Smallville: Season 1, Episode 19 "Crush"

 Smallville: Season 1, Episode 19 "Crush"

May 07, 2002


*Potential Spoilers Ahead 

 “Crush” is an episode about love and second chances. The love triangle between Clark, Lana, and Chloe is given lots of focus in this exciting episode. Yet, the overall story arch takes a darker turn with the arrival of villain-of-the-week Justin Gaines. This character allows Adam Brody to put in some great acting work. And someone who is not a villain bites the bullet and perishes. Not a main character, but a familiar one regardless. RIP Principal Kwan.

Justin Gaines is a teenager who loves to draw. After being hit by a car, he lands in the hospital. He becomes dysfunctional because he no longer has the mobility of his hands. He does, however, have the power of telekinesis. He uses the power to give his doctor a serious accident because he is “at fault.” He returns to Smallville and begins to date Chloe. Chloe investigates the accident and discovers it was Principal Kwan who is at fault. Justin murders him, thus giving Clark a reason to stop him. Lex’s nanny, Pamela Jenkins, returns to Smallville to ask Lex for his forgiveness for abandoning him after his mother died. Meanwhile, Whitney asks Lana for another chance as Lana is trying to keep the Talon in order.

Overall, this is a darker but highly entertaining episode. Several key deaths are at play here including Kwan and Whitney’s father. The villain of the week is well-written and well-acted by Adam Brody. We see Chloe get mad at Clark. She mentions, in her charming way, that “all men are from Mars, but no idea where Clark is from.” Love that subtleness. The episode does end on an emotional note with the funeral scene. Well worth the watch!

My Grade: A-


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Ferris Bueller's Day Off (1986)

Image
Ferris Bueller's Day Off (1986) “Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in awhile, you could miss it.” Ah, wise words from our new young friend, Ferris Bueller. In John Hughes’s 1986 film, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off , all Ferris wants to do is take a day and have fun. That is the most simplistic theme the movie has. You can go deeper, but the main takeaway is that it is okay to have fun. That is a motto I have taken to heart. I really loved the film. People consider The Breakfast Club to be Hughes’s best and most important movie. That’s a fine statement to make, but I would personally rank the film number two behind this particular one. The teen characters are instantly relatable, it has a memorable antagonist for the children, and this is basically a thirty-year-old travel guide for Chicago. Just how Woody Allen creates his movies as love letters for New York, this is applicable for John Hughes. A Chicago love letter!   Like all of his films, Hughes wrote
Read more

The Spy Who Loved Me (1977)

Image
The Spy Who Loved Me (1977) The James Bond franchise is one of those franchises that will never die. It has been going strong since the first movie rolled out in the early 1960’s, and new James Bond movies are still produced today. What makes this series unique is they use multiple actors to play the titular character over the years. They all bring their own gravitas to the role, and each Bond is a different man when compared to each other (although the martini, shaken not stirred and the beautiful women among other things remain a constant.) So my first James Bond review for this blog is 1977’s The Spy Who Loved Me. This wasn’t my first look at the series, but it was my first look at the older movies. I really liked what I saw. This is an old-fashioned story that combines a spy drama and an action-packed war movie into one package. Like many of the older Bond movies, the story can get borderline preposterous. The cheesiness of the plot did come to grow on me after awhile, even
Read more

Broadcast News (1987)

Image
  Broadcast News (1987) If you watched the trailer for James L. Brooks’s Broadcast News , you would be forgiven if you thought this film is about a romantic love triangle set in a news station. Yes, there are aspects of romance, but it is way more than that. Brooks is a very smart, adept director who makes a living in creating deep, meaningful characterizations. In my eyes, Brooks had ideas about how work can overtake personal lives and any romance for these workaholics is essentially just a front because quite frankly, these people love to work…as we see detailed with our main characters. In addition, this film is quite informative. Even in 1987, news stations were more about entertainment and the looks, rather than delivering the actual news itself. It was a newer trend that eventually took over networks. With all the insanity within the newsroom, this film manages to find humanity within its characters. This is a detailed human portrait that is engaging, emotional, and comedic. Ja
Read more