"Freak"
Review!
Written
by Triplet
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NOTE:
This review reveals pivotal plot details. If you don't like
to be spoiled stop reading now and come back after you've seen
it. This was pretty good...
Scribes
Todd Slavkin and Darren Swimmer wrote a very good episode, but
probably the best part of this episode was that Michael Rosenbaum
directed it. He did a very good job. Although this outing wasn’t
perfect, I hope he decides to give sitting in the director's
chair another go.
The story
was an interesting twist on the more standard meteor freak of
the week storyline. The only real freaks had less obvious powers
and weren't trying to kill anyone, although they probably should
have been trying to kill Lex.
The biggest
twist was that Chloe was revealed to be meteor “infected.”
The revelation that Chloe is a kryptofreak certainly changes
her character arc in an extremely profound way. Her scene with
Clark where she told him about her fear that she was a walking
time bomb was heart breaking. I'm glad Clark is such a good
friend and he openly offered to be her personal “bomb squad.”
He knows probably better than anyone how dangerous meteor freaks
can become. Her worry isn't unfounded, especially given her
family history of mental illness, but the loving and unconditional
support offered by Clark was touching and should reassure her
that she won’t go through the ordeal alone.
However,
aside from freakishly good super computing skills what is her
ability? Hopefully the truth will be revealed later what her
power is, or even if she has one... For me, I wouldn’t
be surprised if her meteor power is just her being a convenient
Deus Ex Machina device for iffy Smallville plot points.
What was
probably most interesting about this episode was the fact that
Lana found out more clues to the “mystery that is Clark
Kent” and how she reacted to it. She now knows that he
isn’t a meteor freak and that he is so fast that no one
could see him as he performed the miraculous save on Tobias
while somehow diverting the bullet she’d shot. The bullet
looked like it actually had an impression of one of Clark’s
fingers in it, so she probably also now knows that he’s
bullet proof, not just steel-hand-tool proof. I really liked
her confrontation of him after Tobias had left. She honestly
laid her suspicions out to him and Clark obfuscated, without
actually lying, but it's terrific that she’s protecting
him when she can despite their differences.
Also, in
spite of her seeming endorsement of Lex’s evil machinations
earlier in the season, she has definitively shown in this episode
that she’s Clark’s friend first and Lex’s fiancé
second.
The scene
where Clark used his heat vision to cut into Chloe was amazing.
They both thought that he had to act immediately or Chloe might
die like the others. Even though it turned out that they were
wrong, it was so intense. I can't think of another moment in
the series where use of Clark's powers had such high stakes
for a person so close to him. Also, what a terrific application
of his abilities!
Another
thing that someone else pointed out to me, I'm not smart enough
to notice this on my own I suppose, was that Clark used every
single of his powers available to him in this episode. He used
his super breath, super hearing, x-ray vision, heat vision,
invulnerability and speed. Although the use of his powers wasn't
exactly complete, no use of telescopic vision or flight... err...
super jumping for example, but it was really nice to see super
breath used again. We haven't seen it since its premiere episode,
"Sneeze," and Clark used it in a very smart way: to
distract Dr. Bethany so he could steal his laptop. It was a
clever, and a very subtle, use of the power. It's terrific when
Clark can show that he's not just a Big Dumb Alien.
It's fantastic
that in this episode Lex has done something very evil that he
can't explain away as perhaps a misguided attempt at helping
people. Although, the extreme nature of the experiment on Chloe
(boy, did that look painful) makes me wonder, just how permanent
is that memory loss? What if Chloe remembers later? How will
that affect Chloe and Lana's relationship since she is still
seemingly with Chloe's kidnapper?
Lex's directly
lying about his actions to Lana is something more sinister,
as well. He isn't just covering up some shady secret program.
He's not just sidestepping the truth. He deliberately lied to
his fiancé about his involvement in the scheme and swore
on the soul of their unborn baby when he did it. That makes
me even more suspicious of what it was exactly that he's done
to her for him to swear so cavalierly like that...
The writers
produced a surprisingly good bit of TV, which wasn't what I
expected going from the official description or even the trailer
and director's cuts up on cwtv.com. The pacing was good and
the story had wonderful twists and turns, always keeping up
my interest, and even had Clark show some very intense and creative
uses of his powers. It was a very well done story.
The actors
again did a totally awesome job, probably no one more so than
Allison Mack. Chloe had a horrific episode. She went from happy
times with Lana, to being nearly run over, to being kidnapped
without realizing it, to being desperate enough to actually
ask her best friend to cut her open, then ending up knowing
that she might be a meteor freak time bomb waiting to go off.
The range
of emotions that she expertly, and heartbreakingly, displayed
was amazing. The scene between Chloe and Clark as she tried
to deal with the aftermath was probably some of her best work.
