Memory Totem: Talisman
Written by Hope

Ken Biller and Mark Verheiden are the go-to guys on Smallville. They turn the stories, transition the characters, and fill in the necessary exposition to make the overall story work. With "Talisman," Ken Biller stepped in to make sure all the less-than-rabid fans of Smallville understood the significance of the Kawatche Prophecies in case they weren't watching early last year, and threw in a few really nice twists for the long-time, ardent viewer of the show.

I must start, though, with a minor annoyance that has nothing to do with the screenplay and everything to do with continuity. One of the nice things about Smallville (as opposed to The X-Files,) is that the guys in charge here don't screw up the mythology. They actually know where they're going with it, and long-term threads like the Kawatche prophecies get parceled out over time- a long time, in this case, and they always use it to really fantastic effect.

Sometimes, however, the tiny details get lost, and last night, every single time someone mentioned Segeeth, I wanted to poke my eyes out. I can fanwank the fact that maybe Kyla from "Skinwalker" was a little fuzzy on the details of the stories and mispronounced Segeeth as Seget, seeing as how she was just a teeny on the crazy side, and her grandfather was just humoring her about it. Still, I shouldn't have to fanwank an intratextual excuse for the metatextual fact that somebody didn't review this salient detail and pass it on to the cast. Much like Dominic *Senatori's* name change to Dominic *Santorini* (funnily enough, in the exact same placement episode as last year, with "Witness,") those little details grate on the ardent fans' nerves, and for an episode that actually has very little revelatory value to those fans, it detracts from the whole.

That said, this episode, like Greenberg's "Truth," did not actually tell us anything new. It allowed the characters to catch up to what we, the passionate audience, already knew, and spelled out these important details for the folks who weren't around last year. We've known since "Skinwalker" that Clark is Numan and Lex is Seget (sorry, I'm keeping the original spelling; pronounce it anyway you like,) and this episode allowed Clark to enjoy a few denialist moments that his best friend would become his worst enemy, completely contrary to the fact that his actions speak otherwise.

Clark is making his own enemy in Lex, and last night, not only did Lex take another huge step toward calling Clark on his bull, he also figured out his place in this passion play. The interesting fact is that Lex isn't entirely wrong- Seget may not be the hero per se, but he *is* an absolutely necessary component in the *balance* between good and evil.

Clark's self-righteousness is something that will need a constant balance, because let's face it- in the real world, fascists don't want to randomly take over the world and enslave it- they want to make the world over to match their ostensibly *better* world-view. We've seen seeds of that again and again, when Clark makes decisions *for* people, because he thinks he knows best. Sometimes he does, sometimes he doesn't, but Clark *needs* someone to challenge the conquering tendency he doesn't even see in himself. He thinks Jor-El wants him to be an alien overlord in the classic science-fiction sense; Jor-El, or some other early Kryptonian, understood that Kal-El's abilities would evoke a protectionary stance, and the subconscious need to rule- by intent, if not by force; to decide what is best for other people. Absolute power, after all, corrupts absolutely. And whoever that early Kryptonian was, s/he deliberately created the necessary tools to *combat* that, in the creation of Seget and the talisman blade. Superman *needs* a Lex Luthor.

And likewise, Lex Luthor needs a Superman, because given free reign to practice the fine art of Luthorian compartmentalization, Lex will do horrible things in the name of science because the practical applications fascinate him more than the human cost worries him. He's outright said it twice, "All ethics aside..." because he *can* put all ethics aside, and that mindset allows horrors to occur. This Lex Luthor is not the mad scientist from the Silver Age of the comics, who blindly yearns to destroy the world just because; he too wants to make it a better place, but unlike Superman, he can choose to ignore the human cost in engineering that utopian ideal.

It's my firm opinion that Dr. Walden took the powers that were intended for Seget/Lex, and I think the talisman blade emphasizes that. Numan and Seget needed to be balanced- Seget needed to be able to compete one-on-one with Numan, who had the strength of ten men and could shoot fire from his eyes- those are powers that Walden assumed when he put the key in the wall. The blade was intended for Numan to have- kryptonite would not be a weakness for Seget; Numan needed a weapon that would kill an invulnerable opponent, because his invulnerable opponent would have a weapon that would kill him. Seget would have kryptonite, Numan would have the blade. In Cold War terms, that's called mutually assured destruction. That's balance.

So, we already knew that coming in. For a longtime viewer, this episode was probably a little slow. It's not that Biller didn't do his usual masterful job of balancing the episode, because he did. It just wasn't especially compelling if you've been following along since the beginning. However, what saves this episode- where other, transitionary episodes fail- is that Biller included enough new turns on these old scenarios to maintain interest for people who already know what's going on.

