Episode 719 - Quest Review




"Quest" Review

Written by Cherry

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.

Quest was part one of the season finale. It set up the next episode to come with ease, drama, and anticipation. The episode flowed from scene to scene effortlessly and kept you on the edge of your seat. Many questions from the past were answered, but it still left quite a few unanswered as well as caused a few more to be asked. The religious symbolism was heavy and the history of Veritas was revealed.

The Good

Tom Welling: Tom Welling, yet again, hit the mark on this episode. His portrayal of Clark was believable as a twenty-one year old who has lived a relatively normal life...well, as normal as he could... meets a 'believer' that Clark is the next savior of the world and this man identifies him as a deity. Edward Teague wants to worship Clark and expects him to act accordingly. Clark handles this situation with dignity and a bit of fear. Up to this point, Clark is ill-equipped for such a declaration (writer's fault). He was kept in the dark by Dr. Swann, Lionel, and Jor-El. Clark's destiny has never been clearly stated to him.

Clark has a lot to think about during this episode. He is thrown into a world he is unaware of and realizes that his powers are dangerous if used with the wrong intent.

My favorite line is when Clark said, "That's the last thing I need, someone going around and killing people in my name" was fantastic. Chloe's comeback with "That's probably how God felt about the crusades" caused Clark to stare at her in distress. It also says a lot with setting up the scene with Teague and his zealousness for the Traveler.

Clark's reactions to the kryptonite and the brutal ritual carving into his chest broke my heart. It made me cringe as I really felt like Teague was hurting him. Nice acting, Tom!

Lex: Lex was smart and relentless in this episode. He is truly the adversary. When he realized the Traveler was in the church with him, his eyes glazed over. He is not going to let anything stop him from getting to the Traveler. He was almost salivating.

Robert Picardo: I was a little concerned when I heard he was playing Edward Teague. I loved this man as the holographic doctor in Star Trek Voyager, but I didn't think he had the acting chops to pull off a seriously demented role. I was wrong. He was brilliant as Edward Teague. He was a different version of Lionel... a scarier version, actually. He wanted to serve the Traveler and kill any non-believer. I'm not sure that Lionel would have ever been able to kill Clark outright. His style was more of keeping him captive as we saw in Traveler.

The antiquities expert: I really liked this guy and enjoyed his scenes. He was extremely informative. He made the information dumps enjoyable.

Continuity: We saw quite a bit of that in this episode. We found out the reason Lionel transported a Scottish Castle to Smallville, we heard some of the history of Veritas, Virgil Swann was mentioned several times. Dr. Swann seemed to be the only sane one in the group. We saw some of the old symbols from the Kawatchi caves and even got a different perspective on them.

Music and cinematography: Music fit the episode well. Beautifully shot episode. When color was present, they were brilliant. When darkness abounded, the shadows were perfectly placed to match the tone of the scene.

No mention of Lana: This was a breath of fresh air. No mention of her at all.

Religious symbolism: I am sure there was more than this, but one thing stood out to me the most was the 'death' and 'resurrection' of Clark. I thought this was well done. Also, the mention by Teague of Jor-El sending his son to earth, but not being able to kill him, reminded me of the scriptures in the Bible about God turning away when his son died on the cross at the hands of men.

Teague's statement about every prophecy that was good about Clark, it could also be interpreted for bad as well says a lot for the way things have been interpreted in Smallville thus far. The statement rings true for those religious zealots who take things too far...uh, Veritas! I'm hoping Clark heard that as well and takes another look at the 'writings on the wall'...and in his ship..at the fortress...

The Bad

Carvings in the chests: This was far too brutal for my taste, however, it did seem to fit the darkness of the story. I think they were trying to portray how out of hand the Veritas group was in their quest to serve the Traveler. I still think they could have found a better way, but they did get their point across.

Jimmy: Jimmy suddenly being interested in the Kawatchi cave drawings was a far stretch for me. Up to this point, he hasn't shown any interest at all and to suddenly investigate it, even in light with the carving on Lex's chest wasn't believable.

Jor-El: What is up with Jor-El sending his beloved son to earth to the Kents, but yet sending a device to control him knowing that it could ultimately get into the wrong hands. I'm not Kryptonian, but even I know that is not a wise move. The meteor rock is enough to take him down if need be. I'm hoping that this gets cleared up and this apparatus was sent by someone else and Dr. Swann discovered it through messages sent or found on earth (caves, temple, artifacts, etc.) and attempted to hide the device from the original sender. Could this be Brainiac? Since the portal was there for so long and anyone could come through...we also have the stones that were hidden for centuries, surely this device could have been sent long before Clark was even born. I'm hoping they clear this up a little more.

Clark: Clark still being skeptical about the cave paintings after all that has happened was out of character, especially when his next lines were about Teague's twisted attempt to save the world. Come on, he should be taking this seriously. Superman would.

I give 3.75 out of 5 stars.

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