Despite Mulder's warning, Godfrey pressed onward and inevitably fell victim to the black oil.
Now this is more like it! As many issues as I had with “Shield” last week, it was well worth every one of them to get to “Supergirl“. I absolutely loved this episode from start to finish. I’ve gotten the impression that fans actually tended to like last week’s show over this one, so I’m going to defend this entry just as vehemently as I railed against the last. Hopefully, I’ll be able to change some minds for the better. As “Supergirl” opens, we get a very cool extension of the Darkseid moment we saw in “Lazarus”, with the black smoke inhabiting Gordon Godfrey, the anti-vigilante radio talk show host we heard from briefly on Cat’s mini boom box last week. I will say that I had an eye-roll moment right at the beginning of this scene that – just for a moment – brought me back to “Subterranean”. I’m not sure if the writers intended for Godfrey to be referencing superheroes when he used the term “illegal aliens”, but when I hear that phrase, I personally think of, well, illegal immigrants. Now, obviously, this is going to be a character that we’re not supposed to agree with and who has things all wrong to the tune of being an extremist. As such, the writers placing a comment about stopping illegal immigration into this mouth almost felt as if I were being spoon-fed that talking point as something only a man like Godfrey would say. I’ll let this slide, though, because I’d like to think that what was actually intended here was that Darkseid was exploiting Godfrey’s concern over illegal aliens and twisting it into a campaign against all of Metropolis’s masked heroes because they’re different and operate outside of the legal system. I could see one being a logical extension of the other if Darkseid wanted a public voice.
There was no denying it. After an hour of posing for her own portrait, Lois's smile just didn't look natural anymore.
After a three-week time cut, we pick up with Godfrey again, now a huge public figure after stepping up his speeches opposing the city’s heroes. Clark’s listening on the sidelines when Lois comes up behind him, back from her trip to Egypt. When Clark hears her voice, I was immediately drawn back into the show I missed watching a mere seven days ago. Louis Febre’s wonderful Lois and Clark theme has a reprise here, and the instant emotional connection I had in seeing the two of them hug each other was amazing. I also love the (intentional?) reversal from last year when Lois hugged Clark in “Metallo”. Here, we get the same kind of scene, but Clark’s the one who lets his emotions hang out there on his sleeve one beat too long for a change. Everything about the exchange was incredibly sweet, and it made me realize that one of the things I truly missed deeply about “Shield” was the chemistry between Erica and Tom that I’ve become so used to seeing. I really loved how instantly supportive Lois was with Clark here. She knows what hearing a negative speech like this must be like for him, and it’s so awesome to see her in his corner now, especially after last week when Clark had to contend with Cat. Speaking of Miss Grant, I’d be remiss if I didn’t point out how fantastic I thought Lois’s reaction to all things Cat was in this episode. It was as if the writers were putting my concerns about that character into Lois’s mouth, and it made me love Erica on this show even more than I have before.
With a shudder, Clark suddenly regretted dropping out of Jor-El's class the week before learning how to force push!
