February 21, 2025 ā¢ 22 mins
š„ This week on Podcast Full of Kryptonite, we turn up the heat with Smallvilleās third episode, āHothead!ā š„
Ā
Clark faces off against a fiery foe when Coach Walt Arnold (guest star Dan Lauria) uses his meteor-fueled powers to torch anyone in his way. Meanwhile, Lex gets in hot water with his father, Lionel. Jonathan and Clark have some heated arguments over Clark's burning desire to play football and live a normal life.
Ā
Clark faces off against a fiery foe when Coach Walt Arnold (guest star Dan Lauria) uses his meteor-fueled powers to torch anyone in his way. Meanwhile, Lex gets in hot water with his father, Lionel. Jonathan and Clark have some heated arguments over Clark's burning desire to play football and live a normal life.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:03):
The Superman Superman.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
Hey, I like it, Superman. It's catchy. Sticks with you.
The kind of name that looks great squashed across three
college Supermanman.
Speaker 1 (00:19):
My name is Clark Kent and I am Superman.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
I'm Clark Kent.
Speaker 1 (00:24):
I'm the Daily Clint.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
So what are you? Man is Superman?
Speaker 1 (00:36):
Hello everybody, and welcome to another episode of Podcast Full
of Kryptonite. I am her host John Reid. Here back
with you again for another episode review of the TV
series Smallville. We are on episode three of season one
of Smallville. Hot Head is the title of this one.
So if you have not joined us here before on
(00:57):
most of the different socials, we are at Superman on PFK.
If you find us on there, interact with us through there,
and then yeah, it's we're just so happy to have
you here with us. And I am excited to continue
to go through the TV series Smallville with you. This
was one that I just really really enjoyed back when
it first came out. I was in college at the time,
(01:19):
huge Superman fan. Then excited to see a new take
on Superman and excited to kind of run back through
it after having not watched it for several years. So
all right, So for this one, Hothead again I said
this one, Season one, episode three. Director for this one
was Greg Beeman. Writer was Greg Walker. A lot of
Greg's cinematographer Gordon Lonsdale, editor Paul Dixon, costume designer Halla Bomit.
(01:46):
Tom Welling is Clark Kent. He was also in Lucifer
and Cheaper by the Dozen. Kristin Kruk was Lana Lang.
She was in The Beauty and the Beast on the
CW and Eurotrip. Michael Rosenbaum was Lex Luthor. He was
the voice of the Flash in some of the Just
This League animated stuff. I was also in the movie
Sorority Boys. Alison Mac played Chloe Sullivan. She was in
(02:08):
Honey We Shrunk Ourselves and Wilfred sam Jones the Third
played Pete Ross. He was in Blue Mountain State and
er John Schneider was Jonathan Kent. He was in The
Dukes of Hazzard and Doctor Quinn Medicine Woman, and Annette
O'Toole was Martha Kent. She was in Superman three, the
nineteen ninety version of it. This episode, we've also got
a couple of folks coming in for the first time.
(02:30):
Richard Gant played principal Kwan. He had been in some
scenes I believe in episode one and two, but they
got cut. He was in Rocky five and The Big
Lebowski and then Dan Laurier special guest star this time around.
His coach Walt Arnold. He was in The Wonder Years
and Shameless. One of the other fun little trivia things
about his name is he is coach Walt Arnold. His
(02:54):
last name was also Arnold. In the Wonder Years. He
was Jack Arnold, Kevin Arnold's father, So that was kind
of a fun little nod there, all right. Breaking this
one down into kind of its major moments, we get
introduced to coach Walt Arnold, the fiery football coach of
the Smallville Crows. He is determined to secure his two
hundredth win in the upcoming season finale game. After a game,
(03:17):
he relaxes in his private sauna gifted to him five
years ago, which is a little crazy that a high
school has a private sauna in it, but okay. However,
the steam rising from the lava rocks has a green
media glow to it, hinting that he is our freak
of the week. So some fun stuff here, probably best
(03:37):
known as Kevin Arnold's father Jack in The Wonder Years.
His assistant coach in this episode, played by Alan Franz,
is also named Wayne Quigley. Maybe that's a nod to
Kevin's brother and Jack's son Wayne Arnold in The Wonder
Years as well. That'd be kind of cool. There are
some other DC villains that have had fire starting abilities.
Most notable there was a DC villain of firefly, Garfield
(03:58):
Linz was his name. A pyromaniac who used fire based weapons,
typically shows up in the Batman comics. So there's a
bit of a cheating scandal. Principal Kwan discovers that seven
football players cheated on their math midterm and are now
ineligible to play. Coach Waltz pleads with Kwan to delay
the punishment until after the big game, but Kwan refuses,
(04:19):
and in a fit of rage, walt slams his desk,
which bursts into flames. So we'll get a little hint,
Deer what his powers are going to look like. As
the freak of the Week, Chloe publishes an article exposing
coach Walt's abusive coaching style, stirring some tensions up at
the school. Lana is upset to learn that Whitney knew
about the cheating scandal but stayed silent. And meanwhile, a
(04:40):
football jock retaliates against Chloe by throwing a ball at her,
but Clark intercepts it and throws it back hard, stunning
the player. That also gives the coach a chance to
see that, hey, he might have a better chance at
winning this two hundredth game if he has mister Kent
on his side. A little possible tie in here is
the scene where Clark throws the football back really hard.
