Episode Review: Masquerade

"Hey, Dominos? Yeah, it's Clark. Remember me from last year? Yeah, I ordered a pizza from the roof of The Daily Planet. Right. Well, I'm on Big Ben, do you deliver here? Yes, the one in London. Hello?"

If “Beacon” was one of the best episodes of Season 10, “Masquerade” was one of the most fun, possibly of the entire series.  It was so fun, in fact, that I’m willing to overlook certain things in this episode that would have made me cringe in lesser entries.  I won’t shy away from those things I didn’t like in this review, but I’ll make an attempt to explain why they didn’t bother me when, typically speaking, they would have.  In one of the best teaser scenes of the year, we have Lois talking to Clark while planning their wedding’s implausibly problematic seating arrangements.  He calms her down and says they’ll find a way to make it all work, but as we soon find out, there are bigger problems to deal with.  It seems that Clark has become a bit too brazen with his abilities after the VRA was overturned, and video has begun cropping up of him making his major saves.  Now, granted, as far back as Season 8 (back when Clark began doing his good deeds in Metropolis instead of in a small Kansas farm town), I would have expected this issue to come up a bit more often.  Cell phones and digital cameras are just part of modern life.  And while I won’t call into question the retro homages that Smallville makes at times (let’s face it, a full-body phone booth just simply wouldn’t be there anymore), it does seem strange that this is becoming a problem all of a sudden.  So why don’t I have a problem with this arguable contrivance?  Because it’s handled in such a fun way.  We get some awesomely whimsical music by Louis Febre – who’s doing some of his best, most memorable scoring work of the entire run of the series, in my opinion – as we pan from London to Metropolis, and for perhaps the first time, Smallville feels like a full-on Superman series.  Honestly, the only thing we’re missing now is the tights and the flights, guys.  Also of note is that Metropolis is not New York, at least according to this show’s logic.  I won’t lie; I was actually pleased to see the map zoom in close to Kansas to represent Metropolis.  So Lois shows Clark how prevalent his face is becoming and how he might want to think about a new disguise and we get our credits.  What a fun, great way to start us off this week.  There was nothing I didn’t love about this intro.

Chloe was all for a little role-playing fun, but even she had to admit that Ollie just wasn't pulling off either Belushi or Aykroyd particularly well.

I have to admit, our next scene is quite possibly the first time that I have ever not cringed when the Chloe and Oliver relationship has been placed front and center on this series.  In fact, much of “Masquerade” remains Chlollie-centric, but once again, the episode keeps their banter light, fun, and not annoying.  Much has been said about this episode being a “Date Night” rip-off, and while I can certainly sympathize with the criticism, I simply didn’t think it detracted at all from the experience.  One of the prerequisites in a show borrowing elements from other films or television programs is that it put its own spin on those elements and present them in a fresh way.  “Masquerade” does that extremely well, and so I was never pulled out of the episode simply because it was somewhat derivative.  I was able to take it on its own merits and enjoy every minute of it.  Oliver strolling into the Ace of Clubs and being unrecognizable simply because he throws on a hat and shades was pretty hilarious, but the point is played quite effectively for laughs.  One of my favorite things about Smallville is that – usually, anyway – it knows precisely when it needs to take itself seriously and when it needs to point out just how outlandish the situations it creates really are.  Most of this episode plays to the latter strategy, and it’s much, much better for it.  In fact, had this show taken itself more seriously, I don’t think I would have wound up liking it half as much as I did.  Chloe and Ollie end up taking the table of a couple named the Joneses and attempt to blend in as best they can, setting up the second of our two main plot lines.

"Clark, what are you doing?!" "L-Lois! Nothing. I-I was just..." "Clark, you are the most powerful man on the planet. You HAVE to get over this". "But Lois, the guy out-ran me. I can't just stop idolizing him".

