Episode Title: Spirit (promoted by WB as “After the Prom”)
Original Airdate: 4/20/05
Episode Recap:
In the tradition of all television teen dramas, Smallville brings us their prom episode, curiously titled (by the WB) as “After the Prom” despite the fact that everything that happens in the episode occurs at or before the prom itself. We begin with Lifehouse doing a live performance as a tearful Chloe roams through the halls. After grabbing an ax she is approached by Jonathan Kent at the stairwell. She swiftly punches him in the face, knocking him out and down the stairs. How embarrassing for him. She goes to the basement and is about to start a fire, promising that “You’re all going to pay” before we roll the credits. I have to admit, though, that I like the “Now that’s what I call a torch” line.
It just occurred to me for the first time that all of the clips in the opening credits just before Jason are of Clark and Lana together. Ouch.
We return, one day earlier, with Chloe and Lana discussing the awfulness of electing a prom queen. Chloe seems a bit shocked that Lana isn’t going (because of Jason), so she convinces her to go stag with her. Also, apparently Lex got Lifehouse to play for the prom. Why exactly did he do that? For Clark? It’s soon established that he isn’t even going to the prom, so I don’t really get the gesture.
Back from the tangent. Chloe and Lana are approached by uber-bitch Dawn, who very lamely calls Chloe a “hypocrat” (I guess we needed that baseball bat to really drive home the point that she’s not the sharpest knife in the drawer. Perhaps we also need another one of those ESP/ESPN jokes, too…). Chloe is then informed that she’s been nominated for prom queen. Wow Lana, has your stock ever dropped… By the way, Chloe looks really cute in that green top.
At Luthor Manor, Lex discovers the body of Bridgette Crosby, Dr. Swann’s assistant. Jason arrives at the scene and discovers Lex discovering the body. Jason recognizes the name, and wonders if this murder had anything to do with the artifacts.
Back at the Torch, Clark admits that he had a hand in getting Chloe nominated, but says that he’s going to sit the whole prom thing out. Chloe thinks the future holds a lot more promise for Clark than he gives himself credit for.
At the Talon, Dawn and her minions plan out their itinerary. Dawn sees her boyfriend flirting with a freshman, and he promptly breaks up with her 27 hours before the prom. Yeah, she’s a bitch, but that is pretty messed up.
While driving home listening to “La La,” reading through a yearbook, and talking on a cell phone (all three bad ideas, by the way), Dawn drives off a cliff, and lands in a batch of kryptonite. Upon reaching the top of the cliff later that night, her spirit takes over Martha Kent’s body.
In perhaps one of the strangest scenes ever seen in Smallville history (and that’s saying something), Clark arrives home to see his mother dancing “seductively” and singing to “La La.” I wonder what Annette O’Toole thought when she read this script. Anyway, Martha seems annoyed that Clark isn’t going to the prom, and offers to take him herself. Lois arrives from upstairs with the dog (I was wondering where he’s been), and Martha gets jealous and confrontational, thinking that they’re going to the prom together. Hearing Martha Kent say “so you two just get together and mac, but then get on the down low in public” is pretty humorous.
At the Talon, Martha (possessed by Dawn) completely tells off Lana. As Lana storms off, Martha grabs hold of her shoulder, and Dawn’s spirit moves from Martha’s body to Lana’s. Clark walks in, and Lana asks him to the prom. Clark goes over to his mother, who doesn’t remember how she got there.
Lana arrives at the high school to help set up for the prom and sees Dawn’s ex-boyfriend. She tells him to clean up and they’ll hang out afterwards. Lana’s pretty cute when she acts erratic. Lana goes into the shower and begins electrocuting Dawn’s ex-boyfriend before Clark comes to the rescue. Lana flees the scene and Dawn begins going from body to body, ultimately ending up in her minion Harmony. Lets see, we have an uber-bitch who is superficial and going for prom queen, and her lead sidekick is named Harmony….is this Buffy homage intentional?
