Season 1, Episode 3: Hothead

"Hothead"
Episode 3
Air Date: October 30, 2001

Ohh this episode is quite the HOT one insist it??! O_o Lol Ok, I done with the puns. But for the third episode of the first season, it's decent. We get some strong performances from the regular cast; even though Tom's performance is still flat. We get some good guest star in "The Wonder Years" alum Dan Lauria as Coach Walt Arnold. His performance ranges from subtle menace to over the top mugging at the camera, which for Smallville, is what you'd expect mostly. The theme of the episode today, outside of the hookey "hot tempered coach" main plot is seeing Clark, Lana and Lex stand up to their parents and going after their own pursues. First there's Clark of course, who is noticed by Coach Walt and is forced to be apart of the football team. Of course, Clark's father is against it as we saw in the "Pilot" it doesn' stop Clark from standing up to him this time. I like their scene in the barn where Clark is adamant about playing football but Jonathan has his own fears about Clark losing control and hurting someone. It's Clark's resolute decision that shows some valuable character development; even at such a young age. You can tell it hurt Clark when he saw his father at practice, not to support him but to make sure no one got hurt. He tries to take the hits as hard as he can to make sure his dad trusts him but thanks to Coach Walt meddling, we get a hilarious sequence of Clark charging through the D line and make a touchdown with confidence, to his father's disappointment.

Luckily, we have more scenes of the Kents, in particular of Martha this time encouraging Jonathan to believe in Clark and that he will make them proud. Jonathan's fears of Clark being taken away because of being discovered are heartbreaking and completely in character. I also love the scene at the barn before the pep-rally where Clark and Martha are talking about her not taking anyone's side but wants both Jonathan and Clark not to be so stubborn and understand each other's reasoning better. A nice performance from Annette O'Toole overall!

Meanwhile, after hearing about some of the football players cheating from Whitney, Lana decides to quit the cheer leading squad and find her job; to her Aunt Nell's dismay. But I like seeing this kind of maturity and development from Lana. Sure, there's nothing that's been more to her than cheerleader and part time insect Queen in the comics, lol but this is a nice way to see the characters growing. Also it's a nice way to show that characters aren't perfect and the way we see her make mistakes is a nice, natural arc instead of the character worship that would become of the character later in the series. Lastly, we have Lex dealing with his father through his worker, Dominic, who says he must cut  20% of his workers at the Smallville plant or else his father will have no choice to intervene. But it doesn't help when the marvelous John Glover guest stars as Lionel Luthor himself to square off with his son verbally, making references to Roman history about why he sent his son to Smallville and Lex just kindly brushes it off. The fencing scene is just fun and deliciously entertaining as John plays Lionel with a brash confidence that just oozes cool and menace. A shame Lionel won't become a series regular until next season but even in one episode, his character is excellently written and his presence so wonderful to have. But the best part is Lex learning from Clark and Lana's dismissal of their parents and wanting to prove them they can handle bigger responsibilities.  It leads Lex to come up with a plan to make sure his workers get to be kept with having to fire them and losing revenue or even getting bad press. "You only get once chance to defy me" Lionel says. To which Lex smirks. God, I already love their father/son dynamic. :)

Now back to the sub-par main plot, I'm sorry but the fire starting coach with temper just doesn't entertain as much as it could. I mean Dan Lauria gives a performance that's mixed for me so maybe that what could also be contributing to my dislike of it. The fire starting sequence are also a mixed bag of nice practical effects and shoddy CGI. I mean Principal Kwan's attack in the car and Chloe's attack in the Torch was scary but then you have the moment where Clark's literally walking through fire to Coach's Walt's shock that looks so amateurish compared to now a days. Also, the Coach's demise is quite unintentionally hilarious with him just burning himself to death. lol We'll be getting a lot of moments like that on this show, trust me!

Overall, the episode was alright. Nothing special at all. The good it does is propels some lead characters like Lex and Lana forward. Guest stars are a mixed bag as even David Peatkau is a bit mediocre as well given the material. But other than that, it's typical filler with some great Kent moments and decent character interaction between the cast. That's about it! :)

Final Score: C