Spoilers.
Smallville Official Site
The Time: Thursdays, 8:00 PM, The CW
The Show:
Having
grown up in Smallville under the protective eye of Jonathan and Martha
Kent, Clark Kent, the future Superman, is finally setting out into the
world to pursue his destiny. Ever wary of protecting his
secret, Clark nonetheless secretly uses his Kryptonian superpowers to
help people and save lives. He’s now colleagues with Lois
Lane at the Daily Planet and still friends with Chloe Sullivan, his
childhood pal who knows his secret. Lex Luthor has
mysteriously vanished after destroying the Fortress and learning his
secret. Lex’s hand-picked successor, Tess Mercer, is
nevertheless a dangerous individual who is obsessed with learning Lex’s
fate and the secret he was pursuing. And a dangerous enemy,
in the form of paramedic Davis Bloom is growing ever a bigger threat.
The Stars:
• Tom Welling – Clark Kent
• Allison Mack – Chloe Sullivan
• Erica Durance – Lois Lane
• Aaron Ashmore – Jimmy Olsen
• Justin Hartley – Oliver Queen / Green Arrow
• Cassidy Freeman – Tess Mercer
• Sam Witwer – Davis Bloom
The Episode: “Beast”
Clark discovers that Davis is still alive and seeks to stop him before he can hurt any more people. But Chloe is determined to protect him, even if that means lying to Clark. This puts Chloe in even more danger because Davis is reaching the point where the only thing that can keep Doomsday a bay is her constant presence. Meanwhile, Oliver discovers that Jimmy is an addict and refuses to give him money for drugs. When Jimmy breaks into Chloe’s apartment for cash, he and Oliver run into their old pal. And despite his extreme reservations, Clark is coming to a realization that there may only be one way to stop Davis for good.
The Lowdown:
Last week’s episode, “Stiletto,” was the most idiotic episode of the season. This one’s not much better and is pretty much the most repetitive episode of the season. The entire storyline is essentially a rehashing of themes from the season, including Chloe being the only thing that can keep Doomsday contained within Davis, Clark’s reluctance to kill Davis, Jimmy’s continuing slide down the moral ski slope and Oliver and Clark’s difference of opinion in how far justice has to go to prevail. The only revelation in the episode is that Jimmy finally discovers that Davis is the monster who ruined his wedding day. Other than that, this episode was little more than a time killer before the sparks start to fly in the last two episodes of the season.
Chloe is continuing to hide Davis in her basement, and this in turn is both a dream and a nightmare for her (literally), as she fantasizes about being with Davis, but being unable to realize that he’s a volcano waiting to erupt. A gutted Clark in her dream is a stark reminder of this. Chloe and Davis have essentially become Beauty and the Beast, or Betty and the Hulk. I will give props to the writers for managing to make Doomsday a season long story-arc, but the arc ran out of seam several episodes back and there are few if any developments on that front. We’re waiting to see the Clark / Doomsday deathmatch, but it’s being delayed by repetitious storytelling.
Then we have Jimmy’s continuing irrelevance. I remarked sometime back something along the lines that I’d be perfectly happy, giddy even (and I don’t typically ever get giddy), if in one of these episodes, it was Jimmy’s shredded meatsack remains that Chloe were hauling out to a dumpster in garbage bags. Nothing against Aaron Ashmore, who’s doing the best he can, but I’m of the opinion that Jimmy Olsen has long ago become a worthless character, and not just in this show. As a result, I’m beyond uninterested that he has a drug problem or that Chloe broke his heart. His best use would be a a squish toy for Doomsday as he warms up for Clark.
As for Clark, well he’s his usual gallant and morally upright self. You’d think that at this point he’d be able to tell when Chloe is lying to him, and not just lying, but blatantly keeping him in the dark, denying anything and everything, and deliberately steering him toward wild goose chases in order to protect Davis. If I gave a damn about Jimmy, I’d sympathize with how Chloe has betrayed him time and time again. It’s not hard to see what is going to spur Davis to Hulk out and throw down with Clark in the season finale, and I’m afraid that doesn’t ported well for Lois’ cousin.
Oliver mostly plays mouthpiece this week as he continues to banter with Clark about the steps that Clark is going to eventually have to take, not only with Doomsday, but with being a hero in general. Need more Green Arrow though rather than just Oliver Queen. We’ll get that in the next couple of weeks, but for right now, the character’s in sort of a holding pattern. So not much new in the way of developments this week. This is another very forgettable episode.