Episode Review: Beacon

Though his intentions were good, Lionel had misread Tess's Christmas list and bought a 9:16 TV. Fortunately, it was still in the shrink wrap.

Now this is what I call a successful rebound from “Collateral”.  I knew, strictly based on the meager spoilers I’d managed to learn before going into this episode, that “Beacon” was pretty much predetermined to be a better show than we got last week.  That said, I neither expected nor even hoped for what we all saw unfold last Friday.  “Beacon” was, without any doubt, one of the strongest single episodes of Season 10.  Right now, it probably sits right behind “Homecoming” as the strongest hour of the year in my book.  There simply wasn’t a false note or moment to be seen or felt in this entry (well, okay, maybe one, but I’ll get there).  One thing that immediately jumped out at me and – thankfully – distinguished “Beacon” from its predecessor was the opening sequence.  When Tess is confronted by Lois about unauthorized anti-vigilante articles that have cropped up in the latest issue of The Daily Planet, we find out straight away that it was Lionel who is behind it.  John and Cassidy have a fire that crackles throughout their entire first scene together, where he confronts her about harboring Lex’s clone and the two vow to find him before the other.  The writing is exceptional, with Lionel making some very valid points about how Tess’s abandonment of Lex could have serious repercussions on who he eventually becomes.  You can tell that this gets Tess thinking about her actions, and it sets things in motion perfectly.  In the first scene, we’ve established a clear villain, the high stakes involved in someone finding Lex quickly, and given us something to care about, not only in the context of this episode, but the mythology of Smallville overall.  In other words, “Beacon” manages to accomplish in the span of three or four minutes something that it took “Collateral” its entire length to not accomplish.

It was genius, really. Once Chloe got that unsightly Windows logo buffed off, her laptop could easily be overlooked as a harmless Trapper Keeper.

But “Beacon” isn’t the kind of episode that sets things up and then stops for a breather.  This show was lightning-fast and never let up.  There’s a (blissfully) brief scene with Chloe and Oliver at Watchtower that is maybe the only throwaway sequence in the entire episode.  Maybe I’m talking out of an anti-Chlollie bias a tad, but this really had nothing to do with anything, except maybe to establish that Oliver’s in town and keeping a low profile.  And maybe I’m just too sensitive to this whole scenario seeing as I just re-watched the entirety of this series before the premiere last September, but Aaron Ashmore’s Jimmy Olson is truly one of the forgotten heroes of Smallville, a fact that makes scenes like this one hurt more than they probably should.  Watchtower was a wedding gift to Chloe, and now – a mere season and a half later – Chloe and Ollie have moved a bed into the center of it right around the very spot Jimmy was murdered saving her life?  That really just doesn’t ring true for me emotionally.  But regardless, the scene is brief and leads us into a nice reveal of a growing pro-vigilante movement.  I’ve read some criticisms that this element cropped up rather quickly and conveniently (just in time to pay itself off at the end of “Beacon”, no less), but the truth is, an issue is never one-sided.  There are always people on both sides of any political debate.  And it makes thematic sense that one side of the VRA debacle would be seen by our heroes as the dominant argument.  They’ve been persecuted all season long.  Sometimes you can’t see the forest for the trees, and that strikes me as the case here.

Sure, the speech was inspiring, but at only five massive American flags, Martha worried that people might leave thinking her unpatriotic.

