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mamajoanHeh. I'm amused to read my friends page this morning and see that people either loved or hated last night's Smallville episode. It seems like those who hated it are those who love Chloe and focus mainly on Clark's treatment of her, whereas those who liked it are those who are more about the CLex and, since there wasn't much of that in this ep, they appreciated it just on its merits in terms of entertainment value.
I guess I'm somewhere in the middle. I'm annoyed with Clark for his many transgressions, but I also enjoyed the naughty-fun-sexy parts of the ep simply because, hey, I'm a whore. :) I didn't get into all the "Clark sucks, he treats Lex like crap, that jerk" stuff that people were doing after "Suspect," mainly because I didn't even watch "Suspect" till the weekend. Frankly I think that Clark's behavior in that episode -- accusing Lex of having framed his dad for shooting Lionel -- is understandable, although regrettable. Hey, Clark's a teenage boy and his dad is in prison for murder. He's already had a few blow-ups with Lex recently, has reason to suspect that Lex isn't the nicest person around, and knows that Lex has reason to hate Lionel. So I can understand Clark's actions, although it might have been nice to see him apologize a little more forcefully at the end there.
But in "Rush" last night, I have a lot more trouble accepting Clark's treatment of Chloe. It's not just how he treats her overall, the whole "your own personal search engine" thing. I'm annoyed that he lied to her about his date with Lana. Never mind that he should have been honest with her, but it was just plain dumb. Hello, those two girls LIVE together, ya moron!
I question whether, when this is all over, Clark will really do the introspection and realize, "hey, I *do* treat Chloe badly." In "Red" it was made clear, I think, that Clark's actions while on red kryptonite were motivated by his actual feelings, just intensified and uninhibited because of the drug. I wish they would have made the same thing clear here, because I think both Chloe and Pete were acting out feelings that they really do feel deep down inside but can't usually articulate. And I think Clark needs to realize that if he's ever going to stop treating Chloe like shit.
I have to also add that, I'm sorry, I don't think Tom Welling and Allison Mack have a ton of chemistry. They have more than TW has with Kristin Kreuk, but that's not saying much. Really, in this ep, I saw more sparkage in the two-second look that passed between Chloe and Lex than in all the groping and macking twixt Chloe and Clark. (Of course, part of that is down to Michael Rosenbaum, who frankly could have chemistry with the proverbial doorknob, but still.)
Oh, and finally, damn, but TW has *huge* hands. Dude.
Moving on to "Buffy." I realized that "Buffy" can almost always surprise me when, if it were another show, I'd probably be more cynical and see the twists coming. I think it's because I still care so much about "Buffy" that I let myself just get swept up in it without much thinking. I do the thinking after the episode is over.
Anyway, so I kept being surprised by this one. I thought the lesbian slayer chick, Kennedy, was going to turn out to be the Big Bad, but instead it was Willow! Whoa, didn't see that one coming. I did guess that Amy would be involved somehow, because she was shown in the "Previously..." bit, but I allowed them to fool me into thinking she was really trying to help. I had also completely forgotten about the Giles incident (d'oh, even though during the last ep I kept thinking "wait, what about Giles and the axe?") so I got all freaked out along with the Scoobies when they got that phone call.
I did have some problems with the episode. I didn't like Willow simply accepting that Kennedy had ditched out on the potential-slayer excursion. She could at least have engaged in some stern lecturing, if not actually run and tattle to Buffy. Also, Kennedy cluing Willow in on the intricacies of lesbian subculture didn't work for me. OK, so Willow's only ever been in one same-sex relationship, but it *was* a lengthy one, and Willow's the type to go online and learn all she can about stuff anyway, so it's not like she's a newbie to the whole dyke thing. What also doesn't ring true is Willow going to the college witches for help; she had such disdain for them after that first meeting way back in season 4, and as far as we know she hasn't had any contact with them since, so why would it even occur to her? And are we supposed to think that Amy set the whole thing up *knowing* Willow would go to the college witches, or that part was just a happy accident from Amy's POV?
