04.10 SCARE
Prologue
- Watching these episodes back to back in close timing – you can tell this opening is a dream or fantasy. The acting. The dialogue.
- Fun to not know right away just who is having this dream. Clark? Lana? And then it’s revealed it’s Jason
- I like the attention to detail that, in Jason’s dream, Clark can be hurt. Because he has no idea about Clark’s powers (supposedly).
- Also interesting to note that if this is Jason’s dream/nightmare, he reveals to the viewers his intentions through Lana’s dialogue: that maybe he’s in Smallville for some other reason. Which they’ve been dropping hints for all season.
- Sometimes scenes between Kristin and Tom show that – even though she’s five years younger – her character sometimes comes across more mature than Clark. Tom often has to play Clark as withholding his feelings and info, but that can also come across as unsure and immature. He never feels “ready” when Lana is coming on to him. And maybe that’s why the Lana/Lex thing happens later – because Lex is much older.
- Good opening
Act One
- Written by Kelly Souders & Brian Peterson – uh oh / director David Carson
- Chloe looking for Jason’s hospital room – as if they don’t always go to the same room
- This is post Jason getting fired – small look/tension between Clark and Lana even though she knows it’s Lex that was responsible for Jason losing his school job
- Chloe at ease with Clark being in love with Lana in this episode. She flip flops on her hound dog feelings for Clark based on how the writers need her for the story
- Chloe the snooper is back
- Oooo that scene between Clark and Lex was tense!
- Chloe is awfully brave walking through an abandoned factory considering she once got whammied in another episode like this
- Uh oh – now she’s dreaming – ah okay. This is family based trauma. Chloe as a bound psychiatric patient
- I was going to say the pacing of this jump scare was too slow – and then I got freaked out by the creepy make up and scream. Nice job
- Ha! Clark knocks out the security guy with a flick
- Clark looks pissed about Chloe
Act Two
- This is like a Stranger Things scene
- Uh oh – a bacteria mixed with meteor rock / a toxin that invoke a person’s worst nightmares
- Dr. Ford / another Lexcorps freak accident
- Uh oh – this is actually Smallville vs the Stand
- Very cool scene between Lionel and Warden Stone – he’s being released, and he doesn’t want to go. Also doesn’t know how.
- Love the line about how he tried to bribe even the president of the US
- Oooo – when he wonders who could have him released, she says obviously someone more powerful than you. That’s gotta hurt.
Act Three
- And now it’s Lana’s turn. Everyone she knows dead. A running theme.
- Those are the same actors who played her parents in the pilot
- Whoa – cool make up on scary Lana.
- And now Lex is infected
Act Four
- Lex! You know better than to walk around like this after being infected
- Dr. Scanlon’s back
- Whoa – unexpected explosion. I didn’t think Clark was going to be affected.
- His worst nightmare: that Lana learns the truth about him and blames him for her parents’ death. This is actually a good scene
- The Kents are down. Clark is pissed. Just about shares his blood for the cure
- Heats up the antidote / Come on. Lex totally can figure out what happened here. He gives Clark a look
- Lex tests the antidote on himself – wait – didn’t we see all this before? Yea – in 1:06 Hourglass
- So Lex’s worst nightmare is to lose control as President of the US?
Act Five
- Lionel free. But they don’t show us who freed him just yet. It’s Genevieve Teague, isn’t it?
- I wonder what the Kents thought about?
- Clark thinks he can never tell Lana now about his secret
- Pa: “I’m not sure that it’s Lana, but I am sure that someday there’ll be someone you can tell” – oooo… the show again setting us all up for Clark and Lana to end and Clark and Lois to begin
- Jason is leaving – because of his dream? Bookend to the prologue / Lana doesn’t believe his reasons / oh damn. He leaves!
- Haha… look at Clark’s face as Chloe goes frantic
- Chloe found her mom three months ago – in a mental institution
- Clark: “You’re not destined to follow in your parents’ footsteps”
- Clark’s nightmare, at least as he says to Chloe: “Is that everyone he knows is gone and he’s alone” – not totally untrue
- Chloe: “I wish I could say that I’ll always be there for you, but somehow I get the feeling that may not be a promise I can keep” – interesting line considering her character lasts just about the whole series
- Chloe and Clark bonding a bit over their secrets. Chloe all but saying she knows that there is more to him than he’s letting on. And if he can’t tell his best friend, who can he tell?
- So this is either an odd little cliffhanger considering he had the same conversation with the Kents – or it’s Chloe realizing maybe she’s not his best friend? Not sure
- Wow. Look at that. A Souders/Peterson episode that I really like! The story was engaging even if a bit derivative in some ways – there are several big developments in the Smallville story and with certain characters – Jason gets pushed forward – Lionel is free – maybe this is the season Clark’s power gets revealed. It worked for me! Makes sense that this is the mid-season break
- Rating: 4
Next episode: Unsafe!