The CW's Official Description:
A sense of foreboding surrounds Smallville as Clark (Tom
Welling) must choose between staying with Lana (Kristin Kreuk) and his family or
fulfilling his destiny to rule the Earth. Meanwhile, Lex (Michael Rosenbaum) and
Helen (Emmanuelle Vaugier) plan their upcoming wedding, but outside forces may
ultimately keep them apart. Also, a hurt Chloe (Allison Mack) considers Lionel's
(John Glover) offer to investigate Clark.
Sam Jones III, Annette O'Toole and John Schneider also star. Greg Beeman
directed the episode written by Al Gough & Miles Millar.
Detailed Description:
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Notes:
Terence Stamp is billed up front this week and is
identified by character.
On the first airing of this episode the WB featured ads
for its new semi-"superhero" shows on its 2003 fall schedule - Tarzan and
Fearless.
This is the first time characters Pete and Lionel meet
on-screen - a scene possibly well overdue given how Lionel "ruined" the
Ross family's creamed-corn business.
Besides the world domination part, most of Jor-El's
speech to Clark about who he is was taken from the first Superman movie.
Once again the Danish word for "Sun" (Sol) is used to
describe the star in which Clark is sent to the third planet off.
Actually, Nordic pride apart, "Sol" is the Latin
personification of the sun as a god in the roman pantheon, similar to
"Helios" in the Greek one. Thus it is often used to indicate our sun in
particular as opposed to all other suns, since roman gods are used for
the other major bodies in our solar system.
Solidifying it as a marker of insidious behavior, Chloe
is dressed all in black when she meets with Lionel.
When Clark and Lana are in the meadow there are two
horses - if one is Whitney's (and now Lana's), whose is the other one?
We've only seen Clark ride a horse once before, more then a year ago.
Once again, Lana showed up at the Kents' barn all gussied
up with no visible means of transportation - even after Clark announced
that he had to pick her up! Then, she was able to leave and get to the
wedding somehow. (We see the Kents leave without her.)
Why doesn't Clark use x-ray vision to find the ring in
Chloe's office, rather then rummage through the drawers? Even if it's in
lead, all Clark has to do is look for a box that he can't see through.
Lex said that his father had stepped up security at the
caves, yet Clark and later Pete waltz right in.
Maybe they'll explain it down the road, but the key's
function seems a bit confusing. At the caves it apparently activates the
mechanism there (it has a keyhole that fits the key's
inscriptions)...which seems to be some kind of anti-Clark programmed
system that gives Walden the power and indirectly the motive to kill
Clark. Yet it also activates the ship, which is a pro-Clark programmed
system. Why does the same key serve two such diametrically opposite
purposes? Or if they are two different machines, why do they have the
exact same key?
Lex kicked Lionel out of the manor way back in "Red," and
except for when Lex was temporarily ousted in "Prodigal," Lionel has only
been a visitor. Yet here Lionel is using it as a business place of sorts
to meet with Chloe when Lex is gone. Maybe Lionel knows Lex isn't coming
back...?
It seems unusual that Lionel doesn't put two and two
together and needs Pete to explain how he put the Ross family out of
business. Lionel has a mind like a steel-trap, and even if it was just a
standard business deal like hundreds of others from his
perspective...well, it wasn't. Jonathan Kent and the deal he cut with
Lionel about adopting Clark (see "Lineage") apparently played a big role
in the creamed-corn buyout, and Lionel has a lot of interest in the
Kents.
The "range" of red kryptonite seems to vary
inconsistently. It works on Clark when he wears it as a ring on his
finger, and when Pete puts it in his pocket, but not when he holds it in
his hand.
Clark's theory is based on a seemingly false assumption
that the ship neutralized Lana's necklace to protect itself. The necklace
wasn't that close (in "Visage") and it wasn't moving toward the ship or
anything. The ship was closer to kryptonite in "Duplicity." And when the
ship came to Earth, it came through space in fairly close proximity to
the kryptonite meteors - why didn't it neutralize those too to "protect"
itself?
How dumb is Lionel? Come on, he doesn't know the meaning
of backup? If he made one key why not two or three or a dozen? He has
enough kryptonite to do so. (editor's note: just because he's pissed the
first key was stolen doesn't mean he can't have others...)
Lex tells Clark that the wedding is off and yet still we
see Clark and his parents make the usual preparations for the wedding not
even the least bit troubled that it's all for nothing...
Why are there so many wedding gifts in Lex's office before the wedding
takes place?
If Helen and Lionel are up to some secret plan and
meeting, why are they meeting in the hallway right outside of Lex's
office? For that matter, how did Lionel get into the manor past Lex's
security for...oh, the 10th time or so in the last two years?
Clark has a pimple on his chin again - something that
seems a bit difficult for someone with near-invulnerable skin. (Look for
it when he and Lana are out with the horses.)
The position of the horses radically changes position
depending on whether the camera is doing a close-up or wide angle shot of
Lana and Clark.
The box with Lionel's key in it is gone from the little
plinth in the long shot before the shot where blurred Clark comes and
steals it.
When Clark gets up after the storm cellar is demolished
from the explosion of the ship Clark's shirt is ripped down to where his
S mark should be but it isn't there.
When Clark's parents crash the car cause of the shockwave
the door is open when the car comes to a stop but when the Clark sees the
car the door is closed and there are almost no damages to the except the
smoking engine.
Helen had an odd look when she and Lex boarded the plane.
She had an unheard conversation with Lionel Luther before the wedding.
Could she (perhaps conspiring with Lionel) have engineered the plane
crash? Might Lex's survival and subsequent discovery of this plot be the
event that pushes him over the edge to evil?
Purely speculative, but...is that the real Helen who
marries Lex at the end, or a kryptonite-accelerated clone? Helen leaves,
then comes back and gives a rather glib explanation for her return ("the
mistakes I've made"). Lionel couldn't bribe Helen earlier in the season,
so maybe he created his own. Then the question is, if "Helen" is a clone,
is she trying to kill Lex on Lionel's orders, or on her own?
One thing the show has added to the Superman mythos is Clark being
immune to human mind powers (Ryan, the salesmen in "Hug"). The ship says
it can read Clark's thoughts - is it possible it's constant presence
monitoring Clark's mind blocks other mental effects against him, rather
then his mental resistance being a natural power?
Season One -
Season Three -
Season Four -
Season Five -
Season Six - Season Seven
-
Season Eight
Season Two:
Vortex -
Heat - Duplicity -
Red - Nocturne -
Redux - Lineage -
Ryan - Dichotic -
Skinwalkers -
Visage - Insurgence -
Suspect - Rush -
Prodigal - Fever -
Rosetta - Visitor
- Precipice -
Witness - Accelerate -
Calling
Picture from Screencap
Paradise
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