Bizarro

Overall

I was afraid of this premiere.

After the dead ends, dropped plotlines, and the comic book gimmicks of the sixth season, I really, really wanted to see a Smallville premiere with a reassuringly clear, thoughtful direction. Not that you can judge a season based on a premiere…witness Season Four. But let’s face it, when Zod played down and/or dismissed entirely every single cliffhanger from the previous finale, it set a precedent for the season. A premiere can send really good or really bad messages about where the rest of the season is headed.

Here’s hoping the seventh season will follow Bizarro’s lead.

To put it simply, Bizarro was surprisingly good. It wasn’t perfect by any means, but it was good enough that it caught plenty of skeptical and uncommitted viewers off-guard.

For one thing, it was Clark-centric. From start to finish, Clark’s reactions and Clark’s emotions took center stage. And some of those reactions and emotions – particularly his reaction to Chloe’s death – were new heights for Tom Welling. Moreover, Clark was “reset”. He was pushed back into a place where we related to him, where his anger issues were considered anger issues and not a normal reaction, where his fears and his loves and his sadness didn’t feel contrived but rang true. He even consciously wrestled with his tendency for hate and anger. I felt safe siding with Clark again.

For another thing, we saw the evolution of Lex, the one who has at various times been the best and the worst written character on the show. Lex’s reaction to losing Lana was as complex and three-dimensional as we could have hoped. He wasn’t magically reformed, and he wasn’t icy and defensive…he felt real emotion, delightfully inscrutible though he may be. As in his triumphant third season, he fascinated and haunted us as we tried to figure out his motives. Full of contradictions and fearing the future, both Clark and Lex seemed to receive an infusion of humanity.

Even Kara, whose arrival has been met with skepticism by a number of viewers (including me), received a beautiful and meaningful introduction. If Kara’s brief appearances are any indication, she may well be an enriching addition to the show. (Please, Fierce, do not prove me wrong.)

Granted, some viewers felt detached during the episode. I can understand the reaction. First, there were many unrelated plots to wind up…Lionel Luthor being discovered by a mysterious someone had nothing to do with the mission to save Chloe, which had nothing to do with Bizarro’s ruthless killings, which had nothing to do with…well, anything. Unlike the S2 premiere (everyone works to recover from the tornado), S3 premiere (Lex and Clark reappear and Clark must be stopped), and S4 premiere (Kal-El must be stopped), the characters weren’t moving in roughly the same direction, affected by the same tragedies, working toward (or against) the same goal. Our attention was divided and possibly misplaced. Second, we had seen most of these elements before.

• Yes, Chloe died in the hospital and came to life, but we’ve already seen Hidden.
• Yes, Clark was magnificently restored by the sun, but we’ve seen Nemesis.
• Yes, Bizarro and Clark fought, but we’ve seen Clark and Kal-El fight.
• Yes, Bizarro wreaked havoc, but we’ve seen Red Clark, Kal, Kal-El, Lionel-in-Clark, and probably other Clarks wreak havoc.
• Yes, powerful Lex Luthor appeared to be going to jail, but powerful Lionel Luthor went to jail in S3-S4.
• Yes, Lana returned from the supposed dead, but we’ve seen Chloe’s fake death-by-explosion and subsequent return in S3-S4.

At this point, Smallville has reached a lot of peak moments. They’ve also tried our credulity with the convoluted S6 Lionel-blackmailing-Lana-the-spy plot. They’re going to have to work extra hard to make us invest in new moments.

And then there were some minor problems within the episode. Lois was two different characters, changing dramatically from her first scenes to her last two scenes. Lex’s army plot was thwarted, not by the hard work of Clark or the Justice League, but by chance. And Clark had one of his dreaded, obvious “__________ has made me realize that I can’t deny Who I Am” soliloquies.