If anything, our next scene with Lois and Clark on the farm only serves to underscore this point.  He’s so wrapped up in his day to day routine of being a hero that he’s neglected to realize that he’s not alone in the fight.  Somewhere along the way, Clark began inspiring people.  He’s done so in a way that only happens when you put others before yourself and adhere to those principles despite the resistance you end up facing because of it.  Anyone who doesn’t think that public sentiment can be swayed quickly and find its voice overnight with the right level of inspiration and hope to drive it need only to look to our real-world Egyptian neighbors for proof.  I know I can’t be the only Smallville fan out there who sees a wonderful parallel between an episode like this one and the things happening around the world.  I’m not saying those things are related in any actual way, but it definitely puts “Beacon” in an historical light that I’ll always associate it with going forward.  Hope and freedom truly can triumph in this world if enough people demand it.  To quote Jor-El from the 1978’s “Superman”, “They can be a great people, Kal-El, they wish to be.  They only lack the light to show the way”.  I think that sums up my feelings about this particular episode perhaps better than anything else.  We learn here that Martha has been a strong pro-hero voice in the debate, and that her advocacy has forced a public vote on the issue.  This was such a wonderful position to bring Martha back for – fighting for her son and the principles she and Jonathan instilled in him to bring out in the rest of the world.  This felt so right to me, and it was a far better way to bring her back into the fold than the last time around.

"Oh great", thought Clemens, "here comes the son; highlight of my day". Four hours of staring at that terrible painting and waiting for something to happen. God, he hated being an agent.

Another interesting thing about Annette O’Toole in “Beacon” is how much more natural she felt onscreen this time than she did to me in “Hostage”.  It’s not that I didn’t enjoy that episode, but those who have been reading these columns long enough to remember will recall that I felt that there was something a little off about Martha in that show.  I still don’t know exactly what it was.  I supposed it could have been intentional, as she was holding back the whole Red Queen thing from Clark, and so maybe she was supposed to come off a little shady (a decidedly un-Martha-like trait).  But whatever the reason, something seemed just slightly strange to me then.  And whatever it was, it was gone this time.  Annette played Martha just perfectly here, and it really gave the episode a lot of weight that I felt we so desperately needed it to carry after last week.  After a pro-hero speech that gets Lois and Clark talking about how there’s still hope that things might actually turn around with the impending vote, shots ring out and Clark super-speeds to help.  This was, to me, something of a strange transition.  I guess we’re supposed to assume that Clark didn’t get to the podium in time to get to Martha before she was en route to MetGen, because that’s where he shows up the next time we see him.  I got the impression when he sped away that he was speeding to the scene, not to the hospital.  Surely he’d have been there in a matter of a few seconds, especially with his mother’s life on the line.  In any case, I love how pro-active Clark is becoming.  There’s no hesitation anymore.  There’s no waiting around like a deer in headlights, wondering even momentarily what he should do.  He’s acting like someone who knows what needs to be done and does it without thinking.  He’s acting like a true hero.  He’s acting like Superman.

Amongst all the chaos of an attempt on a Senator's life, Charlie went back to work pocketing countless office supplies with renewed confidence.

In perhaps this episode’s only real moments of quiet reflection, we get two scenes at MetGen with Martha.  The first, with Clark, is the better of the two.  While Clark is worried about his mother putting herself in harm’s way to protect him, I really enjoyed how quickly Martha is able to turn that sentiment around and assert that she’s merely doing what she and, indeed, Jonathan have always done: nurture and protect their son.  I have to say that Season 10 is doing a fantastic job of keeping the memory of Jonathan Kent alive and well.  It’s something that paints Clark’s actions in more ways than I think was ever really driven home before this year, and it works incredibly well.  The idea of a Kryptonian father in Jor-El and an Earth father in Jonathan, with those two sensibilities informing every choice he makes as our greatest hero, is central to who Superman will be.  The writers get this, and it thrills me to see that that’s where they’re taking things in our final handful of episodes.  When Clark speeds away to find the would-be assassin, Chloe enters the scene and has a talk of her own with Martha.  As much as I appreciated what this moment was trying to do, there were a few lines that felt strange to me.  If anything, it’s probably because Lois and Clark were just engaged two episodes ago, and so it felt like sentiments such as “I can’t think of anyone better to watch over him” should have probably been addressed to Lois, not Chloe.  But again, I know what was intended with this scene, and for what the goal was, it did work well.  It wasn’t gushy or overly sentimental, but it definitely made me happy to see a kinder Chloe than we’ve had for a while on this show.  I also liked the message these two put forth here of having to step away from Clark to let him step up into a position of leadership and strength.  Maybe it makes me a bit of a sap, but I like that Smallville has shown Clark as someone not simply born as a hero, but a man made who he is by those closest to him who see the potential of what he represents both to himself and to the world.  Some have said that Clark needs to be pushed into action too often on this series, but I find that aspect very true to life.  Most of us, for better and worse, are continuously molded by outside influences of one kind or another, with those closest to us wielding the greatest, most profound influence.  I’m personally very glad this show understands that and has established that level of Clark’s humanity in how he’s developed over the years.

