Episode 510 - Fanatic Review




"Fanatic" Review

Written by Carol

DISCLAIMER - Please remember that this review does not represent the opinions/viewpoints of everyone; it is the personal opinions of the reviewer only. Thank you.

Fanatic gives us a glimpse into the political campaigns of both Jonathan and Lex as they compete for the position of Kansas State Senator. Clark and Lana experience a strain in their relationship due to hiding things from each other and Clark saves his father from an assassination attempt by the fanatical leader of the Central Kansas University 'Students for Lex Luthor.'

Tom"s Performance: Tom does another exceptional job portraying what his scenes demand from him. In his first scene at the Kent Farm, Clark is uncomfortable but is also slightly amused, knowing how Jonathan will react to being misquoted and misrepresented by his campaign manager, which he expresses mostly while in the background and without dialogue. In his scenes with Lana he is troubled and emotionally vulnerable, and with Chloe he is awkwardly shy but open about how his sex-life is on 'hiatus' and how much he hates lying to Lana. With Lex he is cautious and mistrustful, and when he finds out the danger his father is in, he is instinctively protective and proactive.

The Good

The Teaser: The opening scene is a student political rally at CKU where we see Jonathan greeting an enthusiastic and receptive crowd bearing red, white and blue banners and chanting 'Kansas needs Kent!' Interspersed with scenes of the rally are scenes of someone assembling, loading and aiming a sniper"s rifle at Jonathan on stage. The shocking reveal at the end of the scene shows Lois holding the rifle and a bullet being released and barreling toward Jonathan before the screen fades to black. This scene did what a truly good teaser is meant to do. It left me wondering, 'What the heck?'

Clark and Lana: The interaction between Clark and Lana was particularly tense in this episode and I felt badly for Clark. He"s in a difficult position with Lana. Now that he has his abilities back, things have changed. He no longer trusts himself to be intimate sexually with Lana and she is understandably confused about him backing off from her. When she confronts him he counters her accusation by bringing up her move to Metropolis and her obsession with astronomy. At first Lana is indignant with him and says he"s just deflecting his own guilt, but later she admits he"s not the only one at fault for the increasing strain between them. She admits she"s been studying the meteor showers and has discovered something interesting in the first one. As Clark listens to Lana explain her findings he realizes that Chloe was right. Lana is much closer to finding out about him than he thought. Especially in their last scene together I could feel the tension building as Clark is beginning to see that he"s going to have to face his fears and tell her something soon.

Lex and Lionel: Lionel definitely earns his 'MB' title in this episode. His real intentions are not clear at this point but he"s definitely trying to worm his way into the Kent"s indebtedness and willing to sabotage his own son"s campaign to do it. He intercepts incriminating information against Jonathan from Lex"s hired thug, which he destroys (must be something he already knows), and then the implication is that he has the thug killed. Next he catches Martha alone in the alley behind the Talon and tempts her to take money from him for Jonathan"s campaign. (Did anyone else see shades of the Garden of Eden here?) Lionel knows that Jonathan would never take Luthor money and at first Martha refuses, but by the end of the episode we see her crumble and give in to Lionel"s offer. Now someone is going to have to pay the piper before it"s over.

But the most dastardly thing he does is to purposely gloat in front of Lex when, after the failed assassination attempt, Jonathan begins to beat Lex in the polls. Their scene together was excellent and, as manipulative and ruthless as Lex is in his own right, I have to say, no one deserves a father like Lionel.

Samantha Drake: Annie Burgstede gives a very convincing performance as the obsessive and psychotic follower of Lex who believes 'defeat is not an option.' We first meet her while she is visiting the Luthor Mansion with a group of students who are members of the CKU 'Students for Lex Luthor.' Samantha is President of the student organization and from her brief exchange with Lex we find out that she has 'done her homework,' knows quite a bit about Lex and wears a symbol of her devotion to him around her neck. Lex seems pleasantly amused and thanks her for his 'spike in the MTV vote.'

In succeeding scenes we see that Samantha will stop at nothing, including murder, to guarantee Lex"s victory and will not let anything stand in her way, not even Lex himself. When threatening phone calls and intimidation fail to cause Jonathan to drop out of the race, Samantha is ready to prove her loyalty by going to the next level and removing the opposition herself through an elaborate assassination plot with Lois set up as the killer. I thought the way her character was presented worked very well. We first see her as an eager student and then as the story progresses we see her obsession with Lex growing and her state of mind degenerating into a psychotic loss of reality.

Special Effects: The scene where Clark runs after the speeding bullet and grabs it before it can hit Jonathan was very well done. Clark is shown running in slow motion while everyone else is frozen in time while the speeding bullet travels through the aisle bursting through a balloon which pops and causes the crowd to react. Clark dives in front of Jonathan to catch the bullet and lands off to the side of the stage just in the nick of time.

Closing Scenes: In the last few scenes of the episode, we feel the pressure building : on Lex, as his hopes of winning slip away from him, on Lois and Martha as campaign demands increase and finances dwindle , on Jonathan as the stress of the campaign takes a toll on his heart, and on Clark, as Lana is getting closer and closer to finding out his secret. I get the feeling that the stage is being set for something explosive to happen.

The Bad

Hiring Lois: Although Lois is clearly more attuned to Jonathan"s attitudes toward the issues of the campaign and the causes that Jonathan cares about than the 'win at all costs' city guy in this episode, I highly doubt that she would be politically savvy enough to run a state senatorial campaign.

Jonathan"s Campaign: As careful as Jonathan and Martha have been about keeping a low profile and avoiding any unnecessary attention to the family because of their fear that someone might find out about Clark, it seems so unlike them to be in the middle of a political campaign which would place them directly in the public eye.

I gave Fanatic a 3.5 out of 5 stars.

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