Smallville: Descent Review
Olsen, Jimmy Olsen, 007
Photo courtesy of The CW/Michael Courtney
*SPOILER WARNING*
April 18th, 2008 - Wow. This was, hands down, one of the best episodes of Smallville in recent memory. Descent was a perfectly appropriate title, as Lex became totally, fully, and completely evil in this episode. Yeah, he’s done some bad stuff before, and yeah, he basically went to the dark side a while back, but from where he has now gone there is no redemption and no return. For Chrissakes he killed his father AND his inner child. Lex Luthor has officially crossed the line to full on villain now.
Despite Lionel’s changes of allegiances over the years, I’m sad to see him go. (Though nowhere near as devastated as I was when Jonathan Kent died, of course.) John Glover played the character brilliantly, and lately he did really care to seem to care about protecting Clark and his secret, even if his methods were still pure Luthor.
The Clark/Lex tension in this episode was unmatched. The glances the two exchanged outside of LuthorCorp’s building spoke volumes; Lex had just committed the ultimate act of evil, and his guilt forced him to glare at his pure-at-heart former friend. Despite the search for proof as the episode continued, Clark knew that very instant that Lex was responsible for Lionel’s death. When Clark confronted Lex at the mansion, accusing him of the murder, things got heavy. The show has had more than its share of these confrontations before, with Clark trying to get a confession out of Lex that never comes, but this scene was far more powerful than any that had come before it. Though Tom Welling did a great job here, Michael Rosenbaum played the moment brilliantly. Lex, accused by his friend of patricide, turns right back and implies that Clark was responsible for Jonathan’s death, then further blames Clark for his own turn to the dark side, stating that if Clark hadn’t given up on his friend, Lex would not be the man he is. Both accusations really get to Clark, as they both have elements of truth to them.
There were a few nitpicky things that bothered me about this episode, the first being that Martha Kent was totally M.I.A. There is no way that she wouldn’t have shown up or at the very least called when she heard about the death of her former friend, and her omission stuck out. I understand that it may have been silly to bring back Annette O’Toole for a brief cameo here, but they could have mentioned in passing that she sent flowers or something to that effect. (As a side-note, it also bugged me at the time that Pete wasn’t there for Jonathan’s funeral. Again, there are logistical issues involved in bringing characters back for small moments, but not having them there takes you out of the reality that exists for these characters. OK, I’m done.) And while I’m on logistics, the way this season has been aired is downright awful. The three-week gap between the last episode and this was just too jarring, especially since this week’s episode picked up immediately after Veritas. There have been scheduling problems all over the networks this season because of the strike, but someone at the CW should have thought better about the way this season’s episodes would be arranged. Getting back to the plot, I was also taken aback by the fuss Chloe made about wanting her personal belongings back from The Daily Planet. Really? That’s her biggest concern right then? That just felt out of place. Also, even though stuff like this happens a lot, it bugged me that after finding Chloe knocked out at The Isis Foundation, Clark didn’t use his X-ray vision or super hearing to investigate if someone was lurking around, especially since Gina was in fact still there.
Speaking of Gina, who was that man who killed her? Is there a larger conspiracy to protect The Traveler than we knew about? Hopefully her murder was foreshadowing of bigger things to come.
Overall, I thought this was a stellar episode. The ending of Lionel’s funeral was a stark contrast to that of Jonathan Kent. Lionel’s funeral was empty and on a sunny day, as if the world didn’t care about the loss of this man, as opposed to Jonathan’s funeral, which was full of family and friends on a cold and snowy day - even the heavens mourned the loss of that great man. The only constant between the two was a sorrowful Clark, placing a handful of dirt on each man’s casket. My only concern now is what will happen in the show’s eighth season. I always envisioned Lex killing Lionel in the series finale, as the final act that shoves Lex over the edge towards his destiny of evil. Now that this has happened towards the end of season seven, I am even more concerned than I was previously about what will happen to the show next year. With Lex’s arc now complete and the show-runners not returning, I worry that amazing Smallville episodes like Descent will be a thing of the past.
Alan’s Score: 9.3 out of 10
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