(05:01):
Kind of mirrors a moment in Superman the movie where
young Clark Kent kicks a football and it sails off
into the sky in the scene where he gets left
behind as kind of the team manager to clean up
everybody's uniforms and helmets and everything else. So we get
a kind of a running theme, especially in these early
seasons of Smallville. Clark wants to join the football team.
(05:24):
Jonathan does not want him to because he wants him
to be more careful with his powers. So, as I said,
the coach, Walt noticed that powerful throw that he made
and recruits him to be on the team. He is excited,
so he goes home to tell his dad, who strongly objects,
fearing that Clark could accidentally hurt someone. It's less about
Clark getting hurt because he's not going to but hurting
(05:45):
someone else. Clark ends up defying him, saying his father
can't control his voice his choices forever, and signs up
for the team. So a couple of other things. Tom
Welling was actually a model before acting, and I don't
think he had too much prior football experience, but I
think I might have heard that he did. Maybe he
(06:06):
played football in high school if I remember hearing on
the Talkville podcast. But anyway, he knew enough to be
able to throw the ball around a bit. Clark's desire
to join the football team can kind of reflect some
similar stuff that was in John Burns Superman The Man
of Steel from nineteen eighty six, where young Clark is
(06:28):
trying to play sports but ends up having to hold
back his powers because he's worried about hurting people. And
then a lot of these conversations we get between Clark
and Jonathan where Jonathan kind of reminds him that, hey,
I really think that you are meant for more than football.
Really kind of foreshadows Superman's greater destiny that will come
into play once he leaves Smallville later on. Another cool
(06:50):
thing is the number on Clark's jersey is eighty nine.
This is also the year, according to the pilot, that
he crashed to Earth from Krypton. It's a nice little
nod there. Lex has a bit of a business gamble
here at the Luther mansion. He clashes with his father,
Lionel's advisor, Dominic Sanatory, over the Smallville plants declining profits. Lex,
(07:11):
refusing to follow Lionel's cutthroat methods, who wants him to
fire a bunch of the staff there, actually proposes hiring
more workers instead of cutting jobs, and Dominic warns that
Lionel will not approve. And this is also a running
theme throughout the early seasons of the show, when we've
got Lionel and Les butting heads with each other. A
little trivia here. Dominic Sanatory, Lionel's corporate enforcer, is played
(07:32):
by Jason Connery, and if that name sounds familiar, it's
because that is the son of legendary James Bond actor
Sean Connery. Connery Sean Connery principal Kwan's car ends up
catching fire. In this next scene, Quan confronts Coach Walt,
revealing that one of the players confessed that Walt gave
them the test and the answers. As Kwan gets into
(07:53):
his car, Walt closes his eyes and the car explodes
in flames. Clark and Pete ross fire. Clark rescues Kwan
just before the car blows up. A couple of things
about principal Kwan. He would later appear in the CW
show Supergirl as a judge in a season three episode
called for Good and then. One of the things about
(08:16):
this episode is the practical explosion effects. My understanding is
is that a lot of these scenes when they'd blow
up a car would take many hours to get ready,
and so there was a there was kind of a
mixture of mostly I think practical effects, but anytime that
someone was you know, if scenery or something else was
(08:38):
going to be set on fire. They also were trying
to use some digital effects as well to keep everybody
safe on the show. But it sounds like a lot
of this was done practically, and I believe I even
might have read that later on there's a scene where
they did some practical effects I'm not quite sure exactly
how they would have done the practical effects safely when
they had the fire coming out of the sprinklers on
the football field, but it sounds like a lot of
(09:00):
that might have been done there. Chloe gets caught in
a bit of a fire. Chloe follows the suspended players
to the football field and catches coach Walt, threatening them.
When one of the players, Trevor Chappele, confesses, the coach
attacks him, burning his arm. Chloe snaps some photos, making
her a target, and later, while working at the torch,
Chloe's computer burst into flames, trapping her in a fire,
(09:23):
and Clark saves her just in time. And that is
I mean, as a journalists, as a podcaster, having your
computer burst into flames is probably the worst thing I
could ever think of. You know, all of your work
just right there literally going up in flames, and it's
just it's it would be very, very sad. But you know,
(09:43):
she's she's raising the stakes things are you know, it's
it's it's getting a little hot under the collar. It's yeah,
it's just if you can't stand the heat, get out
of the torch. I don't we call it in the
business call this bellow's humor. Ladies and gentlemen call it
bellow's humor. You just squeeze in the air until it's
(10:05):
just not funny anymore. At the PEP rally, Coach Walt
burns Trevor's arm again, demanding you know what Chloe knows Trevor,
who is terrified at this point amidst that Chloe has
photo evidence. Meanwhile, Clark finds Trevor hiding in his garage
surrounded by fire extinguishers. Trevor confesses that Coach Walt has
always been abusive and using fire and fear to control
(10:27):
his team. There is a scene in here Lana ends
up kind of abandoning the cheerleading team and decides, I'm
trying to know if that's this episode or if it's
the next episode. Anyway, She's working at the beanery, and
at this point it's called the Beanery. Later, in fact,
I had forgotten it was called the Beanery. Later it's
(10:48):
going to be called the Talon, which has kind of
kind of become the signature coffee shop end or concert
venue for when they would have the music that's being
featured in the episode would show up there at the Talent.
