The Art of Writing for Smallville (Part 5)

This is the fifth installment of The Art of Writing for Smallville. Click here to start at Part 1 and then click Next at the bottom of each page to go to the next post.

The Chloe Sullivan Corner

Chloe Sullivan moved to Smallville in her junior year of high school. From the Pilot, she is Smallville’s intrepid reporter. She is the youngest editor of her high school paper, The Torch. She’s intelligent, curious, witty, determined and snarky. Her dream is to become the best reporter under the Tiffany lamps at the Daily Planet. She works tirelessly and single mindedly toward that goal. She beats out 400 other applicants for an internship at the Daily Planet at the age of fifteen.

Her biggest weakness is her best friend, though. Since the first day she met Clark, she’s had a crush on him. It’s endearing that such a tough, career-minded girl is also a teenager with teenage problems and doubts. Her relationship with Clark veers into more-than-friends’ territory but they both decide it’s best if they remain friends. That doesn't stop Chloe from reading an unconscious Clark a letter pouring out her feelings ("Fever"). This is arguably one of the best written scenes of the show.

Chloe's letter reads:

I want to let you in on a secret.
I'm not who you think I am.
In fact, my disguise is so thin I'm surprised you haven't seen right through me.
I'm the girl of your dreams masquerading as your best friend.
Sometimes I want to rip off the façade like I did at the spring formal.
But I can't because you'll get scared and you'll run away again.
So I decided that it's better to live with the lie than expose my true feelings.

My dad said there are two types of girls --
the ones you grow out of and the ones you grow into.
I really hope I'm the latter.
I may not be the one you love today, but I'll let you go for now,
hoping one day you'll fly back to me.
Because I think you're worth the wait.

As a disillusioned and heartbroken sixteen year old, Chloe succumbs to temptation when Lionel dangles a DP-column in front of her. Lionel, for his part, acknowledges Chloe’s superior investigative abilities when he asks her to dig up information on Clark.

When she reneges on the deal, she is fired from the DP, her father loses his job and they both narrowly (impossibly?) escape an assassination attempt. She (and her dad) is forced to hide for months until Lionel’s trial. But that isn’t the worst of it. When Clark finds out, she has to face the fallout from that. They find their way through that and come out stronger, better friends than before.

Lois Lane comes to Smallville and takes up residence in the Kent home.

Chloe continues to pursue her dream. Because she is a reporter, she is made to witness Clark’s incredible abilities in the hope that she’ll write an article exposing Clark as a meteor freak. Chloe, however, believes in Clark and decides to protect his secret instead. She graduates valedictorian of her high school class and gets into journalism at Met U.

Once Clark realizes that she knows part of his secret, he trusts her enough to tell her of his alien origins. Chloe is in awe. Their relationship becomes stronger still. They depend on each other and trust each other completely. It’s actually one of the most organically written relationships on SV.

Chloe’s deal with Lionel comes back to haunt her when she applies at the DP. Although her interviewer, Pauline Kahn, is obviously biased against her, she manages to show her journalistic abilities and gets an entry position to her dream. She gets a few articles published and at least one on the front page. Chloe and Clark are closer than ever.

But Chloe Sullivan’s best friend is Clark Kent. And her name is not Lois Lane although she has since Day 1 had all of iconic Lois Lane’s ambition, drive, journalistic ability and dreams. Even after a character named Lois Lane came to Smallville in s4, the writers steadily continued Chloe on the path to be the best reporter at the DP and Clark Kent’s best friend and confidante.

The writers have written and continue to write themselves into a corner because if Chloe Sullivan will never achieve her dreams then her seven year journey (so far) will have been a waste of time. If her character’s only purpose on Smallville is to push the supposedly “iconic” characters toward their “destiny” and fade into obscurity, the writers have failed miserably. Chloe Sullivan is an iconic character on Smallville. Many viewers are invested in her story and want to see her struggling lead to success.

Chloe Sullivan is one of the core four characters on the show (along with Clark Kent, Lex Luthor, and *shudder* Lana Lang). She is arguably the most consistently and best written character (forgetting the nightmare, for all the characters, that is the latter half of s6).

For SV, that’s saying a lot. This is the show that gave us whiplash with the Clana 180s each season. It’s the show that’s forgotten key storylines (Chloe/Luthor arc in s4). It’s the show that (potentially) butchered Lex’s backstory (“Memoria”) with a cheap twist/reveal of Grant Gabriel as Julian Luthor (“Blue”). It’s the show that routinely forgets characters (Martha, Pete, Lex, Lionel, Gabe) and created the Lana Lang Effect.

The Chloe/Clark relationship is the most organically developed relationship on Smallville. You can believe that these characters are best friends; that they know each other very well; and that they trust each other. Contrast that with the Chloe/Lana friendship where you’re left wondering why they even tolerate one another and the Clark/Lex friendship which looked strained more often than not.

In summary, even after a character with the name Lois Lane was introduced on the show, the writers continued Chloe’s journey. The only way out of that corner is for Chloe to be revealed as iconic Lois Lane. Especially after the disaster that is ED’s Lois Lane. It’s really not that farfetched. After all they’ve given us Grant is Julian Luthor - who we know died as an infant and if he didn’t, should be 10 years younger.

(To be continued)