I Watched Smallville"s Heat Vision Origin Episode 22 Years Later & Am Baffled It Ever Got Made

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Over the last year, I"ve been watching Smallville for the first time, and for the most part, the DC TV show"s storytelling stands the test of time when it comes to depicting Clark Kent"s (Tom Welling) evolution into Superman—but season 2, episode 2, "Heat" is an exception. For those that don"t remember, the episode synopsis for "Heat" reads as such: "A sexy new teacher (Krista Allen) uses the power of pheromones to convince Lex to marry her; Clark loses control over an alarming new power." It"s the Smallville episode when Clark Kent first discovers his heat vision powers.
Now I have to say, I think Smallville"s use of Clark"s heat vision as an analog for puberty and his burgeoning sexuality is well done, even if it"s a bit on the nose. But the writers" ability to take something so fantastical as Superman being able to shoot heat lasers from his eyes and turning it into something incredibly human and relatable epitomizes everything that works about Smallville. I have no criticism of this aspect of "Heat," and I think I would"ve enjoyed the episode a lot more if it hadn"t been for one particular storyline that kept taking me out of the show.
Smallville's "Heat" Episode Has A Seriously Problematic Clark Kent Storyline It Has To Do With Guest Star Krista Allen's Desirée Atkins Close The trope of a teenage boy lusting after his teacher is not new. It"s been done plenty of times, even when "Heat" aired in 2002, and there"s nothing wrong with the one-sided attraction. However, where Smallville crosses a line is when the episode shows Krista Allen"s Desirée Atkins seducing Clark and trying to use her pheromones on him. That"s Clark"s teacher coming to his home and trying to seduce her teenage student into doing her bidding. It"s a major power imbalance, even if the show doesn"t present it as such, and even taking into account Clark and Desirée"s supernatural abilities.
It"s later revealed this is part of a pattern for Desirée, where she manipulates a man into marrying her, and then, using her position as a high school teacher and her pheromones, exploits a teenage boy into killing her husband so she gets his money. She"s in no way depicted as someone good or moral in the show, but Smallville never unpacks the fact that Desirée sexually assaulted an underage Clark Kent. Additionally, since Desirée"s pheromones allow her to control the men she seduces, all those men were assaulted, because they weren"t able to give consent.
Smallville was made at a different time, and I"ll admit that I can sometimes forget just how bad the media was about depicting sexual assault and rape, and it was even worse when it came to assaults committed against boys and men. But I"m still baffled that no one saw anything wrong with telling a story about how a teenage boy"s teacher attempts to sexually assault him, and it"s all just brushed under the rug by the end of the episode. There"s seemingly no impact on Clark whatsoever, despite how young he"s meant to be.
Tom Welling's Real-Life Age Doesn't Excuse Smallville's Problematic Storyline The Clark Kent Actor Was 25 When He Filmed "Heat" Close For the most part, the Smallville cast was older than the characters they were portraying, and Tom Welling was himself 10 years older than Clark Kent, being 25 when he filmed "Heat," which takes place when Clark is meant to be about 15. While I was watching Smallville, it was easy to tell that Welling was much older than the age of the character he was meant to be depicting. But I also noticed that Smallville takes advantage of Welling"s age by putting Clark into situations that are unreasonable for a kid to deal with, including in "Heat."
An underage boy, even one built like a 25-year-old man, doesn"t have the power in the dynamic between Clark and Desirée.
I remember watching this episode and yelling at the screen that Clark was just a kid. I couldn"t believe that not only was no one concerned about his teacher coming on to him (that"s if they believed him, which is a whole other issue), but he was blamed by his best friend Lex Luthor (Michael Rosenbaum) for what happened with Desirée. Lex was, of course, being manipulated by Desirée, but Clark is just a kid! An underage boy, even one built like a 25-year-old man, doesn"t have the power in the dynamic between Clark and Desirée.
Early Smallville Had A Few Other Problematic Scenes Clark Kent's First Kisses Were All While Under The Influence Of Kryptonite

Unfortunately, Smallville"s problematic storylines don"t begin and end with "Heat" in season 2. There are quite a few occasions where kissing and more intimate acts are conducted under conditions of dubious consent. In season 1, episode 11, "Hug," Kyle Tippet (Gregory Sporleder) demonstrates his powers of persuasion by having Chloe (Allison Mack) kiss Clark. Then in season 2, episode 4, "Red," Clark kisses Lana while under the sway of red kryptonite. In both cases, at least one participant was under the influence of kryptonite.
I"d like to believe that if Smallville was made today, storylines like the one in "Heat" wouldn"t get a green light.
These are just two examples from the early seasons of Smallville, but there are plenty more littered throughout, especially the ones that deal with red kryptonite. "Heat" is actually unique because Clark isn"t affected by Desirée"s kryptonite-given ability, but the power imbalance of Clark being her underage student and Desirée being his adult teacher is never really dealt with and is largely forgotten by the next episode.
As I said earlier, Smallville was made at a different time, long before attitudes and discussions about sexual assault, especially as it"s depicted in the media, changed. So the scenes in "Heat," "Hug," and "Red" aren"t necessarily surprising, even if they are jarring to watch now. I"d like to believe that if Smallville was made today, storylines like the one in "Heat" wouldn"t get a green light or, at the very least, they"d be done with more thought and sensitivity, not only for how these events might affect the characters, but the audience as well.

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