wow! after watching wednesday night's episode of smallville, i must say that it is my favorite episode! i have been getting your emails and sorry it took me so long to post my review. but everybody i have talked to online and offline agree that this is one of the best episodes of smallville ever! i must have watched it four times! way better than last week's episode of "run"! you have to watch this episode if you missed it!

what happen? ( if you missed smallville this week, read this. if you saw the episode skip down to my review. i know what you are thinking and yes it is short. )

okay. basically the episode starts off with clark practicing ( football ) at the farm by himself then jonathan and jason walk up and jason tells him that a representative of metropolis university will be at friday's football game. just then clark hears a ringing identical to the sound the "key" makes and speeds off to find the source. his search leads him to the kansas state penitentiary in a visiting room with lionel and lex. lionel is asking for lex's forgiveness and is holding out his hand for lex to accept. clark uses his x ray vision and sees something in lionel's other hand and gets in between the two. lionel grabs lex and they switch bodies! clark lionel is taken away and lionel clark goes off with lex.

lex takes him back to the farm and is suspicious of clark's unusual behavior. lex takes off and jonathan asks clark to help by lifting up the tractor. lionel clark is suprised when he is actually able to lift up the tractor and lionel clark goes "of course. it all makes sense now." later lionel clark tries to liquidate the balance in one of his accounts but is unable to because the voice recoginition test failed. ( there is this one funny scene [ shades of spiderman ] where lionel clark pulls away his waistband and looks down ) martha walked in lionel clark can not hide his affection for martha and finds out about clark's superspeed and heat vision literally. jason shows up and clark brushes him off and announces that he has quit the football team.

meanwhile clark lionel meets lionel's cell mate ( forgot his name ) and expects to find lex in lionel's body. he is a genious mathmathican and is able to translate the kryptonian symbols. he tells clark that the artifact lionel had is a transference stone and it enables a person to switch bodies with someone else. clark lionel meets another prisoner who asks him about the money he owes him and clark lionel does not know what to say. ( this might have been a trap set up by lionel for lex but can not be sure... ) the guy tells him that he has a day to give him the money or else. ( you get the idea, it rhymes with hank. )

lionel clark then goes on a rampage. ( sort of ) he intimadates clark lionel into saying his account number and his password and totally embarassess chole and his super hearing leads him to jason and lana making out. lionel clark goes to the barn and finds out that his remaining account balance is two dollars and fifty nine cents! he is about fifty seven million dollars short thanks to lex. lionel clark is outraged and in walks lana. lionel clark and lana have a heated arguement and lionel clark makes a pass at lana. lana leaves and lionel clark speeds off to lex's mansion.

clark lionel then is able to convince martha that he is the real clark and lionel used a stone with a kryptonian symbol to switch thier bodies. martha goes out to find lionel clark.

lionel clark goes and starts talking to lex dempanding fifty seven million dollars. after much talk, lex is convinced that lionel has somehow taken control of clark's body. lionel clark is about to crush lex's throat when martha rushes in to save the day with a meteor rock but lionel clark and lex did not see it ( the meteor rock ). lionel clark speeds away.

martha calls jonathan who is in the kitchen and instructes him to get a meteor rock. just then lionel clark arrives and tosses jonathan around demanding to know what weakens him. the answering machine ( yes the answering machine ) saves the day. it is lionel's cellmate calling for lionel clark telling him that the transference is not permenant. lionel clark speeds away to the kansas state penitentiary. ( clark lionel and lionel's cellmate are in unison )

lionel's cellmate tells him that after studying the symbols further that the transference could reverese but theoretically if lionel clark kills clark lionel then there would be nothing to transfer back to and he would permenately stay in clark's body.

at this time clark lionel is overdue in his payment to the other prisoner and a fight ensues. clark lionel suprisingly fends off the other prisoner and a riot ensues with other prisoners and guards. lionel clark hears the alarm and speeds off to find clark lionel.

