7.06 - Lara - Discussion Thread (Spoilers)

[Son of Sun]

Gah!

That pretty much sums it up for me too, not to mention the ending of the episode which left me almost stunned. It was so irrational and I just hate it how it suggests that we're gonna see a Lara clone. That's so stupid that it's actually sad.

Sure, Clark might want to keep the crystal away from Kara, and who could blame him really, with Kara acting like a damned child and all that. Regardless of how she sort of seemed to snap back to reality in the end of the episode, I still understand complitely that Clark must see her not entirely reliable - not only because of her irresponsible behaviour, but also partly because of what MM said and he saw in Kara's memory. But what's really killing me is how they put those words into his mouth when Clark showed Lana the crystal. Yeah yeah, I know he might be thrilled over the fact of being somehow able to get to know the memory of her mother (possibly getting the crystal to FoS or something, like I'm praying that they'll do it), but with Zor-El monkeying about a clone of her... well, there's really no chance for us of not having a clone of her since Lana knows about Lex's clone factory and all that crap. Right around when the ratings start to go down, they'll haul Annette O'Toole back and promote the episode

"The Clash of Supes' Moms! Witness it! PS. Tell your neighbours"
*sigh*

I don't anything positive to say about the episode - except that Lionel looks cool with a shorter mane. Show's starting to really grasp at straws. Nothing feels familiar anymore.
​

 

[04nbod]

they made zor-el an adulterer!
then they have clark steal and stash away kara's crystal.- so superman doesn't stand for truth anymore!
other than that though it was very good.

 

[RakuMon]

Oh, yay! Glad I'm not the only one that enjoyed it.

I look forward to watching this one again. I always like episodes even more the second time around.

OH! And btw, how gorgeous was that picture of Annette as Martha that they used?

You're not the only one. I really liked this episode!
I would have liked it more if my local CW station's HD feed didn't crap out.

 

[dark_b]

it was not the best episodes. but since hte last years we had witches,vampires and ghosts, this was not so bad at the end.
i liked the twist at teh end.

to bad that the main villain of this season is teh goverment who are searching for aliens.

p.s. and its always nice to see that kara is using all the budget for her flying. remember SV defenders when you said that one of the big reasons why clark is not flying is because there is no money for this? kara is now usign that money. and because she is using that money you have no heat vision,x-ray and slow motion action from clark.
but hey its called smallville nto clark kent right?

 

[The Incredible Hulk]

they made zor-el an adulterer!

how so?

 

[Serene]

Know why? 'Cause it was pretty darn emotionless. It had NO heart whatsoever. Unlike Memoria, which had dialog that was powerful and gut wrenching, there was NOTHING in Lara that could put a lump in your throat or bring a tear to the eye.

I wasn't really expecting this to live up Memoria, them's some big shoes to fill. I agree, no throat lumps, but you know what? It still made me very happy to see Clark's mom, and to see him see her especially. It also made me like Kara just a bit more, knowing that she's capable of learning, accepting, and progressing in light of what she learned about her father. Her apologizing to Clark was HUGE character-wise, and I'm so glad they put that in. Clark's constant understanding and acceptance of her throughout her brattiness and anger was a nice platform to show his patience and maturity.

There was no revelation for Clark - other than finding out his uncle was a bastard and his mother had been to the farm before he was born and left a picture of herself. Oooo!

Those are both pretty damn big revelations for Clark when you consider his lifelong lack of information about his family. A picture of his mother? That's huge. Seeing what she looks like, and knowing this triangular dynamic that existed between Jor-El/Lara/Zor-El is a LOT of information - more than Kara even had, who grew up with them.

In Memoria, we find out Clark's first words were "Lara." Martha shares Lara's pain and horror of willingly separating herself from her child and sending him into the stars. Clark hears his birth mom's greatest fear that nobody would love him. He wishes that Lara could have met Martha so her uncertainty could be put to rest. Martha tells Clark that Lara knows, because "a mother's love never dies."

The episode tonight had NOTHING like that.

It wasn't Memoria - that's true.

It was the antithesis of that, cold and empty, and practically eyeroll worthy given the silly triangle nonsense suggested between Jor-El, Lara and Zor-El. The writers have lost all heart in their mythology based episodes. Cure was the only episode this season that had genuine emotion, and ironically, the pathos it was for the villain.

I think finding 'heart' in anything is a really subjective deal. This episode was more of a set-up and background filler for Lara's return, so perhaps they are still holding their big 'heart' card. *shrug*

Still more and more disappointed as the weeks go by.

That's really a shame.
I've been very happy this season so far - excluding Fierce which blew my mind, but even in that steaming pile, I can find some good stuff concerning our leads.

