TV Talk - Smallville: "Delete"

Next up for the month is another love of Clark Kent’s. Unlike the rest on the list, she didn’t originate in comics. It’s Chloe Sullivan from the TV show, Smallville. Yes, she’s on the list since she was a supporting character for Clark. Plus, she eventually made her way to the comics for a bit, so take that, Internet Elite! I got all my bases checked!

Anyway, Chloe was pretty much a mainstay on the show. Other than Clark, she stayed on that show for over nine seasons (she was a guest star in season 10). She was the Lois Lane of that show before Lois showed up. She was a reporter at Smallville High’s newspaper and eventually the Daily Planet. She also filled other roles on the show too. She was Clark’s confidant, a hacker, a healer (she had powers for a while), a vessel for Brainiac, a crush for Clark Kent (and probably a better girlfriend than this show’s Lana), and an Oracle homage. She pretty much did it all except for get Clark’s powers since that would have been a little too far for the Chloe fans.

For today’s post, I’ll be looking at the Season 3 episode, “Delete.” At this point, a lot of stuff has happened. Clark’s and Lana’s relationship has gotten weird. Lex actually found out Clark’s secret, went crazy, and then had his brain screwed with in a mental hospital so he can’t remember it. Jonathan made a deal with the Old Testament God--- I mean, A.I. Jor-El that actually doesn’t come into play here. Then, there’s Chloe who had teamed up with Lionel Luthor to keep tabs on Clark earlier in the season. That did stop after a while, but things have been weird between Clark and Chloe. Lionel is also a bit of an ass, so Chloe’s not doing too well.

That truck is truly the hero of the show. It gets into so many accidents but it keeps on truckin' (pun intended).

The episode begins with Chloe losing her internship at the Daily Planet because she ticked off Lionel. After she makes it back to Smallville High, she finds out that the computers LuthorCorp donated are gone. Then, she goes to the parking lot and almost gets ran over by Clark Kent. Clark doesn’t remember trying to hit her, though. Chloe, of course, feels weird about it since things between them hasn’t been that great. Later, Lana suddenly attacks Chloe during school and oh, what a fight it was. Chloe would have bit the bullet (or ax) if it wasn’t for Adam Knight, Lana’s new friend she met in physical therapy.

Hmm... He knows martial arts, computer hacking, and mind control? I got it! He's a modern vampire!!!

Later, the four meet and try to see what caused Clark and Lana to go berserk. Before they went psycho, they got a weird email. Adam believes the email is sending subliminal messages to the recipients. While this causes Clark to look at the Luthors, Lana starts to get worried about Adam going “all-Dark Knight” on her. That ends up causing a rift especially when she and Clark get a little close. Meanwhile, Clark confronts Lex about the incidents and he doesn’t believe his Lionel is behind it. He does mention that he recently met a lady may have stolen Chloe’s s hard drive from LuthorCorp.

It turns out that Chloe wrote a scathing article on the Summerholt Institute, a place that’s known for illegal medical practices. Lawrence Garner, the head of the institute, has basically been using Molly Griggs, the one who stole the hard drive, to try and snuff out Chloe and anyone who knew about the article. Molly does succeed in getting Max Taylor, Chloe’s old boss, killed. Clark and Lex end up stopping Molly, but she sent out one more email to the Kents. They almost kill Chloe but Clark’s able to stop them both. As a show of good will, Lex is able to get new computers for Chloe. In the end, Clark and Chloe renew their friendship, Lana keeps Adam from leaving Smallville, and Lex blackmails Garner into helping him get his taken memories back.

Ah... remember when those two weren't arguing about Lana and everything else? I do. Pepperridge Farm does too.

This was a pretty good episode of Smallville. I was thinking it might be okay given the plot, but I was wrong. I had fun with this one. Since it was a Chloe-centric episode, it was good for this post. While the plot of folk trying to kill Chloe was fine, everything else surrounding it was good. The plot brought a lot of stuff to the forefront like Clark’s relationships with Chloe and Lana. I thought the stuff with Chloe was good. We even get the first mention of a cousin she has: Lois Lane. The stuff with Lana… well, that was fine, but I’ll touch on that below.

While the plot involving Summerholt was okay, it wasn’t bad. Garner was despicable as ever and Molly was his smart but naïve techie. It also made sense in how Lex (who was awesome as usual) tied into that part as well. I thought Adam Knight was okay, though. For a new boyfriend that may not last long, he’s just okay. Did anyone wonder if he was a certain orphan from Gotham? I know that didn’t pan out, but I have to say it. Lastly, the action scenes here were gold. Lana’s and Chloe’s fight at the school was over-the-top and awesome.

If you don't think this is one the best fights on the show, I can't help you.

There wasn’t much I didn’t like about this one. Lana’s love plot was okay, but it wasn’t helped by Clark being a little off. It’s one instance in the relationship where Clark maybe should back off the lady. Also, the idea of mind controlling emails is weird, but this is Smallville after all. Everything around that weird plot was good. Other than that and a couple of other nitpicks, this was pretty good. Also, nice use of Hoobastank.

In the end, it’s easy to see why folk latched on to Ms. Sullivan. She was plucky, cute, and determined. She wasn’t perfect, but she was a still a good character. It also helped that Allison Mack played the role so well. I really don’t have much to say of the current news of Ms. Mack since what can you really say to that. All I can say is that I was shocked, dismayed, and a little disheartened. Well, that should do it for today. Next time will be the other lady in Clark’s life. Until then, Peace, God Bless, and remember to use that email blocker. Also, since I quickly touched on Ms. Mack’s current situation, here’s something that’ll cheer someone up.

NEXT TIME: LANA AS A SUPERHERO?