Loved it? Hated it? Tell us what you think!

[SGuthrie27]

Meh... I didn't really dig this episode all that much. It was pretty much an excuse to set up all the different relationships that would be occurring over the bulk of the season, leaving Clark isolated to deal with his guilt in bringing the phantoms to earth. The set-up of the Lollie relationship was pretty cute -- their banter in their early reactions was pretty fun to watch. Chimmy... Eh... I guess it was all right here, but I was still stinging from the fact that Chlark didn't get a chance to have a real romance -- AGAIN -- so I wasn't really jumping for joy when they started to make out on that secluded hill. The "Did you just paddle me?" line was pretty hilarious though. The actress who played Gloria was pretty hot, and her powers were okay, but the plot in general -- putting her seeds inside men until they explode with vines -- was pretty lame, as was the way she was destroyed by episode's end. Oh, and the Lexana? BLEAAAGGGGHHHHHH!!! So, um... yeah... not my fave episode. I didn't mind Chloe saving Clark and Jimmy, though. Clark didn't know that he was vulnerable against the phantoms, so he couldn't have been aware of what would happen when he confronted Gloria. All in all, I have to give this episode 3 thorny alien tree branches out of 10 for being a shipper-fest of blah-ness.

[Komsomolets]

One of my all time Smallville top ten episodes for sure...

This episode had everything that you want from a weekly fix of Smallville. I can watch it again and again. There was teen angst, a bit of love, a lot of hate (see the Lexollie sparks fly), a freak of the week in the form of the plant loving phantom who basically impales Clark, Ollie showed up, Chloe was well being Chloe and starting the Chimmy thingy, Lois was her usual trouble rousing self lookin sexy as ever, and the episode even had sex even if it was the wrong people doing it, what more do you want? They say that if you feel something strong good or bad for a character then the writers did a good job. Well after this episode, I basically felt that Lana had to die, so I guess they did great!

The whole Lexana thing was revolting, but that was a large part of why I really love this episode. Although I have to say Lex looked fab in his Roman uniform, what better costume could you give a Luthor than the uniform of an all conquering empire, and Lana's dramatic entrance as Cleopatra to Lex's Anthony. All of that to 'It ends tonight' by All-American Rejects. An iconic scene. Lex finally got the girl, in the process winning that particular battle against Clark. We hate to see Clark get hurt, of course we do, especially when its worse than Kryptonite. We'd rather see him suffer Kryptonite than see Lana betraying him. There was the feeling that she was ungrateful, even though she could not have known that Clark wanted to marry her, even though she didn't know he was lying to her to save her life and had lost his own father in the process of reversing her death.

So Basically if Lana had died in this episode or shortly after, I would have felt relief, although I would have been sad for Clark who obviously was still in love and would have suffered doubly having already lost his father. Even though I felt that way, in retrospect I'm glad she didn't die.

[ck123]

sorry i kinda didnt like it too much

[hadezown]

This deserves at least a 5 for the costumes alone. +5 cause it was such an amazing episode with great performances and the PZ story. I guess -10 if you hate lexana. Personally I liked the lexana scene, I find it hard to call a sexy pair like that revolting.

[Supermania]

After rewatching this episode recently, I found it to be quite a good hour. The episodes in which Clark is tackling Zod or the Phantoms (excluding 'Static' in which he received little screen-time) are generally his best in Season Six. He was very confident in himself in this episode and maintained a clear head on what he was doing which is somewhat rare in pre-Season Eight Clark. Chloe was also written beautifully in this one in the way that she helped Clark with his investigation into the vine killings in the forest and her interaction with Jimmy was quite good; I prefer the couple in Season Six than in Season Seven (where they are written like an extremely bad soap opera). I thought the Oliver and Lois interaction in this episode was great; it was funny when Lois mistook him for a delivery boy at first and sent him away from the Kent Farm. Not sure if I take great leisure in the Lexana moments though - I don't think I've ever liked them. The ending montage where we see them about to have sex is strangely freaky...but never mind! The Phantom Zoner fight and the beginning of the Clark Kent-Lex Luthor rivalry more than make up for this. 4/5 imo

[Supsfan]

Chloe was also written beautifully in this one in the way that she helped Clark with his investigation into the vine killings in the forest and her interaction with Jimmy was quite good;

It's episodes like this that make me hate Chloe Season 5-7. There is nothing standout terrible in the episode but forcing Chloe into the plotline of Clark vs vinelady really drags down the episode. They should have made Clark be more proactive against the vinelady and let Chloe concentrate on Jimmy then the episode could be much better. Chloe saving Clark in this episode ranks in my top 5 dumb Clark saves

I don't know why the producers felt the need to shove Chloe in plots she really wasn't needed(ie there was easy ways to write Clark figuring out stuff for himself) but to often it became an annoying habit around this time

On a different note, it's sort of sad that when I rewatched this episode and saw Clark bounce the ball in his loft, all I said to myself was, well at least this is one of the least depressing Clark loft scenes to end an episode with ever on the show. lol

[TheSecretVampire]

It's episodes like this that make me hate Chloe Season 5-7. There is nothing standout terrible in the episode but forcing Chloe into the plotline of Clark vs vinelady really drags down the episode. They should have made Clark be more proactive against the vinelady and let Chloe concentrate on Jimmy then the episode could be much better. Chloe saving Clark in this episode ranks in my top 5 dumb Clark saves

I don't know why the producers felt the need to shove Chloe in plots she really wasn't needed(ie there was easy ways to write Clark figuring out stuff for himself) but to often it became an annoying habit around this time

On a different note, it's sort of sad that when I rewatched this episode and saw Clark bounce the ball in his loft, all I said to myself was, well at least this is one of the least depressing Clark loft scenes to end an episode with ever on the show. lol

Yeah, as elsewhere, Lex and Lana were having FUN in bed and poor Clark was all alone, lol

[super_j_man]

Okay so put me into the minority here because I actually liked this episode. It wasn't outstanding or great but I liked the Gloria plot. It was a nice refreshing twist to find out that she was a phantom rather than a FotW. Plus I liked the Lollie interactions here. There are definitely things that could have made this better but I was satisfied with it.

7 out of 10

[Simba_Muffy]

Every gets a woman or man and what does CK get? A ball! It's supposed to be HIS show, but he doesn't even get a girl.

[jon-el87]

Important plot developments, interrupted by Clexana melodrama. The Gloria plotline introduced the escaped Zoner plotline, that would run through the season. We also have Lois and Martha meeting Oliver Queen (which leads to the next episode). Unfortunately, such (more important) matters loose screentime to Clexana with Clark and Lex verbally fighting over Lana and Lana being unsure about how to proceed with her relationship with Lex (we should care, because...?). A deleted scene also had Clark saving Lana from a paparazzi (because he always has to save her... even when there is nothing to save her from). And the episode ends with Lexana sex, while Clark is unhappy in the Kent barn.

Beyond the fact that she began the escaped Zoner storyline, I didn't think Gloria had much too her as a character. And she was finished off quite quickly. Not sure if it was a budget issue (CG-vines costs money. Would've cost even more in 2006) or just a disinterest on behalf of the writer, when it came to the Gloria plotline and Clark having to stop her.

The episode was written by Tracy Bellomo. She only wrote one more episode for the show: the Lana-centric "Trespass".