I was thinking, maybe Lara slept with Zor-El, got pregnant adn then gave the baby to him to keep peace with Jor-El and this affair is part of the reason why there's bad blood between teh brothers. It's also why he wants Clark to have nothing to do with Kara. Am I completely off base or could this be a possibility?

If that was a possibility, I think Zor-El would have mentioned it last night. All he said was that Lara loved Kara like she was her own.

Exceedingly good episode. Great on all fronts. Loved the X-Files-type vibe, the Lara/Zor-El stuff was really interesting, and that Lex/Lionel scene just was dynamite.

You're not the only one. I really liked this episode!
I would have liked it more if my local CW station's HD feed didn't crap out.

 

[triplet]

What kind of gun shot Lex that he could just get up and make a collect call, by the way? The guy got shot in the shoulder and is knocked out, two seconds later he's Candice Bergin.

-R

It was a dart gun.

There was a dart sticking out of his chest on the ending shot of him laying unconscious....

 

[04nbod]

how so?

he was trying to get it on with his brother's wife while he already had a wife- allura!

 

[Superfreak]

good epi, no rosetta, but a good epi nontheless.

My only comment: totally wasted budget at the beginning of the episode. Seeing Krypton and Kara's last momment there was neat (and attempted to be touching)... but in the end, just ended up being a waste of budget. The whole scene on Krypton added nothing to the episode other than showing that Kara and her Father loved each other.

Personally, I would have save the 'krypton' budget and scene, for later in the episode, when things really opened up with the flashbacks, with Lara. It was very anticlimax, to see Krypton, and then have the rest of the episode just occur on the farm. Maybe this is a new narrative thread.... but it just feels like a budget cheap out.

the visual climax of the episode should never come in the introductory prologue before credits. Just makes the rest of the episode seem worse.

so again, good epi, but I seriously would have reworked the order of scenes, and saved the Lara/Zor'el/Kara scenes for Krypton, and dealt with Lara on earth in another way.

 

[ReTrO JuNkIe 42]

How does lara tell kara not to touch anything then Zor-el comes breaking the entire door frame and all off

 

[DvilDog]

I really liked this episode the only thing I had any problem with was at the end when Clark was like Lana I want to show you everything and he shows her Kara's crystal and was like its my mothers DNA. Im like Ok I understand that you dont trust Kara completely but the look on Clarks face almost seemed not evil but..... someone help me here?

 

[The Incredible Hulk]

not sure how much of a waste of budget the Krypton scene was, they just relit the FOS set...

 

[Superfreak]

not sure how much of a waste of budget the Krypton scene was, they just relit the FOS set...

well, I'd include the entire prologue: including the f/x integrated into the FOS set, and the long range shots of krypton being blasted... as well as the Kara running into the plane. I mean really, the whole sequence was neat... but contributed pretty much nothing to the overall plot of the episode. Had it been cut out... the episode would have been exactly the same... not one thing would have been lost.

I just find that SV forgets the cardinal rule: visual, narrative, emotional climax should all come together at the climax of the episode. I just found the scene totally useless, both the way it was used, and where it was placed in the episode.


example: I think the episode would have worked better, if the krypton scene actually happened at the end of the episode. The whole episode would have painted Zor'el as a villainous brother... and even contemporary Kara would begin to believe that he is evil. But by the end of the episode, after her talk with Clark... she could have flashed back to her last moment with her father... and realize that regardless of his flaws, he loved her deeply... by sending off planet.... I think that would have been a much more effective, and emotionally deep ending.


again, the episode was good, but like I've said many times before, a poor planning, and bad quality control and critique that is characteristic of SV has drawn the episode down. Good epi, that I think could have been 40% better, with a little reorganization and better planning

 

[avidreader]

Wow!! So much to love about this episode. I would have an easier time pointing out the parts that I didnt like. For instance, Jimmy and Kara's romance. *snorefest*

And LOL at Chloe accusing Lana of lying when she was also lying about her reason for being at Isis.

You gotta love the secrets and lies angle of this show. t:

And did I totally call it a few pages back, that Lara would leave some kind of momento at the farm for Clark. I love it that he has a picture of her. :heart:

There was also something totally cute about Clark and Lionel hugging. Too funny! And the black glove, does this mean that Lionel really is a badass.

Lara was gorgeous, just the kind of mum I want to see for Clark. I hope he can learn more about her.

.... and I couldnt quite follow why Kara thought Kal-el would remind Clark of Krypton's sun. Is Kal supposed to mean sun or something like that.

Anyway loved the episode, will now go back and read everyone else's thoughts.

Season 7 is on a roll for me, the only episode I havent liked is the one that's not even worth mentioning again.

Looking forward to next week, looks like it might be SUPER fun.

