"Hydro"
Review!
Written
by Triplet
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NOTE:
This review will spoil you rotten... Don't say I didn't warn
you. As long as I'm warning you, be aware of serious gushing
ahead. Stop reading now if that bothers you.
"Hydro"
was Tom Welling's sophomore directorial effort, and he did a
beautiful job.
His freshman
outing was, of course, the far less enjoyable "Fragile."
He has learned a lot since then but it probably helped that
this episode was, in general, better written.
Scribes
Brian Peterson & Kelly Souders ("Hidden," "Blank,"
and "Prodigal") have penned an extremely strong story.
The krypto-freak of the week had a more interesting power than
normal, but that wasn't the best part of Linda Lake (played
regrettably by publicity-stunt guest star, Tori Spelling).
Her story
wasn't just a lame excuse to create conflict and a morality
tale for Clark, unlike most krypto-freaks-of-the-week. Linda's
misuse of her ability was the catalyst for major actions the
other characters took during the episode. Her column on Lana
affected others in very lasting ways, as did her later discovery
of Clark's secret.
After Clark
found out about Lana's doubts and her lingering feelings for
him, I suppose he wanted to tell Lana he loved her in order
to put a stop to the wedding if he could. Although we never
found out for sure what he was going to talk to Lana about.
Her doubts must have seemed like their second (or third or fourth
or fifth or tenth) chance and an excuse to get her break it
off with Lex. It was heartbreaking that earnest Clark's hopes
were so cruelly dashed by Lex when he revealed to him that Lana
is pregnant. Wow, poor Clark.
While I'm
throwing a pity party: poor Lex... He's always coming in second
place behind Clark, no wonder he hates Clark's guts. But Linda's
revelations about Lana's doubts must have hurt him an incredible
amount. It likely solidified Lex's growing animosity toward
Clark in a big way for the long term.
Another
consequence of Linda Lake’s column was that Chloe and Lana
joined forces to try and put a stop to her evil schemes. It's
been awhile since Lana has been a part of any investigation
that wasn't solely her own or in some part Lex's. It was a fantastic
twist that from Chloe's confrontation with Linda that Lana found
out that Chloe knows Clark's secret.
The revelations
Linda had made, both in her column and later in that scene with
Chloe, will no doubt have long-lasting effects for everyone
for the rest of the season. It totally nullifies the idea that
freak of the week episodes are all filler and it made this a
much stronger episode than it would have been otherwise...
I absolutely
adored Lex's speech to Lana about how he hoped to deserve her
love. I'm not sure we've seen such a character revealing speech
from Lex recently. It was beautifully written and the power
of those words were helped by it being so well delivered by
Michael Rosenbaum and so well directed by Tom. (More about that
later...)
Although
I really liked Tom's previous directorial effort, the primary
flaw of "Fragile" was that it seemed like Tom didn't
give his all to the acting part of his job. Maybe he was understandably
distracted by the stress of taking on first-time director duties,
but his performance seemed to be mostly flat in that episode.
Such was not the case for "Hydro."
Tom was
extremely effective in this emotional roller-coaster ride of
an episode. Clark had to be a lot of different things in this
episode, yet Tom played each moment very specifically, at times
within moments of one another, and yet made it seem so natural.
For example, Clark's reaction just after the kiss with Lois
was amusing, sweet, sexy and romantic all at the same time as
he tried to deal with his unexpected feelings. The beauty of
the moment was that I could almost see what Clark was feeling
even though Tom didn't say a word.
Later, Tom
had portrayed all the emotions Clark was feeling in the loft
scene with Lana nearly perfectly. Clark's bitterness and sad
resignation that Lana had to move on came through so well. It
was an extremely painful and touching scene to watch.
Not only
did Tom do an excellent job acting in this episode, I believe
he did a better than average job pulling wonderful performances
from all his co-stars as the director. The acting was uniformly
some of the strongest I think I've ever seen in a single episode.
Erica Durance's
Lois was at times cynical, but was vulnerable and warm too.
Erica perfectly sold that Lois is head over heels in love with
Oliver, yet was nervous at the thought of him being Green Arrow.
Her conflicted feelings about confronting Ollie about his possible
double life were endearing and Erica portrayed them extremely
well.
I loved
Lois' scenes with clueless Jimmy as they worked together to
figure out Green Arrow's secret identity. Those scenes had a
nice foreshadowing of Lois' and Jimmy's future working relationship.
Also, her playfully derogatory banter with Aaron Ashmore's Jimmy
was humorous. I liked Jimmy more in this than ever before.
