Exodus

Another season ender of Smallville. A few mini-comments - I wasn't going to say anything till tomorrow, but I couldn't resist! Maybe tomorrow I'll be able to put in a picture of the CLex cake and Gagged Lana.

- I was already in love with Chloe. Evil!Chloe is a goddess and fully worthy of consorting with the Magnificent Bastard - even playing him at his own game.

- Poor Clark! Absolutely loved the scene where the ship threw him to the ceiling and carved the Kryptonian "S" on his chest.

- Pete got a good line for the second time in two seasons. His good line, of course, was the one about Lionel showing a weakness. (His previous good line was the one about not knowing that quitting the Torch was an option. In, um - Precipice?)

- I always like Lionel's conversations. With Helen... with Clark... with Pete. All of them wonderful, though I particularly loved the interactions and dynamics of the conversation with Clark. Manipulations, hidden truths, close whispers...

- I don't believe for a moment that Lex doesn't know what the blood in the vial is. The vial was smaller: he saved a portion. (Did Helen not notice? We all noticed!) When he confessed to stealing it, he said he didn't have it tested - he didn't say he didn't test it himself. I noticed how carefully no one was saying whose blood it was. Does Helen think she can fool him into thinking it isn't Clark's? Surely not!

- I loved the whole sequence with the kryptonite octagon. I keep forgetting where the real octagon is from episode to episode.

- Helen's hair and wedding gown were not good. Looked villainish. Martha and Lana both looked lovely. I've never said that about Lana before.

- Did Chloe go to the Kent farm just to snoop? She didn't expect Clark to be there, she thought he'd be safely away at the wedding, so she couldn't have gone to talk to him. No wonder she was angry. When caught doing something you shouldn't - attack!

- I have a dozen Helen theories, all of which have been percolating in my head for a few weeks. Sadly this episode didn't make me more certain of any particular one of them - just more than ever certain that one of them (or a variation of one) is correct. I feel all the more convinced that Lionel was trying to bribe her - either to do something, or not to do something he got wind of.

I guess I shouldn't leave that so enigmatic. Okay, theories - no time to cite my whole case, but I think it's possible that she's working with:

(a) Henry Small, go-gooding crusader of Smallville who hates and resents Luthors. If he's in cahoots with Helen to save Smallville by bringing down Lex, that explains his inclusion in the story in the first place - something his interaction with Lana has failed to do. She would be lured into cooperation because of his idealism.

(b) Lucas Luthor. If Lex dies and Lionel is likewise destroyed, he and the widow can inherit the fortune - either by being in Lionel's (or Lex's) will, or by natural inheritance laws. (Doubles the odds if he marries Helen.)

(c) Dominic.

(d) The persons behind the nasty hospital where Ryan was kept, whom we may or may not know, bent on researching the alien and appropriating his powers. (Note: My guess is that Lionel is behind the hospital and its research, and that Helen is not working with Lionel, though he knows something about what she's doing and she knows something about what he's doing. Seems to me it's time for Lex to get into this loop.)

(e) She is bent on learning more about Clark for reasons of her own; perhaps in alliance with a Smallville version of a Superman villain.

(f) enough, already.

- Ah, Jonathan, Jonathan, Jonathan, how you do mess up your son in the name of love. Just like Lionel.

- Dare I hope that Clark will rescue Lex somehow? If it were the comics or one of my stories, he would. As it is... well, I'll find out what happens in September, won't I?

- Clark kisses very nicely indeed. Whenever he kisses Lana I bask in the fantasy that he's kissing Lex. But Lex would kiss much better than Lana does. That goes without saying, of course.

- Lex is back in lavender shirts. Yay! And staring intently into Clark's eyes. Double-yay! Funny how he hardly seems to focus on Helen even when he's focusing on her.

Smallville: Exodus redux

Couldn't help musing on the episode as I walked to work today. There's a story idea at the back of my head, something sparked by a mood or idea in a story by spyhop, but I can't pin it down yet.... The subconscious will disgorge it when it's good and ready.

Anyway, I was thinking about the tripartate parallelism in the episode. We have three characters who so far have been characterized by their innocence: Clark, Chloe and Helen. Each is shown to change to the dark side, or to be revealed as suddenly less innocent than they previously appeared.

Look how their hair changes as the transformation is revealed. Clothing, too, and colour choices: Helen in white, Clark in first white (that T-shirt is to die for) and then black (when he puts on his leather jacket); Chloe in brown. With spiky hair. I love her hair. Yeah, yeah, I love everything about Chloe.

Giving things a CLex spin, as I always like to do, it seems to me that many of Clark's reactions might well be triggered by Lex's marriage. He was acting cool about it, but didn't go to the ceremony; couldn't face it. Gives into despair and self-blame over the death of the baby and wears the kryptonite ring, which at least makes him feel powerful in a way he doesn't allow himself to feel powerful normally.

Vita brevis

I just read this on one of my mailing lists:

'my vita may be brevis but my ars is longa'

Love it!

Education

Another quote I liked on another list today:
"Education is a progressive discovery of our own ignorance." - Will Durant.

The Smallville Party

To celebrate the end of the second season of "Smallville" we held a party.

I made a CLex cake: caramel cake, vanilla-butter icing, decorated with pictures of Clark and Lex, and their names in English and Kryptonian.





We added Clark and Lex action figures.





These figures got friendlier.





And eventually, increasingly indecent....





Don't ask me how Legolas got into the act.

As a last exhibit, here is the decorated television as "Exodus" played. Note the figure of Lana, gagged so she couldn't talk. Note the red heart-shaped balloon (flanked with yellow and blue ones), to represent Clark, and above them on the wall by the Suzann Lovett CLex picture, purple and silver balloons to represent Lex.






The cake was delicious, the boys on screen even more so.


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Special thanks to maboroshimaki for taking the photos, and to Keynote Press for providing the technology.