Smallville (TV Series) Nocturne (2002) User Reviews

A Dangerous Alliance

[Rcwilkinson123 · 8/10 · 17 September 2007]

This fifth episode of Season 2 is surprising because it introduces a partnership that few could have imagined- the pure-loving mother Martha Kent with the evil and twisted mind of billionaire Lionel Luthor.

Of course, Lionel's motives are deeper than just believing that Martha would make a good assistant, and that he wants to help keep the Kent farm, which has been in the family for generations, above water.

In the alternate but temporary storyline, Lana, with Clark, discovers that a boy is kept imprisoned by his parents in their home because of the effects that sunlight has on their child. The boy becomes super-strong with exposure to sunlight radiation, similar to Clark's ability. This was a result of LuthorCorp testing that was investigating the mysterious effects of a mysterious green substance.

This is another solid episode.

Close to Luthor

[claudio_carvalho · 8/10 · 23 April 2006]

Lana Lang finds some poems from a secret admirer in the gravestone of her parents in the cemetery. Later, she meets the author, Byron Moore (Sean Faris), a weird teenager kept locked by his parents in the basement of their farmhouse. They believe the boy is abused by his parents, but sooner they realize that he was the subject of an experiment of a laboratory of Luthor Corp, being powerfully evil. Meanwhile, Martha Kent is invited to work as the assistant of Lionel Luthor, and she accepts the invitation under the reluctance of Jonathan Kent.

The greatest surprise of this episode is Martha Kent working with Lionel Luthor. I honestly would never believe to see this partnership in "Smallville". The lead story of Byron is only reasonable. The music score is excellent as usual. My vote is eight.

Title (Brazil: "Nocturne: Poemas de Amor" ("Nocturne: Poems of Love")

Weakest Episode of Season 2

[spasek · 6/10 · 19 May 2022]

This is the first of many aftermath episodes involving Clark and Lana. Clark does something wrong. Lana gets upset. And the aftermath episode is where things magically resolve themselves by the end. This would get tiresome by the 4th season, and cringeworthy by the 5th and 6th seasons.

I've always felt that the writers should have taken a different path with Lana. Pete and Chloe were fine after learning about Clark. What would have happened if Lana was actually the only one who wasn't okay with it? How would that have impacted the storylines as well as their relationship? This might have been more thought-provoking than stringing this thing out for six years!

Souders and Peterson wrote this strange episode of a boy who's a poet, who is more like a vampire than anything else. Even his contorted face looks like something out of the Buffy universe.

The boy's parents confess that they were simply trying to protect him after an experiment gone wrong. And yet the father acts like the proverbial psycho, Kentucky dad than anything else. And he also conveniently disappears halfway through the episode.

The strength of this episode actually rests with Martha Kent going to work for Lionel Luthor. This would prove to be a dynamic that would be strangely compelling over the course of the next several seasons, as it becomes very obvious that Lionel is infatuated with Martha.

John Glover and Michael Rosenbaum were the best actors of the series, and I always delighted in episodes that focused on one or both of them. Glover, a Tony award winning actor, was easily the most valuable addition to the cast. Thank goodness, they were smart to bring him on as a regular. When he and Rosenbaum left the series, their absence was painfully felt, and frankly, the show was never the same.

This episode isn't likely to blow anyone away. As good as "Red" was, this episode would prove to be its antithesis.