While it’s not by best offering of a podcast ever, it is what it is.  In this episode I talk a Smallville, the viral campaign that is underway for THE DARK KNIGHT, JUSTICE LEAGUE casting rumors, and I answer some questions about Heroes and assign a new name or two.   Oh yeah, and David Hasslehoff comes to Geek Out Loud…sort of.  I mention him…WHILE I’M TALKING ABOUT KNIGHT RIDER.

Here are the links you need to understand everything..

For more on Smallville, as always, go to Kryptonsite.com and of course Starkville’s House of El Podcast of which I am a part.

For more on Heroes, check out The Tenth Wonder Podcast, where you’ll find thorough reviews, theory discussions, and spoilers.

For that sweet picture of KITT, just click here.

Now for the shameless plugs…

To start up forum-esque conversations about Geek Out Loud or Geek Out Online, click here.

As always leave comments, or E-mail me.

Thanks for listening.

 I forgot to post this link earlier.  The Al Roker report on the Dark Knight can be seen here.

 

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It’s the weekend, so that means it’s time for my review of the most recent episode of Smallville.   Thursday night gave us Blue.  Thank you Thursday night.  Thank you so much. 

I don’t want to bore you with a recap, but here are the highlights.

 Clark uses Kara’s blue crystal to bring his mother out of the crystal.  Jor-El,  of course, warns him not to do this, but in typical Clark fashion, Jor-El’s warnings go ignored.

So, Clark brings Lara out of the crystal, but, unbeknownst to him, he also unleashes Zor-El.  Zor-El goes to Lionel, the emissary of Jor-El , to seek out Kal-El, but Lionel refuses help him.  Before Zor-El can unleash on Lionel, Clark shows up and stops him.

In an effort to keep Lara safe, Clark takes her to Ollie’s old penthouse, which apparently Ollie left at Clark’s disposal.  It’s been used enough.  While there, Lara gives Clark a ring that belonged to Jor-El.  It’s the passing of an heirloom kind of thing. 

The ring, while pretty and chock full of personal meaning, actually causes Clark to lose his powers.  There is now no one to stand in the way of Zor-El taking Lara as his wife and setting up rule on Earth.  Clark is even left to believe that Kara betrayed him, even though she’s pretty much being held at bay against her will by Zor-El.

Basically, the entirity of what’s left of The House of El has fallen apart and the final conflict will take place at the Fortress.

Meanwhile, among the mere mortals, Chloe catches Lois and Grant making out a bit in Grant’s office and confronts Lois about it.  She tells Lois that she needs to break off her relationship with Grant because it will taint any success she has a journalist.  Grant, on the other hand, is getting the same advice, or demand (?) from Lex.   We are made aware at this point that I was right when talking to Derek on Starkville’s House of El when I said that Grant was talking to Lex at the end of Wrath. 

Why would Lex want Grant to break it off with Lois?  What could Lois possible find out that would be damaging to Lex?  We’ll get there.

Clark can’t get the ring off of his finger.  Even with a grinder.

Chloe brings Clark the key.(obviously to be used in the cave to teleport him to the fortress.)

At the fortress, Clark uses kryptonite to hold Zor-El at bay while he tries to fix the eclipse that Zor-El has caused.  Did I mention that Zor-El is a Heroes fan?

Lara informs Clark that the only way to get rid of Zor-El is destroy the Crystal.  That is what allows them to be there.  Clark of course refuses, but Zor-El has made his way out from under the kryptonite and is attacking Kara and getting ready to kill her.  Clark smashes the crystal against the console which makes all three (Lara, Zor-El, and Kara disappear.)

Back to Lex and Grant….not yet.

Kara wakes up on a street in the rain.  She makes her way to a little cafe and we learn that not only does she not know where she is, she doesnt’ know WHO she is. 

Lois tells Chloe that things are over between her and Grant, even though they snog whenever they get together.

Grant is talking to Lex and gets frustrated that Lex won’t let him tell people who he is….JULIAN LUTHOR.  WHAT?!?!  That’s right, killed by his mom only to return one day as the editor of the Daily Planet.  Suddenly, I give a flip about Grant.

