Starkville’s House of El Podcast

What did Tim think of Smallville’s return episode, “Persona”?

Click on the jump to find out.

Wow. I think that’s all I can say to sum up my feelings about this episode at this time. It was an amazing hour of television that I had the privilege to watch. I was on the edge of my seat the whole time, just waiting to see what was going to happen next.

I think one thing I liked about this episode was, of course, Brainiac. I have not, as of yet, expressed my feelings about Brainiac in review form. I thought Brainiac was a welcome addition to season five, and contributed highly to my liking of that season. I do believe however that Brainiac’s return was a long-time coming, but I digress. I think James Marsters plays this role beautifully and elegantly. He plays the role with such robotic precision that you believe that this man was once the most powerful, intelligent, and deadly computer on Krypton. It was a pleasure to have him back, and he was at the centerfold once again. For most of season 5, he was the ultimate puppet-master, pulling all the strings so that his master, Zod, could be released. He was doing this again this season so that either Clark or his doppelganger could lead him to his maker.

Now, as much as I love Brainiac on this show, the one issue I always had when contemplating his return to the series, was what story he would fit himself in. Obviously, his arc throughout the whole of the episode was to find Dax-Ur so that he can regenerate. He found Dax-Ur, so what now? Is he completely generated through the use of Dax-Ur’s brain, or what? Once he is regenerated, what will Brainiac’s new mission be? Only time will tell . . . (Something we don’t have too much of this season . . .)

A lot of this episode is just dealing with the repercussions of the last 2 episodes. One of those is Bizarro’s return, Grant being a clone of Julian, Lex buying the Daily Planet etc. So this episode really felt like a conclusion to the arcs that almost began in Blue. Maybe that’s why I like it so much.

Another thing I liked about this episode was Bizarro’s return to form. Now, technically, Bizarro returned in Gemini, but we really didn’t know it was Bizarro at the time. But one thing I can say about Bizarro is that he is really awesome to watch onscreen, especially when he’s interacting with Clark. You can really tell that there is a difference between these two characters, and that’s all due to the wonderful acting of the man himself, Tom Welling. He does a wonderful Clark Kent, that is for sure, and we all know that, having seen it for the past six and a half years.But it is when Mr. Welling plays a character outside of that normal, stalwart Clark Kent we are used to is when he shines (ie.e. Red-K Clark, Kal-El, Lionel, Bizarro), and you really see a depth to his acting. I have to give props to Mr. Welling for that. The way he plays Bizarro is one of kind of arrogance and darkness, while at the same time possessing some semblance of sympathy to the character. It’s really fun to watch onscreen.

Bizarro, in all incarnations whether it be comics, animated series, or straight shows like Smallville, has been made to be a sympathetic character. There are times in those various incarnations that you felt sorry for Bizarro. In the first half of this episode, there was none of that. For pretty much the whole episode, you hated Bizarro (well, loved and hated for me), and saw him as the antagonist of it all by sleeping with Lana, and trying to do whatever it takes to assimilate himself into Clark’s life. Then, in the final moments of the episode, you really got a sense that Bizarro had learned emotion and love in his time with Lana. You would think that because Bizarro was feeling this for Lana, that he might have changed from his survivor attitude. No, because the second Clark showed up onto the scene again, Bizarro was back to his “kill-or-be-killed” attitude that prevailed him for much of season six, when we saw him. So, obviously, Lana’s love hadn’t changed him that much.

Something that always struck me about Bizarro, particularly in Smallville’s version of him, is that he is literally Clark Kent’s opposite. In the season premiere, we kind of got a glimpse of that when the Martian Manhunter revealed Bizarro’s origins. But I think seeing Bizarro posing as Clark really gave us more of a glimpse. Whereas Clark is nervous to open himself up, and give Lana his whole heart, Bizarro was willing to do it, as he does not have to worry about the same things Clark worries about on a daily basis: doing the right thing. I guess that’s kind of funny if you think about it.

