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Smallville
Stray
airdate 04-16-02
Buckle in for the last stretch of the season, kids, with six new episodes all in a row. It's been an uneven if entertaining year for the freshman series, and this episode is pretty well indicative of that.
Another car accident leads to the Kents taking in another abandoned child, this one a young boy named Ryan who seems pretty normal on the outside, but is also a freak on the inside. Not a glowy-green krypto-freak, for a change, just your run of the mill mutant mind-reader. He's also on the run from his abusive, criminal stepfather and his trampy stepmother.
The Kent farm is safe and peaceful for Ryan, and not just because of the lack of guns and growling stepparents. Whatever gives Ryan his telepathic abilities is not strong enough to read Kryptonian minds. And again, I bow to the Fanboy editor on the subject: Is Clark impervious to telepathy? (Not so much impervious as alien; it would be a different pattern. - Derek)
Because of this, and partly because he is a lonely kid with no real family and a big time secret, Ryan likes being around Clark, and Clark falls naturally into the big brother role. It makes the Kent family wonder whether they should have adopted another child (or waited for another to fall from the sky).
We learn that Lex also had a younger brother, Julian, who died in infancy, and with whom Lex is still competing, at least in his own mind. According to Lex, Lionel viewed Julian as his second chance, a way to secure the Luthor legacy. It's a very calculated plot point, not inspired by the comics continuity (as far as I know), blatantly written for this episode, and probably won't be brought up ever again.
Lionel does make an appearance (yay John Glover!) to offer Lex the chance to come to Metropolis, which Lex ultimately rejects. He plans to succeed on his own terms, not off his father's scraps, which he knows is a terrifying prospect to the senior tycoon. They bandy about more parallels to Alexander the Great and ancient emperors before ending, yet again, in détente. One can't help but wonder if his son's fierce independence is merely infuriating Lionel or if he's proud of it at the same time.
Ryan reads a lot of minds, dishes out advice to Lana and tells Clark that Chloe wants him to ask her to the prom (spare me). But it's only a matter of time before his evil stepfather is upon him again, planning one last big job against Lex Luthor.
After Clark uses his superpowers to save Ryan from his treacherous hiding place in a garbage truck, the telepath starts probing Ma and Pa Kent for information, and eventually ends up in the storm cellar, staring at the spaceship. He begs to be allowed to stay in the family, to keep each other's secrets and to protect each other. Ryan even offers to tell Clark Lana's big secret, but Clark refuses.
The bowling-alley resolution is almost anti-climactic, and involves more shooting than was really necessary, with two people meeting the business end of a pump-action shotgun within ten seconds. Clark saves the day with a CG bowling ball to the stepdad's solar plexus, and gets Ryan back to safety, so he can go off and live with a heretofore-undiscovered aunt in Edge City.
Ryan is a big fan of comic books, specifically of this continuity's Super-surrogate: a character named Warrior Angel, of whom Lex is also a fan. Ryan draws the obvious parallels to Clark (visitor from another planet, saves people, etc), and Lex tries to draw them to himself (bald). Like Julian, though, it's a deliberate addition built for this particular storyline, and would have been much more moving if it hadn't been the first we'd seen or heard of the character.
Smallville may be composed of individual stories, but there is an overarching narrative that needs attention as well. An intelligent audience does not need all of the plot threads resolved into neat little episodic tapestries; leave a few dangling for us, and we promise to pick them up again later. (Unless it's that thread about Chloe having a thing for Clark.)
Five more to go - see you next week!
