Ep 1.3 - Hothead

[Dr. Curt Connors]

I liked this episode, especially the moments with Clark and Lana, I do not know why I like Lana so much! I didn't care much for Clark joining the football team. The Coach was one mean coach, I can't believe any Coach would be THAT bad. I thought it was awesome Lana left cheerleading (I don't care much for cheerleaders! *looks at Heroes*). I like how Lex defied is EVIL father and doesn't fire anyone.

[ShiningPath]

I really liked this episode, it was cool seeing Clark playing football. 8/10

[Nimkong]

To be honest i think this episode was kind of a let down compared to the pilot and metamorphosis.But it was kool seeing clark playing football and lex and lionels fight so 6/10

[SGuthrie27]

I gave "Hothead" 6 fire-spurting sprinkler heads out of 10. Clark's clash with Jonathan over being a part of the football team is an interesting recurring plot line for the show. Coach Walt Arnold was a fairly interesting character, though he wasn't the most cautious psycho criminal. Clark's first super-save of Chloe is a treat to watch, too. The scream at the end with Clark and Lana was a kind of clever way of ending the episode.

[vyperman7]

Anyone else notice the left handed QB throwing during the 200th game? Whitney is right handed..

This is actually one of my favorite S1 episodes. Great music and Dan Lauria is outstanding as Coach Walt. Also, one of the few episodes where I enjoyed the Clana. The smiles in the Beanery after Lana spills the drinks and the scream on the field were great.

[jsm]

I enjoyed this episode. Clark is still struggling to fit in by wanting to play football. A good Freak of the Week as well. 7/10

[kp1984]

This episode was very interesting and funny because i couldnt stop imagining him on wonder years setting little fred savage on fire.

Yeah that would be scaring. Funny thing is TW only a year younger then Fred Savage and Fred played a 14 year old back in 1990. Good thing Jason never had to deal with this coach.

[Kevin24]

Haha the coach really lets Pete have!

Coach: Look at Ross here, he doesn't have a lick of talent but he has a whole a lot of heart

Pete: Thanks....i guess....

[RightWingConspirator]

You had Clark saving Principal Kwan from blowing up in the car, as well as Clark whooping CW's ass by kicking him threw the glass. Good stuff.

For a second I thought you meant the network!

[Nimkong]

Usually i think this episode is just ok. But now I think its pretty good even though its not better than the first two. Clark wanting to play football in this episode is a good plot as he just wants to fit in and be like us. Lana quiting cheerleading and being a waitress shows that shes not the girl everybody thinks she is. Lex cutting the budget instead of the workforce shows that at the beginning of the show that he had a really good heart and shows how his father manipulates him. Martha and Johnathan showing how they trust Clark shows how he becomes caring in the future and cares about humannity. Coach in this episode was cool by showing that his powers are now showing because of his rage and this is like the only show where I like how there is a villan with fire powers because its been overused so much

So I give this episode:8/10

[The Krypton Knight]

Probably my least favourite episode of Season 1.... just found the coach kind of goofy, though his power was kind of cool. A decent episode still.

I did really enjoy the Lex/Lionel scenes, which set the stage for their business and personal relationships going forward. Those two stole the scene in this one, as they would go on to do many times in the future

[jon-el87]

I guess this episode indirectly gives closure to the scarecrow tradition from the pilot, that seemed to have been forgotten about in seasons 2-4. Given how coach Walt is portrayed, it wouldn't surprise me that he'd look the other way with that sort of thing (if not outright encourage it). Then, when coach Wayne Quigley (seen in S4) shows up (probably before next football season), he puts an end to it. Puts his foot down and says that anyone who does that, is off the team.

The episode showed some potential for Lana. Her deciding to quit cheerleading to trying to find something she's good at. She tries and fails as a waitress. Sadly, I don't think they spent any real time on it, after this episode. Despite her failiure as a waitress in this episode, it wasn't very long before they had her start running the Talon (which was about her trying to preserve the place where her parents had met, not finding something she was good at), until the end of season 3.

