Smallville Review – “Blank”

With only three episodes left in the season, any
resolution of the witchcraft/stones angle is going to
need to happen quickly.

Cast

Tom
Welling
as
Clark Kent

Kristen Kreuk as
Lana Lang

Michael
Rosenbaum
as Lex Luthor

John
Glover

as Lionel Luthor

Annette
O’Toole
as Martha Kent

John
Schneider
as Jonathan Kent

Jensen Ackles as
Jason Teague

Allison Mack as
Chloe Sullivan.

Written by Brian Peterson and Kelly Sounders.

Directed by Jeannot Szwarc.

Original Airdate


Blank
originally aired on Wednesday,
April 27, 2005.

Synopsis

An individual who can wipe out the last few minutes of
a person’s
memory comes to Smallville and zaps Clark.

High Point

The “premature combustion” line was amusing. There
are two other
spoilery high points: No big reset
button for
Chloe, and for once, Clark is extra-vulnerable instead
of immune to a
kryptonite inspired power.

Low Point

Lois was the only eye witness to the catalyst event?

The Review

The episode had some original developments in
the
relationship between Lex and Clark, the relationship
between Chloe and
Clark, and the obscured portions of the high point
above, but many
other elements were definitely recycled. I give it 4
out of 6.

The effects were mostly good. The sound
effects for a
bending crowbar were off (as creaking comes with
cracking), and the
columns didn’t seem to have nearly enough inertia. I
give it 4 out of
6.

The story was well written, with some
interesting
developments, amusing moments, and no big Chloe
reset!
I give it 5 out of 6.

The acting was good all around. Once again,
if you remove
the character’s insecurity, Tom Welling can do the job
right. I give
it 5 out of 6.

The emotional response was also strong, with
some great lines
and scenes, and a very nice ending. I give it 5 out
of 6.

The production was the usual job well done.
I give it 5 out
of 6.

Overall, it was another good episode, and
hopefully just a
glimpse of things to come. I give it 5 out of 6.

In total,
Blank
receives
33
out of 42.

13 replies on “Smallville Review – “Blank””

  1. Amnesia is getting old
    Possible spoilers!!

    It was a good episode to be sure, but amnesia is a Smallville staple it seems. Everyone who finds out Clarks’ secret is either the villian (who either dies or who authorities think is insane and don’t believe them), they get hit in the head and don’t remember anything, or they were in some altered state that, when they return to normal they have lost all memory of what happened during that time. Last night’s episode was a neat variation of that, but it’s still basically the same thing. It was exciting for a second there when Lois and the Sheriff saw Clark catch those pillars. Then lo and behold, mister memory wiperouter erased that memory. It’s just too convenient and used WAY too much.

    I still love the show though. :)

    • Re: Amnesia is getting old
      I must say that this season has really turned me around when it comes to Chloe. Until recently, I never really saw her as a really effective character. She was there, she provided interaction, added some breadth to the world, and she helped Clark find the relevant information of the day. That said, Lana never really did anything for me in terms of character work until recently either. Don’t get me wrong, I think both women acted their parts well and professionally, I’m commenting on the way those parts were written. Looking back at Lana, other than the fact that she is an absolutly stunning woman, I never really saw much appeal to her, personality-wise. Other than the odd possesion eppisode, she never really came off as “sexy.”

      Maybe I should clarify a bit more. In my little world, a woman being sexy or not comes from a combination of factors, including but not limited to, looks, body language, facial expression, speech patterns, and personality. Sexy is the sum of the parts. Here is an example, I knew two women in college. Woman #1 was tall, think, elegant features, confident stride, long dark hair. I thought she was very attractive. But once you talk to her for five minutes, she had a very negative, materialistic personality. She had no sense of humor. She never smiled. Woman #2 on the other hand, was a little shorter than myself, stocky build with some muscle from her high school soccer team, maybe a little on the heavy side. Yet she was very pleasant to talk to, intelligent, funny, caring. I won’t bore you with the details, but suffice to say that I found her “sexier” than the first woman, who might be more atractive in a photograph.

