Tim’s “Promise” Review
So, what did Tim think of “Promise”? Was it the wedding of the year or was it a big crash?
Click the jump to read the review!!!
To start with, this episode was a really intense and riveting episode. It was way better than I thought it was going to be. Everything was top-notch, writing, acting, and direction, EVERYTHING!!! It was just an amazing episode. But on with the review!
This episode began and hinted at what it would be about: Clark, Lex, and Lana and the wedding. It was all about these characters. Even the song, “You Could Be Happy”by Snow Patrol fit the mood of the scene and the feelings of these three characters. Before this season began, it was said that this would be a season of triangles (i.e. Clark/Lex/Lana, Lois/Oliver/Clark, Clark/Chloe/Jimmy etc.), and it showed that the main triangle this season and of the series, the triangle otherwise known as the “Clexana” triangle was totally the focus.
Promise was a very unique episode, as it showed everything leading up to the wedding, and is shown through the point of-views of Clark, Lex, and Lana’s on what happened before the wedding, which was nice. To add to that, these events were even shown in episode in 24/Realtime format
It starts with the dreams. Dreams on TV and Movies are always interesting to watch for me, as it helps to get into the mind and hearts of the characters onscreen. It was really effective here as it helped us to understand the fears of the characters.
It was Clark’s dream actually threw you for a loop in the beginning because in the moments before the opening credits were preparing us for the wedding, and then in the next wscshowed us a shot of them getting married in an empty chapel. Both Lex and Lana are married, an then Lex is stabbed by Clark, who claims he’s saving Lana, but then Lana says she loves Lex, and then proceeds to stab herself. This dream is one of the more interesting dreams of the three that we see onscreen, as most of the dialogue in this dream is pretty much verbatim to what happens near the end of the episode. (Interesting, huh?)
Then, a little later, we see Lex’s dream, in which he is experimenting on something that looks to be Lana’s baby, turning into almost a Phantom Zone prisoner like thing. This was kind of creepy, but it was kind of neat thing.
I think the most intrigueing dream that we saw at this point in the episode was Lana’s dream. It was the one dream that was not only a dream but also a flashback. This season we’ve been told is the season to resolve old plotholes and plotlines, and this scene signified the resolution of a plotline that has been dragged on for at least 4 seasons, the whole “when will Lana find about Clark?” It comes to head in this episode.
“Promise”, as I said earlier, benefitted greatly from the tri-perspective, showing the diferent attitudes, thought, and feelings of the main players of the wedding. (Clark, Lex, and Lana) Some episodes can be considered devoted to solely one character. But the “tri-perspective” view offered the episode to be centered on all the characters. You really felt for not just Clark, but also Lex and Lana.
The time-stamps and jumps also added to the tri-perspective, as things would catch up to a certain character’s POV and sometimes the events would overlap from POV to the next.
Another thing that some fans have been missing a little the past few seasons is “evil Lionel.” This was something that I really liked seeing. It was also awesome to see evil Lionel, also with Clark’s secret under his belt, as well. It was great to see Lionel return in typical “Luthor-fashion.” Lionel has oiften been called the “Luthor baddie of Smallville”, and the past couple of seasons, I know, fans have been craving that, and we got it!!! I liked how Lionel was so condescending on Lex for accidentally killing Lana’s doctor
Something else interesting about this episode was we got to see a little bit of Lex dabbing into more darkness. Both Lana’s doctor and Lionel noted that Lana has driven Lex into desperation, and also this comment has been backed up Smallville co-creator Miles Millar who said in an interview with Smallville Magazine that Lana’s love was literally driving Lana crazy. We got to see that, with Lex killing Lana’s doctor covering up his secret. True Luthor S.T.Y.L.E.!!!!
This also brings us back to the more darker nature of Lana’s pregnancy. What in heaven’s name is Lex doing to Lana? It is very intriguing, as this is the first time this has been mentioned since Crimson that Lana’s baby is an unnatural pregnancy. It will be interesting to see how that pans out in the future.
I, for one, thought that this was a very well-written episode of Smallville. Writers Kelly Souders and Brian Peterson have delivered us some great Smallville gems in the past such as Phoenix, Reckoning, Vessel, Arrow , and Crimson. This particular episode was no exception to that writing team’s exceptional writing, as this episode flowed very well, and what this episode lacked in the special effects, it more than made up for in the writing.
The main actors also rose up to the occasion on this episode.
Speaking of the effects, a subject about this episode that is causing much debate by fans was one of the effects. It was one thing I noticed and it caused some debate. Some people beleived it was a lack of laziness and budget. When Clark leaves the wine cellar after saving Chloe, I noted that in Lana’s perspective, there’s no effect, but in Chloe’s perspective, there is an effect. This is due to the fact that it was told in Lana’s perspective, and she saw him gone in a split0second, which I think made it cooler.
But onto the main cause of debate for this episode: the wedding itself! This is the main reason why some people may or may not have disliked this episode. Some people think that Lex shouldn’t marry Lana, because it conflicts with comic continuity. I say to them that Smallville is its own animal, and it is not a prequel, but more of a retelling of the classic origins of Superman, while putting a modern twist to it. Do I like the Lexana wedding? Eh . . . Take it or leave it for me. The wedding did not disrupt my enjoyment of Promise, let’s just put it that way. In fact, it may have heightened it a little bit, because it will leave some interesting drama between Clark, Lex, and Lana in future episodes of Smallville.
