In this weeks episode, Lex begins to fret that he’s a kryptonite mutant, citing the fact that he never gets sick and survives a lot of life-threatening situations. He even says “I’ve never been sick a day in my life.”
Ummm… wasn’t he getting all nutty from malaria a mere 2 episodes ago? Did I miss something or is this really sloppy writing?
Oops.
Um, Mr. Mxyzplkt did it.
Well, I can’t say for sure what’s up with Smallville, but sometimes networks choose to air shows out of the order they are made in. I seem to recall NBC doing that with Homicide a few years back, with totally surreal results, as a character who was missing and presumed dead one week was walking around doing his job with no comments the next.
But, since Lana Lang referenced:
The Breakup! from the previous episode
we can probably assume that isn’t what happened in this case.
Also, I don’t think it was really made clear that Lex had Malaria, since
the character who told us that was a hallucination.
No, I’m going with plot hole, myself. Kind of like how previously if Clark was anywhere near Kryptonite he’d get all weak, but last night, even though
he stopped the bullets with lead, he wasn’t affected at all, even though there was kryptonite sitting eight inches from his face.
There’s a difference between getting sick and going mad. Stranded on a deserted island for 3 months just made him loopy.
[night court]
He’s feeling much better now.
[/night court]
Damn! I missed that episode. I had always wondered why they never picked that thread up again. Wasn’t that mentioned in the very first episode of the series?
shrug Maybe Lex was trying to manipulate Clark into confessing that he was a krypto-mutant?
he = Clark, not Lex.
And yeah, that explanation doesn’t really make sense in the context of the scene, but it’s the only thing I could think of.
I could have sworn that the sailorman who came and rescued LEx also said that he had malaria, not just Mr. Crazy Hallucination.
Jenny: I think the idea was that the lead vest Clark was wearing was protecting him from the Kryptonite.
Edited to fix the spoiler box – CKDH
Well, muffed that one right up, didn’t I?
While I find this show entertaining, complaining about plot holes in Smallville is like complaining about rain in Seattle.
The basic premise, Clark is eventually going to grow up to be Superman. The whole idea of Clark's (rather flimsy) secret identity is that as Clark, he wears glasses, slouches, and uses a higher voice, giving the impression that he and Supes are two different people. How many people, especially Lex, see Clark as he will eventually physically appear as the man of steel. Are we to belive that when he eventually comes out, and Clark starts wearing glasses that these people will suddenly forget what he was like in High school.
Why is it that he won't tell Lana his secret, since he has no super identity to hide, the whole "protect you from my enemies" schtick simply dosn't fly. Honestly am I the only one who often has a hard time beliving that this Dawson clone will eventually become the man of steel? If nothing else, the big red S always has had great strength of character. Perhaps this Clark is supposed to be developing this trait, but I see no sign of the Man he is supposed to become.
Okay this turned into more of a rant that I intended. Sorry folks.
Sweetums,
Formerly Harp and Sword
I’m pretty sure Lex’s wife mentioned his malaria as well.
My reading of Lex’s worry about being a kryptonite-mutant is just psychological strain and stress. It does give us a reason for him not to start thinking about Clark as having strange powers, so that (in the future, as Sweetums suggests) he doesn’t connect Clark to the eventual Superman. He thinks that his rescues have just been lucky breaks based on his kryptonite-given power. His own ego (“it’s all about ME”) will prevent him from drawing the obvious conclusions.
In the comics, for instance, when then re-did the whole continuum, there was a bit where Luthor fed tons of data into a computer program, that told him Superman was Clark Kent. He rejected it as idiotic, because no one as powerful as Superman would take on a secret identity as meek and powerless as Clark. I thought it was a great touch, that his own ego-mania (he thinks everyone with great power would be like him) estopped him.
Of course, an interesting aside might be if Lex in SMALLVILLE really IS a kryptonite mutant, where the main effect was a super-brain… After all, the original Luthor of the comics was supposed to be super-scientist gone evil.
Is it just me or Lex’s whole line about never getting sick to his father, was taken right out of the movie Unbreakable?