"Oliver, you look ridiculous. I mean, a hoodie? Really"? "I'm sorry, Clark, but I've only got one shot, and I'm not about to miss my chance to blow".

Clark meets up with Oliver while investigating the crime scene and discovers that the bullets used in the attack were made of kryptonite.  I really enjoy the lengths that Smallville has gone in the last few years to show the detective side of Clark’s character.  All too often, I think, Superman is a comic icon who’s relegated to the “all brawn, no brain” category.  I always think of the final showdown in “Superman Returns”, for example, when he rushes headlong into a confrontation with Lex, knowing full well that he’s probably armed with his only weakness.  I’m glad that that typically major character flaw is being so well addressed in this series.  Clark’s a man who can piece things together and who notices the details.  These traits should, after all, be present in any good reporter, and he’s one of The Daily Planet’s two star reporters.  I do have to say that I find it pretty humorous that Oliver simply cannot bring himself to wear any color other than green, even when he’s supposed to be in disguise.  Granted, it’s more of a camo shade of green, but one would think that you’d shy away from the color altogether if the military was out looking for you.  In any case, it was far enough away from the traditional Green Arrow costume colors not to be a distraction and serve as more of a “nod nod, wink wink” to the fans.

It was a long time ago when Dean first became a demon hunter. He'd been taught by the best: his father. He had a brother named Sam...oh, sorry, wrong series.

If I wish anything had been more adequately explained in “Beacon”, it’s Lionel’s progress in finding Alexander.  In the first scene we see him in since the intro, he’s simply figured out where the boy is and pulls up outside the building.  There’s really no explanation given as to why he knew he’d be there.  I kind of assumed that maybe it was Lionel’s parents’ old neighborhood.  It struck me for some reason as the remnants of the tenant that burned down years ago when Lionel murdered his parents, but I think it would have probably played as a tad less contrived if this point had been made clearer early on.  I like how Alexander ties in so fluidly with the story we’re being told with all of our other characters without it seeming forced or out of left field.  All too often, Smallville’s episodes have a tendency to either drag when trying to tell two stories on top of each other or feel cramped into trying to do too much in too little time if things don’t gel just right.  But here, they do.  It makes sense that Alexander would try to kill Clark with bullets made from kryptonite, and that the target would be someone Clark cared so much about.  It also makes sense that this boy would be off of everyone’s radar because of the overriding VRA story that we’ve been building up all year.  I get the feeling watching the latter half of Season 10 that things truly have been thought out far better than I had originally anticipated as a fan.  I felt this way as Season 9 began its second half as well.  Based on that, I have nothing but gleeful anticipation for where things might be headed now.  John Glover once again knocks it out of the park, and his motivations actually make sense to boot.  He’s chosen Clark over Lex in his own world, and he’s trying to atone for that mistake in this one.  It’s a creepy and frightening prospect that these two might start their evil empire anew as our series draws to a close, but it’s a tantalizing carrot to dangle nonetheless.

Chloe really couldn't have chosen a worse example to follow when choosing something inconspicuous to wear than Michael J. Fox in "Back to the Future Part II".

