Smallville 7×09: Gemini

Original Air Date: December 13, 2007

Think you know who is being referred to in the episode title? Think again. Spoilers follow.

Official CW episode description:

Clark returns to Smallville from the Fortress and tells Lana that Kara is gone. Clark tells Lana they should team up to bring Lex down, so she gives him all the information she’s gathered so far, including a report on a man named Adrian (guest star Tim Guinee), who was infected with an alien substance. Adrian secretly plants a bomb on Chloe and tells Lois if she doesn’t get Lex to admit the truth about his experiments with 33.1, he will detonate the bomb. Chloe, thinking she is about to die, confesses to Jimmy that she is a meteor freak.

I have to quibble with the official CW blurb: Adrian was not “infected with an alien substance”. The scientist seen working in Lex’s lab last episode was. They don’t do anything interesting with that plot twist. I was expecting she would get to do something cool, but instead she went into a coma offstage and is just used here as a bit of plot exposition =(

After the last episode I was eager to see what happened in the fortress, but this episode teases us by not revealing anything until the very end. Clark is acting very differently after whatever happened up north, doing a complete turnaround on his attitude towards Lex, Lana, and Kara. Suddenly he’s ready to “move on” and accept that Kara’s gone. Wha-huh?

[Speaking of Kara: Laura Vandervoort is currently signed for 14 episodes, which is more than she started with. Good! It's so awkward the way they keep having to explain her absences from the show. She still needs tons more character development, which more episodes will hopefully give her.]

This episode brought a simmering plotline to a boil and introduced a new one that I’m very excited about. The episode also brought the end of Lois and Grant’s relationship, sadly.

The setup for this episode felt drawn out and rather boring. I didn’t find the bomb threat in the Planet at all believable, and only got interested once Chloe got in the elevator with Jimmy and we finally got to Lois’ “interview” with Lex. It was obvious that Chloe couldn’t physically have a bomb on her (she’s not even wearing a jacket with pockets), and the solution for this seeming contradiction was a real letdown. I speculated that it was some science-fictiony material integrated invisibly into her clothing. Like Brainiac goo. THAT would have been cool. But it turned out to be just some boring old C-4 in her purse (revealed in the elevator thru a tired visual “joke” about women and their overstuffed purses.) A purse which was not actually on her person for the entire time the villain was communicating with Lois. Why not just tell Lois there’s a bomb *in the building* instead of making us sit there trying to come up with creative ways (more creative than the writers) to explain how anything bomb-like could be hidden on Chloe? All in all it was a very poor execution of an intriguing idea.

I did like Lois’s inspired trick of nonchalantly tapping out a message to Chloe on the inter-office mailing envelope. Though it would have been smarter if she had dropped it off in the mail room instead of having it circle back around to Chloe who’s sitting right next to her. How could bomb-boy possibly miss that? Just as unbelievable is the fact that the poor overworked mail clerk didn’t even blink at Lois’ laziness.

While the bomb plot was lacking in tension, Lois’ scene in Grant’s office drilling Lex had me on the edge of my seat waiting to see who would crack first. Lex came through with a sudden, violent blow to Lois’ head (yikes!), so she wouldn’t learn the truth. How would she feel to learn that her lover is a clone? Would she still reveal the truth when it involves someone she cares about? I’m Julian was cloned before or after Lex’s near-death experience, and Lex is trying to make the best of the decision now. I don’t know. But his past is catching up with him and forcing him into increasingly desperate reactions. He just coldly killed someone in front of Grant. His shiny new image is crumbling fast. Does he really think buying out the Planet and firing all the “deadwood” – except Lois, who he hopes to muzzle – will HELP his image?

I like the Julian’s-a-clone twist. I hadn’t watched the key Julian episodes from season 3 prior to this episode (I have since watched all of Season 3 and some of 4 on DVD over the holidays) so I didn’t quite grasp the impossibility of Julian being the real deal. I just chalked it up to Smallville’s usual disregard for continuity or, you know, logic. So I was more than duly impressed that this incongruity was intentional. I love how it plays in beautifully with the traditional Lex Luthor penchant for mad scientist machinations. Here I was wondering until recently if Lana might be a clone ever since she came back. Or maybe she still is, and clone!Lana and Bizarro!Clark can get together and have the wonderful relationship the real ones never can. Only to die a horrible and tragic death together, of course.

