DtS Review – Legion
By: Kevin
“I don’t know. No glasses? No tights? No flights? So far, he’s nothing like The Man of Steel.”
~ Garth Ranzz
The once beautifully adorned barn on the Kent farm is now a shambles – the aftermath of Doomsday. Lana & Clark arrive back at the barn. As with times in the past, Clark wants to take most of the load himself & tries to keep Lana from any of the worry, but Lana’s not the same person she was before. It’s only been 7 months since she’s gone, but apparently they’ve been a long 7 months. It’s still a mystery why she left or where she’s been, but she’s definitely a more determined person now, and I think that’s definitely a step in the right direction. From the beginning of Smallville, Lana’s slowly but surely become a more confident & stronger young woman. Whatever the past 7 months have brought her, it seems to have been pretty galvanizing.
After Lana leaves, a piercing light comes from the loft. Once there, Clark finds an axe-wielding masked man who plunges his axe into Clark’s ribcage and knocks him down the stairs. The masked man comes down to finish the job only to be stopped by 3 more mysterious individuals. After they make short work of the masked man & remove a ring from his finger, he disappears in another piercing light. They introduce themselves to Clark as the Legion – who go separately by the names of Rokk, Imra & Garth – they’ve come from the 31st Century. They are aliens from other planets who came to earth in the future to form the Legion in order to help other as Clark has. It’s because of Clark’s future heroic deeds as Superman that all this is possible. They’re his fan-club of sorts – with Garth being the fanboy having a geek-gasm around his hero. But not all people in the future love Superman – the masked man (known as the Persuader) was one of them. They discover that the Persuader did not come back to the past to kill Kal-El. He in fact destroyed to Phantom Zone crystal that Kara used to extract Faora from Lois a few episodes back. According to history, that crystal was supposed to be used to extract Brainiac from who he possessed in our present day. Now, that is no longer an option.
The three actors that portray The Legion are great. And, due to the fact that the actors are unknowns (at least to me) I’m doubly impressed. Ryan Kennedy plays Rokk Krinn/Cosmic Boy, the eldest & the leader of the bunch. Alexz Johnson (who incidentally starred along-side Laura Vandervoort in her pre-Smallville role on Instant Star) plays Imra Ardeen/Saturn Girl – a telepath & the lone female of the bunch. And finally, Calum Worthy plays Garth Ranzz/Lightning Lad – somewhat impulsive & the youngest of the bunch. Some people have said this episode was weak – perhaps that is due to the long hiatus after Bride or something, but I didn’t feel the episode was lacking much at all. At times, Calum Worthy seemed like he might have been over-acting a little bit, but other than that – I found it compelling & I really felt the sense of imminent peril.
Alright, back to the show – in The Fortress of Solitude, Brainiac has taken over Chloe’s body after she arrived with Doomsday. Brainiac has nothing but contempt for Davis & his so-called feelings for Chloe. He scoffs at them saying they were nothing but a program he instigated to draw Davis to Chloe in order to get to the very point they are at. It’s really neat to watch Brainiac possessing Chloe. Allison Mack is deliciously evil in her portrayal and Chloe looks eerily fabulous in her torn & bloody wedding dress with darkened eyes. Brainiac goes on to tell Davis that 12 days in Fortress will rid him of any of his humanity & he will emerge as Doomsday, full of rage & ready to annihilate Earth. And I say, bring it on baby!
Clark learns that without the crystal to destroy Brainiac, the only way to stop him is to kill Chloe – his host. Of course, Clark will not even consider this idea, as he always believes there’s another way to solve a problem without causing someone’s death. This episode is really cool in the way it contrasts present day Clark with his future self. The Legion (and we the audience) knows the destiny of Clark – the hero he will become & the power he yields in defending the world. But, Clark hasn’t reached that level of greatness yet. Garth particularly starts to doubt Clark is the right guy. No cape, no flights, no tights? That’s hardly Superman. That was a pretty clever nod at the show itself and it has a ways to go yet before it’s reached its own destiny. Geoff Johns is the writer of this episode and he’s got a hefty comic book resume behind him. Who better to write an episode so heavy in mythology references? I don’t know Mr. Johns’ work personally, but I can tell that this episode is a little set apart from the others. It feels similar to the episode Justice from Season 6.
At The Isis Foundation, Lana gets a visit from Imra. Lana thinks Imra is a bit delusional at first, but eventually she believes Imra’s story about being from the future. Imra tells Lana she must convince Clark to sacrifice Chloe in order to stop Brainiac. In the future, Imra knows of Lana Lang through stories she has heard all her life. She knows of the hardships & sacrifices Lana has had to make in her life & because of this – she knows Lana will eventually realize that Chloe needs to die for the greater good. That got me thinking, if I were in Lana’s shoes that would be pretty crazy to deal with. How do you deal with that? This person knows me, from the future. She says I should do this because it’s what I would do – but it goes against what I believe is right. That’s a crazy notion.
The Legion decides that Clark might not yet be ready to make the difficult choice that he needs to in order to stop Brainiac, so they track him down at the Daily Planet where he has begun to siphon off the collective knowledge of the human race, through the internet, one mind at a time. They are able to shut down Chloe’s body temporarily but Brainiac is still at work in the computers. Clark arrives just in time to stop Rokk from killing Chloe & convinces them that there has to be another way to save her. Using all of their powers combined in ways they never thought possible, they are able to extract Brainiac from Chloe’s mind. It’s a pretty awesome spectacle. And when Brainiac is subdued, his hold over humanity, including Davis Bloome is released.
After the chaos has subsided, Clark meets Chloe back at the Talon and she is of course grateful to Clark for not giving up on her but she also hopes that if the day comes when he needs to choose between saving her life and saving the world that Clark will choose the latter. And he needs to know she’ll be okay with that choice. Clark just sort of plays it down & changes the subject, but I would actually love to see that. Not that I hate Chloe or anything – I don’t. But what a dramatic & tragic choice that would be! And as Rokk says in this episode, “Maybe Chloe’s death is what inspired him to take flight in the first place.” I think that notion has awesome potential. I secretly hope that the series finale of Smallville will hold something of that nature within it.
Also, it turns out that with Brainiac’s defeat; Chloe’s knowledge of Clark’s secret has been restored. I’m not sure exactly how this happened – since they were initially removed by Jor-El when Brainiac was supposedly removed the last time. Hmmm…
Imra & Lana have a moment together by themselves while the boys put the barn back together, and Lana finds out that she’ll be known for a lot more than her relationship with Clark. And that whatever secret she has about her life in recent weeks is hers to keep. And the mystery of Lana Lang deepens!
After the barn is fixed, it’s time for The Legion to head home. But not before Garth gets and nifty autographed baseball from CK. Seriously, how cool would that be? Right before they leave, Rokk gives Clark a Legion ring & tells him to be careful in the days ahead. It seems something ominous could be right around the corner – but hey, this is Smallville after all, right?
As much as Smallville has been about Clark Kent reaching his super-destiny – so is Legion. And now that Clark knows he has a specific destiny to fulfill, how does he reach that? A person could go crazy knowing knowledge about themselves in the future, which is why The Legion had such a strict code about this at the beginning of the episode. It’s for good reason – if you’re gonna time travel, do you business & get out before anyone knows you’re there. But, it never really goes the way you plan. Luckily for Clark, Lana is able to give him some helpful advice that she’s come to realize – that there may be a destiny to fulfill, but to do it on your own terms & your own time table, not anyone elses.
Alright, there you have it – Legion – pretty solid in my opinion, rich in Superman lore & a compelling storyline that should entertain even the novice viewer and comic buff alike.
