Random Smallville Episode - "Lexmas"

Hmm... Lex and Lana together? I can kinda see that... if Lex wasn't such a butthead in later seasons.

Next up is a familiar friend/foe from last year: Lex Luthor! Yeah, I’m putting him in this month too! Remember that Lex was once Superman’s friend long ago. Also, even when he’s been a foe for Superman, he’s been a supporting character in the different TV shows. Heck, he was pretty much a supporting character in the comics themselves. In the post-Crisis, he’d show up randomly and he wouldn’t even be the villain of the piece.

As I said back in my villain post last year, Lex first appeared in Action Comics #23. He had been traditionally a villain for Superman, but it wasn’t until the 50’s where we basically got an origin for Lex. It turned out that he used to live in Smallville and was a scientist. He even was an okay guy until a lab experiment went wrong. Superboy saved him, but Lex ended up hating Superboy for what happened and went down a bad path. I think other stuff may have happened, but I’m not too sure. The friendship was removed in the 80’s (Lex was an older man and lived in Metropolis) then reinstated when Superman: Birthright became the new origin in the 2000’s. I think the friendship is still in play currently with the newer origin.

I was originally going to look at Lex Luthor: Man of Steel, but I decided to go back to Smallville since it did highlight the friendship between Clark and Lex. I was going to talk about the season 6 episode, “Nemesis,” but I’m going to hit something else this time. “Lexmas” was the ninth episode of Season 5. At this point, Clark and Lana are finally dating, Chloe knows Clark’s secret, and Clark and Lex’s friendship has gone sour. Also, Jonathan Kent somehow got roped into running for state senator. Lex is also running, so some of the season has been dealing with that. I’ll mention the Kryptonian plot going on here since it really doesn’t play into this episode.

The episode starts out with Lex going to Gransville, KA in order to meet an informant. The operative, Griff, has to find or fake any information that’ll get Johnathan Kent out of the senatorial race. Lex’s not sure about using him that since the controversy will hurt Clark and Martha. Griff gives Lex a day to make his decision. When Lex heads back to his car, he gets mugged and shot by a Power Ranger. Seriously, Blake (Jorgito Vargas Jr.) from Power Rangers Ninja Storm and some random lady mug Lex and shoot him. He gets rushed to the hospital.

When he awakens, he’s in a normal house with Lana as his pregnant wife and an older boy. It turns out that that it isn’t a dream as his dead mother, Lillian, shows up and tells him that this could be his life if he makes the right decisions. In this world, Lex left the business for a quiet life and Lionel disowned him seven years ago. We find out that the rest of the cast are doing well. Clark’s at the Daily Planet, Chloe has published a book, and Johnathan Kent won the Senate race. In the real world, Lionel finds out about Lex being shot and that the bullet could paralyze him. To keep that from happening, he has Lex flown to Metropolis to undergo a dangerous procedure. As for the rest of the cast, Clark and Chloe meet Santa and celebrate Christmas. Yeah, it’s not much but it is a nice refresher from Lex’s dream. 

Man, Lex must really think bad of his father if this is what the dream version looks like.

Back in the dream world, Lana ends up going into labor and has a baby girl. Unfortunately, she starts to lose blood. Lex goes to his father since he could get better help for her, but Lionel refuses to even help Lex. Because of this, Lana dies. Lex tells his mother that he doesn’t want this life if he’s going to lose his loved ones. After that, the dream ends, and Lex is in his  hospital bed recovering from his procedure. He finds out what Lionel did and is understandably peeved with him. The episode ends with him summoning Griff and telling him to do all he can to get Jonathan out of the race. He’s going to get his happy ending and use what he has (money and power) to do it.

I thought this was a nice episode of Smallville. With it being a Christmas episode, you’d think that it wouldn’t do much, but it does. It’s filler, but it’s good filler. Clark’s plot of being and meeting Santa Claus (personally, I think he was a secret Kryptonian) was okay at best. Yeah, he doesn’t get much to do here, but considering all he went through at this point, he needed a break. Yeah, his part is hokey, but it’s a Christmas episode, so I’ll let it slide. It was also nice to see most of the regulars just chillin’ for Christmas.

Aw... yeah, that wasn't going to last long, was it?

Lex’s vision quest was cool.  It’s A Christmas Carol but with a different ending. We get to see the Lex that I think Lex kind of wants to be. He’s married to Lana, he’s got a kid, he’s not under his father’s influence, he’s accepted by everyone, and he’s good friends with Clark. He has it all, but he loses Lana and basically goes down the “Anakin Skywalker” route. One could see this as Lex beginning to embrace more of his darker side. Beforehand, it was there but it he still had good in him. Doing what he did at the end of the episode started to push him down the villain path.  

As for the dislikes, I do have to admit the Santa subplot is okay. It really goes nowhere. As I said above, it makes sense that Clark would deal with something more mundane since he went through some stuff at this point. Also, Lana’s death was a little lackluster. Other than those things and small nitpicks,  I did enjoy this episode. It was about time for Lex to embrace his darker side. Yeah, the Santa stuff wasn’t that great, but Clark had to do something. It’s his show, after all.

Clark: Well, I gotta do something... ho ho ho? Eh... at least Chloe's looking cute...

As for Lex in general, I still think he’s one of the best villains. I also like the fact that he could do good but chooses not to. For a while he was  a good guy in the comics, but that has pretty much come to an end now. It was about time for that to end anyway. Lex is best when he is the villain of the story. It doesn’t mean that he may think of himself has having noble intentions, though. Well, I got one more story to get to and it involves a certain Dark Knight. Until then, Peace, God Bless, and be careful out there.

NEXT TIME: I GET TO THAT SUPERMAN/BATMAN STORY!!