      Does that explain what I saw or didn’t see with Lana? Where was I… Chloe turning around this season.

      Chloe finally learning Clark’s secret has really made her character interesting. In some respects, her knowledge of Clark makes her more like Clark. I know what you’re thinking… “What is Kuzz smoking?” Work with me on this. What makes Clark special, as a person? He has something that no one else has, and that he chooses to use for the benefit of others, at the expense of his own happiness. How does that make Clark and Chloe similar? She now has something that only a handful of other people have, and she chooses to use it for the benefit of another.

      Chloe’s belief in their friendship kept her from telling his story to the world long enough for her to stop and think. Once she had the final piece, many of the strange events from the past 4 years started to make sense. It became clear to her that Clark’s failed relationship with Lana came from his inability to reveal his secrets to her. Discovering this allowed Chloe to realize the depth of Clark’s pain and isolation.

      There isn’t a single event that I will point to to support this next conclusion, but that makes the conclusion itself much more profound. Chloe has been confronted with numerous situations, since discovering Clark’s powers, where she might have used her knowledge for personal gain, yet she has not acted.

      “Blank” is a perfect example. She had the chance to rewrite her history with Clark, but she didn’t. Chloe did not “take advantage” of her “power,” she “used it” to protect and help Clark. She became the heroine.

      Now this is where I dive into the deep end, folks. I bet that if Memory Boy hadn’t zapped her at the end, and Clark asked her what happened in the previous 24 hours, she would have left out the parts of her teaching him his powers.

      Okay, I’ll stop talking… for now.

      • I’m confused now

        I bet that if Memory Boy hadn’t zapped her at the end, and Clark asked her what happened in the previous 24 hours, she would have left out the parts of her teaching him his powers.

        Okay, I’ll stop talking… for now.

        Our esteemed reviewer seemed to think she wasn’t amnesiac? Or was it only a “last few minutes” zap he did?

        I missed parts of the end, I was chatting at the same time, and probably drunk too ;-)

        • Re: I’m confused now

          I bet that if Memory Boy hadn’t zapped her at the end, and Clark asked her what happened in the previous 24 hours, she would have left out the parts of her teaching him his powers.

          Okay, I’ll stop talking… for now.

          Our esteemed reviewer seemed to think she wasn’t amnesiac? Or was it only a “last few minutes” zap he did?

          I missed parts of the end, I was chatting at the same time, and probably drunk too ;-)

          Chloe only got the recent memory wipe. She only forgot the stuff at Summerholt. A few comments to Clark at the end eluded that she did indeed remember that he has those powers.

    • Re: Amnesia is getting old

      …amnesia is a Smallville staple it seems….

      That’s what I liked about this episode. It was funny! Sure, we’ve had people losing memories of Clark’s powers, but this just went overboard, and I took it to be a deliberately self-deprecating plot from the writers. It’s like they were saying, “yeah, we’ve used this too much, but watch how much we can really use it! BWAHAHAHAHAAAA!”

      As someone else mentioned, the big tension of the episode was whether or not Chloe was going to get the big ugly reset, and I was thrilled to see she didn’t.

      For the future of the show and Lex’s going evil, I like how they’re having Lex barely hold on to being sort-of good. The tipping point, i think, will be when Clark makes his big multi-year disappearance, during which time Lex will be free to go completely bad-apple under the unmoderated influence of his father. When “Metropolis” premieres, we’ll have a really, really evil Lex. :>

      Something that’s annoying me, though, besides the witch plot, is Jason being evil. I mean, really, must they?

      • Re: Amnesia is getting old

        The tipping point, i think, will be when Clark makes his big multi-year disappearance, during which time Lex will be free to go completely bad-apple under the unmoderated influence of his father. When “Metropolis” premieres, we’ll have a really, really evil Lex.

        ???!!! There’s going to be another show after Smallville?! Please tell!!

