PHENOMENALITY: *marvelous*
MYTHICITY: (1, 3) *good* (2, 4) *fair*
FRYEAN MYTHOS: *adventure*
CAMPBELLIAN FUNCTIONS: *psychological, sociological*
Three of the next four episodes of
Season show an increasing preoccupation with not just the mythology of
Superman, but that of Classical Greece as well
“Nocturne” introduces Byron Moore,
who seems to be a dark counterpart to sunny-dispositioned Clark Kent. Lana meets him when the teen boy writes her
love-letters, though he doesn’t attend the high school and appears to live in
seclusion with his parents on their farm.
Despite his eccentricities, Lana’s somewhat fascinated with Byron,
comparing him favorably with Clark; she puts down Clark for being an unfeeling “man of steel” when Clark disses Byron’s poetry. Interestingly enough, Lex shares Lana’s interest
in poetry, claiming that it’s “all about seduction”—a definition that proves
interesting in view of Lex’s relationship to Lana in later seasons. However, Byron isn’t being kept hidden
because his parents believe in home-schooling.
A somewhat fuzzy backstory establishes that eight years ago Byron took
part in experimental tests performed by a subsidiary of Luthorcorp. The tests mutated him so that whenever he’s
out in the sunlight, he morphs into a super-strong, vampiric-looking
monster. Eventually Clark is able to get
Byron out of the sunlight and render him manageable, so that Luthorcorp can
work on his illness (though he’s never seen again).
In more far-reaching plotlines,
Martha—who up to this point has acted as if she had no past acquaintance with
Lionel Luthor—is hired to be Lionel’s secretary. She does so in part to allay the Kents’
continuing financial problems, but Martha also nurses a desire to break out of
the routine of farmlife and use the legal skills she mastered at college. Both motivations, of course, contribute to
Jonathan’s sense of being “unmanned” by rich and educated competitors.
Lex tells Lionel than Lex isn’t
pleased to see his father meddle in the Kents’ lives. Lionel insightfully wonders if Lex thinks
that if he acts “good,” a kind adoptive family will take him in. Lionel then
provides his own mythological take on adoption, rewriting Greek myth to claim
that Prometheus was adopted by Zeus but was direly punished the will of his
“father.” The metaphor’s rather
confused, as it’s not clear whether Lionel is putting himself in the position
of Zeus, or suggesting that Jonathan Kent would prove equally unforgiving if he
did “adopt” Lex—which does happen, in an informal way, with Pete Ross in
“Duplicity.” In any case, Lionel
definitely suggests that Lex is one of the “gods” and can only suffer from
mingling with lower beings.
“Redux” proves rather confusing in
that Clark’s new antagonist has super-powers but seems to have had them long
before any meteor rocks crashed to Earth.
A couple of teen boys perish of old age, and it eventually comes out
that a new teen girl at school, Krissy by name, is actually a woman who’s been
de-aging herself since the 1920s. She
also preys on Mr. Reynolds, the school’s new principal, who has an old grudge
against former student Lex. A more transitory
plotline appears when Martha tries to persuade Jonathan to put aside a decade-old
grudge against her lawyer-father and accept his financial help; this gives
Clark a chance to connect with a grandfather he barely knows, though the old
man largely seems to represent another threat of “the City” to country-boy
Jonathan. In addition, Lana discovers an
old photo and jumps to the flimsy possibility that she may be the child of
another man than her official father.
Lex warns her of the fate of Pandora, who suffered for prying into
secrets. The citation of Pandora
generates an interesting resonance with the previous episode’s mention of
Prometheus, in that in some versions of the story Zeus sent Pandora to Earth to
plague mortals with evil after Prometheus had given them the godly gift of
fire. On
a trivia-note, the episode mentions “Coast City,” one of many fictional
locations in the DC comics-universe.
“Lineage” emphasizes two claims to
confused birth-origins, though one of them is manifestly untrue, as an unstable
middle-aged woman named Rachel (probably named for the distraught mother of the
Bible) claims that Clark Kent is her long-lost son Lucas—as well as the bastard
child of Lionel Luthor. When Lex is
apprised of her claim, he’s somewhat taken with the possibility of being
Clark’s half-brother, but naturally the Kents are positive that Clark’s mother
can’t be anyone born of mortal flesh.
Rachel tries to make Lionel confess to his parentage by kidnapping Lex.
Clark stops her, and she witnesses his inhumanity, thus stopping her from making
any further claims on him— while her madness presumably keeps any of her wild
stories about Clark from being believed.
Lana, for her part, finds out that the man in the photo is one Henry
Small, who’s something of a bucolic aristocrat in that his family founded and
gave their name to “Smallville.” She
seeks him out but he initially rejects her.
The episode ends without him confirming or denying his possible
parentage.
The main importance of the story is
that “Lineage” finally establishes both the process by which the Kents made
certain of their adoption and how they forged their first acquaintance with the
Luthors. Shortly after finding Clark and
the spaceship, the Kents happened upon Lionel in dire need of transportation to
a city hospital for Lex, stricken by the meteor radiation that made his hair
fall out. The Kents naturally take Lex
to town, and Lionel offers what seems unquestioning gratitude. Later the Kents appeal for Lionel’s help in
arranging Clark’s bogus adoption, but Lionel’s gratitude gives way to avarice
when he realizes that he can use Jonathan’s secret to compel Jonathan to betray
a friend—all of which results in the Luthors gaining a “foothold” in the
community. Thus at least one of
Jonathan’s long-standing reasons for Luthor-hating manifests, though it won’t
be the last one.
The reference to mythology appears
very briefly at the opening, when Chloe and Pete are discussing the Greek
legend of Heracles, and debating the ethical merits of Hera sending serpents
against her husband’s bastard child.
Chloe’s moderate sympathy for Hera is clearly meant to resonate with
Rachel, who tries to avenge herself on a cheating man by victimizing his
son—though here Lex is more in the position of a weakling like Heracles' figurative "brother" Eurystheus,
while Clark, who comes to Lex's rescue, is clearly Heracles.
“Ryan” features the return (and
last appearance) of the young psychic boy from Season 1 episode "Stray." Since leaving the Kents Ryan began suffering
head-traumas, and his aunt unwisely signed over his care to yet another manipulative
Luthorcorp company, this one called “Summerholt.” Clark finds out that Ryan’s being held
against his will and breaks Ryan out, thus bringing the wrath of officialdom
down on the Kents. Lex saves them by bringing
in his battery of lawyers. But nothing
can save Ryan from a deadly tumor, even after Clark moves hell and high water
to recruit an expert physician from Hub City (yet another notable DC
locale). Before he dies Ryan alludes to
a “secret” that Martha is keeping from her son and husband. However, though the nascent Superman learns
that even he can’t save everyone, one aspect of his life takes an upward
turn. Lana’s aunt still departs
Smallville (and the series), but she allows Lana to remain behind in the care
of Chloe and Chloe’s father. And Clark
doesn’t even have to confess his love to make her stay!
No comments:
Post a Comment