Last week I noted the disturbing pattern of having Clark’s long-time girl friends, people who were once perceived as innocent and sweet, turn into something dark and cryptic. And for the past few weeks I’ve criticized Jimmy’s drug addiction (again: Who wants to see this?) But I will say this: I thought the “Previously” clip, where we saw each person’s dark turn (Chloe throwing out a dead body, Jimmy popping pills, Oliver killing Lex, etc) was great.
So let’s see: Lana has super powers, Lois was pretending to be a costumed hero last week, Chloe has gone all Zordon on us, and now Jimmy is revisiting his secret agent days. What exactly is special about Clark anymore?
I’ll admit that I don’t know much about the Green Arrow comics, but didn’t Oliver seem awfully dark and harsh this week? Between Clark, Chloe, and Jimmy, he was dishing out tough love all around. He chastised Clark for his unwillingness to kill Davis and he criticized Chloe for her lies and deception. I can’t really fault him for how he handled Jimmy, although Oliver was once addicted to adrenaline (or something like that), wasn’t he?
That being said, I do enjoy the moral debate regarding what to do with Davis. Oliver wants him killed, Clark wants to imprison him, and Chloe wants to isolate him and give him a second chance. What’s the “right” solution? Like Chloe said, simply banishing Davis to an awful and unforgiving prison is actually less humane than killing him, and the only reason Clark wants to do that is so he doesn’t have to violate his “rules.” On the other hand, Chloe’s answer is to stand by Davis’ side and just hope that the monster doesn’t emerge. Not only is that impractical, but it’s exceptionally dangerous to both her and the population at large. And her, ya’ know, best friend. One might argue that Oliver has the right idea, and that Davis should simply be eliminated. Except that’s AWFULLY easy for Oliver to say when he’s not the one who has to do the deed. His master, ideal plan isn’t for HIM to kill Davis – it’s for Clark to do it.
I do wonder where they are going with this trend of making every single character (other than Clark) so dark and unpleasant. As a fan of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, I remember how much season six killed the spirit and momentum of the entire series. I hope this season doesn’t have that same negative impact.
Just a random observation, but it was a bit weird seeing Clark completely sans red. Speaking of colors, I did chuckle a bit at Oliver saying that LuthorCorp is going green. Yeah, yeah, easy joke, I know. But it’s been a long week.
One more random observation: I keep hearing that Heroes can’t provide those epic battles because of budgetary reasons. And they’ve got their fancy NBC money. Yet Smallville – with the lowly CW financing them – manages to come through with some pretty kick ass fight scenes.
Matt Basilo has been writing for Inside Pulse since April 2005, providing his insight into popular television shows such as Lost, Heroes, Prison Break, and Smallville. You can visit his blog at A Case of the Blog.
