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Smallville
Hourglass
airdate 11-20-01
It is now well past time to discuss, in true fanboy tradition, what exactly are the effects of kryptonite on humans in the Smallville continuity? After a sixth glowy green Freak of the Week, this time an old man who gets dipped in a temporary fountain of krypto-youth, anyone would wonder what the rules are.
Doing community service in what may be the largest, nicest retirement home ever, Lana and Clark learn some important lessons about the theme-o-the-week, destiny. Harry, Lana's charge, disappears after tipping his wheelchair into the aforementioned lake and regaining his youth. An erstwhile piano prodigy and convicted murderer, he takes the opportunity to seek vengeance on the descendents of the jurors who "ruined his future."
While Harry visits the sins of the fathers upon the unsuspecting Smallvillagers, Clark broods over his run-in with an old blind woman who sees the future. Cassandra, as she is of course named, was blinded during the meteor shower but her gift is not necessarily kryptonite-born.
Traditionally the things foretold by a Cassandra are seldom believed, and this one's predictions are no different. She tells Clark that someone close to him will die, which made for an interesting WB promo but doesn't really carry any emotional heft throughout the episode. The first time she tries to divine Clark's future, they both see him alone in a mass graveyard, surrounded by headstones of those he loves.
But the next time, she sees Superman. We don't see it (remember the no tights edict) but she tells Clark what we already know: that his destiny is to help people. He can fear the future (read: his superpowers, his presumed super-longevity as per the first vision) or he can embrace it (read: the big 'S').
Clark has a few run-ins with Harry, one that again uses the nice special effects technique of running everything except Clark in slow motion. The krypto-youth wears off, but Harry dives in again to go after the Kents, Jonathan's father having also been one of the jurors.
Everyone is safe, no one needs to be removed from the opening credits, but Lex, still fixated on that should've-been-fatal car crash, also goes to see the seer. His future, of course, holds destruction, despair, blood raining down from the sky, and the Oval Office (another nice nod to the current comics continuity). And this vision is what kills Cassandra, who is now close enough to Clark to fulfill the prophecy. It was a little cheap, but in no way unexpected.
Lana is slowly integrating herself into the crime-fighting crusades of Clark, Chloe and Pete, which leads to some realistic conflict. She's not pleased to find her monkey-faced, three-year-old fairy princess self on the Wall of Weird, and Chloe and Pete are still clearly putting up with her for Clark's sake.
Putting aside all histrionics about her past and how it shapes her future, Lana has developed into an okay character, especially keeping in mind that we know she and Clark don't have a happily ever after waiting for them. (And trying to avoid that she and Pete do.)
Clark has started on the path to making his own destiny. We get it. He helps people. He saves people. But the point of Smallville is that there are other stories to be told about Clark Kent. Now let's get to them.