Have I mentioned yet this week how much I adore Lois and Clark?  Because I adore Lois and Clark.  In fact, I’d go so far as to say that every single scene that Tom and Erica have had together has been pure gold this season, and this one is absolutely one of my favorites.  Lois tries helping Clark solve his disguise problem by attaching a very Impulse-like red hood to the top of his jacket and throwing some Arrow-esque shades on him for good measure.  I had to crack up at how hilariously uninspired this solution was, as if the best thing that could be thought up in a pinch was to just steal some of the goofier elements from other members of the JLA and try and make them work for Clark.  And again, this scene might have been unintentionally funny if it hadn’t been presented so light-heartedly.  I have to mention the music in this sequence once again, because it was just fantastic.  Louis has said that comedy is probably the most difficult thing for him to write, which is unfortunate, because he’s absolutely a genius when it comes to underscoring comedic beats with score.  Clark finds pretty much every reason to hate the disguise idea (as well he should have, but the delivery of the objections were done in a pitch-perfect way that sums up exactly how a man deals with things he doesn’t like).  Instead of just coming out and saying “this doesn’t work”, Clark begins poking little holes in the idea, such as the hood not being practical because it won’t stay on during super-speed and his not being able to see well enough through the glasses.  And yet he raises both of those objections in such a half-hearted way that you know he’s just trying to come up with something else to say other than “I hate this”.  I also really enjoyed the way Lois exits this scene, mocking Clark’s habit of “whooshing” himself out of serious moments.  These two just play so well off of one another that, again, it almost makes me wish we had just one more year to see them interact.

"Hey, Chloe, you wanna skip out on this Mr. Jones thing, hop on my private jet and sip piña coladas on a deserted island? Chloe? Hey, have you seen those 'phones that save us from our phones' commercials?"

There’s a expositional moment here at the Ace of Clubs when Ollie gets a phone call from the real Mrs. Jones (which, before the phone is handed over, makes for a very cute scene, by the way), and we learn that she’s being held by Desaad.  I have to say that we’ve had a lot of these crazies in Smallville over the years, but they actually do well in “Masquerade” with making Desaad genuinely chilling.  Most of the time, these subplots are fairly throwaway characters where you never get any true sense of peril because, well, this is a story about Superman.  We know the good guys are going to triumph, and we know that these evil-doers are going to get what’s coming to them.  So a lot of the time, these characters are quite obviously meant to come off as threatening, but border on campy instead (“Abandoned” springs to mind).  Not so with Desaad.  The way the set was lit, the off-putting camera angles, and the genuinely eerie sight of someone bleeding from various places on their face made this sequence skin-crawlingly effective.  Upon leaving the club, Oliver has the bright idea of hitching a ride with the Joneses limousine in order to track down Mr. Jones before Desaad does.  But instead, Chloe and Oliver find themselves held at gunpoint by two unidentified men who insist on asking them a few questions.  This sets up a series of twists and turns and misunderstandings to come which, in another episode, might have eventually become irritating, but this show does such a great job of keeping things going at a fever pitch and not letting itself get bogged down in seriousness that it becomes increasingly hard to care about such things.

Amazingly, Bert had lived most of his adult life unaware that he had a meteor power. But when he overshot Clark's high five by a good six inches, it was pretty clear something was amiss.

Next up, we get a little bit more of Clark’s investigative side as he takes a look at Desaad’s victims at the crime scene.  As I said last week in my “Beacon” review, I’m really enjoying the way Smallville is beginning to focus more on Clark’s reporter side.  Too often, that aspect of his character gets sidelined, and I think it’s a good thing that it’s being emphasized so close to the end of the series.  We get a terrific little interlude with a suspicious yet adoring detective who falls all over himself trying to ingratiate himself with Clark.  He’s so distracted at making a good first impression, in fact, that he nearly falls into a gaping hole in the floor.  Well, technically speaking, he does fall, and Clark lifts him back up with a single arm.  Using the rather flimsy excuse of adrenaline and center of gravity, Clark tries brushing off the incident and walking away, but it’s becoming increasingly clear to him now that he’s going to have to address the issue of being a far-too-obvious Blur.  Now, to be honest, I did have to wonder why Clark didn’t just make the save look a little bit harder than it actually was for him instead of nearly outing himself to a group of police detectives, but I guess it could have just been an instinctive reaction to save someone first and deal with the consequences later.  On some level, though, I did have to think to myself that the disguise might not be such a glaring necessity if Clark would simply try and be just a little bit more careful about what he does and how he chooses to do it.  On the other hand, this scene was really well-executed, and that lingering question in my mind certain wasn’t a deal-breaker by any means.

