I suppose it's a good thing Lionel has been distracted the whole episode by reminders of his parents' tragic "accidental" death. Otherwise, I would've been somewhat surprised that Clark and Jonathan can keep flippantly activating all these high-tech devices in the cave without his knowledge (and not only in this episode, either). After the octogonic hole closed up, did he suddenly just lose interest in it all, stop posting security, etc.? Apparently so.

I'm going to guess Clark won't put two and two together after this, and realize that if "Joe" can fly, maybe he can too. And speaking of that scene, my thoughts couldn't help but drift toward: Can you read my mind? "Why, yes; I can!" I always wish he would've said that...

Well, it wasn't a bad episode, but I get the impression I would've fared better watching Enterprise this week instead...

NANJAO: My satelite guide had the title of this ep listed as Relic.

I, uh, also missed the first 9 minutes.

Even as I post, this episode is running in the other room.

I had to leave before I witnessed the same insipid attempts at "romance" between Joe and what's her face. Ya know, the same one we're subjected to weekly between Clark and what's her face. The "Pwetty Pink Pwincess."

I did, however, discover my gag reflex works juuuuuuuust fine.

This one didn't do much for me. Neither Tom Welling or Kristina Kreuk showed much range in playing the doppleganger characters.

The Good:
- I guess Clark won't be given the standard issue set of glowing green crystal rods to educate him on all things Krypton. The bits and pieces that he's managed to glean through these years are a great tease.
- I found myself liking the flying effect Joe pulls off. Subtle, and makes his point by being only 20 feet in the air, rather than swooping all over the farmland and the Metropolis skyline.
- Lionel's finally shown some vulnerability when he speaks of the death of his parents. He probably killed them himself, but he's clearly emotional about it.
- Clark finally dodged gunfire! Maybe there is hope for him after all.

The Bad:
- So Grandpa Luthor hails from the Suicide Slum subdivision of Metropolis. Why is he in Smallville robbing people in broad daylight? Aren't there better opportunities for petty criminals in Metropolis?
- I'm a little fuzzy on who owns the aqua green Chevy. When Joe stops Grandpa Luthor's robbery, Dex pulls up in the car. Later, Deputy Mayor catches Joe "parking" with the Jackie Kennedy wannabe, she tells the cop that Joe was giving her a ride home. Did Dex sell his car to his wife's boyfriend?
- Clark discovers that the mayor's signature matches the cryptic love note Lana discovers. I have some paperwork from about 15 years ago, and my handwriting has changed quite a bit. I wonder what my handwriting will look like after 40 years. Using myself as a sample, I doubt the mayor's signature would match a 40 year old love letter well enough for Clark to recognize it.
- I really like the library in Lex's mansion, and the second floor chess table/sitting area is very classy. But does he have any other rooms? Or has he not furnished the other rooms yet? Even the Kents have a kitchen, a living room, a dining area, and a barn.

The Ugly:
- Kryptonians seem to have some remarkable technology. They can provide memories and information with a beam of light, they can bestow powers to humans, their spacecraft can heal illness and injuries (not to mention they act as a aid to procreation). They can even creat safe deposit boxes in rock walls. But they can't save their planet for destruction, or at least move the populace without sending their infant children to worlds that are nowhere near as technologically on par as Krypton?
- Last season Jor-El's message in the spacecraft tells Clark that it is his destiny to rule Earth. But we now see that Jor-El was covertly on Earth, and that he formed a respectful friendship with Grandpa Kent, and enjoyed a passionate love affair with an Earth woman. What in his experience on Earth should make him decide to tell his son to rule the planet?

COMIC BOOK DIVERGENCE OF THE WEEK:
So Jor-El visited Earth about 25 years before sending Clark there. Oooooooooookay.

So the symbol in the cave and the pendant were in the octagon shape that Clark eventually comes to use as the emblem on his chest as Superman. Cute. But Clark made the exact design he eventually wears on his chest back in metal shop in the very beginning of Dichotic. One could’ve gathered from that (as I did at the time) that that’s when he first came up with it. But now this episode seems to imply he got the shape from an entirely different source, in this case, a Kryptonian one. If so, it’s quite a coincidence that the design he made in metal shop (which is the exact design on his future Superman costume) uses the exact same shape as the pendant. Or was that shape (among other things?) implanted in his mind by Jor-El?

