Season 3, Episode 18: Truth

 

"Truth"

Episode 18

Air Date: April 24th, 2004

Well, this is surprising the best use of Chloe so far from the show excellently putting her in the meteor freak seat for an episode and actually exploring her character flaws by exposing them and having her accept those flaws by realizing how out of line her crossing boundaries can become in her incessant search for the truth as a journalist. I mean it actually makes perfect sense for Chloe to become truth compelling addict when given the sudden power to make anyone tell her said truth without being able to stop themselves.  But what I enjoyed most about the script is the writers explore other possibilities with such a gift, especially using it as a comedic beat when it comes to Chloe using it unsuspected high schoolers which is beyond brilliant.  I mean what high school student wouldn't want to ask the most popular cheerleader or most popular jock in school some scandalous question to embarrass them???  I especially love the homosexual reveal when Chloe asks the jock who he wants to ask to the prom. Ha! That jock still cracks me up! :)  Of course, the writers quickly show the repercussions of being able to find out the truth from anyone as the truth, of course, can hurt beyond words like when Lana reveals to Chloe about her wanting to go to school in Paris and how she really feels about what people think of her.  I really love how the scene plays out, especially Kristin Kruek's acting surprisingly.  Not that Kristin is usually bad, but the way she delivers her dialogue as Lana is forced to tell Chloe the truth but hates herself for saying yet almost feels relieved for finally saying it....WOW! O_O

Also, I love the first few scenes of when Chloe is unknowingly getting people to tell her the truth from Pete in the Torch to Mrs. Kent at the farm.  Tho I'm finding the distance between Metropolis and Smallville continuous inconsistent.  Sometimes it's a 3 hour drive, sometimes it's a 6 hour drive.  Which both make absolutely NO sense since we continuously see characters like Lex, Lionel, Chloe, etc. going to and from there which means, unless they have superspeed like Clark, NO ONE would make that kind of trip all the time on a weekly basis.  Just one of those terribly inconsistent writing errors throughout the show that will never get corrected and become more unbelievable even tho this is show set in a comic book world. O_O  Anyway, I also thoroughly enjoy the Luthor men using Chloe's ability for their own gain like Lex wanting her to use it against his father for the truth, especially considering Lex reopened the project to do so and more than ever, Chloe finally getting Lionel to admit to getting Morgan Edge to kill his parents to start up his business.  Once again, scenes with both tension and comedy mixed together so well. You can just tell the cast was having too much fun during these scenes, especially Allison Mack who seems to be having blast being the focal point of the episode and getting a chance to shine without the former horrendous aspects of her personality.  But the writers like I said, don't shy away from Chloe being a b!tch as she forces Pete to come clean about his feelings for her we haven't known about since "Nicodemus" in Season 1. Then there's the fact that she gets one of the teacher's arrested for confessing to being apart of a murder and her son going after her for doing so.  

Luckily, our future Superman is able to get to her in time and thanks to his investigating, gets a cure to her that takes her way her truth enabling ability.  Also, I'm glad that Chloe like I said, acknowledges her tendency to push people away thanks to her overt curiosity, even admitting to Clark that she was off to learn the truth about him from his parents thanks to Lionel.  Speaking of Lionel, seriously getting more evil by the episode and the fact he was able to access Chloe's voicemail and erase his confession was a profoundly daunting ending to the episode.  As much as I love to hate him, I really can't wait until Lionel gets what's coming to him for all this malicious covering up he's been doing all season.  Jesus! Also in concluding the episode, Lana also tells Clark about her wanting to go to the school for the arts in Paris to see what life has to offer her outside of Smallville and once again, I'm all for Lana stepping out her relationship woes with Clark and wanting a happier, more rewarding life.  But knowing this show, it's just going to lead to something preposterous and that will only bring her back to Smallville....hahahahah....ewwwwww! -_-  But overall, Truth excels in being a fine depiction of knowing the truth by having Chloe be our anchor into knowing said truth about our characters as it helps move the plot along as well as has fun with the concept of forcing the truth out of someone.  Nice! :)

Final Kryptonite: B+