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Clean up Metropolis: check. Burn my mark into public property: check.

If anyone needs any further proof of how far Smallville has progressed as a series over the years, they need look any further than “Metallo”, the fantastic second installment of Season 9. This is not your garden variety freak-of-the-week episode, folks, and yet all of the elements are there to indicate that it should have been. This just isn’t the show that any of us watched back in 2001, and the intro to episode two makes that abundantly clear. We’re lulled into a false sense of security with a very low-key opening sequence that finds Lois searching Kent farm for Clark. We get a nice nod to Martha as Lois wipes the dust off of the kitchen counter disapprovingly. She then finds Shelby at home alone with a full bowl of food and gets a bit suspicious of Clark’s supposed disappearance. She’s interrupted by a call from John Corben, who’s still bent on proving that “there’s another side to The Blur” and that he’s “going to expose it”. I particularly like how Lois plays her reaction to John’s comments here, as she seems genuinely more disappointed at the cynicism that Corben’s beliefs represent than she is interested in arguing over them. We can see even here, early on, how Lois is beginning to empathize with what The Blur has to deal with from those not so quick to give him a free pass as she, and I think that’s a very important trait to have shown us in her character to solidify her relationship with him. It goes a long way in explaining why Clark has chosen to communicate specifically with Lois that this point, and that’s something I personally needed explained a bit.

Prilosec OTC is not recommended for everyone.

We see that Corben is holding a picture of a young woman, and when a gust of wind takes it from his hand, he walks over to pick it up. What follows is probably no more or less than the most nightmarish sequence in Smallville history. There are several flashes of Corben in bloodied pools of pavement, still grasping for the picture that he’s lost. This is all played so hyper-real and first-person that it almost feels as if John simply wants to be holding that picture in what he assumes will inevitably be death. After a cut to black, we’re with Corben in what looks to be a rather makeshift surgical room and we, like the character, are a bit disoriented and unsure of just how much time has passed. His reveal as Metallo is just expertly done here, and the kryptonite heart he’s been given doubling as a visual representation of what he’s feeling is quite simply a masterstroke of design work. It really allows us to feel what John’s going through, not only in this first scene, but also later ones in which such an onscreen reflection of his pain pays off in spades.

Okay, here it is. Off the Citibank building, through the courtyard, over the Luthorcorp logo, nothin' but net.

After the opening credits sequence, we’re treated to one of my favorite scenes in the episode. It’s the first of a few sequences that seem to pay homage to “Superman Returns”, with Clark “filtering” out the sounds of the world while standing atop the Daily Planet building. I’m going to go out on a limb here and say that this scene was even more effective than the one in the film because of its intimate nature. Not only do we see what a burden Clark’s powers must be for him and what a chore it can be to find the one thing he must respond to, but we’re also given a glimpse of his conflict and inherent isolation in being all things to all people. As he overhears a wedding proposal amongst the other voices in his head, we can almost see in Tom’s acting the longing that Clark still very much has for humanity and those deeply personal connections that have been just as integral in bringing him to this point as any Kryptonian training. I’m going to reiterate something I said last week here and speculate that Smallville has a bit more money to work with in Season 9. This sequence, though short, is absolutely stunning, with newly-created external shots of The Daily Planet and the Metropolis skyline. After seeing the same shots used over and over throughout the past few seasons, it’s hard to understate just how breathtaking it was to see something fresh for a change.

Next up is another Lois nightmare sequence, this one a bit shorter but equally telling. There’s a few of the same shots we had in “Savior” thrown in there, but one shot in particular really caught my attention. It’s an obvious throwback to the cover of Superman 75 for those who remember such things, though I’m not sure how I feel about the tattered cape fluttering in the breeze being of The Blur’s monochromatic variety. That image is so engrained in our culture now that anything other than the bright red of Superman’s cape is a bit jarring. Then again, maybe that was the point. Lois wakes up at The Talon and we get a wonderful scene between her and Chloe right off the bat. I’ll get more into this later, but seeing an episode in which I honestly can’t decide if Lois or Chloe stole the show is just a dream come true. Their banter here is just great, and I love how deft the writers have become at weaving in and out of dramatic irony with these characters at the drop of a hat. We get so many vital pieces of information in this brief scene, from Lois’s continuing Blur worship to Chloe’s dutiful covering up for Clark just as she’s always done. And so it’s an interesting twist to end the scene on Lois having to justify her relationship with The Blur and Chloe feeling left behind by how close Lois has apparently become with him. Note to writers: if you want to fully dispel the Chlark notion with fans who will read anything into a glance (like yours truly), then for the sake of all that is holy, please start having Chloe play these situations with a bit more annoyance and a little less sadness on her face. I know that it could be argued that she’s just hurt as Clark’s “sidekick”, but it certainly doesn’t feel that way for some of us, so tread carefully for our sakes.

