Smallville 5.14: The Ring Makes Another Disappointing Sequel.

An episode that is better suited during the October Halloween season, rather than during February sweeps.

This week's episode of Smallville started off with a complete rip-off of The Ring, or The Ringu. Chloe takes a shower in Lois' apartment over the Talon, when the lights go out due to a lightning strike. Chloe gets out of the tub to find a candle when she sees shadowy black and white girl/ghost with her wrists cut behind her asking her for help. Chloe screams and Lois runs up the stairs finding Chloe on the floor with her wrists cut. The introduction promised quite a nice rip-off of the once popular ghost movie The Ring, but the episode would fly off the handle a bit and lead you into a plotline of zero consequence. This was by definition a filler episode, with only one scene of any significance to the plot.

After the break, we find Clark and Lois at the hospital talking to Dr. Sydell, Chloe's assigned psychiatrist. Dr. Sydell felt like he was going to be important to the episode when we first meet him, but this notion never plays out. I would guess he may still yet be an important figure in future Smallville episodes as his character seemed more important than a minor character in one episode, see Professor Fine. When the good doctor takes a family history from Lois about Chloe, Chloe's mother's mental illness is never mentioned as Lois has no idea about it. I guess the family secret is a Sullivan family secret. Clark later asks Chloe if it is alright to tell Dr. Sydell about her mother's mental problems, she's certified, but she refuses and states that she is not her. After Lois and Clark leave, Lana shows up just in time to see Chloe go crazy once again. Chloe sees the same girl and insists of following her bloody footprints, which of course no one else sees. Dr. Sydell sedates her with an upset and scared Lana in the room.

At the Lex mansion, Lex is trying to find the now dead (?)/missing Professor Fine when Lana makes a visit in regards to Chloe. Lana asks Lex to pull some strings to get her into Belle Reve, the same place all bad guys Clark catches are put and where Lex made a stint when he went nuts. Clark finds out about this and decides to break Chloe out himself, which they decided either to cut or not show. Clark takes Chloe back to Lois' place where she goes bonkers once more seeing the girl get pulled into the wall in the bathroom, where this all started. Chloe pleads with Clark to x-ray vision the wall and Clark reluctantly agrees to indulge the crazy lady. Not very surprisingly, there is a skeleton in the wall and Clark busts it down. The skeleton wears a kryptonite bracelet; obviously that's what makes a ghost, that hurts Clark. Clark leaves the bathroom and Chloe touches the bracelet and becomes possessed by the spirit of the dead body, once again this is how possessions work. The police are notified and the possessed Chloe makes escapes when she is left alone.

Later we find Lois doing an "aura cleansing" of her apartment when an orderly from the hospital, Michael, shows up to see how Chloe was. He informs Chloe that his family used to run The Talon when it was a theatre back in the day. Lois, not being an idiot, starts to make a call to the police when Michael chloroforms her. P.Chloe, the "P" stands for possessed, shows up at Michael's house where she asks him for help. P.Chloe talks about how Michael killed Gretchen, the skeleton in the bathroom and now the possessor of Chloe. Michael grabs P.Chloe's neck when she tasers him and starts to beat him with a statue, when she stops when she hears Lois' voice. When she reaches the basement and finds Lois tied to a chair, Michael comes down and knocks her unconscious.

At the Daily Planet, Clark checks the records on Chloe's computer and sees a picture of a candlelight vigil for Gretchen with Michael in the background. He finds Michael's address and super speeds over. Back the house, Chloe and Lois are tied to chairs when Michael cuts one hand free for Lois and gives her a knife. He wants her to cut her own wrists or watch her cousin be killed. Lois, instead, throws the knife at Michael and hits him in the shoulder. Michael pulls the knife out and is about to stab Lois when Clark shows up and knocks the knife out of Michael's hand with a nice heat blast from his eyes, but Michael's kryptonite bracelet weakens Clark and Michael knocks out Clark. P.Chloe then appeals to Michael about how she is Gretchen and that she wants to be killed. When he gets close enough she touches him with the bracelet and Gretchen's spirit is sent into Michael's body where Gretchen kills herself and Michael in the process.

In the final segment of the episode, the only piece of the episode that has any real relevence, Clark talks to his mom, Martha, at the Kent house about Jonathan's Senate seat. Clark also convinces Martha that she should take his Senate seat. Afterwards, Chloe and Clark talk at the Daily Planet about Chloe's mom. Clark convinces her to visit her mother before she won't be able to anymore. Later, we see Chloe at a mental hospital where she sees her mother standing in front of a window. She faces the woman, who strokes her cheek, and they hug as Chloe cries. Chloe's mother remains an unseen figure, I guess in order to give the scene a more ominous feel, or to let the show use whomever they want should she ever warrant another appearance.

This week's episode only required you to watch the last seven minutes to get the relevant information. With the bullet-points as follow: Lionel continues to make his move on Martha, Chloe finally visits her mother in the crazy house, Martha taking Jonathan's Senate seat, and well I guess that's everything. Next week's episode hopes to move past filler episodes and into a more fulfilling episode. A character from the new "Teen Titans" cartoon makes his debut on Smallville. Cyborg, from the cartoon, enters the realm of Smallville as the half-man, half-machine makes his escape from LuthorCorp experimentation. Hopefully, this will push the series deeper into what the show really is, a comic-book based drama. Next week's episode has much more promise than this week's episode and I can guarantee it won't be nearly as empty as this week's episode was.