this is the coolest scene in all that is smallville! in my opinion it is even better than when kal-el took off into the sky! i am going to get this scene as my permenate avatar, i swear! ( a lot of people asked about this so i am going to address it now. the name of the song that played during the riot was "pain" by jimmey eat world. i went out and bought the cd after i watched smallville yesterday. the cd is "okay" but that song is awesome! )

you just have to watch this scene because it was so awesome! i could send most of the day talking about it ( i actually did ) but i will give you a very short summary. during the massiveness that was the riot, lionel clark finds clark lionel and is about to kill him and clark lionel gets clever and is able to switch back their bodies and speeds off.

clark askes his parents what kind of chaos lionel clark did and his parents say that chloe and lana came by and seemed really upset. lionel is being attended by a prison physician and explains that the illness that has completely disappeared and he is cured and it is a miracle. lionel seems to have some kind of life changing moment.

at the end clark's only friend is lex. clark finds out about jason and lana's relationship and lana demands that clark keeps it a secret. clark is devastated! and chloe wants nothing to do with clark and tells him that he needs help. basically clark is really screwed with everyone except lex and his parents.

last scene shows lionel's former cellmate cleared of his charges and walking out of prison a free man. ( i forgot to mention that lionel's cellmate was innocent and most likely framed for his federal charges ) he steps into a limo ( everybody thought it was lex for sure ) and bridgette crosby is in the limo and asks him if he retrieved it. he give her a metal box with the kryptonian transference stone inside.

the good:

what can i say? this episode was awesome! it blew "run" out of the water. the special effects were awesome! lionel clark interacting in clark's natural surroundings, at the farm and with other people were awesome! then the whole riot at the prison! best scene ever! you can watch it again and again for almost an hour. then how clark is screwed because of what lionel clark did in clark's body made for a great ending. i think it is safe to say that this episode is the best episode ever for a lot of smallville fans! lionel knows about all of clark's powers and the virgil swann foundation is in possession of the second kryptonian artifact that leads to the "ultimate treasure of knowledge." wow!

the bad:

there were a few mistakes in the episode but these did not really bother me except for one thing. okay there is a scene with lionel clark and lex where lionel clark tells lex "he is your only son!" what about lucas? lucas really needs to be put in another episode. i think it kind of left a void. do you know what i mean? but i can understand why this was the way it was. but this is what bothered me. i know that it was more dramatic and intertaining for lionel clark not to have a "real preexsisting knowledge" of clark's powers. it was better this way i agree. but how does lionel clark not know that clark is allergic to meteor rocks?!!! it is so obivious in season three and especially, especailly in season two! anybody remember "exodus"! clark was litteraly dying in front of lionel in the caves when lionel showed clark the kryptonite key! lionel closes the container containing the kryptonite key and clark instantly stops dying! come on lionel! what are you on? also clark could have told chloe that he and lionel switched bodies! she has seen enough weird things and she is not stupid. she would believe clark. the whole lana and her witch tattoo does not seem that interesting to me but then again it never did. lana and jason working together to solve this mystery? is it just me or do they seem to be way out of their league? but these thing make have no effect on my final review. this episode was to close to ultimate greatness to be discredited by a few mistakes that in the end do not really effect the quality of the episode.

favorite lines? ( there were too many to choose from. really. so i just picked some of the more memorable ones. )

chole to lionel clark at the torch.

"has the lionel luthor alert suddenly been lifted to orange?"

lionel clark with his arms out to martha in clark's loft

"i need a hug."

lex to lionel clark after lionel clark demands fifty seven million dollars from lex.

"that is an interesting number."

the ruben lb personal review: a plus plus

the ruben lb critic review: a plus

next week:

the inventor of crimson kryptonite himself mister mxyzptlk comes to smallville and clark and the football team are in a jinx.

man last night's episode of smallville was awesome! i have been waiting for this episode since i first heard about it last year! if you did missed it, find someone who recorded it. fast! get it... fast? okay i will stop now.

