Thursday April 20, 2006
2T6419
Lionel is taken hostage by a masked man who forces him to play elaborate games for the prize of staying alive. Martha goes to confront Lionel after Clark tells her Lionel knows his secret and becomes a part of the game herself, fighting for her life.
Read Full Recap » (warning: possible spoilers!)Jigsaw called, He wants his movie series back! hide show
Mercy-Lionel is taken hostage by a masked man who forces him to play elaborate games for the prize of staying alive. Martha goes to confront Lionel after Clark tells her Lionel knows his secret and becomes a part of the game herself, fighting for her life.
Yeah, more ripoffs! Season 5 at this point has been smothered by them thanks to the writers lack of originality. Instead of continuing with the Professor Fine/Brainiac/Zod storyline or creating ANY kinda of decent storylines for some episodes, the writers decided to capitalize on the SAW franchise and write a cheap imitation with Lionel right in the center. While John Glover is arguably the best actor on the series, but even his energetic performance can't take away from the fact this feels like a gimmick episode at best. Doesn't take away from the fact that you can't stop laughing from the fact that Lionel's kidnapper seems like his been watching SAW when too many times! Every suspenseful, life-threatening situation Lionel and eventually Martha are put in is more laughable after the next! The only remotely interesting developments are Lex, Chloe and Clark investigating the whereabouts of Lionel and Martha. I did like the scene of Clark and Lex watching Lionel and Martha trapped in the elevator. Its obvious Lex is frustrated that Lionel knows about Clark's secret and I love the ending scene between the two. Then there's Clark saving Lionel and Martha then Clark confronting Lionel about knowing his secret. It's a good scene made suspenseful when Lionel begins having a massive headache and begins writing a message from Jor-El. But besides that, I rather forget "Mercy" ever happened. It's neither fun nor fresh; maybe if the writers tried making a satire out of the SAW films, then this could have been a fun episode. But no! The writers so shamelessly try to play this out like a serious, thrilling episode that you're just laughing 'til the end.
If you love the Saw series, you'll love this episode! hide show
In this episode of Smalville, Lionel is held captive by one of his ex employees, Lincoln Cole. Lincoln sets up various fatal traps through out Lionel's captivity, one of them which includes Martha Kent. Lionel believes that his son, Lex Luthor, has something to do with this, he was wrong. Throughout the elevator scene, Lionel and Martha must choose who will die, because only one gets to leave alive from this trap. Lionel asks Martha to kill him, was he being a good guy or did he know all along that the gun wasn't loaded. Clark comes to the rescue and stops the falling elevator, Lionel is stunned by this, even thought he already knew about Clark. The episode ends with Lionel having some sort of attack after Clark confronting Lionel.
A vengeful Luthorcorp employee sets traps for Lionel and then Martha, and the deadly games force Clark and Lex back together to find them and end the threat. hide show
As Lionel is chauffered on US 40 in his Lincoln limo, his driver suddenly turns rogue, stopping the car on a railroad track. And then? And then? "A trainnnnnn started comin! (Ref: Along Came Jones) A masked tormentor appears on the screen, inviting him to play Hangman to prevent his imminent death. Guessing the puzzle answer, "No mercy," Lionel escapes the car and cheats death.
Clark commiserates with Chloe about Lionel knowing his secret, and perhaps having designs on Martha, but Clark has not told her yet. So as Martha quotes "truth, justice, and the American way" (the voiceover phrase from the '50s tv series), he tells Martha that Lionel knows. She tells Clark about the blackmail video of him escaping the explosion at Warehouse 15 ("Cyborg", four episodes back), and that Lionel took care of the threat (but we know Lionel paid the blackmailer). They were both hiding these things because they were protecting each other. But they agree - no confrontation with Lionel until they know what's on his mind. Lionel thinks Lex is behind the death attempt, but Lex is clearly not involved, and Lionel sees the truth of those denials. "Killing you would hurt the bottom line," Lex says to dear old dad.
Lionel's having his office searched for electronic devices, finding none, he opens his laptop and there's the masked avenger again, and he obviously has the office under surveillance. A disgruntled employee? A power outage darkens the office, and even Lionel's phone is bugged too, and then the Mask downs Lionel with an injection to the neck.
