Smallville: 7×17 - “Sleeper”

What did I think of the latest Smallville episode, “Sleeper”?

Was it a “sleeper” or did I sleep through it?

READ ON!

This was a very interesting episode, to say the last. Some people liked it, some people hated it. I, for one, liked it. I thought it was a very well-done episode. Although not as powerful as Descent, I thought it was very a neat concept. It could be considered this season’s Noir, but I didn’t seem to mind this episode as much as I minded Noir. For those of you that don’t recall, Noir was that terrible Smallville 30’s flick.

But, like Noir, this episode focused on the character of Jimmy Olsen, which is something we don’t see a lot of in this show. Most episodes focus on the big four (Clark, Lana, Lex, and Chloe), so it was kind of a nice refresher to see most of the action kind of focus on Jimmy a little bit.

Another aspect of this episode that I seemed to enjoy was the fact that Jimmy and Chloe were in fact, pitted against each other. I kind of liked seeing those two characters, who have for the most part worked together, work against each other. It was interesting to see.

In many Smallville episodes, there are throwbacks to events and places in the comics. One of these references that took place was the fact that most of the action took place at the Ace of Clubs. I, for one, thought this was wonderful. In interviews that I have read, the writers have stated that they are getting close to bridging the gap between Smallville and Superman. This is a definite step in that right direction. When the Ace of Clubs was mentioned in the episode, I half-expected Bibbo to show up sometime to greet Chloe and Jimmy. I hope we still will . . .

Another interesting point that seemed to drive the episode was the fact that the rogue agent was an agent of the Department of Domestic Security. If you remember, earlier in the season, that agency was actually a big part of the events of season 7. Me personally, I thought they were going to play a bigger role than they ended up playing, but it was still nice to see that come back. I would actually love if they revisited that plotline a little bit.

Because this was a Jimmy-centric episode, I really liked that in the end, it was Jimmy that saved Chloe, and not Clark this time around. That’s where the similarities between Noir and this episode end for me. Jimmy really got a chance to step up and be the hero, by not only foiling the agent, but by saving Chloe as well.

Like I said, I think the character of Jimmy Olsen is a relatively unexplored character. I think there can be a good episodes about him, and this definitely was one of them. I really hope that next season, we will see more of these Jimmy-centric stories down the pipeline.

What makes this Jimmy-centric episode was of course the actor who plays Jimmy Olsen, Aaron Ashmore. The guy doesn’t get nearly enough credit for pulling off the nuances of Jimmy Olsen, but I think he does pull off the character very nicely. Now, when Jimmy was first introduced, I was skeptical, but I think he does pull it off.

Another great instance in the Jimmy-centric episode was the scene between Clark and Jimmy. Now, me personally, I have always enjoyed Clark and Jimmy scenes, in the same way I enjoy Clark and Lois scenes. You feel that there will be an intense history with these characters in the future, but for now, their friendship is just beginning. It’s kind of fun to watch. But I particularly enjoyed this scene above all the other Clark and Jimmy scenes we’ve had, because it seemed like a classic scene where Jimmy is upset and Clark kind of calm him down. You definitely see that brother-brother relationship that will develop later in these characters’ lives.

Another instance that was a really interesting character move was the fact that Jimmy went to Lex to clear Chloe’s name. I think this sort of alliance will be very interesting. It won’t be unlike the alliance that Chloe and Lionel had in the early seasons. I , for one, am very excited to see how it unfolds.

Now, if the Jimmy storyline were the only storyline that was focused on in this episode, that would’ve been cool. But, the fact that we got that storyline along with all the other storylines that moved the story of the season forward into future episodes a lot more.

The one that caught me by surprised was the Lex storyline in this episode. It was a storyline that surprised me. I wasn’t expecting it was going to happen in this episode. The storyline I am referring to is the storyline of Lex’s journey to Zurich to find the contents of the mysterious Veritas box. Now, I had seen promos of Lex opening the box, so I recognized a lot of the scenes that took place.

What was inside this box intrigues me. From what I can gather, it seems to be a card with five or six little mini-compasses that form the Veritas symbol. They look to be coordinates to something. Now, from what we have heard about this mysterious box, we know that within it lies the secret to controlling Clark. How can some coordinates lead to controlling Clark?

A theory that I have about this is that each little mini-compass on the Veritas “map,” leads to a certain part of the globe. Each point of location will lead to an endgame, where will lie the secret of controlling Clark. That’s what I think, anyway, because Lex mentions going to Quebec. What could possibly lie in Quebec? The last time Lex was in Quebec was when he was tracking Bizarro in the season 6 finale.

Another interesting aspect of this particular storyline of the episode is after Lex opened the box, someone tried to kill him. Who was this man? Was he the same man that killed Gina in the last episode? So many questions that we’ll have to wait a few weeks to get answers to, I’m afraid.

Like I said, the fact that Lex opened the Veritas box surprised me. Because like a few scenes sprinkled throughout the final five episodes this season, this scene was supposed to be in Veritas, as that episode was supposed to be the season finale. I had expected they would’ve moved this scene to at least the finale, or the episode before the finale. I wasn’t expecting to have it here. However, I did enjoy seeing it there.

Another plotline that was leading to future episodes was Clark’s search for Kara. Kara’s everlasting contact with Clark was really cool. The fact that she was on Krypton and trying to communicate with Clark from the past to the current Smallville timeline was really cool to me. It reminded me a lot of Back to the Future.

The only thing that kind of got on my nerves about this plotline was Clark’s attitude about it. Now, he obviously, after the last episode, didn’t want anything to do with Lex. I can understand that. But, Lex holds the keys to controlling him. I figured he’d want to do something about that. I understand why they wrote that part in. They had plans for Lex to open the box in that episode, so they couldn’t have Clark meddling with that. So that’s why that kind of happened. I just think it could’ve been written better.

Everything else about this plotline really intrigued me. I liked the fact that Brainiac has gone back in time to completely annihilate the House of El, by killing off Clark as a baby. This reminded me of an episode of Lois and Clark, when a villain named Tempus tried to go back in time and kill Superman when he first arrived in Smallville. It was kind of cool seeing Smallville revisit this kind of story.

This particular plotline however, while interesting, kind of served as a direct lead-in into the next episode, Apocalypse, where Clark will see a world without a Superman (or in this case, Clark Kent). I cannot wait to see where that all goes.

This episode was written by Caroline Dries, who has turned in some great episodes such as Nemesis and Action. She really did a good job with this episode, which could;’ve been a disaster, but she was able to flawlessly weave scenes that had been in previous episodes along with the ones that were particularly written for this one.

All-in-al, a great episode. I wasn’t really holding too much for it, as I was placing it in the filler category. I was genuinely surprised by how much I enjoyed this episode. It could’ve been filler had it not been for the couple of plotlines that moved the season’s storyline along nicely. A very fun episode, to say the least. Definitely can be considered weak after the blockbuster episode that was Descent, but it’s always nice to have a break from the mythos-heavy episodes that are to follow in the next few weeks. This episode definitely lived up to its title. It really was a “sleeper.”

RATING: 8/10

This entry was posted on 26. April 2008 at 10:14 and is filed under Smallville Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site.

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