These are problems. But they are problems that can be overlooked in the context of a surprisingly poignant, intimate episode. Clark is relatable and learning from his mistakes, Lex is making an intriguing mix of right and wrong choices, Chloe is wrestling with her freakdom, and several questions have been left unanswered. I’m willing to give Smallville a chance to redeem itself.

Verdict: 8.8.

Good/Bad Moments

1. Beautiful special effects as the police car was swept off the bridge.
2. I appreciated it that they showed Lois struggling to save Chloe. So often Lois’s role is just to be there, offering her trademark presence and gratuitous flesh shots and little else. It was good to see her not simply proving her capability for survival, not simply proving that she has guts, but focusing desperately on saving someone else. This was new for Lois. This was the Lois of Crusade who drove brainwashed Kal-El to the hospital. I like this Lois.
3. “Those people. I have to get back to the dam.” I liked it that Clark’s first thought was for the imperiled people, but did he really think that Bizarro would relent? I think Clark is a little savvier by now.
4. “I didn’t just borrow your DNA, I have all your memories. All your thoughts. Every last twisted one. When I’m living your life, I won’t make those same mistakes.” When this concept was planted, I expected a somewhat cliché follow-up…along the lines of Lois’s encounter with Bizarro. But there was more than that. I appreciated the new direction the writers took this plot, first as Bizarro offered Lex a choice between the two Clarks, then as Clark pondered the dangerous similarities between his anger and Bizarro’s. This moment ends up paying off. Well done.
5. The virtual camera plunges underwater, crawls through the wreckage of the bridge, and heads toward the two incongruously bright lights. The aesthetic value of this shot cannot be overstated.
6. Lex’s hands, wedding ring shining, claw at the window. Ditto.
7. The introduction of Kara was unlike anything we have ever seen before. The haunting music as Lex pauses and stares, the beautiful light filtering through the water, Kara’s pose, the slow motion shot of Lex about to die in the presence of something other-worldly, floating backward, off camera… Stunning.
8. I can appreciate the concept of watching Clark and Bizarro use their heat vision for completely different purposes – one to protect others, one to kill someone to protect his own secret. But this was so strongly reminiscent of Fake Kara vaporizing the guy in Covenant that it did come across as an obvious “See? This pseudo-Kryptonian is bad” moment.
9. Someone in a trench coat, wearing gloves, drags Lionel away. This moment is bursting with promise, and I hope that this is followed up in a satisfactory way.
10. “No, honey, she’s not dead, she’s just…a little hurt.” Again, we see the unstudied, sweet side to Lois. Then, when Clark sees Chloe and kneels over her, we see Lois in the background put her arm around the boy’s shoulders. I have to applaud Kelly Souders and Brian Peterson for their portrayal of Lois here.
11. “Chloe?” I have to say – and this is in no way a disparaging remark – Tom Welling’s delivery in this line reminded me of Mowgli in Disney’s The Jungle Book saying hesitantly, “Baloo?” (I used to cry for this Jungle Book moment, so this is a good thing.)
12. Great Superman music and camera shot as Lex, lying on an oddly-shaped patch of sand, looks up at the sky at the departing Kara.
13. “Someone stabbed you.” “A guard. Right here.” Clark looks at the non-wound, then gives her a confused look. Lois continues as if his thought was spoken aloud. I really appreciated it that he wasn’t given an anvil line, like, “But…there’s not a scratch on you.” (Before you laugh, remember the line from Fallout: “Chloe, these attacks form a straight line.”)