        • Re: Amnesia is getting old
          Sorry to mislead! I’ve been thinking about how they can continue the story. They can’t keep calling it “Smallville,” because Smallville becomes backstory at some point. I thought “Metropolis” would be a good title for a “Smallville” spinoff. As far as I know, no such beast really exists.

  2. Amnesia Man to the rescue!
    I would love to be a neurologist doing research on the effects of concussions in that town, SmallVille is overrun with people who have been boinked on the head! But aside from the overused cheap plot device, now Clark has a superpowered friend (the krypto powered people who aren’t evil are so rare) who can do it at will! Nifty! I like it, in a cheezy sorta way : )

  3. Mostly Great
    I agree amnesia is overused, but it worked well in this episode because that was freak of the week’s thing. They abused it a little with Lois and the Sherriff (my theory is that scene was for the sole benefit of making a teasing preview), but thankfully they did not abuse it and reset Chloe. Making Clark forget the middle section was uncalled for and incredibly dumb. Hopefully they make up for it with Clark telling Chloe of his own accord.

    The Lana thing is old and worn out. Lana and Clark hope it will be different "this time," but I have lost hope. But then, I never thought I’d prefer Chloe plots to Lex plots, but the Chloe story is the best they’ve had in a long time.

    • Re: Mostly Great
      At the risk of being too cynical, the one thing that annoys me (in retrospect) about the episode was that the bulk of the tension was generated by anxiety about a potential writing copout. In other words, the reason I was on the edge of the seat wasn’t the situation itself, rather it was the possibility that the writers had decided to get rid of the best development of the season (no spoiling – anyone who watched knows that I’m talking about).

      That being said, I was on the edge of my seat and enjoyed the episode – the only real problems I have are probably due to over-thinking the thing.

      Big up-side: Lex is going exactly where I think we all want him. As far as I know, there’s still no announcement as to whether Smallville is coming back for a fifth season…I expect the most significant problem is deciding whether to somehow keep the cast in town after graduation or to move the principals to a college campus (and still call it Smallville?). If it does come back, one can only hope that Michael Rosenbaum gets the chance to take Lex Luthor to the next level.

      • Re: Mostly Great

        Big up-side: Lex is going exactly where I think we all want
        him. As far as I know, there’s still no announcement as to
        whether Smallville is coming back for a fifth season…

        We’re technically still waiting for an official
        announcement, but the WB has described the season finale as
        a cliffhanger, and they’ve hosted a contest with Verizon in
        which one prize is a walk-on part in the next season of
        Smallville, so I’d say it’s an extremely safe bet.
        Add in that Miller and Gough have told us that they’re
        working from a five year plan, and I’d bet that we’ll have
        exactly one season left.

        • Re: Mostly Great
          Good deal. I miss most spoilers and commercials, though I do try to keep up on renewals/cancellations of the things I like. A non-witch season to end the series would be “super” to clear the palate. :)

  4. Tired of Lana
    Yeah, I said it. I’m sick and tired of her. No college? Possessed by a ghost? I have less difficulty believing in a guy with superpowers than I do in a girl like her not wanting to go to college. Then there’s the romantic interest with Clark – the writers are still trying to get the viewer to think they’ll end up together (even with Lois there, and even after they’ve had Lana tell him off on several occasions), especially with the scene in the Talon this week. Clark gets amnesia, but is still feels attraction to Lana, even though Chloe (looking particularly hot) is helping him out AND keeping his secret? Unbelievable and weak. If there was a person in this episode amnesia-Clark should have been trying to hook up with, it was Chloe. I know I would.

    Also on the Lana front, I really hope they wrap up the Countess sub-plot soon – the Jason/Countess/Dr. Quinn thing took a turn for the worse when they got rid of Margot Kidder’s character last week (a move I don’t understand and hope is a red herring), and Jason’s “You have to believe in me!” bit this week just rubbed me the wrong way.

    Maybe we’ll get lucky and Dr. Quinn will perform experimental surgery on Lana. Deadly experimental surgery.

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