Reckoning Discussion Thread (100th episode, Spoilers)

Ha Ha I thought of that last time I watched it.

Time Travel creates so many headaches.

 

True, but he would have had to leave Lana on Lex's floor, not knowing how important the time factor was for her to get medical help. I think he would have stayed no matter who was on the floor; it's in his nature to help people, and he didn't know what consequences there would be for delaying his return to the Fortress.

Speaking of which... if you think about that, the whole time constraint was kinda silly. Alien Ken and Barbie are tearing up Smallville, killing people left and right, and Jor-El wants Clark to STAY at the Fortress to complete his training? Okay, fine, maybe Jor-El didn't know Ken and Barbie were there (fat chance LOL), so he makes a big deal about Clark returning by sundown. WHY!!? How stupid. What difference would a few minutes make either way?

I have a few issues with the "we're not gods" thing too. No, they're NOT gods, but damn! Some of the things Jor-El has done puts him WAY up there. He brought Clark back from the dead - in a very resurrection-ish kinda way I might add - and he's able to alter time, reversing a whole day's worth of events. Hello?!!!! Yeah, they're not gods. LOL

 

Have to wonder what Jor-El would have done if Clark hadn't finished his fight by sun down. Would he just have let him die in the fight?

 

gonna post this here for the people who PMed me, this will be up on the Kingdom when it relaunches in a little bit...


Smallville Episode 5-12 Review: "Reckoning"

Never before in the history of Smallville can I remember one episode having as much speculation and hype about it as this one did. In the season of “Everything You’ve Wanted to See,” Reckoning was supposed to be a watershed moment in the series that would forever change the show we’ve known so well for the past four and a half years. Did Reckoning meet those lofty expectations? Or was Reckoning just a “wreck?” Let’s go to the videotape:

What worked:

Clark’s lesson – The thing I really liked most about this episode was the lesson that it taught Clark. In Clark’s world, where he’s capable of just about anything, he got a big time lesson in humility and limitations from Jor-El. After the show’s first timeline where Lana died, Clark went to Jor-El asking him to help “fix” it. It was then that Jor-El explained to Clark that there was a lesson that he’d yet to learn, that even he can’t outrun things like fate. Jor-El pretty much told him up front that he can go back once and undo what happened to Lana, adding “once you undo one course of events, another will ensue.” He was basically saying that nature will have its way and find its balance no matter what. Clark, stricken with grief, then makes the understandable decision to save Lana and do the time “reset” anyway. In a way, this episode became about the classic “hero’s choice” of who to save, only Clark didn’t know who the other choice was. I assume that he thought he could save everyone regardless, and it basically wound up blowing up in his face. Not only does the death pass to Jonathan in the second ”turn,” he also doesn’t tell Lana about himself because he feels she’s safer, which leads to him losing his relationship with her. In a turn of cruel irony, he now knows for certain that she’d accept the fact that he’s an alien. However, he still can’t tell her because of the implications he saw it caused when people like Lex found out that she knew. I know a lot of people were mad because the long-awaited revealing of his secrets to Lana that happened in the first half of the show didn’t stick. But, I think this episode was meant to be like Clark’s version of Lexmas, where he comes to basically the same realization that Lex did in that episode: that Lana is better off without him.

