Smallville: Hostage
Against my better judgment, I caved after the last ep,and watched the trailer for this one. For those that know, when I'm avoiding spoilers? I avoid them completely, as in no trailers either. The Martha-as-Red-Queen angle, I'll admit, had me extremely nervous about 'Hostage.' I have to say though, all things considered, I'm nowhere near as unhappy with it overall, as I'd earlier expected to be. In fact, I think this ep had a lot going for it - some strong Clark characterization, the return of Martha, and Perry, some terrific Clark / Martha and Lois / Perry scenes, a Chloe apology, and some terrific performances from TW, ED, CF, AM, AoT and MM. So why am I not squeeing?
I think, for one thing, for all the good in the ep, whatever bad there was? Still bothered me to the extent where I'm just not able to be in a place to appreciate the ep fully. And secondly, there's hints of things to come in the finale, that still disturb me, so I can't quite shake that nagging feeling away.
But I don't want to take away from all the elements of the ep that did work for me, so I'll start with those - the top of my list of course, which is Clark. Not only was TW absolutely terrific (he is a master at the fine art of subtlety and conveying much with just one look) but Clark' character too, was actually, in many ways, shown a great deal of respect by the writers, which is so refreshing. It was great to see, first up, right off the bat that Clark' search for the Book of Rao was front and centre. And as it should be, considering the stakes. It was nice to see that despite Vala' protestation to the contrary, it seems she really does believe Clark didn;t kill her sister. I appreciated that little nod, because it makes me hopeful that at least she might still defect to Clark' side in the next one. Coming to the Martha and Perry scenes, I loved that in his interactions with them, we were able to firstly, at times, not only get some much needed insight in to Clark, but we also saw a Clark that was incredibly mature, given all the craziness around him. His scenes with Martha were so touching, for so many reasons, but a good deal of that had to do with their common, shared rememberance of the most important man to them both - Jonathon. Clark telling Martha, "I think about him everyday" was an acknowledgment, in that moment, he really only could have made to his mother. I like to think these were much needed conversations for Clark, at this point in his life and that's why I appreciated them even more so. I adored moreover, how he was able to hear how proud his mother was of him - there's a beauty in the simplicity of the moment wherein Martha tells him that, but it's real, and believable and the actors share such lovely chemistry that it only adds to the moment, even more. In his porch scene with Perry, meanwhile, Clark is cautious but never standoffish, and never once intimates that he'd ever come in the way of anything. He realizes that's not his place and clearly his mothers happiness means more than anything, but at the same time, when asked, he sees fit to be suitably honest, but gentle, in telling Perry where Martha' answer might eventually lie. What I love most about that scene, however, is the fact that Clark' positive inflience on Perry from back in S3, is acknowledged. So many times Clark' infouence on others is whitewashed, or retconned, that I really appreciated this. The Red Queen angle, again, much as I inherently still have a problem with it, I have to admit, the reveal was handled very well in the final Clark / Martha scene. I appreciate so much, for one thing, that Clark was allowed to come to the conclusion of who the RQ was - all on his own. The scene, moreover, worked so well, because the love shone through - at each and every single beat and dialogue. Both Martha and Clark were sincere, open and laid it out for the other - despite the murkiness of what's at play, the emotions and instincts were all undeniably pure here. I felt Clark also shone in the Chlark scene because honestly? As much as it pained me to hear him once again tell Chloe about how heroic and awesome she was, there was never any other reaction I ever expected from him, wrt a Chloe apology, than for him to completely accept and embrace her. That's who Clark is, and it stayed true to his character.
While I'll get to what issues I have with Martha as RQ, on the whole, I couldn't be more pleased with her in this one. Contrary to my initial gut reaction of "OMG, what?!" to the notion of her and Perrry being together - I actually love how it was all prsented here. Martha becoming a senator, rushed as it seemed at the time, was even, finally in fact, in this ep elaborated on. Jonathon' loss was one of immense magnitude. Their relationship, after all, was always one of the pillars of the show. This was no ordinary love. For Martha to assiciate the farm with everything Jonathon, and her need to pull away to an extent, and throw herself in to something else, made a tremendous amount of sense to me. And how heartbreakingly portrayed were those scenes of Martha wistfully looking at Jomathon' toolshed, or watching Perry in his jacket? AoT was simply amazing. Martha' love for Clark, that wonderful, glorious maternal love, came shining through and in the little things, it's sometimes even more great to see. As was the case where she's telling Clark she sleeps better knowing he has someone in his life. That was an incredibly awww inducing moment, for me. Coming to her being the RQ, again, my problems with it a little later, but color me surprised - the reasoning behind it all? Actually really worked for me. Of course Martha would have come to get an inkling of all the shady goings on - her being in politics therefore, was really the ideal set up for this. And so of course she can't stand by and do nothing. For her to protect Clark makes perfect sense - more sense than it does actually as opposed to when other characrers`randomly start spewing it.
