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