PHENOMENALITY: *marvelous*
MYTHICITY: *fair*
FRYEAN MYTHOS: *adventure*
CAMPBELLIAN FUNCTION: *psychological*
Usually the showrunners did a decent job of smoothing out the possible bumps between episodes, whenever the script for one episode didn't completely line up with the next in line. "Prodigal," though, fails to follow up on one of the main subplots of "Rush." In Episode 14, Lana becomes wroth with Clark because she sees him suck face with Chloe, a thing he can't explain, though Lana declines to fill Chloe in on her adrenalized misadventures. But in Episode 15, she greets Clark like nothing's happened between them. He asks for a job at her bistro, and she gives it to him, though with only a little reluctance due to his habit of mysterious disappearances.
No doubt the writers of "Prodigal" back-burned all Kent-family subplots while concentrating on the main Luthor story-- though it ends up not having much impact on the season, much less the series. Following up on the plot set up in "Lineage," we meet Lucas, the grown son of Lionel Luthor and his crazy mom Rachel. Lucas was paid off to keep his distance from the Luthor hierarchy, so that the young man grew up as a gambler and risk-taker.
Lex seeks out his half-brother and brings him to Smallville, amid copious myth-references to the Biblical "prodigal son." Lex's real purpose is to use the Lexcorp shares Lucas owns against Lionel, but Lionel foresees this strategy and brings in the old double-cross. Lionel also delivers on his threat to disenfranchise Lex and to kick him out of house and home. Lex seeks sanctuary with the Kents, which doesn't lead to his harvesting any new info about the Mystery of Clark, though Jonathan does feel a bit more kindly toward Lex due to the association.
It all leads to a confrontation in which Lucas tries to implicate Lionel in a crime that will put his father under Lucas's thumb: the rather Abrahamic crime of slaying Lex. This fails, of course, and Lucas is ushered out of the Small-verse, never to return. Oh, and Lionel's blind act, which was never good for anything but a few minor developments, comes to an end. I grad the episode "fair" just because the trope of quarreling brothers is symbolically important to the series, though mainly with respect to symbolic siblings Clark and Lex.
No comments:
Post a Comment