When Godfrey begins his rant about The Blur, Lois has finally had enough and starts walking toward the podium. There’s some sort of (rather unexplained) crane problem as it reveals a huge billboard condemning Clark’s family crest, and the whole contraption begins falling toward the crowd. Yes, I know the effects could have been a lot more satisfying here, but honestly, these things just don’t bother me all that much. As much as the show is filmed well and the fact is masked most of the time, we all need to keep in mind that Smallville is still a low-budget television show. Also, the things they’re trying to do here in Season 10 are on a much grander scale than what’s been attempted in the past, so it’s only natural that a few seams are going to show here and there. It’s unfortunate, but something has to give somewhere, and this really didn’t look that terrible for a bargain CGI shot in broad daylight on a shoestring budget. I must say that I found the actions of the crowd far more humorous than the effects. I’d like to think that I would personally have the sense to run rather than throw my arms up, hoping to hold the gigantic billboard up and avoid being crushed. But the latter approach seems to be what the citizenry of Metropolis tend to go with. Then again, we are getting pretty close to the Superman comic book roots now, and it’s only natural that things will become lighter and broader (just as in the opening scene in “Salvation”), so I’ll let it slide. I will say that the romantic in me loves that Clark went to catch the billboard, but only after going the extra mile of pushing Lois out of the way. It’s as if he’s confident in his abilities to save everyone there, but not so much that he’s willing to put Lois’s life in danger when it’s unnecessary. The “never put one of them above the rest” Christopher Reeve from The Donner Cut might have been disappointed, but I was grinning from ear to ear. But before Clark can save the day, the billboard stops falling to reveal Kara holding it up on the other side. This was such a fantastic, iconic moment. I know some fans were upset that Supergirl’s big reveal stole a bit of Clark’s eventual thunder, but I have to disagree. We’ve seen so many heroes strut their stuff in Metropolis up until now, and I don’t see how this is really all that different. For all this crowd knows, Kara could just be some meteor freak with the power of flight. It certainly didn’t hamper my enjoyment of the intro. I remember thinking at the time, “wow, I liked this intro better than I liked the whole show last week”.
"She did WHAT with my nameplate, Clark?! Oh, uh uh! No, she did NOT. I'll leave her a desk to come back to after her little jaunt to the tundra".
Back at The Daily Planet, we get what was one of my personal favorite moments in the entire episode with Lois’s priceless “bye bye, Barbie dream desk” line as she dispenses with Cat’s mini boom box. Have I mentioned yet that I missed Lois last week? Clark avoids some pointed questions about where Kara’s powers came from, and the two have a great talk about the wisdom of the super-powered revealing themselves to the world. It’s great to see just how concerned Lois is about what might happen to Clark if he trusted the rest of the world to be as understanding about who is he as she’s been. She’s seen how quickly public opinion can be swayed, and it’s very real the way she’s imagining the worst case scenario for the man she loves and trying to protect him from a potential mistake. I also like that Lois seems to have learned from what happened in “Idol” and is trying to help Clark in more subtle ways this time so that he is in a better position to help himself rather than hurting him more by being too much of a public advocate. Again, this is a wonderful extension of last week’s discussions with Carter, and Lois’s putting Clark first in her decisions here is just so endearing.
Kara really just couldn't catch a break. She'd been born gorgeous, superhuman, and immortal. And now Darkseid, too? Whatever...
When Clark finally tracks Kara down, she’s doing some sort of photo shoot which is never really explained fully, though I suppose this could just be (as a friend of mine was speculating) what Kara does for money since she’s morally above stealing. She tells Clark that Jor-El has entrusted her with a mission and no longer considers him his son. I guess Jor-El’s still keeping up the tough love routine he began in “Lazarus”. I really don’t know why this is being handled this way, but then, Jor-El’s always remained interesting on Smallville because his motives have always been shrouded to a point. I may not always like the approach that he has with Clark, but I can’t say his character hasn’t been unpredictable and intriguing over the years. But I think if I was impressed by one single character in “Supergirl”, it has to be Lois Lane. Her next scene with Godfrey in the church has her confronting him about his book, and I just couldn’t help but love how proactive they’ve made Lois in this episode and this series as a whole. She really makes it her business to fight the injustices she sees in the world, and she does this without the benefit of super powers. But Lois here isn’t just fighting for the world’s heroes. She’s fighting for her friends. The “oh no, you didn’t” look she gets on her face when Godfrey threatens to expose Ollie as Green Arrow was just fantastic.
Sadly, Oliver wouldn't see until it was far too late that Terry Silver was teaching him all the wrong things.
