Smallville Reviews: "Idol" and "Pandora"

So where did last week’s review go? Oh, right, to tonights. Ugh. Well tonight I’m making up for it by posting TWO reviews. After tonight, Smallville is going on its winter hiatus until January 22! So really, I’m just getting you ready for a drought of Smallville posts! Onward!

Idol

It was only a matter of time. Where Superman goes, the Wonder Twins are sure to follow at some point, whether we like it or not. But the question is: “would they be completely lame or would they be legit heroes? Well, the answer is both.

We opened to Lois and Clark coming across a package delivered to The Daily Planet. It just happens to contain three undercover cops and a boatload of cocaine. Unfortunately for our hero, this botched save was “credited” to The Blur (can we REALLY drop the name? Please?). Turns out he has some admirers in Zan and Jayna (played very well by 7th Heaven’s David Gallagher and Warehouse 13’s Allison Scagliotti, respectively), and they try and try, but their handiwork goes to crap more often than not.

What they CAN do, however, is market themselves as The Blur (no, really, I cringe when I hear this name) and try to expand on the legend that Clark has started. They post their exploits on twitter, facebook, you name it, and they do it.

Without giving too much away, I actually really enjoyed this incarnation of the Blunder Twins. I’ve never liked them unless being played by Kevin Pereira and Olivia Munn. Now there’s a comedy duo. These kids were funny, but still captured the essence of the kids trying to follow in the footsteps of someone who has inspired them. Also, I never found Jayna hot until now. Just sayin’.

Here I am going on and on about them. They were the A-reel, but there wasn’t much in the way of story progression there. It’s all in the B-reel with Lois going to therapy to try and recollect these dreams she’s been having about the future. It honestly felt a little labored, but it wasn’t terrible.

Justin Hartley was noticeably absent, but after a three episode arc, he deserves to rest. Erica Durance is still making the lines coming from Lois’ mouth sing. Tom Welling is so used to this role by now; I don’t even think he has to try anymore.

Should you have watched? Yes, but really only for a set up for what really was the best episode of the season. But there is also a pretty good nod to the comics, and something I had been waiting for for a long time.

Final Verdict: Surf

In this future we’ve been waiting to see since the season began, the sun is red, yet the Kandorians have their powers. They’ve found a way to get their powers and take over the world, shoving humans (and a powerless Clark) into ghettos and presumably concentration camps while they sit pretty in Lex’s mansion and rule with an iron fist.

At first I was confused. Why would Kryptonians, native to a red sun environment, and depowered by blue kryptonite, get powers under a red sun? I concluded that this means that the blue kryptonite somehow alters a Kryptonians body chemistry to absorb red sunlight more efficiently than yellow sunlight.

And now that my nerd is fully revealed, let’s move on.

Those Kryptonians are dicks. And we have Tess among their ranks in a plotline that was eerily reminiscent of the beginning of season three of Battlestar Galactica. Humans held captive by a superior force and still fighting back. She’s clearly a misguided villain who thought she was doing the world a favor by helping the Kandorians, but she was very wrong. The whole episode works as a sort of merging of Battlestar Galactica with the first season episode of Heroes “Five Years Gone.” You know, the one where things have gone to complete crap due to the mistakes of the present, and now it’s up to our heroes to fix it.

We even meet the Ninja Assassin from the season premiere again, and she’s not a very nice person. It’s also explained how she had Jon Kent’s watch, and it’s actually kind of sweet, in a twisted way. I don’t want to give it all away, but really. It brings him and Lois closer together.

Speaking of Clark and mistakes, he’s made several. He disappeared for months, and was incommunicado with Chloe and Oliver, and I thought it was HILARIOUS that SHE didn’t trust HIM. After all the manipulating she’s done over the past few seasons, he’s not trustworthy? B.S. But I digress.

When Chloe and Oliver show up in the future, they’re leading a resistance movement against the Kandorians, going so far as to using Kryptonite arrows and knives and swords to take out the superpowered dictators. There are some really brutal moments (relatively) in the battles that ensue, and things are bleak for pretty much every character. But this is what gives Season 9 its luster. It has a narrative that was sorely lacking in previous seasons. Brainiac was overused, and Doomsday might as well been called The Hulk, but Zod is the best thing since, well…Zod.

Overall, well, this was the best episode all season, and it really should be watched. It was really good. There was even a really nice touch at the end of the episode that had me waiting to see the resolution of how this relationship is handled.

Final Verdict: TUNE IN