Somebody Else's Nimrod

"Crisis"/"Truth"

"Crisis" was a very frustrating episode for me--a textbook case of a set-up episode that lacked a clear self-contained plot of his own, so felt more like a succession of unrelated plot points than an actual episode. I also wish to God they'd give Martha her agency back. However, I cannot be too critical of an episode in which Clark rips Lex's shirt off.

"Truth," on the other hand, contained mere self-shirt-ripping by Lex, but I enjoyed it a good deal more. As I've been on board with Allison Mack since about the third episode, I don't feel the need to go on at great length about her performance, which was only what I expected, but she does deserve recognition for her ability to infuse vulnerability and charm into a character who could easily become shrill and unlikeable even without the writers' sabotaging her as they did last year. I do think the episode would have benefited if there had been one confession that was a revelation to the audience, not just the characters, but since the confessions did serve as lovely character work in many cases, I can live with that. Naturally, I was most pleased by the responses of senior and junior Luthor to Chloe's interrogation: Lex's agonized confession of something I think he had been at least denying to himself for some time was pitch-perfect, and Lionel's cheerful discussion of his sociopathy was both perfect counterpoint and funny as hell. I was also touched, however, by Pete's willingness to throw himself on the grenade by confessing his secret rather than Clark's--it was a Buffy moment from an ex-Buffy writer, I feel, and we got more a likeable and understandable Pete than we have in months from it. I was further pleased to see Clark's ability to forgive Chloe (while still making a reasoned assessment of her behavior) at the end of the episode. I was really hoping that his own fall from grace this summer would teach him more compassion for human frailty, and it seems to be working. While I find the new plan for Lana's summer as badly grounded as everyone else does, I take some small hope from the fact that it indicates that the writers realize that they still haven't sold her to the audience and need to retool her yet again. Perhaps she will come back from Paris having grown a soul, though, honestly, listening to her unblinkingly narcissistic assessment of the family who took her into their home as well as the people who rearrange their lives for her on a regular basis, I think the City of Lights will be sowing its seeds on stony ground.

"Memoria": I may have to build a pillow fort to hide in before watching this one. Just the trailer jabs at some personal vulnerabilities in a way that SV rarely has before. I hope to survive the trauma--it will help if Lana doesn't turn out the heroine of the piece.