Smallville: 7×18 - “Apocalypse”

Sorry for the delay, but here it is.

On the eve of a new Smallville episode, I have written my review of the alterniverse episode of Smallville entitled Apocalypse.

What did I think? Did I absolutely love it, or hate it?

READ ON!

NOTE: A LOST review is in the pipeline, and this week’s Smallville review of Quest (the penultimate episode of season 7) will be out a little sooner than this one was. Again, sorry for the delay, guys.

What an episode this was. I can say that I really enjoyed it. True, it was a filler at points, but I think it was a really great filler. A lot of people say that last week’s episode, Sleeper, was a filler, but I believe Sleeper to still contain very important plot points that will play out for the rest of the season. This one did not. However, having said, it was still pretty frakking awesome.

I think this was an awesome episode across the board. I wasn’t expecting to much out of it, to be quite honest. I was excited about it, as I usually am when Smallville airs every week, but I was expecting another Labyrinth, as I had read the spoilers for the episode and what it was going to contain. But I was still pleasantly surprised with how the episode turned out in the end. And Smallville doesn’t surprise me generally. I leave that to LOST.

Now, I am a huge fan of “alternate universe” episodes. I think any show in this genre undertakes this kind of episodes. Some other Smallville examples are Lexmas and Labyrinth. Othwer outside of Smallville include Star Trek: the Next Generation’s All Good Things, Buffy’s Normal Again, Heroes’ Five Years Gone and Supernatural’s What Is And What Should Never Be. What makes these kind of episodes so riveting is to see a kind of fish out of water story, combined with all of the characters that we have come to know and love in different situations and environments.

One character that had changed drastically in this “alterniverse” was the character of Lex Luthor. In episodes previous, we had seen Lex kind of embrace his dark destiny, and in this, we got to see classic comic Lex. As some Superman fans know, Lex Luthor actually did become President of the United States. So it was kind of nice to see him in this fashion and to see Michael Rosenbaum act as this different kind of Lex than we’re used to. As we’ve seen in episodes of the series, Michael Rosenbaum really shines when we see him in an evil fashion. Some episodes that are to be noted are Onyx and Zod.

A character that did not change as he was kind of the window into the audience was Clark Kent. Now, there have been episodes in Smallville that we’ve seen Clark kind of rise up and be very heroic and Superman-ish, and those are usually the premiere episodes. But I feel that this episode saw Clark Kent in a more Superman fashion than I have ever seen him. Not only was he the heroic Superman character that we all love, but he was the persona of Clark Kent, too. That wasn’t just because he donned the classic reporter suit and glasses that people know him as in the movies and various series. I thought Tom Welling played those particular parts of Clark wonderfully, and it will be interesting to see him portray these aspects once he delves more into that in the eighth season of the series. I’ve said this before, but I honestly believe that had Tom Welling not accepted his role in Smallville, he would have landed the role in Superman Returns.

Another way that the character of Clark shined in is his complete character evolution that he goes through in this episode. At the beginning of the episode, we see him kind of moping, wishing he’d never come to Earth, which we’ve seen in many an episode of Smallville. I mean, this is a character quirk that has been dangling ever since the pilot, when Clark learned about the meteor shower and how he had arrived in it. I’m glad that with this episode, that this character quirk was put to bed in this episode. I think that this episode was kind of necessary for Clark in that manner. Throughout the course of the episode, he realizes that not everything that goes wrong in the world is his fault, and that he has saved more people than he has helped.

He also learned that he is responsible for many of his friends coming together: Lex, Chloe, Lana and Pete. It reminded me very much of the “alterniverse” episode of Supernatural where Dean (played by Smallville’s very own Jensen Ackles) learns that because he was not a paranormal hunter, his brother and him weren’t brought closer together. It was kind of cool to see that.

But because this was such a Clark-centric episode, there were many references to the overreaching Superman lore. Many of them were throwaway lines and the way things were shot and such that made the episode that much more enjoyable. If you were a Superman fan and had never seen an episode of Smallville in your life, than this was definitely the episode for you to watch and tune in on.

As far as story arcs do go, this episode wasn’t a total filler, because we really did get to see what Brainiac had been planning ever since he returned this season. It was all a ploy to release Zod from the Phantom Zone, which, if you remember from season 5, is Brainiac’s main purpose. So it was really cool to see that plotline from season 5 revisited. It really brought things full-circle for the Brainiac character.

So why did he “need” Kara? I believe that the key to releasing Zod lies within the House of El, and if Clark did not stop Zod, than he still needed the other sole surviving member of the House of El: Kara. She also could fulfill two roles in Zod’s plan to dominate Earth: to release Zod and to be Zod’s mate, as was Lana’s fate in the premiere episode of season 6 aptly titled Zod.

As much as this was a Clark-centric episode, it was also a Clark and Lois-centric episode. We really got to see Clark and Lois working together in the reporter-style way that we have seen them work together in the movies and notably in the series, Lois and Clark. Now, obviously, Clark and Lois didn’t have the witty banter that we’re all familiar with from that particular series, it still had that teamup aspect, which was nice for longtime Superman fans.

