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Episode Recap: Hero
Smallville's return this week brought with it the return of Pete Ross and two classic show staples: over-the-top product placement and a one-on-one game of hoops featuring the egregious misuse of super-powers.
“Hero” opens with a concert held, naturally, in an abandoned Stride gum factory that's seen its overstock contaminated with liquid kryptonite. Jimmy's brought Kara along in an attempt to jog her memory, a date cut tragically short when she's nearly crushed by a hunk of falling debris.
Remy Zero never would have let this happen at one of their concerts.
Lucky for Kara, Pete “Plastic Man” Ross was on-hand to save her. Jimmy happens to catch a shot of the rescue on his cellphone, which is a bit of a...stretch.
Eager to show off his newfound abilities, Pete drops in on Clark, Lana and Lionel at the Kent farm. Even though he disappeared for years, his appearance is greeted with a surprising degree of non-chalance.
After laying down a heavy guilt-trip on Clark; “I had to leave everything behind because of you, but to be honest, it's better than living in your shadow,” Pete proves he can compete on Clark's level by Stretch-Armstronging his legs for an easy dunk.
Clark warns him that the meteor powers need to be reversed, that they'll bring nothing but trouble. Even though Pete's been witness to the inevitable self-destruction of countless meteor freaks, he fails to heed Clark's advice and storms off.
After a brief encounter with Chloe at the Daily Planet, Pete is more convinced than ever to reveal his powers to the world and decides to start his path toward becoming a hero by taking down Lex Luthor. With a computer virus.
Elsewhere, Kara is growing suspicious of Clark and Lana, rightly convinced they're hiding something from her. She confronts Lana with pictures of the kryptonian markings that have shown up everywhere from the Kent's barn to the small of Lana's back. It turns out, Lex told Kara these markings also appeared on her missing bracelet, an otherworldly trinket that now holds the key to her true identity. After Lana fails to convince her that Lex is a liar by...lying to her... Kara decides it's time to join Team Lex.
When Pete's caught red-handed sabotaging the Daily Planet's computers, Lex browbeats him into stealing Kara's bracelet from Lionel by threatening to reveal Chloe's secret to the world. Luckily, Jimmy happened to overhear the whole plan, and rushes off to warn to Clark and Chloe.
Clark again fails to convince Pete that he's making a huge mistake and ends up trapped in Lionel's office under a hunk of kryptonite while Pete rushes off to “save Clark” by “taking Lex out of the equation.”
Considering he survived a bullet to the head in the last episode, I doubt Lex has much to fear from Plastic Pete.
Inevitably, Pete winds up cuffed, beaten and powerless at the hands of Lex and his hired goon, who was either Smallville's equivalent of the Haitian from Heroes, or a henchman who realized the quickest way to strip Pete of his powers was knocking the gum out of his mouth.
Lucky for Pete, the always-reliable Clark shows up in the nick of time and saves the day. Pete once again renounces his long-harbored jealousy of Clark, and vows to find the true hero inside of himself. Haven't they been over this before?
The episode closes with Lex nearly uncovering the secret of the constellation arrangement found in his family crest, but is interrupted by Kara, who's decided she's better off with Lex than Clark.
Here's hoping that arc doesn't drag on for as long as it did when Lana made that exact same decision a few seasons back.
Overall, I was hoping for more, not just because it was the first new episode in a month, but because I was looking forward to seeing Pete back on the show. He left just when the dynamic between him and Clark started to get interesting, and his reappearance felt almost insignificant.
Plus, when the highlight of the episode, for me at least, was a product-placement inspired Chloe quip - along the lines of: "Maybe next time Stride won't let the flavor last so long" - it's obvious there was something lacking.
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Mar 14, 2008 2:26 AM
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I have a question because I must have missed something...
When Kara first showed up and Lionel asked about her, Clark told him she was related through Jonathan. When/how did Lionel find out that she's actually from Krypton?
I was glad to see Cloe and Jimmy back together. She needs to be cut a break.
Oh, and James...shouldn't it read "Elastic Man" instead of "Plastic Man?"
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Mar 14, 2008 3:15 AM
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Odd, I thought Jimmy Olsen was Elastic Lad.
How could Kara not once have noticed her superpowers by now? If you don't know your own strength, at some point you'll overdo it and it will become apparent you don't have the strength of an ordinary person. Similarly, if you're invulnerable, you're going to notice when something that hurts other people doesn't affect you at all. She didn't spill hot coffee on herself once as a waitress? Or does her amnesia also include a lack of superpowers?
Why didn't Clark feel even a twinge of discomfort when Pete had his kryptonite-infused gum?