Finally, Clark is back at the Fortress to inquire Jor-El as to the whereabouts of Kara.  Jor-El, displeased with Clark.  He informs Clark that his defiance can’t go without consequence.  The fortress begins to glow bright white.  The light becomes brighter and brighter until….Executive Producers Al Gough and Miles Millar.

Why was this episode so good?  Why do I consider it one of the best if not THE best episode of the season? 

1.  Fortress action.  After not seeing the fortress at all after the premiere of Season 6, it was awesome to see so much of the show taking place in the Fortress of Solitude.

2.  Helen Slater - I think Slater does a wonderful job as Lara.   Her scene with Lana, while brief, was powerful.  She looks into the very soul of Lana and, in a moment of sheer goodness, tries to use the time she has with Lana to pull her back from the mistakes she’s made.  I love Helen Slater, she is a great actress and she brought an elegance, gentility, strength and a quiet passion to the role of Lara.  What a wonderful choice for the role that goes far beyond standard stunt casting.  She sings too…check her out.

3.  Twists and turns Smallville style - While I knew the Kara with no memory thing was coming because of the Sprint videos that were released, it is still a pretty major turn that Clark’s concern is to find his cousin and he has no idea that she’s in Motor City without a clue as to who she is or what she can do.  The big twist though is the existence of Julian Luthor.  Is it really?  Could Grant just be pulling a fast one on Lex?  I doubt it, but Julian can’t survive…there’s only room for one Luthor.  And did I mention that Derek was wrong and I was right about who he was talking to at the end of Wrath?

4.  The Cliffhanger.  I love the midseason, pre-break cliffhangers that the creators throw in and this one is one of the most thought provoking yet.   The whole show ended with the Fortress building to a blinding light as Jor-El was getting ready to reprimand Clark for his disobedience yet again.  What will he do? (Who knows?) Can it be wrapped up within the opening moments of the next episode? (Probably not.) Will Clark finally stand up to Jor-El and try to come to an understanding?(Not likely)

This episode was a perfect example of why Smallville has continued to be fairly successful even into it’s seventh season.  While it has definitely moved out of the realm of teen drama and into full on science fiction, it’s still a fun show, a dramatic show, and a show that you can talk about for days without ever coming to any real conclusions about questions and cliffhangers.  It’s sad that this season is apparently going to be cut short due to the ongoing strike, but it’s encouraging that we haven’t had a real dud this season.  All stops have been pulled out and it’s full steam ahead into the last half of this crazy ride.

I give the episode a full on 5 out of 5 whatever I award 5 of because my jaw is still slightly ajar at the living breathingness of Julian, Zor-El’s confrontation with Lionel, Lara’s talk with Lana, Fortress fighting goodness, and Smallville greatness.   Two weeks until the next new episode.  (Remember when they were “fresh?”)  Until then, head over to Starkville’s House of El Website, check out what the guys at SHoE thought, chat with us on the forums, and let us hear your thoughts.

For all intents and purposes, I was expecting Wrath to be a bit of a filler episode.  I “filler” is an episode where the overall story arc isn’t really progressed, and the episode seems to be there simply because it has to be.

While I was a bit creeped out in the opening moments of the show, I was overall pleasantly surprised…check that…I really enjoyed Wrath. 

Without doing too much of recap, the main plot points of the story are these, Clark’s powers are transferred to Lana via a lightning/kryptonite mixture.  Either because the lightning initially hit a windmill and traveled to Clark or because Lana was throwing the kryptonite away, Clark retained his powers.  Lana of course goes power crazy and decides to go after Lex.  Through her batcave behind Isis, Lana sees Lex talking to a doctor in his employ about a project called Project: Scion.  The doctor shows Lex a container with kryptonite on top and some black liquid that apparently used to be dust.  It is sentient and wants out.   Lana breaks into the mansion, rips up a safe and steals the hard drive with information about Scion on it. 

