SMALLVILLE 2:12: "INSURGENCE" (2002)

 

PHENOMENALITY: *marvelous*
MYTHICITY: *poor*
FRYEAN MYTHOS: *adventure*
CAMPBELLIAN FUNCTIONS: *psychological*

"Insurgence," in addition to being a forgettable episode, is oddly named. The word means "an armed revolt or uprising," which doesn't apply well to the main conflict. Lex learns that his father Lionel has actively used spy-devices in Lex's house, and as a result Lex loses a valuable contract. Furious, Lex decides to abide by *lex talionis,* the law of retribution, by bugging Lionel's Luthorcorp office in return. Lex hires a specialty team to break into the office in Metropolis, but three of the four team-members plan to rob Lionel's vault. The thieves kill the dissenting member of the team, but while trying to break into the vault they encounter Blind Lionel and his secretary Martha Kent. The cops are called and a hostage situation evolves-- but who are the insurgents? The robbers, who "revolt" against Lex? It can't very well be Lex himself, since Lionel has taken their competition to a new level-- though Lex could be seen as indirectly responsible for the threat to the lives of Lionel and Martha.

The dramatic arcs, such as they are, are mostly padding for further "mythos developments." One of the most pervasive is that of "the key," an octagonal fragment of Baby Kal-El's spaceship first seen in the first-season episode "Obscura." "Insurgence" is one of various episodes since then in which this object changes hands, specifically passing out of Lionel's keeping and into Martha's, though the item's significance will not be revealed for some time. Thanks to the plundering of the vault, viewers learn for the first time that Lionel, who always seemed to know little about Matters Kryptonian, has actually accumulated many kryptonite rocks and refined them into enough bricks to fill a pallet. Why? To be addressed later, I suppose. The episode also introduces two new characters who will each appear in a handful of episodes: cop Maggie Sawyer (on "loan" from SUPERMAN comics) and Jennifer Small, wife of Lana's putative new daddy. Clark's main purpose in the story is that he comes to the rescue of the two hostages. Though he can't get into the office building because of the police cordon, he's able to leap the distance between that building and its neighbor-- none other than the Daily Planet skyscraper, making its first appearance on the show.

In the scheme of ongoing dramatic interactions, Lionel is once again seen as a disruptive influence on the relationship of Jonathan and Martha, though Lionel's motives for his attentions to Martha are not yet fully revealed. But the robbers' actions clue the Kents in on Lionel's machinations, so Martha remains in his employ as a means of maintaining her own covert operation. The episode is also noteworthy for suggesting that Lionel may be getting over his blindness, though presumably not in time to see how the kryptonite bricks affect Young Clark Kent.