The A-Train’s Pullbox

Smallville Episode 8.04

“Instinct”

Written by: Al Septien & Turi Meyer

Directed by: James Conway

Guest Star: Charlotte Sullivan (Maxima)

Even one of the lesser episodes of the season, is still pretty darn good. That speaks volumes to the quality of this particular season of Smallville. Behind the jump, there’s a spoilery review of last week’s Episode of Smallville. Read on.

- SPOILER ALERT -

In this episode, Tess Mercer experiments on the crystal she found in the arctic. The same crystal that created the fortress. During the experiment, the crystal sends up a powerful beam into space, which is intercepted by Maxima; an alien queen, who’s spent years searching the galaxies for the last son of Krypton, who she believes is destined to be her mate. She arrives on earth, and begins a process of elimination. Every human she kisses cannot handle the sheer amounts of adrenaline and hormones her kiss pumps into them. They die from the stress put on their bodies. Only a Kryptonian can physically endure a kiss from Maxima.

This episode was definitely an interesting one. I’ve noticed the writers taking the old “Meteor Freak of the Week” formula, which basically made up most of the first few seasons’ episodes, and put a different spin on it for this season. We get the new villain every week treatment, which is necessary with Lex Luthor missing and Tess Mercer still learning the ropes, but instead of making up a new random freak with a new random ability every week, they’re bringing in abstract and lesser known characters from the DC Universe. First Plastique, and now Maxima. You’ve got to figure these are characters we’re unlikely to ever see in any major motion picture. So its pretty cool and exciting to see them on Smallville. Its the next best thing to them being on the big screen. And the fact that neither of them have been killed off on the show yet, leaves the possibility of their return wide open.

There are quite a few great moments in this episode. Shelby makes an appearance and any shot of Clark using his powers in a regular, everyday moment, is always cool. We see him super-speed to work. Three and a half hour commute from Smallville to Metropolis? That’s not an issue when you’ve got super-speed. We also get more of those great Lois and Clark moments. Maxima targeting Clark for some smooching in public brings out a jealous side of Lois. And even though she denies feelings for our Blue Shirted Boyscout, the seeds have definitely been planted and that’s good stuff.

The rest of this episode was really relationship driven and lovey-dovey heavy. Jimmy discovers the letter Chloe wrote to Clark, but never gave him, back in Season 2. Chloe later has a conversation about the letter with Clark. And Tess Mercer has been getting hit on by Oliver Queen (what’s THAT about?!)

The actress that played Maxima in this episode, Charlotte Sullivan, played the character very well and interesting. She acted just weird, and over dramatic, yet pulled back enough to give you all three sides of the character: Crazy, Alien, and Royalty. Dare I add “Horny” to the list? … Yeah… Yeah, she was just plain horny. But when you can’t make it with anyone because nobody can physically handle it without dying, you tend to build up a lot of desire and anticipation. Makes you wonder how Clark can contain himself, doesn’t it?

The core of the episode was Maxima and how much sexiness can we see onscreen? Well, let me tell you, this episode was pretty steamy. Plenty of tongue kissing, bare leg groping, and slamming each others super-bodies around. There was plenty of sexiness for both guys and girls. All the girls got to drool over Tom Welling’s Hulk-like chest (Seriously, how big is this guy? He’s a tree!). But of course the guys all got a very scantily clad sexy red-head steaming up the screen. But it was all the in between stuff that made the episode work. Lois and Clark actually investigating crime scenes and police records to track down Maxima, all the references to Flying and “the many sides to Jimmy Olsen” (which I don’t care what you say, I consider that a reference to all the different goofy powers and superhero identities Jimmy has been given in the comics.) Chloe continues to blow us away with her new knowledge ability, and Clark’s conversation with Lois about “finding his soul mate” was pretty cool.

One of my favorite scenes was the hospital scene with Chloe, Jimmy and Clark. Clark is all grown up folks. He’s matured and can look another man in the eye and tell him the truth. He can also step back and do the right thing when it concerns his friends and their happiness.

I’d like to mention, that Clark running at Super-speed in a suit, looks much cooler than in that Red Jacket of his. The lightweight fabric of a suit moves much more freely than the Jacket, which makes it look more “cape-like.” Regardless of the suit’s color, cape-like flow is really cool to see with Clark.

One of my gripes about the show is all the serious Jimmy scenes. I like goofy, dorky, nerdy Jimmy. We need to see more of that. On the flip side, one of the coolest things to come out of the episode was the note left for Tess on her computer. Someone has stolen the crystal. On the computer, we see an image of the crystal, and the message reads, “You are not ready, yet.” It is signed, simply, “X.” Many fans will speculate as to who this mystery person is. Many will argue that its not Lex Luthor. I respectfully disagree. To me, its clearly Lex Luthor. Who else would take the crystal away from Tess Mercer and tell her she’s “not ready yet.” And signing it with an X is not supposed to say his name begins with the letter X. Its supposed to tell you that it’s so obvious to Tess who wrote this note, he doesn’t have to sign his name at all. Its a given.

Tess is filling Lex’s shoes nicely. But its nice to know he’s not completely out of the picture. He’s behind the scenes, pulling all the strings.

Overall, the episode wasn’t bad. As I said, all the little moments made it special. Its not the best episode we’ve seen this season, but its still way better than a lot of episodes we’ve seen before in previous seasons. The fact that this season’s weakest episode so far, is far better than most others, really shows how phenomenal this season really is.

So in relation to the other episodes of this season, so far, I’m going to give it a low rating of 3 out of 5 Alien Smooches.

Compared to the series over all, its closer to a 3.75 or 4 out of 5 Bare Leg Gropes.