14. Lois concludes that Lex did something to Chloe, and that she must find out what it was. One may assume that her motives here were to find a cure and save Chloe, but since this wasn’t mentioned, my initial impression was that Lois was off searching for answers and, perhaps, revenge while Chloe was dying. All they needed to make the connection here was a line choked out by Lois: “Chloe is... I have to…” Stop, because she can’t finish. As it was, her leaving the hospital to investigate seemed – at first – somewhat callous. (Of course, perhaps her mission really didn’t have anything to do with saving Chloe, in which case either 1) she’s insensitive and callous, or 2) she’s never been good at handling emotion and stress, so she’s channeling her emotions into accomplishing something constructive. In which case, I tend to side with 2.)
15. “But Chloe is fighting for her life and I am barely keeping it together, so one more ounce of emotion, I might just lose it.” Clark keeps quiet and lets her go. First, no, this mention of Chloe’s condition doesn’t make the connection between Lois’s mission and Chloe’s possible salvation. Second, I love 1) Clark’s selfless sensitivity as he chooses to bear the burden of Lana’s death alone rather than burden Lois, and 2) Clark’s look as she walked away. This wasn’t the mournful, pouty look he wore when Lana married Lex. He was burdened, but he was making himself be strong. That’s a good Clark moment.
16. Lex’s motives for turning himself in – at least, judging by what he said – are twofold. First, “I was dead. And there was this light. And an angel.” Pause. “Why would she save me? After all I’ve done?” Second, “Her soft skin. And her hair. That half-awake smile when she saw me come in, like…she didn’t know she was still in a dream. She was the only thing I was living for.” I presume that his recollections of Lana were supposed to indicate that he was feeling guilt over their fight and his previous treatment of her. Thus, he feels that he deserves to go to jail, and he feels that he has been given a chance to do the right thing. This is important to note, in light of later developments that indicate that his motives may not have been quite so simple.
17. Nice transition from Lex’s fingers folding into a clench to his study doors swinging open.
18. The scene with Lois and Bizarro in Lex’s study was entirely unnecessary. For one thing…see Details K. For another thing, there is an abrupt change of attitude in Lois. She went from being distraught and overwhelmed in the hospital to irritable and overconfident in the study, and the change is needless. Finally, the scene has no context in the overall story. Lois isn’t wary of Clark in their next scene together, she merely presumes that he was overwhelmed and didn’t know what he was doing. Ultimately, this scene hasn’t changed anything. Its only real purpose was to indicate that in Bizarro’s idea of a perfect world, Lois and Clark would be together. (And since in Bizarro’s idea of a perfect world, Lex and Clark would be allies, this doesn’t really mean anything.)
19. “Check that monitor. Those readings aren’t possible.” This was an intriguing moment. Perhaps this was merely supposed to be the equipment malfunctioning, which explains why after an adjustment the numbers began to spiral. But, just judging from the way the doctor delivered the line, it’s possible that there was something more to this moment.
20. The classical music, the circling camera, all of it made for a very fascinating take on Chloe’s death. Did it compare to Clark’s hospital death? Of course not. I don’t think it was meant to. I even think they went to great lengths to make this death very different. This stylized, intense, but almost pleasant presentation could have emotionally led to Chloe’s salvation just as easily as to her death. (Watch it again and imagine it ending with Chloe revived. It works, doesn’t it?) It was designed to segue-way into her resurrection in the next scene.
21. Some have complained that Chloe revived so soon, taking away the drama surrounding her death. But I think that a more dramatic death, a longer waiting period, would have really tried our patience. We’ve already seen someone tell Clark that Lana is dead, we’ve seen his reaction, and we’ve wondered if Lana was really dead. (Well, we wondered when the Kristin Kreuk contract rumors started in the summer.) Two dramatic, realistic deaths and reappearances would have been too much. We needed to watch Chloe die, then react with joy when she revived. When Clark got the news of her death, we needed to be telling the television, “She’s not dead! Clark, she’s alive!” We needed to feel the good news coming. More would have been overkill…and would have been way too familiar.
