Smallville: Lara

ORIGINAL EPISODES, THURSDAYS @ 8PM ON THE CW

Best opening scene so far this season. The last hours of Krypton flashed across the screen and Kara spoke with her father Zor-El for the last time before she left for earth. Zor-El wanted Kara to go and protect her cousin except he left out why. I will admit that although visually cool, it could have been a lot better. The fall of Krypton must have been amazing and I felt the visual aspect of it and what we were should could have been much more intense. Sadly, we never had another opportunity to see what occurred but for what it was it was alright. The fact that it was the best opening scene of the season speaks more to the lack of quality previously seen this season than to the greatness of this one.

This episode found Clark butting heads once again with his cousin Kara. He was able to track her down in Washington D.C. after there was a report of a "missile" nearly colliding with a commercial jet. Kara was careless and didn't notice a large airplane heading straight for her and she narrowly missed it. Predictably, she wasn't looking forward to seeing Clark and threw him threw a large metal door when he wouldn't let her leave. Kara was in Washington tracking down the Crystal from her ship except it had already been stolen from the secret laboratory before she got there. A big revelation tonight dealt with the Crystal and with Clark's past.

We got numerous flashes of Kara's past visit to earth when the government agent detained her using Kryptonite handcuffs. His machine that uses meteor rocks through I.V.'s and electrodes, forces the person to relive memories and reveal them. Kara didn't remember anything she relived because Zor-El had blocked all these memories. It turns out Zor-El was in love with Lara, Clark's birth mother. Kara came to earth to escape the wars for a bit and met up with Lara on the Kent farm. Lara was checking it out to see who the future parents of her son would be. While there Zor-El came to visit and was like a jilted lover. He refused to accept that Lara didn't love him and was having a baby with Jor-El. This, it seems, previously resulted in Zor-El attempting to kill Jor-El; hence the lack of trust on Jor-El's part. The secret was that Zor-El enclosed Lara's DNA in the crystal as well as significant Kryptonian knowledge. So now we know why the Crystal is so important and can't fall into the wrong hands. Imagine what Lex could do with something like that.

What I didn't see coming was that Clark secretly stole the Crystal!! He's usually not that sneaky and even if he is he usually tells the people close to him. Instead he kept it a secret from everyone except Lana. This may turn out to be a mistake given Lana's recent personality changes. The Crystal is being hidden in his barn and with Lana the way she is I can't imagine it's going to be safe for very long.

Lara seems to be adjusting very well and very quickly to life on earth. Her vocabulary is extensive and already she's using slang words. More interestingly, she even knows the subtlety's of human ego and personality. She knew exactly how to approach that nerdy lab worker and seduce him. I didn't think she knew about this weakness already but it just goes to show how smart she is and adaptive. She's certainly going to be a force to reckon with as time goes on. Although I think her biggest weakness is her immaturity. She has shown many times before and tonight as well that she has a bad temper and the attitude of a teenager. If she's going to survive and keep those around her safe she needs to grow up and control her emotions.

Meanwhile, Chloe is finally catching on somewhat to Lana's changes. If anyone won't be duped by her new person it's Chloe and she really needs to do some more digging. Lionel was right and Lana is fully crossing that line which is very hard to come back from. Her actions are Luthor-esque and I think Chloe may be the only one who could bring her back. Clark I doubt could do it because she won't trust him; she'll think he's biased because he loves her.

Speaking of Chloe there's still a lot of tension between her and Jimmy. It's very awkward and I thought it was insensitive for him to discuss Lara with her. They were together for a while and had a very deep relationship. This has to be killing Chloe especially with the knowledge that Lara is a supergirl and that she just broke up with Jimmy.

This was a very good all around episode and significantly better than last week. I'm looking forward to this continuing through November Sweeps and hopefully the rest of the season if the strike doesn't last too long. Until next week, enjoy the review!