Current mood:	cheerful
Current music:	Too Young To Die - The Divine Comedy

Smallville 4.02 Gone

Is it a rant....? Is it a moan...? No, it's my Smallville review! (sorry. just getting in an appropriately cheesy Smallville mood.)

 

I think I actually liked this week’s Smallville better than last week. I mean, it had its down points (dumb villain, Clana, random scenes that don’t really seem to fit, Clana), but my main problem with Crusade was that there were many aspects that were completely unexplained and seemed very random (black Kryptonite being the main annoyance). Whilst some of the plot points in Gone were kinda silly and a little forced, there was nothing really that made me go ‘what the fuck just happened?!’ like last week.</p>

As with last week, one of the main highlights of the piece was Lois. In particular, Clark and Lois. I know they’re not going to be a couple in Smallville but they are so completely adorable in how they gripe at each other like a married couple. The bathroom scene was an absolute classic (and no, not just because of more naked Clark) and Clark’s expression at being discovered by Martha was absolutely priceless.

This segued nicely with the subsequent scene of confronting the parents, Lois babbling blithely away through the disapproving Kent stoic silence. The final little snippet with Jonathan asking Clark if he made the helicopter crash in the same tone a parent might ask a normal kid if they stuck a banana in their least favourite teacher’s exhaust, and Clarks ‘umm….oops…?’ expression was really cute.

Lois’s presence actually made me enjoy my first Clana scene since the end of season 2. That girl just doesn’t know when to shut up (hmm… reminds me of someone I know… *cough…erniemay…cough*) and her comments on Clark and Lana’s ‘complicated thing,’ and her ‘I don’t really see the two of you together as a couple, but whatever’ initial reaction just made me love her all the more. Lois, you can stay forever! You actually make the Clana bearable! And I really wish they could take these two completely through to the Superman mythology because Erica Durance and Tom Welling just play off each other so well and have fantastic chemistry.

Lionel, surprise surprise, becomes more of a bastard with each episode. His threat to Lex, basically telling him that he is going to kill him and he’ll live in fear the rest of his life never knowing when or how it’s going to happen, was chilling and poor Lex actually looked really scared (*hugs Lex in her imagination and tells him that she’ll beat up the big bad man for him*). However, his interaction with our dear old freak-of-the-week didn’t really sell me, although that may have been more for the freak’s acting than anything else. The shower stabbing was less shocking than it was random (the main scene that I felt really didn’t seem to fit) as it was never really explored or explained. Are we meant to assume Lex arranged it, or was it this mysterious third-party Lois speculated about at the end of Crusade? Knowing Smallville, it’ll be one of those things that are never mentioned again and will be lost in the vaults of randomness.

We finally have some Clex scenes. Lex is determined to prove himself to Clark, although Clark seems equally determined not to trust him. To be honest, Clark’s being a bit of a hypocrite with the whole disapproving of Lex for lying to him thing, especially when in this case Lex was lying to protect Chloe. In a bit of a turnaround, Clark’s parents are actually suggesting that maybe Lex isn’t that bad after all (although I can totally believe this reaction from Martha, considering Jonathan’s general reactions in the past, not sure I really buy this new attitude – not entirely convinced by the writing here). Clark now believes Lex is his destined enemy and, although we in the real world know this is true, you gotta wonder how much of the fact that this does eventually come to pass will result from Clarks new attitude towards Lex. I’m thinking a fair bit. Personally I just want to throw rolled-up socks at them until they make up and live happily ever after but it looks like the writers are really starting to try to rip my poor wee boys apart. L

The freak-of-the-week villain was incredibly lame – a total and cringe-worthingly obvious Terminator 2 rip-off, complete with foundry/molten metal demise finale – but the episode was more about getting all the characters back together in Smallville and seeing each other again for the first time in months. The Lex/Lana reunion was sweet in a thankfully platonic way, Clex and Clana have already been covered, Jason and Lana did not make me want to hurl although I was kinda worried at the beginning, and Chloe’s back! Yay! I was fairly amused by the fact that no-one really seems to bat an eye over the fact that Clark disappeared for three months (again) and then popped back with no real explanation (again). I guess people are just used to the weirdness that is Clark Kent by now.

A few more things to mention that I haven’t already:

• Lionel finally was found guilty and is in jail. I’m curious to how they’re now going to fit him in the story as he won’t be able to interact so frequently with the rest of the cast.
• Loved that Lana thought Clark and Lois were a couple and Clark’s vehement denial (although, I kinda get the feeling he’s trying to convince himself that he can’t stand her as much as he is Lana. Clark’s totally already subconsciously falling for Lois. Tee hee!)
• Lana actually demonstrated a few brain-cells and some kick-buttedness this week, both investigating her funky new tattoo by looking at pictures of the Kawatche caves and venturing down there herself, and saving Lois’s life.
• Not as much gratuitous nudity this week (sigh) but we did get Clark in the shower, and then sprawled on the couch (hmmm… all that lovely, golden, lickable…. Ahem. I’m back now.) ;-P
• Clark seems a lot more confident and sure of himself this season already and I’m really liking the change. Hopefully this will continue when they go back to high school.
• I love Lois Lane. Okay, I’ve already mentioned this but it bears repeating.

So, in conclusion, another enjoyable offering from the people who have shown that even flannel can be sexy in the right circumstances and there is no such thing as too much gratuitous nudity.

Anyway, in my life that is not dominated by Smallville, work continues. I had a nice wee rant today with another random RBOS employee I was on the phone to about how much nicer customer service would be without the customers. I had one guy I spoke to on the phone with and it seemed that almost everything that could go wrong with the setting up of his accounts had, none of it was my responsibility as I had dealt with none of it, but I spent the entire phone call apologising for things that were not my fault. He was actually very nice about it and said he appreciated me calling to apologise (and told me not to worry and he knew it wasn’t my fault which makes a refreshing change from the usual ‘I don’t care if it’s not your fault, I’m going to rant and rave and accuse you regardless because it just damn well makes me feel better! I don’t care if I’m making you feel needlessly miserable!’). This said it just made him feel better me listening to his problems and what had gone wrong and that he appreciated it when I said I would do my very best to try to make everything else run as smoothly as possible in the future.

On the downside, however, one of the girls made a mistake reading some instructions that I had written (to my mind fairly clearly) on a file. Now, she is very good at her job, helps me out loads and I really like her but she was very reluctant to admit that she’d made a mistake. I wish people in the world would not be so scared to admit when they cock up (God knows I do it often enough but I like to believe that when I’ve made a mess of things I will freely admit to it (except when it’s Russ letting me know I’ve made a mistake – that I’d deny just out of principle ;-P)). Anyway, not to worry. Even though she didn’t want to admit she’d erred, we did talk about how we could make sure it didn’t happen again so there was a positive consequence.

Not much else to tell really. Went swimming yesterday (50 lengths) and will probably go again tomorrow. Finish work at 1.30 tomorrow afternoon as have a Yellow Fever inoculation at 3.30 (so looking forward to that. No, really.) but will probably find time for a swim in between. So, next time I write it’ll probably be to whine about how I’m not feeling well and my arm hurts… waah!