Clark had to admit that this guy seemed really shady, but what were the odds he'd gotten ink all over his hand just in case he was questioned? And besides, he'd offered scout's honor.

I also very much enjoyed the scene at the morgue, where Clark shows off a new and unexpected ability.  In checking the body for clues, he uses his “micro-vision” to detect a few tiny black dots on the victim’s skin.  This new ability was extremely well-presented.  It’s comforting to know that the creative team is being clever with their use of budget this year.  With a few dilating and contracting pupil shots, sound effects, and camera zooms, they completely sell this new skill of Clark’s, presumably without having to break the bank to do it.  I have a hunch that the powers that be are actually conserving a good portion of the effects budget for Season 10 to make our final handful of episodes something really special.  I recall watching “Homecoming” and being impressed by the high level of visual quality they managed to achieve with that helicopter scene, so I’m expecting more of that type of thing going into the finale later this year.  Another thing this scene teaches us is to never trust anyone in Smallville who works at a hospital.  They all seem to be bad news, except maybe Emil.  The coroner, calling himself Blaine, tells Clark that the spots are from a pen that exploded on him earlier during the autopsy.  If Clark needs an extra ability, it’s probably super-perception (or maybe even normal perception), because this Blaine guy is all kinds of sketchy, and none of it seems to faze him one bit.  But probably the second best thing about this episode is how the two stories we’re being shown are actually both interesting and actually affect one another.  I’m not a big fan of episodes that branch off and try and do two completely different things.  What’s cool here is that Clark’s investigation is eventually going to lead him directly into Chloe and Oliver’s plot line, and that’s a skillful way to structure things in such a way that we don’t get bored watching.

"Oliver Queen? Chloe Sullivan? You two are under arrest for engaging in a totally unneeded romantic interlude and defiling the good name of Henry Olson. What do you have to say for yourselves"?

Speaking of Chloe and Oliver, I really can’t emphasize enough in this review how amusing and fun their storyline is kept while they’re together in this episode.  While I may not be a full-fledged supporter of their ever-so-convenient romance over the past year, I can definitely get on board with these two as an action team.  Allison and Justin play off of each other extremely well.  Now I’ll admit that I was beginning to get a tad annoyed by the end of their ride in the trunk (I mean seriously, you’re being kidnapped and you pick now to have a rather trivial lover’s tiff over the status of your relationship and whether one of you remembered that it was your anniversary?), but I couldn’t stay too upset for long.  The fact is that the tone of this particular episode is kept so right the entire time that it’s obvious right from the start that this scene is supposed to be played for just as much absurdity as it projects.  And, on that level, it does work in a rather charming way.  And this is coming from someone who doesn’t know why on Earth these two characters are dating.  After being released from the car, Chloe and Ollie are about to be questioned when they shoot each other a look and begin taking down their captors one by one.  I would like to point everyone the evidence on display in this sequence as to how visceral, exciting and effective the fights scenes are on Smallville when they choose not to resort to slow motion effects every two seconds.  This was great!  I know that the point here was to build up the kinetic energy until it reached a peak and to then have Chloe and Oliver stop at the sight of each other and say “I love you” at the same time (all of which worked very well, by the way), but even if the reason wasn’t strictly aesthetic, it worked on that level beautifully.  I really hope we get more fights staged like this one was as the series closes in on its final few hours, because it really came off the screen.  If anything took me out of this at all, it’s that I eventually did have to wonder just how many fragile tables one room actually needed.  But again, I feel like this was done tongue-in-cheek, and I still enjoyed how it played out.  The two learn in short order that the people they’ve just put down are FBI agents and that Darkseid is behind all of this, which leads them back to Club Desaad.