( before i start my review i have been getting a lot of emails about this so i thought i would address it real quick. in the last scene of last week's episode "devoted", clark looks like superman, he is not wearing superman costume. for those of you who have no idea what i am talking about, the writers of smallville usally put a few "superman suggestions" in each episode. in the last scene of last week's episode of smallville, as lois is walking away from clark on the football field and the cameras zoom out, clark is wearing a blue t shirt and blue jeans and he has his red gym bag over his shoulder and behind him. from far away, it looks like clark is standing how superman would normally stand and his blue clothes look like an outfit and his red gym bag looks like a red cape flowing behind him. it only gives him the appearnce of superman. he is not wearing a superman costume! )

what happen?

in this week's smallville the flash comes to smallville. his name is bart allen and he is a younger more headstrong version of the flash. he is a small time criminal in metropolis who saves jonathan from a truck yet steals his wallet at the same time. clark follows jonathan's credit card activity to a hotel and finds bart. bart outruns clark in metropolis and later finds him in smallville. clark tries to talk bart out of a life of crime meanwhile lex gets a kryptonian painting that when clark uses his x ray vision reveals a map to some kind of treasure. clark and bart have a falling out and bart steals the kryptonain painting. when bart tries to cash in the painting to a con in suicide slum lex shows up and the con gets the upper hand. clark shows up to save lex and bart and bart still makes off with the painting. bart later returns the painting but lex already know that it is map and is hiding it from clark. bart has a change of heart and seeks out others like himself and clark. also lana tells jason the truth about her tattoo and shows him the tattoo symbol on the cave wall.

the good:

what can i say. this is like the best episode yet or at least just as good as the season premiere. bart was so cool. i thought it was a good idea that the writers made "the flash" younger. after all the flash is younger than superman in the comics. i want to say that the flash is eight years than superman but i am not sure. ( i am talking about the wally west not the previous two flashes ) the concept of the flash going for bad to good was also a great idea. if they introduced bart as a hero like clark, choosing to help people instead of rob from them then the episode might not have been as enjoyable. clark coming off as a older brother and role model for bart was a good theme, similar to ryan in "stray" and "ryan". the fact that bart still chooses to ignore the morals clark is trying to instill in him rather than change immediately makes the episode appear more longer which is good. when bart still takes off with the map and even tries to subdue clark with kryptonite you get the sense the maybe bart will not become good right away and it is something that might take awhile. the special effects were amazing! the special effects crew executed everything perfectly! if you thought that the effects were not good enought or overdone, something is wrong with you. in one scene where bart chooses to run off again leaving clark behind in the barn, bart actually looks like the flash while he is running because it is just this red and yellow blur. and lex is back to his old habits keeping things from clark as well. what do you expect though? everything was great? martha and jonathan kent. great job! the could actually pull off being a real couple in real life, i feel.

the bad:

this is actually hard. i must have watched this episode three times actually looking for things to nit pick on. well... the lana and jason scenes felt out of place but that was mainly because everything else had to do either with clark, bart, and lex. but there entire episode can not be about these three so different people is nice i guess. i can not really think of anything else. can you?

favorite lines?

bart to clark

"it's a big world. see if there is anyone else out there like us. maybe start like a club or a league or something."

my overall:

there are usually two or three episodes per season that steal the show. this might just be one of them. there are quite a few suprises coming this season that may even top it but i have been sworn to secrecy and i do not want to spoil it for anyone. just keep watching. anyway this episode was great. two heroes with one stone? okay that did not make a lot of sense but you know what i mean. if you missed this episode find out if someone recorded it fast. did i already say that? *scrolls up* if every episode of smallville was this good there would be no heaven because we would already be there. okay i might be overdoing it now. great episode! yeah!

the ruben lb personnal review: a plus

the ruben lb critic reveiw: a

next week:

a new dark side emerges from clark and it is not kal-el. and what does lionel luthor have to do with this transference?