22. Clark understands the doctor’s meaning. He is overwhelmed. “No – no.” He pushes past her, forges his way into the restricted area, stands there dazed as he looks into a room with no Chloe. This reaction was, for lack of a better word, wonderful. Clark reacting to Lana’s death failed miserably…Clark reacting to Chloe’s death redeemed him. His bond with Chloe came across so much more strongly…and his desperation, his crippling feeling of helplessness, made him so much more human and relatable.
23. Clark simply walks away from the room and fights tears. No misplaced anger, no violent tendencies. It hits him hard enough that his reaction is primal and real: he tries not to cry. It’s so simple, so human. I love this Clark.
24. Clark, in his overwhelmed state, struggles with sensory overload. I bought into this moment. Yes, it was a little contrived. But since we’ve seen Clark struggle for control of his hearing before, and since we know what it’s like to get hit with a piece of news and suddenly take in every detail of the corner of the sofa, we can make allowances. It works.
25. “Am I in a morgue?” “Come on, let’s get you out – “ “Why am I in a morgue?” This was such a lovably down-to-earth reaction. If I’d woken up in a tiny, coffin-like space, screamed for help, then gotten yanked out to find myself in a morgue, I would be panicking too.
26. “Lois is fine.” We can see the words hovering on his lips – But Lana is dead. But he chokes them back. I loved this moment. Clark is growing up.
27. Beautiful, beautiful moment as Chloe sees Lana’s death certificate. Again, contrived (see Detail P), but overlookably so. Her reaction here – her shocked look to Clark – Clark’s sad, resigned look with the camera panning gently to the right – their silent communication – all of it worked perfectly. No words needed. This was an intimate moment, and one of my favorites of the episode.
28. Lex listens to the recording of his and Lana’s altercation, then tells his lawyer that more important than this evidence is the status of his flooded cloning project. Was anything about Moment (p) and Detail J real? His motives, which were unclear before, are now almost completely obscured. His view of his life as sinful and worthless doesn’t appear to extend to his project. His decision to give up his old life and turn himself in doesn’t appear to actually involve giving up his old life. And even his love for Lana seems to be, at the very least, stifled and thrust aside here. This moment definitely complicates the Lex situation.
29. “I wasn’t miraculously saved to run away from my demons, K.D. I was brought back to face them.” “Be careful what you wish for.” Though the meaning of this moment isn’t immediately clear, this is a line that – with more knowledge – will probably be significant in retrospect.
30. “Clark’s still alive. He’s out there. And you will help me kill him. I need meteor rocks, a lot of them.” Lex replies firmly, to the phantom who has been leaving a trail of bodies with their entrails spilling out, “I’d never help you kill Clark.” Thank you, writers. Lex does not hate Clark, even after Clark attacked him and accused him of murder, even after Clark’s barging and bellowing antics throughout the years, even after his efforts at reconciliation have been rejected. Clark would kill him. He wouldn’t kill Clark.
31. “Lex. Redemption doesn’t suit you. Why protect a Clark Kent who hates you when you can help the one who wants to be your ally? It’s what you’ve always wanted. Isn’t it, Lex?” Again – thank you, writers. Lex has always wanted Clark to be his ally and his friend. Even when it was for the wrong reasons, fulfilling twisted needs of his own, he was trying to stay on Clark’s good side.
