Okay.. so this is a few months late... but since Prototype was re-aired this evening, I decided to post my review of it.
Yeah, it's long. I have brevity issues; we all know that.
SV EPISODE #6-21 Prototype.
This season has seen several running arcs orbiting Clark Kent - the escaped Phantom Zoners, 33.1, nascent Justice League headed by the Green Arrow, the Lex and Lana air baby, Lionels influence on Martha, and the revelation about Chloes meteor ability. This penultimate episode touched on all those storylines and brought them to a head that will hopefully result in a phenomenal season finale.
Prototype is the swan song of writer Steven S. DeKnight for this series. DeKnight, alum of Buffy, has been a wonderful contributor to this show and his work will be missed, as well as his receptive interactions with online fans of the show. This episode was also the directorial debut for Matt Beck, owner of Entity F/X and executive supervisor of the visual effects for Smallville for the past 5 years. While, according to DeKnight, the budget for this next to last show of the season was sparse, Beck managed to deliver a pretty slick looking episode. From the opening scene showing the orbiting Luthorcorp satellite to the truly amazing display of heat-vision like weve never seen before, to the matrix-like stacks of human bodies Lex has in limbo waiting to become super-soldiers, this episode looked anything but low-budget.
Michael Rosenbaums Lex Luthor had an opening scene that was as chilling as it was entertaining. In response to the successful trial run of his Project Ares super-soldier, which resulted in the deaths of a dozen or so innocent soldiers, Lex gives a quick, cocky grin and demands, Get some fresh guards, I want to see him do it again. His lack of concern for value of human life continues at the end when he callously orders the deceased Ares soldier, Wes Keenan, to be dismembered. The dichotomy that defines the iconic Lex Luthor of the future is revealed in his tirade to the scientist. While he shows a decided lack of concern for the dead soldiers and Wes Keenan; he justifies motivation for everything hes working towards by claiming hes doing all this to protect humanity and the world. He further explains that the world is being overrun by unstable criminals with dangerous powers, presumably talking about meteor affected persons and aliens, but the description could just as well apply to himself. Its nice to see some continuity with the character, Bartlett, still serving as Lexs minion.
We meet Senator Burke, who we heard about several times in last weeks episode, Noir. The actor who played the Senator was perfectly cast as a wheezing, overfed, dirty politician. After being ambushed outside a restaurant by a story-seeking Lois, Burke and his guards are murdered by Wes in super-soldier mode. Lois is witness to the crime and recognizes Wes as a fellow Army brat she knew growing up.
Wes Keenan, played really nicely by Battlestar Galactica alum, Tahmoh Penikett, was a sympathetic character as a former career Army soldier devoting his life to serving his country. We already met his wife, the deceased Jodi Keenan, who was killed in Nemesis after threatening to kill Lex for withholding information on her husband. While Wes is trying to complete his mission of killing Lois for being a witness to the murder of the Senator, his super soldier programming is broken through by Lois pleas with him to remember her. The Alpha-wave spike noted by Lex is explained as being a random aberration. This was actually a clue indicating that a small part of Wes Keenan the man still existed within that brain. Through Lois explanation to Wes of how he got the scar on his eyebrow, we get to know the very real man within the prototype.
Lois was able to reach the real Wes by reminding him of their past history, but it was a brief moment of clarity for him. Wes struggled to hang on but eventually he lost his grip on his own humanity and became Lexs killing machine again. After his attempt to murder Lois, he attacks Clark with intent to kill. Thanks to Oliver, Clark knows that it takes the equivalent of a mini-nuke to stop the prototypes. Clark, in a split second decision, charges up and releases a blast of heat vision with enough energy to not only break through the force field, but to also cause enough system damage to permanently disable the prototype. Once disabled, the human side of Wes was no longer able to survive, and welcomed death as opposed to continuing to exist as a mind-controlled assassin for Lex. Wes died a heroic death after all and with his final words he had Lois promise to stop Lex from ever doing this again.
