Lower Decks

The following review contains spoilers for Smallville through the episode, “Bloodline,” originally broadcast November 6th, 2008.

Hey, do you remember that girl that lived at the Kent farm for a while? Blond hair, tall, pretty, vapid expression? Wasn’t she supposed to be Clark’s cousin or something? Carla? Kari? Kara!?! Yeah, that was it, Kara. I haven’t seen her since last season. Don’t remember her? Don’t feel bad. No one in Smallville seems to have given her much thought, either. At least, not until now.

Let’s refresh our memories for a bit, shall we? The last time we saw Kara, she was trapped in the Phantom Zone. Clark was unaware of her fate, but Brainiac did tell Clark that he’d done something worse than kill Kara. That all happened in the final episode of last season. Through seven episodes of this season how many times has Kara been mentioned? None that I can recall. Not even in the first episode after the break. Wouldn’t somebody ask where she went? Chloe knew that Brainiac was disguised as Kara, but she’s never asked Clark where the real Kara could be. Kara certainly had Jimmy’s attention, wouldn’t he ask why she disappeared? Wouldn’t Clark make at least a cursory attempt to track down the only living family member and Kryptonian he knew? Finally, with this episode, we get the answer to the question that nobody was asking.

Clark receives a package containing the crystal that was stolen from Tess. When Clark touches the crystal, it transports him and a nearby Lois to the Phantom Zone. They’re both soon attacked by Kara and Lois is knocked out, saving her and the writers from her learning Clark’s secret. Kara calms herself a bit once she recognizes her cousin. She does know a way out of the Phantom Zone, but she’s been unwilling to use it as it might result in more phantoms reaching Earth. With Clark holding off the phantoms, Kara opens the portal. Lois escapes, but Kara’s knocked aside by a phantom. The phantom follows Lois to Earth and inhabits her body. Kara is partially buried under rubble and both she and Clark remain trapped in the Zone.

Meanwhile, Chloe has discovered the crystal at the Kent farm. Tess soon shows up, too, as her “frequency generator” has detected the crystal being used at that location. Chloe lies about having the crystal. Tess doesn’t believe her, but she doesn’t press the point, either. Chloe figures out that she needs Tess’ generator in order to hack into the crystal and find Clark and Lois.

Davis finds Chloe at Isis and tells her that his blackouts are getting worse. Also, he’s been trying to find his birth parents, but he can’t find anything out about his life before age three. Chloe takes his file and promises to help him. She then finds Oliver and enlists him to steal Tess’ generator for her.

Tess runs into pseudo-Lois at the Daily Planet. Lois has knocked out or killed a Planet employee and is zipping her way through the paper’s archives. She tells Tess that she’s the wife of the Kryptonian General Zod and she’s looking for their son, who came to Earth aboard Kal-El’s space craft. Tess tries to play Lois for more information, but Lois figures out she’s being used and speeds away.

While Chloe is waiting for the frequency generator, pseudo-Lois shows up. She identifies herself as Faora, wife of Zod and asks about her son. She also tells Chloe that Kal-El is trapped in the Phantom Zone. She attacks Chloe, spots the file on Davis, recognizes him from his picture and departs.

Faora finds Davis in the emergency room, attending to an injured child. She embraces him and tells him that she’s his mother. He thinks she’s just Lois on drugs. She tells him that he was sent to Earth as organic matter taken from Krypton’s most powerful life forms, destined to become an unstoppable destroyer. She stabs Davis after determining that he’s yet to weak to fulfill his destiny, and he appears to fall dead. She tells him that this will make him stronger that that she’ll be back when he’s ready.

With the generator, Chloe enters a trance and uses the crystal to establish a link to the Phantom Zone. Sacred for Chloe’s safety, Oliver tries to stop her, but she pushes him aside, knocking him unconscious. In the Zone, a light starts pulling at Clark. He manages to grab on to Kara and they’re both sucked out of the Zone and into the Isis office. Chloe explains what happened to Lois and Clark sends her after Jonn Jones’ crystal.

Clark finds Faora at the hospital. He’s unaware what she’s just done to Davis. She tells Clark that her and Zod’s creation will destroy the planet. They fight. Faora appears to get the upper hand, but Chloe shows up with the crystal which sucks Faora out of Lois. Meanwhile, Davis comes back to life.

Lois thinks of her time in the Phantom Zone as a dream. For no obvious reason, Tess gives Lois a raise and summons Clark to her office. Tess tells Clark that Lois knows about the Kryptonian space ship. Clark pretends he doesn’t know what she’s talking about. Tess shows Clark a picture of a boot print found in the arctic, one that exactly matches a boot print she found at the Kent farm. She believes that Clark was the last one to see Lex alive. She’s also determined to find out why Lex didn’t trust him.

Oliver relates what happened to Chloe during her interface with the Crystal, and he’s worried about her. Later, Kara tells Clark that she’s leaving to track down rumors that the Kryptonian city of Kandor still lives. Clark tells her that he’s putting the crystal away, not trusting it to rebuild the Fortress just yet. Davis, still at the hospital, finds no sign of a wound from his stabbing. He attempts to stab himself with a knife, but the blade shatters.

So, one loose end is tied up. We’ll probably hear as much about Kara in the remainder of the season as we had to date, nothing. At least she’s not suffering, forgotten and alone, in the Phantom Zone. I’d say that the people of Smallville must be relieved to know she’s OK, but they didn’t seem to even notice she was gone in the first place.

Other story lines continue to unfold. Chloe’s powers continue to grow, and after she killed the mind-reading Sebastian in the last episode, that can’t be a good thing. Davis’ story is starting to be fleshed out as well. He can’t find his history before age three because it doesn’t exist. I doubt we’ll ever know how he went from organic matter to three-year-old human child, but we do know that he was already killing people during his black outs, and now that he’s apparently impervious to injury, he’s going to be difficult for even Clark to stop.

The mystery of who stole the crystal deepens. I think we’re supposed to assume that it was Lex. Why would Lex send Clark the crystal, though? Is he hoping Clark will use it to recreate the Fortress of Solitude? To what end? Things didn’t seem to go so well for Lex on his last visit. Did whoever sent the crystal know that it would send Clark to the Phantom Zone? If so, how would Lex know this? Furthermore, how did Lex manage to program the crystal to do that?

And a final question, shouldn’t someone be concerned at the idea that Zod and Faona have a child running around Earth somewhere? Faona mentioned her son to both Chloe and Clark, but neither seem to care.