I think he even had a CD that was released
at one point called The Talon Mix. Clark ends up
confronting Coach Walt in his sauna, accusing him of harming
(11:09):
Trevor and Principal Kwan, but the media rocks in the
room weaken Clark, so the coach overpowers him locks him
inside to burn alive. Meanwhile, Jonathan searches for Clark after
Pete notices that he is absent from the game. Jonathan
finds him, breaks the sauna door down, and ends up
saving Clark from the kryptonite. Clark recovers and fights back,
forcing Coach Walt into a corner. Enraged, the coach loses
(11:30):
control of his firepowers and engulfs himself in flames and
burns alive. By the end of the episode, here, Lex
defies Lionel, refusing to cut the jobs. Instead, he lowers
the plants operating budget, winning the battle but angering Lionel,
which we'll come back later. Clark and Jonathan reconcile, with
Jonathan admitting that he trusts Clark but will always worry
(11:50):
about him as his father, and Clark and Lana bond
with each other, both feeling lost in their paths. There
is a scene where they get together and they are
standing in a field and they're about to They're just
screaming just to kind of release some of the tension
and the stress and everything else, and that gives them
kind of a nice little bonding moment, venting their frustrations
(12:12):
and kind of, you know, looking forward to a journey
of maybe something more so. And with Lana too, this
was kind of I know, the actor I'd read somewhere
the actor Kristin Kruk originally wanted Lana to have a
bit of a darker arc to this, and this episode
kind of begins that transformation as she starts rejecting the
cheerleader role that she had in the first two episodes
(12:35):
of the show. We had a couple of name drops
in Easter Eggs. In this episode, some folks are mentioned,
especially as they were kind of talking about, you know,
people's family or other characters relatives whatnot. I think Pete
Ross's one of Pete Ross's relatives I believe is name
(13:00):
dropped here. I want to say this is the first
time that they name drop Hiram Kent, which is supposed
to be Jonathan Kent's father and Clark's grandfather. Though Clark
would never have known Hiram Kent because I believe according
to the Smallville Show, he would have passed away in
nineteen eighty so and if Clark arrived in nineteen eighty nine,
(13:22):
then Clark would never have the opportunity to have met him.
So this is in one of the episodes that we
will encounter. This is also Hiram is also mentioned because
he was someone that was on a jury that put
away one of our other Freak of the Week characters,
(13:43):
and we'll see that come up in the episode where
that one is featured. But Hiram Kent will also be
name dropped in that episode as well. So for this one,
this is Oh. We also get Laura Lang and Lily
and Luther. I think they are name dropped as well
for this one. We always have some songs that play
(14:04):
during the episode that are you know, tend to be
you know, modern for the time, songs that they're often
feels like they're trying to push on the show because
it's a CW show and that's what they tended to do.
We had the song Renegade Fighter from the band artists
called Z I believe that's played during the opening football game.
(14:24):
A song called Clint Eastwood by Gorillas played when Clark Chloe,
Clark Chloe. It's tough to say, and then you know,
want to mix their names together because then you get
the people who are like But Clark and Chloe should
be together, and it was when people would ship them together.
I'm trying to remember with it because it was chlos
(14:44):
when it was Clark and lois what was Clark and Chloe.
It just sounds Scottish at that point, I don't know. Clark,
Chloe and Pete arrive at school, that's when they're playing
the Clint Eastwood song. Motivation by Some forty one is
played when Jonathan is watching Clark play football with the team.
(15:05):
Bad Day by Fuel is played when Chloe tells Clark
and Pete that cars don't spontaneously combust. What I Want
to Give You by Speed is played when Chloe works
on her computer at the Torch. Never Let You Go
is played by Third Eye Blind when Lex is talking
to Lana in the Beanery. So Much for Love by
the Conties it has played when Clark tells Lex that
Jonathan does not approve of him playing football, and You
(15:28):
by a binocular has played when Clark and Laa talk
on the football field. So in this one, and I
might take on this one in hot Head, we're really
starting to kind of light things up here with another
freak of the week, but it's not one of the
kids this time, it's not a teenager. And we've got
our kind of one of our first big guest stars
on this with Dan loriep and he is awesome at this.
(15:50):
I kind of wish if he had followed see if
they just let him do what he really and truly
wanted to do. He never wanted to be a football coach.
He wanted to be a Sea captain. And if somebody
would have just listened to him when he said he
wanted to be a Sea captain. He didn't want to
work at a business. He want to be a football coach.