(It would have been a lot more believable if the Julian-clone had actually been Michael Cassidy (Grant) in aged make-up and altered voice. Because I totally didn’t buy it when Grant looked at him and said “You’re me”. They look nothing alike.)

The Daily Planet is looking gorgeous all decked out for Christmas. I don’t celebrate Christmas, so I was a little nervous how they would handle this Christmas-timed episode. I was relieved that we were spared any “true meaning of Christmas” crap. And since Kara’s out of the picture at the moment, we were spared any silliness about ‘teaching Kara about humanity thru our Western Christian holiday”. Could have done without the horrible, aggressively upbeat rearrangement of “Tis The Season”. That got the episode off to a bad start for me (oh Smallville, you and your literal song choices). The snowy shot of the Metropolis skyscrapers was lovely, if a bit farfetched in its Christmas decorations (reindeer on the Planet’s spinning globe, really?) For all that we’re in the basement, the office is very attractive, warm and inviting. It’s a far nicer working environment than the cold, fluorescent upper offices we saw in season 2/3. You’d never guess from their workplace that Chloe, Lois and Jimmy are “workie basement dwellers”. Especially with their expensive clothing! (Note to the wardrobe department: there’s no way Lois would wear that shirt to work. A Christmas party, maybe. I felt bad for Erica Durance having to do most of the episode in that plunging neckline. I know how self-conscious and distracted I would be, and she’s got to act in that thing. It’s just another stupid, artificial burden placed on women. Stupid TV.)

The shot of Chloe standing on Jimmy’s back to get better reception on her cell phone call to Clark was hilarious ;-) I laughed at Jimmy’s exasperated response to Chloe calling Clark on her cell: “What’s he going to do, disable the bomb with his great hair?” Yes, Jimmy, he is. He’s Superman :-)

Jimmy finally finds out Chloe’s secret: YES! Not in the way she would have liked, of course. Poor Chloe. It was cute how excited Jimmy got, thinking that perhaps Chloe’s secret was that she could fly. Sadly, Chloe’s power is not all that great. It’s much more of a curse than a superpower, which is really bugs me. The ability to take on other people’s suffering is so very…feminine *coughs* Real groundbreaking there, writers.

Now to the big reveal.

Wow. WOW. I did NOT see Bizarro Clark coming! I knew something was up when Clark FLEW up the stairwell – that was awesome! Up to that point I’d chalked up Clark’s off behavior to bad writing (it’s been a rocky season) – it didn’t occur to me that this might not BE Clark. Who could have guessed that Jor-El would encase his son in an icey prison and send a Bizarro Clark back to Smallville to take his place and steal Lana! Jor-El is TWISTED! I love it =)

So Lana finally gets the boyfriend we she deserves, and lets her – and our – guard down. Which makes the reveal all that more shocking. It’s the classic nightmare: your wonderful boyfriend is Not Who You Think. Shudder.

What I want to know is: is this the same Bizarro Clark we saw previously, or a new and improved version created by Jor-El? Because he acts nothing like the jerk we saw in the season opener. His change in behavior is more than just being motivated by wanting what Clark takes for granted. He actually seems to have been designed to be a better boyfriend and more sensitive friend – it can’t just be part of the ruse to find out more about Project Scion and the Brainiac goo (as it’s now been announced that James Marsters will be returning as Brainiac this season, I’m calling it that for now). This Clark truly seems to appreciate what he has in both Lana and Chloe, openly expressing to the latter how much she means to him (in contrast to the Clark who expected Chloe to drop everything to help him in “Cure”). This is, of course, in telling contrast with his complete lack of interest in Kara’s whereabouts. Is that a bit of programming from Jor-El, who also has a strange lack of familial attachment to the future Supergirl? Is it because she expose him? There may be a dark side to this Bizarro that we have yet to see. But damn, I wish the “good” Clark were a little more like this!