Lionel awakens in a dark chamber, being verbally tormented by the Mask, who is someone who was destroyed by Lionel. Various forms of torture are previewed, requiring physical challenges. Soon LIonel is playing barefoot barbeque.
Lex and Lana have a peaceful evening playing chess, but she wants to talk relationships, and discuss their kiss in last week's "Fragile." He's interested, she has doubts, and returns to Metropolis. Then he hears that Lionel is missing from the corporate offices.
Lionel manages to pass the skill test, avoiding immolation, but soon faces another - the Mask has captured Martha, and she's trapped in a glass cell with the water rising. Ms. O'Toole play this well, looking terrified, but not overdoing it. At the last moment, he guesses the puzzle and Martha escapes, and she's very wet in this scene. You only get one good take when the cast winds up a mess. But their next trap is in an elevator, and as Martha asks why he hasn't simply tried to be a good father, Lionel explains that he has been trying to teach Lex consequences, and to help him reach his own humanity.
At the Planet, clever Chloe refers to Lionel as "Darth Luthor," as Clark hears that Martha failed to appear at a fundraiser. Clark can see that the office is in fact bugged, and Chloe reveals another talent - reverse engineering the video/audio transmitter. Ok, that's going too far, even for Chloe. They find the origin of the control, but Clark has to defer speed in favor of riding with Lex in his (insert product placement here) Porsche.
The next challenge is a gun, the Mask demanding that one of them save their life by shooting the other, or both will die in the elevator. Clark and Lex have found the building, but all they find is a video screen reading, "Game Over," then video of Lionel and Martha and the gun. Lionel is going to sacrifice himself for Martha, but why make her pull the trigger? Be a man, and pull it yourself, Lionel, don't leave that heavy burden on her. She can't. Pushed to the edge, he pulls the trigger to end his own life...nothing, gun empty. Just then, Chloe traces the signal and Clark speeds off, leaving Lex to wonder again.
The Mask is unmasked - it's Luthorcorp employee Lincoln Cole, who lost home, family, everything in the machinations of Luthorcorp. Clark blows in as the elevator plummets, nice catch, Clark. Lionel saw this rescue, but he's maintaining secrecy.
As Clark and Martha worry over Lionel's knowledge, she leans to trusting Lionel, as they may not have a choice. Lex later found Lincoln Cole, called the authorities, and Cole is locked up. Lionel still covers for Clark's rescue, although Lex is suspicious. "Let it go", Lionel says, but we know Lex will never do that.
Clark finally confronts Lionel, who calls him Kal-El. To reveal his secret would change Clark's destiny, Lionel explains, but Clark is the one who is suspicious, warning Lionel to stay away from Martha. In this vein, Lionel shows more patience and determination than others in the Smallville scene. Uh oh, someone has drugged Lionel. He is falling and writing, quickly on a scrap of paper....to be continued next week?
Nothing extraordinary in this episode, a routine bad guy and some annoying torture scenes, but there's a bit of progress on the Kents - Lionel relationship, and darn if I'm not beginning to trust Lionel myself. Re-run rating C+.
This was one of the best episodes of Smallville ever! Very Thr3e and SAW-ish, this was intriguing and brilliantly done! hide show
This episode, 'Mercy', was possibly one of the best episodes of Smallville ever, similar plotting to that of 'Thr3e' and 'Saw' found an episode mainly based around Lionel Luthor which was brilliant to watch because the idea was so different to anything that I have ever seen in the show- less sci-fi and more contemporary horror as we were watching Lionel complete a series of 'games' for a masked mad man who 'had to be sedated by the state when they found Lionel was still alive.' I thought the acting was brilliant and really good to see some of the elder cast shine, John Glover and Annette O' Toole were truly great and the writing was fantastic.
This was also a really important episode as there was some serious plot twisting to the revelation that Lionel knew Clark's secret and this opens to an entire new story as what happened to him at the end?
I saw new hope through this episode in this show and really can't wait to see the next episode!
So similar to the SAW films it's unreal. hide show
I don't usually watch smallville - only i turned to ch4 today and this episode was on - it's so like SAW! I actually turned it on once it had started so I wondered if it was SAW, until I remembered that SAW would be on in the evenings and then saw it was smallville once clarke showed up. It's so similar that I can't actually beleive it was allowed to be made lol. Surely there is some kind of copyright infringement there? Good episode though! I had to watch it to the end once I had started to watch it.
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