He want to be a Sea captain. Let him go
be a Sea captain, then we don't have these problems anyway.
(16:10):
At its core, this episode delves into the bonds within families,
the dynamic between Jonathan and Clark, which I always enjoy
in this show. Jonathan is fiercely protective of his son,
and that is going to be the tension that kind
of follows them along for these early seasons. I don't
want to spoil it just yet, but in later seasons
there's a reason why that tension is no longer there.
(16:33):
But Clark just wants a normal teenage existence, and that's
something you know, that whole push and pull of the
parent wanting to be protective the teenager wanting a normal existence.
I mean, that is something that if you're watching this
as a teenager, you are locked into that, like that
is something that really resonates with you. And it's the
classic kind of coming of age stories. Could even echo
(16:56):
some of the stuff that we got in The Wonder Years.
Especially with Dan Lauria being in here, you get a
kind of get that feeling. The family relationship is just
as heartfelt as it was in the Wonder Years show too,
except I don't think Kevin was indestructible. The backdrop of
the high school football team is where the drama really
(17:17):
kind of unfolds between Clark and his father, and then
obviously we've we've got the little twist of a coach
with fire based powers thanks to being the freak of
the week coach, Arnold. Dan Lauria is awesome, Like he
plays a great antagonist, and that dude, if you hadn't
seen him in the Wonder Years, like that dude can
get angry, you wouldn't like him when he's angry either.
(17:42):
But I really think that it is you know, even
with his superpowers. That's one of the things that this
show does so well, is it really focuses on the
relationships and not just the superpowered threat. I mean, you
get a lot of fun practical effects with all the
fire in this one, but we've got the ongoing struggle,
the power struggle between Lex and his father, which is
(18:02):
going to just intensify even more, especially when we see
more of Lionel coming into the show We've got and
they will just continue to be adversaries as that goes along.
Even Lana's storyline in this one, although it's a little
bit less prominent than some of the other episodes, kind
of contributes to the whole idea of these younger individuals
navigating kind of the expectations the desires of their parents
(18:26):
and really kind of coming into their own and doing
their own thing. As I said, practical effects, we're a
lot of fun. It really enhances the whole spectacle of
having a pyrotechnic pyrokinetic coach. And again, like I said,
there's several other DC universe villains that this could be
subtle nods to or other superheroes. Pyro from the X
Men is another one, but Firefly is the one I
(18:49):
know best from from the DC universe, and there's several
others that you can mention. There. You have the continuing
kind of developing camaraderie between Clark, Lax and Lana. There
are still moments where it's a little weird that Lex,
as someone who's supposed to be a little bit more
of an adult, is so caught up in the lives
(19:11):
of these teenagers. So maybe that's also his desire to
have a somewhat normal life when as a Luther, that's
never going to happen. So, you know, that's that's something
you see a little bit of in this episode as well. Ultimately,
Hothead does I think a good job of balancing the
superpowered premise genuine emotional depth to the story, the familial
(19:33):
conflict that's in there, but the love between Clark and Jonathan,
and then as we continue to develop some of these
relationships and we see that, you know it's just it's
more and more building towards Clark Kent in his journey
towards the hero that he will someday be so very
fun episode love Dan Laurier and it's great villain. I
(19:56):
think he is one of the first is meteor freak
derogatory term might be a derogatory term. That's what they
call him on the show. First meter freak to die
believe from what I recall. The other media freaks come
back later on so here in episode three, he is
the first one to kick the bucket as it will
to pass the torch, oh to have his flame extinguished.
(20:21):
You could say, all right, that's going to do it
for this episode, thank you for joining me. Our next
episode is season one episode four X Ray, where Clark
develops X ray vision and struggles to control it while
discovering that his classmate Tina Greer plays by Lizzi Kaplan
I believe can shape shift due to Kryptonite mutation. Tina
(20:41):
uses her powers to commit some crimes and impersonates Lana
at one point, hoping to take over her life. As
Clark learns to harness his new ability, he exposes Tina's
deception stops her before she can do any further harm
to Lana or anyone else. So we'll be back here
next time for that one. In the meantime, I hope
you're in showing our rewatch of Smallville as we kind
(21:03):
of run through all this. If you have any other
thoughts on the show, please reach out to us on
the socials there and yeah, just just let us know
what you're loving about the show as well if you're
doing a rewatch of Smallville along with us. But yeah,
I just I have so many fond memories of this show,
and especially these early season one episodes as it was
(21:25):
just it was exciting. It was exciting to have a
kind of a serious take on Smallville characters that were
younger than me at the time. I think I was
when I was probably twenty ish. Yeah, it was twenty
when I was watching this when it came out. And yeah,
so even though they were high school kids, it was still,
(21:46):
you know, somewhat close to my age. So it was
fun to see kind of the look back at what
like how he would become the superman that he would
become later on. But yeah, it was a after Lewis
and Clark, which I did enjoy Lewis and Clark. But
it was a very different show. This one was kind
of a breath of fresh air to get back to
a maybe a little bit more of a serious take
(22:07):
a down to earth take on the Superman mythos and
and uh, you just take a look at his at
his beginnings as a high school kid. So looking forward
to X ray next week, Well, we'll see. I was
gonna have some kind of a joke about seeing what
we can see when that I should just stop. At
this point, I'll just I'll stop. I will see myself
out and maybe we'll cue the music. We'll just cue
(22:30):
the music and I'll get out of here, and then
we'll see you back here next week for X Ray.
