i was actually quite suprised by the week's episode of smallville. following smallville's previous track record for magic related ( themed ) episodes ( redux, jinx ), i can honestly say that the curse is broken! "spell" was very good. i was really suprised because from last week's trailer i expected it to be a little corny and maybe a small hint of sleeziness.

what happen?

okay this episode starts off with three witches being burned alive for witchcraft in france. the leader named isabelle looks just like lana and before they are burned lana casts one more spell that will allow her to be born again in a host that is chosen ( lana basically ) when she is reunited with a spell book. several years later lana buys the book on ebay and is with jason sharing information when she becomes possessed by isabelle.

lois is back in town and finds clark to help her set up chloe's birthday party. lana begins gathering things to make some kind of potion and lois finds her and is upset that lana did not take chloe so everyone else could set up the suprise party. lana then goes to clark to get a strand of virgin hair ( she needs at least two and she gets one from herself but was "unable" to get one from lois ) she tries to cut clark's hair and the scissors break! clark give lana a strand of his hair and she leaves. she then goes to lex to get some wine and when she sees the manuscript with the map hidden underneath she makes the map disappear and puts a spell on lex to play the piano indefinetly.

lana resurrects her two witch followers back into lois and chloe's bodies with the wine potion and go to chloe's birthday party. clark and jason start suspecting something and when the three of them get bored the cast a spell over the party to make it more "fun". clark was supose to meet a representative of a university there and is suprised to find clark dancing in his boxers among other scantily clad individuals at the party. clark wakes up the next morning half naked in his barn with others from the party and realizes what has transpired. clark goes to lex and to help him get pack on the right track with the college reprsentative and finds lex still playing the piano since yesterday! his hands are all bloodly along with the piano keys! lex is very exhausted and is barely able to tell clark that it was lana. jason confronts lana about the book and lana not acting like herself and she throws jason out the window and clark super speeds and saves the day. lana leaves a message telling clark to be at the barn.

clark is confronted and attacked by lana, chloe, and lois and he has to use all of his abilities to defend himself. with the help of chloe and lois, lana strips clark of his powers. lana knows that clark knows the whereabouts of at least one of the kryptonian crystals and is able to find out ( with the help of a little magic ) that the first crystal is inside a chamber in the cave wall. jason finds clark tied up in the barn and asks if he knew where they went. clark acts like he does not know and sends jason on a decoy mission and heads for the cave.

lana, chloe, and lois find the chamber in the cave and lana is about to take the kryptonian crystal when clark shows up he is still not recovered from their attack. but he has back up. no not jason, he has a shotgun! lois waves the gun out of his hands and picks up the kryptonian crystal but then it burns her hand and she tosses it and clark catches it. his powers are restored and he uses his heat vision and burns the book. there is a bright explosion and all four of them wake up outside the cave wall chamber back in the "main" ( ? ) cave room. lana, chloe, and lois do not remember and can not account for what has happen the past few days ( hours ). clark acts like he has no idea what is going on of course.

jonathan and martha confront clark about the mess ( undergarments from the after party ) is the barn. clark tries to explain what happen and tells him that magic can hurt him. lex goes to check on lana and after a short conversation lex reveals that it was him and not clark that got jason fired. lana wants nothing to do with lex now and she goes to clark and give another "your secrets, my secrets" apology. lana explains to clark what happen in paris with that tattoo ( i forgt to mention this above but jason also told clark a little about it when he untied him in the barn ) and lana knows that clark knows more about the caves than anyone and she askes clark if he know what the symbol on her back means ( it is still there ) and he says that he recognizes it from one of the cave walls but he does not know what it means.

the good:

great episode. the acting was sincere and believable. the facial expressions on most of the characters and the scenes were presented in a great fashionable order. the special effects were good as usuall. this episode reestablishes clark and lana's friendship or speaking terms, whatever you want call it. this is good. it helps for a better transition for the whole show. i was suprised by this episode. i honestly thought it was not going to be that good. everything in the episode was well explained and left no intentionally unanswered questions. there were a few small glitches but nothing major. great episode. lois was awesome! you know she is my wife, right? she just does not know it yet that is all. i liked it when possessed lois grabbed her boobs and you could see some jeaslousy in lana's face. that was great! i got some emails about this so i thought i would answer them here:

( q ) what does the symbol on lana's back stand for? ( a ) it stands for "water" ( see transference 04-06 )

( q ) how did lana, chloe, lois, and clark end up outside the cave wall chamber? ( a ) it was jor-el. seriously.

( q ) did they get choe's age wrong? ( a ) yeah they did. she should be turning seventeen. ( see crusade 04-02 )

( q ) was that lex really playing the piano? ( a ) i would say no. if you look closely it does not really appear that lex is really playing the piano. but i know that micheal ( the actor who plays lex ) does have a band and can play a variety of instruments so i can not say that i am absolutely sure.

( q ) what happen to the manuscript/hidden map? ( a ) lana just made it disappear. it makes sense that she destroyed it though. the manuscript has served its purpose. clark has it memorized and lex has the hidden map image already saved. ( see run 04-05 )

the bad:

the episode was not as corny as i thought it would. the scene with lana, chloe, and lois at the party using their powers seemed a little cheesy. and then there was clark dancing. yeah um... no! i thought i could not dance, man! hopefully that is something that the writers will never put us through. at first it was funny then it was just... no comment. but seriously i am just overexaggerating. some parts of the party scene could have been better but it did not really bother me. what lana said in transference ( 04-06 ) about witches and how this episode started off did kind of confuse me a little. i also thought that it would have not better if isabelle did not look exactly like lana. this confusion could have definetly been avioded. other than this i did not really notice anything else worth mentioning. that and i am kind of in a hurry today. a lot of things to do.

possessed lois checking out her new body

lois: i'm gorgeous! look at these! *possessed lois lifts up her boobs*

lana: *lana with a jealous look on her face* yes, they're very nice.

martha and jonathan confront clark with a bra they found it the barn loft and want to know what happen

clark: it was magic...

martha: i'm sure it was.

the ruben lb personal review: a

the ruben lb critic review: b plus

next week:

lex is accused of murder by a young women, clark goes to an unlikely source for help, and lana meets jason's mother who has a few secrets of her own in bound.