Ep 2.20 - Witness

[emsfan]

What I can about this episode !!! Let me think, I see whole season 2 was one of my favorite series!!!

[Ilovebeinglost]

I'm watching these re runs and can't remember where Lana's father has appeared from.

I thought her Mom and Dad were killed when she was young.

Was the Dad that died in the meteor shower not her biological father?

[LivingInSmallville]

Yup your right, mom and dad were killed when she was young, but that dad wasn't her biological father. Mr. Small is.

[girlin]

I wasn't really charmed by this ep.... dunno why though.

[Nimkong]

It was good.There was finnaly a good story after the last episode,FOTW was kool, and everyone tied in.

[Supsfan]

I just rewatched this episode and it's better for the most part then I remember.

On the positive side I thought it's a great Clark episode. Any time we see Clark acting solo to save the day it's a huge positive in my books.

Not sure if it's a positive or negative but the Lana plotline is so bad it's comical. Basically she has her step mom lay a guilt trip on her that she is breaking up the marriage on one hand, and on the other Chloe is blaming Clark for paying to much attention to her. She just can't win can't she. While the plotline was unintentionally funny it was pretty piss poor writing overall.

I will say the Clark/Lana interactions were nice in this episode which is always a bonus, but on the negative side Chloe's plot was the only sore spot of the episode. Watching her constantly have pouty face and putting Clark on a guilt trip got tiring fast. I will say Clark not taking her crap was rather refreshing. Sadly the nice Clana interaction as well as Clark having a backbone when it came to Chloe in this episode seems to have only tried to setup the events later in this season(ie everything is great in Clark's life but then it goes to hell), I would have much preferred the show kept Clana at the tone of this episode then the directions they took.

Overall it's a good episode since you can easily ignore the bad parts and enjoy the great A-plot

[RightWingConspirator]

We gotta keep in mind that a huge part of the audience in the early ears were teenage girls and young women, hence all the romantic angst.
Lana had reason to feel bad; she was the reason Jennifer was ditching Henry (bad mistake, losers should stay together and not bother the rest of us) and she was the reason Chloe and Clark weren't speaking. Fun Fact: She didn't actually do anything, but she was still the reason! Girl had style.
For me, the story was about the thugs attacking the LuthorCorp van, and Clark trying to stop them from any more successes. Storming into Lex's mansion was cool; loved seeing Lex admitting, with no concern, that he bailed out Eric Marsh, only to be mortified to learn Marsh nearly killed the Kents. Lex was cool.

[Supsfan]

We gotta keep in mind that a huge part of the audience in the early ears were teenage girls and young women, hence all the romantic angst.

Sadly that teenage angst dragged down many episodes, thankfully this wasn't one of them

[RightWingConspirator]

Sadly that teenage angst dragged down many episodes, thankfully this wasn't one of them

Being older than dirt, teenage angst stories tend to cause me to grind my teeth and consider slitting my wrists. However, I didn't mind 'em in Smallville, since they played a role in Clark's journey to becoming Superman. Now that the series is complete, it's almost fun to watch it now, knowing how everyone turned out as adults.
Yeah, we know Superman's girlfriend/wife is Lois Lane. But we didn't know back in the day if Chloe was even going to survive the end of the series.

[Supsfan]

Being older than dirt, teenage angst stories tend to cause me to grind my teeth and consider slitting my wrists. However, I didn't mind 'em in Smallville, since they played a role in Clark's journey to becoming Superman. Now that the series is complete, it's almost fun to watch it now, knowing how everyone turned out as adults.
Yeah, we know Superman's girlfriend/wife is Lois Lane. But we didn't know back in the day if Chloe was even going to survive the end of the series.

I am a more action, less drama type of guy, especially when it comes to relationship drama. I understand why the show needs relationship drama but at times it's overkill. Even by Season 3 sometimes it felt like beating a dead horse with some of it.

I prefer episodes like Witness where the main plot is Clark doing something proactive to be the hero over more drama based episodes(say like Calling 2 episodes later)

[jon-el87]

This episode marked the final appearance of Henry Small. After this season, he was completely forgotten. It's a shame that they did. After this we went back to Lana's parents being dead and everyone "leaving her". I certainly hope the writers didn't erase Henry Small (and the half-siblings Lana had through him), simply because his existence made Lana happy.

The main plot is another showcase of Clark's future need to establish a dual identity. He becomes a witness to a robbery, but can't come forward (as he can't give a witness statement, which would include information about the metal plate, without revealing that he has x-ray vision), then the robbers go after his parents, after the failed to kill him. They can't harm him, but they can harm those he cares about and that's why he'll need a dual identity. I suppose one could argue that, after this episode and "Rogue", that Clark would've learned that he'll need a dual identity (rather than waiting another five years). However, at this point in his life, he isn't actively going out there to fight bad guys. He just keeps getting into these kinds of situations and how is he supposed to know (from an in-universe perspective), that this won't be the last time that something like this happens? Nor does he spend every week fighting bad guys. If we look at season 2, we've got episodes like "Fever", "Rosetta", "Rush", "Skinwalker" and "Visitor" (to just name some), where Clark doesn't really have an antagonist (apart from maybe a school bully or something. And do you really need a dual identity to handle a school bully). This season Clark only went up against superpowered antagonists in like seven episodes (including this one) and one of them ("Nocture") was his own fault. Giving you 15 episodes without a metahuman threat, that he needs to handle. And, among those 15, you have some episodes without any real antagonist. A dual identity, right now, would be more hazzle than it's worth. Even if they had made him a suit (one that Welling would've agreed to wear), at this point in the show, he'd only wear it for a few minutes, in a few episodes of the season. Simply because there is no reason in the remaining episodes, for him to wear a suit.

When it comes to the villains of the episode. I think they could have dropped the other two (whose names aren't even mentioned) and just focus on Eric. I like that they establish him as being an expert with chemistry, rather than just being a stereotypical dumb jock. I don't think their "cocktails" was 100 % Kryptonite, but rather Kryptonite mixed with other chemicals.