Hello everyone, and welcome back to the Nightcrawler Experience!
Well, my Halloween season was so busy that I couldn't finish the entry I had hoped for (A review of a certain fairly recent horror film that offers a, well, interesting take on late- night television), so that'll have to wait until next year.
For this entry, since we're past Halloween yet not quite at Thanksgiving, I will rather fittingly be looking at something that's a bit scary, AND involves food!
I'll be talking about an underrated episode from one of my all- time favorite TV shows, 'Smallville.'
(Credit for this image goes to the user Aleu el12345 at the Smallville wiki at https://smallville.fandom.com/wiki/Opening_credits?file=Smallville100_010.jpg)
For those who've never heard of it, 'Smallville' was a show that ran from fall 2001 to spring 2011. It acted as an origin story for Superman, starting with a teenage Clark Kent (Tom Welling) and the adventures he had and people he knew in his Kansas hometown of Smallville which would eventually lead to him accepting his destiny and becoming the Man of Steel. It was a teen- drama type show with action elements for its first few seasons, then they made it into more of a superhero action- drama in its last few seasons as Clark becomes an adult and moves to Metropolis, and we see more familiar DC heroes and villains start appearing in it.
It was a genuinely wonderful show, with likable and well- developed characters (Both familiar ones from the comics, and new ones created for the show), loads of action, and fascinating storylines. It has also held up pretty well over the years, it doesn't feel too dated. Its theme song, "Save Me" by Remy Zero, is really cool, too! Good hero- music.
I was a senior in high school when the show premiered, and the series finale aired the night before I graduated from seminary, so I really felt like I grew up alongside Clark as the show went on.
Tom Welling quickly grew into his role as Clark Kent, making the role his own and giving Clark more depth than most versions of the character up to that point had. In addition, the show did a wonderful job with its portrayal of Lex Luthor (Michael Rosenbaum), seeing him go from the good man and close friend to Clark that he is in the start of the series to the genuinely evil supervillain he is sadly destined to become.
In introducing my fiancee Hannah to this show, I recently rediscovered a season 1 episode that I genuinely loved when I first saw it, and still do now, called "Craving," and so I will be talking about that episode here.
For the first few seasons of 'Smallville,' the show frequently abided by what became known as the "Freak of the Week" plot format. See, in the show's pilot, we learn that when Clark first came to Earth as a toddler and landed in Smallville, it was as part of a devastating Kryptonite meteor shower that did a ton of damage to the town and (This is particularly important) left traces of glowing green meteor rocks scattered all over the surrounding area. Then, in most episodes of the show for the first few seasons, there would be one- shot villains in the form of everyday Smallville residents who were exposed to those Kryptonite meteor rocks in some way and mutated and given some sort of power from it.
This episode, "Craving," is very much in that style. Clark's "Will they/ won't they" love interest in the show at that point, Lana Lang (Kristin Kreuk), has a birthday coming up and her aunt is throwing her a massive party for it in Lex Luthor's mansion, leaving Clark wondering what sort of gift he should give her.
One of the people very interested in attending this party is a classmate of hers named Jodi Melville (Played by a young Amy Adams, who would later go on to become a very well- established actress for her work in films like 'Enchanted,' 'Hustle and Flow,' and, coincidentally enough, playing Lois Lane in 'Man of Steel').
Jodi is friendly and smart, but also rather overweight, and has become EXTREMELY self- conscious about it. Her caring father has some greenhouses on their property for growing vegetables, and so Jodi attempts to lose weight for Lana's party by going on a diet consisting exclusively of gross- looking blended shakes made from those vegetables.
(Jodi and her dad in their greenhouse. Credit for this image goes to the user "Samantha's Mom" on the Smallville wiki at https://smallville.fandom.com/wiki/Craving?file=Craving.jpg)
When some of her friends appear noticeably unsettled at how nasty these shakes look, Jodi explains "Losing weight is never pretty." That line proves to be eerily prophetic as the story progresses. We see right at the start of the episode that the soil those vegetables are grown in contains small traces of the Kryptonite meteor rocks, and so drinking shakes made from those veggies soon has a, well, interesting effect upon Jodi.
She begins losing weight and becoming thinner at an unnaturally rapid rate, and is initially thrilled at this, confidently asking Clark's friend Pete to be her date for Lana's party. However, a terrible side effect to this diet quickly develops: Jodi starts to gain a severe, insatiable hunger, stuffing herself with enormous quantities of any food she can get her hands on even as her weight continues to drop.