Desaad hadn't exactly planned things this way, but wow did he ever wish he'd gotten that force push on video! Knocking her shoes off AND having them land on her? He'd NEVER be able to do that again!

I don’t know about anyone else, but I was really enjoying all of the seemingly new establishing shots in this show.  I know that’s a really small detail to fixate on, but every once in a while, it’s great to see a new angle of the city or of the Daily Planet globe like we did in this episode.  It really helps keep things feeling fresh.  And bravo for this episode actually keeping continuity with Club Desaad’s rear entrance.  When I first saw Chloe trying to get in the door, I immediately flashed back to Lois and Kara descending those same stairs at the end of “Supergirl”, so it’s good to know that we’re actually getting some solid consistency between episodes.  I feel like something of a broken record here, but I really enjoyed how playful this scene was.  Ollie’s acrobatics in getting into the open window on the second floor were played for just the right level of humor, as was Chloe’s reaction to being held up yet again the moment Oliver was out of sight.  It turns out that “Mr. Jones” has plans of arresting Ms. Sullivan for impeding a federal investigation.  Before he has the chance, however, he begins bleeding from his face much the same as his partner did and collapses to the ground.  Desaad shows up and, well…frankly, the best way I think I can describe what he does to Chloe is to say that he force pushes her into a wall.  Again, this might have played poorly in a different context, but as light-hearted as the rest of “Masquerade” has been up until this point, this moment made Desaad seem particularly intimidating – which I think was exactly the point.

"Look, Oliver, I'm sorry, but for the last time, I can't go to The Ace of Clubs with you. I have a mid-term to cram for and it's 50% of my grade. If you can't understand that, then maybe you should just move out".

Back at The Daily Planet, Lois has an amusing scene with her assistant Jeff as she sends him off to get her a frosty.  He bumps into Clark as he’s heading out on the errand, and obviously, this is pretty much only meant as a set up for later on when he changes his attitude toward Clark.  Here, he calls Clark “Mr. Kent” and stammers as he speaks to him.  A few scenes from now, things will be very different.  But let’s not get ahead of ourselves.  Lois manages to figure out something that Clark didn’t know about the bodies – they all have the same stamp on their hand from Club Desaad.  I did find it a little strange that Desaad would go through all the trouble of impersonating a hospital worker to clean off the stamps when the evidence was already there in the crime scene photographs.  I mean, wouldn’t that have been a good thing to do before you abandoned the bodies and left them for the authorities to photograph to begin with?  But hey, I guess if our antagonists actually covered all of their tracks competently, we wouldn’t have any bread crumbs to follow, right?  While tracing this lead to its source at Watchtower, Clark is interrupted by Oliver, who’s just made his way back after realizing that Chloe was taken.  I really enjoyed the pace of “Masquerade” a lot.  It never let up for a moment to take a breath, and the narrative jumps tended to actually make sense.  It wasn’t like “Patriot” where everything felt quickly edited together and people just wound up where the plot needed them to be.  These developments seemed much better thought-out and fluid.  Ollie and Clark exchange information and, once Clark feels he has enough to piece together where Chloe might be being held, he speeds away and tells Oliver to stay put.  Again, going back to “Beacon”, it’s so fantastic that Clark is really taking the initiative in these moments.  He sees a course of action, and he takes it with confidence and knows what he’s doing is right.  Naturally, though, Ollie’s as much of a loose cannon as ever and plans to go up against Darkseid regardless of Clark’s warning.

"Perhaps you ARE stronger than the others, Ms. Sullivan. But do you think you can withstand constant flashbacks of 'Collateral'"?! "No. No, you wouldn't". "Oh, wouldn't I"?