At the Torch later that night, Chloe and Lana put two and two together and figure out that Dawn’s spirit is possessing other people’s bodies. At the hospital, Harmony (possessed by Dawn) asks how Dawn is, and is disgusted to find out that she’s been disfigured. Clark and Lana share an awkward moment where Clark tells Lana that she asked him to the prom (when she was possessed), and one of the nurses (who is possessed by Dawn) informs them that Dawn had just died.
Meanwhile, Jason is snooping around on Lex’s laptop. Lex catches him, and Jason notes that Lex had a meeting scheduled with Bridgette Crosby the morning she was murdered. Jason tells Lex that he’s going to report the murder to the sheriff.
Back at the hospital, Lois gets into an argument with one of the doctors (the same doctor, I do believe, that was in the season premiere) about getting allergy pills. The nurse who is possessed by Dawn tells Lois she may be able to help.
At the Kent home, Martha and Jonathan tell Clark that the only reason they agreed to be chaperones was because of him. Yeah, that’s what every high school senior male wants, his parents to be chaperones for the prom. I must note, though, that the touched look on Clark’s face when Martha tells him she rented him a tux was sweet. Anyway, Lois comes downstairs in a pink dress, insisting that Clark is going to take her to the prom.
Jason leads the Sheriff to where Bridgette Crosby’s body was found, but it’s missing. Apparently there’s no record that a Bridgette Crosby doesn’t even exist. On top of that, the entire landscaping staff denies having ever seen a dead body. Jason returns to his car, and makes a phone call. It’s to his mother, and he snidely comments that Lex took care of the body like they wanted. He then takes out the stone that was once in Bridgette Crosby’s possession. Wow, I can honestly say I did not see that twist coming. Nicely done.
Meanwhile, Lois gushes about how great the prom is as she stares adoringly at the prom queen crown. Chloe arrives, and is very happy to see Clark. In a nice tribute to the first season’s finale, they both hope that there’s not a natural disaster this time. Chloe’s disturbed look when Lois comes running over is priceless.
Chloe is announced as the prom queen, and when Lois hugs her to congratulate her, Dawn takes over Chloe’s body. In a very funny moment, Lois asks Clark “what the hell am I doing in a dress, and what the hell am I doing at the prom?” to which Clark says with great delivery and facial expression “oh no” as he realizes that Dawn has taken over Chloe’s body. Lois’ indifference to whatever Clark’s saying as she asks him if he pinned on her corsage and that it’s a little close to the boob is great as well.
In the midst of Chloe’s acceptance speech, Dawn gets a little miffed that everybody hates her, so she promises that “this will be one night that I will always remember, and you will never forget.” We return from commercial with the scene that opened the episode (with a tearful Chloe roaming the halls with an ax). Poor Jonathan, as they AGAIN show the scene where he gets his ass kicked by Chloe. Clark rushes over to him, and in the understatement of a lifetime, he tells Clark that “Chloe’s not acting like herself.” Clark tells Jonathan to get something for him.
In the basement, Clark thwarts Dawn’s attempts to torch the place. In retaliation, Dawn transfers from Chloe’s body to Clark’s. Clark then sends Chloe across the room in a move that I’m shocked didn’t kill her. Jonathan arrives at the scene with a piece of kryptonite (which Chloe sees), sending Dawn out of Clark’s body and, presumably, up to Heaven (???). Strangely, Chloe is absolutely fine. In a sweet moment, Clark gives Chloe her crown back.
Back at the prom, Clark asks Lois if she wants to dance. Lois admits that she’s not the one that he wants to dance with, and tells him to ask Lana. Clark goes over to Lana (who, by the way, looks terrible) and asks for the dance, and she responds with “I thought you’d never ask.” While they dance, Lois goes over to console Chloe, and tells her that Clark Kent will never be able to keep up with her. Chloe tells Lois that “Clark has a lot more to offer than you realize.” Meanwhile, as Lana rests her head in Clark’s shoulder, a jealous (and EVIL!) Jason watches on.
Episode Review:
It’s a bit funny that they killed off Bridgette Crosby’s character this episode, because just earlier in the day I was reading an interview with Margot Kidder where she stated that her character was supposed to return to the show to report the death of Dr. Swann (Christopher Reeve), but she felt it was exploitive. I guess because of that she had a bit of a falling out with the producers, but said she would still like to return to the show because she enjoys it. I guess that won’t be happening.