Thanks everybody,
The Superman Superman.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
Hey, I like it, Superman. It's catchy. Sticks with you.
The kind of name that looks great squashed across three
college Supermanman.
Speaker 1 (00:19):
My name is Clark Kent and I am Superman.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
I'm Clark Kent.
Speaker 1 (00:24):
I'm the Daily Clint.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
So what are you? Man is Superman?
Speaker 1 (00:36):
Hello everybody, and welcome to another episode of Podcast Full
of Kryptonite. I am her host John Reid. Here back
with you again for another episode review of the TV
series Smallville. We are on episode three of season one
of Smallville. Hot Head is the title of this one.
So if you have not joined us here before on
(00:57):
most of the different socials, we are at Superman on PFK.
If you find us on there, interact with us through there,
and then yeah, it's we're just so happy to have
you here with us. And I am excited to continue
to go through the TV series Smallville with you. This
was one that I just really really enjoyed back when
it first came out. I was in college at the time,
(01:19):
huge Superman fan. Then excited to see a new take
on Superman and excited to kind of run back through
it after having not watched it for several years. So
all right, So for this one, Hothead again I said
this one, Season one, episode three. Director for this one
was Greg Beeman. Writer was Greg Walker. A lot of
Greg's cinematographer Gordon Lonsdale, editor Paul Dixon, costume designer Halla Bomit.
(01:46):
Tom Welling is Clark Kent. He was also in Lucifer
and Cheaper by the Dozen. Kristin Kruk was Lana Lang.
She was in The Beauty and the Beast on the
CW and Eurotrip. Michael Rosenbaum was Lex Luthor. He was
the voice of the Flash in some of the Just
This League animated stuff. I was also in the movie
Sorority Boys. Alison Mac played Chloe Sullivan. She was in
(02:08):
Honey We Shrunk Ourselves and Wilfred sam Jones the Third
played Pete Ross. He was in Blue Mountain State and
er John Schneider was Jonathan Kent. He was in The
Dukes of Hazzard and Doctor Quinn Medicine Woman, and Annette
O'Toole was Martha Kent. She was in Superman three, the
nineteen ninety version of it. This episode, we've also got
a couple of folks coming in for the first time.
(02:30):
Richard Gant played principal Kwan. He had been in some
scenes I believe in episode one and two, but they
got cut. He was in Rocky five and The Big
Lebowski and then Dan Laurier special guest star this time around.
His coach Walt Arnold. He was in The Wonder Years
and Shameless. One of the other fun little trivia things
about his name is he is coach Walt Arnold. His
(02:54):
last name was also Arnold. In the Wonder Years. He
was Jack Arnold, Kevin Arnold's father, So that was kind
of a fun little nod there, all right. Breaking this
one down into kind of its major moments, we get
introduced to coach Walt Arnold, the fiery football coach of
the Smallville Crows. He is determined to secure his two
hundredth win in the upcoming season finale game. After a game,
(03:17):
he relaxes in his private sauna gifted to him five
years ago, which is a little crazy that a high
school has a private sauna in it, but okay. However,
the steam rising from the lava rocks has a green
media glow to it, hinting that he is our freak
of the week. So some fun stuff here, probably best
(03:37):
known as Kevin Arnold's father Jack in The Wonder Years.
His assistant coach in this episode, played by Alan Franz,
is also named Wayne Quigley. Maybe that's a nod to
Kevin's brother and Jack's son Wayne Arnold in The Wonder
Years as well. That'd be kind of cool. There are
some other DC villains that have had fire starting abilities.
Most notable there was a DC villain of firefly, Garfield
(03:58):
Linz was his name. A pyromaniac who used fire based weapons,
typically shows up in the Batman comics. So there's a
bit of a cheating scandal. Principal Kwan discovers that seven
football players cheated on their math midterm and are now
ineligible to play. Coach Waltz pleads with Kwan to delay
the punishment until after the big game, but Kwan refuses,
(04:19):
and in a fit of rage, walt slams his desk,
which bursts into flames. So we'll get a little hint,
Deer what his powers are going to look like. As
the freak of the Week, Chloe publishes an article exposing
coach Walt's abusive coaching style, stirring some tensions up at
the school. Lana is upset to learn that Whitney knew
about the cheating scandal but stayed silent. And meanwhile, a
(04:40):
football jock retaliates against Chloe by throwing a ball at her,
but Clark intercepts it and throws it back hard, stunning
the player. That also gives the coach a chance to
see that, hey, he might have a better chance at
winning this two hundredth game if he has mister Kent
on his side. A little possible tie in here is
the scene where Clark throws the football back really hard.
