The Daily Smallville 03:06 Relic

03:06: RELIC

Prologue

• Lana’s great uncle. Dexter McCallum. Another family member out of the blue for Lana. 
• A 42 year old murder of Lana’s great aunt Louise.
• Sheriff Tate – I should know who this is supposed to be.
• Welling and Kreuk playing characters in the past. Complete with a Kryptonian symbol necklace. Whaaat?
• Is this when Jor-El or another Kryptonian arrives in Smallville decades before Clark? The whole reason the caves exist?
• The writers wanting there to be an explanation as to why Clark arrived in Smallville just like Perry hiring Clark in the future “needed” an explanation in the past – according to Alfred Gough in Smallville comic magazine issue 4
• Is this a Peterson/Souders episode?

Act One

• Lana thinks the drifter could be Clark’s father or grandfather. “It’s not like you just fell out of the sky.” Ha. 
• Clark and Pa taking their experience with Jor-El to possibly connect to the drifter’s actions. Clark sees Jor-El as a “distant powerful threat” but maybe this is a way to humanize his Kryptonian father if he came to Earth prior to Clark / not the kind of mythos I always enjoy. Where there are layers on layers before the actual origin. 
• I KNEW IT. I KNEW THIS WAS A SOUDERS/PETERSON EPISODE! I could just tell. It’s not a Smallville story – it’s a “wouldn’t it be fun to put these characters in another time” story. They always write from the genre or the trope first. Past lives. Ugggghhhh. Immediate dislike.
• Fully acknowledging that stories/plots are committee driven, the pattern of these two writers being responsible for the two biggest deviations in Superman mythos (the caves, the archetypes existing before the tv show) is hard not to miss. For what reason? 
• director Marita Grabiak 
• Something in the wall opens up. As if all the examining by Clark and Lionel prior to this has never uncovered this part before??
• “You can call me Joe.” 
• Clark is flashing back. And of course Pete is being skeptical. Terrible writing at this point considering everything Pete has seen so far. 
• June 1961
• Lachlan Luthor was the robber in 1961. The Luthor grandfather. And the triangle is complete. I’m sure Lachlan was going after something other than money.
• Lex tells Chloe no Luthor was in Smallville prior to Lionel buying the cream corn factory 
• This is gross. Is this the writers way to get a Clark/Lana sex scene out of these actors by using different characters that are older? This goes on for minutes. 
• I. Hate. This. Episode. Considering the tone of Nocturne, Skinwalkers and now this episode, it’s like this writing team starts with the motto of “sex sells!”

Act Two

• Lex gets answers from Lionel. We learn Lionel’s past here. From Suicide Slum. His parents dead from a fire. Lionel changing his origin after that. Hopefully this is Loeb influence – this feels like it was pulled from the Luthor Biography oneshot. 
• Are they going to try and add a baby to this mix? That Jor-El father the Lang line? That would be awkward. / oh right she dies. 
• Oh look how clever the writers are. Joe and Louise have the same issues as Clark and Lana: destiny. A love that cannot be. Father issues. Dumb dumb dumb. And now we have two of Lana’s ancestors who were unhappy in their marriage. A trend!
• Louise shot from a ricochet off of Joe when he’s shot by Lionel. See? The Luthors and Els were destined to be enemies. 
• Lex gets more info about the “accident” that killed his paternal grandparents. 
• We have three more acts. Where is this story going now?

Act Three

• Clark tells Lana and Chloe that he’s having flashbacks. And somehow this part isn’t a bigger issue as to why. Especially considering that Clark is constantly hiding secrets. Chloe’s alarms should be ringing. 
• And now Smoking Man Mayor is in on this. Mayor Tate! Of course. He also is in love with Louise. Wrote her that love note. There’s a New Teen Titans issue like this from the baxter run. Where a flashback whodunnit kind of story gets connected with characters in the present. 
• Joe’s father sent him to Earth as a lesson. Like Thor? 
• This “Clark” tells this “Lana” the truth about his alien origin. And then flies with her! Oh I see. It’s okay to show flying because it’s not Clark. Anyone who still believes that the show was about NOT showing flying is holding up a bait and switch. This is now at least the third or fourth time. 

Act Four

• Sheriff Adams is in the mix now. 
• “Lucky enough to find him” was it luck? This episode seems to want to force all of this into being planned. 
• And now Jor-El meets Hiram Kent. And his wife. Because of course the Kents had to be involved. 
• So – this is just one of those explanations Gough is talking about. And suddenly Smallville is now not an accident at all but a planned series of forced coincidences. 
• Does this change Pa’s feelings about Jor-El? That the Kents were picked because of their kindness to this drifter? If this doesn’t change Pa from here on out then why do the episode??
• And now we go all Christmas Carol on the Mayor. 

Act Five

• Bookend back to the beginning 
• “I wish I’d known when to let go.” Lana rethinking feelings for Clark.
• Lex uncovers the truth about the explosion that killed Lionel’s parents. Lionel faking this emotion. Lex wants to find the truth. But come on – of course Lionel killed them. 
• Both families with secrets to their pasts now. 
• Lana: “She knew what it felt like to really be in love. / Stop holding on to what could’ve been” – in other words, step up Clark!
• Hiram knew about the caves! 
• So was that Jor-El? How did he get back home? The caves? A ship?
• The medallion is a journal of sorts. Now we have a key and heart of the ship. And now a medallion. 
• “I think you were chosen.” And there it is. Clark thinks the Kents were chosen to raise Clark. 
• So conflicted on this episode. this works in Riverdale. Because it explains how all those stories in the comics can still exist before the tv show. And yes this has been done in Superman comics on and off. But never in a way that stuck. Just as Imaginary Stories or Silver Age one offs that are ignored. But this romantic angle P&S try to force into the show is problematic. It’s like they don’t want a superhero show. They want a soap opera superhero show or Passions. Bleh. 
• If this really is Jor-El, it’s gross that Clark’s father had a fling with Lana’s great aunt and now these two are doing the same. 
• Let’s see how future eps connect to this one.
• At this point – to not know what to do with Pete is a disgrace 
• The first real misstep in the entire series. 

Next episode: Magnetic!