As I’ve said earlier, Clark was more in his classic Superman personas in this episode. I think the same can be said about Lois. In this episode, Lois was in the classic ace reporter persona that we all know from the various series and movies that she has appeared in. I thought Erica Durance knocked this out of the park. She really played this off well. As I’m anxious to see Clark delve further into that classic reporter persona we are so familiar with, I am just as anxious to see Lois kind of delve into that reporter persona a lot more than she already has these past two seasons. I mean, she should have been in Superman Returns, not Ms. Bosworth.

As awesome as Clark and Lois were reporting by themselves, they were just as awesome together. You really, really felt the unique chemistry between Clark and Lois. That chemistry was not just between the characters but was also felt between the respective actors: Tom Welling and Erica Durance. Ever since Erica arrived on the show, I always thought that she and Welling had a great chemistry that was played out well. If Smallville does intend to play out Clark moving towards Lois in the eighth season, it will be interesting indeed.

Another character that seemed very much like his comic counterpart was the character of Jimmy Olsen. I really thought Aaron Ashmore really played this version of Jimmy Olsen really well. In fact, it is the Jimmy Olsen that I prefer to see in Smallville, not the spy-lovin version that we do see. I really thought that Jimmy’s mannerisms were really nailed down and there was great interaction between Clark and Jimmy.

Now, those who have read my reviews in the past know that I ma a bif gan of the Clark and Jimmy interaction when it does indeed happen. Last week, we really got to see a bit of it, but this time around, it really was what I remember from the comics and series. Clark and Jimmy really seemed to have a solid connecting friendship in their scenes together. It was quite awesome. Ashmore and Welling really played off of each other well in their scenes together.

I don’t think we can talk about this episode without mentioning the return of an old favorite character of mine in this series: Nancy Adams. Now, when the Sheriff was initially introduced to the series, I wasn’t fond of her. However, as time grew on, I grew to like her and thought that she could stick around. However, I was disappointed when she was killed off, but she went out good. That being said, I loved her appearance in this episode. I couldn’t really tell how she worked with the government. Was she a member of the Dept of Domestic Security (DDS)? Was she a detective, FBI agent? It really wasn’t specified in the episode, as she flashes her badge for a quick second before she covers it again. Nevertheless, I very much enjoyed Nancy Adams returning for a small bit part. It was wonderful to see her back.

This episode also saw the return of Kara after a two-episode break from her character. Now, in this season, Kara has disappeared and reappeared a number of times. But every time, she comes back, you definitely notice a difference in the dynamic of the show with the way things work and everything. Some people did not enjoy Kara’s alternate counterpart as a DDS agent, but I particularly enjoyed as it gave Laura Vandervoort an opportunity to stretch her acting wings to kind of play a tough-as-nails Kara that we don’t really see too much.

This aspect of the character also gave us a little peek at what Kara’s character really is like, at her heart: She is very loyal. The writers pointed it out in this episode, and if you go back to all the season 7 episodes, you notice that loyalty kind of develop over the season. In the current universe, Kara is loyal to Clark, as they are blood family. But, as we see in this episode, since Lex is her only remaining ties she has to family, she is loyal to him. So it was interesting to see that character aspect of Kara kind of come out. I almost wonder if that character quirk will play a part in later episodes.

I think the climaz of the episode was when Clark and Kara are facing Brainiac on Krypton. Now this was something I was not expecting this at all. After many watchings of this episode, I realized I should have, but I did not. I think I was so caught up in everything that was going on in the episode, that it has not even crossed my mind that they would actually visit Krypton.

Having said that, seeing Clark and Kara defeat Brainiac on Krypton was a visually stunning scene. I thought Marsters, Welling and Vandervoort really played off of each other well in that very epic scene. As with most things in this episode, it called back to many familiar moments in the Superman mythos. In fact, many of the exterior Krypton shots were from the original 1978 Superman movie. So that was neat to see.

Although this episode was a filler, it did set up for what might happen in the next two episodes nicely. For one, I don’t think Brainiac is dead as we were lead to believe in the episode. It was a nice confrontation, but I don’t think we’ve seen the last of Brainiac (which I’m thankful for, because I love James Marsters). I also think that Kara will be once again tied to Brainiac’s goings on in Smallville. It will be very interesting to see how that plays out.

This episode was beautifully directed by Tom Welling. Now, sometimes (not all the time but sometime) when an actor steps up to direct, it is usually an inconsequential episode. This episode was that, technichally, but it was still a pretty big episode, as far as things go. I think Mr Welling took everything he was given with this episode and literally ran with it. If the acting bit for Mr. Welling does not turn out, I think he would really be a great director. Every episode that he has directed were turned into better episodes had they been directed by a another director. So, kudos, Mr. Welling!

This episode was written by Al Septein and Turi Meyer, who wrote another alterniverse episode of Smallville entitled Labyrinth. I think they did a great job with that one, and did a great job with this one as well. They really nailed the core of what the characters are and what they could do to make the characters a little different than what we’ve seen. I hope to see another one in the future.

All in all, an awesome episode. I was literally on the edge of my seat the whole way through. Although I knew that many of the things that we were watching in the episode would probably be never seen again, it was still fun to see it happen and to see Smallville’s take on classic Superman moments and ideas.

RATING: 10/10

This entry was posted on 8. May 2008 at 15:42 and is filed under Smallville Reviews, Tv 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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