An Undignified Afterlife: "Obsession"
Written by Hope

Now comes the time when all of you get to point your fingers and laugh at me, because I was wrong. Holly Harold's "Magnetic" wasn't a one-shot deal for Smallville, as she has returned from the freelance graveyard in which I buried her, to write this week's "Obsession." Yes, she slowly dug her way out of the ground, and tottered on little zombie legs into the production office, to retell the one story she remembers from her time on this earth: the obsessive kryptomutant who drives a wedge between Clark and Lana.

I only use the zombie metaphor because, well, I think it's a funny image, but more importantly, it accurately encompasses how I felt about this particular episode. It lumbered toward its inevitable end with all the grace and speed of a Romero zombie, though to give credit to the director, it was much prettier to look at than your standard undead flick. Still, when the most exciting thing about an episode is the fact we got confirmation that it *does* snow in Smallville, there's something wrong.

So what went wrong? It's actually interesting in a screenwriting mechanics sense- the episode felt slow because the story happened too quickly. To build suspense, the audience has to know more than the characters do initially; to build suspense, the characters have to have a transition point, from peacefully unaware to suddenly enlightened, so that the audience gets that gut-shot sensation when they realize just how *wrong* the situation is, about two seconds before the guy on screen figures it out.

The first two acts of this script should have shown Clark developing an interest in Alicia, a normal date with a normal resolution, with hints dropped for the audience's benefit that her bubble isn't quite on plumb (maybe a nice scene with Alicia's terrified parents trying to play normal, so that the other two scenes with them would have had more impact.) Instead, it gave us Alicia's entire backstory, a burgeoning attraction from Clark that's instantly slaughtered by an anvil chorus of "this chick is crazy, yo," improved only by the fact that Tom Welling is an incredibly beautiful man, and sells the hell out of those brief, adorkable moments that made Clark so endearing in Season One- but we'll come back to that, later.

Unfortunately, once all of this occurs, the episode is only a third over and the entire conflict has been outlined. There's nowhere to *go* from there; there's no way to build additional tension because we already know how this story *has* to end. Instead of amping up the conflict, the story limps along through the standard "Fatal Attraction" fare: oh my, Alicia scratched Lana's picture out of the yearbook and tries to ingratiate herself with Clark's family. Oh my, Alicia beats up her dad for getting in her way. We haven't seen that before, except when Greg Arkin devoured his own mother in "Metamorphosis," Tina Greer knocked her mother down the stairs in "X-Ray," Eric Summers attacks his father in "Leech" …

So the A line just meanders toward its climax, and I give Harold points for writing a double climax- the showdown in (what I think was) the school's boiler room, then the showdown at The Talon, but neither were particularly effective because their conclusions were so foregone. The stakes weren't raised, because there weren't any to begin with: Clark tells a psycho his secret, and she, according to design, acts like a psycho.

What made this especially obvious was the fact that there was no true B line in this script, just fragmentary elements of bigger, season arcs, and everyone outside of Clark and Alicia just filled time to break up the monotony. Lana's scene with Adam just continued a progression from last week's "Velocity," (bizarrely, what could have worked effectively as the third act of that incomplete three-act conversion, but somehow ended up in "Obsession,") as did Lana's scene with Lex. Lionel was completely wasted in the teaser: his speech, and Chloe and Clark's reaction to it, did absolutely *nothing* to forward the A line except create an excuse for Clark to take a separate elevator. Lionel's scene with Adam forwarded the entire Adam arc, but like the other three Adam related scenes in this script, it was just a random piece of another plotline.

Chloe's part in Clark's ruse to trap Alicia did forward the story, though by that point, the A line was already irretrievably damaged. The cast as a whole just stood in position to let Clark interact with them in this episode- Clark's scenes with his parents mostly allowed him to toss exposition in the air like confetti- the big reveal of his vulnerability to Kryptonite, the big realization that he really is alone in the universe. Fortunately, except for one particular scene, Harold didn't *damage* the characters by treating them like scenery, but that one exception is pretty glaring.

Naturally, when Clark has a problem, he goes to Lex to discuss it, but he didn't really have a conversation with Lex this week. The attractive bald man in the mansion looked like Lex, walked like Lex, he even teased Clark like Lex, but none of the words that came out of his mouth made a lick of sense, considering Lex's history. First of all, I can't imagine any way that Clark could tell the story of what had happened thus far with Alicia that would allow Lex to jump to the conclusion that he led her on, no matter how many lies he had to tell to cover their meet-cute.

Secondly, more important than that, where's all of Lex's experience in giving women a mistaken impression coming from? Not from Victoria Hardwick, who came to him, complete with ulterior motive. Not from Carrie Castle, who came to him, complete with ulterior motive. Not from Desiree Atkins, who- why yes- came to him, complete with ulterior motive. And most certainly not from Helen Bryce, whom he had to actively pursue and *persuade* to share the pleasure of his company. The only time Lex has ever been accused of leading a woman on was in "Shimmer," (another Season One episode, funny that,) when a teenaged Amy Palmer mistook his gentility for interest.

I could believe a Lex who'd convert those experiences into a talk with Clark about how some women just can't take no for an answer. Or, a conversation about how some women have a finely-tuned sense of what a man can do for her, and will refuse to let it go until forced. But a "you asked for it" speech from the *one* guy in Smallville who's been nothing but used and abused by women he's cared about it? I don't buy it; the audience shouldn't buy it, and Harold shouldn't have written it that way. It was a gross character assassination, and if you want to see that scene done right, take a look at Peterson & Souders' "Skinwalker."

It seems to be a consistent problem for new writers in this production office, that they're unable to integrate all three seasons into their scripts. For Harold's "Magnetic," I assumed it was because the script was written in late Season One, and retooled for a Season Three airing, but "Obsession," much like Greenberg's "Slumber" and "Hereafter," have been mired in the storytelling style, characterization, and canon of Season One. A lot has happened since then, and I know it's not easy to catch up on that much canon, but this is the *fourteenth* episode of the third season. Greenberg was signed over the summer, and Harold's been around at least since the seventh episode; there's no excuse for them to continue to lean on the first season crutch.

I'm not saying that there's no place to revisit tropes established in Smallville's infancy, but they *must* be integrated into the current continuity. The whole point of this show is watching Clark Kent and Lex Luthor become, and when new screenwriters craft episodes that ignore twenty three episodes of that development, it hurts the characters, it hurts the show, and it hurts the mythology Smallville is trying to weave for a new generation of Superman fans. By all means, remember fondly its comely attributes, but let the corpse of season one rest in peace.

Screenwriting: D
To Watch: C-

Next Week: Adam's running out of time, Lex's interest is riding high, and Clark's blood may prove that no matter what, the truth will out.

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