Great dialogue for Perry. I wonder if MM did any ad-libbing to punch up the script. I really liked his guest spot. I went in thinking how much like his guest spot on the X-Files this was going to be, and they salvaged that by referencing it in the best possible way. Go them. Plus I like drunks.
It was short-sighted of Lex to annoy the doctor who is responsible for declaring him psychologically fit to work. (I wrote that at the beginning of the show, and then it turns out I was right. I'm surprised Lex didn't play that one better; it seems to me that it would have been easy for him to suave his way through a few couch sessions, pretending to be earnestly interested in introspection, enough to pass himself off as functional.)
"Maybe this is a joke to you, but my parents died that day." Sigh.
Lex listening to the waves...that ought to be a poem. It certainly looked like one. Then there was the expression on his face when Lana said the name "Perry White," and his avenging angel visit to the bar. Yowza. But the hard, mobile architecture of his face as he stood on the country road with Perry, bitterly recapping their previous encounter--that was the true beauty shot. But of course it ties with his face when Perry is digging at him about Clark.
Okay, you know, Clark in this episode. I don't know where to begin. First, he was insanely reckless and culpable in running to a stop in front of a car whose driver he could have killed--didn't even stop him ramming a telephone pole. Then he tosses a tractor a thousand yards, oops, and doesn't even *try* to run and catch it when (a) it's probably very expensive and (b) it's heading toward a two-lane road where it could kill anyone happening by. The humor yielded by his encouters with Perry would be priceless except for the price of my annoyance with these careless, plot-expedient hijinks. Were we supposed to be left with the impression that the initial accident was caused by poor motor control as a result of the flares? Hmm. I may have blipped that.
Clark in Colorado Springs. Who's going to write the SG crossover? Also, why did he have to exposit his movements to his dad when he could have called him?
Am fascinated by what's up with Lex. Very glad that their apparent gaffe re his sickness was not a gaffe. His arc is shaping up to be a lovely one.
Why would Clark's body be affected by a loss of powers? I mean, his powers are distinct from his physical invulnerability, aren't they? His physical make-up doesn't strike me as a "power" per se, but as something inherent about him. Then again, I don't really know much about canon, and I do recall that being stripped of his powers in the second Reeves movie left Superman essentially mortal, so never mind me. I loved the solar flare idea, though. I assume that in itself is a lift from comics canon.
Lana's final speech just made me want to slap her silly. I want her to become a krypto-mutant frog girl with bulging eyes and a throbbing, warty face, and I want Clark to wake up and smell the Lex.
Great, great ending between Perry & Clark. And cheesy though it may be, I've loved "Walking in Memphis" for a long time (also used in X-Files, natch). Didn't like this version, but oh well.