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Smallville musings
Jul. 1st, 2004 02:17 pmI rewatched the Smallville pilot last night, and looking back from three seasons of the show, I have a few thoughts.
Possible continuity error: St. George's Box
In Metamorphosis, Lex states that the lead box he gives Clark was bought by his mother in some foreign country from a man who claimed it was made from the armor of St. George, "patron saint of boy scouts." When his mother gave it to him, Lex says "I think she was trying to tell me something."
Now, from season three, we see that Lex gets the box from his father, who tells him the story of St. George. Now, I'm willing to wink at this, since the recovered memory does fall in the realm of Lex's repressed childhood memories. It might be possible that he either blocked out that memory, constructed an alternate story he preferred, or flat out lied to Clark about the box. I'm discounting this last option because Lex, when he lies, does so with a very specific purpose. He doesn't just make stuff up. Telling Clark the box came from his mother serves no purpose for him. It actually has a negative effect - revealing to Clark something about his relationship with his mother, which is generally a closely guarded part of Lex's life. His willingness to open up to Clark about his mother in the first season is one of the heralds of their friendship, so I don't think Lex is intentionally lying.
It's also difficult to believe that this is an altered memory of Lex's, since it's so specific. If he didn't want to recall where he got the box a - I doubt it would be prominently sitting in his office and b - he would have no reason to volunteer information on the origin of the box. And anyway, if he's making up an origin story, why transfer from the tetchy subject of his father to the emotionally charged subject of his mother? Why not just say that he bought it? I don't know that much about repressed childhood memories, but this just doesn't seem to fit here. I understand why we get two origin stories from a dramatic standpoint, but it doesn't really make sense in the context of the show.
When Lex gives Clark the box, he calls it Clark's trojan horse. This fits perfectly with the second origin story, when Lionel tells Lex to lock his weaknesses in the box. The trojan horse symbolizes an innocuous container with deadly contents. For Clark, the metaphor fits - nice box containing a little hunk of slow painful death - even though Lex meant the contents to be the destruction of Lana's relationship with Whitney.
Possible Continuity Error II: Ross' Creamed Corn Factory
In the Pilot, we see Lionel and Lex land in a helicopter in Smallville. As Lex wanders off, Lionel is signing something on a pickup with two black men. Now, if you count the deleted scenes as canon, we know that these two men are the Rosses and they're selling Lionel the Creamed Corn Factory. It is abundantly clear in the scene that they have already agreed to sell and Lionel has already promised nothing will change. It's a done deal. But, in Lineage, we learn that Jon made a deal with Lionel to talk the Rosses into selling if Lionel sorts out Clark's adoption papers. How can Jon be the key to the Ross' downfall if they've already sold?
Pa Kent: Mixed Messages
Much ink has been spilled exploring Pa Kent's instant and intense dislike of Lex Luthor. I'd like to add to this dynamic Jonathon's approval of Whitney.
In Metamorphosis, we have on the one hand Lex Luthor. True, he accidently almost killed Clark, but since then he has given Clark a truck and is trying in every way possible to make friendly overtures to the Kents.
On the other hand, we have Whitney, who just a few hours previously tied Clark to a stake in the middle of a field. Jonathon didn't know about this true, but he must know about Clark's crush on Lana, as Martha seems to, and should realise that the boyfriend of the crush would not be Clark's closest friend in the world.
In the Pilot, Clark begs to be allowed to play football. After all, Jonathon did, and Clark wants to fit in in high school. Jon gives a high-falutin' speech about being careful that seems to say football isn't everything. It isn't worth it. Then, in Metamorphosis, Jon compliments Whitney, saying, "I haven't seen playing like that since I was on the team." Right in front of Clark, who looks like he's been kicked in the gut.
Jon is complimenting Clark's rival on something he won't allow Clark to even try, let alone excel at. You can tell Jon wants a son who plays football, to carry on in his footsteps. Complimenting Whitney in front of Clark, especially in such a way, is unnecessarily cruel and exclusive. Here Jonathon's patting a fellow football player on the back, as if he was a frat brother, while Clark is not only excluded from the clique but was very recently victimized by them.
I just hope that Bo would go all whoop-ass on Whitney if he knew about the scarecrow incident.