On that same note, it was interesting to see both Lana and Lex stare at Clark in different manners, as Clark is and conitnues to be a main focal point for this series. Lex stared at Clark, as if he had finally won a competition between Clark and himself, as if that was the pinnacle of their rivalry, and Lana stared at Clark, lovingly, as if pleading for him to save her from her “loveless monster-marriage.”
All in all, it was a great episode. I enjoyed it a lot more than I thought I would. It was definitely a “where do we go from here” episode. You know, sometimes in TV, you can kind of guess where a show is going. But Promise left many different paths.
RATING: 5/5
RATING:5/5
March 28th, 2007 at 9:55 am
This episode was amazing! I cried when clark was talking to lana in the church. Lana and Clark are perfect soulmate!
March 28th, 2007 at 5:40 pm
Ok did everyone totally miss the picture from the sonogram of Lana’s baby at the end of the show??!!! That was a key point no one has mentioned! Of course the pregnancy is “unnatural”…it’s CLARK’S BABY!!! The baby was the spitting image of Clark. I figure that when Lex saw this, he became enraged that the baby wasn’t his. Therefore, he waited until after the marriage to ensure he had Lana. Lex then did something (i don’t know what…i think he staged a break-in and had her tied up knowing the trauma would upset her) to cause her to be taken to the hospital. Then he paid the doctor off to make it look like she miscarried when in fact, Lex had the baby aborted while she was drugged. This was downright cruel and shows the true evil emerging in Lex. I’m so shocked that no one seemed to catch this.
April 3rd, 2007 at 8:29 pm
Okay, I have to respond to that because it’s silly. A year and a half has gone by since we were subjected to the nauseating Clana sex with Clark lying to her because he thought she’d reject him and so he lied to her to have sex. So no way it was Clark’s and thank God for that at least. The Clana sex was certainly an earlier desecration of Clark’s character but nowhere near as bad as what we got in Promise.
I’m astounded that anyone could actually say with a straight face this ep was anything other than the travesty it was and it trashed every character. Even Lana, who was certainly totally self-centered, manipulative and whiny as usual, was nontheless out of character since she has repeatedly dissed Clark, impugned his motives, made the cruelest most cutting remarks (I don’t know how I ever could have loved you!) and refused to hear anything bad about Lex though both Clark and Chloe have repeatedly tried to convince her it was a bad idea to get involved with him. She may have had some reservations but she clearly came down on the side of wanting Lex for whatever selfish or stupid reasons. Lana willingly lived with, slept with and got pregnant by Lex and never minded all the money and perks that came with it like shopping in Paris. So she wasn’t forced into marrying him in any way and it’s past time Lana Lang had to face some consequences for her actions. She is no martyr at all yet that is how she was portrayed.
The fact that she was going to LEAVE Lex a NOTE instead of having the guts to tell him face to face was simply outrageous but then she did the same thing to Whitney so I suppose we should realize she’s just that kind of nasty little girl who thinks only of herself.
Everyone else was out of character, too, especially Martha and Chloe who have been saying Clark needs to move the hell on and suddenly were turned into Lana cheerleaders who tell him he should save her from marrying a monster. Did they forget we watched the other episodes and know this is total retconning of everyone? Even Lionel, always great when he’s bad, was muddled since he had previously been a help to Clark for the most part. But he gave Lana what she deserved and forced her to do the right thing by Lex. When Lionel has to make people do the right thing and Lex, who brutally murdered a man is made to be the most sympathetic character then there is something seriously wrong with this show.
But let’s move on to the worst possible thing about the whole episode. That Clark Kent, who is such a moron he can’t see Lana for the awful person she has always been is shown making out with another man’s bride right before her wedding to the guy whose child she is carrying and further, making plans to spirit the bride away and MARRY HER, also knowing how badly THAT turned out before, then the hero’s character is trashed and he is truly stupid beyond belief. That is NOT heroic behavior and at Clark’s age he should know better. As a freshman in high school Clark had a better lock on his morals than now, apparently. That the writers thought it was okay to show this and tried to make it seem romantic is outrageous but then, I understand that they were responsible for the horror or Relic, too, in which we saw Lana’s aunt was the same kind of unfaithful girl as Lana, with Louise having an affair with TWO men and further that Lana had the nerve to say, “I know it was wrong but it was kind of romantic.” Unbelievable. No Lana, it is never romantic to cheat on husbands or boyfriends but then she has done the same thing repeatedly with always having the back-up boyfriend to run to when her actual boyfriend isn’t paying her enough attention and Lana always wants to be the center of attention.
She is exactly the same kind of selfish person on Smallville as she is in the comics and why the producers ever thought she deserved to be the love interest that Clark obsesses over to the exclusion of all else is incomprehensible because there is nothing nice about her (locking Chloe in the wine cellar to spy on Clark- she should be called out on that and so many other things). It’s simply outrageous that this angsty nonsense has been made the focal point of a show which claimed we would see the hero growing up and learning to act like the hero he should be but this puts Clark right back where he was in season one without the excuse of youth. The writers should be ashamed of themselves.
It’s too bad that the actors who try so hard have to be handed crap like this for scripts. Tom Welling is the best Clark ever and I feel truly sorry for him and everybody else who has to deal with crap like this. Promise was not romantic or sweet or anything other than a horror show. As for the style of differing viewpoints, even that was poorly done and confusing. It was the worst episode ever in this series and should be hidden away in that crypt for good.
September 12th, 2007 at 4:51 pm
Hello, nice post. Bookmark it.