tomorrow the flash will be on smallville! i have been waiting for this since i first found out about it last year! everybody needs to watch this episode, whether you watch smallville or not. i should have my review of "run" before thursday afternoon.

i have school tomorrow but i think i might skip. ( i am not sure yet ) i have a lot of homework and did not finish most of it. i was out and about for most of the day. i spent too much time at the gym today ( about three hours ) and took to long to prepare dinner. i finally got around to cooking this recipe for a triple cheese pizza. took a while to prepare the dough but it was worth it. i ate the whole thing. i went and registered for some volunteer hours at my church. they were saying that they needed some help for the past few weeks during mass and i though sure why not.

just finished watching law and order special victim unit. another great episode.

to sum things up:

*everybody watch smallville tomorrow ( it looks like a possibli a plus episode! let us see what my review says. yeah! )

*might skip school? ( it is not like you can absense fail college... right? )

*great workout today

*great dinner! ( guys take notes. ladies love guys that can cook for them. )

*volunteer work ( sure, why not. )

*the episode law and order special victims unit tonight was great ( why is there not a special victims unit game like law and order and law and order criminal intent? )

what a day? i worked out for over three and a half hours today! a new record! one day i will try for four hours but no more than that. after that i had a steak and a hamburger. great meal!

then i went to best buy to buy some dvd-rams and this girl asked me if i was shy? i told her "not nessacarily" and i asked her if i reminded her of someone she knows. she of course said yes. ( you have no idea how often i get this! no idea! ) she gave me her number to call her if i am not feeling "too shy"! i am not a big person but i think sometimes after i have worked out for a long period of time like today i seem a lot bigger than i normally am for a few hours. i say this because things like this or similar only happen after i am done working out.

the amber alert just came on a few minutes ago and the volume on the television was up really high. can there be a more scary sound than the amber alert? that sound always makes the hair on my arms and the back of my neck stand on end!

to sum things up:

*worked out for over three and a half hours today

*great big meal afterwards

*also i forgot to mention this above but i ran into one of my old assistant managers ( sort of ) and we talked for a while.

*got a girl's number?

*the sound of the amber alert scares the mess out of me

if you watch smallville check out my review of this week's episode below and let me know what you think!

what happen?

i thought this week's episode was good. basically the smallville high football cheerleaders were spiking the football player's "gatorade" if you want to call it that with " the love molecule " and kryptonite so all the football players became slaves to their girlfriends. it also has side effects though like enraged jealously and zombie personality. the quaterback tries to kil jason because he thinks that jason was after his girl but clark saves the day and becomes the new football team's quaterback. the rest of the football team is not too happy with their new quaterback replacement. meanwhile lex is still trying to patch things up with clark by trying to kind of buy him off and giving clark "all" the files he had on him and is eventually sucessful. chloe drinks the spiked gatorade and becomes devoted to clark and sees lois as competition and a threat. clark and reporter lois figure out what is going on and manage to put a stop to it and figure out a way to reverse the effects. go clark and lois! easy review this week.

the good:

this episode was good but i thought it was actually kind of "fun." by that i mean that the episode was presented to be enjoyable. kind of a funny premise with the cheerleader spiking the gatorade with kryptonite. and of course lois equals ratings! the "skin is in" theme for the first few episodes was still in effect for this episode with chole hitting on clark and one of the cheerleaders coming onto clark. it is a little cheesy but i do not think that it is doing more harm than good unlike most people who can not seem to stop complaining about it. lois is seeming more and more like a reporter every week. to bad she will not be in the next few episodes of smallville with lex pulling some strings and getting her into metropolis university. i really enjoyed this episode so i did not get into my usuall review'e mode. the best part was the number of "superman suggestions" ( i could not think of a better name to call them ) in this episode. i counted eight! it that another superman suggestion right there, maybe? that is more than any other episode! ( i think ) i caught all of them the first time i watched "devoted." ( but then again i really did not go back and watch it again. busy day! i barely had enough time to watch it once today! ) great job new writers!