Things soon get even worse: In a truly horrifying scene halfway through the episode that fully shows the mutagenic effect that this Kryptonite- infused crash diet is having on the poor girl, she is driving alone on a rainy night and accidentally hits a deer. Jodi gets out of her truck and wanders over to the freshly- dead creature. Leaning over it, her mouth out of nowhere stretches WIDE open distortedly, and she uncontrollably devours the deer.
(See you in your nightmares! Credit for this image goes to the user RoR- El at the Smallville Wiki at https://smallville.fandom.com/wiki/Craving?file=Smallville107_268.jpg)
When Clark's inquisitive school- reporter friend Chloe reads in the local newspaper that the circumstances behind the deer's death were "unknown" (Slow news day, I guess), she and Clark sneak into the local animal control building and discover that the deer's corpse looks like jerky, having lost nearly all of its body- fat.
See, we learn that Jodi's condition has developed enough that she now needs to literally suck body- fat from other creatures (Sorry for spoiling any of your pre- Thanksgiving appetites by bringing this up) as a way to satiate her constant hunger a little longer than regular food does.
Before long, humans aren't safe from her, either. At school a day or two later, the next one to wind up on Jodi's menu is Dustin, a rude and dim- witted bully who had VERY nastily picked on her in an earlier scene when she was overweight, and we get the feeling he'd probably done so to her many times in the past as well. Quickly picking up that Dustin's now attracted to her since she's thin, Jodi seductively lures him into a boiler room, and then this little exchange occurs:
Dustin: "(Standing right behind Jodi, clearly thinking he's about to get lucky with her) You don't think I, uh, I ever meant any of that stuff I said about you when you were...?"
Jodi: "Fat? (Laughs a little) You thought it was funny... calling me names... making me cry... making me wish I was dead rather than fat."
Dustin: "Well, what can I say?"
Jodi: "(Taking a couple steps ahead of him, keeping her back to him) You can say you're sorry! (Whirls around to face him, her mouth stretching open like before, and lunges at him)"
Clark sees with his X- Ray vision that something bad is going on in there, and intervenes in time to save Dustin's life, but Dustin had lost enough fat all at once by that point that the shock puts him in a coma (And, frankly, it serves that idiot right for how he had treated Jodi earlier in the episode), and Jodi flees before Clark can realize it's her.
The episode's climax takes place on the night of Lana's birthday party. Pete goes to Jodi's house to pick her up (Her father was away on a business trip, so she's alone in the house), and as much as Jodi likes him and doesn't want to hurt him, begging him to leave as she feels the familiar hunger symptoms coming on, her craving takes over and she knocks Pete out. Thankfully, before Jodi can wolf Pete down, Clark (Who had finally managed to put two and two together and realized the danger Pete was in) runs in to save the day.
He has a tough scrape as following Jodi into one of the greenhouses leads to him being weakened by the Kryptonite rocks in the soil and Jodi attacking him with a shovel while he's in that state, but he manages to save them all. Pete comes to with nothing worse than a bad headache, Jodi is sent to a hospital in Metropolis for treatment, and while Clark misses Lana's party as a result of his intervention, a conversation he has with her early in the episode gives him a little inspiration, so he manages to give her a wonderful birthday present that she really appreciates.
A lot of 'Smallville' fans seemed to really dislike "Craving," but I personally consider it one of the best episodes of the first season, and one of the most underrated episodes of the entire series. Hannah felt the same way upon watching it. It was exciting, scary, poignant, and had some good development for most of the major characters (i.e. Lex has a subplot involving his becoming more interested in the meteor rocks and what they can do to people, which factors heavily into his character for quite a long time after that).
The subplot of Clark attempting to come up with a good birthday present for Lana was nice enough, and how it was resolved as very sweet.
Easily one of the best parts of "Craving," in my opinion, was its antagonist. Jodi I thought made for a fantastic one- shot villain, terrifying during the scenes when her hunger starts really taking hold, and yet at the same time you'll also find yourself deeply sympathizing with the poor girl for all she is suffering because of her flawed body image and its consequences. She's not evil, her condition just became more than she could control. Amy Adams gives a wonderful performance as her that nails all those qualities; Watching her as Jodi, it comes as no surprise to me that Adams would go on to become the Hollywood A- Lister, multiple Golden Globe winner, and multiple Oscar nominee that she is today. I found myself wishing that Jodi would make a return appearance in a future episode so we could see what became of her; She is never seen or mentioned again on the show after that point, but I like to imagine that after being taken to the hospital in Metropolis, she got the medical and psychological help she needed and eventually recovered.