Speaking of Oliver, our next scene finds the ever-shirtless Mr. Queen working out in his office at LuthorCorp as Lois comes in to warn him about Godfrey’s threats. I like that this scene worked well as an extension of last week’s talk with Clark about whether they should continue to keep their identities hidden. Consistency in characters and motivations from week to week is something that Smallville hasn’t always been great at delivering regularly, but it’s really ringing true for me so far in Season 10. I also really liked the way the Chloe flashback was handled as an extrapolation of the closing scene of “Warrior”. Typically, those kinds of moments are only attempted by the writers when there’s a story element to be gained from doing so (such as the true nature of Lana’s goodbye video to Clark or the look on Lois’s face when Clark zipped up her dress), but it was really cool to see it done here almost as an afterthought. It’s as if that scene had played out just that way, but it was a moment that Oliver remembered that we were never shown. Maybe I think to deeply into these things, but I like that that got me thinking about the implication that these characters’ lives continue beyond what we’re explicitly shown each week. The next scene hints again at something dark working through Godfrey, and we see that Lois is posing as his limo driver. Now, while I must admit that I find it more than a little disturbing in retrospect that Lois knew exactly where Club Desaad was when asked to drive there, I’ll try and chalk it up to her knowing more than the average person since she works at The Planet.
Kara was perplexed. She had loved the new food called ice cream, but this brain freeze thing didn't look fun at all.
The scenes that follow were some of my favorite in “Supergirl”, so I’m going to spend a little time talking about them. First, I really appreciated how Clark is finally, after all these years, given the chance to make a point, change the course of an argument, and stand his ground without the writers plaguing him with either guilt or self-doubt. Such is the case when Kara tries explaining to him why Jor-El’s taken the course he has in excluding Clark from the task facing her. He, quite rightly, points out that by putting her faith solely in Jor-El and not instead believing in the only family she has left, that she’s putting the world at even greater risk. I am loving how confident and sure Clark is of where he’s headed this year. It’s another fantastic improvement over last year when Clark still seemed very conflicted between his human and Kryptonian heritages. But here he’s strong, determined, and assured in his heart that he’s on the right path in his life. To prove that he’s ready, Clark attempts another flying lesson with Kara. I absolutely adored this sequence on every level. I love the way it was shot. The camera angles, the coloring, and even the setting (although admittedly, the continuity geek in me did wonder just when the windmill was rebuilt in Chandler’s Field after the events of “Ageless” effectively obliterated it) were all spot on. It felt truly epic and wonderful. Febre’s score as Clark is about to try his first flight was positively stirring. Everyone in the room with me during this scene shouted “oh my God” in unison when that music cue began. What a fantastic, wonderful Smallville moment! I don’t care what the doubters out there say, Clark flew in this scene. It might have been a short flight, but it was there. And the end of it – with Clark crashing into his own barn – was a tremendous, well-placed homage to “Superman Returns”.
It was perfect! After he confessed to being Green Arrow, no one would ever suspect Oliver's true secret of being a serial arsonist.
Clark discovers that Darkseid evidently came to Earth through the same portal that exiled the Kandorians at the end of “Salvation”, and Kara warns him of the dangers of his being possessed by the dark force. I really appreciate the setup that this episode is for next week’s “Homecoming” based on the previews we’ve been shown. I like how the seeds are being planted here of Clark’s guilt and the dark places in his heart that he still has to push through before he can take on this new threat to humanity. It makes me appreciate just how fantastic a choice Darkseid was as the villain in this final season. Overcoming what he’ll need to to defeat Darkseid is precisely what he needs to overcome as a character to become The Man Of Steel. That’s just a great dynamic to build here, and it makes me even more excited to see things play out this year. This scene gives way to one of Oliver alone in a church, speaking to his parents about having failed Chloe. As I mentioned last week, I’m not a fan of Oliver going down this road yet again. I think they’ve played the Ollie doubting himself and feeling terrible card one too many times for my taste. That said, I do want to say something toward defending this scene despite those misgivings. More than any other scene I’ve seen thus far about the whole Chlollie relationship, this was one I could personally relate to. You can be the best person in the world and always be there for everyone, but if you let that one person down that means everything to you, it makes all the rest feel like it’s meaningless. While I don’t see how this development for Oliver truly helps him evolve or even helps his story aid Season 10’s arc overall, I can certainly empathize with what he’s putting himself through. And I do like that this is setting up a new direction for Oliver which pays off at the end of this episode.