the bad:

i will not nick pick this episode because i thought it was a fun episode. dare i say, funny? the only thing that bothered me about this episode was clark and lex. clark and lex, why? why? it think that it was a bad idea for clark and lex to patch things up so quickly. i was hoping that it would be something that would begin to take shape over the season. let us start with lex buying the football team new uniforms. even though his speech about a "fresh start" was aimed at clark, did lex really think that clark would not know what he was up to? lex is usually more sneaky and reserved about his methods. then when lex gives clark "all" the files he had on him and clark more or less believes him. you should have heard me. "come on clark do not fall for it!" *seconds later...* "d*mn*t!" but wait there is more! clark forgives lex at his mansion in the room where he had all the things about him. i will go ahead and let lex get away with most of the lines he said in this episode. i could have thought of something a little bit better but what he said seems ( seemed? ) reasonable. i was just really hoping that clark and lex's friendship would be something that would build up and take time. after all lex only betrayed clark more times than there types of kryptonite. there were other small things with other characters but it did not reallly bother me and they did not seem to stick out as much as the thing with clark and lex so it is not mentionworthy. also they could have given christopher reeve a better tribute. much better. just my opinion though. lois is going away! nooooooooo! but it makes for a better story as far as the season goes. i kind of felt that the writers digged themselves into a ditch by having lois lane going to smallville high. lois is my wife i do not care what anyone says... she just does not know it yet. that is all.

favorite lines?

teammate giving clark his new football jersey.

"you owe me one clark. i saved it from the toliet."

chloe to clark.

"wow... superhero and journalist. what are the odds?"

my overall:

good episode. as far as clark and lex goes, could have been better. maybe there is a reason the writers rushed into their renewed friendship. possibli? no lois for a while. *sigh* but i know when she is coming back. yeah!

the ruben lb personal review: b plus

the ruben lb critic review: c plus?

sorry that this review has taken me longer than usual. midterms are a pain and the fact that i am a little sick and also i am having a hard time concentrating because the repairs next door are so loud. this maybe not be one of my better reviews but this will not be the same for next week's review and the episodes that follow.

what happen?

when i saw the preview last week for this week's episode "facade," i thought it was going to flop of the fourth season. it seemed to similar to redux ( season two ). but i admit the episode was better than i originally expected. okay for those of you who missed this week's episode it was basically a filler episode. ( filler episode meaning that nothing really important happen and it is basically there to create a better setting for future episodes. filler episodes are also more likely to flop. ) the episode starts off as a flashback of clark's senior year where a young girl named abigail was being teased by the school football team because she has bad acne. anyway four years later thanks to her mother who has developed some kind of kryptonite needle therapy as a alternative to cosmetic surgery, abigail returns to her senior year of high school as a knockout. meanwhile it turns out that lois did not receive enough high school credits to technically graduate and go on to medical school. so she has to enroll at smallville high and thanks to chole who offers where a job at the torch, lois will have enought credits for her to only attend a semester. abigail is confronted by one of the football players who made fun of her and he comes onto her. he kisses her and because of her kryptonite therapy, he mentally sees his face horribly disfigured and get his by lois's car as he is trying to escape. jason gets a job at smallville high as an assistant coach and keeps his relation ship with lana a secret from everyone else. martha kent becomes the new manager of the talon and oh i forgot to mention... clark plays football. clark tries out for the football team, without jonathon's approval, and makes the team. abigail then tries her kiss of death on lana because her mother tells her that lana saw her with the football player before his freak accident and that might catch people's attention. so abigail attacks lana and see has to go to the hospital because of it. then lois goes to talk to abigail's mother and when lois tells her that she is going public about her cosmetic therapy. abigail's mother subdues lois and is going to use the kryptonite therapy on lois with bad intentions when clark show up and saves the day. i am not good with summaries, sorry. but here is my review.