I'm also troubled by the fact that, although the Scoobies accepted Giles's not-evilness once they found that they could touch him, we still haven't heard an actual explanation of what happened with the axe hurtling toward his head. Plus, we never actually saw the potentials; they could very well already be dead in one of the nearby caves or something. Let's not forget that the First was able to control Spike without making him actually noncorporeal; why couldn't it be doing the same with Giles?
I did like the element of Willow's lingering guilt/grief over Tara, and feeling that by kissing another chick she was killing Tara again and therefore becoming Warren -- it's illogical, but that's emotions for ya, and I can easily see Willow feeling that way. But the "if I kiss you you'll turn back to normal again" ending was, of course, super-cheesy. Ehhh. I really didn't care for that. Maybe that's partly because of![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
bonibaru's fic that I recently beta'd? ;) Still, though, I really think I would have liked the whole thing better if they hadn't set up Kennedy as such an *obvious* dyke for the past several episodes.
Oh, I do also really like the twist of Buffy having to decide whether Spike's chip gets removed or repaired. Talk about your tough choices!! Frankly, I think I'd opt for having it repaired (and this is me talking as a Spike lover). My logic would be: a) now that he's got a soul and is on the good guys' side, he doesn't have much occasion to beat up humans anyway, and b) presumably, Buffy could always call the Initiative back and say "hey, I changed my mind, come take the chip out." Whereas the reverse
wouldn't be true if she has them remove it now. However, this logic doesn't necessarily work for Buffy since she also has her, you know, feelings for Spike. Speaking of which, if they don't smooch again soon I may explode. I was really tempted to watch the preview for next week, just in case, but I forced myself to be strong. Sigh.
I think the fact that Spike seemed to have a stronger "episode" of pain when Willow was Warren might be significant. OTOH, maybe not. I'm not sure. Oh, also, it seems like Anya and Xander are getting along better now. Dare one hope they can patch things up? Snif. (However, if Andrew and Dawn hook up, I shall scream. And not in the good way. Eww.)
OK, enough fluff for one morning. ;)
I guess I'm somewhere in the middle. I'm annoyed with Clark for his many transgressions, but I also enjoyed the naughty-fun-sexy parts of the ep simply because, hey, I'm a whore. :) I didn't get into all the "Clark sucks, he treats Lex like crap, that jerk" stuff that people were doing after "Suspect," mainly because I didn't even watch "Suspect" till the weekend. Frankly I think that Clark's behavior in that episode -- accusing Lex of having framed his dad for shooting Lionel -- is understandable, although regrettable. Hey, Clark's a teenage boy and his dad is in prison for murder. He's already had a few blow-ups with Lex recently, has reason to suspect that Lex isn't the nicest person around, and knows that Lex has reason to hate Lionel. So I can understand Clark's actions, although it might have been nice to see him apologize a little more forcefully at the end there.
But in "Rush" last night, I have a lot more trouble accepting Clark's treatment of Chloe. It's not just how he treats her overall, the whole "your own personal search engine" thing. I'm annoyed that he lied to her about his date with Lana. Never mind that he should have been honest with her, but it was just plain dumb. Hello, those two girls LIVE together, ya moron!
I question whether, when this is all over, Clark will really do the introspection and realize, "hey, I *do* treat Chloe badly." In "Red" it was made clear, I think, that Clark's actions while on red kryptonite were motivated by his actual feelings, just intensified and uninhibited because of the drug. I wish they would have made the same thing clear here, because I think both Chloe and Pete were acting out feelings that they really do feel deep down inside but can't usually articulate. And I think Clark needs to realize that if he's ever going to stop treating Chloe like shit.
