SMALLVILLE Season 6 Episode 15
“Freak”

It’s that time of Smallville again, the time when for one reason or another, I make it a point to watch a particular episode.
This time out, it’s because this is the directorial debut of Lex himself, Michael Rosenbaum.

Just 5 episodes after Welling’s “Hydro” (as if this is Lex’s delayed punch in the Never-Ending Battle, in answer to Supes’ two opening salvoes), Rosenbaum helms this episode which follows Lex’s on-going concern, 33.1.
Using Tobias Rice (Greyston Holt), a Smallville high kid who was blinded in the last meteor shower, and left with the ability to “see” meteor freaks, Lex is abducting and keeping DNA samples of meteor-infected individuals, then releasing them with their memories of the abduction erased.

Though the direction of this episode isn’t terrible, it isn’t really anything noteworthy either. Like Welling’s “Hydro,” this one isn’t anything out of the ordinary.
The one saving grace of the episode is a major revelation concerning one of the regular cast, but this is a function of the script more than anything else.
It is however, a revelation that has a lot of potential and could be the source of interesting stories to come, if handled properly.
So, here’s hoping they don’t bungle it.

Erratum: in reviewing “Hydro,” I mentioned that it was Tom Welling’s directorial debut. As it turns out, it wasn’t. That distinction would go to season 5’s “Fragile.” (Somehow, that episode flew under my radar.)

Parting shot: Aside from Smallville, Rosenbaum’s other high profile project for 2007 is the upcoming animated feature film, Dragonlance: Dragons of Autumn Twilight, based on the Weis and Hickman novel. Rosenbaum voices Tanis, while other cast members include Kiefer Sutherland (as Raistlin!), Lucy Lawless (as Goldmoon), Rino Romano (who voices Batman on the animated The Batman series, as Caramon), and Michelle Trachtenberg (ick, as Tika).
For any non-RPG geeks out there, Autumn Twilight is the first in a long line of fantasy novels, and is part of the Chronicles trilogy, with Dragons of Winter Night and Dragons of Spring Dawning rounding out the tale.
Dragonlance: Dragons of Autumn Twilight is scheduled for a September release.