Just when we thought we knew what "Smallville" is about, this episode turns everything on its head. I'm also not sure if it hasn't turned the existing Superman mythology on its head.
The episode introduces two new facts. First, the Earth was previously visited by people from the planet Krypton. Second, there are prophecies about the coming of a new visitor from Krypton.
The first fact is easy to accept. Why shouldn't the Earth have been visited in the past? When the young child Kal El was shot into space by his father (and I know I'm giving away spoilers for future episodes), the destination wasn't random, it was a planet he knew about. I don't know if that's part of the existing Superman mythology, but it may be. Please, if anyone reading this is well informed about the Superman comics, let me know.
The second fact is difficult to accept. It's leaving the field of science and turning to religion. This is something that Tom Welling and Michael Rosenbaum failed to address in their podcast. It puts a completely different slant on the series. It's something that I highly doubt is contained in the existing Superman mythology. Again, please leave a comment to let me know. I've read very few Superman comics, but if you recommend issues I should be able to find them.
I jumped straight in with my questions instead of starting with a description of the episode itself. Let's put things straight. The episode begins with Luthorcorp building new office buildings. Joseph Willowbrook, a tribal chief, complains about it. He says that the area is sacred to his tribe. But since when did native Americans ever have success with complaints like that?
At night the site's foreman is attacked by a white wolf. He fires a flare gun to scare it away, but he misses, and whatever he hits is highly explosive. The whole site is destroyed. The foreman himself is killed by the wolf.
Two things about the building site. First, look at the sign. What does it say? "The Leeder in High Tech Office Space". What sort of spelling is that? Checking the rest of the text, a strange font is used in which the small letters a and e are almost identical. Apart from that, the inner-word spacing is non-existent. Is it possible that the second e in Leeder is really an a? I checked the sign with a magnifying glass, and the answer is No. The centre bar of the small a is slanted more than in the e. The word really is spelt Leeder. But what sort of designer would use such a poor quality font? It gives me no trust in Luthorcorp.
Second, the night-time explosion at the site is the biggest and most spectacular explosion in the series so far. They must have had money left over for this episode's budget.
The next scene is Clark Kent and Pete Ross racing motorbikes across the fields, laughing as they go. Wow! This is so out of character for Clark. Has he been near the red meteor rocks again? It's even worse for Pete, because he's risking his life. Another problem is that the scene repeatedly shows Clark's face, and we can see it's not Tom Welling, it's his stunt double. Admittedly, I didn't notice this error at first, but Michael Rosenbaum pointed it out in the podcast, so I went back to check it, and yes, it's Chris Sayour on the bike.
Clark's bike crashes, and he falls into a hole in the ground. There's a 100 foot drop into underground caves. That's not enough to kill Clark, but he's temporarily dazed. A young woman finds him, and he thinks it's Lana Lang. It's actually Kyla Willowbrook, the daughter of the tribal chief. The caves are the sacred site that her father was talking about. There are paintings on the wall about visitors from the sky 500 years ago. There are prophecies about a man called Naman who will return, a man with great strength who can shoot fire from his eyes. Seeing that Clark was unharmed by the fall, and he's also unharmed when rocks fall on him, she suspects that he's the man in the prophecy.
The most interesting part of the drawings is a painting of Naman and Sageeth. The tribal legends foretell that they will be close friends, but at some point Sageeth will turn against Naman. After that Naman will represent Good in the world, and Sageeth will represent Evil.
That's heavy stuff. The visitors from Krypton must have told this story to the Kawatche tribe, but where did they get it from? Were the Kryptonians religious seers?
Clark tells Lana about the hidden caves and says they should be preserved. She asks for help from Henry Small, the lawyer who she suspects might be her biological father. The DNA test results have arrived. He's her father. He gets a restraining order to temporarily halt the construction work. Clark asks Lex to persuade his father not to continue with the building. Lex is reluctant, until he sees the cave drawings for himself. There's an octagonal shape the same size as the octagonal artefact given to him by Dr. Mortimer, and the symbols seem to be written in the same language. This fascinates Lex, and he wants to investigate more.
Joseph Willowbrook is arrested because a cloth is found at his house with the foreman's blood. He proclaims his innocence. Lex posts bail because of his fascination with the caves.
Chloe's research finds stories of native American skinwalkers, people who could take on the form of wolves. Clark asks Kyla, and she tells him that the visitors from the sky brought green rocks that gave her people this ability. Clark suspects Joseph is the wolf.
Lionel is attacked by a wolf in the Luthor mansion. Luckily Clark just happens to be passing by late at night and saves Lionel from the wolf. Lionel's security guards arrive, late as usual, and the wolf jumps out through the window. It's injured by glass shards. Outside, Clark finds Kyla lying dying.
Judging by the amount of howling in the woods, it can be assumed that there were many skinwalkers in the tribe, but Kyla was their leader.
In the final scene, Lana visits Clark in his barn. She tells him she's been writing to her ex-boyfriend Whitney, but now he's missing in action.
This week's podcast doesn't have a guest star, but Michael rings Al Gough again. They speak on the phone for a few minutes. Michael asks Al about the series' change of direction with the caves, but he doesn't ask the questions I would have asked. It's always pleasant to hear from Al. He has a better memory of the episodes than Tom or Michael, probably due to being more intensively involved with them. In the case of this episode, Tom Welling has more memories than usual. He remembers seeing the wolf on the set. It was well trained, but Tom didn't have any scenes with it, so he stayed out of its way.
Al verified that it was intention to tease the viewers with uncertainty about whether Lionel's blindness was genuine. Yes, I remember watching the later episodes in which it's revealed that Lionel had recovered his sight without telling anyone, but at this point I don't feel teased. Lionel turns his head towards the noise at the door, but that must be the normal reflex of a person who's recently become blind.
In retrospect, Al regrets letting Kyla die after only one episode. He thinks there could have been an interesting story arc. Michael agrees. It's interesting to see a romance quickly blossoming between Clark and Kyla. It could have added more friction to the Clark-Lana-Chloe love triangle, turning it into a love square. That expression doesn't sound so good, does it?
By the way, I'm disappointed with Tom. He said that he watched the episode on his phone in preparation for the podcast. Really, Tom! That's not the way to enjoy "Smallville". You should be sitting in front of a large television screen with your wife in your arm while sipping a glass of wine.
The Talon still has open mic nights, or however Lana like to spell them.
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