Lex and the Apple of Temptation
Aside from the blatant biblical symbolism of Lex taking an apple from Clark's basket and eating it in Metamorphosis, it shows a little about his character. Lex takes a bite, makes a face, then throws away the rest of the apple. Very clearly, he didn't think it was very good.
A few short scenes later, Clark shows up in Luthor mansion. Why? He's delivering produce. Lex says he would have "arm-wrestled" Martha for it. So Lex just bought several bushels of food he dislikes from the Kents. The only possible reason for this is he wanted Clark to have a reason to come over. From a plot standpoint, Lex needs this conversation to give Clark the necklace. But this also very much fits Lex's early M.O. He's decided that Clark is going to be his friend, whether he wants to or not, and so he throws money at the Kents to make Clark come over.
Hmm....
Scarecrow
I suspect that seeing Clark as the scarecrow had a profound effect on Lex. Lex has already started to take Clark under his wing. Then to revisit a traumatic moment of his childhood and find that his new pal Clark is the victim clearly upsets him. I would also posit that Lex's boarding-school-while-bald experience at Excelsior probably involved being on the wrong end of hazing events similar to this.
Lex seems to be the only one giving this "prank" its full weight. This wasn't a joke, it was a criminal offense. Whitney and his friends stripped Clark and strung him up in the middle of a field. Being hung in that position for hours would be extremely painful. On top of that and the cold is the humiliation. The football players leave him there, go have a good time at the dance then go home and forget about their victim. He has to be untied, or not, on his own.
Clark takes the "noble" path and says nothing, not tattle-taling on the perpetrators. Whitney seems to think it was a temporary lapse in judgement. Right. The same way getting drunk and hitting a pedestrian is a temporary lapse in judgement. It should still have consequences. Lana, though initially pissed, seems more upset that all of this is over a misunderstanding about her relationship to Clark, not that Whitney's actions show a fundamental part of Whitney's character. Not everything is about you, Lana. The issue here isn't jealousy, it's assault.
If Lex had his way, it would have been straight to the hospital, then probably to the police for Clark. The fact that Clark refuses to press charges or even tell anyone about the incident I think is a major spark for Lex's curiosity about Clark. Add to that a feeling of kinship over being the social underdog in high school and it goes a long way to explaining why Lex tries so hard in season 1 to be Clark's friend.
OK, that was absurdly long, but I feel better.
Possible continuity error: St. George's Box
In Metamorphosis, Lex states that the lead box he gives Clark was bought by his mother in some foreign country from a man who claimed it was made from the armor of St. George, "patron saint of boy scouts." When his mother gave it to him, Lex says "I think she was trying to tell me something."
Now, from season three, we see that Lex gets the box from his father, who tells him the story of St. George. Now, I'm willing to wink at this, since the recovered memory does fall in the realm of Lex's repressed childhood memories. It might be possible that he either blocked out that memory, constructed an alternate story he preferred, or flat out lied to Clark about the box. I'm discounting this last option because Lex, when he lies, does so with a very specific purpose. He doesn't just make stuff up. Telling Clark the box came from his mother serves no purpose for him. It actually has a negative effect - revealing to Clark something about his relationship with his mother, which is generally a closely guarded part of Lex's life. His willingness to open up to Clark about his mother in the first season is one of the heralds of their friendship, so I don't think Lex is intentionally lying.
It's also difficult to believe that this is an altered memory of Lex's, since it's so specific. If he didn't want to recall where he got the box a - I doubt it would be prominently sitting in his office and b - he would have no reason to volunteer information on the origin of the box. And anyway, if he's making up an origin story, why transfer from the tetchy subject of his father to the emotionally charged subject of his mother? Why not just say that he bought it? I don't know that much about repressed childhood memories, but this just doesn't seem to fit here. I understand why we get two origin stories from a dramatic standpoint, but it doesn't really make sense in the context of the show.
When Lex gives Clark the box, he calls it Clark's trojan horse. This fits perfectly with the second origin story, when Lionel tells Lex to lock his weaknesses in the box. The trojan horse symbolizes an innocuous container with deadly contents. For Clark, the metaphor fits - nice box containing a little hunk of slow painful death - even though Lex meant the contents to be the destruction of Lana's relationship with Whitney.
