Smallville Season 4, Episode 1 – Crusade

I thought it was good, but not great. Some comments, in no particular order (warning – spoilers ahead):

• I would have preferred that Clark be wearing something Kryptonian in nature when he reappeared. I thought the nakedness thing was overdone and simply put in for titillation value.
• I liked Erica Durance’s Lois Lane – she didn’t seem as much a hardcase as other versions of Lois. I think the nicotine/cigarette addiction thing was poorly acted out, though.
• I did not care for Margot Kidder’s Bridgette Crosby, but I just don’t like Margot Kidder as an actress. Also I noticed she seemed to slur a lot of her words. I did like the reference to the Superman movies – “You and Dr. Swann?” “…in another lifetime.”
• There might have been additional shout-out to Superman III also. In the film, synthetic kryptonite made with tobacco tar causes a split-personality Superman, with his Clark Kent personality fighting his Superman personality over a character played by Annette O’Toole. In Crusade, black kryptonite causes his Clark Kent personality to fight with his Kal-El personality over a different character played by Annette O’Toole.
• I wonder where Dr. Swann got the black kryptonite and how he knew it would handle the problem. From what he has told Clark, what he knows about Krypton was learned from the radio messages he deciphered. The messages didn’t seem that extensive. His knowledge seems a little too detailed for that to be the only source.
• The flight scene was nice, but it looked somewhat shaky to me.
• Lana just runs into something Kryptonian in France? My guess is that somehow Jor-El is involved.
• I am wondering if Jor-El isn’t really Brainiac? IIRC, in the comic, the Brainiac computer tried to make Clark more Kryptonian, getting rid of his earthly traits.
• I am guessing the ancient repository of knowledge Lex referred to is the Fortress of Solitude.
• The presence of a Kryptonian artifact in an Egyptian tomb pushes the Kryptonian presence on Earth back to at least 500 BC and probably farther back than that.
• I think it is a jump for Clark to assume Chloe is alive because her coffin is empty. Not a large jump, mind you, but it would merit more investigating. Also, would Clark just blurt it out about Chloe being alive to someone who doesn’t know his secret?. Now he has to explain why he thinks that. It’s not like he can say, “I checked out her coffin with my X-Ray vision and there is no body in it.”
• With Jonathan waking up when Clark regains his memory, does that mean that Kal-El was somehow keeping him unconscious?
• What exactly did happen to Clark over the last three months? Hopefully that will be a major plotline of the season.
• Lionel and Lex Luthor were wonderful as always, but I just wasn’t that interest in them in this episode.