Starkville’s House of El Podcast

So what did Tim think of “Nemesis”?

Click the jump to find out.

WARNING: Here there be spoilers!!!!

WOW!!! What an episode of Smallville that was on so many fronts. I was real excited to watch this episode because of what was going to go on between our two integral main characters (Clark Kent and Lex Luthor), but when I finished with it, I realized it was good for sooo many reasons.

But on with the review!!!

Nemesis was written by Caroline Dries. Not exactly as mush a veteran as DeKnight, but still a pretty seasoned veteran writer when it comes to Smallville. She has previously written one of my favorite episodes last season. That episode being “Oracle.” So it was definitely a very well-written episode, with all the foreshadowing with Lana and Lionel and all the resolution of Clark and Lex’s friendship.

The episode was directed by a new director to come onto Smallville by the name of Mairzee Almas. He or she really directed the acting efforts of all involved very well, I believe. Nemesis also seemed to be lighted a little darker. I don’t know if anyone knows any art lingo, but there is a drawing style called chiaro-scurro (if I spelled that wrong, please let me know), which is a mixture of light and dark. The way the episode was lit reminded me of that kind of drawing style, as everyone and everything seemed to be lit a little darker than usual. Possibly to match the dark tones in the episode.

This episode was very dark on many fronts as awesome as it was. First we shall speak on the Clark and Lex front. For the past five and a half seasons we have watched the Clark and Lex friendship decline from great friendship to a rivalry between these two iconic characters. Truly their friendship was “the stuff of legend.”

I always love the interraction that goes on between Clark and Lex. Clark and Lex’s relationship has always been the most interesting of the many relationships on Smallville. I have always loved watching these characters work together and be friends even though we all know that that friendship is bound to be split up in the series’ future. It was very interesting to see Clark and Lex have somewhat of a rational conversation/confrontation.

I am also glad that we got to see a confrontation between Clark and Lex that was very similar to the one at the end of season 5 (which to this day remains one of my favorite scenes in the series), but the thing was the only one who remembered it was Clark. So I thought that it was good that Clark and Lex had a confrontation that

Another reason I think Clark and Lex have a very interesting relationsip is the point-of-views of why the friendship ended. From Clark’s point-of-view, it was Lex’s fault. He kept investigating into everything surrounding him, took his girlfriend, always wanted everything he had , etc. , etc. From Lex’s point-of-view, it was Clark’s fault. Clark never told him the truth about who he was, always kept secrets, saw Lex as his nemesis etc. So whose fault was it really? It still remains a mystery. Or maybe it truly was a friendship that was “doomed from the beginning.”

I think something that was very well-executed in this cave that we rarely see in any form of the Superman is Clark pushing through the Kryptonite to move forward through the labyrinth that was this underground cave tunnels. I think Tom Welling acting like he was going to die while climbing through this tunnel laced with Kryptonite was superb. It wasd the best I’ve ever seen this kind of thing done. They did something similar to this in Superman Returns but I just didn’t believe it as much as I believed it in Nemesis.

I think Michael Rosenbaum also acted very well in this episode. Rosenbaum was very reserved and very open to Clark at the same time. Michael Rosnebaum has brought so many things to the Lex Luthor character in the five and a half years this show has been on. But Lex spoke to Clark and told him that he was doing some kind of H20 irrigation system, and Clark actually beleuved him with all the plans and such that Clark came onto. I also think when Clark was looking over the plans, with the way it was acted, the way Clark was positioned, just reminded me of so many instances in the comics when Superman thinks he’s thwarted Luthor in aplan, he simply slips it under the rug. Lex did this in this episode as well with his “Prototype,” by putting out his plans and such. I thought it was just classic Luthor.

This episode also saw a resolution of sorts with the charcater of Lionel Luthor. This was an intrigueing thing in the episode for me. Ever since Zod, I have been watching Lionel very closely (which has been kind of difficult I guess, since he’s only been in nine episodes thus far this season) to see what he has been up to. I had not really given a certain vote as to whether Lionel was good or evil. That is the masterful thing about the character of Lionel Luthor and even the way John Glover plays it is that you never quite know what he is up to. I think this season Lionel has been more of an enigma. I mean when we last saw Lionel in Promise, I thought he was back to his evil ways that he was doin in season 3, when he forced Lana to marry Lex or he will kill Clark. But he totally threw me off in this episode when he said he was protecting Clark. It is very possible that he could still retian his memories from when he was Jor-El’s oracle and knows what his destiny is and thinks he’s protecting Clark from Lana, knowing Lana is not Clark’s destiny. Very interesting aspect of the episode . . .

Another thing that was sort of resolved in regards to Lionel was the Martha/Lionel (Mionel) relationship. Now ever since season two, there has been no question as to whether Lionel Many people have speculated as to whether Martha felt the same way about Lionel. I am glad that Martha does not feel the same way about Lionel; that he views Lionel as sort of a snake, trusts him but not entirely, knowing what Lionel is capable of as a Luthor.

Something interesting that I was not expecting was Lana’s character in this episode. I think a lot of us (myself included) were intrigued to see where Lana would go from the point we left her in Progeny last week after learning Lex had faked her pregnancy. I loved Lana manipulating everybody from Lionel to the local Smallville police officers, and even Lex. She seemed to be pulling on everybody’s strings like a true puppet mistress. I am looking forward to seeing her character progress to the end of the series. Shall be interesting, indeed.

I love episode 19’s of a series, because it seems at that point is where they start building and putting everything where it needs to be for the finale. Nemesis did that in spades. It seems like at every turn they were settin something up for our finale. Some of them were to what Project: Ares. I have a sinkin feelin that this Project Ares has been what Lex has been tryin to build for all these years he’s had Level 33.1 in Luthorcorp. I can’t wait to see what he does with Project Ares. One aspect of Ares that was interesting was the DVD that showed a video of people being almost eaten alive by the final Phantkom (which I don’t know if anyone noticed but that was the phantom at the end of Zod).

But all-in-all I thought was a very well-executed episode on so many aspects (acting, direction,pace, and eveything else that goes into a Smallville episode). Everything was spot on. I loved wtaching it. It definitely had me on the edge of my seat the whole way. I cannot wait to see how the rest of the season plays out. This definitely been my favorite season of the show thus far.

RATING: 5/5

This entry was posted on Friday, May 4th, 2007 at 1:45 am 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.