I think one thing that made “Masquerade” work where other similar episodes could so easily have failed is that the actions of the characters really made emotional sense.  Oliver really would venture out on his own after losing Chloe so recently.  He doesn’t want that to happen again, and he’s not about to listen to Clark, even if deep down he knows he’s probably right.  And Clark knows what Darkseid can do after standing up against him in “Supergirl”.  He knows that Ollie’s in no condition to fight him with such an obvious fear in his heart.  He knows instantly that that will get exploited and turned around on him, and he’s just protecting his friend.  Not quite as well executed, though, is the follow-up to this where Desaad attempts to infect Chloe with The Darkness.  I did like the transition from Clark leaving Watchtower to his showing up to rescue Chloe as part of Desaad’s illusion so that you actually think for a few moments that maybe he’s really there.  There is a flat-out eerie moment of romantic tension played out between Clark and Chloe that – and maybe it’s just me here – should totally put to bed any lingering thoughts from ex-Chlarker’s out there who think these two should have gotten together.  And hey, I’m a rehabilitated sympathizer myself, but if I needed any reassurance about Clois, this was it.  But it was sufficiently weird and off-putting, and so it did work.  What I didn’t like about this, though, was what happens next.  If you’re in Chloe’s shoes and you’ve just been duped by an image of one of your best friends acting completely out of character and then your significant other shows up inexplicably, do you run into their arms unquestioningly?  I highly doubt it, but maybe that’s me.  And the rest of this sequence just felt like the script was going too far out of its way to explain what Desaad was doing.  Yes, we know what the seven deadly sins are, and we don’t need Chloe to have a line that explains which one we’re seeing every time Desaad switches gears.  Little things like that just strike me as patronizing, I suppose, and I don’t like being talked down to as a viewer.  It isn’t that things aren’t presented well or done effectively otherwise, because they are.  And I don’t want to give the impression that the scene doesn’t work overall, because for the most part, it does.  I guess it just didn’t work completely to my personal liking.

"But Clark, how can I believe you? I mean, if Chloe's actually alive, then that would make you the honest one and Desaad here a complete liar. How do you expect me to just swallow that one, huh"?

The bait and switch that Desaad pulls with Chloe, Clark and Oliver, though, was a real masterstroke on the part of the writers, and I definitely have to give credit where it’s well due.  When Clark arrives just in time to save Chloe from being killed, there’s a really terrific scene where Desaad sizes up the man that Clark’s become since the events of “Supergirl” and “Abandoned”.  This was extremely cool, and to have Clark’s progress as a hero acknowledged by one of our baddies in this way really made me realize just how much Clark truly had grown since the start of Season 10.  But all of this, as it turns out, was just a setup for Desaad’s true goal in corrupting Oliver.  As Clark is temporarily immobilized by Desaad’s power (or was it Darkseid himself – that wasn’t made entirely clear, at least to me), Desaad is ambushed by Oliver who demands to know where Chloe’s being held.  Desaad lies and tells Ollie that she’s dead, and Oliver begins beating him senseless.  One particularly interesting through-line with Smallville (at least until the series finale airs in a few months) is how Oliver’s character – at the moment – is still the man who murdered Lex Luthor.  As far as we know – and as far as our characters know – he’s still capable of that kind of an act.  I’m sorry if this spoils anything for anyone out there, but unless you’ve been living under a rock, you know that Michael Rosenbaum is coming back.  This makes me very happy, and not just because I want Michael on the show.  I don’t like Ollie being left in this place as a character.  I don’t like him being a man who has murdered someone.  And right here, in this scene, we wonder if he still is that man.  You can almost see the doubt in Clark’s eyes as he looks at his friend after he breaks free and races to stop him, not knowing for sure if he truly knows him as well as he thinks he does.  It brings back some tough memories of the latter half of Season 8 when these two were firmly at odds on how to deal with things, and it’s chilling to think of that all being build-up for what’s coming at the end of this series.