This ultra-rare shot of Lois Lane CONSCIOUS recently fetched a record-shattering bid at a charity auction.
I don’t know if I’ve mentioned this too many times yet, but I adored Lois Lane in “Supergirl”. This really felt like her show to me. With Clark talking and training with Kara and Oliver distracted over his inability to protect Chloe, it’s really Lois who’s doing all of the legwork here to get to the bottom of what Godfrey’s really up to and expose him. She’s protecting both Clark and Oliver, and it’s really awesome to see that role reversal play out for nearly an entire episode. From the scene in the church earlier to trying to get Oliver stirred up to fight for himself to posing as the limo driver, Lois is really putting herself way out on a limb to be a heroine, and doing all of this without the benefit of any powers makes her more courageous to me than anyone. Which is why, yet again, the following events really upset me as a fan. I know I’ve gone off about this in the past, but I’m going to have to mention it as many times as it’s done in the show. After Lois confronts Godfrey with some incriminating photos she snaps of him and some of the girls at Club Desaad, she gets knocked out yet again by being slammed up against a wall. I really don’t know why the writers can’t do anything more with Lois as a character once a given show hits its midpoint than beat her senseless, but it’s really getting tiresome. Everyone I watched this episode with threw their hands up in the air when Lois was knocked out. It’s become a complete joke and it feels like no one who writes these things is aware of it in the slightest. But as if this weren’t already enough, Lois is gagged, strung up, and strangled to the point of near-unconsciousness as well. I mean yes, Darkseid is supposed to be evil and yes, making Lois suffer is – supposedly – the bait with which he’s going to lure Clark to him, but the lengths this show is now going to hurt Lois is really just getting silly. Now, I realize that this is Superman we’re talking about. And Lois being in perpetual peril is, I grant you, sort of part and parcel to that whole thing. But there has to be a certain level of abuse that finally crosses the threshold from necessary peril into borderline sadism, and I think we’re there with Lois. I hate to have to dedicate a bulky paragraph to this topic each and every week, but then again, I hate seeing this stuff written and subsequently presented each and every week, too. It’s as boring to continuously write about it as it is to watch it every seven days. Stop writing it, writers, and I’ll get off my soapbox.
It may have been years since she worked under Captain Planet, but it was with confidence that Kara stepped in front of Darkseid and proudly proclaimed "WIND"!
Kara and Clark track Lois’s cell phone back to Club Desaad, and I have to say I was highly amused at their entrance. Clark telling Kara to try to blend in at a fetish club while wearing all primary colors was pretty priceless, as was his wry deflection if her question about what kind of place it was. It’s pretty great seeing how much of humanity Clark now innately gets, even if we’re not shown explicitly in the show. As much of a bright character and mythology as Superman is, he’d have to have a tremendous understanding of all facets of humanity to be in a position to save people, even from their own shortcomings. And it’s really nice to see the show acknowledging that part of Clark’s maturity. Kara and Clark decide to split up, and Clark happens to find Godfrey first. There’s a few moments here where Darkseid sees something in Clark that he could potentially exploit and possess, and I really like that we see Clark’s face as he begins to understand what Kara was trying to tell him all along. He does have internal issues to deal with before he can step up to defeat this evil, and I have a feeling that this showdown is going to lead in absolutely beautifully to next week’s 200th episode. Before Clark can be overwhelmed, however, Kara steps in at the last moment to try and capture Darkseid through the portal she creates with her bracelet, but he retreats instead. The two of them find Lois and Clark stays behind to let Kara take the credit for the rescue. It was really sad to watch the look on Clark’s face as he let Kara save Lois. You can tell how conflicted he was in wanting to tell her. Knowing, as we do, that Lois already knows his secret made watching him suffering without being able to open up to her that much harder.
Lois was truly appalled and didn't know how to approach this. Absolutely nothing Kara was wearing matched, and blue leather was SO last season.
