About Christopher Valin
Location: Los Angeles, CA
Occupation: Teacher, writer, artist
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So Chief decides to go against orders and take down what looks like a person - but isn’t - because he considers it a dangerous monster. Sound like a typical episode of Battlestar Galactica? Guess again.
With Kara moved in with Lex, Clark realizes his only chance to save her is to go to the Fortress of Solitude and ask Jor-El for help. Trouble is, he gets hijacked by a bunch of men in black and taken down with Krypto-tasers, then put in a cage with meteor rock bars. Certainly Lex must be behind this villainous plan, right? Nope. Turns out it’s Lionel doing it for his own good, because he’s afraid Dr. Swann’s daughter is out to get him.
It’s difficult for me to find much fault in this episode, considering a number of important factors: It was a Lionel-centric episode (always among my favorites); it showed Lana very little, and didn’t focus on the Clark/Lana relationship at all; it furthered the story on a subplot that I’m beginning to find pretty interesting—the Veritas group; it did away with the amnesiac-Kara subplot - which I hated - in one fell swoop; and it guest-starred a great actor from my favorite show - Aaron Douglas of Battlestar Galactica—as Security Chief Pierce from Level 33.1. And no meteor freaks!
I feel like they practically took the advice from my review of the “Gemini” episode, where they made it oh-so-obvious that Lex had his clone-brother killed, and simply showed Lex looking at Patricia Swann’s necklace after she was shot by her own driver. Very nicely done. The hit even reminded me of something out of The Sopranos.
I also liked that Chloe got to play the hero for once, and it really wasn’t contrived like in the past. She dragged Kara up to the Fortress and demanded that Jor-El give back Kara’s memory and powers. Wow.
The Veritas thing was something I didn’t think I was going to like at all at first. The idea of a bunch of rich characters from the show, including Oliver Queen’s long-dead parents, having gotten together years ago to welcome a traveler from another planet sounded really hokey and ridiculous. But the more they get into it - and the more I think about it - having a conspiracy in place from a long time ago actually makes some sense and takes care of some of the all-too-coincidental things that have happened over the years.
Furthermore, this ep got away from the somewhat boring Lionel-as-protector story that’s been going on for much too long. For so many years, every time I thought Lionel just might be showing a tiny bit of good, he turned around and burned me over and over again. Now, I really believe it’s the other way around. Clark seems to think he hasn’t changed, but it seems like he genuinely has. It’s nice to see more than that old Luthor complexity coming back, especially since Lex has definitely gone full-blown evil.
So what didn’t I like about this episode? Believe it or not, for once there wasn’t much. I wasn’t very happy with the Patricia Swann character, but then they killed her off right away, so I can’t really complain too much.
I’ve gotten so used to criticizing this show lately that it feels weird to have just enjoyed an episode for once. But I’ll take it.
Actually, I agree for the most part, but I’m so sick of the “rogue” element to the heavy-hitters that Lex and Lionel keep hiring. Like we didn’t know from the first few moments that that dude was going to let loose and try and kill Clark.
I love the fact that in the previous episode, Chloe couldn’t get past a password prompt but yet this week was back to her usual god-like haX0r skillz.