PHENOMENALITY: *marvelous*
MYTHICITY: *poor*
FRYEAN MYTHOS: *adventure*
CAMPBELLIAN FUNCTION: *cosmological*
Though "Fever" is a weak episode, it's not due to simple bad writing. Rather, the story exists only to resuscitate the plot-thread about the apparent miracle-powers of the ship that brought Clark to Earth.
In the first-season episode "Tempest," Martha was exposed to radiation from the ship which cured her infertility, making possible the revelation in "Fever" that she's become pregnant with a natural child by Jonathan. In "Insurgence," Martha steals the key from Lionel, but though she handles the Kryptonian artifact in that episode, only in "Fever" does she become ill when she comes in contract with kryptonite-laced spores associated with the key. I'm betting that these spores were a make-work menace that never recur, like the parasites in "Rush."
Lex's sometime girlfriend Dr Helen Bryce returns and takes charge of Martha's case. Further, Clark begins to get sick, apparently from proximity to his infected mother, since he never handles the key here (nor did he get sick in the first-season episodes where he had custody of the artifact). In due time Clark and Jonathan conclude that the only way they can overcome their alien infections by activating the ship, which does act exactly as they desire, even though neither man is able to actually interface with the ship's computer intelligence.
In addition to setting up a new plot-thread involving the ship's nature, "Fever" functions to generate more soap opera angst as Lana and Chloe both fear for Clark's survival-- and poor Chloe, already occupying the position Lana will later occupy respective to Lois Lane, gets the short end of the stick. Bryce is given a little information that arouses her suspicions of the Kents, though as yet she isn't brought into the loop-- though her acquaintance with Lex makes her yet another threat to the Big Secret.
No comments:
Post a Comment