32. Chloe has to take a moment to cry over Lana’s death. This was good. It was necessary. They showed just enough to make it a three-dimensional, human response, without letting it distract from the story.
33. Chloe, crying, hugs Clark. It’s as if the hug releases him to feel the emotion he’s been fighting, and his eyes fill with tears. But he fights them, backs away. When he speaks, his voice is husky. This moment was so textured and real.
34. “While your humanity is your greatest strength, it is also your greatest vulnerability.” This was an anvil.
35. “This creature was discarded at birth as a poor imitation. He was shown no compassion, no conscience. Therefore he has none. He knows only one thing. Survival.” I was torn between appreciating the effort to make Bizarro three-dimensional and fidgeting about the utter needlessness of this conversation. Since Clark and Chloe already went over the fact that Clark and Bizarro have the exact opposite strengths and weaknesses, it would have been nice if they had figured out to play the “yellow sun” card on their own. Granted, we would then miss the Bizarro backstory, but I think it would be worth it to lose this scene and let Clark and Chloe team up to figure it out.
36. “Your faith in humans is not the only thing that gives you strength.” “The yellow sun.” I love that phrase…the yellow sun. (As opposed to the Kryptonian sun.) It stressed Clark’s heritage and his belonging on earth at the same time.
37. “I can help. But it is your battle.” So, the Martian Manhunter will look on as Clark fights “his battle”. Somehow this saps the tension out of the whole setup. They really, really need to do away with the Martian Manhunter.
38. Bizarro apparently inherited Clark’s lack of intuition and proper use of superhearing, because he didn’t turn around when Lex grabbed the gun. Lex could have so easily shot Bizarro in the back. Even though it would have been useless, I was inwardly urging him to shoot. But Lex wants answers. “Where are you from, and why did you only replicate Clark?” This was such a powerful image of Lex’s obsession with knowledge.
39. “What’s more important? Destroying me…or solving the mystery of Clark Kent?” Lex hesitates. But Bizarro sees his answer in his eyes. He grabs the gun in superspeed, then supershoves Lex. “Wrong decision.” I love it that Bizarro inherited Clark’s knowledge of Lex, enabling him to see Lex’s answer before Lex made any sort of gesture. (Granted, this knowledge surpassed Clark’s instinctive understanding of Lex recently, but perhaps Clark will regain that understanding.) I also loved it that Lex – to all appearances – did prioritize destroying the phantom above discovering Clark’s secret. Lex believed that he was in control with the gun, and that he could bully Bizarro into giving him answers. He was willing to give that up to destroy the phantom…and that’s big.
40. Bizarro tells Clark to bring it on. Clark promptly charges. A wiser reaction would have been to get Bizarro to shift his ground first: Clark knows from experience that Bizarro is a hardcore fighter, and he just saw Bizarro recharge on the kryptonite. He should have crashed through the wall to enter the room, thus allowing the sunlight in and giving him at least an equal chance. This wasn’t Clark’s best moment.
41. The imagery as Clark is renewed in the sunlight is beautiful.
42. The circling shot was a good thought, but I think the camera stayed too long on Clark’s cheek healing…or else the healing was too slow. I felt impatient, waiting for him to challenge Bizarro.
43. As Bizarro flew into the sky, the camera shot was reminiscent of Clark’s leap in Hidden…even down to Bizarro’s clothes. Thus, I full expected Clark to leap after him and shove him into outer space, as he did the explosive in the missile. When the red blur flew after Bizarro, I was ready to cheer…until they cut back to Clark still standing in the sunlight. This misdirection took away from the moment. It was also completely unnecessary, since Clark could have done the job himself.
