In many ways Clark's phase of denial was a natural stage of grief, and I found Lana's behaviour presumptuous partly because of her insistence that he move through that phase so quickly. On the other hand, I was fearful that he would remain in that phase. I did want him to process his grief, be it alone or with someone else, but I think I most wanted him to reach out to Martha a bit more, which he did by the end of the ep.
You know, this is *exactly* it. Clark was totally moving through the stages of grief throughout the episode** (which is partly why, I think, the episode does end up being so effective as an exploration of Clark's grief through the vehicle of his interaction with Andrea/Vengeance). Smallville being the show it is, I guess I was just very confident that he'd reach acceptance by the end of the hour (whereas if this were something like ... Six Feet Under or Battlestar Galactica, then the story of Clark emotionally coming to terms with his father's death probably would be spread out over several episodes). And yeah, Lana's interaction with him at the beginning did feel like she was trying to direct how he should move through the stages, be it moving through any given stage quickly or opening up/talking about what he was feeling about all of it.
I suspect this episode hit buttons for many people because it dealt head-on with grief and emotional processing and we all have our own sensitivities about that.
*nods* I suspect that this episode has a lot more subjectivity flowing through people's reactions than the typical SV ep does, precisely because of the subject matter. And as I said in my own review, I also have a real button about ex-SOs who think it's perfectly Okay to expect the person they very recently dumped to share a new pain with them, so that was another layer of subjectivity bearing on my reactions to some of the ep's events.
** There is actually a deleted scene from Reckoning which covers the phase of bargaining. They filmed Clark taking Jonathan's body to the Fortress and pleading with Jor-El to let him undo things again. It was cut both for time and because it would have been repetitive of him bargaining for Lana earlier. I *really* hope it's included on the DVD set.
no subject
You know, this is *exactly* it. Clark was totally moving through the stages of grief throughout the episode** (which is partly why, I think, the episode does end up being so effective as an exploration of Clark's grief through the vehicle of his interaction with Andrea/Vengeance). Smallville being the show it is, I guess I was just very confident that he'd reach acceptance by the end of the hour (whereas if this were something like ... Six Feet Under or Battlestar Galactica, then the story of Clark emotionally coming to terms with his father's death probably would be spread out over several episodes). And yeah, Lana's interaction with him at the beginning did feel like she was trying to direct how he should move through the stages, be it moving through any given stage quickly or opening up/talking about what he was feeling about all of it.
I suspect this episode hit buttons for many people because it dealt head-on with grief and emotional processing and we all have our own sensitivities about that.
*nods* I suspect that this episode has a lot more subjectivity flowing through people's reactions than the typical SV ep does, precisely because of the subject matter. And as I said in my own review, I also have a real button about ex-SOs who think it's perfectly Okay to expect the person they very recently dumped to share a new pain with them, so that was another layer of subjectivity bearing on my reactions to some of the ep's events.
** There is actually a deleted scene from Reckoning which covers the phase of bargaining. They filmed Clark taking Jonathan's body to the Fortress and pleading with Jor-El to let him undo things again. It was cut both for time and because it would have been repetitive of him bargaining for Lana earlier. I *really* hope it's included on the DVD set.