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Smallville
Shimmer
airdate 01-29-02
Those viewers who have watched a television show in the past most likely unraveled the mystery identity of last night's Krypto-freak before the opening credits, so we'll keep it brief. Amy Palmer and her brother Jeff are the teenaged children of Lex's servants. Amy harbors an obsessive crush on Lex and hates his new houseguest, Victoria, with an equal passion.
Guess who's turning invisible and causing trouble in the Luthor mansion? Not crumply-faced, squeaky Amy, of course. (Clark and Chloe need the contrivance of a campus blood drive to figure it out.) Jeff's recipe for invisibility involved the oil from some glowy-green roses that mysteriously refract light and, well, let's move on, shall we?
Clark steps in to fill Whitney's shoes again as a volunteer for the blood drive, which Lana is organizing. He can't donate blood, of course, but covers by saying he has a problem with needles. ("Which, technically, you do," says Ma Kent.) He has decided to take Lex's advice and truly pursue Lana, and in fact they nearly share their first real kiss before being fortuitously interrupted by Nell.
Lionel Luthor returns to lecture his son, and to steal the episode with a single word: "Swell." Lex claims to know exactly what Vixen-Victoria is up to, but the degree to which he may or may not be bluffing is unclear. He tells Clark it's not about love, that it's a game of chess, and he seems to believe what he's saying.
Unfortunately, Lionel's brief scene really served little more purpose than to establish Victoria's fondness for bathing, so the invisible menace has a chance to drown her in the tub. Clark rescues her without any of the gawking one would expect from a 15-year-old touching a wet naked girl. Those hoping for Victoria's speedy departure will also be disappointed by Kelly Brook's appearance in the new WB promos. (Brook has contracted for at least four episodes - editor)
And again, there is more to the quarterback boyfriend than meets the eye - with his X-ray vision and super-hearing, Clark divines that Whitney's father is sick, triggering a crisis of conscience. As his father reminded him earlier, Clark can't be honest about a lot of things, so he's honest when he can be. He's sullen about it, but he tells Lana to go to Whitney. Tom Welling experiences a disquieting Christopher Reeve moment in front of a terribly artificial sunset.
It would be nice to see Clark show a passion for something other than the girl next door. So far he hasn't even expressed more than a superficial interest in his origins or abilities, much less the spaceship in the barn. Lana may be the most wonderful girl in the world, but there are problems with that. One, we know they can't end up together. Two, she's someone else's girlfriend, and Clark isn't going to play dirty to get her away from Whitney. So get another interest, already; even Dawson has the movies. (Personally, I vote for meeting Lori Lemaris in summer camp.)
Lex's ruthless humanism (or humane ruthlessness) plays out well with the Palmer family, as it did with Earl in Jitters. When will the better angels his mother left with him be shouted down by the demons of his father?
This week's Freak was a bit of letdown from the last two deviations from the formula, and the resolution was comic (in a bad way - cans of paint are seldom that conveniently placed). At least it was relegated more to subplot status, with teen drama taking the reins this time. It's not a bad idea for keeping the show fresh, but there need to be more ideas, and soon.