Oh and I'm loving Secret Agent Man, what a cool character.

 

[NateGray]

I wasn't really expecting this to live up Memoria, them's some big shoes to fill. I agree, no throat lumps, but you know what? It still made me very happy to see Clark's mom, and to see him see her especially. It also made me like Kara just a bit more, knowing that she's capable of learning, accepting, and progressing in light of what she learned about her father. Her apologizing to Clark was HUGE character-wise, and I'm so glad they put that in. Clark's constant understanding and acceptance of her throughout her brattiness and anger was a nice platform to show his patience and maturity.



Those are both pretty damn big revelations for Clark when you consider his lifelong lack of information about his family. A picture of his mother? That's huge. Seeing what she looks like, and knowing this triangular dynamic that existed between Jor-El/Lara/Zor-El is a LOT of information - more than Kara even had, who grew up with them.


It wasn't Memoria - that's true.


I think finding 'heart' in anything is a really subjective deal. This episode was more of a set-up and background filler for Lara's return, so perhaps they are still holding their big 'heart' card. *shrug*


That's really a shame.
I've been very happy this season so far - excluding Fierce which blew my mind, but even in that steaming pile, I can find some good stuff concerning our leads.



If that was a possibility, I think Zor-El would have mentioned it last night. All he said was that Lara loved Kara like she was her own.

Great post pretty much how I feel.
I think they are doing a fantastic job this season and I love Kara and think she is great for the show.

 

[zerohour films]

I have read that Kal-El means "starchild" in Kryptonese.
They were discussing the stars and Clark looking up at them...I just assumed this is why she thought of that name.

Couldn't find the exact link to his name's meaning. But it was on this website (Superman through the Ages):

http://fortress.am/welcome.php

 

[kane9321]

I dont feel bad for Chloe once so ever. She put herself in that position to not trust Jimmy. Burn *****. Move on Jimmy

i was loved that scene...go jimmy got:

 

[The Incredible Hulk]

I love it when Pat has a bee in her bonnet

 

[avidreader]

Wow!! So I'm glad I wrote my thoughts down before I read everyone else's.

Wow.. what forum did I wander into?

I enjoyed the heck out of this episode. Slater did a marvelous job. Sure we had the usual great suspension of disbelief SV moments, but nothing so bad that I couldn't go with it.

Thank goodness! :heart:

I loved seeing Clark's protective instinct for his cousin, despite how harsh she'd been with him. And I was glad they had her apologize and acknowledge how much she appreciates having him in her life.

Oh yeah, that was a very pivotal moment for me.

OH! And btw, how gorgeous was that picture of Annette as Martha that they used?

That was such a beautiful picture, and it was an even more beautiful touch that the picture of Lara was behind the picture of Martha. :heart:

Interesting that the spoilers changed. Clark was supposed to fry the machine with heat vision and then see what Kara saw. But I guess they ran out of budget from all of the FX they needed to show Kara use. But hey, at least we got to see Clark bend and push open a steel door in this ep.

I'm actually glad that they did it this way. 'Cause you know, if he'd just gone in there and heat blasted the whole thing .... well, you know what everyone would be saying about Clark. I actually thought approaching Kara and trying to remove the restraints and getting zapped by the plug thingies, was a more personal touch.

PS: What's with Clark hugging Lionel now?

Totally uncomfortable on both parts, but I think it was meant to be.

That makes 3 of us then! Woot!

Make that 4.

You know, I really enjoyed this episode.

*writes note to self to never enter an episode thread until after the review for it is completed*

Yeah, I'll just see you guys back in here in a day or two.

*sigh*

Okay, make that 5, and I think I saw Twistim, MJZ, TW4, Raku and a few others, so we could be up to 10.

One of the literal translations for "Kal-El" is "Light of God" in Hebrew.

...Not sure how Kryptonians would know that though. LOL

I have read that Kal-El means "starchild" in Kryptonese.
They were discussing the stars and Clark looking up at them...I just assumed this is why she thought of that name.

Couldn't find the exact link to his name's meaning. But it was on this website (Superman through the Ages):

http://fortress.am/welcome.php

Okay. Interesting. Thanks guys.

 

[Prison Mike]

I was so let down by this episode. I hated that it was all over the place and didn't seem coherent. Why did they have to play up that love triangle between Jor-El/Lara/Zor-El? I was disappointed in that. Kara was her usual bratty self. The only parts I liked with Kara were when she flew in the beginning and dodged the plane and at the end when she apologized to Clark. I was glad Clark got to see his mom but the photo of her behind Mama Kent's photo was weird considering nobody found it in 20 years. I did love that Clark held back from telling the whole truth to Lionel, though. He's learning. Their awkward hug was funny. I don't really care for Kara/Jimmy. The stuff between Chloe and Lana, however, is getting interesting. Clark getting the crystal before Kara? Awesome. I'm pretty sure he will sit on what he wants to do with it during next episode and will come to a decision by "Blue". Next week's episode looks alright. Hopefully it won't be a mess like "Lara". The only thing that saved this episode for me was the Lionel/Clark interactions and the Lionel/Lex interaction. Thank god for Lionel.

