Starkville’s House of El Podcast

So, what did Tim think of “Freak”? Was it a freak of the week episode or not?

Click here to read his review!

This episode was a good one. Michael Rosenbaum directed it really well. I would love to see him direct again. It was very well directed. It was a welcome surprise to see Rosenbaum’s directorial skills. We all know that he has a vast talent as an actor as we have seen him act beautifully as Lex Luthor these past five-and-a-half years, and now we have seen him direct an episode just as beautifully. It was a wonderful episode, and I hope he’s allowed to direct another next season. I’ll say that right off.

The premise was really good, as well, which was basically (and I hope everyone reading this knows this) that a blind kid named Tobias, who was blinded in the second meteor shower, was being used by Lex Luthor to hunt down “meteor-freaks” for 33.1 experiments.

I also have to speak a few words about the special effects in “Freak.” They were top-notch. Better than some we have seen. The “freak-dar” vision that Tobias used when he was locating meteor-freaks was well-done. Even the FX used for Clark’s superpowers in tonight’s show were amazing (and he used almost every superpower in his arsenal in this episode).

I believe that “Freak”was a good episode to leave us off for the next part of the season. I thought Tobias’ ability was really cool and very unique. I think Greyston Holt played the character of Tobias fairly well. He was one of those meteor-freaks who, when he got powers, didn’t have an insatiable desire to kill, or be a villain. In fact, most of the meteor-freaks in tonight’s episode were meteor-freaks who had powers, but didnt’t use them for evil, which is always interesting when those kinds of meteor freaks come to the show (however infrequent they are). While I was watching Smallville tonight however, I kept thinking how awesome it would be if Tobias had skipped out on the cornea transplant he gets at the end of the episode, and go to NYC or Las Vegas and meet up with the Heroes crew. Because I think if a character with Tobias’ similar powers was on Heroes, it would be interesting. But anyways, I digress . . . .

The episode tonight really moved the character of Lana forward a lot. Her encounter with Tobias was really good, as she believes as everyone who stumbles upon Clark’s secret does: that Clark Kent has powers due to meteor-rock exposure. But Tobias points out that Clark is not infected, which totally throws her off, as she knows she saw Clark use some sort of ability to repel that chisel a couple o’ episodes back. I think she’ll know the whole truth fairly soon, or maybe theyll do to her what they did to Chloe, and introduce Clark’s secret to a character mid-season and introdice Clark’s alien origins til the next premiere. But who knows what;ll happen with that? I guess we’ll just have to watch. Also, her trust of Lex is deteriorating (and right before the wedding too!). She no longer sees Lex as this stalwart, truthful guy anymore. I think she will also learn the truth about Lex, as well. The truth of his dark side, of course. This season has been a real good season for Lana, as her character has grown immensely, and I think Kristin Kreuk has been playing it off magnificently.

This was also a great episode for Chloe. “Freak” was so aptly named as a double-meaning, talking about the meteor-freaks captured but also revealed something very interesting about Chloe that we probably weren’t expecting. I didn’t. In fact, had I not seen a trailer from last week, it would have totally thrown me. I mean, I know most of us were expecting Tobias’ shocking revelation to Lana to be something along the lines of Clark being an alien (something we already knew but it would have been a shock to Lana) or that Lana’s baby was meteor-infected. But the twist of the episode was that Chloe Sullivan was in fact a meteor freak, whose powers have not yet surfaced. This is an interesting aspect to her character, furtherly tying her to the Smallville mythos, This perplexes me because as we know from past episodes, Chloe moved to Smallville a long time after the first meteor shower, and Chloe was under the cover of the Kawatche caves while meteors were falling all around Smallville in the second meteor-shower. But I guess time and future episodes will tell us why and how Chloe is a meteor-freak. Especially an upcoming episode that will feature Chloe’s mom.

Another thing I liked about tonight’s show was (and I have mentioned this earlier but I want to hit on it again) that Clark used every superpower in his arsenal! Well, almost, I guess, except flight/superjump, but the situation that Clark found himself in didn’t really call for it. But it was really cool to see these powers in usage, especially the superbreath which hasn’t been used since its inception in “Sneeze.” So that a very nice touch.

“Freak” also continued to further the 33.1 storyline. Apparently, Lex is continuing to run his experiments on meteor-freaks. It will be interesting to see where the writers of Smallville decide to go with this 33.1 storyline. I for one am excited to see where it will go, and how it play out in the final episodes of the season.

As I stated earlier, “Freak” was very well directed. The actors were very well directed. When Chloe discovers she’s a meteor-freak in the episode, she acted so very hurt, and vulnerable. Allison Mack played Chloe that way to perfection. Her acting keeps increasing on this show. After this show ends its run, Allison Mack will have quite a career in front of her. There is no doubt to that.

“Freak” was also a very well-written episode. This episode was written by the writing team of Todd Slavkin and Darren Schwimmer. This was an episode that moved some of our characters forward in the direction that we want them to go. So I was very pleased with it. For most it of when Lana was involved, she was protecting Clark, which was very interesting too, and I enjoyed immensely, as she seems to be becoming a little bit like the Lana Lang that we all know and love. Lex was also moving closer and closer to the character we know him to be (as he does every episode.), during his continual 33.1 experiments and research.

The only gripe I really have with the episode was Jimmy Olsen. In past episodes that he’s been in in this part of the season (Hydro, Crimson, and Trespass), he was very well-written. But in this episode, I did not like him too much. That’s all I’m going to say about that, though.

But, all-in-all, this was a very good and entertaining episode to watch, and it continues to prove to me that this sixth season of Smallville is definitely the best. And this episode was no exception. So, I hope all of you enjoyed it as much as I did.

RATING: 4/5

This entry was posted on Sunday, February 18th, 2007 at 10:35 pm and is filed under News, Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.