(05:01):
Kind of mirrors a moment in Superman the movie where
young Clark Kent kicks a football and it sails off
into the sky in the scene where he gets left
behind as kind of the team manager to clean up
everybody's uniforms and helmets and everything else. So we get
a kind of a running theme, especially in these early
seasons of Smallville. Clark wants to join the football team.
(05:24):
Jonathan does not want him to because he wants him
to be more careful with his powers. So, as I said,
the coach, Walt noticed that powerful throw that he made
and recruits him to be on the team. He is excited,
so he goes home to tell his dad, who strongly objects,
fearing that Clark could accidentally hurt someone. It's less about
Clark getting hurt because he's not going to but hurting
(05:45):
someone else. Clark ends up defying him, saying his father
can't control his voice his choices forever, and signs up
for the team. So a couple of other things. Tom
Welling was actually a model before acting, and I don't
think he had too much prior football experience, but I
think I might have heard that he did. Maybe he
(06:06):
played football in high school if I remember hearing on
the Talkville podcast. But anyway, he knew enough to be
able to throw the ball around a bit. Clark's desire
to join the football team can kind of reflect some
similar stuff that was in John Burns Superman The Man
of Steel from nineteen eighty six, where young Clark is
(06:28):
trying to play sports but ends up having to hold
back his powers because he's worried about hurting people. And
then a lot of these conversations we get between Clark
and Jonathan where Jonathan kind of reminds him that, hey,
I really think that you are meant for more than football.
Really kind of foreshadows Superman's greater destiny that will come
into play once he leaves Smallville later on. Another cool
(06:50):
thing is the number on Clark's jersey is eighty nine.
This is also the year, according to the pilot, that
he crashed to Earth from Krypton. It's a nice little
nod there. Lex has a bit of a business gamble
here at the Luther mansion. He clashes with his father,
Lionel's advisor, Dominic Sanatory, over the Smallville plants declining profits. Lex,
(07:11):
refusing to follow Lionel's cutthroat methods, who wants him to
fire a bunch of the staff there, actually proposes hiring
more workers instead of cutting jobs, and Dominic warns that
Lionel will not approve. And this is also a running
theme throughout the early seasons of the show, when we've
got Lionel and Les butting heads with each other. A
little trivia here. Dominic Sanatory, Lionel's corporate enforcer, is played
(07:32):
by Jason Connery, and if that name sounds familiar, it's
because that is the son of legendary James Bond actor
Sean Connery. Connery Sean Connery principal Kwan's car ends up
catching fire. In this next scene, Quan confronts Coach Walt,
revealing that one of the players confessed that Walt gave
them the test and the answers. As Kwan gets into
(07:53):
his car, Walt closes his eyes and the car explodes
in flames. Clark and Pete ross fire. Clark rescues Kwan
just before the car blows up. A couple of things
about principal Kwan. He would later appear in the CW
show Supergirl as a judge in a season three episode
called for Good and then. One of the things about
(08:16):
this episode is the practical explosion effects. My understanding is
is that a lot of these scenes when they'd blow
up a car would take many hours to get ready,
and so there was a there was kind of a
mixture of mostly I think practical effects, but anytime that
someone was you know, if scenery or something else was
(08:38):
going to be set on fire. They also were trying
to use some digital effects as well to keep everybody
safe on the show. But it sounds like a lot
of this was done practically, and I believe I even
might have read that later on there's a scene where
they did some practical effects I'm not quite sure exactly
how they would have done the practical effects safely when
they had the fire coming out of the sprinklers on
the football field, but it sounds like a lot of
(09:00):
that might have been done there. Chloe gets caught in
a bit of a fire. Chloe follows the suspended players
to the football field and catches coach Walt, threatening them.
When one of the players, Trevor Chappele, confesses, the coach
attacks him, burning his arm. Chloe snaps some photos, making
her a target, and later, while working at the torch,
Chloe's computer burst into flames, trapping her in a fire,
(09:23):
and Clark saves her just in time. And that is
I mean, as a journalists, as a podcaster, having your
computer burst into flames is probably the worst thing I
could ever think of. You know, all of your work
just right there literally going up in flames, and it's
just it's it would be very, very sad. But you know,
(09:43):
she's she's raising the stakes things are you know, it's
it's it's getting a little hot under the collar. It's yeah,
it's just if you can't stand the heat, get out
of the torch. I don't we call it in the
business call this bellow's humor. Ladies and gentlemen call it
bellow's humor. You just squeeze in the air until it's
(10:05):
just not funny anymore. At the PEP rally, Coach Walt
burns Trevor's arm again, demanding you know what Chloe knows Trevor,
who is terrified at this point amidst that Chloe has
photo evidence. Meanwhile, Clark finds Trevor hiding in his garage
surrounded by fire extinguishers. Trevor confesses that Coach Walt has
always been abusive and using fire and fear to control
(10:27):
his team. There is a scene in here Lana ends
up kind of abandoning the cheerleading team and decides, I'm
trying to know if that's this episode or if it's
the next episode. Anyway, She's working at the beanery, and
at this point it's called the Beanery. Later, in fact,
I had forgotten it was called the Beanery. Later it's
(10:48):
going to be called the Talon, which has kind of
kind of become the signature coffee shop end or concert
venue for when they would have the music that's being
featured in the episode would show up there at the Talent.