In another of my favorite scenes from “Supergirl”, we get a great scene of Lois talking to Kara about what it’s like having powers and whether she looks at those without abilities any differently. As I said last week, it’s so heartening to see that the writers are painting Lois as so concerned with doing what’s best for Clark and not for herself. You almost get the feeling watching this scene that if Lois didn’t get the sense from Kara that heroes needed attachments, that she might actually be willing to just let Clark go for the good of the rest of the world. Now that, my friends, is a remarkable heroine that I can get behind, and someone truly worthy of being with Superman someday. This whole theme spills over into the following scene at The Daily Planet where Lois defends her actions to Clark. He’s naturally protective and thinks that she went too far, but again, I love that she’s absolutely certain that she did the right thing and stands up for what she did to try and help her friends. The way that the writers are presenting Lois here is just pitch perfect to me. She’s a strong character who’s taking a cue from Clark on how to live her life protecting others. In short, Lois personifies exactly what Clark hopes to bring out in the rest of humanity. I can honestly think of no better way for Lois to be portrayed in the final season of this show, and it makes total thematic sense that Clark would love who Lois has become. This is how you write a convincing romance.
"No, don't get me wrong, I think it looks fine. I just don't think you're going to be taken seriously without pants".
Clark and Kara have one last scene together in which she tells him that he can’t save the world while being the center of attention and shows off her new disguise. I’m still incredibly curious as to how Smallville’s writers are going to resolve the issue of everyone knowing Clark without glasses this entire time and then set that up Superman as a disguise that would fool even a single person in his life, but I suppose we’ll have to see. But I somehow don’t see that working in any practical way unless something drastic happens to everyone but Clark at some point. With only 19 more episodes to go, though, I guess we’ll all know soon enough. The end of this scene is essentially just more of Kara telling Clark to leave this mission to her and that he’s not ready to face it on his own. I will say that I hope that things get resolved with Clark and Jor-El sooner rather than later. I’d hate for Clark’s Kryptonian father to shun him for the entire final season of the series, causing that patented loft set, Season 1 angst to make an unwelcome comeback. Clark’s moved beyond that stage now, and I still feel that Jor-El’s being a bit hard on him over a few missteps along the way.
"Orrie, I'm fine. Just reave me arone. I know I've had a probrem with bracking out, but I'm rearry fine"!
As if Lois hadn’t managed to accomplish enough in this episode, she actually snagged the evidence that Godfrey had which tied Green Arrow’s identity to Oliver. Rather than thank her for protecting his cover, though, Ollie calls in the press and announces that he is Green Arrow. I can’t say that I didn’t instinctively think of “Iron Man” here, because I did, but I still loved the setup to next week and to the rest of the season that we got here. I mean, I really have no idea where this is going, but it’s definitely new and uncharted territory, and that’s a fantastic way to wrap up a show that’s been on the air for as long as Smallville has. But perhaps even more importantly, I’m really anxious to see what happens with virtually all aspects of what the writers have laid out, from Clark’s rise to Superman to Lois’s place in his life to Ollie’s confession to Chloe’s disappearance to Tess’s true allegiances to that ever-elusive potential return of a certain bald-headed nemesis. It just feels like everything’s up in the air and the possibilities we have going into these last remaining episodes seem limitless. That’s one great feeling to have being this close to the end. My only concern going forward is that we do manage to get Lex Luthor back for at least one episode and that The CW actually lets the show runners do what they want to with the series finale. I’ve heard rumblings that there are already talks in place to get us a longer show for the series ender, and I hope that at least proves true. A bigger and better budget would also go a long way, especially if some of the negative reaction to the opening sequence of “Supergirl” means anything to the network. Perhaps a television movie to cap things off after a decade of devoted viewership? This is a phenomenal show, and it deserves to go out on an impossibly high note. This is a fan base that has stuck around for not one or two, but 10 long years. We absolutely adore this series. We’re the reason it’s still airing. We’ll have successfully made it the longest-running science fiction show in North America in a few more episodes. We deserve it.
