admittedly, in Chloe's case, it seemed as if she were at least partially conscious during the sampling process, but she didn't strike me as being in physical pain, and I suspect her case was an anomaly, since no practical purpose would likely be served by deliberately keeping the test subjects awake, and Lex has never shown any inclination to pointless sadism. (It is possible that Chloe's particular mutation rendered the usual anaesthic ineffective.)
As for Lex's motivations, they seem perfectly clear to me, given everything he has seen and discovered in the course of the series. It is, of course, your prerogative to see them differently. Sorry to blow your mind.