The Doena Journal

Deutsche Version

Over the last weeks I felt the urge to watch some Smallville episodes again and decided to do a theme: “I am an omnipotent being and have the power to show Lana who and what Clark really is, before she marries Lex.”

So I watched:

1×01 Pilot - Sets everything in motion, shows Clarks origins and his weakness to Kryptonite.
1×04 X-Ray - Clark gets x-ray vision.
1×21 Tempest, 2×01 Vortex - Lana brings Witney to the airport and gets caught in the tornados.
2×02 Heat - Clark gets heat vision.
2×03 Duplicity - Clark reveals his secret to Pete.
2×04 Red - Clark under the influence of red Kryptonite.
2×10 Skinwalker - Clark finds the caves and is told the story of “Naman”.
2×16 Fever - Martha and Clark get sick by Kryptonite spores, Martha is pregnant and a blood sample of Clark is taken.
2×17 Rosetta - Clark understands the kryptonian language and learns about Krypton and Kal-El.
2×22 Calling - Dr. Walden wants to stop “the last son” from becoming the ruler of “the third planet”.
2×23 Exodus, 3×01 Exile - Clark destroys the spaceship, Martha loses the baby, Clark goes to Metroplis under red K.
3×02 Phoenix - Clark has to clean up his mess, including the providing of another blood sample.
3×03 Extinction - Lana condemns all meteor freaks but expects Clark to confide in her.
3×10 Whisper - Clark gets super-hearing.
3×22 Covenant, 4×01 Crusade - Clark becomes Kal-El and goes on a hunt for the three stones.
4×08 Spell - Lana becomes Countess Isobel and magicks can hurt Clark.
4×11 Unsafe - Alicia returns and marries Clark under the influence of Red K.
4×12 Pariah - Alicia dies and Chloe learns Clark’s secret (partly).
4×19 Blank - Clark loses all his memories and Chloe becomes his tour guide.
4×22 Commencement, 5×01 Arrival - Clark completes the stones, builds the Fortress and Chloe learns his full secret.
5×03 Hidden - Clark dies and becomes super again.
5×11 Lockdown - Two cops hold Lana and Lex hostage to get the ship and Clark knows that his relationship with Lana is falling apart.
5×12 Reckoning - Clark tells Lana everything, proposes and then she dies.
5×22 Vessel, 6×01 Zod - Lex becomes Zod and Clark lands himself in the Phantom Zone.
6×02 Sneeze - Clark gets super-breath.
6×06 Fallout - Clark fights his first Zoner.
6×10 Hydro - Chloe is keeping everyone’s secret, Lana is pregnant and Clark has to protect Oliver’s secret.
6×11 Justice - Green Arrow (Oliver Queen), Cyborg (Victor Stone), Aquaman (Arthur “AC” Curry) , Impulse (Bart Allen), Watchtower (Chloe) and Boy Scout (Clark) fight against Lex’s project 33.1.
6×13 Crimson - Clark crashes the wedding rehearsal under the influence of red K.
6×15 Freak - Chloe is a meteor freak, too.

6×16 Promise - The wedding.

 Print This Post

Deutsche Version | Season 6

Disc 1

Bizarro

Synopsis: Clark and Bizarro-Clark are still fighting and they break the dam in the process. This nearly drowns Lois, Chloe, Lionel and Lex but all are saved one way or another. Only Chloe is declared dead in the hospital but mysteriously rises from the dead. With Bizarro, everything is in reverse mode: Kryptonite is his power source but the yellow sun is his weakness.

My Opinion: Clark defeated him a bit too easy for my taste, especially since Bizarro was just juiced up with a huge amount of Kryptonite and also because one didn’t see what the Martian Manhunter did with him. But at least there are a lot of puzzles left to be resolved, e.g. the new female arrival, Chloe’s abilities, Lex’s newfound enlightenment and Lionel’s disappearance.

Kara

Synopsis: She’s been in stasis for 18 years. Her ship lay on the bottom of the reservoir lake until it was emptied due to the battle. She is Kara, Kal-El’s cousin and also a member of the house of El. And now she has to learn that her home planet is destroyed and that Kal-El is no small child anymore. And the military has her ship and if they manage to open it, it will self-destruct with the force of a nuclear bomb.

My Opinion: Now he’s not alone anymore. I’ve only seen a few episodes of this season and I have no idea how it will turn out, but I am aware of the fact that Kara will become Supergirl in the Superman mythology.
But I hated to see how they stomped over Chloe just to push Lois. That seemed unfair.