the good:

i think season four is showing a stronger character in clark. without always thinking and worrying over lana, we get to see another side of clark that was always there but supressed. the flashback in the beginning was perfect. with the return of whitney for this flashback clip, having clark and lana's old looks reintroduced, and even playing the same song from another smallville high scene in the pilot episode made you feel like you were watching a deleted scene from season one. it was a great scene. then clark's choice to try out for the football team behind his father's back was great. you really get to see some good father and son interaction between them and jonathan learning to except clark’s decision shows that he is starting to look at clark as an adult. clark is reminding me more and more of superman. another great scene is with jonathan and martha looking into the future as far as finances go and clark in college. martha becomes the new manager of the talon and although jonathan disagrees, they both agree that they need the money. jason’s character is starting to take shape. it will be interesting to see what becomes of him especially since clark is opening up to him. lex did a good job as always excpet for one line that kind of bothered me. lois and chloe were a big plus. thier interaction is very geniune and lois beginning her career as a reporter at smallville high is creative. the ending was great with clark and lois's interaction at the peep rally as chloe just stood by thinking "what have i done?" see chloe that is what you get when you introduce your hot cousin to a guy you like. even though i do not like her as much as lois i feel bad for her. i mean lois is going to end up with her job and her crush in the future. ouch. oh, and did anybody else check out lois in that swimsuit like... thing? man, she is hot! i always thought she was the best looking one but... wow! if i was clark i would forget about lana and chloe and any others that follow and jump on that. you have to love lois. i know i do. micheal ironside, how can you not like him? he made a small apperance. great beginning and a great ending. great episode? well, let us see.

the bad:

okay. this was not a bad episode and i would have a hard time calling it a bad episode because i expected another redux. but i guess i am suppose to judge the episode on what it is and not what it was not. lois not having enough high school credits to attend medical school. okay she is twenty, twenty one. so she must have been out of high school for about three years now. if she graduated... why did she graduate? if you do not have enough credits to finish high school you do not graudate from high school. how is something like that overlooked and for so long? although this kind of bothered me i was able to look past it because the writers wanted to put lois back in high school and needed to come up with somekind of reason for it. i admit i could not have come up with a better excue for lois having to relive her high school days so it did not bother me enough to say that it was a mistake. jason and lana. i know that jason needs a way to notice clark and interact with him but nobody not knowing that jason and lana are going out? i just hope that this does not form some kind of love triangle between lana, jason and clark. we already have enough of that in those teen dramas. lana is worried about being suspended and jason is worried about being fired if anybody finds out. fired if you are lucky. not only is it unprofessional but illegal. then there is martha kent, the new manager of the talon. if you remember clark knows that lex has been lying to him all along. hasn't it occured to lex that clark might have told his parents and has it not occured to martha that lex has thought about this. i would have thought jonathan would have put stronger defense on clark's side because jonathan never trusted lex and with martha at the talon, this gives lex more means to discover more about clark. it is almost like jonathan and martha forgot about this. "he spied on our only son, who happens to be an alien and only acted as his friend to learn more about who he really is and where he is from but i am sure we can trust him again, after all he is a luthor." maybe the writers are aiming get clark and lex to interact a little bit again or more so they are trying to push what happen aside, my guess. there is a scene with jason and lex with lana in the hospital and lex doubts that jason is lying about himself and lana. lex goes right out and says, "i doubt that." lex is usually more reserved and it seemed to stick out like a sore thumb. even my mom who does not watch the show just happen to be walking by when he said it and she said she would have pictured lex to be more like the type of person who does not reveal his suspiscions.

