"Fallout"
Review!
Written
by Triplet
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NOTE:
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reading the wrong review. Please, go watch the episode and come
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This episode
is the sophomore directorial effort of Smallville Director of
Photography, Glen Winter. While not as successful an episode
overall as his previous effort at helming on "Cyborg,"
which I rated a five, it was still arguably one of the better
ones so far this year.
Scribe Holly Harold produced an extremely strong script in "Fallout."
The act break cliffhangers were fantastic and the A, B, and
C stories tied together far better than average. Lana and Lex
vied for control of Brainiac's power-cell even as (over in the
main storyline) Raya and Clark dealt with the Phantom Zone escapee,
Baern, who also wanted the power core. All the while Jimmy added
critical support in the C story. It was beautiful how well the
three storylines intersected and played off of each other.
Lex and
Lana's scheming and growing distrust of each other is an interesting
twist. I suppose it was only a matter of time considering it's
Lex that Lana's dating, but the deterioration of the relationship
adds a great deal of friction to their scenes. As the relationship
goes along it's hard to discern exactly why Lana is still in
it, but it makes for some dramatic TV nonetheless.
An interesting
complication of the Clark/Lana/Lex triangle was that Clark finally
confided something to Lana. He showed her the photo of the technical
schematics of the power cell when she asked what he was really
after. More interesting still was that it didn't look like she
was going to fill Lex in on what Clark showed her. Maybe Clark
has discovered that he can trust Lana with at least some of
his secrets after all. There is a lot of irony in that...
However,
Clark trusting her even that little bit is a sign that they
will probably find a way to become friends despite the bitter
break up of their romantic relationship. I'm relieved, personally.
It was looking like they would never become friends so even
a little hint of their future friendship was nice to see.
I'm really
sorry they decided to kill off Raya (Pascale Hutton). I liked
her character a lot and thought she still had things to show
Clark, but I can see why they did it. In a literary sense, she'd
done her job: helping Clark to better understand his place on
Earth. She gave him a different view point on his role in the
world his parents had sent him to. He's been too deeply mired
in his own problems for too long to understand the bigger picture.
Raya helped Clark gain some badly needed objectivity.
The only
problem with the script was that Jimmy's over-enthusiastic naiveté
was probably laid on a bit thick. I found it hard to believe
that a smart woman like Chloe would actually be charmed by her
boyfriend making some downright stupid moves. Directly confronting
Lex about possible conspiracies without any real facts to back
it up isn't a good move if you want to live to see your next
birthday. Why she only smiled at him indulgently after she found
out about that was inexplicable. It was probably because he
unknowingly helped Clark a great deal, but still...
Clark's
scene at the end with Martha was one of the most important single
moments in the series. I don't think it had ever been brought
up what it was exactly that Clark had lost when Krypton was
destroyed. What he'd lost was more than just his "heritage"
or even the more abstract idea of a "home world."
Clark lost
his home.
Clark lost
his family.
As well
loved as he is, being the Last Son of Krypton is tragic. Clark
really acknowledging the finality of that fact for the first
time helped him to finally embrace his "otherness."
That is something he has never done before and it was a necessary
step for him to finally accepting his destiny.
The scene
showed that Clark is determined to do what's right, no matter
what. In that steely resolve to accept his destiny, regardless
of the cost, Clark showed that he is the man that will one day
pull on tights and save people simply because he can. He saves
people simply because it's the right thing to do. His quiet
determination to fight evil as he held the shield that symbolizes
his family, and will symbolize what he will become, was a powerful
moment.
This is
what the whole series is building toward. The decision to carry
on with his training and accept who he is and what he's destined
to do was a pivotal one in Clark's series long character arc.
What a great moment in the series and it was beautifully written.
Aside from
an ever-present scowl, the lack of a definitive difference (either
vocally or physically) between when Bow Wow (Shad Gregory Moss)
was Baern and when he wasn't. The lack of a noticeable change
severely strained my willing suspension of disbelief. More effort
should have been made to help Bow Wow sound and act differently
than... well... Bow Wow.
Aside from
Bow Wow, helmer Glen Winter did an excellent job pulling strong
performances from his actors.
Tom Welling
keeps getting better and better. The early scenes between Raya
and Clark were great, he was having fun racing with her and
it was a pleasure to watch Clark enjoying his powers. Clark
doesn't do that often and Tom looked like he was enjoying playing
that.
Tom performed
the final scene between Clark and his mother perfectly. He portrayed
it so matter-of-factly, with just a hint of angst, and with
a quiet resolve which kept the scene intense yet still low-key
enough that it didn't go over the top. It would have been so
easy to become heavy handed with the importance of the moment.
His understated performance in that scene had just the right
tone. Anything more and it would have seemed forced; anything
less and it would have diluted the moment's power. He played
Clark's epiphany perfectly.
Kristin
Kreuk is coming more and more into her own as an actress. I'm
not sure I totally like where Lana is going as a character,
her growing duplicity when it comes to Lex's scheming is a bit
worrisome, but I think it's great that Kristin is tackling the
character arc so ably. She's believably playing a far more complicated
Lana than we've ever seen before.
Michael
was terrific in this episode. In the scene with Jimmy, Lex was
downright scary yet he started out dealing with Jimmy in such
a benign fashion. By the end of the scene the menace was clear
and he faultlessly played that change in intention. It gave
me chills. I think Michael's getting past whatever it was that
caused him to fall short of expectations in earlier episodes
in the season.
Aaron Ashmore's
Jimmy was humorous in this episode, even though parts of his
storyline were a bit hard to swallow. Aaron and Allison Mack
have a very nice chemistry so I always like the scenes they
have together.
In addition
to helming this episode, Glen Winter photographed it. The scenes
in the darkened fortress and the nighttime scenes in the mansion
were especially well done and atmospheric.
Usually,
I don't mention hair or make-up but they, or one of them anyway
(which one I'm not sure), made one pretty obvious mistake in
this episode. In the final scene between Lex and Lana, Michael's
head had a visible five o'clock shadow. It totally pulled me
out of the scene...
Despite
some missteps, the director, cast and crew delivered an extremely
strong episode.
4.5 Brain-InterActive
Construct power cores out of a possible 5.
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