Fierce

Synopsis: Lana’s back in town - and not so dead as she was presumed to be. Clark is more than happy to see her, but his life has also changed. He has to teach Kara how to “blend in” with the Humans and she does this by entering the “Miss Sweet Corn” beauty pageant.

My Opinion: This was a funny episode to watch. I loved the character “Kara” from the start. She’s such a good counterpart to Clark. He needs to see that there are other ways than his own (a lesson Green Arrow also tried to teach him).
But I am still missing the “theme of the season”. Since the fourth season it has always been clear from the start what the season would be about. Isobel, Zod, the Zoners. I don’t believe that it will be a “Kara season” but I have yet to see anything else coming up.

Cure

Synopsis: A FotW who should be in Belle Reve reappears in Smallville and claims to be healed. Unfortunately she can’t remember anything since the time she became infected. Chloe doesn’t see that as a story but as a means to “cure” her, too. But the doctor isn’t who he appears to be.

My Opinion: Great appearance of Dean Cain who was Clark Kent/Superman in Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman, a show that I also watched until it was cancelled.
What I didn’t like was the fact that the Martian Manhunter has become Clark’s “waste disposal”. The writers have found an easy way out of any kind of plot without needing to think about it.
Read the rest of this entry »

 Print This Post

Deutsche Version | Season 5 | Season 7

Disc 1

Zod

Synopsis: By destroying Brainiac with the kryptonian knife, Clark opened the portal for Zod. Zod has taken over Lex’s body and is now trying to conquer the world by removing its technology. And there’s no one who can stop him, because Clark was banished to the Phantom Zone.

My Opinion: This was a great conclusion to the cliffhanger, although once again it could have lasted longer. I see the problem that if Clark would have remained longer in the Phantom Zone, Zod would have caused more havoc and probably more people would have seen him, which would be devastating for Lex. But still, two or three episodes would have been cool.
I find it funny that Aaron Ashmore is playing Jimmy Olsen, while his identical twin brother Shawn has been a recurring FotW in the early seasons, yet no one seems to see the resemblance.

Sneeze

Synopsis: Clark vigorously tries to repair the damage that has been caused by Zod. But even he gets exhausted at one point and his immune system was weakened due to his stay in the Phantom Zone. Clark has catched the “common” cold and now sneezes barn doors halfway across the county.
Meanhwile Lex gets abducted because some people want to find out how he has done the things he has done while he was being possessed by Zod.

My Opinion: They skipped that episode in the last season, probably because there aren’t many abilities left and also probably because he has been human during a few episodes. When I first watched this episode I thought Oliver Queen would just be another adversary of Lex’s, just as Victoria Hardwick or Jason Teague. How wrong I was.

BTW: When Justin Hartley (Oliver) smiles, don’t you think that he has a striking resemblance to the young Ben Affleck?

Wither

Synopsis: Someone - or something - is killing a young woman near a make-out-zone and her friend has mysteriously vanished.  But then is found, but he dies at the hospital because a plant is growing out of his stomach. And this plant can hurt even Clark.

My Opinion: Instead of FotWs we will see beings from the Phantom Zone in this season. While I found this episode to be entertaining, I still think that Pa’u Zotoh Zhaan was the more interesting plant.
Read the rest of this entry »

 Print This Post

Deutsche Version | Season 4 | Season 6

Disc 1

Arrival

Synopsis: Accidentally Chloe has been transported to the Arctic where the united stones have just built the “Fortress of Solitude” for Clark. Clark is allowed to rescue her and to fight a new enemy that has arrived with the meteor shower but he has to return until sunset. Meanwhile Lana and Lex meet these newcomers.

My Opinion: Sure, they were lazy, but I still thought that it was too easy for Clark to get rid of those two(!) Kryptonians. I really would have liked a scenario where Lana wouldn’t have been knocked out and would have witnessed the entire scene (with or without Clark’s knowlegde). But maybe the writers thought it to be too soon to let yet another person in on Clark’s secret.
I wonder - if this were for real - whether Chloe and Clark have recapitulated their past, unfolding all the events where only Clark knew the whole truth, or if he told her that she already knew his secret (Rush).

Mortal

Synopsis: Three patients can escape from Belle Reve and they take Lana, Martha and Jonathan hostage. They force Clark - who has lost his powers because he disobeyed his father - to break into LuthorCorp and steal an experimental Kryptonite-based drug. In the past this wouldn’t have been much of a problem, but this time it turns out to be a good thing that he doesn’t have his powers.

