...yeah, so, how about them Mets?

I want to say that I loved Instinct. Maxima is a fantastic character and I always get a kick out of Smallville's attempts to incorporate comic canon...I want to say it, but I can't.

This is the first time I can say there was no kicking. While Maxima and Charlotte Sullivan were fantastic, holding up well against her comic reputation, the episode did not. It felt...well, it felt like a paint by numbers episode. See Maxima, see Clark, see comic romantic tension, some bodies, and the obligatory jealous Lois. There was no spark, no life. All the elements of a great plot, just waiting for a splash of color to bring it to life.

And good god, Smallville, can we stop it with the anvils of doom? Eight years you've been doing this and eight years it's been falling flatter than Wile E. Coyote on the interstate. Yes, everyone knows that Clark and Lois are meant 2 be. We're not stupid (jury is out on you though). We've grown up with various incarnations of their relationship over the years, we know how the story is supposed to go.

That is not, however, a justification for breaking the cardinal rule of storytelling.

Quit with the telling, make with the showing. When Maxima started in with her 'you two have a bond' speech to Lois, I started rolling my eyes. It's no small miracle that I didn't get motion sickness, but then again, I've had a lot of practice. Smallville doesn't like to do the dirty business of writing. They don't like to build relationships. They don't like to build characters. They'd rather just tell us that a character is amazing (how many 'oh Lana Lang, how do I love you, let me count the ways?' speeches did EVERY. SINGLE. CHARACTER. recite? I lost count somewhere around season two) and how every romance is meant to be (see same re: Clark and Lana) without ever actually giving us viable instances to demonstrate this. The best character development happens to the characters they're not invested in.

I've had dental surgery that's less painful. Instead of the obligatory outsider proclaiming how Clark and Lois (previously Lana) are 'omg, written in the stars!' and obvious to everyone how meant to be they are, Smallville needs to start showing us. They need to do the work with building the pairing up, not just trusting us to go with it. Most of us aren't going to. Most of us have no reason to.

Fans who are heavily invested in a character or pairing might let it slide,  they have a reason to in the form of a powerful connection. Clark and Lois, for example, mean something to them. Smallville isn't supposed to be writing for just them, however. Smallville is supposed to be writing for the fans who have no connection whatsoever.

A hardcore Lois and Clark fan might have loved this episode. They might've melted in shippy glee at Maxima's speech. I didn't. I'm not a long-time Clark and Lois fan. I didn't grow up in love with the relationship (I was, er, busy pretending to be Supergirl or Batgirl) and I don't have that attachment. I, like a lot of other comic and non-comic fans, need to be convinced of the relationship.

That moment, as I said, left me rolling my eyes.

Rather than trying to convince us, Smallville seems to be going out of the way to do the opposite. I hear one more speech out of Lois about how she's not cut out for the superhero life and I'm going to give Joe The Plumber her phone number. Clearly modern day suburbia is all she's got in mind.

I've said this before, I'm sure I'll say this again, Lois deserves better. Clark deserves better. Every single fan watching this show deserves better.

Quit cutting corners, Smallville. If you don't, sooner or later, the house is going to fall down.