I thought it was a good move to have Chloe and Kwan be the two who doesn't overlook coach Walt's behavior. In the opening, they establish that Kwan's only been in Smallville for six months. Then there's Chloe, who'll eventually be revealed to only have moved to Smallville a year ago from Metropolis. So, they're not indoctornated in the whole treating the coach and football team as royalty thing, that others in the town have. Which we see with Pete, who objects to Chloe's article, because Walt coach his dad, his brothers and used to come over to watch the Super Bowl. Just shut up and look the other way, and Walt will ensure that you'll get into a good college and a good job. I also liked Chloe's investigating the coach and the team. Her journalistic endeavours tended to be a stretch for a school paper, but here it at least is connected to the school.

Coach Walt is established to always having had a temper and been known to hit players. It's nice that the episode doesn't just try to blame his actions on meteor rocks. Many of the early meteor rocks had some logic to them.

Jeremy Creek: Hazed in his freshman year and ended up in a coma for 12 years. Then he tries to kill the guys behind it (revenge) and the rest of the school, upon discovering that the kids are still doing this thing 12 years later.

Greg Arkin: Established to be an obsessive Lana stalker, who took pictures and even broke into her house. Kid was clearly already a ticking time bomb.

Harry Volk: Established to be a psychotic killer, who then goes out to kill relatives of the people who convincted him (something he'd been wanting to do for 60 years).

In later seasons, Chloe (who isn't qualified to put a psychiatric diagnosis on anyone) tended to just go around and blame bad behavior of the MFs on the Kryptonite (with little thought given to character psychology).

[Aurora Moon]

I guess this episode indirectly gives closure to the scarecrow tradition from the pilot, that seemed to have been forgotten about in seasons 2-4. Given how coach Walt is portrayed, it wouldn't surprise me that he'd look the other way with that sort of thing (if not outright encourage it). Then, when coach Wayne Quigley (seen in S4) shows up (probably before next football season), he puts an end to it. Puts his foot down and says that anyone who does that, is off the team.

Good point, never thought of this. and it makes sense too. It makes the town look less creepy and less like it came straight out of "children of the corn". It's not that the people in town actively engage in creepy ritualistic stuff and actively accepts it as "just how things are". It was just something that was cooked up by the sports team and the coach looked the other way for decades because he was an abusive ******* himself too. Headcanon accepted.

I have to admit, the scare-crowing thing made me wonder about the townfolk's sanity there and that maybe they were all a little crazy even before meteor rocks came along. And yeah, the show and Chloe did tend to overuse the meteor rocks as an convenient excuse for the people's crazy actions.

I thought it was a good move to have Chloe and Kwan be the two who doesn't overlook coach Walt's behavior. In the opening, they establish that Kwan's only been in Smallville for six months. Then there's Chloe, who'll eventually be revealed to only have moved to Smallville a year ago from Metropolis. So, they're not indoctornated in the whole treating the coach and football team as royalty thing, that others in the town have. Which we see with Pete, who objects to Chloe's article, because Walt coach his dad, his brothers and used to come over to watch the Super Bowl. Just shut up and look the other way, and Walt will ensure that you'll get into a good college and a good job. I also liked Chloe's investigating the coach and the team. Her journalistic endeavours tended to be a stretch for a school paper, but here it at least is connected to the school.

One of the things I liked about this epidose? How it accurately portrayed small-town worship of sports, and the way people looked the other way just because their favortive team players could put the small town on the map or simply because it made the town money.

I grew up in a small town for a while there, and man... you wouldn't have known that the entire town was supposedly Christian with the way everyone seemed to worship the local basketball team and football team. Worship of false idols and all that. So they kind of hit it on the nail there. the local coach wasn't abusive, but he was over-dependent on alcohol and pills. if you know what I mean. And of course everyone looked the other way and let him keep on coaching the kids, no matter how doped up he was out of his mind. Because he was apparently the best coach around.

So yeah, while hothead wasn't the best epidose ever it was still oddly relatable.

[costas22]

I thought this episode had one of the cutest endings with Clark and Lana screaming at the sky. Most of the season 1 episodes signed off on a heartwarming note and it's one of the things I like about that season.

Other than that, this is one of those Smallville episodes that doesn't age well with time (as opposed to Hourglass or Jitters).

P.S. Imagine if they told us back then that the only actor from this episode who would appear in a future Superman movie would be David Paetkau, the guy who played the student whom Coach Walt bullied.

[DJ Doena]

P.S. Imagine if they told us back then that the only actor from this episode who would appear in a future Superman movie would be David Paetkau, the guy who played the student who Coach Walt bullied.

Who also happens to be Dan Turpin from season 8's Bulletproof.