My Opinion: It’s always funny to hear Clark saying, that he’s not to keen with heights. I also liked the comparison of Pete and Chloe in their role as “sidekick”.
But I also think, that the concept of “Belle Reve” and Lex’s influence there is a bit of a plot hole. Lex may not believe one particular loony in there but if he really has spoken with a few of them and promised them something and they would have told him all the same story about Clark Kent’s abilities (and there are quite a few in there that could tell such a story) then he wouldn’t need to resort to such crude investigation methods - especially when he adds his own experiences with Clark.

Hidden

Synopsis: Clark is still human and he and Lana have slept together and are very happy. Can it get any better?
In 60 minutes Smallville gets nuked and Clark lies in the hospital, dying from a gunshot wound. Can it get any worse?

My Opinion: Lionel takes up the role of Jor-El. In a weird way, Lex and Clark are now actually brothers. This episode marks the climax (pun intended) of Clark’s and Lana’s relationship. From now on it will go downhill.
What’s even more interesting about this episode, are the discussions on the internet about it. For example, people were seriously offended that he didn’t tell her about his true nature before they were sleeping together, because he is an alien. There were sentences like “If Lana were my child I would want to know that she’s sleeping with an alien.”.

Aqua

Synopsis: Lois is back in Smallville and she moves back to the farm. On a warm sunny day she, Chloe, Lana and Clark go swimming in the Crater Lake. Suddenly Lois nearly drowns and gets rescued - by Arthur “AC” Curry. AC can swim fast, even faster than Clark. But his motive to be in Smallville is not to rescue drowning girls but to save the oceans from a terrible weapon, created by LuthorCorp.

My Opinion: After the events in Arrival Lex has gone into full defense mode. It’s pretty ironic that he who wants to defend this planet from aliens will become the planet’s greatest threat by the end of the season.
I really liked the appearance of “Aquaman” and the hints they implanted in the script, especially when AC proposes the foundation of a “Junior Lifeguard Association” and Clark replies that he isn’t ready for the JLA yet.
And Tom seriously has to reshape his washboard abs, he looked pale in comparison to Alan Ritchson (AC) and he is supposed to be Superman.
Read the rest of this entry »

 Print This Post

Deutsche Version | Season 3 | Season 5

Disc 1

Crusade

Synopsis: Lois Lane comes to Smallville to find out who killed her cousin but then she finds a guy in a field who doesn’t know who he his. Jonathan Kent lies in a hospital bed and is brain-dead. Lana is still in Paris and has a new boyfriend. Lionel is still in jail, waiting for his trial. And Lex - who has survived the attempt to poison him - travels around the world to find objects that are connected to the symbols in the Kawatche cave.

My Opinion: Sorry, but that went a bit too fast. Within half an hour Kal-El was Clark again. I am sure that if the writers really wanted to, this could have been an arc that lasted at least 4 episodes, even more. Just because it was a cliffhanger doesn’t mean it has to be resolved in the very first episode of the new season.
But I like the arrival of Lois, she is refreshingly blunt. And I liked the appearance of Margot Kidder (Lois Lane in the Superman movies), especially her remark regarding Dr. Swann and a “former life”. She’s now the third person from the movies to appear in the series (Annette O’Toole [Lana Lang in Superman III, now Martha Kent] was obviously the first).

Gone

Synopsis: After they’ve found out that Chloe’s grave is empty, Clark and Lois investigate her disappearance, but there are several obstacles: For one, Lois’s father is a three-star General who doesn’t want his daughter digging into that mystery. Secondly, he is in league with Lex. And thirdly, there’s a T-1000 meteor freak who works for Lionel and wants to kill Chloe for real this time. And Lana has returned to Smallville.

My Opinion: That was a really obvious Terminator 2 rip-off, especially with the end. But I still liked it, the scenes in the Kent house were really funny. Lois’s great advantage is, that she has no history whatsoever with Clark. For her, he’s simply “Smallville”.

Facade

Synopsis: Clark is now in his senior year at high school and he’s trying out for the football team against the wishes of his father (again). The new assistant coach is none other than Lana’s new boyfriend. It’s a relationship they must keep hidden because he could get fired for it. But there’s something else that has changed: A student nicknamed “Scabby Abby” is now a real beauty but when she kisses people they get delusional and land in the hospital. While Lois is stuck at Smallville High (she needs a few additional points to get accepted to the university) she helps Chloe and Clark to investigate.

My Opinion: The bitter irony of that episode is in my opinion, that Erica Durance (Lois) has had a “boob job” because someone convinced her that she would have better chances to get a job afterwards.
That aside it was a decent FotW episode.

