By Brandon Nolta
You can almost hear the writers of SMALLVILLE sitting around the table, thinking out loud, asking, “What is it we need this season?” Family’s all weeded out, it’s too early to bring in Doomsday, and the rights to Batman are likely locked up so tight they’ll never get sprung … what to do, what to do? I know, let’s steal a page from one of the ret-cons and bring Kara (Laura Vandervoort) into the mix! Hey presto, so shall it be written, so shall it be done.
Yes, that’s right: The blonde “angel” that saved Lex (Michael Rosenbaum) from drowning last week was the only other survivor of Krypton not sporting a Phantom Zone address, and Clark’s (Tom Welling) cousin to boot. She spends a good chunk of the episode being surly, as she thinks Kal-El is a baby still, thanks to her spending nearly 20 years in suspended animation. But, once she clues in to the facts, a new mission crops up: Get to Kara’s ship and prevent the self-destruct sequence from vaporizing a large chunk of Kansas.
Meanwhile, Lois (Erica Durance) is wooed by the new editor at the Daily Planet, who wants to take the paper in a more tabloidy direction, leaving Chloe (Allison Mack) in the dust. Lionel (John Glover) is still missing, and Lex manages to track down Lana (Kristin Kreuk) for a confrontation that doesn’t go the way either of them suspect, probably due to the writers’ breaking out a cliché that soap operas would be ashamed to use. However, the extreme silliness of the Lex-Lana plot is balanced out by the gentle touch used with Kara, who has been left out of the loop on some things, like the extermination of Krypton and all its inhabitants.
It’s an interesting episode in many ways, particularly in how the element of Kara is added in. As evidenced by a late conversation with the recorded version of Jor-El (Terence Stamp), family has all the possible connotations for Kryptonians, good and bad, that it does for humans. Welling gets to try out a different note for Clark, as he finds himself in the rare position of knowing more about Krypton (at least its end) than the latest visitor from out of town. Having Kara in the mix opens up a lot of potential, and here’s hoping the writers go for broke in exploring it, rather than just aping the story lines from DC continuity.
After building up sympathy and general goodwill for Chloe over six seasons, it’ll be a matter of interest also to see where she goes as a character. Lois eclipsing her in the journalistic field was inevitable; it’s a fundamental part of the mythology, and there was no going around that. However, this frees up Chloe to pursue whatever path the writers come up with (although, now that Chloe will be added to the official DC mythology, there may not be as much leeway as there once was). Past episodes have hinted at an Oracle-like role for the future Justice League; will they follow through? Who knows? Should be interesting to find out. Warm up the DVRs and get the popcorn out; it’ll be a fun season.