[NAS] Target: Jimmy Olsen!

TV Programme: The New Adventures Of Superman
Season: 2
Episode: 19
Date I watched this episode: 10/10/2009
Time since I last watched this programme: 28 days.

With a title like that, and the sheer blandness of Jimmy's character recently, I wasn't too optimistic about this one. However, the fact that Jimmy is under mind control means that Jimmy can be set up like any other episodic villain. It was too coincidental that Jimmy was involved, but I can overlook that in the light that Jimmy is just another villain.

This was, in all honesty, quite a slow episode, but it didn't seem slow. Not really much happened - a few experiments which went wrong, really - but it was fleshed out by the Lois/Clark/Dan love triangle and the great character of Sarah Goodwin. I think it was obvious that Dan was bound to return. After all, he represents everything Clark is not. The episode showed that things can never work between Lois and Clark: this was the last straw and Dan finally got to take Lois out on a date (the "rocky road" reference at the end was genius on so many levels).

Sarah really fuelled all this with her constant psycho-analysing. She expertly picked up many aspects of the characters and both the information itself and the reactions to that were really very interesting to watch. She and Jimmy also had a really great chemistry going on. I guess girls is one of the things Jimmy's character is so great (and so bad) at.

I really didn't guess the twist of Sarah's conversion until it was revealed. I didn't think that the blonde guy had got that far, but when I rewatch it, she did say she can't really remember what happened then, which was a clue. Still, for most of the episode we did see her real personality, and it was just a bit of a shock when she tried to shoot Clark. Good thing she can't remember it!

This was definitely Clark's episode rather that Superman's. The Superman persona had only a minor role, but this seemed to be okay. We do seem to have had less Superman-based episodes than last time; I can't remember anything resembling last season's "The Man Of Steel Bars", but the Lois/Clark relationship stuff has made the Clark persona a lot more prominent.

So yet another chapter opens in the emotional state of this series. What a rollercoaster it's been. I don't think Clark will give up, but for now, it is what it is - Lois dating Dan, and Clark watching from the sidelines. Since we're so close to the season finale, I can imagine that being a big turning point in this whole situation.