avidreader said:
[Hulk] made some good points, particularly about the kryptonite effects...
I didn't realize this was such a big bone of contention until I saw it brought up in other forums. It didn't bother me at all. In fact, they've already established the precedent for it in episodes like Leech.
SV isn't like Star Trek. That is to say, they really don't go out of their way to explain in full tecnobable why something is the way it is. The closest they ever got to explaining Clark's abilities was in the episode Perry, and even then they left it open with Clark theorizing "
maybe it all comes from the sun?" Pete added the analogy of Clark being some sort of walking solar battery.
Flash forward to Arrival, and here again the sun comes into play. With its setting, Clark loses his abilities. Now, is it just his abilities, or is he actually changed right down to his DNA? I'm not gonna even TRY to understand, never less explain, HOW that could be remotely possible, but I believe the writers basically told us that Clark did indeed became human at that moment. Furthermore, the "condition" would be permanent until his mortal death (see 3rd episode, Hidden.)
The writers gave us many clues to Clark being human. Jonathan TELLS him, "you're only human now" (LOL). Clark would now feel pain and bleed (getting cut by the glass shard in Lana's hair was just the beginning.) He couldn't "call" to the key anymore (he tried, and nothing happened.) And he wouldn't be affected by Kryptonite like he used to be (he picked up the meteor rock in the field at the barn raising and it didn't hurt him.) Basically, being human meant he could now have "what he's always wanted" - to be normal.
Picking up the meteor rock was the biggest clue to the audience that he was completely human, which makes everything else that came afterwards all the more bittersweet. Clark viewed it as a new beginning. He would no longer question whether he could father children or worry about Lana's safety being with her. He told her everything in the past couldn't hurt them anymore. (Of course, this is before Lee shows up to prove him wrong.) But the whole point of showing that Kryptonite didn't effect Clark was to prove that he was indeed human. At that moment, he was an alien by virtue of
where he was born, not his biology.
I'm probably one of the biggest nit pickers out there, but the K-rock aspect in this episode made a lot of sense to me. It makes what happens in Hidden even more sad for Clark, because now he will have BEEN human and experienced all its joys and pains, only to have it taken away from him. Ultimately, it will be one of the most important and horrendously painful lessons in Clark's journey towards his destiny.
