Today, Tomorrow, Beyond: Crisis
Written by Hope

The beauty of any show's third season is that the production office gets to play with different ways to tell a story. Kelly Souders & Brian Peterson have done that a lot this year- giving screen time to characters outside the main cast in "Delete," making Lex and Clark the outsiders to Smallville in "Phoenix," and now giving us the ending first with "Crisis," and I have to say, they do a great job when they experiment.

Their "ending first" structure for "Crisis" also pulled out Screenwriting Trick #924: Make your weaknesses work for you. Souders & Peterson write wonderful ensemble pieces, they create wonderful original characters, they have a fantastic grasp on dialogue, but their big weakness is writing stories that are too linear. So what do you do when you do everything right but the twists and turns?

You put the ending first.

When Clark runs into the Talon to find Lana alive after that terrible phone call, when they put together the realization that the call hasn't happened yet, the story can be as straightforward as it wants to be, because each time something happens that matches the ending, it increases the tension. As the episode unfolds, each piece of the quasi-prophecy comes true, and the inevitability of the storyline (as well as the payoff- how the inevitable finally changes,) *is* the conflict.

There were minor problems with the story, even in this form. Though the time anomaly was visually explained by the power line hitting water and meteor rocks, I don't think the visual explanation was *quite* enough to make that really understandable- if it were important to the story, it needed to be more obvious. However, I don't really think that the script needed an explanation at all- we've actually seen Clark experience temporary psychic abilities with his psychometric reaction to objects Jor-El had touched in 1961, in "Relic," (which, interestingly enough, Souders & Peterson also wrote, so they should have remembered that.)

The resolution of the story had problems, as well. It made sense for Lana to keep her distance from Adam, all things considered, and I believed that Clark would check on him. Adam and Clark's conversation was even fine, more of a monologue of epiphany on Adam's part, to finally *understand* why he was given a second chance, to finally *see* what his purpose was, than anything else. But, when Adam lifted his head to warn Clark about Lionel Luthor, I said to myself, "Self, somebody else wrote that line."

It's entirely possible that Souders & Peterson wrote it, but if they did, I think it was under duress. Much like Lex's "Wall Around My Heart" speech in "Visage," that line didn't match the episode in tone, it didn't match the scene in tone, and it didn't reflect the familiar style of these particular writers. Souders & Peterson are wonderful when it comes to dialogue and exposition- that particular line was a clunky little afterthought wedged in there to make sure the audience *really* got it, even though I'm fairly sure we really got it anyway.

The unfortunate thing is that its inclusion truncated the emotional impact of that scene. Adam walked into Smallville on Lana's arm, and it's a strong note to close their story with Adam having his epiphany, then dying. That was his whole purpose; the audience (and Adam,) can rest in peace with that. Lana would know that she was used, and for what reason, the end.

But, when it goes just one line further, to allow Adam to *warn* Clark on a personal note, it leaves the audience wondering what about Lana? Their storyline could have been resolved without that personal note to Clark; but with it, it wasn't enough. If they had to force lines anyway, they should have gone one further to close Lana and Adam's storyline specifically: "Tell Lana I'm sorry." Or "Tell Lana it was nothing personal." Either one of them would have been satisfying; the lack wasn't.

Aside from that, though, I found "Crisis" to be incredibly watchable, and extremely powerful. We're seeing so many little steps now for Clark, and for Lex. I especially enjoyed Clark in this episode- instead of pursuing just one course of action, he explored many- he got the sheriff involved, he got help from his friends and family, as well as addressing the problem on his own. He zipped up his jacket to hide the bullet holes, he charmingly deflected Lana's direct observation of the fact that he arrived to her rescue too quickly, he used a point of law to get out of the mansion- we're finally seeing him use his superbrain for something more than figuring numbers.

I have to admit though, the nascent Superman moment I loved most was convincing Lex to take him to Metron Phamaceuticals. We've always known that Clark looked up to Lex, but this scene showed real evidence that Clark has *learned* from Lex. When Lex tries to avoid the question, Clark quite simply refuses to let him- he meets Lex on his kind of terms. Everything else is unimportant, we're dealing with *this* issue right now. This is how Superman will deal with Lex in the future, and that was a really nice underscoring of how their friendship will underscore and strengthen the men they are to become.

On that same note, Lex let himself be swayed by Clark's argument, because at heart this Lex Luthor is *not* the sociopathic arch-villain from the comics. Twice now, Lex has outright spoken is ability to put ethical considerations aside when something interests him (once with the Emily clones, once with Adam,) and we've seen him do it time and time again. Watching his descent since "Asylum," seeing Lex *use* Lana and Chloe to get more information about Adam is that compartmentalization in action. Only Clark has the ability to make Lex think about the human aspect, and only Clark could have convinced him to take him to the lab. There was nothing in that for Lex, absolutely nothing, except a chance to reassure Clark and to possibly assuage his own guilt.

Still, his love for Clark doesn't mean all of the compartmentalization ends. His showdown with Lionel, when he demands to take over the project, shows us that. Lex still isn't all that concerned with the incidental costs when it comes to his needs, and he *needs* to know what's in that serum. What happened in "Shattered" and "Asylum" changed him, irrevocably. Where once, he preferred to have a selfish and selfless reason for doing something, but could function with just one, any acts of selflessness Lex commits now come because there is some direct, tangible benefit to him.

That self-direction comes at a price, however. While Lex may not have felt terribly guilty about using Lana (but did feel compelled to reassure Clark that Adam was safely locked away,) it hurt a lot more to give up his father. Even after everything Lionel has done to him over the years, even after nearly being arrested for negligent homicide after his father kindly turned the project over to him without his knowledge, there was still that moment's hesitation, a real sense of pain that it had come to that. Lex *had* to sacrifice Lionel completely to save himself. He's never gone that far before, and each cut hurts. I don't usually talk about the performances, but Michael Rosenbaum sold the hell out of that scene with equal parts of restrained rage and futility.

In that vein, John Glover owned the closing scene without speaking a word, and what a great scene to lead into hiatus. The father has a gun to his head, demanding even until the end to be the absolute master of his own destiny, while the son's future literally rests on him remaining alive to be the big collar for the FBI. Lex's near-arrest was a very nice gloss of research on these screenwriters' parts- heads of corporations have been charged for negligent homicide when the products or practices of their company cause harm, and to have Lex's only hope of redemption squarely in the hands of a man on the verge of suicide is just a fantastic cliffhanger.

"Crisis" is one of those episodes that I enjoyed for itself, without thinking too much about the screenwriting beneath it at the same time, which made it an especially good episode for me; it makes me happy when I get to be just a squealing fangirl. The growling starts shortly thereafter though, because we have to wait six more weeks to get another hit. Damn you, spring hiatus!

Screenwriting: A-
To Watch: A

Note: The views of Hope don't necessarily represent the thoughts and feelings of everyone at KryptonSite.

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