Now, as much as it pains me to see Clark and Chloe in the emotional place they are in the following scene, it’s such a finely-written piece of television that I hardly have the words for it here. I began noticing last season that the powers that be began putting the voices of the fan community into the mouths of the onscreen characters, and that is apparently going to continue this year. Chloe’s admonition of Clark for his “back peddling” when she’s sacrificed so much to get him to this point…wow, that’s powerful. And it’s also very true. After everything that’s gone on recently, Clark’s behavior would be an absolute slap in the face to Chloe’s character, and not in the way that it came off in the previous scene with Lois, either. I love how Allison plays Chloe here as decidedly biting with Clark, but she stays on the right side of that line the entire time. It doesn’t feel anything like Brainiac Chloe, and yet her dialog is no less unforgiving than anything in “Legion”. It’s a testimony to the acting caliber here that Allison can play that line so well, and do so off of an actor with whom she’s run the gauntlet of emotion over the past eight years. There’s a definite point in friendships where you need to tell people “all right, now start helping yourself”, and Chloe’s at that point with Clark after all she’s gone through for him. And all respect to the worriers out there, but I don’t think that’s a sign of a withering friendship. Quite the contrary.

I said LIME jello, you quack!

As Corben is wheeled into the hospital for a mostly expositional scene in which Dr. Hamilton explains the full extent and implications of his cybernetic implants, I had to laugh a bit at the punch line. I just had to wonder instinctively if John checked himself into the ER or if he was hauled in after being spotted by someone on the street. The latter scenario, while far less likely, would seem to make more sense. Otherwise, I’m not quite sure what Corben was thinking in going to get help in the first place if he was just going to throw his doctors into the nearest obligatory sheet of plate glass at the first call for a sedative. But I digress.

Speaking of obligatory scenes, I think Cassidy Freeman must have it somewhere buried in the fine print of her contract that she must spend no less than 20% of her scenes sweaty and beating on a workout bag. Surely the head of Luthorcorp has more to do with her time than a seemingly endless workout regimen. And while I’m on the subject, is Luthorcorp even still operating at this point or do they just pour endless funding into side projects such as satellite imagery of alien burn marks across the globe? But more on that in a bit. In walks Cassidy’s new, new assistant. Now, to be sure, this guy looks like he wandered in off the set of Greek and is trying to find his way back to ABC family, but I’ll let it slide just this once, show. Seriously, though, Tess either has some serious turnover issues in her evil empire or the Luthors were masters of both covert operations and excessive micro-management. Apparently, this new guy is good enough at what he does, though, as he’s tracked down where the “Kandorians” are hiding out.

I must kill The Blur. But first thing's first: the bulletin board!

Next up, we get a one-two punch, with the first scene being another with Dr. Hamilton, this time telling Clark pretty much what he already told Corben, though with one additional and significant piece of information: the longer Corben is sustained by his kryptonite heart, the more it will poison his mind. I couldn’t help be a bit reminded of Doc Ock from “Spider-Man 2” after that explanation, but I think given what comes later in this episode, that Metallo’s character works even better. I also like Clark’s entrance in this sequence. I love how he moves so fast that we don’t know if the blinds closing in the room are a side effect of the wind he conjures up or something Clark’s gone around the room and done intentionally when we just couldn’t see him. I’d like to think it’s the latter because, honestly, that would just be awesome. This scene leads us right into Corben walking the streets of Metropolis in just about the most conspicuous way imaginable. I don’t know, not for nothing, but I think I’d notice someone using buildings to support himself while moaning in pain and clutching a trench coat to his chest. Maybe it’s me. In any case, John locates the photo of the woman (whom he now refers to as Becca) and takes it back to what we later discover is the building in which she was murdered. He resolves to kill The Blur “with his bare hands”. Now, I did think Corben’s descent into homicidal madness was a bit quick for my taste, but honestly, this is a 42-minute show and it was handled about as well as it probably could have been given that kind of constraint. A few scenes later help us sympathize a bit more as well, but as this scene played out in sequence, it did edge just a hair toward campy to me. On the other hand, it was a great throwback to our old freak-of-the-week storylines, and it was around this point that I realize what I truly loved about “Metallo” as a standalone episode.