If there’s one thing I think the writers have gotten right about Lois, especially since she’s been let in on Clark’s secret, is how tirelessly she fights right along side of him.  And what I love is that she doesn’t just fight with him, but for him as well.  If Clark still has one Achilles’ heel (other than little green rocks), it’s his unerring ability to be selfless, even to the point that it stops being personally advantageous to do so.  He simply doesn’t know how to do anything but put the good of the world or even other individuals ahead of what he needs personally.  As far as rising to the stature of Superman, this is, of course, entirely appropriate.  But it also leaves a rather huge vacuum for Lois to fill.  Clark needs someone who will fight for the things that he will not.  He needs someone to fight for his interests.  I think Clark probably finds that concept self-serving and incompatible with looking out for the rest of humanity, but for Lois, this works perfectly.  She sees things from a more intimate and immediate perspective.  She knows that part of what the world needs is to believe in what Clark represents.  I really enjoy how relevant this scene is to the overall story.  While, on the one hand, it might arguably be considered a subplot, I don’t look at it that way.  Lois’s determination to help Clark in the ways that he won’t help himself is precisely why she’s the person who’s meant for him.  She never gives up hope, even when the Earth’s most hopeful hero’s hope is fading.  And honestly, I can’t understand the criticisms I’ve read since this episode aired that assert that Lois overcomes the anti-vigilante sentiment easily.  She’s asking Chloe to hack into all of our news outlets, not just a few websites here and there.  How quickly was public opinion swayed on full-body TSA scanners with a few YouTube videos?  Lois knows what she does.  She knows how to reach people.  She does it every day as a writer, and if anyone could pull this off, I can think of no one more realistic to do so than she.

The would-be assassin had taken a cheap shot at his mother and used kryptonite bullets. But seriously, this was starting to look really REALLY personal now.

Now, I can’t quite put my finger on what exactly Ollie is doing strolling back into his offices at LuthorCorp for the second time in as many weeks when he’s supposedly a wanted man, but it hardly matters when it sets up such a phenomenal few scenes.  As Oliver’s introduced to Alexander and to the Lionel from the alternate universe, there’s some great dialog that struck me as something of a bone thrown to all those out there who apparently find Smallville too left-leaning for their taste (Lois’s “fair and balanced” Fox News dig early on, for example, raised a few eyebrows in some of the forums I frequent).  But as much as this series – quite unavoidably, in my view – does at times deal in a bit of political soap-boxing, I found this scene to be far more indicative of the right’s attitude.  Lionel’s speech about how the people were uneducated and didn’t even know when you were fighting for them, for example, is very close to a conservative’s view of a power-drunk big government type who looks down on the same “common man” in whom Oliver now places his faith.  One could certainly find parallels with last year’s mid-term results and an unexpected, grass-roots turnout on Election Day.  In any event, I think people read far too much into these things.  This is a show about a superhero, and I think that, for all the whining in the real world, Smallville is a show that intends, first and foremost, to entertain its audience.  And it’s awesome scenes like this one that make it clear that it at least attempts to do so in a somewhat objective way.

"Oh, sweet, there's a torrent out for that already? Okay, just a few clicks and TESS! Hey. I was just, um, checking out a lead here. So what's new"?

The next two scenes of “Beacon” were just fantastic.  We get a terrific, tension-building scene that has Clark, Tess and Oliver meeting up at The Daily Planet and figuring out what a dire situation they’re all in with Lionel and Alexander both added back into the mix.  It struck me here how quickly all of this information was told to each of our characters and how fast Clark moved into a course of action once armed with it.  This was in stark contrast to how information was divulged slowly, methodically, and monotonously last week.  Watch the scene when Ollie walks in and, within a few seconds, lets the other two how much higher the stakes have just been raised.  This scene was masterful in some intangible way that I couldn’t put my finger on, and I know I’m not the only one who watched this and got a shiver as Clark said “Lionel’s rebuilding is empire with Lex at his side”.  It’s as if some sickening reset button has been hit, throwing all of the progress that this team has made over the last several years into total chaos.  What an entertaining and exciting season we’re getting!  At the same time, the subsequent moments at the mansion is just as good, with a scene between Lionel and Martha that just came off the screen with emotion.  I loved how Annette played Martha here as such a coiled spring with Lionel.  The mention of the watch he gave her is also a great nod to continuity, something to which it seems the writers are (finally) paying a great deal more attention.