44. “Chloe, when I heard about Lana, I went to find Lex. And I wasn’t going to let him leave there alive.” This confession was a high point for Clark. Actually, he had a lot of high points this episode. But this was what renewed my confidence in his character. In S6, Clark was so arbitrary that I was hesitant to commit to cheering for him or even trying to understand him. This redeemed some of that.
45. “The irony is, I think it was the first time I ever really understood Lex. Loving someone is hard, and…it’s difficult. But hate. Hate is so…clean.” He sees Lex as someone full of hate. Perhaps that’s true. Lex certainly used to hate Lionel, but now so much has changed that I’m hesitant to see this moment as a moment of genuine understanding of Lex. It seems more like Clark is projecting his own hate problems onto Lex.
46. “Maybe you need to feel this right now. I mean, anger is a natural human emotion.” This moment was disturbing. In a nutshell, Clark just said, “I was an aspiring murderer,” and Chloe replied, “That’s not necessarily a bad thing.” This was perhaps the low point of the episode in terms of character.
47. Fortunately, Clark’s character made it through the conversation unscathed. “That’s just it. ‘Cause when that phantom was trying to kill me, and I was staring into my own eyes, I saw the monster that I could become if I wanted to.” This was excellent payoff. This was a moment that really, really needed to happen. Clark needed to see that his past behavior was wrong, and I applaud the writers for going through with this moment. I feel that I can side with Clark again after that.
48. “It was a reminder that I’m not human.” I understood the point the writers were trying to make in the “not human” theme. They’re building up his feeling of superhero-ish aloneness, and preparing him for training. And that’s good. But the theme didn’t seem to fit the episode. Clark’s battle with Bizarro had no reason to remind him that he isn’t human…if anything, it served to emphasize just how human he is.
49. “…you ended up in a morgue.” “It was nothing.” “I’m just saying, when you’re ready – “ “Thanks.” I loved this reversal. Chloe has always watched others go through traumas, standing by offering chipper support and even giving small sage lectures. It had become tedious. Now she’s finally going through something strange and disconcerting herself, and she finds herself dealing with it in a normal, uncomfortable, human way. This was refreshing to me.
50. Lois barges in and scolds Clark, then tenderly hugs him and comforts him about Lana’s death. Her only words to Chloe: “…you’ve got some explaining to do, there, missy.” She just obliterated the fantastic image she was building up in the tunnels and at the hospital.
51. “Losing Lana has made me realize…” In order to emphasize the “not human” theme, Clark’s loss now reminds him of his aloneness and his destiny. 1) This worked better than his Bizarro observations (no pun intended), but I still felt that this didn’t really explain why he felt isolated, especially since he just confided in Chloe and was comforted by Lois. I think they needed him to have a brief montage of memories of Lana, or something similar, to establish his feeling of loss and helplessness. 2) This was an anvil line. It has become a tradition for Clark to start the season off with a “Such-and-Such has made me realize” moment. I think he doesn’t need to find someone to whom he can verbally explain his state of mind. Some things are better left unspoken. Some things are more powerful left unspoken.
52. As Lana glided toward the window, her walk was very self-conscious. I felt like she was trying to look queenly. It would have been much more effective to see her discard the high class Luthor look and sit around her apartment in a junky T-shirt and jeans. As I recall, when she was younger she preferred a birthday party with pizza and loud music to a birthday party at the Luthor mansion. And even if for the purpose of secret survival she, for some reason, needed to wear that dress and heavy makeup out, she could have walked to the window in a vulnerable, unguarded way.
53. However, the Lana scenes were successful in that it felt like Lana still needed to be liberated.

