It has been almost a month since my last Smallville review here so apologies for the long wait between chapters. I must admit I haven’t felt very creative during this most recent ‘lockdown’. However this week I listened to Tom Welling speak on Michael Rosenbaum’s ‘Inside of You’ podcast and felt inspired once again. Tom actually spoke about how it is difficult to be creative when you are just trying to survive and that is definitely a feeling the resonated with me. Then I had the wonderful opportunity to speak with Tom again myself, thanks to the on-going virtual conventions. I enjoy how Tom is much more open and available to his fans now, even more so than when the show was actually on air. So after a double dose of Clark Kent himself I am feeling more like writing again.
Onto the episode review, Dichotic starts in school metal shop where we meet Ian, a student striving for perfect grades so he can secure the Luthor foundation scholarship. Clark sneaks a peak at the grades the teacher has assigned and Ian is set to be disappointed with a ‘C’. Ian certainly doesn’t take the news well and goes back after class and stabs his teacher with the letter opener he made in class. Yikes! These early episodes have made me think how disturbed some of the students at Smallville High were.
At the farm Jonathan is becoming increasingly frustrated with Martha dedicating more time to her new job as Lionel’s assistant. He attempts to do some repairs to their tractor by himself and ends up getting his leg trapped underneath it. Fortunately Clark arrives home in time to hear him calling for help. His injury puts him on crutches and unable to perform his farm chores which makes Martha feel guilty, even though she is only trying to make more money to help support the family farm. Later Jonathan admits he was a little jealous but Martha assures him that he and Clark will always come first in her life.
There is some story progression for Lex in this episode as he meets his future wife, Dr Helen Bryce at the Smallville Medical Centre while visiting Jonathan Kent. He manages to offend her straight away by saying he can pay for better medical care than she can provide. Funny how Lex always has ‘specialists’ from Metropolis ready at any moment in time! He runs into Helen again while attending therapy for anger management. We have never seen Lex to be physically angry for no reason so it was a little odd to see him lash out at a meter maid when the try to give him a ticket. At therapy it is clear Lex is enamoured with Helen and attempts to make things right by asking her out on a date, which she promptly declines as she remembers him from the emergency room a few years ago when he came in drunk and disorderly. The next day he goes to the hospital to see her again and she eventually warms to him after he apologises and accepts his offer of a coffee.
We also see Lana move in with Chloe and her dad now that her aunt Nell has left to go to Metropolis with her new fiancé Dean. Things quickly become awkward for them when they both start dating Ian, literally at the same time. Ian has the ability to split himself into two separate people which is how he has been able to up his grade average in order to finish High School early and qualify for his scholarship.
Clark notices something is off with Ian and questions his motives for dating both Lana and Chloe. Sadly for Clark they see his efforts to protect them as plain jealousy and dismiss his warnings that Ian is just using them. Ian wants Chloe to write a story about him and Lana to put in a good word for him with Lex since she is his business partner, something that never quite made sense to me as I believe Lex out right owns the Talon and Lana just works there after school and on weekends. Clark tricks Ian into revealing his ability by setting up a meeting with him and both Lana and Chloe at the same time. When the two figure out Ian has been using them by themselves he turns violent and kidnaps them. Even though Lana and Chloe have treated Clark quite poorly in this episode he is still there to save them when they need him and defeat Ian. Where usually Clark would be the one to apologise, here at the end he confronts Lana and Chloe about the lack of trust they had in him and how quickly they dismissed his warning even though he has always been there for them both. The conflict in their relationships has been boiling since the beginning of this season and it is nice to see Clark stand up for himself for a change. They agree to put everything behind them and just be friends. Let’s see how long that will last as my Smallville lookback continues in ‘Skinwalkers’.
DCs Earth-9 