SMALLVILLE 3:9 ("ASYLUM," 2004)

 

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

The two writers of ASYLUM screwed the pooch as far as following through on the strong drama of the preceding episode SHATTERED. 

We pick up about a month after Lex went into Belle Reve Asylum and Lana began treatment for her shattered femur in the Smallville Hospital. Lana has made some progress toward regaining her normal capacity, but Lex has been fighting his treatment by dumping his medication. Lionel pretends to be the worried father but Lex is sure he just wants to halt Lex's investigation of Lionel's murder of his parents. Clark visits Lex at the asylum and encounters three evildoers he defeated in earlier episodes: "dividing man" Ian Randall, "power-leech" Eric Simmons, and "kryptonite assassin" Van McNulty.  
 

Clark learns that Lionel has scheduled a dangerous shock treatment for Lex, and he strongly considers busting Lex out of the asylum, even though the still-addled Lex knows Clark's secret. After failing to get the shock treatment cancelled, Clark infiltrates the asylum, However, the two meteor freaks, having killed McNulty, ambush Clark with McNulty's meteor rocks while Simmons seeks to leech Clark's powers again. Thus Clark has to balance trying to save himself and to save Lex from electroshock. The freaks are defeated and never appear again, but Lex gets shocked-- which solves Clark's other problem, for Lex forgets the Kent secret.

The action at the asylum is clumsy and uninvolving, so that by comparison the romance-subplot with Lana is considerably better. She remains distant from Clark because of the trauma of her injury yet seems ready to kindle a new relationship with another therapy patient, Adam Knight, who naturally becomes a threat down the road. "Phoenix" stands as the first "team-up" of general-purpose villains Lionel Luthor and Morgan Edge, both of whom have comics-analogues, and it easily outperforms the series' first team-up of super-powered evildoers original to SMALLVILLE.    

In addition, ASYLUM is the first time Clark references the events of "EXILE/PHOENIX" by saying that he wishes he could forget the last month like Lex has. But the lack of discussion between the three Kents re: the Jor-El AI remains problematic.