Smallville - S6E9

Subterranean

Illegal immigrants working on a farm in Smallville are disappearing, but one is able to get away. He finds refuge with Clark.

On a farm in Smallville, two Mexican men toil in the fields, talking about how they came to American to be with the one boys mother. As a worker collapses near them, the vow to leave that night, though no one ever supposedly makes it. When they are escaping that evening, a creature underground takes one of the young men, but the other gets away. The next day, Clark finds him in his barn and finds out the story of what happened to him. Clark goes to check on the farm and, distracting the owner, asks the workers about the boys missing friend. He learns later that the ground swallowed him up. Clark uses his X-Ray vision and sees the skeletal remains of many bodies. Chloe researches and finds out that the farm was funded by Luther Corp after the second meteor shower, so Clark goes to confront Lex, who is not too pleased to hear these accusations. Clark alerts the police and they find the bodies. When taking the farm owner into custody, though, he is able to escape by burrowing underground. Clark goes first to find the boy, who has escaped from under Chloe's watchful eye. He is tipped off by a police scanner at the Planet and saves the boy before the police show up. As Clark tells the boy about the death of his friend, he asks Clark to pull over. Getting out the car, this leaves the two open to attack by the farmer owner. Clark is able to go underground with the man, though, and knock him out. Chloe and Jimmy meanwhile had found the boys mother and reunited them at the Kent residence, where Martha vows to do what she can to keep the two together. The next day, Lana shows up to offer her support to Martha in helping house and employ the illegal immigrants from the farm. Clark ends up ticking her off when he mentions it just seems like a way for Lex to clean up his mess. The episode ends with Lex supervising the arrival of the farmer at the new 33.1 facility.

I found this to be a sub-par episode. I understand the political commentary angle of the episode and the creature was interesting, but it felt like a slow moving episode. Also, I felt it was stupid how the farmer ultimately got to Clark and the boy and how Clark did next to nothing to defeat him. Jimmy provided a few laughs, not some of it was just cringe worthy. Overall, just a bump in the otherwise decent seasons so far.

Score: 2 / 5