Clark did his level best to keep from tearing up, but accepting Lois's dare to eat an entire handful of Sour Skittles without any water at all was testing even his inhuman strength.

Now, I have to say that I think that the following scene would have worked better for me as a fan as the ending to this episode than as the second-to-last scene, but maybe I’m just saying that because of the inherently amazing and iconic nature of it.  Clark finally figures out how to make his disguise work: he’ll make The Blur his true identity and Clark Kent the mask.  I know some people find this interpretation a little hard to swallow, but as I said last week, I think that, within the Smallville take on the Superman mythology, this was really the best way they could have gone psychologically with things.  Going all the way back to Season 1, Jonathan used to tell Clark that his abilities were part of him but that they didn’t define him, but somehow, they really always have.  Clark is who he is because of what he does.  He’s a hero because he’s selfless and saves people not merely because he has to or feels a responsibility to do so, but because that’s his heart.  That’s who he is as a person.  And to that extent, it does define him.  And perhaps that’s the one thing that differentiates Superman from all other heroes.  His heroism is his identity, not just another aspect of his character that he lets out when he throws on a costume.  Personally, this works splendidly for me as a fan, and I love it.  As Clark walks out with his new pair of glasses and bumps into Jeff, there’s a fantastic turnaround where Jeff initially apologizes but eventually stands up for himself when Clark backs down.  Some have said that this just happened too quickly and that there wasn’t enough of a change in Clark to warrant Jeff getting this sudden influx of confidence.  But just look at what Tom is doing in this scene.  It’s not just the glasses, people.  His shirt and tie are both loose, his hair is slightly more unkempt than usual, and he’s noticeably slouching and keeping his distance from Jeff.  All of those things conspire to make him a much less formidable physical presence (even without the nice-touch affectation of pushing the glasses to his face to draw more attention to their presence), and it made me smile to think of all the subtle ways that Christopher Reeve did the same thing when he played the mild-mannered reporter.  Also, don’t forget that Clark just came up with this alter-ego a few minutes prior, so there are some kinks he obviously needs to work out going forward.  But for a first try, I thought this was played pretty perfectly.  It was a subtle character moment that didn’t seem forced or unnatural, and I’m sure things will get much better as Clark becomes more comfortable playing this role.

It was almost embarrassing. All the investigating that had already been done, and all this time the easiest and most effective way to oust Darkseid's minions had been a simple black light!

All right, so I know I’ve said before that I’m not a huge fan of the Chlollie relationship, and I don’t want to paint my reviews with that sort of bias on a weekly basis.  But I must say that I think what truly bothers me about these two isn’t that they don’t have chemistry.  On the contrary, and as I’ve stated in my thoughts on this very episode, I actually think they do.  I think it’s the drivel that these two are forced to say to each other.  Chloe pours her heart out to Oliver about not feeling like herself since her days back at Smallville High, ever defining herself through this cause or that, and Ollie responds by saying that he’ll always know who she is.  And she says she knows this and that’s the reason why she’s never doubted her love for him.  So wait a minute.  Let me get this straight.  Chloe hasn’t felt like she was fully herself since, at the very latest, Season 4, and we’re supposed to believe that Oliver knows who she truly is when he didn’t even enter the show until Season 6 and then showed no real interest in Chloe personally until three and a half years later?  And what is this time period that she speaks of when saying she’s “never” doubted her love for him?  Because they don’t officially acknowledge that they’re even a couple until this very scene.  I’m sorry, but this relationship to me just seems written as far too poignant than it has any right, reason, or precedent to be.  And that’s why it doesn’t work for me.  But anyway, I’m not trying to take away from Justin or Allison in this scene, because they both do a great job yet again, despite the questionable dialogue.  And when we get our reveal of the omega symbol on Ollie’s head as our cliffhanger, it truly left me dying to get to the next episode as quickly as possible.  I really enjoyed “Masquerade” despite my initial misgivings, and I really hope that “Fortune” holds up as well on the silly-but-fun front as this show did.