Smallville Review – “Suspect”

Who shot L.L.?

Cast

Tom Welling as
Clark Kent
Kristen Kreuk as
Lana Lang
Michael
Rosenbaum
as Lex Luthor
John Glover
as Lionel Luthor
Sam Jones III as
Pete Ross
Allison Mack as
Chloe Sullivan
Annette
O’Toole
as Martha Kent
John
Schneider
as Jonathan Kent

Written by Brian
Peterson
and Kelly Sounders.
Directed by Greg Beeman.

Original Airdate

Suspect originally aired on Tuesday, January 28, 2003.

Synopsis

Jonathan Kent is the prime suspect in the shooting of Lionel Luthor.

High Point

“I forgive you, son.” That entire conversation had perfect dynamics
and characterizations.

Low Point

The “big rig with the gun” scene.

The Review

The “who was the killer” mystery was original on the first
few shows that did it. By now, it’s old hat. It was no less
compelling, but it wasn’t original. I give it 2 out of 6.

The effects were decent. The only new effect was the bullet
entering the rear of the car, but that didn’t look real at all. (If it
all happened as fast as the situation needed it to, the truck would
have still been in sight, too.) I give it 3 out of 6.

The story was very well told. The evidence was there, as was
a large number of distracting options. Lana overheard some things she
didn’t know before and can now become curious about in her flashback,
which could have lasting implications. The business dealings were
also interesting. I give it 5 out of 6, hampered only by the Low
Point.

The acting was good all around. Once again, Tom Welling was
a bit weak in places, but the only time he was really bad was in his
big exposition scene. It’s hard to make exposition interesting, so
I’ll give the team a 5 out of 6.

The emotional response this produced was very good. I like a
good mystery, and this was one of them. My only real complaint is
that we didn’t get enough information to eliminate more of the
suspects. I give it 6 out of 6.

The production was excellent. The lighting was perfect for
setting the moods. The placement of the camera during Lex’s solo
scene in his study was wonderful, setting up his seclusion and
loneliness while still indicating what he was thinking about at the
time. The directing of the teaser was beautiful, setting up the
rather incriminating evidence very well. I’m very impressed. I give
it 6 out of 6.

Overall, we’re looking at a great episode. Let’s hope they
can keep this up through sweeps. I give it 5 out of 6.

In total, Suspect receives 32 out of 42.

10 replies on “Smallville Review – “Suspect””

  1. Suspicion
    Well, though I was entertained both the dissapearing truck and the fact that we weren’t given all of the suspects at the begining was disheartening. Just my preference to know who to suspect rather than follow Clark about until he stumbles across the vital clue (A picture?) that points to the murderer.

    • Re: Suspicion

      Well, though I was entertained both the dissapearing truck and the fact that we weren’t given all of the suspects at the begining was disheartening. Just my preference to know who to suspect rather than follow Clark about until he stumbles across the vital clue (A picture?) that points to the murderer.

      In retrospect, we had everything but the motive for the killer. We had the connection to Mike the bartender, we had the indications that he was around when certain evidence was tampered with, and we had a reason for him to know about Jonathan’s history of hating the Luthors. It would have been nice to get the motive before the big reveal at the end, but the rest was there.

  2. The killer was…..
    the sheriff, Eugene. Good twist. I like SV a lot, especially the Clark says to Lex, “You think you know somebody” scenes. Or how you can see Lex’s “darkness” come closer and closer to the surface. Can’t wait to see how they finally become nemesi (if that is indeed pluarl for nemesis, haha).
    Is there any backstory of that in the comics? I had never known Supe and Lex to be childhood buddies. Is this just a savvy plot device by the WB (shame on you for doing that to Batman, wtf?) or is there something to back up Lex and Clark chumming around the mansion?

    • Re: The killer was…..

      Is there any backstory of that in the comics? I had never known Supe and Lex to be childhood buddies. Is this just a savvy plot device by the WB (shame on you for doing that to Batman, wtf?) or is there something to back up Lex and Clark chumming around the mansion?

      It’s my understanding that the Lex-Clark relationship pre-Metropolis is unique to Smallville. I don’t think anything like that has ever been touched on in the comics.

