Episode Report Card Omar G: D+ | 3 USERS: C YOU GRADE IT Prom-'n-Aid
By Omar G | Season 4 | Episode 18 | Aired on 04.19.2005
In a hurry? Read the recaplet for a nutshell description! Finished? Click here to close.It's prom season in Smallville and nobody wants to go. Chloe, Clark and Lana have all decided to sit it out because of their respective dating situations (Chloe and Clark aren't dating anyone, even though Clark could have used "My wife was hanged" as a pretty great excuse not to go; Lana doesn't want to take Jason). But there's a Mean Girls-esque girl named Dawn who does want to go, and when she's in a car accident and thrown out of her car into a pumpkin patch of Kryptonite, her disembodied spirit can swap bodies at will. Yes, like that Denzel Washington movie. She possesses MamaKent, Lana, Lois, Chloe, and even Clark on an unholy mission to be prom queen. She almost gets there, too, in the body of Chloe, who is surprisingly elected prom queen; but when she discovers that the students weren't voting against Dawn ironically, she freaks out and tries to burn the school down. Clark stops Dawn-in-Chloe's-body before being possessed himself and uttering the great line, "The crown's mine, bitch!" and smacking Chloe. Ow! Not cool, Clark! Bo Duke uses Kryptonite to exorcise the girl out of Clark's body and everyone goes back to pretending Bo wasn't recently shot or that this season hasn't been a total freakin' bummer.
Lois the Enhanced is asked to dance by Clark after ending up at the prom. But instead of saying, "Hey, give Chloe a pity dance," she directs Clark to dance with Lana, who just walked in looking preternatural for the occasion. She and Clark dance while the band Lifehouse serenade Lana on behalf of Al and Miles. Jason, who was there when the body of poor Margot Kidder was found on Lex's estate earlier in the episode, sees this dance and gets angry. Which fits with the plot twist that he's now evil and conspiring with his mom against Lex. Good for him! Chloe is told by Lois that she'll soon be free of all this horrible treatment she's suffered. I'm not so optimistic about her chances. Want more? The full recap starts right below!
This episode was called "After the Prom" by the WB, but as near as I can tell, there was no "After" anything. Were they talking about Jack & Bobby? Your local news broadcast? Did the promo department even watch the episode? Magic 8-Ball says, "My Reply is No."
We do indeed open on the prom. The strummy, crappy strains of Lifehouse are playing. Sadly, there's no life in this house. The camera cranes down on people dancing. The lead singer/guitarist on stage is thinking, "If we play our cards right, in a few years we could be as big as Remy Zero! Look what appearing on Smallville did for them!" The Big Banner Committee has outdone itself with "Smallville High Prom: Look to the Stars," a banner creation featuring drawn-on stars and a cursive font I shall dub "Laverne Serif." The people on the dance floor look very confused. Do we dance slow to this? Or weave side to side? Breakdance? Some people look like they're trying to do all three at once. The singer, sporting a dark sports jacket over a t-shirt, sings about how memories can't be erased, and he knows because he tried. It turned out that Eternal Sunshine movie was only fiction.
As the song continues playing, we see someone's feet as they clomp down a high-school hallway. The feet are wearing high heels. Cut back to the singer. Oh, he knows of pain. He feels you, y'all. He knows what it's like to be unloved and unspoiled by the touch of groupies every single night on tour. Hell, that was his life for almost a whole three months out of high school. Cut back to the girl in heels. She's wearing a strapless dress. We see her from behind as she whacks a fist into a fire safety glass case to retrieve an ax. Do schools really keep axes on display like that under breakaway glass? Lifehouse remind us that time is passing by. Thank you for that, Lifehouse. I'll be more careful with my electronic planner. The girl in the gown continues walking down the hallway, toting her newly acquired ax. Lifehouse Guy, wielding his own musical ax, says it's just time to move on. And we shall. Cut back to the ax girl, who is wearing a pretty tiara in her blonde hair. Lifehouse Guy, back on camera, hopes whomever he's singing to lands on their feet and finds a way back to him. This guy is practically Bob Dylan. I've never heard sentiments like these in a pop song before!
The song is still playing in the background as Bo Duke walks up the school stairs. He's looking quite snazzy in a suit. He looks at some of the posters on the wall as he goes. He stops at the top of the stairs and is surprised to see Chloe, wielding the ax. She cracks him across the face with the handle, and Bo falls down the stairs. Shouldn't he be hobbling in the first place, since he was shot in the leg last week? That fall looked painful, too. But back to the strummy-strummy. Lifehouse Guy is singing lyrics I can't hear anymore because my Trite-o-Meter went into Protect and Encrypt mode. Thank you, Trite-o-Meter. You've saved my brain yet again.