On January 25, 2007 Smallville had an remarkable and dramatic episode ("Labyrinth" [not "Pan's Labyrinth"!]), after a run of gee-whiz comic book stories for the past couple of seasons. (Okay, matter of taste, if you like it.) Clark is in his barn when his shaggy dog (Krypto) tries to warn him of an invader. Clark suddenly awakens in a mental hospital, in what seems like either a dream or a parallel world. The "explanation" is that an entity from the Phantom Zone possesses him and has stripped him of his powers, and he must annilhilate the entity to return to his defined world of being "different" (or even "special").
He reviews the past five years, and is told different interpretations of the events, back to the day (in the 2001 Pilot) that he saved Lex from drowning after the car accident on the bridge. Finally, another m.p. who claims to be from Mars (sure!) gives him "the truth."
Visually, the episode is striking, lots of black and white and blue, a stark world of being institutionalized, rather than the garish, rainbow-colored world of Smallville in the usual comic book episodes. The episode takes on the character of a social commentary, that sometimes people are put into mental institutions to satisfy the political and social goals of others. Here, Lex, maybe, or the entities from the Phantom Zone.
Clark is supposed to be 19 now, and that was my age when I was "hospitalized" at the National Institues of Health for seven months for mildly "reparative" therapy after my 1961 William and Mary expulsion (detailed here). The Pilot episode in 2001 has a curious parallel to my own experience in that chapter, in that the scarecrow corresponds to college hazing ceremonies to bring in line freshmen who are "different". In Season 3, I believe, there is an retrospective episode called 1961, in which Jor-El visits Smallville, and there is a theater marquee of the movie hit that year "Splendor in the Grass" which figured into my own story at William and Mary in a curious way.
Also, note that the Jan. 11 episode "Hydro" (repeated on March 29) features a visual of the free Metropolis rag "The Daily Dish". Is this a deliberate reference to Andrew Sullivan's blog. Maybe, because Smallville is trying to make a political statement about "political marriage" -- that is, Lex and Lana, to create political or economic hegemony with a procreation event. (EJ Wells is doing the same thing to Sami on "Days of our Lives," procreating in her womb "Rosemary's Baby".) Now a marriage between Clark and Lana could have been the most hetero possible -- opposite planets as well as genders. How is that for supporting the ultimate "pro-child" institution. Of course, creating children for political purposes is not pro-child or really pro-family. So we come full circle back to wondering about Andrew Sullivan's claim of "a right to marry" (including gays). Oddly, Tom Welling directed this episode himself. An episode in season 3 called "Velocity" had odd social-political contexts, seeming to build on my own writings about "living vicariously" through upward affiliation -- but Pete is now gone as a character.
Supernatural had an episode ("Night Shifter") in which Sam and Dean pull off their usual impersonations in order to foil a bank heist, kind of a replay of the movie "Inside Man". This episode takes place in Milwaukee. Sam (Jared Padalecki), a pre-law student, is supposed to be the more stable of the two brothers (Jared was, according to imdb, a good student in high school and the character he plays seems to resemble him), as Dean (Jensen Ackles) is the hothead cop -- both actors grew up in Texas. In a later episode, Sam will be deflowered by a female werewolf -- out of character, as it is hard to believe that Sam could become a werewolf himself -- but remember the canceled soap opera "Port Charles" and how it ends? (Caleb (Michael Easton) went on to "One Life to Live".) Jared's wrist fracture seems to have finally healed. Like Brad Pitt in Se7en, he just went on filming with it.
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