Another reason Bizarro’s return was so awesome was to see him interact with the characters that we have known and loved for so long. The first character that comes to mind is Chloe. I think it’s very interesting that the first person who seems to suspect that Clark is not himself. You would think that Lana would suspect that Clark was not himself, considering the fact that Lana has been sleeping with him for over a month. But it was Chloe. Chloe knows Clark better than anybody. She is always having to defend herself to other people for this (Jimmy, Lana, Lois), but it’s true. Chloe is like the sister Clark never had, and, if Chloe ever makes it to the comics, I would like to see this connection explored more. Because when Clark returns, you definitely see that connection that those two have. It’s awesome.

The thing that was at the heart of this episode was it really drove home the fact that Clark and Lana can never truly be happy together. Now I am not a fan of the Clana relationship, because I do not believe it can work. In the comics, Clark and Lana’s relationship is kind of glossed over and not focused too much, because in the overall scheme of things, it’s very minute. One thing that I think Smallville is good for is seeing why that relationship doesn’t, can’t, and won’t work. I think it’s been quite interesting to see this growth in these two characters’ relationship. It’s one thing in Smallville that really works is seeing that love story being blown to pieces. But I seriously do not see this relationship lasting too long. It just seems that when we’ve been treated to episodes that are very “Clana”-centric (i.e. Action, Wrath, and Persona), they seem to be building up for a big fall and an understanding breakup. I do not think it’s going to be a breakup of like Lex and Lana, where it’s “I love you, I don’t love you,” but a breakup of “I love you, but I can’t stay.”

Neither is ready for the kind of relationship they want. Clark hasn’t really balanced the two conflicting sides of his personality: the hero and the man, and Lana wants a man who is understandably completely devoted to her. So, neither is ready. Sad, isn’t it?

I do want to say one thing about Ms. Lang, though before I continue. In this episode, Bizarro said that when he arrived in Smallville, he was only concerned with his own survival, but fell in love with Lana when he saw her. What is the deal?! Why does everyone love Lana so much? (Lex, Jason, Whitney, Clark, Bizarro, Tina Greer) It has been suspected by some that Lana might have a meteor power due to her constant wearing of the Krypto-necklace in much of the first season. My theory is she has the meteor-ability to make anybody fall in love with her (kind of in the same vein of the chick from Heat).

Another thing that seemed to work in this episode was the appearance of Marc McClure on Smallville. One thing I’ve always liked about Smallville is that its guest stars are given really great characters to work with, and Mr. McClure’s was no exception. I almost saw Dax-Ur as another cautionary tale for Clark. Clark could have what Dax-Ur does, if he truly forsook his alien lineage and abandoned his do-good nature. Dax-Ur knew in the span of a heartbeat that he wanted to forsake his powers for family, but Clark has been struggling with that choice almost the whole series. I think Marc McClure did an excellent job with this character, and it made me sad when Brainiac “killed” him.

But before he went, Dax-Ur was able to give great insights into his character, and into Krypton itself. I thought McClure really acted well with Welling’s Clark, as much as he did with Reeve’s Clark. My favorite line of the episode from him was “The House of El. You always were survivors.”

I, with Steve and Derek, was definitely campaigning for Dax-Ur to be a good guy. A joke has been made on Smallville that seemingly all Kryptonians are bad guys, except Clark. Now, when Dax-Ur was being mentioned, I was hoping he would be a good guy, and I’m glad he was. The twist with his character that I wasn’t expecting was that Dax-Ur was the creator of the BrainInterActive Construct. That gives some interesting insights into Brainiac’s origins. Was Brainiac supposed to be a vessel for good? And what had happened to it that it had become the unyielding servant for Zod? Very interesting questions.

I think a great scene that Welling as Bizarro had was with Jor-El in the Fortress. I loved that Bizarro had an essence about him that wasn’t “right.” The way Welling played that was perfect. You could sense in every scene Bizarro was in, that he was not Clark, and Jor-El sensed it too. The scene in the Fortress played out, with Bizarro being in it, like a fish being in dry land, and Jor-El basically banished him from the Fortress because of this. It was awesome.