Why didn't Chloe heal Pete at the end? That would have been the good friend thing to do, plus reveal her secret to one of her purported best friends from back in the day.
Still, it was a pretty good episode despite these quibbles. I'm getting a little tired of the "Trust me because Clark is a liar" routine from Lex...and these women falling for it. Although why Clark is keeping Kara from the truth makes no sense whatsoever.
Next week's episode looks amazing. Can't wait!
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Mar 14, 2008 6:24 AM
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This episode only served to set up the next one, plain and simple.
I was glad to see Pete again, but sheesh...BORING!
I don't get the connection of the bracelets and Kara, and if they'd maybe restore her memory, why did Clark hide it?
Why was Lionel hiding it in the first place, and how did Lex know that Lionel had it?
I'm always amazed that these ultra powerful billionaires have the WORST security! Just anyone can walk right into Lionel's office unattended. Same with Lex's house. It's always been this way on Smallville, but it just get more ridiculous the more they have to hide from others. Weak.
Even weaker, the Stride product placement. Weaker still, OneRepublic. Not a fan of either, honestly.
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Mar 14, 2008 8:47 AM
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First: Welcome back James!
You know, I was really excited when I heard Pete was coming back, but like Darclyte said--B-O-R-I-N-G!!! When I read that he would get "super powers" I expected powers like that of Clark or something, not those of Mr. Fanatastic (Reed Richards), lol. Maybe I missed something, but was Pete chewing the kryptonite gum when he and Clark were shooting hoops? I don't remember that, which probably was why I was confused how he suddenly lost his powers--didn't catch that the gum was knocked out of his mouth.
I really don't have anything new to add--FrenchCelt and Darclyte pretty much nailed it.
And yeah, the return of Pete was...anticlimatic. At least for me. I expected Clark's eyes to brighten with happiness and hug Pete instead of just that stupid handshake. They're best friends. Or used to be.
I'm getting tired of Clark listening to Lionel. Did like how Pete questioned it and also brought up what Jonathan would think of this. Good one, Pete. I don't understand why he just doesn't tell Kara who she really is, with respect to her powers. And can someone please tell me again: what purpose does she serve??
As for her trusting Lex...why? Because he found her? Please. She doesn't trust Clark, but she'll trust Lex because...??? Didn't we see this two years ago? With Lana?
The best part of this episode, for me, was when Clark saved Pete--that whoosh of him knocking out the henchman and Lex...LOVED IT!
On a side note, I hope TPTB can convince Michael Rosenbaum to appear on more episodes next season.
~Sangeeta
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Mar 14, 2008 10:06 AM
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Best comment I heard from someone about this episode was calling it Strideville.
I found myself saying this aloud more than once during the show last night:
"Oh, Pete. When AREN'T you wrong??"
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Mar 14, 2008 11:08 AM
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And there you have it, Ladies and Gentleman. Madison Ave.'s answer to the DVR. Take a 42 min. commercial for chewing gum, sprinkle in a bit of Smallville, strong-arm the writers to mention the product at every turn, and you get what we witnessed last night; namely the beginning of the end of commercial television as we've come to know it. Did we learn nothing from Caveman? How about that show a few years back with the talking baby Bob, penned by a couple of ad execs.
Maybe I'm going a bit over the top about this, but did we even get a clue as to how the gum became infused with kryptonite? And how did Clark destroy it, as he told Cloe (but we didn't get to see, natch) if his strength was being sapped as he got close.
Can't we just bring back Cloe's fawning over her new Yaris? At least those eps had a plot. What a waste of an appearance by Pete.
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Mar 14, 2008 12:37 PM
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Why are they trying to hide things from Kara? They are trying to protect her from Lex until she gets her memory back. If Lex sees anything strange, it's hard to tell what he will do to her.
At this point and time, I am only watching for one thing and one thing only and that is Kara(Laura). She is the cutest thing on TV. She better be back for next season.
Man oh man I like that girl.
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Mar 14, 2008 1:26 PM
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are we just going to ignore that fact that you skipped the episode in between "Siren" and "Hero" ?
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Mar 14, 2008 1:28 PM
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I don't think I have ever seen such a lame episode -- couldn't find much of anything that was worth watching, except maybe a few nice close-ups of Tom Welling, and even he emoted only one facial expression throughout -- that worried-but-not-going-to-do-anything-about-it-just-yet look...
As has already been discussed, the writing was deplorable, the plot was contrived and made no sense, the direction and acting was phoned in, and I found the whole chewing gum thing just plain weird.
