PHENOMENALITY: *marvelous*
MYTHICITY: *fair*
FRYEAN MYTHOS: *adventure*
CAMPBELLIAN FUNCTIONS: *psychological*
The villain this time, Ian Ranall (Jonathan Taylor Thomas), is so badly constructed that he could stand as an example for all the poorly thought out Clark-antagonists. His sole significance in the SMALLVILLE opus is that he's a mild parody of Clark Kent's tendency to keep not one but two beautiful babes on the string.
Of course, Clark avoids committing to either Lana or Chloe (who became room-mates in this season) because of his insecurities about his Big Secret. Ian is the poster child for high-schoolers desperate to get on the right college track (particularly to gain a "Luthor scholarship"), and he's been around long enough that he's built up a rep for academic excellence. However, when a shop teacher gives Ian a mediocre grade that might hurt the student's average, it's murder time. The script doesn't even bother to explicate how Ian gained the super-ability to spawn an identical duplicate from his spine, but this power enables him to commit homicide and have an alibi for his "other self." (Incidentally, "dichotic" is a real word, but it doesn't apply to Ian's nature in any way, and may have been selected only because it sounded like "psychotic"-- which Ian certainly is.)
Having killed the teacher for dubious reasons, Ian suddenly decides to up his rep even more by dating both Chloe and Lana without each other's knowledge of his double-dealing. This too is tied into his desire to get a big scholarship so he can blow the "hick town" of Smallville, in contrast to Clark, who at this point doesn't even contemplate deserting his home town. With the usual help from Pete Ross, Clark finds out about both the murder and Ian's courting of both the women in Clark's unofficial harem. Chloe provides Ian with an alibi for his double's activity, but when the two ladies have the chance to compare notes, Ian decides they've both outlived their usefulness. Clark manages to save both girls without exposing his secret, but the script is oddly reticent about what happens to Ian after his double apparently dies. A Season 3 episode clarifies that he was taken to Belle Reve, where he has one more shot at revenge on Clark before biting the big one. There's a denouement in which Clark and "his girls" complain about who kept secrets from whom, but it's rather unrewarding.
More intriguing are the Lex subplots. First, he gets irate with a petty meter-maid and smashes the headlights of the guy's car, emphasizing the anger issues beneath his benevolent attitude. Second, he encounters new character Doctor Helen Bryce (Emmanuelle Vaugier). At least she's new to the audience, for Lex learns that he met her once before when he was "drying out" in a hospital. Helen is framed as a new romantic interest for Lex, who shares some of his conflicts with a stifling parent, and who like Lex came to a small town to get away from the big-city bustle. She goes on to appear in eight other episodes and certainly proves to be of more consequence than Ian Randall.
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