Smallville 5.8: "Solitude"

Written by Todd Slavkin and Darren Swimmer
Directed by Paul Shapiro

In which Martha becomes infected by a Kryptonian attack, and Clark becomes convinced that Jor-El was the source and that Professor Fine holds the cure to the disease…


Better late than never! A rather nasty cold took me out over the weekend, so I didn’t get to see this episode until last night. This was a nasty way to tease Clark over the fact that someone close to him is going to die, but that’s not where the main criticism lies. It has more to do with subtlety, or rather, the lack thereof.

Before I go on, I will say that I enjoyed the episode for what it was. It had some emotional depth, the usual intrigue over who knows what about whom, and a nice battle between Clark and Fine. I thought the various hints about Lois and her future with the Daily Planet were fun, if a little obvious, and I can’t help but enjoy the fact that elements of “Superman II” are still going strong. Sure, it was revised for this series, but it’s still fun, especially since I’m not even close to being a purist.

At the same time, I like it when motivations are somewhat less than obvious. My main problem with this episode is how quickly it lays everything out on the table. One thing I liked about Fine thus far was his lack of obvious menace. The writers made it clear that he was connected to the two “Disciples of Zod” (or whatever they were called), and this episode follows up on that. However, I wonder if it might have been more interesting to leave both Jor-El and Zod, as well as their supporters, equally questionable in their practices.

One thing that I’ve always liked about “Smallville” was the hint that Jor-El wasn’t quite so benevolent as the popular impression of him has become. I never remembered Jor-El as anything more than the doomed monarch of Krypton (again, not a DC fan, don’t know the comic version well at all). This series made his goals far more ominous, especially in terms of how Kal-El was supposed to reign over humanity. His actions thus far have always been murky yet reliably self-interested, and that plays directly into Fine’s hands.

It might have been better to let Zod remain an attractive alternative to Jor-El. Imagine the possibility of Fine as a philosophical messenger for Zod, trying to convince Clark to join Zod through relative morality. It would have been an interesting three-fold path for Clark: the “Boy Scout” morality of the Kents vs. the two sides of the Kryptonian struggle, both of which would vie for Clark’s support.

Such a conflict would have forced Clark to find his own sense of morality and purpose, rather than simply echoing what the Kents have taught him. After all, in the end, Clark must stand apart from humanity as its advocate. Thus Clark must decide, as a Kryptonian, why that is the right choice. The Kents show him the best aspects of humanity, but they cannot teach him how to apply his legacy to his future. Clark must decide that through exclusion.

So while I enjoyed the smackdown well enough, I was somewhat disappointed in the fact that Zod’s point of view became something so clearly defined as destructive and evil. It does nothing to clarify Jor-El’s point of view, and frankly, what little we did hear still doesn’t sound sufficiently different from Zod’s philosophy.

As for the rest of the episode, Chloe got into that facility far too easily, and she also seems to be working out how everything fits together a little too well. Again, it’s a bad sign that she’s towards the top of the “slated to die” list. I still think it could be Jonathan, since his death has been presaged forever, but the writers are laying it on extra thick.

Writing: 2/2
Acting: 2/2
Direction: 2/2
Style: 2/4

Final Rating: 8/10