If you were to rewrite a few scenes a bit and squint, this episode of Smallville could actually serve as a pretty solid critique of toxic masculinity in sports. If I’m being generous, I’d say that’s what the writers were going for with “Hothead”, but honestly, I think someone just threw out the idea of a short-tempered coach gaining fire powers and they ran with it. So, what we end up with instead is a solid episode that’s more about how fathers and sons interact with one another than it is about regressive ideas about male societal roles.

This comes through in pretty much every storyline, starting right away with Coach Arnold’s aggressively hands-on approach to the football team. Even before we learn he’s being whammied by Kryptonite, it’s clear that he is far from even-tempered, ruling the football team with an iron fist and manhandling the players just violently enough that the parents watching should probably be more concerned. Arnold more or less demands undying loyalty of his players, and he’s willing to punish them – or anyone who gets in the way of a winning season – with death once his powers fully activate.

Those powers are a major step up from both Electric Scarecrow and Bug Boy, providing a chance for practical effects to carry the episode rather than the shoddy CGI. It’s fairly limited stuff for the most part – a TV catching fire, the old standby of an exploding car – but there’s at least one impressive effect in the water sprinklers spouting fire on the football field. Even today, when CGI is better than it’s ever been, there’s a reason so many people still enjoy practical effects, and their believability helps this episode of Smallville hold up better than it otherwise would.

My biggest complaint with this episode comes back to a couple of things that already feel like they’ll be major crutches the show leans on time and time again. First is the fact that, with Kryptonite as the source of every meteor freaks’ powers, it’s seeming impossible for the show to not in turn use that same Kryptonite to take the fight out of Clark. It’s made him a pretty ineffective protagonist so far, and it does him no favors that he spends a good chunk of this episode rendered powerless in a shower. Obviously, there’s a lot of Kryptonite in Smallville, so it’s going to have an effect, but it would be nice to see Clark impeded by something different for a change.

This constant weakening leads to another problem, which is that the villains sort of keep defeating themselves since Clark can’t. Here, that meant Coach Arnold catching himself on fire and burning to death, a fate that more or less makes him the worst pyrokinetic ever. I get the sense that a lot of the fights are going to end this way, though; you don’t want to make Clark Kent a killer, but with no cure for metahumans yet, these villains need to be taken out at the end of each hour.

Outside of these problems inherent to “freak of the week” shows, though, this was a strong episode from a character perspective. The producers seem to have zeroed in on the Clark/Jonathan relationship as the most potent, and I’m inclined to agree with them. If this is a show about how Clark Kent becomes the man he needs to be to become Superman, then there’s no doubt that exploring his relationship with his father is the right way to go. This episode did a lot to show how much Jonathan loves and wants to protect Clark, forbidding him from joining the football team as a means of protecting his secret.

Admittedly, the approach taken to this storyline is a bit weird. Jonathan and Martha both argue that Clark could lose control and hurt the other boys, which is true enough. However, no one ever even mentions the fact that, as a super-powered alien, Clark’s advantages more or less make him an unbeatable player. Given Jonathan’s own history as a football player, you’d think he would want to keep the spirit of competition alive.

Moving beyond Jonathan and Clark, we also got a deeper look into Lex’s relationship with his father Lionel, as the two butted heads and clashed swords over downsizing at the plant. There’s not much depth to this storyline, but it goes a long way towards establishing just how antagonistic the relationship between the two is. Even more of a footnote was Lana’s friction with her aunt over quitting cheerleading, but it also worked in furthering the theme of parental expectation versus a child’s desire that was at the heart of the episode.

Random Asides

– Given that this episode was all about the football team, it was weird for Whitney to be almost entirely absent from the proceedings. That said, he did get to once again show what a dolt he is, being completely cool with cheating if his friends are doing it.

– A Kryptonite sauna giving someone fire powers might be the most ridiculous way I’ve seen someone get superpowers on TV. And I regularly watch The Flash.

– The scene between Clark, Lex, and Lana at the coffee shop was a good one, giving them all a chance to complain about their parents and grow closer as friends.

– The scene of Clark and Lana screaming that ended the episode, though… that was a bit too goofy. Major flashes of Final Fantasy X.

Final Score: 7.5 out of 10