THREE DIFFERENT DATES FOR THE FLASHBACKS:
1. Telling Pete about the flashback in Act 2, Clark says, “I was back in the 50’s.”
2. The old man (Dex was his name, right?) told Lana it was 43 years ago, placing the flashbacks in 1960. (Pete even tells Clark it’s the 21st century, and Sheriff Adams later refers to the crime as being from another century, so we can presume Smallville is set in the same year that it’s broadcast.)
3. Then, in the next scene, Clark tells Chloe the robbery was in 1961, and the episode is referred to in commercials as “Smallville 1961.”
---So which is it? The 50’s? 1960? Or 1961?

So Lionel told Lex that the Luthors are descended from Scottish nobility? Hmmm…………I wonder if Lionel copied this little tidbit from a fellow millionaire’s backstory? A guy by the name of Wayne, perhaps?

Man, didn’t Chloe look HOT in this episode? More and more I’m noticing what a hottie she is.

Hiram’s wife tells “Joe” that the baby’s name is Jonathan, and that they’re still deciding. Clark later learns they were deciding between Jonathan and Gene. Um, how did they know it was a boy? Did the medical technology to determine a fetus’ gender exist in 1961?

The ending? AWESOME!!!!!

Obi-Juan: I guess Clark won't be given the standard issue set of glowing green crystal rods to educate him on all things Krypton.
Luigi Novi: That isn’t “standard.” That was only in the Christopher Reeve movies. In the comics (at least what I understand from the current miniseries Birthright), there was a computer tablet in his spaceship, sorta like a P.A.D.D. from Star Trek, with info on Krypton.

Obi-Juan: I really like the library in Lex's mansion, and the second floor chess table/sitting area is very classy. But does he have any other rooms? Or has he not furnished the other rooms yet? Even the Kents have a kitchen, a living room, a dining area, and a barn.
Luigi Novi: That’s the Dramatic Scene room.

Obi-Juan: Kryptonians seem to have some remarkable technology. They can provide memories and information with a beam of light, they can bestow powers to humans, their spacecraft can heal illness and injuries (not to mention they act as a aid to procreation). They can even creat safe deposit boxes in rock walls. But they can't save their planet for destruction, or at least move the populace without sending their infant children to worlds that are nowhere near as technologically on par as Krypton?
Luigi Novi: Nothing has indicated that they can’t do this. All we know is that they didn’t, and while I’m not sure about the details of the reasons for this in the current continuity in the comics, the Christopher Reeve movies suggest that Jor-El’s findings about Krypton’s crisis and his suggestions to solve it were stifled because of his colleagues could not bring themselves to accept it. It is possible, given what Jor-El was able to do for Kal-El/Clark, that they had the technology for either saving their planet or evacuating it, and had they not been so close-minded, it is certainly possible they would've done so.

THREE DIFFERENT DATES FOR THE FLASHBACKS:
1. Telling Pete about the flashback in Act 2, Clark says, “I was back in the 50’s.”
2. The old man (Dex was his name, right?) told Lana it was 43 years ago, placing the flashbacks in 1960. (Pete even tells Clark it’s the 21st century, and Sheriff Adams later refers to the crime as being from another century, so we can presume Smallville is set in the same year that it’s broadcast.)
3. Then, in the next scene, Clark tells Chloe the robbery was in 1961, and the episode is referred to in commercials as “Smallville 1961.”
---So which is it? The 50’s? 1960? Or 1961? LUIGI NOVI

My vote's for 1961. When Clark was suddenly thrown into a flashback, he just had to guess which period it was, and he was pretty close. The early 60's were enough like the late 50's to make that a decent guess. As for that old man, let's blame his faulty date on senility.

I just remembered a nit. The mayor had apparently made some comment about having worked in a certain "precinct" back in his sheriffing days at the time of the murder. In this context, I've only heard the word precinct applied to divisions of police control in big cities, never to the jurisdiction of a sheriff's office (wouldn't that just be the county itself, minus urban areas?)

As I recall, Suicide Slums was located in Smallville and not in Metropolis. And that Lionel had to invent quite a history to cover up that shame.

I can't go back and confirm that, though, because Mark (mercifully!) taped over the episode.

