User Reviews

The father-son rivalry that is Lionel and Lex Luthor hits a dramatic and exciting point in "Asylum." Following Lex's madness in the previous episode "Shattered," Lionel admits Lex to the mental institution Belle Reeve, which largely houses meteor freaks gone mad due to their mutated ability. These meteor-infected include Eric Summers, Ian Randall, and Van, all who have their own personal grudges against Clark, who in reality is largely responsible for their residence there due to previous confrontations with each of them.

At Belle Reeve, during a visit from Clark, Lex lashes out at him to use his secret to get Lex out of the asylum. Clark doesn't confirm or deny Lex's accusation of Clark's secret. Eventually, Lionel despicably tells Lex's psychiatrist to do electroshock therapy on his son, a procedure that wipes seven weeks of memory, but could turn Lex into a vegetable if everything doesn't go perfectly as planned. Clark and Chloe convince the psychiatrist to not do the therapy, but the next day the psychiatrist mysteriously died in a car wreck. Both Clark and Lex find themselves in perilous situations at Belle Reeve before Clark can ward off the vengeful mutants.

This episode illustrates the boundaries that Lionel is wishing to push to erase Lex's investigations of him concerning the death of Lionel's parents. It shows that Lionel truly does not care much for his son, but is more concerned with concealing his past from the world.

Perry and Relic were great stand-alone. One introduced us to a key character and the other, played the retro special card, to tell a compelling story, and bridge the gap between generations. Magnetic was a decent filler where Lana gets wild, again. And Shattered was just keeping you at the edge of your seat, waiting to see this closing scene. With Johnny Cash's chilling cover of that NIN song « hurt ». When Lionel watched Lex in his straitjacket, and Clark lied by Lana's hospital bed. Asylum starts with Massive Attack « future proof », when Lex is at the asylum, before Clark makes a visit, and reunites with his former one time enemies. A young Ian Somerhalder joins the cast, as one guy in Lana's physiotherapy class. But he's clearly more than that. And the rest try to keep their secrets hidden. It's a very good episode that delivers what the Winter finale promised, and suggested the season might become the most addictive to date. There seems to be a big reduction in the music department this season, with less « expensive » songs each episodes. Which probably was a way to prevent all the cuts and changes shows with less restraint encountered on the DVDS and streaming. But to be honest, it changes nothing. Like this episode proves, less is more. And those songs have more impact like that.