Five

Smallville is an American television series developed by writers/producers Alfred Gough and Miles Millar, based on the DC Comics character Superman, created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster. The plot follows the adventures of a young Clark Kent's (Tom Welling) life in the fictional town of Smallville, Kansas, during the years before he becomes Superman (Wikipedia, 2009).

An avid fan of Smallville, I’ve gotten a breathtaking view into Clark’s life, his many loves, his undying morals and stubbornness, even his fantasies or nightmares. What I’m going to write about this morning is non-verbal communication.

Clark was very much in love with a girl called Lana. She was the girl next door, and they’ve braved through many storms/episodes to end up how they are now. Have you heard of Lex Luthor? Lex Luthor was Clark’s arch rival, be it in love or in, well, matters of the world. They were enemies, though they had a rather strong friendship in the earlier seasons of Smallville.

Lex had just found out one of the biggest secrets in the world. He knows who Clark really is, where he came from, all of his abilities and most importantly, all of his weaknesses. Lex was, however, unable to harm the world in any way, because there is nothing left of him but his brain. Furthermore, there was nobody who could trust him enough to work for him (anymore).

Lana went away for a while, training under the toughest she could get her hands on. She wanted to be strong as she saw herself as a liability for Clark. She left Smallville earlier because of an incident where Clark almost lost the world because of her. She uncovered what she thought was Lex Luthor’s plan to become superhuman. She hijacked the plan and paid off the many people to make it hers. She underwent the operation and became somewhat of a –gasp- superhero. Little did she know that she was also a walking Kryptonite sucking superhero. Kryptonite is a kind of rock that came from the planet Krypton (before it was destroyed). It makes Clark vulnerable and weak.

In the beginning, it was near perfect. Having super powers took away Lana’s fears and they could be together, no worries involved. They even fought crime together. It all began when Kryptonite was being used by some of the villains. Clark was weak to Kryptonite, so Lana would take care of it. She began absorbing the kryptonite’s ability to make Clark go weak. It was a matter of time when her kryptonite buildup would kill him. This was a very very sad episode for me. They were like the Sun and the Moon - they could never exist at the same time. There was no chance they could ever be together again.

The non-verbal communication here? Lex’s hatred for Clark.

Lex Luthor had a plan to transform a person into a superhuman, but it was not for himself. He was in a state where it was not physically feasible for him to undergo the operation without killing himself. He was also married to Lana (for a period of time) so he understood her and her longing to be with Clark. The latter was what enabled Lex to come up with such a vicious plan. It made Lana predictable – she would seek strength to void the liability in her, as mentioned – and easy to plan for. So Lana was the intended person for the operation. Lex hated Clark so much that he wanted to take away the love of his life and make it impossible for them to ever be together. Lex also loved Lana, so it was obvious to him what he had to do to deprive them of each other.

Lex Luthor is such a bitter villain!

It also shows us how strong a message can be brought across through non-verbal communication. In fact, in my opinion, it is the strongest message that anyone can bring across. Imagine the suicides and the messages that come with it. Imagine the killings and the messages that they are conveying. Imagine the things people do in the name of love and hatred. Don't you think that non-verbal communications sometimes convey much stronger messages than words can?

Sorry for the long post!

Ref: Search Smallville on Wikipedia.org