MM as Perry White is perfection. He fired on all cylinders in S3 and he repeats a bravura performance here too. His scenes with Lois were truly some of the highlights of not only the ep, but the whole season, I'd say.
And speaking of Lois, this is where I start getting in to the mixed bag territory of the ep. In some ways, this was a great ep for Lois, and in some ways, horrible. The good, for me, all lies in her scenes with Perry. Aided by some great chemistry, these two together on a story, just felt right. It all worked for me, and dare I use the word, but it really did feel iconic. Lois' ambition and doggedness wrt her career as a reporter is one of her strongest attributes, and this was nicely reflected here. Her unrelenting tenacity to connect the dots and get right to the bottom of it, was so refreshing, and her joy on seeing her and Clark had been re-hired was a further nice little nod to the place journalism (should) take in her life. Her and Perry meanwhile shared some terrific lines, and I especially got a kick out of stuff like "great ceasar' ghost" and "chief." ED was on song, all through these scenes. While all this was great, I thought the Lois / Martha scene was a bit off. The two actors were still as wonderful together in their chemistry as always, but the some of the dialogue was rather WTF-worthy for me. Also, I have severe issues with how Clois was handled in this one, and a lot of it, I feel reflects none too kindly on Lois, unfortunately.
First of all, why she ever thought it'd be a good idea to announce her relationship problems on a dinner table with guests right there? Is beyond me. And then the reasoning behinfdsaid break up? Even more annoyingly preposterous, and ridiculously contrived. We've seen all the way from S8 now, I'd even argue the middle of S7 onwards, jut how much first gradually and then prominently, Clark has come to mean to Lois. She's unequivocally stated he is "it" for her. And then here, they hit a little bit of a rough end, and that's it? She calls it quits? I think not only is that a disservice to Lois' character, but to the Clois relationship too, which, for all their problems about the secret and etc, has IMO been one of the better handled aspects this season. Moreover, there's this warped supposed modern feminine ideal at play here that one has to choose beyween pursuing a relationship or a career. This is, again, so ridiculously contrived, because all this nonsense of "higher calling" etc has only in the last two eps been drummed out to ad nauseum to help preciptate the Clois breakup. Because clearly, before this, Lois was effectively proving in the happiness and contentment in not only her relationship, but also her career, that one can indeed have both. That's why her breakup with Clark felt unnecessarily harsh, to me.
On to another mixed bag aspect - the Chloe apology. Well, we got one, so for starters, that's somethung, I suppoe. An actual admission of guilt and wrongdoing. I was completely not expecting that, so I am greateful we finally got something from Chloe. And moreover that for a change, it felt real and sincere. But my reaction, ultimately, is that's it? I keep going back to all the issues I've had with Chloe' character since 'Eternal' now, all the way up to this season, and I can't help but think, 'too little, too late.' Atleast for me. This has certainly elevated my tolerance and respect for Chloe a bit more, and I find I'll be able to definitely handle her scenes a whole lot better now, but I still can't imagine Chlark going back to how they were. And a part if me is not so sure I even want that anymore.
CF was awesome, once again, but wow, Tess really is having the most awful time, isn't she. I did like how her scenes were initially all filmed a bit differebtly, and with the twist, finally, it made sene as to why. And kudos to Tess for figuring it out, but this leads me in to my problems with Martha-as-RQ.
As much as I am on board with her reasonings for it all, and as much as I think in many ways her character has precedence for a certain ends-justify-the-means approach, the fact that Tess was so brutally tortueed, if only in her mind even - all at Martha' behest, didn't sit comfortably with me. Secondly, no matter whst the precedence, a part of me wishes TPTB had kept this one character, in Clark' life, who wouldn't fall to the party line of "doing everything to protect him." Ironically though, like I mentioned before, this is the one chracter I can actually believe. Go figure.
Maxwell Lord wasn't used terribly effectively here. I don't get it - is it a set up for more presence next season?
Also, the note Lois receives at the end is clearly from Zod, yes? I hope Lois is smart enough to recall her last conversation with the Blur.
This ep, in many ways, focused on a central theme of finding one's higher purpose in life, and this involved to varying degrees almost all the characters - Perry, Martha, Lois, Chloe, even Tess. For certain characters and their story, the insertion of this theme worked, for others it was more half baked.
In an ideal scenario, for me anyways, we'd get Clark realizing how his inability to tell Lois the truth thus far, has really come to a head - and he'd proceed to come clean with her. We'd also get several of the Kandorians choosing to stand by Clark. We'd get Tess' eventual role in all of this a bit more cleared up, and we'd see a clear Clark Kent-emerges-victorious moment. However, aside from maybe one of these things, I don't see anything else going my way. And so unfortunately, I'm still as nervous about the finale, as ever.