If this is the best we can get post-strike, I'm sorry the strike is over... Let's hope that this entire episode can be written off as something slapped together in a hurry to get a new episode on the air, and not a portent of things to come, otherwise I'm outahere and not coming back...
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Mar 14, 2008 1:51 PM
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This episode was written before the strike. The post-strike episodes won't air until April.
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Mar 14, 2008 1:57 PM
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I, for one, really enjoyed this episode. It felt like old school Smallville w/ Pete as the 'freak of the week' & the way OneRepublic played throughout the episode like they'd done in the past w/ Remy Zero & Lifehouse. Plus, Lana wasn't nearly as annoying in this episode as she's been the entire season. I know it seems silly that the concert was held at an old gum factory & Pete was infected by meteor-laced gum, but you know what? This is Smallville, a show about an alien who came to earth in a meteor shower & looks just like a human. That kind of campy storyline is to be expected & I felt like it worked. I also didn't feel that Pete was underused in this episode. He got a lot of screen time & finally understood what it was like to have powers. It was nice to have him back, though he was being a bit of an ass at first. I thought it was pretty cool every time Pete used his stretching abilities & it was awesome when Clark was nothing but a blur as he rescued Pete & knocked out Lex. Wow, Lex is really starting to become the villain he's destined to be. What a complete jerk. He had his hands full in evil deeds, manipulating Kara, using Pete, spying on Chloe, etc. I think Clark & Lana don't want to tell Kara the truth because she's under Lex's thumb right now & he's always wanted nothing more than to discover Clark's secret. I, too, hope this storyline doesn't last very long, and I don't think it will. I also thought Jimmy & Chloe were very cute, but when did he & Kara come to the mutual agreement that they weren't meant to be? Finally, I wondered where Lois was. There were an awful lot of scenes at The Daily Planet, and she was nowhere to be found. Anyway, all in all, this was a very fun and enjoyable episode. It wasn't w/o its flaws, but I liked it a lot.
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Mar 14, 2008 2:44 PM
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white - I was never a big fan of Plastic Man, but when I googled Elastic Man, Plastic Man's wikipedia page came up, so I assume they're more or less the same character. And Pete Ross wasn't really supposed to be him, anyway, so I don't think it matters.
Frenchcelt - Jimmy Olsen was Elastic Lad at some point in the comics. Then again, he was also "The Flying Jimmy Olsen," "Jimmy Olsen: King of the Giant Ants" "Jimmy the Genie". The point is, Jimmy was a lot cooler in the comic books.
Sangeeta - At the beginning of the season, it seemed like Kara's purpose was to help Clark fulfill his destiny, but the whole amnesia storyline really derailed the chance of her bringing anything new or interesting to the show. Like a few of you said: how does she not realize she has superpowers? It doesn't make any sense.
ojflow - Strideville, I like that.
bmp956 - I agree, the product placement was embarassing and at times, really took me out of the story. But you have to admire how up-front they were about it; I found the complete lack of subtlety almost refreshing.
foodgroups303 - Yes we are.
I'll say it again - I don't have DVR, and the last episode of Smallville aired on Valentine's Day. I went out to dinner with my girlfriend and missed the episode. None of the other writers were able to cover it. Because Smallville is not available (legally) anywhere online - it's not even sold on iTunes - I have yet to see that episode. I read a few thorough write-ups about it though, and the impression I got was I hadn't missed out on much.
Irisheyes - what was so weird about the gum thing? That it was left in open crates in an abandoned warehouse? That it absorbed kryptonite through osmosis? Or the fact that it was sort of implied the only reason the factory was abandoned was because Stride's flavor lasts so long that it was forced to close down? Nothing weird about any of that.
bluegrumpy - I'm glad you enjoyed the episode. The whole Pete as freak-of-the-week did feel reminiscent of season one, which was nice. And you're right - it's hard to knock something as being implausible on a show like this.
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Mar 14, 2008 3:00 PM
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No DVR?! How do you live? haha
I really liked Lana and Chloe in this episode, though I wish Chloe would have made Jimmy work a little harder for a date! I'm also a bit confused as to why Clark hid the bracelet. At the beginning of the epi Lionel, Lana, and Clark discussed that the bracelet might be the key. Lana was perfect in the barn scene with Kara...obviously lying and then so obviously telling the truth with such pain in her eyes. Kara has character-judging issues.
I'm really exciting for next week and finding out what was so important about Lex's family crest. The mythology episodes have always been the best!
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Mar 14, 2008 3:26 PM
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my own personal Man of Steel likes Kara a lot too.
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Mar 14, 2008 3:45 PM
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