Alexander seriously couldn't believe it. All the money at Lex's disposal, and he'd been drinking Wild Turkey all these years? Where was the good stuff?!

I will admit that I’m something of a spoiler junkie when it comes to this show.  And I find it difficult to go into an analysis of Alexander’s scene here without drawing upon knowledge of future episodes, but I will do my best not to turn away my readers who prefer to maintain the element of surprise week to week.  Lucas Grabeel has seriously stepped up to the plate in this episode.  I failed to talk about him very much in his earlier scene with Lionel, but he’s just fantastic.  What I like most about his performance, though, is that he’s playing this character as far more of a conflicted soul than an outright evil man, something that will pay off wonderfully as the season wraps up, I’m sure.  Again, for those who don’t want to know, I can’t tell you why that characterization choice makes sense on Lucas’s part, but it most definitely does.  He’s a young man in pain and with a lot of anger to expel.  He’s fighting a lifetime of memories of hate and bitterness toward a father who, by all rights, should already be dead.  I find this entire sequence more heart-wrenching than threatening now that I re-watch it.  After he knocks both Martha and Lionel out (I swear, if I didn’t know better, I’d say the creative team is going out of their way to finally knock everyone else out but Lois just to make things slightly more fair), Alexander sets the mansion on fire.  It was a really nice touch to have this sequence end with his throwing the final bottle into the fireplace.  I love that the writers have never forgotten the symbolism of that exact spot as the place where Lex shed the last of his good side once and for all, and you can really feel that sense of pain in Grabeel’s performance as that last bottle is let go.

"Oh God, Tom, are all right"?! "Cassidy, I'm a method actor, it's okay. We go through this every week". "Yeah, I know, but it never gets easier kicking you there".

I may fall victim too easily to actually appreciating it when the writers blatantly pay lip service to the criticisms of the fans, but I must say that I really enjoyed the explanation of why Clark sent Slade to The Phantom Zone.  I know a lot of people took issue with that solution, and it was great seeing him admonish Tess for resorting to it as anything but a last resort and asserting his intention to bring Slade back to face trial once the legal system has been fixed.  Before either of them can think of a better plan, though, Alexander shows up to threaten Clark’s life.  Eventually, he’s talked down by both Clark and Tess.  We’ve had a lot of scenes over the years of people with guns being talked down by the good guys, but this one really hit home in a way that most don’t and, frankly, just can’t.  Having Tess be the one that really turns the tide here was just great, and it gives her character so much more of a reason for being in my opinion.  She’s there to be his heart.  To put a force for good and caring and compassion in his life that the real Lex Luthor never had in his.  All of this just resonated so well and so true to me that I simply couldn’t find the scene anything but moving.

Back in 1991, times were different and security measures far more lax. When Ron Howard set up a casting call for his film "Backdraft", however, the industry had to concede that it had gone too far.

I also really enjoyed how – for the second time in the same show – we see Clark super-speed away to save his mother and Lionel the instant he’s free from the influence of the kryptonite.  There’s no hesitation at all.  He simply does what he knows must be done to save lives, and we don’t need any hand-holding as an audience to figure those priorities out.  This was just all executed so well that it had me smiling as I watched.  For the second time this year, we see a landmark Smallville set piece burn to the ground (though, as one of my roommates quite rightly pointed out, all they’d really need to rebuild is the den – no one really goes anywhere else).  I know I couldn’t have been the only one to clap as Clark saves Martha and then, upon going back and saving Lionel, dumps him forcefully in front of the burning mansion like the vile scoundrel that he is.  Superman may have to save everyone, but he doesn’t have to like them.  I really enjoyed the overriding sense that the tide has been turned on this man, that Alexander has been reached in some way, and that, as Clark puts it, “this isn’t over”.  God, I almost want another full season to really play with these ideas that have just been introduced so masterfully in our 13^th Season 10 episode.  Anyone else with me?

