Smallville 3x19

[carynb]

Just when I'm about to give up on Smallville, they go and pull off an episode that makes me fall in love with it, all over again.

This was a fabulous episode. It kept me on the edge of my seat the whole time, wondering what was going to happen next.

Of the Very Good:

• The scene between Lionel and wee!Lex, after Lex's disastrous 12th birthday party. There's a hint that Lionel might have actually been a good father for Lex, if things had turned out a little differently. His advice - basically, to repress all the fear and sadness that Lex was feeling - may not have been the best advice in the world. It was, however, fairly obvious that it came not from trying to toughen Lex up to some impossible standard, but from trying to give Lex some tools to deal with the fact that he would always be on the outside. From the scene setup, with Lex crying over the fact that no-one had shown up for his party, I was expecting immediate scorn from Lionel. Instead, we got concern and gentleness. An excellent job by both actors.
  
  
• The Box! Although, I now tend to think that it was a gift from Lex's father rather than his mother, as he told Clark. Really, where was Lillian? I know they gave an explanation - that the pregnancy had her tired - but she left her son alone to deal with his rejection by all his peers? There are hints there that Lex has hugely romanticized his memories of his mother, and I think this is one place where it really shows.
  
  
• The overheard scene between Lionel and Lillian, and the way that his mother's concerns are a direct echo of what Lex told Clark about his baby brother in Stray. The echo is actually in the other direction, I guess, and it's interesting that Lex could echo his mother's thoughts without even remembering them.
  
  
• "Strip Him." I mean really, what more needs to be said? *g*
  
  
• The whole push-pull relationship between Clark & Lex. Even with the slash glasses I regularly wear, they're acting like siblings - fighting like cats and dogs between themselves, but instantly closing ranks against anyone who would hurt either of them.
  
  
• the last scene between Lex & Lionel. MR & JG may have been chewing the scenery just a touch, but it worked. You could just see Lionel realize what he'd thrown away 10 years earlier. You could see him realize that 12 year old Lex had been so afraid of what Lionel would do to his mother that he'd sacrificed every option for the one thing Lex has always said he wanted (Lionel's love), and covered for her. When Lex walked away from Lionel, I think we saw the true beginning of the man who will become Lex Luthor.
  
  
• The very last scene - I cried most of the way through it, actually. The use of My Immortal in the background for the scene was perfect. From the scene setup, I thought it was going to be the usual CLana tag, and was relieved when Martha walked up the stairs instead. That whole scene was just Perfect.
  

Of the "he's not really very smart, is he?"

• I'll give Clark the benefit of the doubt here. I really don't think he was trying to stop the treatments in order to keep his secret; I think he was genuinely concerned about Lex. The fact that Lex had been screaming Julian's name from a parapet on the Luthor mansion just wasn't healthy. However, going to Lionel to stop Lex? How could Clark think for a moment that anything good would come of it? I know he was operating from the assumption that Lionel would be concerned about Lex, but it was still a really dumb move.
  

Of the Bad:

There was none.

5 Stars for this one, AlMiles.