i like the occasion freak of the week but cosmetic kryptonite? well at least they are creative. most people are asking me about clark playing football. to sum it up, he might not have been able to play football as a freshman because he was still trying to get a sense of control over his powers, but it has been four years so he can control his powers now, so yes it is possible for him to play football without killing anybody. he might slip and some people might notice something but it happens. after all he can type on a keyboard with smashing through it and pull on a door without pulling it off. so just relax and enjoy the show. also some people are complaining about the new sense of skin appeal on smallville. stop complaining, please. i know it is just to attract more people to the show but it is not cheesy. you and i both know that we can not say the same about other shows that remain on the air. a few things bothered me about this episode but it is okay because it is a filler episode and it is not intended to wow the viewers. basically not enough lex, no lionel but that is okay, jason is not as cheesy as he appears but probably not that smart, lana you have been replaced by lois ( on the show and in my heart ), jonathan and martha lex betrayed clark again how could you forget again? ( must be something in the smallville wather supply ), chloe figures out what is going on way to quickly, kind of bothered me and other stuff.

my overview:

good episode but not great. but that is okay. i would watch it again. if they were all great then it would not be as enjoyable. ( except the shield. every episode a minus or better. that show is the ticket. ) clark plays football and a scantly clad lois is introduced. oh, snap'e! but then again i kind of feel that the show owes me for having to see a naked clark and his naked butt in the season premiere.

the ruben lb personal review: b plus

the ruben lb critic review: b minus

on this week's smallville entitled "gone," lois and clark work together to try to figure out if chloe is really still alive and what has become of her. they later uncover that lois's father, sam lane ( played by splinter cell's very own micheal ironside ) and lex luthor worked together to stage chloe's death in order to lead lionel luthor to believe that she was dead all this time and that she could not appear before trail to testify before him. lana returns from paris to smallville because she finds the tattoo that she mysterios received in "crusade" to look very simliar to a depicted cave drawing she finds in the background in a photo of clark in the caves. lionel's freak assassin ( shades of terminator two: judgement day ) fails to kill chloe when she is found at the end of the episode thanks to clark and lois. chloe testify's and lionel is found guilty and lex takes control of luthorcorp.

the good:

i think clark did a great job of acting in this episode. his feelings of seeing lana again and interactions with lex and lois were sincere and definetly not overdone. scenes with clark and lois are fun to watch and "improved slightly" from last week's episodes and the next coming weeks will definelty tell where their friendship is heading. the shower scene might have been a little overdone but was fun to watch and did not effect the quality of the episode. also, i feel that their was a great scene with lionel and lex in lionel's holding cell. lionel tells lex that because he wronged and betrayed him that he will never have another moments peace for as long as he lives when he gets out. very powerful and intimidating scene, i thought. at the beginning of the episode clark's battle with the miliarty special unit was awesome. he threw those guys around like rag dolls. lois actually being able to fight off one of these guys was actually believeable and sincere, way better than lana being able to fight off others in past season episodes. finding chloe alive was obviously one of the more important scenes in the episode and clark's battle with this week's freak of the week ( more commonly known as fotw ) has pretty cool but seemed to similar to terminator two: judgement day. sam lane did a good job as lois's father and wouldn't mind seeing him again in the future. lois and clark's scene in her father's office was good and heartfelt as well.

the bad:

lana. lana return to smallville was put into the episode accordingly and most of the scenes that followed afterword were good and decent but towards the end of the episode lana's scenes seemed kind of weak. i thought the ending with jason coming to smallville to be with lana was a little corny and overdone. a much better ending could have given this episode a much higher deserved push in the right direction or even an improvement of this scene would have done the episode justice. basically the ending could have been better and left you with that kind of feeling like when you have a great dinner but the very last thing you ate was not as good as the entire meal and you are still hunger. ( and have to wait unitl next wednesday eight o' clock, seven central for your next meal. ) alos lana's second scene with clark in the caves was good but i felt that is was only because of clark. lionel's shanking ( yes, lionel was shanked while taking a shower in the middle of the episode ) could have been better. the dramatic classical music was too strong and "almost" annoying. i watched the scene over with no volume and thought it was better. a better, less stronger musical score or maybe if the scene would have happened really fast with little or no musical could have been better. a lot of little oversights. i find a hard time seeing clark's parents siding so easily with lex after all they have been through in the past. lex has done better things to gain their trust and for them and they still discarded it as a hidden motive and/or hidden agenda. where does lois get a tazor rifle in the battle last battle scene with clark and the assassain? could she have really snuck it off her father's base so easily? but then again she is really resourceful. clark could have done a more thorough job of searching chloe's explosion sight. all it would have taken really is a x-ray vision of the ground and he would have seen the tunnels. even if they were made of lead, a ground with a lead cover underneath would have just added to his suspicions. a few other things bothered me but are not worth mentioning and this was a good episode overall.

