Smallville 10x01 Lazarus
I liked it better than last season's premiere - if only because there felt like there was a lot more Clark in this one, but I didn't love it. And I think, this could be in part due to the fact that anything was bound to be disappointing after the near flawless, 'Salvation.'
What I think also hurt this ep is that the writers seemed to take some of the most unique and special elements of 'Salvation', such as Clark revealing his identity to Lois through that beautiful kiss, and Clark' gutwrenching heroism, and basically did their best to null and void them here. And herein lies the two biggest problems I had with the ep.
I can only hope that the writers will see better sense and shift the Clois dynamic, and shift it soon, because I don't think I have much patience for a continued bout of this, IMO, nonsense. We have two people, clearly in love, with really absolutely no room now for any kind of secrets between them, especially after Clark chose to reveal all with the kiss last finale, and all of this was really the perfect set up to do justice to the strength of their relationship and just have it all out in the open. Maybe have had a final Clois scene right before the Jonathon one, or right after where they just talked, or led the way in to the talk, y'know? Open honesty, for once. Wouldn't that have been refreshing and unique? At least far more unique than the scenario that's currently given to them, which is effectively a retread / slight variation on Chloe post 'Pariah', and Lana post 'Promise.' Both held on to Clark' secret protectively, and secretly nudged him on. And this is sort of very similar to where Lois is at in this ep, and so this is why her "go get 'em's" didn't resonate all that much with me, because I feel like we've seen it all before. I would've much preferred Clois being treated uniquely, especially given they had the ideal foundation for it. I also don't like how this dynamic basically does neither Clark, nor Lois, as characters, any favors whatsoever. In fact it kinda takes them for idiots, to be honest. Why would Lois run away immediately after pulling the dagger from Clark? Why would she not say anything to Clark in the DP scene? And even worse is Clark, who just comes off as an utter fool in that scene. And Lois gushing about the kiss with the Blur, I get, was supposed to be cute and funny and ironic and in a way a callback to 'Hydro', but it seems like in an effort to be all cutesy, the writers forgot this very thing had started to become somewhat of a problem in the Clois relationship last season. Yes, I realize Clark knows he's the Blur, and Lois knows too, but neither knows the other is aware, so it just seemed a bit wierd in context of their argument/confrontation in 'Charade', whatwith Clark' "am I not enough?" sentiment. All round, poor show on the Clois front, and Lois leaving without a proper goodbye to Clark just made it worse. I know she has, or at least thinks she has good reason for doing so, and she also probably thought it was best to do so without any teary goodbyes, but it still seemed a bit cold to me, coming from Clark' perspective. And I felt for him in that scene, though I would've felt a lot more if I didn't feel like smacking him upside the head for not coming clean to her in the first place. I am desperately hoping for the Clois dynamic to change soon, because I like them, and want to continue doing so, especially in the final season.
The other inexplicable part of the ep was the whole BS dialogue about Clark suddenly being the proudest prouder who ever prouded. I mean, what? It all seemed to literally come out of nowhere. Some of what clone!Lex was babbling was just completely non-sensical, which I suppose I can even forgive, because it was clearly unstable, but the Jor-El stuff was just off the charts ridiculous. Especially given who was sprouting this nonsense - I mean, Jor-El, talking about endangering lives? ::snort:: That's rich. The writers really do have collective amnesia when it comes to him, don't they? Hate. And don't even get me started on him hijacking The Suit. More hate.
What only made me still tolerate this part of the ep more than the wierdness of the Clois stuff was that at least for every hateful attempt at diminishing Clark, there seemed to be an attempt at positive reaffirmation too. Like right after the clone!Lex stuff, there was the DP globe save and the crowd cheering him on. And similarly, straight after the crazy of the Fortress scene was the loveliness of the Jonathon scene.
Which, btw, hands down, my favorite scene of the ep. I really don't have a bad word word to say about it, even if I went searching for one, because it was so the tonic I think we the audience needed at that point too, and not just Clark. Both TW and JS were so, so good, and the dialogue, which I thought was very uneven, at times downright silly in other parts of the ep, worked remarkably, and realistically well here. Clark' "I missed you" was so heart wrenchingly believable. And for every moment of self doubt, Jonathon knew exactly what to say, and none of it seemed like mere platitudes to me. For as problematic as Jonathon' character could sometimes be, I never doubted the depth of hs love for his son and that came shining through here. I loved the simplicity, but effectiveness of his "you are so much more than that. And I am so proud of you." And "you've sacrificed more than anybody" - thank God someone acknowledged this, finally. And the forehead kiss - really, everything was aww inducing, and not remotely in the cringetworthy, saccharine sweet way. Loved it.
Moving on to other things. The first Chlark scene was and their reunion, was extremely meh. I can understand Chloe was understandeably upset about Oliver, but it was all so, "eh, you're back. Well, that's nice," Such little warmth in that scene. I thought their second scene was considerably better - there was warmth and emotion from Clark' side and a little of the old stuff from Chloe' side too.
Chloe sacrificing herself for Oliver - that's going to turn out well, isn't it? As far as Ollie is concerned, two scenes in and he didn't annoy me at all. Off to a much, much better start with him than last year, heh.
Aside from the Jonathon / Clark scene, the other aspect of the ep I found myself intrigued by was the Tess / clones stuff. The idea of Lex using these clones to attempt to heal himself seems believable to me and provides a decent set up for the real Lex to re-emerge, should MR choose to reprise his role. The scene with Tess discovering the clones was creepy as hell, and clone!Alexander stating, "not all of us turned out OK" and "that's where we keep the bad one" was very effective. Speaking of the "bad one", I thought it was interesting that the clones seemed to have different facets of Lex' personality and character and that's sort of reflective of the multi-facetedness of Lex himself. Tess taking in clone!Akexander with such protectiveness was also interesting because it almost seemed as if she's approaching this as another chance, her second chance perhaps? In some way. Or at least, that's the vibe I got. Whatever it was, it's a storyline I'm curious about.
Always good to see Emil. And I always welcome any scene of the sun's healing effect on Clark. Also liked the beginning of the DP scene with Lois going through the old Torch articles - that was a nice touch. I also find it interesting that in his afterlife!dreamlike state, Clark chose to think of the cornfield, that moment, and of course, Lex.
WTF's included the convenient glossing over of the Book of Rao. And Chloe' Dr. Fate mask just coming right off by itself, appaerently.
The set up of this seasons villain, whatwith all the "darkness" talk plus the clone!Lex storyline and his possible involvement in it eventually, and also the knowledge of a certain upcoming guest star, does seem to carry the potential of an interesting build up. I hope it delivers. As does the rest of the season, because this was ultimately a rather underwhelming start.