Goodbye, Dad – Well, as I had speculated in my Smallville Death Watch article back in December, Jonathan Kent was the major character death in this episode. Not that you had to be Nostradamus to see that one coming mind you. One of my big concerns in that article was that they were going to have Jor-El zap Jonathanwith some light or something, and totally screw up Clark mentally beyond all repair. Although the show did tread a bit close to that sort of thing, I think they gave a bit better of an explanation of it by using the fact that nature/fate/ the universe were the one’s that were restoring balance and not Jor-El. Now I realize if you go down the causal chain here, you could argue that “if Jor-El never took Clark’s powers away he would’ve never had to resurrect him and owe the universe a life force.” Well to that I’d say I don’t think he intended on Clark biting the big one after losing his powers for a short time, and did what any parent would do to save their only child. In a way there are a lot of parallels between what Jor-El did to bring Clark back, and what Clark did to bring Lana back. Perhaps he’s not such a bad guy after all?
Jonathan wound up passing away from heart failure after he got really aggravated from whatever the heck that picture was that Lionel showed him, and then knocked the snot out of him. I thought the way the death was handled was really well done, and liked the fact that Clark and Martha were there for him at the end. Sure, most of us saw it coming, but we sort of knew that going into the series when we saw how much the producers were inspired by Superman, the Movie. Personally, I prefer when Jonathan passes away because it eliminates Clark’s buffer from the world, and forces him to stand up and be a man. The scene with Clark putting the pearls on Martha was really a great analogy for that, since Jonathan had helped her do the same earlier in the show. The funeral scene was beautifully shot, and the cast all were top notch in those segments. In the final scene with Clark at the graveside, he had a very stoic look about him that really just screamed Superman. I’ll miss John Schneider on the show, who for my money has been the best live action Pa Kent so far.


The order of things – I thought this episode was pretty sharply written in the way that things that seemed minor or even insignificant during the first course of events, became bigger factors during the second course, after Clark reset time. A lot of those things you only pick up after a repeat viewing because you’re really not looking for them during the first time you see it. Martha and Jonathan’s comments to Clark after he informs them of his engagement to Lana about “every big decision having risk” and Clark being “a man who doesn’t need his father anymore,” become ominous after later events unfolded. Also some things, like Lana being there to steady Lois’ stool, which seemed insignificant during the first go around, almost cost Lois her life the second time through when Lana wasn’t there to help her. In addition, all of those little nonsense goings on at the Daily Planet the first time, helped Clark prove to Chloe that he had lived that day before. Perhaps the biggest one, was with Lana not getting into the accident, Jonathan was able to reach the barn in time to meet Lionel and get worked up enough for his heart to give out. I just really enjoyed the whole cause and effect feel to everything and the way it tied into Jor-El’s comments to Clark about altering the course of events, and others taking their place. I’m a sucker for attention to detail I guess.


What didn’t work:


Rush Hour? – One of the big drawbacks with this episode for me was that a lot of it, especially in the first run-through of events, felt really rushed, and seemed to have a lot of things edited out. The scenes moved by a little too fast, and there were parts of people’s dialogue, like Clark’s when he was in the Fortress pleading with Jor-El, where his voice sounded odd because of the way the scenes were edited. Pay attention to the part where he tells Jor-El, “You have to fix this,” there’s a really odd skip and the sound and video aren’t synched up for a second. I’ve heard from some reliable sources that when they shot this episode it was shot as if it was going to be a 90 minute show instead of a standard 60, but apparently they were forced to air the episode in a 60 minute slot, which caused them to have to do some heavy editing. I think the episode suffered a lot from that because it seemed a lot of dialogue that would’ve fleshed out the more meaningful scenes was left on the cutting room floor. Reckoning really seemed paced like an action piece when in reality it was one of the most character driven episodes of the series. Let’s hope we get a fuller version of the episode on the DVD.


The Big Tease – Man that first 25 minutes of this episode was great, that is until they undid the whole thing. As I mentioned earlier, I know why the show was handled this way, for the purposes of exposition and to show Clark the contrast in his decisions, but boy, was that ever a kick in the pants for the viewers. I think I may have even been okay with the whole time redo, if they still had Lana wind up knowing the secret anyway. Perhaps they could’ve paralleled the whole “course of fate” thing with Lana seeing him stop the bus or something. Heck she wouldn’t even need to bring it to his attention in this episode, she could’ve just seen it and kept quiet, and they could’ve gone a similar route like they did with Chloe, and have her become more understanding towards Clark keeping things bottled up. But unfortunately, we didn’t get anything even close to that. I felt really let down by that fact that the whole Clark/Lana aspect went back to where it was in the middle of Season 4. I know that’s a big card for the writers to turn over, but I do wish that plotline would’ve went more forward than backward. The only true difference between them now is what I mentioned earlier, that Clark knows Lana will accept him now, or at least she would have before they went on a “break.” As if the Ross and Rachel comparisons weren’t bad enough.


