Season 5, Episode 19: Mercy

"Mercy"

Episode 10

Air Date: April 20th, 2006

Hahahahahaha!!!! What did I tell you!??? Shameless rip-offs!!! This season seems to be the one most consumed with them; making you feel like the writers, especially showrunners have lost all sense of originality or even what to do with the show by surround various plot points with heavy copy and paste versions of famous films like the previous 25 years at the time of this episode!!! -_-  There's no other way of saying it: This is Saw! It's Saw right down to EXACTLY dialogue of the famous first film from 2004.  The man who wants to play a game with Lionel....even repeatedly says he wants to play a game with Lionel several times throughout the episode while wearing mask with glowing blue eyes.  Oh the mask....oh that cheaply made aluminum foil mask that they give Lionel's persecutor!!!!! HAHAHAHAHA! Are you kidding me?! Omg!!! Did the prop crew realize how much of a dumb knock-off this episode was and create something that a creative 7 year old could make because they want to emulate Jigsaw???  And that's what this episode feels like! Lincoln Cole, the psycho after Lionel, seems like he was having a Saw movie marathon when it finally hit him how to take down the man who's merciless (Ehhhh!) hostile takeover caused him to lose not only his job, but his family! I just......how did the WB even let this air with a straight face??? I guess since it was the same year the network was ending and joining with UPN to create the now CW, maybe they were like "Ewwww, it's the last run of network, who cares!" Sure looks like it! -_-

Of course, being an episode centered on Lionel, Clark finally for some reason decides to tell him mom about Lionel knowing his secret but it's because of Chloe having to push him to do so.  Honestly, she's right about him putting his mom in more danger if he doesn't tell her.  Why is Chloe all of sudden becoming Clark's voice of reason??? Can he not think for himself all of sudden when it comes to protecting himself and his family anymore??? Ehhhhh, I don't like that! O_o Luckily, like I said, he finally tells her; leading Martha to reveal about that blackmail that Lionel took care of for her.  How is it that Martha seems more controlled and level headed about this than Clark??? I mean sure, he is adamant about handling this like his father would but I don't like how Clark seems to aimlessly be handling his conflicts before him now.  Seriously, when he lost his father, the show became about Clark being on the farm with no passion or drive for anything in his life. Ewwww my head! Then we have to be reminded of that abomination of a kiss and kiss back from Lex and Lana last episode but thank God it only lasts for only one scene because boy, the chemistry between Michael and Kristin is so odd and it seems even they are bothered by this sudden twist in events that making their characters romantically involved.  Honestly, Lex is really coming off like damn sleaze and I'm really not enjoying how evil he's being just because he wants everything Clark had.  Yet Lex has been envious of Clark since they because friends during the first season but him going after Lana feels more like jarring plot revelation instead of something that should be really driving his character to be at odds with his future nemesis.

But the worst part of this is, the show just seems to be wasting time! This should be when the writers should be ramping up the story until the finale but here we have an episode completely dedicated to showing how much the writers of Smallville are out of ideas at the moment and don't know yet how to proceed with the story arc with Fine, the spaceship.....not to mention, when Zod randomly gets brought up again to be this big baddie that Clark needs to stop at the end of the season! I just...anyway....So Clark comes in once again for a last minute super save (Because that's all Clark does! Saves people at the end of the episode and has nothing else to do now! -_-) which reveals to Lionel his powers face to face....literally! Tho the way the episode ends doesn't help matters as even after talking to Martha about how to handle Lionel knowing the truth, Clark confronts him in his office and threatens him.  It makes me wonder why Clark didn't go to Jor-El and ask him about Lionel since he's his vessel.  Doesn't make much sense to antagonize him any further but I guess Clark can't help but follow in his father's footsteps of protecting the family with severe machoness.  The episode ends with Lionel getting some kind of message he rights down.  But in all honesty, the episode is a failure in making the show anymore legit when you have an episode that's dedicated to ripping off stories done much better onscreen!!! Just skip this one as this season continues a downward spiral of embarrassing mishandling.

Final Kryptonite: F