Lex confronts Clark about the missing hard drive.  Lana beats up Lois and Grant to get a story defacing Lex published.  Lana then attacks Lex to get him to take her to Scion.  While there we find out that Lex is basically preparing for an alien attack.  He is convinced that more kryptonians are on the way.  He also does a bit of playing with Lana’s head and tells her that she still loves him. As he kisses her, she chokes him and throws him to the side…of course knocking him out…Clark shows up.  He and Lana have a quick little fight and the container with the kryptonite liquid rolls toward Lana effectively weakening her.  Clark smashes the container releasing the black ooze, takes an electrical cord holds it to himself and the kryptonite to regain the power from Lana.  In the end, Chloe lays the law down, Lex gets inside Clark’s head, and Clark doesn’t respond when Lana expresses her need for Clark to love her no matter what.  Oh yeah, and the ooze?  Oozed into a lab tech…

This episode is one of those “set-up” episodes where a lot happens, but nothing happens.  While that sounds negative, it isn’t at all.

Lex showed how adept he is at getting into people’s heads, especially Clark’s.  Lana finally snapped.  Went right over that precipice Lionel warned her about.  Chloe stepped it up and reaffirmed her loyalty to Clark.  And Brainiac’s loose.

This episode could have gone either way, and early on I was afraid it was going to go bad.  The whole attempt at humor by having Clark and Lana’s…uhm…physical escapades cause tremors in Smallville came across more offputting than funny.  The real humor of that whole situation was when Clark realized exactly the kind of things that Lana and Chloe confide in each other.  After that though, it was on.

Lex is truly the ultimate villain. He is still looking into the whole spaceship thing, preparing for an invasion.  And if he can line his pockets while looking out for the world, well, saving the Earth has to have it’s benefits.

Chloe is the most steady of all of our mains even in the midst of dealing with her krypto power.   Her unwaivering devotion to Clark, not out of some personal motive of feelings she has for him, only serves to reaffirm my television crush on her and it makes her one of the most noble characters on the show right now.

Lana, as I said, has snapped.  It may be that the only way for her to find her way back to some type of goodness is to lose Clark.  It is interesting the episode ended with him not responding to the “love me no matter what” comment.  Two or three years ago he wouldn’t have hesitated to say that he does.  Now, because of what Lana has become, he’s not so sure.

I don’t think Lana is evil, I just think she’s tired of being the victim.  Let’s face it.  She was the ultimate victim at the hand of Lex.   The two most evil things he has done (and possible will ever do) is to twist Lana into the woman who felt she had to become what she is just to survive and to cause her to believe she was pregnant only to make her think she lost the baby.  To cause anyone that kind of heartache and pain just because you want them to be in a relationship with you is the most psychotic, twisted, evil thing you could do.   Lana is who she is now because she will not be the victim anymore.

Then there are the things she said to Clark while she had the power.  Things that only served to stab at his self doubt and the foundation of his convictions and feelings.  She expresses a lack of understanding that many posess.  If he can do all that he can do, why isn’t he more proactive in changing things.   Even if it means getting his hands dirty.  Honestly, if Lana can’t come to the point that she understands the why to Clark, she can never truly love him and be with him. 

So this episode provided many cracks in the relationship that Clana fans have been hoping for all along.

The wedge between Clark and Lex was driven even deeper, and it’s interesting to see them on screen together.  While we are getting Clark and Lex moments still, they are very sparse and seldom anything but two guys dancing around the issues between them.  Conversations like the ones they had in Wrath reveals just how much these two no longer like each other.

Before I wrap it up, I need to mention the Lois/Grant relationship.  Shall we call it Grois.  Don’t like it.   Haven’t liked him since he came on board.  There’s something about his line delivery that always seems forced.  Also, I don’t understand Lois’ interest in him. 

What I really don’t understand is how Lois could miss the hard drive on his desk hooked up to his computer.   I guess she was only interested in snogging with the guy.  (That’s for all of my friends across the pond.)

I give this episode a solid 3 out 5 whatever I give 5 of.  The reason I knock off a couple of points comes down to the sexquake early in the episode and the use of music that sounded like it belonged in Nightmare Before Christmas and not Smallville.   Oh, and that cheesy horse ride at the beginning.   It’s not the horse riding that’s so cheesy, but the song that belonged in a seventies Barbara Streisand romance movie.  

Next week could be very interesting as we get the return of Helen Slater as Lara in “Blue.”

After two weeks, Geek Out Loud returns.  On the show we talk about the new Captain America, Heroes, Justice League (again) and a litle bit about the recent happenings at whysoserious.com and Rory’s Death Kiss dot com . There is also a little Smallville talk with a huge shout out to Derek over at Starkville’s House of El for letting me sit in and guest host on their most recent episode.

