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Smallville

"Cool"
Episode 1.05
Air Date: November 13, 2001
Written by: Michael Green
Directed by: Jim Contner
Guest Stars: Michael Coristine (Sean Kelvin)

Last week's review was a tad. . . venomous. Fortunately for herpetologists everywhere this week's Smallville was better. The Freak of the Week formula is showing signs of wear and tear, but I'm willing to put up with it as long as the characters don't suffer as a result. Not a hint of what happened last week with Lex and the reporter could be seen this week and Lex is back to his charitable yet questionable ways. It seems the Kent family farm is suffering some financial setbacks, and Lex is looking to help. This could have been just a ploy to somehow tie himself to Clark, but who knows?

Oh yeah, and there was this little thing about a football player running around absorbing heat from all his ex-girlfriends. Meet Sean Kelvin, this week's freak. Isn't that cute? He's a heat absorbing bad guy and he's got a temperature related last name. Awwwww. Anyway, Sean's mutation makes him crave heat. Body heat, specifically. Though he does experiment with fire and electricity. He says body heat lasts longer, but I don't know. Have you thought about uranium?

On top of the Kents' financial woes and Sean's slaying thinning the Prom Queen herd, Clark has bigger problems on his mind. A non-date with none other than Lana Lang. Lex gives Clark Radiohead tickets and the limo for the evening. I don't care what his motivations are, Lex is Clark's best friend right now. Clark's so worked up about this "non-date" that he even asks Chloe for fashion advice. Her response? "Blue's a good color on you." Priceless.

Speaking of Chloe, she was the resident damsel in distress. She has more than a passing interest in Sean, and after his other conquests refuse to talk to him, he decides to call on Chloe. She got some serious face time tonight, and it was all well spent. I have decided that I like Chloe now. She's just your typical high school reporter who happens to be killer attractive and really lonely. Sure, it's not realistic, but I'm not asking for realism. Wink. Wink.

All in all, there were some plot problems. For example, Sean gets his mutation after falling through the ice at Crater Lake. Guess what made the crater. I'm guessing it wasn't Mir. In the end, Clark beats Sean buy knocking him into yet another body of water. This one is not frozen. That's some pretty inconsistent water. And why didn't Crater Lake freeze up in the first place. Maybe he just sucked up more and more heat as time moved on.

In the end, Clark's non-date is ruined by Sean, Chloe is again without romantic prospects, and the Kents decide to go with a bank loan. There's even a bit of continuity in tonight's episode. Whitney's jacket is still missing it seems. He didn't wear it in the entire episode. I guess that means Lana's necklace is missing too. Hell, maybe Tina took it since we have no idea what happened to her. I'm sorry. I promised myself I wouldn't make any references to "X-Ray". I think I need to wash my brain out with gasoline again.

Episode Rating: 8 out of 10

Steven "drenball" Dougherty will give Chloe a call any time. Grrowrrrr.

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