Kristin
Kreuk's Lana had a pretty tough episode. She's still hesitating
over Lex's proposal because of her enduring feelings about Clark.
Although I'm not sure I'd really seen any evidence of her feelings
for Clark still being that deep before this episode, I thought
that Kristin had played Lana's dilemma well. Her best scene
was probably in the loft with Clark, where she confronted him
about her lingering feelings and the truth about his.
Clark, being
Clark, didn't come clean with her, but Lana's pain at Clark
again not telling her the truth was visceral and real. It's
probably some of the most subtle acting Kristin has done in
this show and it was heartbreaking to watch.
Michael
Rosenbaum's Lex was awesome in this episode. I haven't been
as in love with Lex lately as I used to be, I'm not sure why.
Maybe it seems a bit like Michael's heart really hasn't been
in the performance lately or maybe it's because I'm sick of
him always getting kidnapped or shot. Thankfully no kidnappings
or shootings here...
However,
I loved him in "Hydro." Lex was as manipulative and
controlling of Lana as ever, and he seemed to actually enjoy
stabbing Clark in the back by revealing Lana's pregnancy. He
was oily and evil and yet played the ending scene with her so
well. Michael actually choked up when Lex said that maybe he
wasn't a good enough person to deserve Lana's love. Yet he seemed
sincerely happy when she finally said yes. Until that scene,
I wasn't sure that Lex truly had feelings for Lana but I think
Michael has finally sold me.
Allison
Mack's Chloe was also having a rough few days in this episode,
and Allison actually made it enjoyable to watch. I loved when
she took Clark to task for expecting so much of her. I'd be
angry too if my alien best friend was angry at me for keeping
someone else's secrets when he expects me to keep his. Speaking
of Allison, I must say that she looked absolutely gorgeous in
this episode. I wasn't wild about some of her clothes, but her
hair and make-up were fabulous.
As for the
director, Tom Welling has a surprisingly subtle touch for a
newbie director. In "Fragile" I felt he was a bit
too in love with some ideas that maybe didn't work very well.
He's clearly learned a lot since then.
I thought
probably the best thing he did as a director in "Hydro"
was the loft scene with Clark and Lana. The scene was very intimate,
having extreme close-ups of both Clark's and Lana's faces, during
the very emotional scene. Organic pauses and natural sounds,
including soft sighs and intakes of breath from the actors,
were retained while the cutting was kept to a minimum, letting
the each moment build on its own...
As interesting
a choice as I've seen ever in Smallville, it didn't appear that
Kristin had stood on the ever-present apple crate in her scenes
toward the end with both Tom and Michael. I don't know if most
people are aware of the boxes the girls stand on, but the extra
four or five inches of height makes the standard over-the-shoulder
shot easier when you have a five foot nothing actress in the
same scene with a six foot something actor. Kristin looking
up at the men she shared those scenes with made Lana look smaller,
which is exactly the effect the box helps to minimize. Tom apparently
having Kristin forgo the height raising box may have seemed
an unusual idea in the very image conscious TV world, and might
have made the OTS setups less pretty for DP David Moxness, but
it helped underscore Lana's vulnerability.
Also, it
would have been so easy to have show composer Mark Snow lay
down some heavy handed music to enhance the emotional impact
in that loft scene, but there was almost none. The lack of an
obvious soundtrack left the two actors to carry the emotional
load of the scene alone but that choice, unusual as it was for
Smallville, made it seem more real. It was a refreshing change
of pace that the music had started in so quietly in that scene
that it seemed no music had played at all.
The last
scene between Lex and Lana was also well directed by Tom. Despite
the over-the-top music, the speech where Lex told Lana about
wanting so desperately to deserve her love was powerful. The
scene was made more potent by the atypical decision in the very
cut happy Smallville universe to have the camera linger on Michael
rose from a seated position and crossed over to Lana as he spoke.
The take was long enough for Michael to deliver the dialogue
the way it needed to be delivered. Kudos to Tom for letting
Michael do his thing...
I'm glad
it looks like Tom's been added to the regular rotation of directors
for Smallville, even though I'm sure it's a logistical nightmare
to get him time off to prepare for his helming duties. I know
I'm not alone in disliking it when Clark's storylines are minimized
in the episodes leading up to the one Tom's directing, but if
he can keep delivering above average episodes like Hydro I guess
I can't really complain too much.
This was
a terrific episode that was far better than I had expected,
but still not quite perfect: 4.5 rumor-mongering articles out
of a possible 5
Note:
The views of Triplet don't necessarily represent the thoughts
and feelings of everyone at KryptonSite. Send
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