Smallville Characters: The Key Word Is 'Potential'
Posted by: SullivanLane

Having been an avid and critical watcher of "Smallville" since its debut last year, I recognized right away that the show has plenty of potential, mostly because the characters were drawn out so well. Each character, as the Pilot presented, reflects an aspect of Clark Kent's present and future personality. By structuring the characters this way, we are shown how the Boy from Kansas evolves into the Man of Steel.

Let's start with Jonathan and Martha Kent. The first, most obvious change to the Kents is that they are younger than previous incarnations. They are relatable to any teenager being raised by his parents (as opposed to grandparents). This sets the stage for the Kents playing an interactive, more hands-on approach to child-rearing.

Jonathan instills Clark's family values. The most consistent thing about Jonathan is that his family and preservation thereof are the utmost priority in his life. Even his hatred of the Luthor family stems from a rejection of the Luthor method of child-rearing and values rather than a rejection of Lex Luthor himself. Jonathan discourages Clark from doing things that would make him stand out. His biggest fear is his family being dismantled, whether it be through Clark being discovered or Jonathan's traditional family values being challenged.

Martha, on the other hand, is from the city. She has probably been exposed to a more diverse population, with different social classes, ethnicities, values and backgrounds. Her approach to Clark's powers is subtly opposite to her husband's. She encourages Clark to use his skills and praises him when he succeeds. Martha also exudes a quiet strength, which can be mirrored in Clark as well. Although she seems like a more silent partner in the marriage, her influence in Clark is seen through his desire and inherent obligation to help people.

The dichotomy of these two approaches to Clark implies that Clark will get his inclination to use his powers for good from Martha, while being inspired by Jonathan to hide behind the Superman costume in order to preserve his family and "normal" life and his loved ones. Martha and Jonathan are the cornerstones of the Superman persona. They were used to good effect in the Pilot, the sorrowfully deleted scene in "Metamorphosis," "X-Ray," "Rogue," and a few others. They were sorely absent in episodes such as "Crush" and to a lesser extent, Martha in "Heat."

"Smallville" is about a hero's coming of age. The scope of his powers limits Clark in whom he can confide. His parents should be the most influential people in his life right now, simply because Clark knows that one they are able to at least partially comprehend what is going on in his mind.

Lex is Clark's doppelganger. Both hold tremendous power in their hands, Lex's financial and Clark's physical. Pair those with the clash of Lex's psychological power with Clark's ethical power and the two characters, homoeroticism aside, make for a dynamic pairing. The parallels between the choices that each man makes and the way people treat them affect they make in life and the paths they eventually follow. Thankfully, the writers have taken the journey on those paths slowly and subtly. The Kents provide Clark with a solid foundation, but Lex brings a challenge to that foundation.

Unfortunately this season, Lex's storylines have seemingly only been used to serve Clark's, and that therein is a weakness of the scripts. The most intriguing cliffhanger of "Tempest," how Lex would take control of Fertilizer Plant No. 3, was explained away in a throwaway line by Chloe in "Heat," disappointing legions of Lex Luthor fans and in essence trivializing a huge turning point in Lex Luthor's life for the sake of a hokey plot device in the form of Krista Allen as Desiree Atkins. The scripts that have been the most intriguing are the ones in which both storylines, Clark's and Lex's, are equally important: the Pilot, "Zero," "Hourglass," and "Tempest." When Lex's storyline exists only to serve Clark's, as in "Heat" or "Duplicity," the impact of the "lessons learned" aren't quite as effective.

To a certain extent, the other supporting characters also reflect an aspect of Clark's personality. Lana should be presented as everything Smallville symbolizes, what Clark loves about his hometown: beautiful and idyllic on the surface, but dark and weird under the surface. Unfortunately, the Lana Lang character was written unevenly in the first season, giving her a sort of schizophrenic and flat personality.

To bring Lana's influence on Clark more to the forefront, a good idea may be to make her the personification of everything that is Smallville and what Clark desires but chooses to leave behind. Make Lana the epitome of small-town life; have her embrace that life, with a dark edge because of the tragedies the town has faced. Let her embrace everything that is good and bad about Smallville -- make her never want to leave it. Have Clark want to feel what she feels, but also have him know that because of the circumstances of the meteor shower and the extent of his powers, give him a desire to leave. Lana should always be presented as the unattainable, but without beating the audience over the head with cliches as it has done thus far in season two. Lana's schtick is the Talon; expand that further and build all her hopes and dreams upon it.

