Season 2, Episode 21: Accelerate

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"Accelerate"

Episode 21

Air Date: May 6th, 2003

Ewwwww!!! Creepy little girl episode is CREEPY!!! Yikes!!! Seriously, whoever cast little Jodelle Ferland as Emily Dinsmore deserved a raise! O_O Every sequence with her is beyond chilling, marvelously directed by James Marshall.  It's very rare throughout this show's run where things get genuinely horrifying visually on this show but they really nailed it out of the park here. Also, Kristin Kruek really hits it out of the park here....well maybe she does a very decent job I should say being haunted by her childhood tragedy with Emily and how the guilt builds up in her throughout.  The last scene between her and Emily on the bridge was truly effective and I really felt not only bad for Lana but actually terrified for her safety when Emily pushes her into the river.  Yeah, I know Lana is always needing to be saved but here is one of those occasions where the writing, not to mention the set up of the scene really worked to build suspense.  Thank God Clark manages to come just at the right time to save her.  Also, I got to mention the VFX here is spectacular, even 18 years later when Clark and Pete see Emily at the graveyard during the downpour and time literally stops as Clark goes into superspeed mode to follow her until she disappears.  You can really tell the effects team worked hard season after season to build on those power sequences, even if sometimes it didn't always look so convincing. 

But the mystery surrounding the return of Emily is really well scripted, especially Clark coming to Lana's aid and helping her track down exactly who and what she may be considering the real Emily is dead and buried.  Never thought I'd see Smallville tackle cloning so early in the series but the revelation of the lab full of sleeping Emilys is beyond disturbing, once again giving the episode a sci fi horror vibe. Not to mention, some scenes are just frightening like when Emily nearly kills her father when she stabs him to death out of nowhere or when Lex tries talking to her at the hospital.  But one thing I find even creepier than Emily herself is her father; knowing how wrong it is to clone his daughter, especially knowing how dangerous she is but even after she almost killed him, wanting desperately to be with her and take her home.  It's just so disturbing, yet so telling of his eternal grief over losing his little girl that he'd love any version of her...even one with no sense of morality.  Yikes! Great performance by guest star Neil Flynn is all I'm saying as well. O_O  Of course, the fact it is revealed that Lionel is behind it all as he continues his Level 3 experiments that includes Emily's father using kryptonite to accelerate human cells is just shocking but completely in his character.  Lionel is just becoming more and more of an outright villain by this point in the series and I'm loving every minute of it.  John Glover during that final scene when Lionel gives Emily the bunny and drinks some tea with her.  WOW!!! Brilliant and eerie beyond words. O_o

Of course, I can't forget to mention that things between Clark and Chloe are still in limbo since last episode, so I'm not surprised she was all snappy and ready for yet another fight when Clark mentions the L word around her.  Ehhhh, at least Chloe helps despite her idiotic behavior as a friend and mentions to Clark things about Lana he may not know about to explain her sudden witnessing of an old dead friend.  Still good riddance Chloe and please be in episodes even less than you were here. Also, it seems that things between Lana and Clark finally heading toward relationship territory when she brings him to his barn to talk about how he sees her.  I actually agree that Clark just sees her as this perfect girl next door and doesn't really know even the things she keeps hidden from other people.  But of course, Clark initiates his love dovey eyes, proclaiming that his vision of her with never change while Lana holds his hand to bask in each other's eyes.  Puke! Just get them together already! Surprised there was no kiss, just passionate staring! Seriously, did the writers overdose learning about teenage romance writing 101??? Ick! Besides that, "Accelerate" is a pretty sensational episode with good horror elements, great performances by our guest stars as well as cast members like Kristin Kruek and John Glover and nice special effects in showing Emily speeding around without being seen until Clark can of course. :)

 

Final Kryptonite: A-