my overall:

first three seasons, i really liked lana. but with lois in the cast, i kind of wish lana would stay in paris. i like lois way better than lana. lois is so cool. this episode, i feel might give us hints or clues on how shape clark and lex's relationship will shape in the episodes to come. clark's thoughts on lex are very attention grabing. ( i could not thinkg of a better word, sorry. ) clark did a great job in this episode and really shows him looking into the future as far as lex goes and as well as for himself, slightly. also is it just me or did anybody notice that clark seemed more like superman in this episode than any other? the way he stood, acted, fought as well as other aspects of clark's behavior seemed parallel to superman. anybody else notice this?

the ruben lb personal review: a

the ruben lb critic review: b plus

i thought it would be cool if i gave a review once a week about that weeks smallville. so i guess i will start off with crusade. i will try to keep it short, let me know what you think or just your thoughts of the episode.

the good:

okay, i think this episode was really cool. the rating for the season premiere were good. it got beat by a doctor phil special, lost, and hawaii but that is okay. my favorite part was when kal-el ( kryptonian clark ) took off into the sky flying. when i first found out that the writers were going in this direction, i was hoping in the back of my mind that they did not make it look corny. but the special effects crew did a great job. lois lane's character played by erica durance was awesome. erica has played a lot of roles on several science fiction shows and i think she makes a great lois lane. i think that the scences and interactions involving lex and lionel luthor, martha and jonathan kent, lana lang and jason t. and lois lane and clark kent were well done and placed throught out the scene. the story was good and it a great foundation for future episodes like for example what happens to lana.

the bad:

i personally really liked the episode but a lot of people like the reviews i give them for movies and games because i do not put my personal thoughts into my review as much as other people. the only thing that bother me was small but the black kryptonite. there are eleven different kinds of kryptonite and black is not one of them. that is not what bother me though, i just thought i would throw that out there. there was no explanation for it or its manufactored purpose. i would have included something like it was made to counteract the effects of red kryponite on clark in case he was exposed to it again and it may or may not work on clark in this case. maybe something like it was made from red kryptonite and a little bit of green kryptonite to subdue him. a little bit of explanation would have been nice that is all. also how does martha kent pay bills and support the farm if jonathan and clark are not there to tend to the farm? she could have taken up a loan or used the remaining amount of lex's money from exile. oh, and i thought someone from the hospital should have been able to recognize clark seeing how is there every other episode in season two and season three. but these things were probably not included for dramatical differences or maybe they were and were just edited from the final version.

the ruben lb personal review: a plus

the ruben lb critic review: between b plus and a minus

i worked out for three and a half hours at the gym today. i got there at three o' clock and left a few minutes before six thirty! this is my longest weight lifting work out to date. i do not know what happen. i just keep going and going. normally i stop for a every thirty minutes for a minute break or something. i think a few people noticed but i did not care. but i know i am going to be sore tomorrow. i played basketball for a hour around lunch time so that would be a total of four and a half hours at the gym. i am doing the last of my homework right now. i can not wait to get to bed. ruben lb signing off...

just got online real quick to change my anubis avatar to a better superman one. if i find a better anubis ( movie ) file or convert the movie file i really want into gif then i will have that as my permeant avatar more likely. but for now i have to get to the gym. i will get online later though when i have more time. ruben lb signing off...