One thing I've noticed elsewhere in these types of forums are the number of viewers who were appalled at the "rolling in the hay" scene. I think the breakdown was something like this:

.1% of current viewers liked that scene.
.9% of current viewers knew it was coming, feared it was bad, and made themselves scarce (I have to admit my cowardice and confess I'm in this category)
10% watched it and had their eyeballs melt out of the sockets.
39% watched it and went in search of knives to cut their eyes out.
And the remaining 50% watched it, and went in search of the common dining cutlery to gouge their eyes out.

But it remains that quite a number of people were even more offended by the message that was being sent than the Pink - that being that adultery is quite okay, as long as the Other Lover is hot.

I mean, if La-, er, Louise didn't want to marry Dex...Why in the name of all that is holy and Not Pink did she marry him anyway??

Did her da threaten to cut her off without a penny? Was it a shotgun wedding? Was she duped? Her signature on the certificate forged? Was she sold???

I have no sympathy for her, despite the hamhanded attempt to create such feelings, and you cannot know the rejoicing I did when she died. Unless you're Morgan and you tried to get me to quiet down, that is.

I've seen that it's commonly thought upon that M&G frown upon teen sex, which is why they subject us (me!) to that constant boring whiny..."courtship" that is doomed to fail anyway, and it's all Lana Lang's fault. But that apparently, adultery is okay.

I won't even go into the whole "Women of the Potter Line" bit.

Put me down in saying that this is The Worst Episode I Have Ever Seen.

I'll readily admit to being a part of that .9% that knew what was coming, and took a powder (which may be why I can still call this "not a bad episode", as I'm not including that statistical outlier of a scene in my mental computation). But don't think of skipping out as cowardice; temporarily tuning out was an act of great bravery. For example, if they had decided to stick some crucial expositionary dialogue in the scene for some reason, then we would have missed it! Assuming the risk of missing it was very courageous, indeed.

You're far too kind, and I thank you for your kind words.

And a much better explanation of why I had to be here at Nitcentral, complaining about the unholy sounds of the Dark Pink that I was hearing...rather than being forced to gouge my eyeballs out.

And especially for the great laugh. I love it!

I thought that Louise and Dex were only engaged, not actually married yet. That only makes the whole situation SLIGHTLY less pathetic, tough.

As I recall, Suicide Slums was located in Smallville and not in Metropolis

I assumed it was Metropolis. Remember the big, shiny building that was built on the site of the Luthor's deaths, right in the middle of Suicide Slums? That doesn't look like the kind of building that gets built in a town the size of Smallville.

Obi-Juan: Kryptonians seem to have some remarkable technology. They can provide memories and information with a beam of light, they can bestow powers to humans, their spacecraft can heal illness and injuries (not to mention they act as a aid to procreation). They can even creat safe deposit boxes in rock walls. But they can't save their planet for destruction, or at least move the populace without sending their infant children to worlds that are nowhere near as technologically on par as Krypton?

Luigi Novi: Nothing has indicated that they can’t do this. All we know is that they didn’t, and while I’m not sure about the details of the reasons for this in the current continuity in the comics, the Christopher Reeve movies suggest that Jor-El’s findings about Krypton’s crisis and his suggestions to solve it were stifled because of his colleagues could not bring themselves to accept it. It is possible, given what Jor-El was able to do for Kal-El/Clark, that they had the technology for either saving their planet or evacuating it, and had they not been so close-minded, it is certainly possible they would've done so.

Being comic illiterate as I am, all I know about Superman is the screen incarnations. According to the WB catoon, though, the population of Krypton did nothing to escape their fate because Braniac told them nothing was wrong.

What I want to know is what the chances are of a father and son looking EXACTLY alike. Must be that kooky Kryptonian DNA.

Well, there you go. The cartoon does not follow the canon from the comics (they rarely do). As far as I know (and I could be wrong here), Braniac was never even a Kryptonian in the comics; he was an Earth villan. The Reeve movies, on the hand, provide a clear reason why they didn't evacuate.

I know the cartoon doesn't, but neither does the movies and we're mention them all over the place (like in the post right above this one) so I figured I might as well

"I mean, if La-, er, Louise didn't want to marry Dex...Why in the name of all that is holy and Not Pink did she marry him anyway??" -- Machiko Jenkins

I believe Louise told Jor-El when they were in the cornfield that her father wanted her to stay in Smallville to be a housewife. And then, after so much pressure, she started to believe that she really did want that. Hence, she married Dex. And she herself said that Dex was a really nice guy but that she wasn't in love with him. (Why do hot women always love the a**holes? Nice guys do finish last.)

