Smallville (TV Series) Persona (2008) User Reviews

Bizarro is the new Clark... but for how long?

[Rcwilkinson123 · 9/10 · 1 February 2008]

A famous villain- make that two famous villains- from Superman mythology plays a key role in this exciting episode of 'Smallville.' While Clark is frozen in the Fortress of Solitude, his more-bizarre carbon copy from the Phantom Zone has taken over his life- including intimate time with Lana Lang. Lana and "Bizarro" have grown closer together while Clark has been stuck up north. Meanwhile, Bizarro is determined to destroy the "Boy Scout," if he is indeed still alive, and confronts the re-booted Brain Interactive Construct- call it BrainIAC 2.0- in order to find a way to do this. Meanwhile, Jor-El decides that Clark needs to stop the Phantom, and frees him. However, BrainIAC 2.0 has his own agenda to defeat BOTH Clarks.

In the meantime, Grant Gabriel, the clone of Julian Luthor, Lex's long-dead baby brother, decides to break away from the iron grip that Lex has held over him and meet his "father" Lionel. This is a decision that Grant may unfortunately, due to the evilness of Lex, may come to regret.

'Persona' is a fantastic episode that continues a season that Smallville truly hasn't seen before in the form of truly interesting minor story-arcs concluding, only to open up windows to new story arcs. The only regret of this seventh season is that it may end prematurely due to the writers' strike.

Persona

[Colcatron · 9/10 · 19 April 2011]

As always it's great to have Brainiac in any episode. It's also a treat to have Bizarro back after a memorable appearance in the season premiere. The plot is great in "Persona" as is the action, as are the performances, including guest star Marc McClure from the original Superman movies. Nearly everything about this episode is perfect. My criticism that follows has little to do with how this individual episode plays, but more a frustration over a lack of creativity in season 7.

**SPOILERS**

What is up with the overuse of cloning/duplication of characters? I have no issues with introducing a slightly absurd concept to mix things up, but not to this extent. This is half way through the season, and by the end of the 9th episode, we'd been introduced to a clone/duplicate of Clark, a lifeless clone of Lana, clones of both Zor-El and Lara, and at least two clones appeared on screen of Lex's dead baby brother Julian, one older and one younger. 9 episodes, 5 characters cloned, and one cloned multiple times. If there's one thing the otherwise solid season 7 it was the overuse of such an absurd plot element. Use it once and it worked fine. Use it twice and it's a nice surprise. A half dozen times in less than a dozen episodes? WAY too much

persona

[joh03096 · 9/10 · 29 December 2012]

This was an extremely unremarkable episode until the very end, when Lex has Grant/Jullian killed. Watching Lex turn into a monster is the best thing this show has to offer. You can almost feel bad for him. Jullian is the one thing that mattered most to him. He brought Jullian back to life, only to kill him to protect his own interests. This is the Lex I've been waiting so long to see. The Lex that would kill his own brother. Poor Lex, is this what he imagined he'd grow up to become?

The Bizarro story was pointless, I guess? It seemed like the only purpose of the Bizarro story was to make everyone hate Lana even more than they already did. Which should be impossible, but the writers keep finding new ways to make Lana even more awful. Lana sassed off at Chloe when Chloe told Lana that something was wrong with Clark. She pulled out the daggers and told Chloe to get over her schoolgirl crush on Clark (in so many words). Then, when the real Clark came back and told Lana that the guy she'd been banging and making plans to move away with was actually Bizarro, she didn't even believe him!

And she fell in love with Bizarro. Which is fine, you're allowed to love whoever you want! But that doesn't change it. She loved Bizarro. She was not lying when she said she'd never been more in love than she had been the past month with Bizarro. This would have been the best episode ever if she had left with Bizarro after that, instead of killing him. But you know. I'm sure, in that moment, that she understood how Lex felt after killing his brother.