Truth be told, since the beginning of the season I’ve really disliked Jason and the whole witchcraft story arc. That said, right before Jason made the phone call to his mother I became aware of the fact that he and Lana were completely separated from each other this episode, and it really worked. I enjoyed Jason’s interaction with Lex, and (strangely) the two of them have a lot more chemistry with each other than the Jason/Lana dynamic. I also respect that they want to have Lana be involved in a mature relationship, but I think she’s at her best when she’s interacting with Chloe and Clark about high school related issues. She is, after all, an 18 year old high school student.
I was really pleased and genuinely surprised with the revelation that Jason and his mother were in cahoots the entire time. It was a twist that I did not see coming, and it adds an interesting layer to a storyline I wasn’t initially interested in to begin with. I think it’s also important to take note of Jason’s wardrobe this episode, as he was always wearing an all black outfit with dark grays mixed in there as well. Him walking in on Clark and Lana dancing at the end of the episode adds a fun dynamic to that triangle as well.
I’m not exactly positive what the significance of the three stones are, but with a few episodes left, right now Clark has one, Lana has one, and Jason has one. I’m interested in seeing how the rest of the season plays out and if any one character ends up with all three. It’s also worth mentioning that none of the characters that are currently in possession of one of the three stones knows who has the other two.
Just like with last week, the writers give Chloe so much growth throughout the episode, but then decide to revert back to how she acted in the first season. For the most part, I thought she was magnificent in this episode. She was constantly supportive of Clark (both to his face and to other characters) and she showed how much faith she has in him as a person and as a friend. I thought that her finding out about kryptonite being his weakness was appropriate and well scripted. I thought everything was great until she got all ga-ga over him again in the final scene when he started dancing with Lana.
I thought that Chloe finding out Clark’s secret would add a new dimension to their friendship (and it has). In the past she has actively sought after finding out his secret, and she has jeopardized their friendship for the sake of a good story. This year, upon finding out his secret, she decided to keep it to herself while also making it clear to Clark that he can confide in her if he wants to. To our knowledge, she hasn’t reported any of the freak-of-the-week stories in the Torch since then, and she’s explicitly stated to him how proud she is when he makes a tough decision (like giving up football), and how grateful she is that he’s always there to rescue her (like last week). It’s shown tremendous growth, and it’s almost as if she realizes that the role in his life she best fits is not going to be the love interest, it’s going to be the trusted friend. That said, the past few weeks I must admit that I feel like the current incarnations of Clark and Chloe have a noticeable chemistry with each other, and I feel like—at this stage—they would actually make a good couple.
I was again disappointed that they make a major character shift for Lionel, and again he doesn’t appear in the episode. I may be reading too much into this, but I felt something very subtle occurred this episode with Lex and the way he’s coping with Lionel giving up his charitable dreams. Lex obviously knows that his double is responsible for Lionel’s change of heart (this was made clear last week), so in turn he feels responsible himself. Lex obviously knows that he didn’t murder Bridgette Crosby, nor does he have any reason to believe that Jason killed her. Therefore, it can be assumed that Lex naturally assumed that Lionel killed her. Yes, Lex didn’t want to deal with a police investigation and media circus over a murder he had nothing to do with, but I also felt that Lex feels guilty and responsible for what happened to Lionel, and in turn feels like he needs to protect him from the crimes he commits.
A few things that bothered me, though: First off, what was with Chloe’s super human strength? First she breaks open a glass window with her bare arm without getting any cuts or bruises in the process? Then Clark uses his super human strength to send Chloe across a room and into a furnace and she jumps up moments later with no problems whatsoever. Men twice her size have been put into comas for less. Also, how did Jonathan get the piece of kryptonite so quickly? If Clark told him in the hallway that he needed it, and then used his super speed (we must assume) to get to the basement, how was Jonathan able to get there moments later with a piece of kryptonite? Sure, it’s possible that they leave a piece hanging around in the car or something, but highly unlikely.