It had taken some effort, but Lois and Chloe had finally convinced Clark that he was a hero. Getting him to stopping popping the damned collar, though, was going to be a bigger battle than either of them realized.

I will try my best not to gush and use as few superlatives as possible here.  The rest of “Beacon” was absolutely, flawlessly amazing from this point forward.  And this is coming from someone who enjoyed the rest of this episode immensely.  I’ll just come right out and admit it: as Chloe and Lois showed Clark the testimonials from his supporters, my eyes began welling up.  Okay, maybe they were welling up at first because, as each subsequent video played, I became increasingly aware of my submission not having been picked (really, couldn’t we have had one big shot of all the videos tiled on a big screen, maybe at Watchtower, so ALL the fans could have had their two milliseconds of fame?), but as the scene played out, I had to stop caring.  Just knowing that these were real fans of the show, and that I was a part of that myself, and of this series for the last decade of my life…well, it was a lot to take in.  I know I can’t be the only person who felt as though the words that Clark heard through those testimonials came from their own mouths.  It felt like they came from all of us.  And not just to Clark or to Superman or to some abstract ideal, but to Tom and Erica and Allison and to everyone behind the scenes who’ve made us feel like we were a part of something special for all these years.  It made me feel both the hope and optimism and inspiration that the scene was meant to impart and the pride and sense of community that I’m sure the actors felt themselves watching those same images.  I’m not sure that any scene in Smallville has ever made me feel closer to the spirit of the series, to my fellow Smallville fans who read my (perhaps agonizingly long) episode reviews each week, or to the actors who do something a little miraculous every week in bringing those two things together and giving people in the real world as much hope as their heroes give to the people of Metropolis.

"Ahh, Watchtower's back up and running. But more importantly - Chloe and Oliver, you two are gonna have to find somewhere else to...you know. This is my office".

Our episode wraps up with everyone celebrating the VRA being overturned.  I really appreciated how the first thing Clark does upon hearing this news is to thank Lois, who then gives the credit to Martha and Perry.  Again, it underscores the feeling that these people are all holding up the most powerful man on Earth, and it’s just such a sweet and human sentiment.  There’s a simply wonderful scene here with Martha and Clark where he dangles the possibility of turning to a disguise to mask his Clark Kent persona while being himself as the hero.  It was really cool to hear the show specifically state this as Clark’s interpretation of who the “real” person is and who the mask will be, as that’s something of a bone of contention with different takes on the Superman mythos.  For this show and this version of Clark, though, I think this was definitely the way to go.  I think one of my favorite small moments in “Beacon” is Clark’s smile when Martha tells him that Jonathan would be proud of him.  He’s been told things like this before, but there was something about that moment that really made you believe for the first time that he believed it.  When he opens Watchtower’s window in the following shot, for example, he looks – maybe for the first time – as if he’s looking out that window as the hero we’ve all been waiting for him to become since 2001.  There’s a smile there.  A weight that’s finally gone.  A man not only with great abilities, but with the faith in himself and the world to back them up.  What a powerful and affirming moment.

Tess could hardly believe it. She'd ruined another stupid syringe! The prospect of going all the way back to LuthorCorp to grab a kryptonite one was...ugh! She'd deal with this later.

I truly adored “Beacon”, and I think I’ve liked it even more as I’ve written this review.  I loved how the theme was the immense healing power of hope and how it truly did overcome every obstacle in the episode, from Alexander to the VRA to people’s fears in general.  That’s a message that we can all get behind.  I will end this review, rather maddeningly, by refusing to discuss the cliffhanger sequence in the barn with Tess and Alexander.  As I said, I’m a spoiler junkie, and I can’t discuss this without ruining the surprise.  All I can say is – Season 10 is about to take a huge left turn…and it’s going to be incredible!