Superhulk rating:
Man was this one ever hard to rate. I was all over the place with how to rate it because there was so much cool in this episode, but they undid a good portion of it when Clark got the “mulligan.” However, I did like the way a lot of it was handled so I gave it a 4 out of 5 one time only stars. The first part of this episode blew me away but did get tarnished by the do-over. I thought the show did a good job with what Jor-El had to teach Clark, and I also thought Jonathan’s passing was handled really well resulting in some of the most moving scenes I’ve ever seen on the show. This was definitely an episode that required multiple viewings to catch everything. It lost points in my book for the shoddy editing, and the fact that they pulled the rug out from under the fans, when they didn’t necessarily have to. A huge key to this episode long term is going to be how they follow up on the events that happened and make them more significant in the scope of the series.


Superman nods:
As expected this episode went the route of Superman, The Movie in a lot of areas. Jonathan passing away in the driveway while grabbing his shoulder was almost exactly like when Glenn Ford’s Pa Kent met his maker in the film. The whole “time reversal” angle had itsroots in that film as well, and Chloe made the not so subtle hint to that with her “spin the Earth backwards on its axis” remark. Time travel isn’t really a foreign concept in Superman comics either, as he’s done so on a few occasions to the time of World War II. In the 1990’s animated series, he even went back in time to see himself as a youth in Smallville.

 

umm.. saving the day / lives in smallville during Arrival's mayhem..

 

I cant say I like the idea of Jonathan being sacraficed for Clark, however I kinda like the idea that Jonathan is now part of Clark and now will techincally always be with him. I also really think the episode was really well thought out in terms of how it was all put togeather from writing to shooting. Even not liking the idea that Jonathan was exchanged for Lana, the shot they threw in there of JK driving by the "almost accident" and making eye contact with Lana was a real nice touch. The moment they exchanged fates. It was such a nicely wrapped package they delivered even though some things seemed to be cut out.

 

Great job Hulk but here's my 2 cnts..

--Rush Hour..

If they actually had to cut the massive 30 minutes, and show still ended up looking not that much of a ''rush'' to most people, then it's actually one more great achievement they managed to pull..


--Hero's choice..

Actually, imo, they made a great effort to make it look like he did not have a choice.. Jor-El could've told him, ok, your mother will die then..

They did not do it..
A great thing..

 

Wow Hulk! That was a fantastic review. Best you've done.

You know though, I'm not so sure that Lana didnt see him stop that bus. I've watched that scene many times, and I'll swear that she's looking in that direction for that reason.

I didnt see it as neglect, more like a choice, albeit a bad one, but he wasnt to know that at the time.

 

Tough but fair. Nice Job Hulk.

 

Nice article from Philly.com...

 

Well I'm glad John Schneider got what the episode was about, even if others didnt.

 

So Jonathan comes BACK BACK. Sweet

Mind Erasing

Time Travel

Cloning

& now

Bringing People Back From The Dead

Jeez

 

Yeah, those Superman films were WAY out there, weren't they?

Oh wait... were you talking about Smallville?

 

Is Smallville part of the sci-fi genre?

I'm editing, as I probably should have said "note the sarcasm"

 

Gotta be

Heck this Show COMPLETELY reminds me of Stargate. Clark even has his own little Stargate

 

I think he means that he came back for that little flashback video that clark was watching in the next episode.

 

maybe he'll come back like Obi-Wan and tell Clark to use the force?

 

Maybe for a Special Training Session ?

(I did this pretty quick just for fun)

 

^^^^^^^^^ thats so awesome

 

Lmao

 

Well, now that Jonathan's life was taken, Clark really should propose to Lana again. That whole time travel thing pissed me off.

 

If memory serves me correct there’s a certain someone coming at seasons end that will make alien Ken and Barbie seem like mere children. Me thinks Jor-El is more worried about prepping Clark for that, then those two.

 

Sweet review Hulk I have to agree it should have been 90 mins.

 

I'm only gettin an audio file with no pictures

 

Good point!