But it remains that quite a number of people were even more offended by the message that was being sent than the Pink - that being that adultery is quite okay, as long as the Other Lover is hot.... I have no sympathy for her, despite the hamhanded attempt to create such feelings, and you cannot know the rejoicing I did when she died." -- Machiko Jenkins

I don't believe TPTB were condoning adultery. Just because someone does something amoral does not mean that the audience cannot sympathize with him or her. I can't tell you the number of times I've sympathized with Lex despite all of the less-than-moral things he has done (will do).

FORGOTTEN TECHNOLOGY OF THE WEEK:
After Louise is shot, Jor-El stands there with her in his arms saying, "Don't leave me!" Why didn't he use his super speed to rush her to his spaceship. Surely his spaceship could save her as it saved Martha back in "Fever".
Or, if he really felt like going wild, he could get really angry and start flying around the world at warp speed in order to turn back time so that he can save his true love from death...
Nah... what kind of hokey plot device would that have been?

THE "L" SYNDROME OF THE WEEK:
This week we are introduced to one of Lana's ancestors as well as one of Lex's ancestors. Sure enough, both have first names that begin with "L". This has to be some kind of in-joke. We have:
Lois Lane
Lana Lang
Lex Luthor
Lionel Luthor
Louise Lang
Lachlan Luthor
And I think Lana's mother was also an "L".
I'd be intrigued to know the reason for this.

TUE

I think you're imagining things, TUE.

Oh sure, TUE, I've sympathised with Lex too.

I cannot sympathise with Racoon!Lana. "Ya see, my pore ol' pa drug me to th' altar to marr-a Dex, 'cause he didn't want me to go runnin' 'way to no Holleeeeewoo'. But yous so hot!"

Puh-lease. Her reasons for going all trampy are, well, trampy.

Of course, my view might be biased by the DarkPinkWhiny!Lana.

As for Laura Lang, DarkPinkWhiny!Lana's mother...you're hallucinating. ;)

"I think you're imagining things, TUE." -- Luigi Novi

"you're hallucinating. ;)" -- Machiko Jenkins

Egads!! I'm losing my grip on reality!!!


Anyway, I've never been a big Lana fan. I've been cheering for Clark and Chloe to get together for over a year. Since Louise and Lana are remarkably alike (wink, wink) I didn't really care if Louise and Jor-El got together. Mostly because the alternatives weren't all that bad. Louise is already married to a decent and nice guy and Jor-El eventually marries Lara (I think that's her name) who (I believe) turns out to be a pretty good.

This could easily be personal resentment on my part. As I'm sure most people on Nitcentral can also say, I was not the most popular person with the ladies in high school. Hence, I didn't really care for people who WERE popular. If there's one thing for which popular girls are known, it's choosing a**hole guys over nice and decent guys. Why? Who knows. Louise outright says that she likes Jor-El because Dex is "safe". (Re: Not an a**hole)

Still, given all that, I don't think TPTB were condoning adultery. I'm not really sure why. I think the scenes were shot to be like "This is what happened." Not like, "This is what happened, pity poor Louise."
In fact, one could argue that Jor-El giving in to human temptations makes him seem more fallably human instead of like a supreme god-like figure.

I hate when I ramble with no point.

But I just did it anyway.

TUE

Why do hot women always love the a**holes?

If I knew the asnwer to that I wouldn't have to look to a cat for companionship.

Hiram’s wife tells “Joe” that the baby’s name is Jonathan, and that they’re still deciding. Clark later learns they were deciding between Jonathan and Gene. Um, how did they know it was a boy? Did the medical technology to determine a fetus’ gender exist in 1961?

I didn't have the closed-captioning on, but might she have meant Jean, the female spelling of the name?

No, because later Jonathan says he was going to be named after Gene Autrey.

TUE

So you could still name a girl either of those names and people have been thinking they have known what gender a child is by the wya the mother is carrying or other such nonsense,

But you can't name a girl Jonathan, and Hiram's wife said his name "is" Jonathan.

Luigi: Mom's almost always know. I say almost because while all my female firends who had babies knew the gender just by instinct, my Mom didn't. She was so sure I was going to be a girl. My name was going to be Laurel Star Webber. Thank goodness for my ••••• eh? If I'd grown up with a porn star name my school life would've been far worse.