Chloe Sullivan, in contrast to Lana, represents his future. Chloe is the person who shows Clark where he came from (the Wall of Weird as a symbol of Clark's unwitting influence on Smallville) and showed him what he's good at (investigating and catching bad guys). It is obvious that Chloe is Clark's main influence in his future choice to become a journalist, and perhaps she is also what leads him to choose Metropolis as his future home.

Furthermore, Chloe is the precursor to Lois Lane. It would be natural for Clark to harbor an inexplicable attraction to Chloe without ever admitting it, or without it having to ever be realized. Unfortunately, this attraction thus far only manifests itself in the form of jealousy. Have Clark be a little more concerned with Chloe, more overprotective even if there are no other guys in the picture. It would explain what would be an immediate attarction and magnetism with Lois Lane later in life. The show has always presented Chloe as the brains and Clark the brawn in chasing down Smallville's strange. Let Clark challenge Chloe a little, and have Chloe rebuff him. The chemistry between the two characters (and presumably in the two actors as well) stems from the fact that they approach situations very differently, and sometimes that comes to a head. The worst thing to do is to reduce Chloe's role to Exposition Girl (which is what she is thus far in season two), because her influence on Clark could potentially be great.

Both girls, with Lana's sweetness and Chloe's ambition, should reflect qualities that Clark would find in one woman later on: Lois Lane. Unfortunately, Lana's sweetness has sometimes come across as self-serving and/or self-pitying, leading more comics aficionados to favor Chloe instead. Others, mostly teen viewers from my observations, favor Lana because she is seen as the unattainable girl that many teenage boys dream of.

On the other hand, Pete Ross is Clark's longtime friend. Because of the lack of screentime Pete got last season, it was difficult to see what sort of purpose Pete has in contributing to the personality of the future Superman. He is outgoing, personable, humorous -- in many ways the polar opposite in personalities to Clark, yet they are best friends. However, it seems that in the Pilot, it was fairly obvious what Pete's role would be: Pete joined the football team and went to the Homecoming Dance with the girl of his dreams -- Pete is able to lead a "normal" life that Clark clearly yearns for. Clark's admission of his secret to Pete was ingenious; it enabled Clark to have an ally who was a peer, someone who would understand why he was always disappearing, and it made Pete a little less "normal" because of the fact that he shared in Clark's secret.

Although "Drone" was hailed as only a mediocre episode by most fans, I felt that in many ways it drew excellent parallels between Pete and Clark. Pete felt more at ease around his peers, more comfortable in his own skin than Clark, who is bigger and stronger. Clark was pressured into running for class office perhaps because he wanted to be a little more like his best friend Pete. Also, he knows that he wants to make a difference, but he's still not sure the best way to do that, taking his abilities into account. Unfortunately, the episode didn't seem to highlight these points at all; instead we got "You're running because of Lana."

In the future I would like to see the writing on "Smallville" to reflect these influences that Clark's peers have on him and his growth as the future Superman and the journalist Clark Kent. However, this season, we have been getting more of what makes "Smallville" like any other show on television, which is teen angst, gratuitous tittilating scenes (witness "Nicodemus" and "Heat"; though tongue in cheek the episodes were more gratuitous than anything else). Occasionally we get shades of this, such as the visions from "Hourglass," the shot of Clark in the rain in "Crush," and the confusion and frustration (not enough, in my opinion) in "Heat." Let's get more character development, and how the characters influence not just Clark but each other. Let's have more of "Why Clark Will Be Superman" rather than "Why Clark Has to Lie to His Future Enemy and the Girls He Won't End Up With Anyway."

Make this the Superman show we all tuned in to watch in the first place. It can be done.

Sullivan Lane doesn't use the journalism degree she slaved over for six years and doesn't think Chloe Sullivan will, either. She currently works in a Club Zero-like establishment in the Bay Area during the week and spends as many weekends as possible in San Diego with the Monkey. She can be reached by non-stalkers and other logical, reasonably sane people at katpicson@yahoo.com. Note: The views of "SullivanLane" don't necessarily represent the thoughts and feelings of everyone at KryptonSite.