"TITLE" By Chad Hudgins

Last year they introduced Green Arrow, a character that had a major part in the first half of the season. While I really enjoyed his part in the show, many decried him taking part of the spotlight away from Clark. This year, they are introducing Kara; who seems to be getting almost the same amount of condemnation, only this time before anyone has really seen anything of her or how big of a role she’ll play. So far, we have only really seen a glimpse of her from the premiere, until tonight that is.

We learn quite a bit about her tonight and we learn a little bit about Krypton and Clark’s biological parents. On top of that, we got to see proof that Clark learned a bit about responsibility in the way he handled Kara throughout the episode. It makes you miss the presence of Jonathan and Martha on the show.

Did Kara steal the spotlight in tonight’s episode? Before we go any further, let me once again warn of the spoilers that will be flying at you faster than a speeding bullet.

“Last daughter of Krypton”

Last week we got a glimpse of Kara, who saved Lex from a watery grave after the dam collapsed. Other than that and a quick scene at the end of the episode, we didn’t learn anything at all about her at all. This week though, we learned quite a bit of information about her. We learned the reason she was sent to Earth, why she suddenly showed up after the dam incident, and she even gave some information about Krypton.

Kara was played by the beautiful Laura Vandervoort, and I have to say I was impressed with her performance. She wasn’t perfect by any means, but she played the part well and by the end I am looking forward to seeing her in the role more.

The episode starts with Clark and Lois wondering the area of the dam incident, looking for something Lois can use against Lex. What they end up coming across is Kara’s ship, which Lois decides would be a good story to run with the Inquisitor. Clark can’t get near the ship though, since there are Kryptonite fragments surrounding the silent ship. Lois finds some markings on the ship and starts to take pictures with her cell phone. As she was taking some of the pictures, something flew by at super speed, and knocked Lois unconscious.

We then get our first appearance of Kara, who says in a hilarious snotty teenager tone: “That’s what you get when you touch my stuff!”

She then breaks Lois’ phone, huffs, crosses her arms, and storms away pouting. Ok, that’s not really how it happened, but it would have been funny. Instead she and Clark run at each other at super speed, which ends in Clark getting knocked backward through the woods. She then tells him to gather the unconscious Lois, and to leave the forest. This whole scene is a little hard to grasp, mostly because of some editing blunders. Clark can’t get near the ship due to Kryptonite scattered around it, yet when Kara shows up, she is not affected at all. Then they use their powers around said Kryptonite, which they shouldn’t be able to do. I don’t know if it was a mistake made by the editing department, or the writers just forgot that they very blatantly added Kryptonite to the scene. Later Kara mentions getting sick around the meteor rocks, so it’s not a case of her being immune to their affects. It just seemed odd the way the whole scene worked out.

All is forgiven since we then get an awesome, spectacular, breathtaking scene of Kara flying away and out of the Earth’s atmosphere. It was jaw dropping, and very similar to the scene done in Superman Returns, only better. It seems she also has a house of El insignia crystal, and it showed for an instant a baby’s image on it. It seems that she was sent to Earth to look over Kal-El, and thinks he is still an infant.

The next meeting of Clark and Kara is possibly my favorite part of the episode. He is informed that some girl is messing with children at pre-schools. Clark investigates and finds Kara holding up a boy and asking his name. Clark makes her put the boy down, grabs her and super speeds her away to an area where they can talk. Realizing he has abilities (She didn’t earlier?) she attempts to fly away. Clark grabs her by the ankle and slams her to the ground. Clark didn’t know how dangerous she was, and decided to stop her before she could leave and do more damage. I loved it, and enjoyed how proactive he was in that scene.

I already like the relationship the two are building up, and hope to see it grow. The reversal of roles is neat also. She was sent to look over Clark, but due to being stuck in suspended animation, Clark is not only physically older than her, but mentally and emotionally too. She may be able to fly, but there is a lot about their powers and the responsibility behind them that she is unaware of. This was shown in a touching scene on the roof of the Daily Planet. Her ship had been stolen by government officials, and when they tried to get into the ship it set off a self destruct sequence. They didn’t know where the ship was taken, so Clark taught her how to hone her super hearing so that she could hear the frequency of the ship.