What I loved about “Metallo” was how it shows us how incredible a show Smallville is today as compared to those first few years. And not to knock the early seasons at all, but this is the kind of freak episode that feels both like an old-school episode and a new, mythology-based continuation. It’s just great to see the series coming into its own in this way, and it gives me far greater hope for an episode with a premise like “Rabid” to know that the powers that be can handle a side story like this so well now and weave it into the overarching fabric with so much greater efficiency than we’ve seen in the past. One other thing I love about “Metallo” is the small moments. They’re the glue that holds this show together now, and they go a long way toweard giving the action scenes a necessary emotional weight. I’ve said it before, but I think one of the best veiled gifts that this show ever got was losing a good chunk of its budget last year. It forced the writers to make this show about the journey again and stop focusing on the spectacle alone. Without those little interludes to build the relationships and motivations, none of those other things matter to us in the end, and Smallville in Season 9 is a show that understands this better than it has in quite some time.

One such interlude is next, with Clark calling Lois to tell her that he’s learned that the person who broke out of Metropolis General left his Daily Planet keys at the scene. You know, as much as I (still) believe that this show could have used a better explanation of how this whole unspoken romance ever really started in the first place, it’s scenes like this that make me simply not want to care. Watching Clark and Lois interact this way is just so darned much fun. I love how Lois is pushing for all the subtext, and Clark, being the only one of them who knows who they both are, is grappling with things feeling so right and awkward simultaneously. It’s just genius that we see clearly through that dynamic exactly how both characters want to be with one another could they just overcome “the friend zone”. And Lois is quite honestly adorable here, taking giant leaps of faith with the bare minimum of information that Clark gives her and throwing herself into the sidekick role of her own volition. And while I’m on the subject of “sidekick”, wow, how about that Lois / Chloe scene? Now, show, for future reference, this is how you pull off Chloe feeling a bit steamrolled. You do it tongue-in-cheek and just a bit more ironic than we can ignore. My mouth was wide open when those elevator doors closed and Lois hit her with the sidekick line. Wow. What a way to literally and metaphorically hit Chloe with a reality check. And guess what? It was funny. And I think even the Chlarkers can swallow that pill down a bit easier.

Are you even listening to my order? I only want mushrooms on half. And it's the roof. The roof!

Our next Tess / Greekboy scene (hey, I like that, he’s officially Greekboy now until properly named) involves still more talk about how advanced Metallo’s cybernetics are and how this is likely Zod’s attempt at a dry run of Kryptonian technology for use on Earth (presumably, he’s taken a page right out of Lex’s play book and fancies himself the leader of a band of enhanced super-soldiers). Then we head back to the Planet, where John Corben is acting all sorts of creepy at his computer terminal when Lois walks in ready to go right into their “banter banter banter” (cute). Incidentally, I find it interesting to see just how huge Lois’s blinders get when she engages in banter with someone, which goes a long way in explaining Clark when you stop and think about. When she finally puts two and two together, though, she’s straight off to call The Blur, who immediately calls her from “their” phone booth. Now, I do have to wonder, logistically speaking, how exactly Clark is pulling this off without having the booth under some sort of constant surveillance, but I’ll let that go for now. It’s a show about a man who super-speeds and catches trains in mid-air, so I guess it doesn’t exactly need meteor rock-sized chunks of logic to support everything. However exactly Clark is there…he’s there, and just in time to hear Lois get kidnapped by Metallo. This brings us to his next scene with Chloe at Watchtower.

I don’t know, I don’t think that it’s my soft spot for Chloe at this point talking. These two actors have simply been working so long together that their chemistry (as actors) is palpable every time they’re onscreen together, and it simply makes their scenes ignite as they should – especially now. I love how Chloe has risen to such a new level within the span of two episodes. She feels like she’s really steering Clark in the right direction instead of the other way around, and that’s a really good development for her character. However she once felt, her primary focus has always been protecting and helping Clark, and her character as it is written now is more in her element than I could have hoped for in the early days of the series. I love her reaction to Clark’s assertion that he’d told Lois not to get involved: “Clark, what did you think was going to happen? This is LOIS!” Again, speaking for the audience is working fantastically well so far, and I hope they keep it up for the rest of this year. We get some more back-story on Corben here, and it really pays off beautifully, even managing to reel in the over-the-top scene from earlier. We can really see how hurt he must have been to hear of his sister’s death after seeing his video from the war, and again, things like this give the climax of this episode the weight that it needs to have in the end. Clark being given the EMP grenade by Dr. Hamilton was something I might have handled a bit differently. I think this was a golden missed opportunity to reintroduce the EMP arrow from “Reunion” myself, but then I’m a sucker for bringing things full circle. Of special note: I don’t recall Smallville ever going out of its way to allow us a personal moment with a character on the level that it did with Chloe in this scene. That glance at Clark through the computer monitor was, to me, one of the best elements of the whole episode. These are our characters now, and we’ve earned a little time to know who they truly are in the moments they don’t share with anyone else.

What superbeings do in their spare time: yet another boring Lifetime original series.

