"Smallville"
Sleeper (2008)

Director:

Whitney Ransick

Writers:

Caroline Dries (writer)
Alfred Gough (creator)

TV Series:

"Smallville" (2001)

Original Air Date:

24 April 2008 (Season 7, Episode 17)

Genre:

Drama | Sci-Fi

Plot:

All in one night, the Feds try to head off Chloe, who's hacking into top secret computers, convince Jimmy Olsen that she's a terrorist, and ground Lex, preventing him from flying anywhere.

Plot Keywords:

Good Versus Evil | Wet Jeans | Young Versions Of Characters | Shipper | Best Friends

Cast

Tom Welling	...	Clark Kent
Michael Rosenbaum	...	Lex Luthor
Kristin Kreuk	...	Lana Lang (credit only)
Allison Mack	...	Chloe Sullivan
Erica Durance	...	Lois Lane (credit only)
Aaron Ashmore	...	Jimmy Olsen
Laura Vandervoort	...	Kara Zor-El (credit only)
John Glover	...	Lionel Luthor (credit only)
Anne Openshaw	...	Special Agent Vanessa Webber

Country:

Canada | USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.78 : 1

Certification:

USA:TV-PG

Goofs:

Revealing mistakes: At about 35 minutes into the show they show a shot of the Daily Planet from above, pulling away as from a helicopter. If you watch closely to the buildings to the right and bottom of the screens, the steam coming from the buildings is actually running in reverse and going into the buildings.

The name's Olsen... James Olsen.

'Sleeper' is the second-worst episode of the season for me, after 'Fierce.' Clark needs to try to find BrainIAC and Kara, or stop Lex from getting to Zurich to discover the box. Instead, he at first wastes his time looking over Lana. Chloe is busy trying to gain access to a satellite that may have caught BrainIAC and Kara's flight into an unknown territory, and in the process must constantly lie to her boyfriend Jimmy to continue this endeavor. In this fallout, Jimmy gets stuck between a government agent who believes Chloe is a terrorist due to a project called StarHawk earlier in the season.

This episode proves that Jimmy-centric episodes are rather weak. Along with 'Noir,' the Smallville powers-that-be are now 0/2 in the Jimmy-centric episodes department.

First of all, there are plenty of plot-holes. Story-wise, Clark isn't looking for BrainIAC or trying to stop Lex from getting to Zurich. Insteead, he's wasting all his time in the hospital sitting by Lana. There are three things going on in his life, and he decides to tend to by far the least important matter. Stupid pining over Lana. Truly disgusting. I can see why the government would believe Chloe to be a terrorist with evil plans, but the storyline was poorly executed. No more episodes mostly starring Aaron Ashmore! Jimmy as James Bond was only ever-so-slightly cool, because of a couple cool gadgets. But nothing worth dedicating an episode about.

The only thing that saved this was the more-important subplot involving Clark's hearing Kara's transmission from the Fortress, and a message from Virgil Swann's diary from 1989. The temporary sub-plot was no good. A '7' rating is generous.