I think he even had a CD that was released
at one point called The Talon Mix. Clark ends up
confronting Coach Walt in his sauna, accusing him of harming
(11:09):
Trevor and Principal Kwan, but the media rocks in the
room weaken Clark, so the coach overpowers him locks him
inside to burn alive. Meanwhile, Jonathan searches for Clark after
Pete notices that he is absent from the game. Jonathan
finds him, breaks the sauna door down, and ends up
saving Clark from the kryptonite. Clark recovers and fights back,
forcing Coach Walt into a corner. Enraged, the coach loses
(11:30):
control of his firepowers and engulfs himself in flames and
burns alive. By the end of the episode, here, Lex
defies Lionel, refusing to cut the jobs. Instead, he lowers
the plants operating budget, winning the battle but angering Lionel,
which we'll come back later. Clark and Jonathan reconcile, with
Jonathan admitting that he trusts Clark but will always worry
(11:50):
about him as his father, and Clark and Lana bond
with each other, both feeling lost in their paths. There
is a scene where they get together and they are
standing in a field and they're about to They're just
screaming just to kind of release some of the tension
and the stress and everything else, and that gives them
kind of a nice little bonding moment, venting their frustrations
(12:12):
and kind of, you know, looking forward to a journey
of maybe something more so. And with Lana too, this
was kind of I know, the actor I'd read somewhere
the actor Kristin Kruk originally wanted Lana to have a
bit of a darker arc to this, and this episode
kind of begins that transformation as she starts rejecting the
cheerleader role that she had in the first two episodes
(12:35):
of the show. We had a couple of name drops
in Easter Eggs. In this episode, some folks are mentioned,
especially as they were kind of talking about, you know,
people's family or other characters relatives whatnot. I think Pete
Ross's one of Pete Ross's relatives I believe is name
(13:00):
dropped here. I want to say this is the first
time that they name drop Hiram Kent, which is supposed
to be Jonathan Kent's father and Clark's grandfather. Though Clark
would never have known Hiram Kent because I believe according
to the Smallville Show, he would have passed away in
nineteen eighty so and if Clark arrived in nineteen eighty nine,
(13:22):
then Clark would never have the opportunity to have met him.
So this is in one of the episodes that we
will encounter. This is also Hiram is also mentioned because
he was someone that was on a jury that put
away one of our other Freak of the Week characters,
(13:43):
and we'll see that come up in the episode where
that one is featured. But Hiram Kent will also be
name dropped in that episode as well. So for this one,
this is Oh. We also get Laura Lang and Lily
and Luther. I think they are name dropped as well
for this one. We always have some songs that play
(14:04):
during the episode that are you know, tend to be
you know, modern for the time, songs that they're often
feels like they're trying to push on the show because
it's a CW show and that's what they tended to do.
We had the song Renegade Fighter from the band artists
called Z I believe that's played during the opening football game.
(14:24):
A song called Clint Eastwood by Gorillas played when Clark Chloe,
Clark Chloe. It's tough to say, and then you know,
want to mix their names together because then you get
the people who are like But Clark and Chloe should
be together, and it was when people would ship them together.
I'm trying to remember with it because it was chlos
(14:44):
when it was Clark and lois what was Clark and Chloe.
It just sounds Scottish at that point, I don't know. Clark,
Chloe and Pete arrive at school, that's when they're playing
the Clint Eastwood song. Motivation by Some forty one is
played when Jonathan is watching Clark play football with the team.
(15:05):
Bad Day by Fuel is played when Chloe tells Clark
and Pete that cars don't spontaneously combust. What I Want
to Give You by Speed is played when Chloe works
on her computer at the Torch. Never Let You Go
is played by Third Eye Blind when Lex is talking
to Lana in the Beanery. So Much for Love by
the Conties it has played when Clark tells Lex that
Jonathan does not approve of him playing football, and You
(15:28):
by a binocular has played when Clark and Laa talk
on the football field. So in this one, and I
might take on this one in hot Head, we're really
starting to kind of light things up here with another
freak of the week, but it's not one of the
kids this time, it's not a teenager. And we've got
our kind of one of our first big guest stars
on this with Dan loriep and he is awesome at this.
(15:50):
I kind of wish if he had followed see if
they just let him do what he really and truly
wanted to do. He never wanted to be a football coach.
He wanted to be a Sea captain. And if somebody
would have just listened to him when he said he
wanted to be a Sea captain. He didn't want to
work at a business. He want to be a football coach.
He want to be a Sea captain. Let him go
be a Sea captain, then we don't have these problems anyway.
(16:10):
At its core, this episode delves into the bonds within families,
the dynamic between Jonathan and Clark, which I always enjoy
in this show. Jonathan is fiercely protective of his son,
and that is going to be the tension that kind
of follows them along for these early seasons. I don't
want to spoil it just yet, but in later seasons
there's a reason why that tension is no longer there.