Possible Continuity Error II: Ross' Creamed Corn Factory
In the Pilot, we see Lionel and Lex land in a helicopter in Smallville. As Lex wanders off, Lionel is signing something on a pickup with two black men. Now, if you count the deleted scenes as canon, we know that these two men are the Rosses and they're selling Lionel the Creamed Corn Factory. It is abundantly clear in the scene that they have already agreed to sell and Lionel has already promised nothing will change. It's a done deal. But, in Lineage, we learn that Jon made a deal with Lionel to talk the Rosses into selling if Lionel sorts out Clark's adoption papers. How can Jon be the key to the Ross' downfall if they've already sold?
Pa Kent: Mixed Messages
Much ink has been spilled exploring Pa Kent's instant and intense dislike of Lex Luthor. I'd like to add to this dynamic Jonathon's approval of Whitney.
In Metamorphosis, we have on the one hand Lex Luthor. True, he accidently almost killed Clark, but since then he has given Clark a truck and is trying in every way possible to make friendly overtures to the Kents.
On the other hand, we have Whitney, who just a few hours previously tied Clark to a stake in the middle of a field. Jonathon didn't know about this true, but he must know about Clark's crush on Lana, as Martha seems to, and should realise that the boyfriend of the crush would not be Clark's closest friend in the world.
In the Pilot, Clark begs to be allowed to play football. After all, Jonathon did, and Clark wants to fit in in high school. Jon gives a high-falutin' speech about being careful that seems to say football isn't everything. It isn't worth it. Then, in Metamorphosis, Jon compliments Whitney, saying, "I haven't seen playing like that since I was on the team." Right in front of Clark, who looks like he's been kicked in the gut.
Jon is complimenting Clark's rival on something he won't allow Clark to even try, let alone excel at. You can tell Jon wants a son who plays football, to carry on in his footsteps. Complimenting Whitney in front of Clark, especially in such a way, is unnecessarily cruel and exclusive. Here Jonathon's patting a fellow football player on the back, as if he was a frat brother, while Clark is not only excluded from the clique but was very recently victimized by them.
I just hope that Bo would go all whoop-ass on Whitney if he knew about the scarecrow incident.
Lex and the Apple of Temptation
Aside from the blatant biblical symbolism of Lex taking an apple from Clark's basket and eating it in Metamorphosis, it shows a little about his character. Lex takes a bite, makes a face, then throws away the rest of the apple. Very clearly, he didn't think it was very good.
A few short scenes later, Clark shows up in Luthor mansion. Why? He's delivering produce. Lex says he would have "arm-wrestled" Martha for it. So Lex just bought several bushels of food he dislikes from the Kents. The only possible reason for this is he wanted Clark to have a reason to come over. From a plot standpoint, Lex needs this conversation to give Clark the necklace. But this also very much fits Lex's early M.O. He's decided that Clark is going to be his friend, whether he wants to or not, and so he throws money at the Kents to make Clark come over.
Hmm....
Scarecrow
I suspect that seeing Clark as the scarecrow had a profound effect on Lex. Lex has already started to take Clark under his wing. Then to revisit a traumatic moment of his childhood and find that his new pal Clark is the victim clearly upsets him. I would also posit that Lex's boarding-school-while-bald experience at Excelsior probably involved being on the wrong end of hazing events similar to this.
Lex seems to be the only one giving this "prank" its full weight. This wasn't a joke, it was a criminal offense. Whitney and his friends stripped Clark and strung him up in the middle of a field. Being hung in that position for hours would be extremely painful. On top of that and the cold is the humiliation. The football players leave him there, go have a good time at the dance then go home and forget about their victim. He has to be untied, or not, on his own.
Clark takes the "noble" path and says nothing, not tattle-taling on the perpetrators. Whitney seems to think it was a temporary lapse in judgement. Right. The same way getting drunk and hitting a pedestrian is a temporary lapse in judgement. It should still have consequences. Lana, though initially pissed, seems more upset that all of this is over a misunderstanding about her relationship to Clark, not that Whitney's actions show a fundamental part of Whitney's character. Not everything is about you, Lana. The issue here isn't jealousy, it's assault.
If Lex had his way, it would have been straight to the hospital, then probably to the police for Clark. The fact that Clark refuses to press charges or even tell anyone about the incident I think is a major spark for Lex's curiosity about Clark. Add to that a feeling of kinship over being the social underdog in high school and it goes a long way to explaining why Lex tries so hard in season 1 to be Clark's friend.
OK, that was absurdly long, but I feel better.