Devoted

Synopsis: The cheerleaders of Smallville High are using meteor rocks to create a love potion. When the football team drinks of it they all become aboulic slaves with the exception of Clark who gets ill from it. Chloe drinks from it, too, and soonafter a new cheerleading star is born.

My Opinion: This was a very funny episode, especially the parts where Chloe hits on Clark and where Clark had to pretend that we was under the love spell. I had a great time.
Read the rest of this entry »

 Print This Post

Deutsche Version | Season 2 | Season 4

Disc 1

Exile

Synopsis: Clark hides out in Metropolis under the alias “Kal” and has become a criminal in order to finance his lifestyle. The Kents have to sell the farm, they and Lana are still looking for him. There’s one person who knows where he is but she’s promised him not to reveal it. Meanwhile Lex “lives” on a tropical island with some other guy and tries to get off it.

My Opinion: Great continuation of the story. Though I haven’t understood why Jonathan and Pete didn’t try to knock him out with Kryptonite. Ok, they did that last time but that proved to be successful. I understand that using the same plot twice is uncreative, yet if it were for real I doubt that they wouldn’t have tried it again.
I also liked Michael’s performance on the island, he did a better job than Tom Hanks (What a boring movie!).

Phoenix

Synopsis: Both Clark and Lex return to Smallville and both have to deal with what happened lateley. That means that Lex has to straighten out what really happened on that plane and if his wife had anything to do with it. And Clark has to deal with a Metropolis crime boss who threatens his parents and he has to apologize to a whole lot of people.

My Opinion: It was a good conlusion to this four-parter. Unfortunately it ends with Clark’s break-up with Lana against her expressed wish and he is retreating into his shell again.
I liked to see Rutger Hauer in the role of the crime boss, if it were for me, it could have lasted longer than these two episodes but unfortunately he had to share the fate of bad guys who know Clark’s secret.

Extinction

Synopsis: A “meteor freak” attacks Lana in the school pool and a secret vigilante shoots him to death. He has killed before and his next target is Lex whom he believes to be a meteor freak, too. Clark can save Lex once again but that makes him also a target. Unfortunately the shooter has found Clark’s Achilles’ heel and he uses Kryptonite bullets.

My Opinion: I liked the theme of the episode: Are all meteor-infected people murderous freaks? If I were in Clark’s position I wouldn’t have told her (Lana) my secret either. Her point of view at the begin of the episode was quite firm and although she said that she wouldn’t mind if Clark were bullet-proof (i.e. a meteor freak), I wouldn’t be sure that she really wouldn’t mind. This topic will surface again, especially in one of the key episodes of the fourth season: Pariah.
I also liked the Eastwood-y way he protected himself from the bullets and put Lana’s mind at rest (at least for a while).

Slumber

Synopsis: Clark has the weirdest day: He somehow can fly, he skinny-dips with Lana, Lex finds out his secret and a young girl is chased by a mysteriously hooded figure in the woods and disappears into the ground. But then he awakes, after he’s been asleep for 36 hours. He learns that new neighbours have moved into Lana’s old house and that there’s a young girl in a coma.

My Opinion: I wonder what insurance company insures the Kent’s truck and what garage does the repairing. It had been in several very heavy crashes and was even blown up. Maybe they just like the brand and the colour.
I liked the episode because it had a different angle than usual.
Read the rest of this entry »

 Print This Post

Deutsche Version | Season 1 | Season 3

Disc 1

Vortex

Synopsis: Lana’s Truck is torn apart by the tornado but Clark is there to protect her. But on the day after the storm he has to go on a search for his father who has run after the reporter that wanted to disclose Clark’s secret. While they are searching for him, Chloe makes the suggestion that they should stay “just friends”.

My Opinion: This was actually a good resolution. Of course they had to find a way to silence that reporter and this way had an ironic touch. If Lex knew what secret the reporter has taken into his grave, I believe he would have killed Jonathan instead.
And when it comes to woman Clark is as sensitive as a wrecking ball.

Heat

Synopsis: The new school year has started and Lex wants to marry! And his fiancé is Clark’s new biology teacher. She’s so hot that Clark sets the silver screen on fire just by staring at it. But something isn’t right with her. She has a strange control over all men, including Lex - but not Clark.

My Opinion: A “new ability” episode. It’s always fun to see Clark learning to control it and he always can put it to good use in the same episode. But I didn’t care much for the pheromone lady, maybe because I watched a similar story recently on Stargate SG-1.

Duplicity

Synopsis: Pete finds Clark’s spaceship (that had been lost since the tornado) in a field and he wants Clark’s help to salvage it. But then someone steals the ship and Pete suspects Clark - which isn’t far from the truth because Clark and his father actually intended to steal it. Then Clark decides to reveal his secret to Pete.