You also got a sense of this when Bizarro interacted with Brainiac. I think Welling and Marsters played off of each other perfectly, but I digress. When Bizarro first shows up, Brainiac immediately recognizes that this is not Kal-El that he is speaking to, but a cheap copy (and he doesn’t neglect telling Bizarro this either). So, Chloe knew it, Brainiac knew it, Jor-El knew it, why is it that Lana didn’t know it?

We were also able to get some semblance of answers as to how Bizarro was able to return in this week’s episode, and what had exactly had happened. When Brainiac asks where Clark was, Bizarro simply replied that he didn’t know, and that Martian Manhunter held him prisoner, and he escaped, and when he returned, Clark was gone. I would’ve liked to know when he escaped. Was it tied in with the eclipse in Blue? Did he escape sometime in between Bizarro and Blue?

I think another one of the pinnacles of this episode is when Clark returned to Smallville. It wasn’t just returning to his home in Smallville, but his returning to being a presence on the actual series. When Clark was released from his punishment in the Fortress, it was like seeing an old friend that we hadn’t seen in a long time. This is also attributed to Tom Welling’s superb acting skills, as he was still able to make the difference between Bizarro and Clark. I know viewers everywhere welcomed Clark’s return with open arms.

Howver, I was expecting the return to be a little later in the episode, but I do understand that it was a packed episode as it was, so yeah so his return had to be like 15 minutes in. But his return still ROCKED!

This episode also saw the return of Blue Kryptonite. I like Smallville’s interpretation of Blue Kryptonite, too. I like the fact that it came from Krypton, and not with it, if you know what I mean. At first, I thought it was a lame copout how they made Blue Kryptonite drain his powers entirely, as that Krypto-property is reserved for the Gold variety. I thought this because, in the comics Blue Kryptonite helps Superman, rather than hurt him, and it hurts Bizarro, so I wondered how this would play out. I was, however, overall pleased with how it affected Bizarro. It didn’t have the effect that Green Kryptonite had on Clark, but it in necessity killed him, which was cool.

I also thought it was very interesting to see that Lana was the one to do Bizarro in, as opposed to Clark, who subdued him the last time. Would I have liked to see Clark and Bizarro fight in a classic super-fight that comic fans are so familiar? Absolutely. But I think the way Bizarro died in Smallville had a little bit more emotional impact on the part of Lana, which was good. Lana, I think, has really started to accept that she can never really be truly happy the way she wants to with Clark.

This brings me to my only dislike for the episode itself: Bizarro’s death/destruction. I have made it no secret that I love Bizarro. He was my favorite character in the comics, and in the animated series. When I heard he was coming to Smallville, I was excited, and even more excited when it was announced he would be a recurring villain on the show. However, I was disappointed that he died. Part of me wonders if this was due to the writer’s strike or if this was originally in the cards for Bizarro on Smallville. If it was due to the writer’s strike, then that’s understandable. But if this was the writers’ plan, then that is cool, too. At least, Clark will have used the knowledge to defeat this Bizarro to defeat other Bizarros in his future.

Now, I don’t think we can discuss this episode without talking about the Luthor subplot of the episode. It was an amazing subplot, too. It’s been about a month since Gemini, when Grant Gabriel learned he was a clone of Julian Luthor, which we got an answer to. I think for the past month and a half, all of us were wondering how the heck Lex cloned Julian, if Julian is dead. I was satisfied to get an answer to this question: that Project Gemini was simply using the umbilical cord blood from Lillian Luthor. I do not think that is a stretch at all, as I think those kind of things would be on file at Medical facilities. Lex, being a man of unlimited resources, would be able to access these things to further his project.

This episode saw Grant making the strides to make something anew with his life. I can only assume that his job at the newspaper is making him unsettled, as he knows all his knowledge in that arrow isn’t real, but forged by Lex. How does Grant make his life anew? Seeing his father.

I thought all the Lionel/Grant scenes were great. I really felt John Glover and Michael Cassidy played off of each other really well. I said in a prior review that I thought Michael Cassidy looked a little like Michael Rosenbaum. I could almost being John Glover’s son, too. Their scenes were wonderful.

This episode was also a great one for Lex. This episode saw Lex making leaps and bounds towards becoming the evil mastermind villain that we all know him to be. In this episode, we saw Lex orchestrate the killing of the man he created, and who he termed to be his brother: Grant Gabriel.

