Smallville: Episode Reviews
Season 2 - Episode 7: "Lineage"
Reviewed by: Neal Bailey
Great episode. There were no loose ends, nothing hanging that made me, the close viewer, cringe, and the ending, what an ending. I haven't tingled at an ending on a TV show since Hourglass, last season.
Lex has a brother.
Lana has a father.
Clark still has jack. Mwu ha ha! Enter the kid brother from last episode next show. Great attention to parallel and how each character bounces off of each other. I mean, did you see that little moment where Clark tells Lex that no matter how cool it would be, they are not brothers? He gives Clark the stone face, okay, that's cool look, then he kind of bows his head, rather dramatic. Great acting job by Rosenbaum, as always. I don't think I've ever had a single complaint with how the man plays Luthor. Maybe how Luthor's written, but not how he's played.
The syringe thing was a bit much. I mean, he was behind the wheel of a really fast car, he saw her with the syringe, and she managed to inject him? It's one of those obligatory we've got to get the guy from here to here, so let's make some quick excuse for him to be incapacitated, but that even played, to a degree.
I loved seeing the scene from 1989. Clark touching Lex's head, the whole sheriff with sideburns thing. Hilarious and touching. This was almost Hourglass, but the thing it lacked was plausibility of the villain. Why would some insane lady with delusions of parenthood be let out on the street? How would she find out anything on paternity tests if she's too nutty to do anything but eat the tab button on her computer? Maybe that's harsh. I don't know. She didn't fly with me. But young Lionel, and the way he touched the lock of hair, that did.
No freak of the week.
No Kryptonite.
No pun (That's a rare one)
Chloe is actually tapped for being a nosy, scheming person. It was a great blow up scene. I've seen fights like that. I believed it. It didn't seem staged, and this is TV. Even Clark kind of intimidating her, knowing he won't do anything physical, but Chloe reacting to it as if he would. It played real, even if it was a little out of character for Clark. Hey, he's human. Good acting.
Just an all around great show. 5 of 5, all the way. The best of the season, so far, save the humor in Heat.
Afternote: Thanks to Rob Adams, formerly of Section 31 reviews (I read him before he read me... odd thing, that) for writing me and pointing out that the review for the last episode (Redux) was a little off because I was unaware of the fact that the episode was shot LAST season, and made to fit in with the current continuity. Thus the broken arm on Pete, the whole Lana's dad thing, they make more sense. There was cutting and pasting going on, from what I'm told, so this is the fault of bad production, perhaps. Still, I stand by my rating. I just think in fairness the potential for bias should be brought to light there. Still... Pete's arm was not broken this week. HA!
See you next week.
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