My Opinion: A really good episode. I’ve been waiting for it. Clark simply needs someone he can confide to (apart from his parents) and his best friend Pete is the perfect choice. And Pete will prove that he’s worthy of that knowledge in the very next episode.
The fact that Lionel now knows of the spaceship will also lead to very interesting storylines.

Red

Synopsis: Clark buys a ruby ring for $350. But the stone isn’t ruby, it’s red Kryptonite (not yet) meteor rock. Clark loses all stoppages and becomes a badass guy. But just as the effect of green meteor rocks worsen his condition over time, so does the red one.

My Opinion: Great episode. Loved it. It rarely happens that Tom can play Clark out of character and the red Kryptonite (sorry, it’s simply easier than “meteor rock”) gives him the perfect opportunity. I don’t really worry about the end, he will save Lana’s live once or twice and they will be friends again.
But the episode reminded me of Harley Cat:

Read the rest of this entry »

 Print This Post

Deutsche Version | Season 2

I’ve never read a DC comic (or Marvel for that matter) and I’ve only watched the four “Reeve” Supermans and Superman Returns. Thus I have no idea what does or doesn’t contradict Superman mythology when I watch Smallville, which is an advantage I think.

And off we go:

Disc 1

Pilot

Synopsis: A meteor shower hits a small town in Kansas: Smallville. But with that shower a spaceship arrives and it contains a small boy that is adopted by the Kents. 12 years later. Clark Kent, Lana Lang, Chloe Sullivan and Pete Ross are freshemens on the Smallville Highschool. And Lex Luthor, son of Lionel Luthor takes over the management of the Smallville fertilizer plant. But then an accident happens where Lex nearly gets killed - if it weren’t for Clark. And a man awakes from a coma in which he had laid for twelve years.

My Opinion: I really liked the homage to the first Superman movie, when Clark missed his school bus and ran across the fields again. I also liked most of the cast from the start. I also thought it to be interesting that Clark didn’t already possess all of his abilities. But the pilot plot also introduces the scheme of the show for at least the first season: Freak-of-the-Week. But they also have some minor arcs from the beginning.

Metamorphosis

Synopsis: The story continues on the day after the Homecoming. Lex still possesses Lana’s meteor rock necklace and intends to help Clark with it. But not only Clark and Whitney are interested in Lana but also Greg. He’s stalking her until he’s stung by a swarm of meteor-infected bugs. Then he becomes dangerous and only Clark is strong enough to stop him.

My Opinion: An ordinary FotW episode. But also the first where Clark has to accept his fate: He may be the rescuer but often he won’t be able to take the credit for it. He has to conceil who he is and that will bring him in as much trouble as facing his opponents will do.

Hothead

Synopsis: The football coach uses a sauna with meteor rocks which gives him the ability to burn things at will. He is also very ambitious and wants his team to win no matter the costs. And Clark wants to join the team even against the will of his father. Meanwhile Lex’s father wants his son to fire 20% of the employees in the fertilizer plant.

My Opinion: A good father-and-son-confrontation episode but both confrontations where totally different of course. If I were to imagine Jonathan Kent’s early years I can’t help but to think of a certain Bo Duke (The Dukes of Hazzard). To watch Lex over the course of the years is also interesting because they choose to portray him as “not so bad” guy in the beginning. If he were bad from the start I don’t think it would have been that interesting. There’s one problem though: Lex is supposed to be 6 or 7 years older than the others (IIRC he was 10 when the meteors hit Smallville) and although Michael Rosenbaum (29 in 2001) is actually 5 years older than Tom Welling (24 in 2001) it doesn’t feel that way. When they both face each other they both seem very adult, but Clark is only a 16-year-old Highschool student.

X-Ray

Synopsis: After sudden flashes of headaches, Clark is able to see through things though he can’t really control it. But this new ability helps him to uncover a plot to blame Lex for a bank robbery he didn’t commit. A girl who has become a bad copy of Lana has the ability to shape-shift and she can fool everybody but Clark. Meanwhile a reporter tries to blackmail Lex with knowledge about his past in Metropolis.

My Opinion: This episode starts several things. Firstly, the tradition to introduce one new ability in every season, in this case his X-Ray vision. Secondly, Lex’s obsession with Clark that will presumably never end. And thirdly we see that he has both a past that is at least greyish and that he becomes ruthless when he’s threatened.
I doubt I would have noticed it before Buffy but that was the second time in only four episodes that had at least one scene in a cemetery.
Read the rest of this entry »

 Print This Post