Along those lines, although he's only a minor character, I also liked what they did with Jodi's father. While most of the "Dad"- characters on 'Smallville' other than Jonathan Kent are shown to not exactly be Father- of- the- Year material, it's clear that Mr. Melville is a good man who loves his daughter more than anything, earnestly wants her to be happy, and is attentive enough that he realizes something is wrong with her and at least tries his hardest to help her come to a healthier mindset.
Another reason I liked this episode, and which factors into the main theological lesson that ties into it, is because of its social commentary. As you can probably tell from my description of it, "Craving" was meant as an obvious commentary on the dangers of body dysmorphia and ESPECIALLY eating disorders.
Not to name names, but many years ago, someone I knew nearly died from a severe eating disorder, and "Craving" premiered right around the time when that person's condition first started becoming really noticeable. So, yeah, that episode had quite a personal impact on me.
The thing is, overly fixating on outer appearances in ways like that is not just unhealthy, it's also unbiblical.
As Jodi's condition gets worse, we see the destructive path that her pursuit of outer beauty has led her on, damaging her relationships and putting herself and others (Including people she genuinely cares about, like Pete) at risk. Her outer transformation/ weight loss didn't provide her with the happiness or fulfillment she thought it would; It just became a source of more pain for her, worse than what she felt before. Similarly, when we focus exclusively on outer appearance or other forms of worldliness, we risk losing sight of the inherent worth that God has given to each of us.
Jodi's sad story can resonate with all of us who have felt pressure to measure up to society's standards of outer beauty and superficial success. We are bombarded with ads and social media posts making it seem like if we don't look a certain way or achieve certain worldly goals, we are worthless.
However, as I have documented in the past in this blog, the Bible's standards tend to involve us going against what our increasingly secularized culture tells us to do. In 1 Samuel 16:7, God tells the prophet Samuel that "The Lord does not look at the things that other people look at. People look at outward appearances, but the Lord looks at the heart." In addition, 1 Peter 3:3-4 says "Your beauty should not come from outward adornment, such as elaborate hairstyles and the wearing of jewelry or fine clothes. Rather, it should be that of your inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God's sight." Real, lasting beauty isn't found in how we look, but in who we are: In our capacities to love, forgive, and serve.
I think a second Biblical lesson that can be taken from 'Craving' (And one that can serve us well as we are preparing to go into the Christmas season) is on giving a gift of love, as seen in how that episode handles the "What will Clark get Lana for her birthday" subplot.
Clark listens to Lana sharing with him a happy birthday memory from when she was very little, and her late parents took her to the drive- in for the first time. This gives Clark a little inspiration, and so in the very end of the episode he gets the idea to sort of re- enact that happy memory with a little help from Lex and the use of his own family's barn. A simple gift, but one given out of love, and deeply appreciated. While I'm sure Lana got a lot of flashier and more expensive gifts from the others at the party (Largely just people out to impress others with their generosity), you definitely get the feeling that she liked Clark doing this for her the best of all.
It ties in well with 1 Corinthians 13:3, which states that "If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing." Giving a gift that is truly unforgettable is one with real love and regard for the receiver behind it, rather than just for bragging rights.
1 Corinthians 16:4 further shows this by simply saying "Let all that you do be done in love." Clark often excels at that, due to the genuine concern and care that he has for all those who are close to him.
Clark also further shows that kind of selfless love in the episode's climax by saving not just Pete's life, but Jodi's as well. Even when she was at her absolute lowest in that moment, attacked Clark and then attempted to kill herself by causing the greenhouse to blow up with her inside, Clark still saw the worth in her and super- sped her out of it in time. That kind of compassion and mercy definitely helps foreshadow Clark's destiny to eventually become one of Earth's greatest heroes. It actually calls to mind something that Clark would eventually go on to say in the very last episode of the series while facing a being of pure evil: "It may be easier to hate, but it's stronger to love."
We all similarly need to show that strength by ensuring that everything we do is done out of our love for others and for God.
So, I think that's about all there is to say about "Craving," A wonderfully underrated episode of a wonderful show that teaches great lessons about true beauty and acting out of genuine love in all that you do. I guess you could say it really is "Super"!
With that bad pun, I bring an end to this edition of the Nightcrawler Experience. I hope to have at least one Christmas- themed entry out before the big night comes. Until then, stay safe and healthy, and may God bless you all!
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