Chloe was at a total loss of what to do next. That is completely
unlike the usually decisive Chloe, she was devastated that something
about her might really go wrong and she could do nothing to
stop it. Allison played that moment of desperation perfectly.
Tom Welling
did a wonderful job as Clark. He was the very essence of Superman
in this episode. He was strong, yet quiet, while he tried to
deal with the problems he had been faced with. The scene with
Chloe where Clark had to cut her open was amazing. Clark was
scared for her but had to trust his abilities to work in an
untested way. He had to be careful or he might have jeopardized
Chloe’s life and Tom played the fear and resolved determination
flawlessly. Later, when Clark was confronted by Lana he danced
around the questions she was asking without doing any outright
lying and Tom did a perfect job portraying Clark’s affection
for Lana while also not telling her what really happened.
Kristin
Kreuk didn’t really have a lot of screen time but she did
well with what she had. The scene with Lex where Lana had asked
him about Tobias was terrific. She clearly didn't buy Lex's
lies, even though she smiled lovingly at him after he'd kissed
her cheek. The look on her face when Lana was alone and the
camera lingered for the reaction shot was amazing. Her face
went through several expressions and it was a far more complicated
response than I believe Kristin would have delivered before
this year. She is starting to really hone her craft and is getting
better at delivering more consistently solid performances each
episode.
Aaron Ashmore
did an amazing job as Jimmy. The moment when he regretted not
telling Chloe how important she was to him was terrific. Aaron
may not be doing movies like his brother, but he sure can hold
his end up in a scene. I really love how much Chloe and Jimmy
love and depend on each other. Their relationship has its ebbs
and flows, they fight sometimes yet there's never a doubt how
much they mean to each other.
Michael
Rosenbaum was a bit uneven acting wise in this episode. He did
well in the more overtly evil scenes, like when Lex was threatened
Dr. Bethany, but in the bedroom scene where he denied knowing
Tobias he came off a bit stiff. Lex is usually a better liar
than that so I think he was having problems concentrating on
all parts of his job, kind of like Tom did for “Fragile."
Maybe the next time he goes behind the camera, he’ll do
a better job at acting in the episode he’s directing.
On the directing
side of things I thought Rosenbaum did a pretty good job. The
acting was excellent in this episode across the board, so I
think Michael has a lot to be proud of there. His casting was
awesome too. Adrian Hough, who played Dr. Bethany, was creepy
personified. I think lighting and make-up helped him there,
but he was very effective in the role on top of that.
As effective
as Michael was directing the talent and getting strong performances
from them, I’m not sure he has gotten the more visual aspects
of helming down just yet. There were some oddities that got
me confused and interrupted the flow of the episode.
For example,
the tease confused me in relation to the photo that Chloe later
showed to Clark. The picture even existing with the background
it had didn’t make sense. In the tease the photo was seemingly
taken before Tobias had entered the bowling alley, because it
was only after Dan “The Man” had left Lana and Chloe
that Tobias had pointed him out to Dr. Bethany. Yet Chloe had
taken the picture before Tobias showed up... Or seemed to, anyway,
given the content and what was happening in the scene at the
time she took the photo. The bit with Tobias had to have been
inserted later in the scene than where it was originally supposed
to be.
The director’s cut that had been shown over on cwtv.com
seems to support that assumption because it showed Tobias pointing
out Dan when he was on his way over to talk to Lana and Chloe,
which is where (logically) that bit with Tobias should have
gone. The way it aired made it very confusing. At the end of
the scene they looped Lana saying she wanted Chloe to take one
more picture but t didn't sound like part of the scene. The
line had been obviously added later and didn't do near enough
to fix the continuity errors introduced when they changed the
order of events.
Also, other
scenes seemed oddly paced to me editing-wise. Cuts often seemed
abrupt and that made some scenes fell choppy. At times it was
actually jarring. None of the scenes in the house flowed well.
I think poor shot coverage from the director is to blame for
the editing problems, instead of the editor suddenly forgetting
how to edit. Maybe it wasn't Michael's fault, he could have
run out of time to do more than he did, but hopefully Michael
will learn from that and do better next time.
“Freak”
was beautifully shot by Glen Winter. I don’t know how he
does it, but somehow he can make Tom look even better than he
does because Tom was especially gorgeous in this episode. Also,
the scenes in the house were terrific. I loved how the blue
light from the electrical charge gun that Dr. Bethany was going
to kill Tobias with lit up Lana's face when Dr. Bethany pointed
it at her. I don’t know if that was practical or whether
it was a special effect, but it was a very nice, subtle look.
Overall,
I really enjoyed the episode despite some oddness with the editing
and Michael's unusually stiff acting in places. I give this
episode 4 blue light shock guns thingies out of a possible 5.
Note:
The views of Triplet don't necessarily represent the thoughts
and feelings of everyone at KryptonSite. Send
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