This episode had a major problem. It was a great episode of a Superman series, yet Clark hasn’t become superman yet. So now we have a Supergirl and a Superboy before we see Clark wearing a cape. Par for the course I suppose. In spite of myself I still enjoyed this episode.
In a big twist beyond Smallville‘s normally mediocre level of story telling, the clone of lex Luthor whose been poking around all season, which everyone thought would grow up to be Michael Rosenbaum is actually Connor Kent. As a combination of Lex and Clark’s DNA Connor has potential for either good or evil. Lionel and Clark struggle to influence the boy’s future. Lionel goes as far as to turn to red kryptonite to unleash his inner Luthor. This causes Connor to try to kidnap and seduce Lois in a fit of Oedipal rage.Clark is able to end the red kryptonite poisoning and Connor, in the end defiantly proclaims “I know who I Am!” and sides with Clark.
Usually I’m not a fan of legacy heroes. DC has far too many people with the same powers and the same symbol using the same gimmick. So though I have nothing against Superboy’s character, I find the concept behind him is a little lame. If you’re even vaguely related, you have to be a miny me of your heroic mentor. Putting that aside Superboy was pulled off well. I wonder if this episode was made to tie into Young Justice, or if they’re hoping for a Smallville Superboy spin off.Connor was understandably confused as to his personality and role in the world. Even if this was only a one shot appearance, he had a nice character arc. The hero is born, is tempted by darkness, overcomes the darkens and emerges triumphant. It was a nice point that the way he saves Clark’s life using skills Clark was trying to teach him. Clark gets to play surrogate dad/ big brother. As the villain of the episode Lionel was the high point. We didn’t just have a cackling megalomanical master mind trying to rule the planet. Lionel was very human. He’s a man who lost his son and it is driving him to some very dark places to get him back. His confrontation with Connor and Clark in the burnt remains of the Luthor mansion wasn’t, just a bit of creepy visual eye candy. It was highly symbolic for the Luthor dynasty. Finally at Lex’s grave his confrontation of darkseid is a great teaser of things to come. What if Lionel sacrifices his soul to Darkseid to resurrect his lost son.
Though I would like to take credit for this observation the credit has to go to the Human Scource’s Blog review of the same episode. (check his sight out) Connor in this acts very similar to Connor in the Buffy spin off Angel. Both try to seduce their “father’s” girlfriends, both speed off when their super human hearing allows them to hear a secret someone kept about them, both have a berserk button when being compared to their father. I wonder if this was a coincidence, a homage, or a blatant rip off.
On a Scale of 1 to Epic, (Epic equals 10) I’d give it a 7.1