First off ... my goodness, Smallville, what were you thinking when you were filming this episode’s villain’s performance? Dr. Bernard Chisolm may have had his noggin carved up by the Kandorians after being risen from the dead, but that’s no excuse to overact! I actually laughed out loud at the delivery of such lines as “and then you’ll be HUNTED and EXTERMINATED!!” or when he pleads with Lois: “IT’S AN ALIEN!” We needed Dr. Hamilton to walk in and tell this dude to chillax! And to top it off, he goes out in the most cartoonish and ridiculous way possible – by accidentally electrocuting himself with his own giant drill! I mean, seriously, did Clark need to show up at all? This fool would have taken himself out easily!
It turns out who really is to blame for this wingnut is Faora and the other Kandorians, who were actually carving up human cadavers to see how they can get their powers back. When Chisolm is resurrected, he turned the tables and became a cross between Agent Mulder and Annie Wilkes as he forces Lois to write his cockadoody story. “Agent” Zod soon tracks her down, but gets shot in the process. Clark uses his blood to heal Zod. This is the second time this season Clark’s blood helped, the first being in "Rabid" when it helped create an antidote to cure the zombies that were running around. It’s interesting to see his blood coming back into play, as its regenerative abilities have not been discussed since Season 3 when Lionel (remember him?) used it to make his Lazarus Serum.
Clark’s blood not only heals Zod (although I wonder if he still has a bullet inside him), but it gives him the powers he has been dying for. Quite literally. When he flew off the roof of the Daily Planet, I actually got pretty aggravated because it seems that every full-powered Kryptonian rocks the power of flight almost immediately after arriving on Earth. Heck, even General Zod’s lifeforce helped Lex (remember him?) fly. If you are as frustrated as I am about this, I will remind you what Jor-El said to Clark in Savior, Season 9’s opening episode: “You still see yourself as a human.” As hard as it is to see Clark grounded, it’s what is keeping him from handing Earth over to his Kryptonian brothers and sisters. Until he learns to find the right balance, until he can find that quan, as Rod Tidwell says, he’s earth-bound.
Meanwhile, Chloe has her paranoid meter on high as she reveals to Oliver, the master of the booty call apparently, that she has been using his money to stockpile a container of kryptonite weapons. I’m sorry, Chloe – I know he has been trying to help out the Kandorians, but didn’t the man just bring down two towers that would have given them powers? Why is he not to be trusted? She said it, she didn’t want another doomsday. Doomsday was of course the rampaging monster from Season 8, but there was also the episode where Doomsday’s human side, Davis Bloome, killed her beloved Jimmy. And in "Savior," when Chloe demanded Clark use the time-traveling Legion ring to go back and save him, he refused. I think that was the beginning of the distrust that led us to this point. We’ll see where it leads in the future. Nowhere pleasant, I am sure of it.
Let's finish this off by giving a quick plug to Derek Russell and Steve Glossen over at Starkville’s House of El for letting me co-host the show covering last week’s episode, Persuasion. It was a lot of fun and I did the best I could to fill in for the absent Steve. Check it out at smallvillepodcast.com. Thanks guys!