 

[Prison Mike]

Seriously though, sometimes it just comes down to how much I liked an episode on a gut level. K-Site voted Subterranean as the worst episode of the year last year. Geeze, it wasn't a great ep, but it wasn't that bad, was it? I also loved Noir - a LOT - and Triplet had it second to last behind Static. (I'm not singling you out Trip, just an example.) Despite the ridiculously corny plot, I really LOVED Spell. To this day, people STILL lambaste that episode. I liked Delete and Velocity, and those two episodes are usually tied for "worst" of the 3rd season. I thought Lexmas was meh, yet some people absolutely adored it. Some people couldn't handle the "T2" FOTW in Gone; I loved the ep for all of the Clark and Lois scenes. And while Promise had a unique concept of showing each character's differing points of view, something about that episode curled my nose - yet there are fans who put it as best of the season. Best of the season?!! Uh... no. LOL And finally, there's "Spirit." OMG! *shudders* It astonishes me to this day people actually liked that episode. Holy cow! LOLOL!!!

As a whole, some people rank S6 as the best season of the series. I thought it was the worst. Different strokes folks. Different strokes.

Some of "Lara" was truly eye-roll worthy for me. When I do that in an episode of SV - and it starts in the teaser act *before* the opening credits - that aint good.

yeah I definitely have differing opinions about last season's episodes than those K-site awards. Some of my favorite episodes from last season were generally not liked by the majority. "Rage" was a great episode, IMO and is underrated. Subterranean was also pretty good and I liked that they tackled illegal immigration in the episode. Clark, afterall, is the biggest illegal immigrant. I didn't really care for the Chloe episodes though like "Freak" and "Progeny". I know some loved those episodes but it was "meh" for me. Concerning other seasons, I really enjoyed "Velocity" from season 3 as well. I always love when Clark and Pete interact and it was a great Pete-centered episode. There weren't enough of them IMO.

 

[TWistim]

I loved the episode. For me the best ones are teh Kara centric ones and I htink its bc is new material and you dont have to know much about previous seasons so its easier for me to follow along

When watching though, I was thinking, could it be possible for Lara to be Kara's mother and Clark's sister? I havent seen previous seasons so I dont know if it could be so bear with me. Zor-El's intrest in her to me, seemed to have suggested that they may have been together in the past. Kara does kind of look like Lara with the blonde hair. Her name is Lara's, replaced with a K, as if she was named after her. I was thinking, maybe Lara slept with Zor-El, got pregnant adn then gave the baby to him to keep peace with Jor-El and this affair is part of the reason why there's bad blood between teh brothers. It's also why he wants Clark to have nothing to do with Kara. Am I completely off base or could this be a possibility?

I'm not sure if they will go there but that very same thought came to me also. To my knowledge Kara has always been portrayed as Clark's "cousin," however, SV is a retelling of the story so it could be their twist on this relationship. I don't think I would mind that at all.

 

[Superman_]

This episode is the whole reason why I was against Kara coming on to the show and why I felt SV has dragged the show out far to long. IMO I feel this season should be more focused in on Clark and him pretty much being Superman with out the outfit and him doing more traveling and learning how to fly. IMO also they (the producers, writers or who ever is okaying everything that goes on in the show) is really messing up the house of El. This is why I say for everything SV does good they just do something more to erase it.

 

[spark627]

This episode is the whole reason why I was against Kara coming on to the show and why I felt SV has dragged the show out far to long. IMO I feel this season should be more focused in on Clark and him pretty much being Superman with out the outfit and him doing more traveling and learning how to fly. IMO also they (the producers, writers or who ever is okaying everything that goes on in the show) is really messing up the house of El. This is why I say for everything SV does good they just do something more to erase it.

It's funny, I watched this ep with my boyfriend (he only watches it when I force him) and he was very vocal about the fact that Clark doesn't fly but Kara can. He knows nothing of the comics or the series and it still bothered him. They need to get him flying soon, its ridiculous.

 

[Superman_]

Yes they do I mean its one thing to bring her onto the show this early in Clark's life when he really didn't meet her or even know about her until he was well into his years as Superman but its another thing to bring her onto the show and make her more advance then Clark. Hell even the Supergirl in the comics is not more advance.