SMALLVILLE 2: 19: "PRECIPICE" (2003)

 

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

After a dub episode like "Visitor" it's a positive relief to see Clark's heritage problems put on hold while the writer of "Precipice" devotes more time to building up narratives for Lex and Lana.

Though Lex's tale is the B-story, I'll start with that one first since I think it's probably the source of the episode-title, as in, "He was pulled back from the precipice of doom." Lex, who ended "Visitor" revealing one of his big secrets to Helen, finds out that she has one of her own: old boyfriend Paul Hayden, who supposedly turns up in Smallville "on business." But his business is stalking Helen, who threw him over some time back because she'd heard he beat up an ex-girlfriend. The script spends less time than a Lifetime movie explicating Hayden's madness, since his only function is to menace Helen, thus almost pushing Lex over the edge. Suffice to say that Lex is fully prepared to murder Hayden for his having injured Helen. Clark intervenes to help his friend, but it's by Lex's own will that he pulls himself back from the "precipice" by sparing Hayden's life. He also proposes to the recovering Helen, who accepts, thus setting a more involved plotline for later development.

The A-plot involves Lana Lang pulling herself back from being the eternal damsel in distress on the series. Three rowdy frat-boys invade Lana's bistro and when she calls the cops, the guy named Andy shoves her into a wall like she's nothing. Clark appears and tries to get the frat-finks to leave. Andy makes lewd sexual comments about Lana, and Clark sends all three troublemakers flying-- with Andy landing on the newly arrived cop-car of the new sheriff in town.

Enter Sheriff Nancy Adams, replacing the previous officer, whose criminal actions Clark exposed. Lana exits the bistro but can't testify that she saw the collegians attack Clark, and strangely she doesn't demand that the sheriff arrest the guys who were causing the trouble. Clearly the writers ignored Lana's legal recourse in order to give her a different path toward opposing evil, and doing so also placed more emphasis on Adams' animosity toward Clark. She deems him a private citizen with a bad habit of getting involved in police matters, and so threatens to press charges for making trouble but gives him the out of performing community service; i.e., trash pick-up. A more pressing threat is that Andy files a personal injury lawsuit against the Kents, though Clark's X-ray vision makes clear that the A-hole is faking his injuries.

Lex, prior to his rage-fest against Hayden, counsels Lana to face her demons rather than depending on others to rescue her. She's only seen working a body-bag for a few minutes, which isn't exactly enough to give her the skills she demonstrates later. Possibly Lex, who mentions having hired someone to teach him martial skills, pays for Lana to get a crash course. Commiserating with Clark about the lawsuit, Lana volunteers to find some way to expose Andy's deception. She comes up with her own strategy, summoning Andy to the bistro, knowing that he'll get handsy and then she can trash him with a total of two moves: a finger-twist and a kick that sends the frat-boy flying. It's not clear why this causes Andy to drop his lawsuit, but he does so. 

Parenthetically, Sheriff Adams is no bigger a fan of Lex than of Clark, possibly because in this same episode she arrives too late to have saved Hayden from Lex, had Lex decided to kill the psycho. The character appears in 21 more episodes and seems designed to be largely an irritant with her by-the-book attitude.

The A-plot doesn't have as many immediate narrative consequences as the B-plot. In a future season has Lex and Lana get married for assorted reasons, so Lex's "stand up for yourself" advice could be seen as a harbinger of their future involvement. Lex also tosses out a "Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon" reference re Lana's training. This proves slightly funny since in a fourth-season episode the young woman gets possessed by a spirit that turns her into a major butt-kicker with wushu skills worthy of Michelle Yeoh.