The "Clark is mortally wounded and his parents must take care of him" scene is nothing new to the viewer; what was new this time, and especially clever, is that Biller put a twist on it to bring back the visceral horror of two parents met by their child's mortality. When Martha slips in Clark's blood, that makes this old sequence new again; it jerks the viewer out of complacency, so that when Jor-El by way of Jonathan *heals* Clark, we're fully invested again. It melds concepts we've seen before- Jor-El, by way of the ship, has healed Clark before; hammering home the fact that Jonathan sacrificed himself for his son in Exile, we now see Jonathan as Jor-El's tool. If there was ever any doubt that Jor-El is fully present in Clark's life, that was a huge, glowing reminder.

Likewise, we've seen Clark lie- badly- to Lex before, but we've never seen Lex so blatantly call him on it. That's what amped that scene up, the fact that Lex is plainly fed up with the transparency of Clark's untruths- you can accurately compare just how far Lex has come by comparing that scene to the scene in Biller's "Calling" last year, when Lex invites Clark to examine the writing burned into Walden's cell. At that point, Lex suspected Clark was lying, but let it slide. This year, Lex knows Clark is lying, and he pointedly *doesn't* ignore it.

Finally, in that storyline, Biller did a great job of creating ambiguous tension for the characters- *Clark* doesn't know which Luthor touched the knife first, but we, the audience know, it doesn't matter who did. Lex Luthor is destined to be Superman's arch-nemesis, not Lionel Luthor. It gives wonderful weight to the tragedy of this story that we know how it ends, even though Clark doesn't. It also gives wonderful weight to the fact that Clark and Lex, since Clark's first day on earth, literally created each other. Who would Lex be if the meteor shower hadn't stripped him of his hair and his expected place as a Metropolitan prince? Who would Clark be without meeting Lex at sixty miles an hour on a rural bridge in Lowell County?

Biller also did a very nice job transitioning Lana into her next stage of development. Since season one, Lana has always been somebody else's girl. Whitney's girl, her parents' girl, Clark's girl, Henry Small's girl, Smallville's girl- and since season one, Lex has challenged her to be something more than that. Lex has never allowed her to just get her way, and he's always pushed her to be more self-sufficient. They have always had a unique relationship, since she all but introduced herself by pointing out she'd once seen him naked, and I think that's a great allegory for their entire relationship. They see each other naked- Lana's the only one who's consistently treated Lex with any kind of respect (and the two exceptions to that were pretty justified; so much so that in "Heat," Lex went out of his way to make sure he couldn't abuse his power in the relationship again,) and who actually considers Lex qua Lex before asking him for something. Everyone else, even Clark, will take ad
vantage of what Lex can do for them; Lana's always tried not to.

Likewise, Lex is the only person who consistently sees Lana *for* Lana, and though he treaded into dangerous territory in the Adam storyline, he's been consistent about pushing her to be Lana Lang, full stop. He forced her to have a better reason than "my parents met here" to help her with the Talon. He forced her to take action to save the Talon against the Beanery's competition. He forced her to learn to protect herself, and in "Talisman" he forced her to decide whether she wanted to be everybody else's girl, or her own. Lex's methods may seem draconian, but time has proven that Lana really needs to get angry to get clarity, and he brings that out in her. Conversely, Clark has always put her on a pedestal, he admitted as much in "Accelerate," that she is perfect to him, regardless of who she really is, and that's incredibly unfair to her. Lex and Lana see each other naked, and they both need that. I think Biller did a fantastic job highlighting that.

The Chloe and Pete storyline... hmm. It seemed like a last minute addition. Though Biller has the chops to balance multiple plots in a single episode, and he did a good job of weighing this storyline to match the tone and heft of the A, B and C plots, it just seemed a little out of place. Obviously, they're working toward some sort of transition here- removing Pete from the overall equation of the show would be my guess- and the scenes were well-written and effective, they just seemed a little odd and distracting. The nice thing about them, however, is that they were aware Pete's parents' divorce was coming out of nowhere, and Biller translated that well- the audience didn't see it coming, because Pete didn't see it coming, and it was a sweet renaissance of Chloe and Pete's first season friendship, however brief that renaissance may be.

Overall, "Talisman" is one of those interesting episodes where the screenwriting was technically excellent, the story stood alone and as part of the greater arc, but the episode itself was a little slow if you've been watching since the beginning. Great screenwriting, pretty good episode, but a great springboard into the last two episodes of the season. Biller's a go-to guy, and he went-to well with "Talisman," even if the continuity people were busy playing the name game with Seget.

Screenwriting: A
To Watch: C+

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

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