"Splinter" Review!
Written by Triplet

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NOTE: Spoilers are revealed in this review! If you haven't seen this episode, but don't want to spoiled, go watch it now before you read further or I can’t be held responsible.

Relatively Brief Recap:

Clark visits Lana to find that Lex has sent her a gift, a strange meteor rock which pricks Clark’s finger. Confused by this, he leaves and heads back to Smallville. He is run off the road by a truck with blacked out windows. Clark gets a call from someone who says ominously “I know who you are.”

Clark tells his parents what happened with the truck and the phone call, thinking someone has discovered his secret. Clark tells Fine (Special Guest James Marsters) about the truck and Fine gives him the license plate number. Chloe finds that the plate number doesn’t exist. Lex denies sending Lana the silver meteor but shows her the ship, asking for her help in opening it. Lionel wants to help Jonathan beat Lex in his State Senate run. Clark sees Lionel give Jonathan money and tell Jonathan he wants to experiment on Clark.

Clark confronts Jonathan about Lionel but runs off after Chloe tries to subdue him with kryptonite. Chloe tells them about the Silver Kryptonite. Clark tells Lana to not believe anything anyone says about him and that she‘s the only person he can trust. Chloe tells Lana about Clark’s growing paranoia and that it was the meteor rock that‘s causing Clark‘s illness.

Lana confronts Lex about the meteor rock but he denies even seeing it before. Lana tells him about Clark’s paranoia and apologizes for not trusting him. Clark watches them kiss and becomes jealous.

Clark confronts Lex and Lana. He breaks Lex’s wrist and comes close to killing Lana. Fine stops Clark from killing Lana because he says it would destroy him if he hurt her. Fine says he’s a Kryptonian too and uses something like a monstrously huge syringe to remove the splinter from Clark. Clark comes to his senses and is devastated by what he did.

Clark makes up with Lana but she doesn’t admit that her conversation with Lex about a spaceship was real. Chloe says that she would die before revealing Clark’s secret. Lionel tells Lex that Lana will never love him. Fine and Clark talk about the duplicitous nature of humanity. Fine thinks Clark needs to trust his own people more than he trusts humans. Clarks says he can trust the people that love him. Fine is skeptical and says that Clark knows where to find him when he’s ready to face the truth about humans.

Review

I had been expecting a great episode and I wasn’t disappointed.

When I’d read about the episode and seen the trailer, I’d imagined a more drastic and sudden change in Clark but Tom and helmer James Marshall successfully created a gradual build to Clark’s paranoia.

And Tom Welling was a revelation as the paranoid Clark.

Probably the biggest risk of doing an episode like this would be the actor presenting an over the top performance. But not only was Tom’s performance NOT over the top, it was remarkably subtle and nuanced at times. He was especially effective during Clark’s scenes with Fine, Lex, and Lana. Tom Welling has avoided playing “crazy Clark” too broadly. His jittery nervousness in the third and fourth acts was spot on for someone with Paranoia. Clark’s hurt, fear and anger as he realizes that Lana maybe isn’t as trustworthy as he thought was amazingly well played by Tom; it was heart wrenching to watch. Tom’s Clark was downright scary when he was stalking Lex and Lana, by the way. He’d never really played that before and Tom Welling did that perfectly.

The supporting players all brought in their A games to boot, with the possible exception of Kristin Kreuk. Lana seemed to be all over the map, motivation-wise. However, the character arc for Lana in this episode was probably the weakest part of it, so maybe the problems she had in this episode weren’t all her fault. Lana’s mantra of “Just tell me the truth, <fill-in-the-blank>” is getting way old and I’m very sorry they trotted that old crutch out.

Have I said lately how much I love Marsters as Brainiac?

He is just evil incarnate and is so likeable at the same time yet Marsters pulls that duality off brilliantly. He adds so many layers to the already well-written lines, it‘s an absolute joy to watch him work. I can’t wait for next week’s episode!

Michael Rosenbaum’s Lex is turning on a hook. His devastation when Lionel jabbed at him about the impossibility of Lana ever loving him was amazing to watch. The truth of what Lionel said was so biting.

Allison Mack was fantastic, even without a whole lot of screen time. Her shocked realization when she discovers he thinks she betrayed him was amazing.

John Glover’s Lionel is always a joy to watch so I love it when he makes appearances on the show. His spelling out to Lex that Lana will never love him because she knows him was devastating to Lex and yet he delivered that line so matter-of-factly… It was beautifully evil.

Scribe Steven S. DeKnight has penned a very successful episode. The pacing was well done and the tension kept on building. Also, the act break cliff-hangers were terrific and kept me on the edge of my seat. I’m not totally sure what Fine’s motivations were for fooling with Clark’s mind, but I gotta love the creativity behind it. And Fine’s own duplicity with Clark even as he condemns humanity for its penchant for betraying people was brilliantly evil.

Director James Marshall never disappoints and he created a great episode. And was that Michael Rosenbaum’s voice as the ominous caller on Clark’s cell phone? If so, that’s a great attention to detail.

DP Barry Donlevy filmed yet another gorgeous episode. I especially loved how creepy the scene the mansion was when Lex was looking for Clark. Dark scenes often lose any sense of depth and end up just being dark, but Donlevy still kept some color in the scene. It was beautifully shot.

Actually when the lights went out and Lex was out there creeping around looking for a crazy Superman, I think I forgot to breathe…

Hair and make-up even outdid themselves. By the end Clark looked truly nuts and physically stressed. For someone as gorgeous as Tom Welling, that‘s probably a pretty neat trick.

This was a wonderful episode.

I give this 4.5 silver kryptonite splinters out of a possible 5.

Note: The views of Triplet don't necessarily represent the thoughts and feelings of everyone at KryptonSite. Send her feedback

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