Erica Durances Lois Lane has often been criticized for some of the questionable ways the show has utilized her character since she first appeared at the beginning of season four. The complaints about her character are second in number only to Lana, which is understandable since both of these characters have established histories. There are more pre-conceived notions and expectations in the minds of many hardcore fans regarding both of them. No one can ever accuse Chloes behavior as being out of character when she is being created with every episode. In Prototype, we saw a Lois Lane that demonstrated many of the qualities normally associated with the iconic character. From Lois in-your-face confrontation of Senator Burke to her angry determination to get justice for what Lex did to Wes this is a woman who will one day earn Supermans love. We need to see that woman for her character to work, even if they never become an actual romantic couple on this show. Kudos to DeKnight for recognizing that important fact. This was a really strong performance for Erica. She covered a gamut of emotions and did so very convincingly.
Tom Welling had some particularly impressive scenes in this episode. Clarks initial confrontation of Lionel regarding his part in Lanas decision to go through with the marriage to Lex showed us a furious, even threatening, Clark Kent. The gloves will come off, he tells Lionel. That threat serves as an appropriate metaphor for how Clark has put up a padding of tolerance for Lionel for Marthas sake this season, but we know from Crimson that he hates having Lionel involved with his mother.
The scene where Clark comes into the Luthor mansion to try and get information to help Lois was typical for how much better the scenes between Clark and Lana have become as the season has progressed. The love is still there between them, but as Clark points out this wasnt about them it was about helping Lois. Lana then gives Clark the information about Lex to help Lois. Having them be mutually honest with each other is such a refreshing tone for these two characters. Their conversation then does turn to their situation and Clark once again worries for Lana staying in the marriage to Lex. In a really beautiful exchange, he starts to say something to her, but she doesnt let him say it, and instead just acknowledges with a quiet, I know. Having Lana in the position of telling Clark that sometimes people keep secrets to protect the ones they love, is a nice bit of symmetry to what hes been doing his entire life. Then he caresses her face and just begins to lean in for presumably a kiss. Timing is everything though, and we hear Lex about to come in the door. With a trademark woosh, Clark leaves the way he came in, through the window with the sheer red curtains waving in the wake. This show loves to drop those pseudo-red capes in wherever it can.
In a scene with Martha and Lionel back in the Kent kitchen, Clark takes on the role of advisor to Martha and the ghost of Jonathan is all around them. Clark advises Martha to take the Senatorial seat in Washington because thats where she has the potential to help the most people. You can almost hear Jonathan saying those same words to Clark regarding his future helping mankind. In a subtle nod to Jonathans presence, Martha is holding the cow coffee mug that Jonathan always used. Clark had a nice name-drop when he mentioned selling the back forty to Ben Hubbard whos always wanted to work that land.
Back to the War of the Luthors mansion, Lex and Lana exchange more threats and lies, which has become the entire foundation of their marriage. Lex calls Lana on skulking around like a cat and eavesdropping on his conversation with the Senator. She fakes an apology, all the while biting her tongue. Lex then threatens her with, If you ever betrayed me, I dont know what Id do. Undaunted, Lana throws right back a fabulous line referring to Clark without saying his name specifically, Id never hurt the man I love. Its just another day of marital bliss in the Luthor household.
In a laboratory room reminiscent of the movie Coma, we see stacks and stacks of suspended bodies ready to be made into Lexs army of super soldiers. A chilling illustration of the extent that Lex has fallen in regards to valuing human life. Are these bodies all former soldiers like Wes Keenan who agreed to let Lex experiment on their bodies under false pretenses? Its a disturbing thought, especially in light of how disposable Lex treated the soldiers in the opening scene allowing them to be slaughtered in order to put his prototype through a test run. The explanation for the overall evil plan actually sounds plausible. Lex needs the alien genetic material to string together the molecular material of multiple meteor abilities with peptides. Umm, okay
lets go with it. The stuff he got from Titan wasnt good enough, and this sets everything up for the finale and Lexs quest to obtain fresh alien DNA.
This was a solid episode that managed to address all of our major story arcs as we slide headfirst into the season finale. The A story of Wes Keenan, served to personalize and put a face on the real inhumanity of what Lex is doing. Lex looks at his sterile room of dormant bodies and sees them as his tools to save mankind. Wes Keenan showed us that those bodies are mankind. A sad tale, but an important one, and well played by all involved. I give Prototype a 4 out of 5 orbiting Luthercorp satellites.
Thank you.