 

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Since about midway through the second season of Smallville, fans have realized that when it comes to the origin of Superman and Clark Kent, that the creators of the show were gonna take a lot of liberties and bend the original tale where they saw fit to do so.

Bend it they have.  Over and over again, and completely without breaking it.  The bending continued with “Lara.”

In season 2 when the Kiwachi caves came into play, I kind of scratched my head and said, “Huh?”  Since then, the idea of Kryptonians visiting Earth has become not so far fetched.  Jor-El himself came to Earth in 1961 where he fell in love with a relative of Lana.  But you remember all of that.

Also, we’ve learned to forget all we know….or think we know. (Anyone remember WILLOW?)(The movie, not the character from Buffy.)  “Lara” continues that Smallville tradition in a really good way.

From the outset of the show, we realize this is going to be special as this is the first time we ever really see Krypton in Smallville.  It is a war torn planet on the verge of destruction and Zor-El is sending his only daughter away as he is apparently going to stay behind and try to defend Kandor against the forces of General Zod.  I was struck with the effective use of the Fortress of Solitude set pieces and the great blue screen work that helped us feel familiar with the planet, but no so much so that we look and say, “Hey, that’s the Fortress.”

The whole scene is a flashback Kara is having while she’s chilling out in mid-air.  Thus, we get one of my favorite things about Superman television shows: the use of powers simply because they’re there.  In other words, Clark toasting bread with heat vision, using his bare hands to drive fence posts, and now Kara just laying back in mid air and letting her mind wander.

This whole opening segment does a great job of once again helping us get inside the head of and understanding Kara, a character in which I have never found much interest or understood.  Here we feel for her because her memories of life on Krypton aren’t a dream of what could have been, or a look at the past through some crystal or past-viewing machine (Silver Age anyone?).  Rather, they are actual memories and seeing the people and the place she lost helps us to understand that she’s not over it.  It’s still fresh to her that her home was destroyed.  It builds sympathy.  And that’s a good thing.

Kara is on a mission to find her crystal, and she is using every tactic at her disposal to get it.  A lot of her methods are just a teenage girl with super powers lashing out because of the way she was hurt by Clark and J’onn in action, but the problem is that the more she puts herself out there, the more she, and by proxy, Clark are in danger of exposure. 

Meanwhile, Chloe is dealing with her problem by trying to plug into an support group for the meteor infected.  It is still strange to me that Chloe fears her ability so much.  I understand her fear of dying, but her fear seems to be deeper than that.  It’s almost as if she fears what other meteor freaks have become.  I would think that knowing what has happened to other members of the meteor infected community would help her determination not to go nuts.  However, nice nod to DC comics yet again in the form of the name of the organization - Isis.  Isis, of course, is not only the name of an Egyptian goddess, but also a character in DC comics that plays heavily into the Captain Marvel family.  The twist? The company is run by Lana.  She set it up, she claims, to help the people whose lives were ruined by Lex’s 33.1 experiments.  However, Chloe and the rest of us see differently.

Lionel is back in full form in this episode.  When he and Clark have a reunion moment, there is a hug exchanged and wow!  How weird was that?!?  Of course, Clark turns around and lies to Lionel about Kara’s origins.  My thoughts?  Lionel knows Clark was lying.  He knows who Kara is.  Lionel is, once again, the keeper of knowledge on the show.  He let’s Clark know about Starhawk (The One Who Knows), the project that the Department of Domestic Security has set up to study extraterrestrial life.  

Kara finds out about the project as well, she just uses a different method…her feminity.  (Read that as “hotness.”)  However, by the time she breaks in to the facility and gets to where the crystal is supposed to be, it’s gone.  Honestly, at this point, I expected Clark to have gotten in and taken the crystal, but I wasn’t sure. 

Kara and Clark have a great confrontation and Kara says some things that, while out of anger, have a germ of truth to them.  Particuliarly when she tells Clark that he acts like a hero but he only thinks of himself.  While that’s not completely true, there is some truth to it.  Why did Clark destroy his ship?  To stay in Smallville and be happy with Lana.  Why did Clark run away and spend three months in Metropolis on Red Kryptonite?  He was too hurt to stay in Smallville and face the consequences of his actions.  Why did Clark not continue his quest for the stones after finding the first one as Kal-El?  He just wanted to enjoy senior year.  Why did Clark not go back to Jor-El and finish his training?  Again, because he wanted to be happy with Lana in Smallville.  Every time Clark has lost his abilities, what has been his reaction?  Relief at not having them. 