Details

1. In the recap, we are reminded that the Martian Manhunter was gravely wounded and needed to leave the earth’s atmosphere to heal. Since he left and came back in basically a few minutes, what was the point of this storyline? It didn’t present any complications or have any relevance. He was still all-too-conveniently there when Clark needed him. (Although, arguably, Clark didn’t need him to fly off with Bizarro. But my thoughts on that are in Moment aq.)
2. The recap’s Matlock-esque freeze on Clark while Lana’s vehicle exploded in the background was, well, Matlock-esque. It didn’t really work. It would have been better to slow-motion Clark and fade to black and white, then show the explosion in black and white, then resume the recap in color.
3. It was fascinating to note that the recap showed absolutely everything from S6 that was relevant to this premiere. That is, instead of recapping the season, it recapped “Phantom” and “Freak”…and pretty much nothing else. It isn’t that the other S6 episodes had no worth, but their plotlines (Clark working to protect Metropolis, Oliver Queen’s exploits, Clark and Lex’s discussion in Nemesis) weren’t developed enough to make them significant to the story.
4. Two aliens…one of whom is Clark…fight in the woods. One gets punched into a tree, and the impact causes the tree to splinter in half. Wasn’t this exact same scenario in Zod?
5. The fishing father was running in an expanse of pebbles, essentially like gravel. Thus, he had plenty of traction and no place to slam his head but the ground. I found it hard to believe 1) that he could slip, and 2) that he could slam his head on…something…and be knocked unconscious. It would have been far more realistic, and not much trouble, to have him trip over a log and hit his head on a large boulder.
6. Clark vaporizes the water, then looks at a traumatized little kid kneeling over his unconscious father. He smiles and runs away. Should he have taken the guy to the hospital?
7. When Bizarro is impaled on the metal from the telephone pole, it’s quite clear that the outer piece of metal is attached to his jacket. As he wakes up and coughs, the metal jumps with his cough.
8. When Clark showed up running through the tunnel, it sounded like he was shouting, “Lana!” Perhaps we’re simply accustomed to hearing this shout in premieres. But it took me a second viewing to understand that he was actually looking for Lionel.
9. Why is Bizarro way better-looking than Clark?
10. Lex has always been able to justify his recent actions…he’s trying to save mankind, or prevent freaks from taking over the world, etc., etc. But as he makes the decision to turn himself in, Lex appears to view his recent life as sinful and worthless. Is this simply a reference to his fight with Lana before she “died”? Or does this mean that he’s been slapped into reality by Lana’s death, that he’s now able to look at his other recent deeds (experiments with meteor freaks, cloning, etc.) with a sense of balance? More on this in Moment (ab).
11. Lois races from the hospital, distraught and emotional. Some time later, Lois arrives at the mansion in fresh clothes, her hair brushed and restyled. This does tend to put a damper on my theory in Moment (n).
12. “Where’s Miss Lane?” “She just left.” She had enough time to go home, shower, change clothes, blow dry her hair, do some digging and come up with “zilch,” sneak past Lex’s security (one assumes) and into his study, and have an encounter with Bizarro. She didn’t just leave.
13. “She showed me her stab wound. The one that didn’t leave a scratch.” At the end of this shot, does Clark glance at Chloe’s fleeing figure?
14. The physician named on Chloe’s tag was “John Burke”. Is this a reference to John Glover’s role playing “John Burke” in 1993, or was it simply random?
15. The tag misspells “funeral director” as “funderal director”.
16. Why would Lana’s death certificate be directly beneath Chloe’s? Was Lana’s body (that is, some kind of corpse that could pass for Lana) even found?
17. “Most of the compromised units have been recovered, but we’re still looking for 503.” This would be the clone highlighted in “Prototype,” I presume…the one with long Lana hair.
18. “The phantom. It took Clark’s body.” Who exactly is Lex addressing, here?
19. Bizarro grabbed the gun and shoved Lex, knocking him out. Since he was so willing to incinerate harmless, well-intentioned people earlier, why didn’t he just incinerate Lex? Did he have future plans for him, in the perfect Clark-world he intended to create?
20. “You don’t deserve this life, Clark. But I do.” This was a ripoff of Tina Greer’s line to Lana in X-ray: “I’m saying you don’t deserve your life. I do.”
21. The sunlight creates three spots of light on the floor – one red, one yellow, and one appearing to be blue. Illogical, but a nice Superman reference.
22. How is Lana supporting herself in Shanghai? She’s living in an apartment, wearing makeup and a nice dress and a wig…how is she affording all this? Not to mention transportation to get to Shanghai in the first place. It isn’t a problem, just an interesting question. It looks like someone helped her fake her death and disappear, but who? Lionel, feeling guilty? And if Lionel, why would she use him as a witness to the explosion when he must have known exactly what was going on? Whoever it was, it appears they will be left with the choice to step forward or keep quiet when Lex is falsely accused.
23. The view of the moon from China and Smallville appeared to be the same, apart from the lightness of the sky. That’s impossible. (Either that, or it’s a ripoff of the eclipse anomaly in the Heroes pilot.)
24. Kara sits in new clothes, her old clothes sitting in a pile next to her. First, where did she get the new clothes? Second, why fly away from the pile of old clothes? Is she planning on living there, or did she decide the old clothes aren’t worth saving?