You know, things are so much better when there is just a tiny bit of magic added. Case in point: Smallville. Whereas the last few episodes have left me with an icky feeling of ‘what is going on here’, this one left me smiling and content. There is life left in the story after all. When things look their worst, there is always hope. Let’s welcome Zatanna into our family.
Chloe is having her birthday and is having a thoroughly miserable time. Clark is a no show and Lois leaves to go on assignment. She lets Ollie know after he gives Chloe her birthday present from Clark Tales of the Weird and Unexplained, that her life is nothing like what she expected. She wants to be like Lois and in the bull pen with Clark. But here she is playing psychiatrist to the meteor infected and a 10 second marriage. Enter Zatanna. She grants one wish, and it is your heart’s desire. So basically Chloe wakes up and who is she? Lois Lane! Lois was in Mexico on a story so now Chloe is going to the Daily Planet to live her dream life.
How funny is it that Clark doesn’t even realize that Chloe is Lois? She arrives with a very tight shirt and Clark comments is that even legal for the dress code. He thinks she is acting weird and he keeps commenting on how she is breaking from her usual routine all while giving Chloe as Lois the puppy dog eyes. She doesn’t reveal herself until they meet another person affected by Zatanna and she tells Clark everything she knows about him and then it clicks for Clark that this is Chloe.
Zatanna is looking for something. Her father was killed and she wants the book but Lex bought and she goes to see Ollie to see if he has it. Unfortunately the lawyers won’t even let Ollie look at Lex’s personal things. She tells him that if he gets that book for her she will answer his wish. He says that thanks but no thanks. And then she disappears.
Clark and Chloe go and see Zatanna. She tells Chloe that if she wants it to end, she has to simply stop wanting it. Clark asks her if the guy wanted to be insane. Zatanna grants his wish. Al Clark wants is to be a normal reporter living a boring life. Chloe sees he has forgotten his powers and thinks she is Lois. This is all she needs; the super powered forgetting he is super powered.
In the mean time the Green Arrow has found the book and Zatanna comes to claim it. The book contains some very dark magic and we learn she needs the book so that she can bring her dad back from the dead. She ties Ollie after he tries to burn her book.
Now in the midst of all of this, Chloe has been trying to tell Clark who he is and what powers he has and what he can do. Everything she does to him to prove he does, he writes it off as nothing. Explaining everything away to faulty door handles, acoustics on the roof, and he freaks when she tries to heat him with a steel rod. My favorite was when he asks Chloe if there was any flying. Ha! Not yet my Clarkie. They go and visit the crazy guy speaking Latin and he tells them that the book requires a life for a life. Time for the hero to make himself known.
Chloe and Clark arrive at the Planet and Zatanna has already started the spell. Chloe tells him that he has a hero in him and he needs to let it out because he is the only one who can stop her. He looks back at the once Lois and now she is Chloe; she had stopped wanting her wish. And this gives Clark the courage and he leaps to the top of the building and there he tells Zatanna the cost of the spell, only she already knows. Clark tells her when his father died he did the same thing and he had to learn to let him go and she needs to too. And in the end she does the right thing and closes the portal.
Zatanna pays a visit to Ollie and they make up, so to speak. He understood why she wanted to do what she did. She tells Ollie she has a lot to learn to make her father proud and she is going to do some lite reading. She tells Ollie that there are a lot worse people who can do all sorts of darker magic. She gives Ollie a card and he wants to know does he need to say her name or some incantation and she tells him it is her number and disappears.
Back at the Talon, Chloe is back to Chloe and Clark brings a peace offering since he missed her breakfast. They talk about what happened and Clark tells her that after getting what he wanted, he knew that this was he who he was supposed to be, that every morning he had a purpose. Chloe said she knew the feeling. She talks to him about his obvious feelings for Lois and he tells her that he can never move forward if he is looking over his shoulder at the past. Lois is part of his life now. He asks her if she is also talking about her and Jimmy. They both decide that their past is their past.
Lois and Clark have a moment in the Planet. She finds that he has her list of rules of how to be a good reporter. He says it reminds him of his first day on the job and that there is one Lois Lane. She gets ready to leave and Clark asks her what her big plans were. She has a date and Clark tells her that he is staying at the Planet to run down some leads. Lois asks him did he want to stand her up again. He says it was a mistake and she says he was right. They needed to leave the office spark aside and just keep it to business. He agrees.
Ollie comes to the Isis Foundation and Chloe embraced who she is: the Watch Tower. She is now the eyes and ears of the Justice League. How cool is that!
So, what do I think? I think Zatanna will make a nice addition to the League. I love how Clark has embraced his destiny even more and now Chloe is falling suit. I do think that it is an excellent idea that Clark is leaving love behind and working on being a super hero. Okay, I have to say that there is promise to this show after all. I will give it my full attention and let the past stay in the past, except when I write fan fictions. Until then, bring on this incarnation of Superman!
NEXT WEEK: Doomsday in a cage! STAY TUNED!!