      I’m actually worried that they may be making Lex become dark just a little too fast. Once they make him completely evil, Smallville is over – it’s his ambiguity of moral character that keeps viewers coming back. In the back of our minds we know Jonathon Kent is right about him, but that isn’t until later in his life (or so we think) and when it peaks out it usually provides a high point of the episode (like when he took the golf club to the meter maid).

      And wtf are you talking about with Batman? Shame on them for what?

      • Re: The killer was…..

        It’s my understanding that the Lex-Clark relationship pre-Metropolis is unique to Smallville.

        Actually, in the pre-Man of Steel (John Byrne’s update) canon, Superboy did have a relationship with Lex Luthor of some sort. It’s been far too long (and too many origin updates since) for me to remember all the details, but at the very least Lex blamed Superboy for the loss of his hair in a lab accident which – again, to the best of my recollection – happened when Superboy was in the middle of some heroics and a fire got out of control, wreaking havoc in Lex’s lab.

        Since Man of Steel, of course, everything’s been changed [and changed again] so as to eliminate Superman’s history of being Superboy (the easiest way to eliminate all the time convolutions related to Superboy and The Legion of Superheroes) so Lex and Superman don’t meet until Metropolis and Lex is significantly older than Clark.

        • Re: The killer was…..

          so as to eliminate Superman’s history of being Superboy (the easiest way to eliminate all the time convolutions related to Superboy and The Legion of Superheroes)

          And create a whole host of new problems! But don’t even get me started on that!

  3. My money was on Maggie Simpson
    I’m going to bring up what Lionel Luthor said right before he was shot. I’m hoping it was just me, but did anyone else notice that it sounded an awful lot like what Mr. Burns said on the Simpsons right before he was shot? Maybe I just watch too much television, but it really seemed similar to me.

    I totally agree with the low point of this episode. I actually yelled at the TV “He’s got SUPER SPEED! Why’s he just standing there?”. Stuff like that is what really aggrevates me with Smallville – how they’ll ignore physics one second (ie the fall off the dam in Dichotic) and then ignore his superpowers the next, as in this case. Sure, it would have brought out that the Sherrif was the bad guy a little earlier in the episode, but maybe that would have allowed them to fix up the ending, which I thought seemed kind of rushed (why, exactly, did he kill the bartender? And why would he pin the shooting on Jonathan Kent? He was the Sherrif, he could have said “We have no suspects at this time”)

    The thing that redeemed this episode for me was the semi-Rashomon effect that they used for each of the different suspects in the shooting. I love that kind of thing, probably because I’m addicted to Kurosawa

    • Re: My money was on Maggie Simpson

      Stuff like that is what really aggrevates me with Smallville – how they’ll ignore physics one second (ie the fall off the dam in Dichotic) and then ignore his superpowers the next, as in this case.

      You mean, when he sorta flew down to catch someone? Its superman ya know, he can fly (even if he doesn’t know how yet).

      And don’t you think that intercepting 18 whellers by foot is the kind of stuff his parents warned him about? There was clearly someone after him (hence the shooting), and possibly more than one person too. It wasn’t time for revealing his powers to everyone, it was time to save his buddy, his dad, his friend’s dad…

      I get why Clark didn’t run after that truck…althought the truck DID disapear real fast…maybe its got special kryptonite-based diesel or something ;- )

      So this is the…3rd crooked murdering cop in Smallville, and the second one to actually work in Smallville…I’m starting to understand why no one cares that much about all the fires and the uncouncious black kids in the school corridors. When the cops are this corrupt, its best not to draw attention to yourself.

    • Re: My money was on Maggie Simpson

      I’m going to bring up what Lionel Luthor said right before he was shot. I’m hoping it was just me, but did anyone else notice that it sounded an awful lot like what Mr. Burns said on the Simpsons right before he was shot? Maybe I just watch too much television, but it really seemed similar to me.

      Between this aspect and the Star Trek VI aspect of flushing out the real killer, I found this one tough to watch even with what I’d consider a fairly compelling story.

  4. Subtleties
    I agree with the low point, in that I was going “what are you standing there for Clark? Go get that truck!” And there’s no way a truck takes off so quick as to completely disappear like that anyhow.

    But I did rather like the little “huh” that ended the episode, like Lex Sr wasn’t expecting that reaction from Jr. Somehow, he really does think by screwing over Jr. he’ll come running back to daddy, despite doing all he has to teach him independence. I’m looking forward to seeing how Jr’s going to show his dad what’s what this time…

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