And so by the time we arrive at the climactic face-off between The Blur and Metallo (and it’s telling, I think, how my first impulse was to just go ahead and say Superman and Metallo there). The battle itself is fairly short, but I like how much more time has been afforded to making this fight actually mean something to both of these men instead of it being just the random freak brawl that we’ve seen so many times before on Smallville. Both of them have something they’re really fighting for. It’s not as if Clark’s just fighting Metallo because he’s not himself or might hurt someone. It’s because he might hurt Lois. Admittedly, I don’t know how exactly this feels different than the countless times that Lana’s life was put in jeopardy, but it somehow does. And John has a reason to want to exact some measure of revenge. And it’s personal for him, not just because he’s a random cyborg who wants to stop Clark simply for being the light to his dark. I think it’s important going forward that Smallville embraces these “bigger stakes” battles. It means a lot more to all involved that way. Clark’s solution to Metallo’s kryptonite heart was also pretty inspired. For whatever reason, the series hasn’t embraced lead all that much as a means for Clark to overcome the ill effects of the green k, and it’s nice to see him actually working these things out proactively for a change instead of just blindly charging into a situation and (shocker) winding up on the floor. Once again, the effects work done when Clark melts the lead was impressively done, and the payoff of that plate becoming welded to Metallo’s chest was, for me, pretty great and unexpected. I also liked how we got a bit of old-school Clark for a moment, trying at the last moment to save Corben from himself like he did with so many a meteor freak back in the old days.

I must take a moment to specifically address the moment between Lois and The Blur at the end of this scene which, for me, was worth any minor disappointment I may have temporarily felt after the relatively brief fight sequence. The tenderness Clark shows toward Lois here is, I think, pretty revelatory for his character. And I don’t know if I’ve just never taken notice until picking these shots apart for reviews how subtle of an actor Tom Welling really is. This is most evident when he’s standing there deciding whether or not to reveal himself to Lois. And make no mistake, that was a decision there, folks. He didn’t know which way it was going to go when she asked. And that step forward spoke volumes about how strongly he wanted to just let Lois in. Everything he feels is pulling him to her, but reality is just too real now. His guilt over Jimmy’s death is too strong, and Chloe’s speech about how much his friends and family have sacrificed for him to complete his training too fresh in his mind to do what he feels is right for himself. He must do what he knows is right for humanity instead. In that moment, he feels finally complete and more isolated than ever before simultaneously. Seeing the hurt on his face as he made that final decision to leave what he wanted more than anything for the greater good was just heartbreaking. That, dear readers, is great television.

Lois, you're the breast. Best! I totally meant best. Did things just get weird?

Our last Clark and Chloe scene at Watchtower is accompanied by another terrific Febre score piece. I know I mentioned the score last week as well, but I simply must give credit where credit’s due, and we’re getting some very unique new cues from Louis this year, this one being more guitar-centric than we’ve ever heard before. It gives the Watchtower set its own identity and feel, and I rather liked how it seemed to herald in a healthier attitude between Clark and Chloe than had been there for earlier scenes in “Metallo”. I’m very glad that a valid and logical reason was given to maintain the The Blur’s dual identity, and the scene that that decision gives us is by far my favorite in the episode. Clark’s return to The Daily Planet is done so well that I, Chloe fan that I am, still found myself wondering how anyone couldn’t be rooting for Clark and Lois at this point. As torn as I was at the beginning of the episode, I really have to give this one to Erica. She has so won me over as Lois Lane, and I’m not even sure exactly when it happened. Her banter with Clark here is just Superman mythos through and through, and I’m not sure how Tom did it, but his smile while Lois is recanting her adventure with The Blur is straight out of the 1950’s George Reeves play book. I think it was a nod that even casual fans would pick up, and it was a very, very nice touch that was positively heartwarming to see on the show.

Closing out the episode, we’ve got another Greekboy / Tess scene that turns the “what the heck” dial all the way up to eleven. Hundreds of Kryptonian symbols are being burned in random areas all over the globe, one of those symbols is the symbol for The House of El, and there’s someone lying in the middle of it? It’s definitely a head-scratcher, and I can only assume this is setting the stage for Julian Sands’s turn as Jor-El later in the season. All in all, I probably enjoyed “Metallo” slightly more than I did “Savior”, as I think the former may have a bit better replay value over time. “Metallo” was much stronger in the quiet, character-driven moments, “Savior” in the action sequences. I do think the two work better as a whole, though, and I cannot wait to see how Season 9 plays out when I have the opportunity to sit down and watch these episodes back to back. This season of Smallville is, without a doubt, tuning into the epic, sprawling Superman series that we’ve all been tuning in for week after week, and it’s wonderful to see that final transition finally playing out before our eyes. It’s one heck of an exciting time to be a Smallville fan.

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