I thought it was a wonderful scene that showed how much he had learned from his parents. He was patient and reassuring as she tried to get a handle on such an overwhelming ability.

The scene toward the end between Kara and Clark was also beautifully shot. It was in that scene that we learned a bit about Kara’s past on Kandor, and how she was close to Lara and Clark when he was a baby. Kara also mentioned that there was a war going on as Zod was trying to gain control of Krypton. It’s a bit of information that I hope we get to hear about more, maybe learn how the war ended. There were some plot gaps that I hope are filled. I don’t understand how Kara didn’t know that Krypton was in danger, and how Zor-El had the time to build a ship so that Kara was also saved from the planet’s destruction. Not to mention the fact that somewhere in between there, Zod had time to attempt a takeover of Krypton and get himself banished to the Phantom Zone all at the same time. I just hope it’s explained much more.

What interests me most is why Jor-El would say that Kara is dangerous. What is it about her mission to Earth and past that makes her a danger to Clark? I love the forward movement though, since it is now officially considered part of his training to watch over her. The writers did their job, since I am now heavily vested in this story.

“Lois Lane: Ace Reporter”

One big development in the episode was the new editor hiring Lois Lane to be a reporter for the Daily Planet. There are some ups and downs associated to this development. The first thing I can say about it is that LOIS LANE IS FINALLY AT THE DAILY PLANET! I couldn’t be more excited, since slowly but surely certain pieces are being set into place.

Now that my geeky fanboy glee is out of the way, I have one big bone to pick with this story. The new editor-in-chief grates my nerves very much. His name is Grant Gabriel, and he is played by Michael Cassidy; a young actor that seems to just have played on the O.C. and some other small roles here and there. He did play a minor character in the Tim Allen movie “Zoom” which I did like, but for the life of me I don’t remember who he played.

So naturally I have no other acting jobs of his to compare his character in Smallville to since I hated the O.C. with every fiber of my being. That being said, his character in Smallville irks me to no end. The man just seems like he overacts, or maybe just isn’t that great of an actor in general.

His character just seems like an over eager young guy that happened to get the job as editor-in-chief that he doesn’t deserve. He seems to me like a young guy that is trying very hard to play the same go getter role that Perry White fills in the comics. Forget the young guy, just give us Perry White!

I also don’t know how I like the fact that they seem to be pitting Lois against Chloe in terms of their jobs. I hope that they have plans to move Chloe on to something else, maybe like television journalism. It also seems strange that he would hire Lois over something like a UFO story, which a newspaper wouldn’t do unless there was set proof. I figure they are just setting him up to be a love interest, which I detest, since that means he’ll be around for a little while longer.

The moral of this long rant:

Lois Lane: reporter for the Daily Planet = Awesome!
New Editor and needless competition between cousins = Horrible!

“Some other things of note”

The only other thing I wanted to mention, since it was some closure to one of the more boring storylines from last season. The Lana and Lex confrontation was utterly fantastic! Both actors played the parts so well, and I bought the explanation as to how Lana duped the system. Using a clone was something I hadn’t thought of at all. With the “religious experience” Lex had, I truly believed he was sorry for what happened between them and just wanted to tell her that. I found it interesting that Lana wanted Lex to find her though, I though she would be afraid of some sort of retaliation. All in all though, it was a well acted scene, and I wonder what will happen when Lex finally accepts his true inner evil. Will he decide to have his revenge on Lana then?

Next week seems like we’ll get the Clark and Lana reunion that I was hoping for, especially now that she knows everything about him, since that will change the dynamics of their relationship completely.

“In Conclusion”

The episode was really enjoyable, with a strong introduction for Kara and a horrible introduction for Grant. I look forward to seeing Kara and Clark’s relationship blossom and expand, and I really think this will lead to some major growth for Clark. I don’t think Kara will overshadow Clark in the least, especially not in the way many thought Ollie did last season. Due to some editing goofs and the irritating new editor-in-chief, “Kara” gets a 4 out of 5.