(16:33):
But Clark just wants a normal teenage existence, and that's
something you know, that whole push and pull of the
parent wanting to be protective the teenager wanting a normal existence.
I mean, that is something that if you're watching this
as a teenager, you are locked into that, like that
is something that really resonates with you. And it's the
classic kind of coming of age stories. Could even echo
(16:56):
some of the stuff that we got in The Wonder Years.
Especially with Dan Lauria being in here, you get a
kind of get that feeling. The family relationship is just
as heartfelt as it was in the Wonder Years show too,
except I don't think Kevin was indestructible. The backdrop of
the high school football team is where the drama really
(17:17):
kind of unfolds between Clark and his father, and then
obviously we've we've got the little twist of a coach
with fire based powers thanks to being the freak of
the week coach, Arnold. Dan Lauria is awesome, Like he
plays a great antagonist, and that dude, if you hadn't
seen him in the Wonder Years, like that dude can
get angry, you wouldn't like him when he's angry either.
(17:42):
But I really think that it is you know, even
with his superpowers. That's one of the things that this
show does so well, is it really focuses on the
relationships and not just the superpowered threat. I mean, you
get a lot of fun practical effects with all the
fire in this one, but we've got the ongoing struggle,
the power struggle between Lex and his father, which is
(18:02):
going to just intensify even more, especially when we see
more of Lionel coming into the show We've got and
they will just continue to be adversaries as that goes along.
Even Lana's storyline in this one, although it's a little
bit less prominent than some of the other episodes, kind
of contributes to the whole idea of these younger individuals
navigating kind of the expectations the desires of their parents
(18:26):
and really kind of coming into their own and doing
their own thing. As I said, practical effects, we're a
lot of fun. It really enhances the whole spectacle of
having a pyrotechnic pyrokinetic coach. And again, like I said,
there's several other DC universe villains that this could be
subtle nods to or other superheroes. Pyro from the X
Men is another one, but Firefly is the one I
(18:49):
know best from from the DC universe, and there's several
others that you can mention. There. You have the continuing
kind of developing camaraderie between Clark, Lax and Lana. There
are still moments where it's a little weird that Lex,
as someone who's supposed to be a little bit more
of an adult, is so caught up in the lives
(19:11):
of these teenagers. So maybe that's also his desire to
have a somewhat normal life when as a Luther, that's
never going to happen. So, you know, that's that's something
you see a little bit of in this episode as well. Ultimately,
Hothead does I think a good job of balancing the
superpowered premise genuine emotional depth to the story, the familial
(19:33):
conflict that's in there, but the love between Clark and Jonathan,
and then as we continue to develop some of these
relationships and we see that, you know it's just it's
more and more building towards Clark Kent in his journey
towards the hero that he will someday be so very
fun episode love Dan Laurier and it's great villain. I
(19:56):
think he is one of the first is meteor freak
derogatory term might be a derogatory term. That's what they
call him on the show. First meter freak to die
believe from what I recall. The other media freaks come
back later on so here in episode three, he is
the first one to kick the bucket as it will
to pass the torch, oh to have his flame extinguished.
(20:21):
You could say, all right, that's going to do it
for this episode, thank you for joining me. Our next
episode is season one episode four X Ray, where Clark
develops X ray vision and struggles to control it while
discovering that his classmate Tina Greer plays by Lizzi Kaplan
I believe can shape shift due to Kryptonite mutation. Tina
(20:41):
uses her powers to commit some crimes and impersonates Lana
at one point, hoping to take over her life. As
Clark learns to harness his new ability, he exposes Tina's
deception stops her before she can do any further harm
to Lana or anyone else. So we'll be back here
next time for that one. In the meantime, I hope
you're in showing our rewatch of Smallville as we kind
(21:03):
of run through all this. If you have any other
thoughts on the show, please reach out to us on
the socials there and yeah, just just let us know
what you're loving about the show as well if you're
doing a rewatch of Smallville along with us. But yeah,
I just I have so many fond memories of this show,
and especially these early season one episodes as it was
(21:25):
just it was exciting. It was exciting to have a
kind of a serious take on Smallville characters that were
younger than me at the time. I think I was
when I was probably twenty ish. Yeah, it was twenty
when I was watching this when it came out. And yeah,
so even though they were high school kids, it was still,
(21:46):
you know, somewhat close to my age. So it was
fun to see kind of the look back at what
like how he would become the superman that he would
become later on. But yeah, it was a after Lewis
and Clark, which I did enjoy Lewis and Clark. But
it was a very different show. This one was kind
of a breath of fresh air to get back to
a maybe a little bit more of a serious take
(22:07):
a down to earth take on the Superman mythos and
and uh, you just take a look at his at
his beginnings as a high school kid. So looking forward
to X ray next week, Well, we'll see. I was
gonna have some kind of a joke about seeing what
we can see when that I should just stop. At
this point, I'll just I'll stop. I will see myself
out and maybe we'll cue the music. We'll just cue
(22:30):
the music and I'll get out of here, and then
we'll see you back here next week for X Ray.
Thanks everybody,
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