The Daily Smallville 02:10 Skinwalkers

02:10 SKINWALKERS

Prologue

• uh oh. Native American shapeshifter going up against Luthor construction on stolen land. I have a feeling this episode might not hold up
• Big explosion

Act One

• The Smallville caves! This is the start of a new chapter to the Smallville Superman mythos.
• Clark and Pete moto-racing. Farm boys getting their kicks. Clark crashes and falls into a cave Bruce Wayne style
• Kyla. Looking like Disney’s version of Pocahontas. Ouch. Clark thought it was Lana at first. Odd.
• Again, this episode is not going to end well is it?
• teleplay by Brian Peterson & Kelly Souders. I don’t have faith in them after Nocturne in season 1 / written by Mark Warshaw / Marita Grabiak director
• Legend of Naman. Falls from the skies in rain of fire. Strength of ten men. Fire from his eyes. / One of the cave images – of Naman battling a creature – makes me wonder if this will connect all the way through to the final season?
• And of course one of the cave drawings has an octagon shape in another wall just like the spaceship key
• The caves get a lot of play. Not one of my favorite aspects of the show.
• The symbols match the ones from a piece of Clark’s ship that Pa pulled. This rectangle piece was last seen in the pilot.
• Dinner at the Kents. 500 years ago another myth fell from the stars and came to Earth. Fell in love. Spread the legend of Naman.
• Kawatche people were born from this other person and his lover. Does the timeline add up? Joseph said his people owned the land for thousands of years. Unless he’s just talking generically about Native Americans and not just his particular tribe
• Is this early person Jor-El? Probably not – Smallville does that with Jor-El in another episode though.
• Kyla lip bite during dinner. Yikes
• Symbols are an alphabet. Yup – laying groundwork here to get deeper into Clark’s origins

Act Two

• Kyla’s costume accessories. So cringey
• Wolfs Head constellation. A lost star in its eye that is no longer there. Krypton?
• Granville mention – another important city to Smallville
• Clark brings in Lana to maybe get help from Henry Small
• Joseph Willowbrook
• Lionel says Martha reminds him of his wife. Ew.
• Lionel bringing up Lex’s buyout of the plant that started his own company
• “One day Naman will protect the entire world”. Season 10? I imagine Peterson and Souders bring back their story seeds.
• Sageeth. Once friends with Naman. “One day he’ll turn against Naman. And together they’ll be the balance between good and evil.”
• And a pictograph of the woman Naman’s destined to be with.
• Clark saves Kyla and reveals himself.
• This is terrible. This has Nocturne written on it. It’s not like stories like this haven’t been told in the Silver Age – it’s just told oddly with this overly romantic element

Act Three

• Henry says a DNA test matches him with Lana. Oooop. Lana has a new Daddy. He gets involved with the protests.
• Joseph is arrested. Possibly framed for the murder in the prologue.
• Oh right. Kyla is the wolf. That’s why she ‘understands’ the unexplainable around Clark.
• Lex has been “fighting his destiny his entire life”.
• Lana is writing letters to Whitney
• Chloe says her and Lana need to “Stop trying to fall for guys who are saving the world.”
• Clark takes Lex to the caves / Lex says the paintings are more impressive than the caves at Lascaux. Ehn.. not really. / and now Lex sees the octagon shape
• Uh oh is Kyla going to go after Martha?
• Chloe with Skinwalkers info. Now Clark is the one ignoring the obvious clues here.
• Yup. Kyla the wolf threatens Martha

Act Four

• does Jonathan still have a broken leg from last episode?
• Lex wants to buy out his father – which only tips Lionel to the value of the land.
• Visitor from the stars brought Green stones that affected people. Gave her people the power to skinwalk possibly. Earlier KMOTW occurrences. 
• And now Lionel is attacked

Act Five 

• Clark saves the day at the mansion. Once again showing up around Lionel.
• Kyla’s dying. This death scene is way dramatic. I get that Clark’s emotions are heightened because this is a pathway to his origins –  but again this feels like it’s trying to play a little to hard to a certain demographic. Not as bad as Nocturne. But it’s there.
• Clark and Martha take a stand.
• Joseph: “For the true one in your life”. He gives Kyla’s bracelet to Clark
• Lex gets control of the land thru the state preservation of the area. And now both Luthors are on the hunt.
• Whitney is missing in action
• It’s not a bad episode production wise. Certainly took a lot of notes – especially since this is the mid-season finale. All of this will have obvious major ramifications for this season and beyond. Where it falls apart for me is in its tone. The layer of myth it tries to build up falls flat. It’s surface-y and stereotypical and the destiny stuff just gets hammered too much. It’s romanticized the same way Nocturne had this pseudo gothic layer to it. Bleh. Unfortunately it sticks around for the rest of this season.

Next week: episodes 11-17!