The truth is that the most selfless act Clark commits as Superman is becoming Superman.  While that shouldn’t be an easy choice, Clark does need to realize his potential to live beyond the farm on Smallville.  Chloe sees it, Lana sees it, even Jonathan Kent saw it.  Clark just refuses to accept it.  Which is what this season is apparently all about.

The real meat of the show comes, though, when Agent Carter captures Kara and subjects her to the same process that opened Clark’s mind to his earliest memory in season 3.  With out the big tub of kryptonite water.

Kara sees herself in the Kent barn talking to Lara, played superbly by Helen Slater.  Lara and Kara obviously have close relationship, and Kara is excited to learn that Lara is pregnant.  In fact, Kara even suggests the name Kal-El, which apparently has something to do with the stars or the sky.  This, to my knowledge, is the first time we are ever given a hint of what the name Kal-El means.   lara is on Earth to see where her son may be raised.  At this point in Kryptonian history, Jor-El probably already recognizes that Krypton is headed for destruction and has discussed what must be done with Lara.  While walking through the Kent farm house, Kara snaps a picture of Lara and hides it in a frame behind a picture of Martha.  The symbolism here is not lost, and it is neat that the picture has been there the whole time.  

As Clark arrives to try to save Kara, he is weakened by the kryptonite present.  Still he forges on to help his cousin.  As he touches one of the sensors connected to her, he becomes privy to her memory.  For the first time he sees his mother, and Zor-El, who followed Kara and Lara through the last remaining portal to Earth.  Zor-El is in love with Lara and tries to put the moves on her (pretty roughly).  Kara witnesses the whole thing, but thanks to the House of El crystal, she has forgotten that whole ordeal.  During the scuffel, Zor-El mentions putting Lara’s DNA in a crystal so that she can live beyond Krypton with him.  Thus, the true importance of the crystal to Zor-El is brought to light.

Clark wakes up to find that Kara’s vitals have bottomed out and she is dying.  Just before Agent Carter can attack Clark, he is shot by Lionel, who apologizes to Clark for not realizing the danger of the place.   Clark does some super CPR and Kara is revived.

At this point, we know that Starhawk (The One Who Knows) doesn’t have the crystal, Lex doesn’t have it, and Kara doesn’t have it.  Get ready for the big twist. 

Clark and Kara have a good conversation in which Kara apologizes to Clark for the way she’s been acting.  She tells him that she’s decided to calm down and focus on her future here on Earth.  In other words, she’s going to go try to “fit in” with Jimmy.

Lex and Lionel have an amazing confrontation.  Lex has become the man that Lionel wanted him to be and more.  In fact, this is the first conversation in a long time, if ever, where neither Lionel nor Lex have the upper hand until the very end.  In the past, either Lex has come in to a talk one up on Lione or vica versa. 

Finally, Clark takes Lana out to the barn to show her the picture of his mother and reveal something else.  HE HAS THE CRYSTAL.  Why? It has his mother’s DNA.  See?  Told ya he was a bit selfish. 

This episode was great.  I love the looks into the origins of Clark and the deepening of the Smallville mythology.  I was actually surprised to see the crystal wind up in Clark’s hands so soon.  I guess I’ve gotten so used to the Smallville way of stringing us along until the very end of the season that things have seemed to move pretty fast this season.  It’s refreshing and it feels like the creators of the show know exactly where they’re going.  It also portends the end of the series to me.  All of the talk about Clark’s destiny is pointing to him finally accepting it eventually.

Mentions of the Council, General Zod, and the reveal that Jor-El designed the Brain Interactive Construct (Brainiac), made for some great squeal with glee moments.  The Smallville twist (sounds like a lame dance) during the commercial has begun the excitement for the return of James Marsters as Brainiac. 

I have been so pleased with this season, and “Lara” just continued the ride for me.   I give this episode 5 out of 5 whatever I give 5 of for it’s look at the past, it’s furthering of the overall arc of the season, and for being that dang good.