Alicia (Sarah Carter) needs Clark (Tom Welling) to comfort her in the SMALLVILLE episode "Unsafe." Sorry Clark, the girl's a psycho.
© The WB Television Network

Mania Grade: B+
Episode: Nemesis
Stars: Tom Welling, Michael Rosenbaum, Kristen Kreuk, Allison Mack, Annette O'Toole, Erica Durance
Created By: Alfred Gough, Miles Millar

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"Smallville: Nemesis"

What the…?  I miss one episode of Smallville and when I come back Lana is nearly interesting?  Last week was a really crappy week for me in regards to fighting with my DVR.  It started crapping out on me and some of my shows were completely scrambled.  I was able to catch most of them on the web or On Demand but the return episode of Smallville I just completely missed.  So, I was frustrated coming back to it this week feeling a bit cold.  I have to say right off that as much as certain aspects of this episode irritated me other parts reinvigorated some less interesting characters and relationships. 

Lex, as usual has a new project and it’s in these underground tunnels.  While down there checking them out Lex and Lionel run into a woman who is supposed to be ex-military but she looks more like ex-model with dog tags, but that’s standard operating procedure for the CW.  She sets off a bomb caving in part of the tunnel separating her and Lex from Lionel.  Eventually, the police come and rescue Lionel who is alive but appears to be in real trouble.  Reluctantly Clark decides to go down into the tunnels to save Lex.  The woman is mad at Lex for taking her husband and if Lex doesn’t give him back she’s going to blow herself and Lex to bits.  So, even though the husband does exist and he’s part of an experiment run by Lex the woman is no more than a plot device to get Clark and Lex down in these tunnels together.  She does blow herself up and Lex barely gets away.  OK ,the crutch of Alfred Gough and Miles Millar, the tunnels are full of meteor rocks.  So, when Clark gets down there he’s weak and he gets a chunk of debris jammed in his shoulder.  He and Lex end up working together to get out of the tunnels.  The dynamic between these two characters has been uninteresting for quite some time but this set up really rekindles the energy between them.  Clark asks Lex at one point “Were we ever friends?” and Lex’s response is dramatic and very telling about Lex as a person.  He says “I don’t know.  I don’t have anything to compare it too.”  The exchange reveals just how sad Lex really is inside, and how lonely he is.  The problem is the Luthor nature to be bad will always keep him this way and he knows it. 

I was surprised at the candid nature of Lex and Clark’s conversation.  Lex explains that he knows that Clark has been keeping a secret from him all of these years and how he was so certain that Clark was invulnerable only to see him now weakened and bleeding.  Clark replies decrying Lex’s need to exploit those with “special abilities”.  To me, in this conversation Clark basically admits there is something different about himself but that’ll probably be forgotten down the road.  Clark also tells Lex that Lana had planned not to marry him and asks Lex what he did to her to change her mind.  Lex, not seeming too surprised answers that he doesn’t know.  This whole sequence in the tunnels is fantastic drama between two people who have been through so much together.  Between them, they see for just a minute what made them friends to begin with.  Clark later even feels bad for Lex telling Martha that maybe he gave up on Lex too soon.  Martha thinks that’s BS but she tries to comfort him in that mom way but still tells him that sometimes there’s no turning back on certain relationships.   

The thing that really blew me away, as I mentioned earlier, was that I was enjoying watching Lana in this episode!  Lana is damn mad, she’s mad at Lex for lying to her about her pregnancy and she’s mad at Lionel for forcing her into this marriage to Lex.  Lana discovers the blueprints to the caves but doesn’t share them with the police, essentially hoping Lex will die down there.  It’s only when she finds out from Chloe that Clark is down there and in trouble that she shares the plans.  Chloe is shocked as is Clark when she tells him about it later.  Lana tries to find out from Chloe what Clark’s weakness is but she should no better, Chloe ain’t givin’ up nothin’.   Lana’s reasons for wanting to know Clark’s weakness have changed slightly.  Of course, she still wants to know because she thinks she deserves too but she also wants to know to help Clark against the Luthors.  What’s interesting here is that if Clark and Chloe knew the truth about the situation Lana is in and what Lionel said to her, they might even just share Clark’s secret with her.  Now, what’s frustrating is that neither Lex nor Lana has figured out what Clark’s weakness is.  Lex is supposed to be a pretty smart guy and there have been so many instances where Clark has been weakened when meteor rocks are around it’s a little unrealistic to think that Lex wouldn’t have figured out that these green rocks hurt Clark by now. 

As if Lana’s scene with Chloe where she admits to having the blueprints isn’t intense enough she gets another whopper with Lionel in the hospital.  She says “I know you’re in a lot of pain, good.”  Then she twists the tubes delivering pain medication to him demanding answers to why Lionel is doing this to her and what he meant when he told her he put her in this situation to protect Clark.  Lionel’s answers are lame to say the least but the scene revealed a whole new level of what Lana is capable of.  She’s unflinchingly cold throughout this episode and the façade of warmth she puts on at the end of the episode for Lex seems to only barely cover the rage she feels inside.  There was always a wedge between Lex and Lana, but before it was just Clark, but now there’s so many secrets and lies between them it almost feels noir.  With this one episode, I’m interested in Lana again, and I want to see where Clark and Lex go from here.  The set up for Nemesis was weak, more meteor rocks and characters that are nothing more than plot devices, but the payoff was worth it.