I have to also add that, I'm sorry, I don't think Tom Welling and Allison Mack have a ton of chemistry. They have more than TW has with Kristin Kreuk, but that's not saying much. Really, in this ep, I saw more sparkage in the two-second look that passed between Chloe and Lex than in all the groping and macking twixt Chloe and Clark. (Of course, part of that is down to Michael Rosenbaum, who frankly could have chemistry with the proverbial doorknob, but still.)
Oh, and finally, damn, but TW has *huge* hands. Dude.
Moving on to "Buffy." I realized that "Buffy" can almost always surprise me when, if it were another show, I'd probably be more cynical and see the twists coming. I think it's because I still care so much about "Buffy" that I let myself just get swept up in it without much thinking. I do the thinking after the episode is over.
Anyway, so I kept being surprised by this one. I thought the lesbian slayer chick, Kennedy, was going to turn out to be the Big Bad, but instead it was Willow! Whoa, didn't see that one coming. I did guess that Amy would be involved somehow, because she was shown in the "Previously..." bit, but I allowed them to fool me into thinking she was really trying to help. I had also completely forgotten about the Giles incident (d'oh, even though during the last ep I kept thinking "wait, what about Giles and the axe?") so I got all freaked out along with the Scoobies when they got that phone call.
I did have some problems with the episode. I didn't like Willow simply accepting that Kennedy had ditched out on the potential-slayer excursion. She could at least have engaged in some stern lecturing, if not actually run and tattle to Buffy. Also, Kennedy cluing Willow in on the intricacies of lesbian subculture didn't work for me. OK, so Willow's only ever been in one same-sex relationship, but it *was* a lengthy one, and Willow's the type to go online and learn all she can about stuff anyway, so it's not like she's a newbie to the whole dyke thing. What also doesn't ring true is Willow going to the college witches for help; she had such disdain for them after that first meeting way back in season 4, and as far as we know she hasn't had any contact with them since, so why would it even occur to her? And are we supposed to think that Amy set the whole thing up *knowing* Willow would go to the college witches, or that part was just a happy accident from Amy's POV?
I'm also troubled by the fact that, although the Scoobies accepted Giles's not-evilness once they found that they could touch him, we still haven't heard an actual explanation of what happened with the axe hurtling toward his head. Plus, we never actually saw the potentials; they could very well already be dead in one of the nearby caves or something. Let's not forget that the First was able to control Spike without making him actually noncorporeal; why couldn't it be doing the same with Giles?
I did like the element of Willow's lingering guilt/grief over Tara, and feeling that by kissing another chick she was killing Tara again and therefore becoming Warren -- it's illogical, but that's emotions for ya, and I can easily see Willow feeling that way. But the "if I kiss you you'll turn back to normal again" ending was, of course, super-cheesy. Ehhh. I really didn't care for that. Maybe that's partly because of
bonibaru's fic that I recently beta'd? ;) Still, though, I really think I would have liked the whole thing better if they hadn't set up Kennedy as such an *obvious* dyke for the past several episodes.Oh, I do also really like the twist of Buffy having to decide whether Spike's chip gets removed or repaired. Talk about your tough choices!! Frankly, I think I'd opt for having it repaired (and this is me talking as a Spike lover). My logic would be: a) now that he's got a soul and is on the good guys' side, he doesn't have much occasion to beat up humans anyway, and b) presumably, Buffy could always call the Initiative back and say "hey, I changed my mind, come take the chip out." Whereas the reverse
wouldn't be true if she has them remove it now. However, this logic doesn't necessarily work for Buffy since she also has her, you know, feelings for Spike. Speaking of which, if they don't smooch again soon I may explode. I was really tempted to watch the preview for next week, just in case, but I forced myself to be strong. Sigh.
I think the fact that Spike seemed to have a stronger "episode" of pain when Willow was Warren might be significant. OTOH, maybe not. I'm not sure. Oh, also, it seems like Anya and Xander are getting along better now. Dare one hope they can patch things up? Snif. (However, if Andrew and Dawn hook up, I shall scream. And not in the good way. Eww.)
OK, enough fluff for one morning. ;)
