04:15 SACRED
Prologue
- College application deadlines. I can’t remember if he goes or not?
- Why does it matter that Lois isn’t around? Followup to her appearance last episode, but wow, Ma. It’s not all that deep just yet. / Also followup to Recruit as well.
- Death of Virgil Swann. Clark said he talked to him last week – between episodes
- “Now you must seek out your father” – Pa seems awfully agitated or concerned when Jor-El is mentioned
- The key is back! Haven’t seen it since 3:17 Legacy. Pa had it. It went into the cave wall. And then Virgil had it by the end of the episode
- You can feel this is leading up to the spring break. All the big elements are back again
- I wondered where Jor-El went to after Clark returned at the top of this season
- Two symbols at top of key: SM – Superman / and on the side: “barcode”
- This looks very Phantom Zone esque / or the room in Superman II that held the Phantom Zoners captive until being sent off
- “A great civilization that destroyed itself” – Clark throwing this back into Jor-El’s face
- “Knowledge was encoded in three stones and brought to Earth” – okay – so now we get confirmation / also, collecting the stones by a human “Will drive the world to famine, war and the Earth’s ultimate destruction”
- Why didn’t Jor-El tell Clark this when he had him for all that time between seasons 3 and 4? What did Clark gain from that trip? Why was he brought back? Why do we need the key again suddenly? This is where all of these tangents into his origin, all of these unnecessary connections between Krypton and Earth, start to fray and show their weakness. Info is being held off for major episodes/moments without regard to a narrative that makes sense
Act One
- Writers Kelly Souders and Brian Peterson. Uh oh / Brad Turner director
- Jason in China and lying to Lana about it
- There’s a stone here. Jason came because of the map that Lionel gave him / and of course Lex knows as well. Is this the same map from the manuscript? Because it always seemed awfully vague in detail
- “Walked away from Jor-El” – I mean, did he? Just like that? Again, why?
- And now Clark doesn’t want to be normal anymore. We’re back to his understanding that he’ll never be normal because the episode demands his attention on all things Kryptonian
- Lionel and Lana: “you’re the one born right into the middle of all this.” Of course Lionel knows about Isobel / and now Lana knows he knows
- Apparently this is the first scene between Lionel and Lana? That’s crazy if true.
- Gertrude. Isobel’s arch rival. Obsessed with finding stones. / Okay, the map again, and I guess it was always meant to point to China, not just to all of the stones?
- Jason is a direct descendent of Gertrude – Lana should already be aware of this considering she saw his mom in her dreams
- Lana going to China. I mean, just like that? Haha. Come on.
- “Maybe he has a good reason why he’s not being open with you.” Clark, did you just say that to Lana? And look at her reaction back to him. She can’t believe he said that either.
- Ah okay. Lionel set it all up and she’s going on his private jet
- Lionel and Jason arrested. Something about these scenes in China, running through the streets, etc – you can see how it’s a direct line to similar scenes in the Arrowverse
Act Two
- Clark has seen this map before. Everyone’s making it about Lana but he knows it’s really about himself
- Lana to Clark: “You’re the only person in my life that doesn’t have an agenda” Oops.
- “Someone out there has a plan for you but you don’t know what it is yet” – I said this before: Lana’s story this season is a way to put her in Clark’s shoes. But will it ultimately connect them or just be something the writers play with for the viewers
- Clark to Lana: “And you’re afraid if people know about that part of you, they’ll see you differently” – see?
- The two people Lana trusted: Lionel and Clark. Ugh – I hope they aren’t trying to make Clark and Lana a thing again.
- Her symbol is on the wall
- Lex says Lana has a way of attracting self appointed heroes / Lex wonders if he’s not protecting Lana from Jason.
- Where is this filmed? Look at the people wearing masks
- Michelle Goh as Professor Sen. These are her last acting credits. Odd. / Is her voice being dubbed? Or just needed extra ADR because of the background noise
- “All powerful god that came from another world… hid a treasure and left a map” – Jor El said the stones were put on Earth. By him? When? Can’t be when Jor-El came to earth in the 60s, that isn’t far back enough in time
- Wait – is this Lex’s doing? Haha… yup. / and of course it goes sideways. Lionel’s doing?
- Oh look – it’s Byron Mann
Act Three
- Clark sees a tunic behind a wall, with the map design
- Kryptonite booby trap!
- Jason and Lex tortured. This is ridiculous for Smallville. / bahaha and now Lana too. Come on.
- Uh oh, here comes the witch, the bad incantations and the awful poses
- “It was never a map”
- Clark knocked out by Isobel
Act Four
- “Clark, is there anything you know that we don’t?” – oh so much
- Yea really, Lionel’s search crew must be awful if he couldn’t see behind just a plain wall
- Clark figures out the position of the “not map”
- Clark! You dummy. If you grabbed the stone from her, why didn’t you keep running?
- Look at the stone in a red “cape”
- Nooooooo – not Crouching Lana Hidden Clark!! / this has to have the writers DNA on it. “Hey, let’s send them to China so we can do cool a cool martial arts episode!” As I said before, they start with a premise or mood first, Smallville story second. Bleh.
Act Five
- Clark to Lana: “There’s a part of you I don’t recognize anymore” / and Lana laughing about that considering their history. As if Clark doesn’t know what he’s doing or saying, knowing that he’s in Lana’s shoes and she’s in his
- “Our lives are a lot less random than we think”. Yea, no doubt. And that’s the part I don’t like about Smallville’s origin stuff
- Lionel and Lex, about finding the stones: Lionel warning Lex away. And whether it’ll give the answers they need
- Lana and Jason: oh damn. Jason has the second stone! How did he get that from Clark? Gives it to Lana as a sign of trust
- Apparently this is the Crystal of Air
- Ma: “why are the stones surrounded by Kryptonite?” Good question
- Virgil’s last email: Bridgette Crosby is supposed to give Clark a stone but she’s missing. This would be the stone from Transference that was given to her by Lionel’s old cellmate
- And then it ends with a Virgil voice over with Clark in front of the cave table. Odd.
- For a mythology episode, it works. Because it answers a bunch of questions about the crystals. But the way they go about it – the production and setting – does not hold up and feels too cosplay or not as polished as, say, those scenes in Egypt from episode 1 of this season. And at this point, with everyone seeing Lana go all witch, and doing everything she can do, not to mention the idea of Stones and Caves, etc – no one should be surprised by super powered people or Clark being an alien. Maybe that’s why it doesn’t all ring true for me: in a world where all this lore and magic is commonplace, how can Superman rise above it?
- Rating: 4. But begrudgingly
Next episode: Lucy!