For much of this season, Lex was under this redemption phase, which I never really bought. This episode saw him coming to the conclusion that he was a Luthor, and not anything else. This season, I bought that, as much as I bought Lionel being a changed man. I think it’s a great transitional thing that the Luthors go through, after they’re at the pinnacle of their darkness. If you recall, at the end of season 3, Lionel was at his most evil. A little bit after that, he underwent a change, and realized he was a Luthor, and it wasn’t in his nature. For Lex, his pinnacle of darkness was at the end of season six, during his orchestration of Project Ares. Now he took a denial break from that, thinking he wasn’t too far gone. But when he killed Grant, it was far gone. Because what did he kill him over? Because he was jealous of his brother’s success with Lionel, when he had had none.

I think a great Luthor moment for the episode was in between Lex and Lionel, when Lionel calls Lex on the wrongs of “recycling [his] dead brother like a sick vanity project”. I think it was the best scene in between these two, since the one in Lara. After Lionel calls him on this, Lex doesn’t even flinch, which goes to show how far gone he is. He doesn’t even see how depraved and disgusting what he did was. He even tries to justify it by appealing to Lionel’s love for Julian, that he knew he was there. Then, the best Lex/Lionel line in the series: “It’s you I’ve lost.” I think this was the beginning of the end of the Luthor family dynamic. Because now Lex knows he can never have his father’s approval and love ever. That proverbial door has been closed forever. It’ll be interesting to see where their relationship will go from here. But something tells me that it will only go downhill from here.

Even though he basically disowned his firstborn in this episode, Lionel basically takes Julian under his wing. I think he did this as sort of an atonement for himself, to kind of make up for all the mistakes he made with Lex. I think Lex knew this, too, as he deliberately had Grant/Julian shot in front of Lionel. Now, his shot at an atonement was gone.

The pinnacle of Lex’s darkness in this is when he killed Julian. You definitely felt it after he read that text from the assassin, “Job done.” Than, in a wonderful scene, Lex goes out in the rain, and basically cying out to God for all the misery he’s caused. Where does Lex go from here? How does he get out of this pit? I don’t think he can get out of it, honestly, from here. But it will be interesting where his character goes the rest of the series.

This episode was written by the writing duo of Holly Henderson and Don Whitehead, who had previously penned Lara, which coincidentally enough had the second best Lex/Lionel scene of the series. I thought the writing was superb. This writing duo was new to this season, and it seems like they’ve writing as long as some of the other writers on this show. It seems like every episode they deliver is top-notch.

This episode featured the directorial debut of a longtime Smallville writer, Todd Slavkin. Todd Slavkin has written some great episodes like Phantom and Blue (just to name a couple). I think he did a magnificent job behind the camera, because he had so much to direct, with such a wonderful script to work with, and having to direct the dual efforts of Tom Welling.

I think some of the visual effects in this episodes are worthy to note. I think some visual effects that automatically stand out in my mind, are Bizarro’s flying. We haven’t seen too much of Bizarro’s flying, as flying effects are usually very expensive. But this flying effect was noteworthy because Bizarro flew in a cloudy smoke streak, which was kind of kool to watch. This smokestreak very much contrasted the white crystals of the Fortress.

Another effect that is worthy to note, as always is Bizarro’s “face.” This is always awesome to watch, as you can still Tom Welling’s emotional face underneath the mug o’ stone. But, when Bizarro is exposed to the sun in the opening moments of the episode, you can still a little bit of his arms and neck being turned to stone as well, which was kind of cool to see.

In conclusion, I would like to say that this episode was perfect on so many levels. It just worked on all fronts. I think it is safe to say Smallville is back, and it is here to stay. (at least for another couple of weeks) I hope you enjoyed this episode as much as I did.

RATING: 5/5

PS If you liked this review, make sure you check out all my other reviews here on Starkville’s House of El, and also other non-Smallville related reviews on my blog at http://kryptontim.wordpress.com

This entry was posted on Sunday, February 3rd, 2008 at 6:58 pm and is filed under 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.