Season 7, Episode 9: Gemini

"Gemini"

Episode 9

Air Date: December 13th, 2007

Awwwww it's Christmas in Smallville! Which means all hell continues to break loose no matter what holiday it is! :P  After last season's atrocious end to the House of El lunacy that was Kara's crystal and those wacky clone relatives, the show can only go up from there.....right???  Luckily, Gemini manages to be thrilling and intense enough to keep viewers engaged by quickly making sense of this Julian twist last episode that doesn't contradict the show's continuity and even gives fans a shocking twist as a cliffhanger that was actually done well enough where you wouldn't see it coming the first time around.  I guess I'm just glad that Lois got the focus again.....in fact O_O....this might be the most Lois focused episode we've ever gotten from the show.  At least it feels like it to me re-watching this show! Not only has Lex mysteriously chose her for an expose on him and Luthorcorp, but some psycho has contacted her to reveal the truth about Lex's latest experiments that literally is running his life and if she doesn't do what he asks, he put a bomb on Chloe that is ready to blow her up at any second.

Erica Durance does a fine job tackling a solo mission where Lois must figure out how to write a story and submit it to Lex while also trying to make Chloe realize there's a bomb on her.  There are actually some genuinely tense moments like that UPS guy getting killed and the psycho over the phone revealing himself to be a failed clone experiment of Lex's.  Honestly, the real highlight of the story is Lois being forced by Adrian to confront Lex and Gabriel in his office to expose the truth about his creation.  Shockingly, it turns out Adrian was a failed clone of Julian and Grant is the perfect clone that made the cut.  Yes, so no needlessly head-scratching retconning of what the show has established for 6 seasons now....sigh...at least not for a couple more episodes!!! -_-  EHHhhhhhh!!! Also, Lex is finally proving that his whole redemption story this season has turned completely around as he snaps and shots Adrian to death out of blind rage that he revealed the truth to Grant.  YIKES!!! All I can say is HOLY CRAP! Lex is BACK! :) And he even bought the Daily Planet on top of that to control his public image moving forward.  YIKES!!! Why didn't they just start the season with Lex like this!??? No chasing after Kara as his newest obsession/savior so he can turn his life around.  It's Season 7! Give us more progression of the future archnemesis that will become Superman's greatest villain! Thank You! :)

Meanwhile, Chloe and Jimmy are trapped in an elevator awkwardly during all of this but thankfully Lois was able to send out a message to her about the bomb....that of course turns on when Adrian is being killed by Lex.  Honestly, the Chloe/Jimmy portion of the episode only serves as resolution for the unneeded break up and one again, a character is worried that their beloved will instantly stop loving them if they find out they have abnormal abilities but it turns out said beloved is perfectly fine with it and insert "You're still the same {character name} to me".  Also, how did Chloe manage to master her power already??? O_o  It hasn't been used since last season's finale and suddenly she can control it instead of her magical tear falling down.  Just seems a bit too rushed and nonsensical when the writers should have focused also on her learning more about her power instead of just the down of losing Jimmy out of more melodrama for the show but whatever! -_-

Also, after last episode's shocking end twist, Clark returns back home after two weeks and seems all but content with moving on after what Jor-El apparently "did" to him.  Hmmmmmm....I gotta say, in hindsight, I really enjoyed how Tom played "Clark" here.  Something is definitely off when Clark seems so confident and nonchalant, especially after accepting Kara being cone so casually.  He immediately confronts Lana about continuing her mission to find out more about Lex's experiments, especially Project Scion and eagerly wants to join her to see what she has found out. Yeah, there's been some building up to that remnant of the black box from last season that once of Lex's scientist has discovered has changed completely to liquid.  Yes, the dust left by Baern draning the last of the black box's power is now a black liquid solution that is trying to reconstruct itself...back into Milton Fine aka Brainiac.  While the set for James Masters.....masterful return as the brilliant if not horrible misused villain of Season 5 is nice, it seems he won't be the only villain who has seemingly returned. ;)  After visiting a scientist drained of her minerals by the black liquid when it escaped in Wrath, Clark and Lana go to see Chloe for her help in decoding the mysterious Kryptonian message they got from the patient when Clark must take immediate action and save Chloe as well as Jimmy from the bomb that's about to explode.  Even if it seems like a typical awesome save sequence by Clark, it turns out that "Clark" clearly had an ulterior motive all along when it is soon revealed that Clark is actually BIZARRO!?? O_O  *Gasp* What an unforeseen turn of events when I first watched this episode and Clark is seemingly at the Fortess, tramped in one of the crystal pillars.  How? When?  But it's definitely nice that the show can still pull off a genuine twist like this even if the main story arcs this season have been suffering....HARD! Overall, a pretty good set-up from last episode.....which isn't so hard when that was the lowest the show has gotten. O_o

Final Kryptonite: C+