Episode Review: Booster

"Clark, it's okay if you don't have the whole mild-mannered monicker down pat just yet. I promise it'll be fine if you just do your chest. Best! I mean best".

Smallville continued its streak of well-made, entertaining episodes last Friday with “Booster”.  While not among my absolute favorite episodes of Season 10, “Booster” had more than enough humor, action, and romance to keep it squarely in my “liked it” column.  Things start off with another terrific opening teaser sequence where, once again, our three main plot threads are detailed in quick and natural succession.  The first thread, which involves Lois’s attempts to help Clark hone his bumbling alter-ego before going public as Superman, is easily my favorite of the three.  Things have gotten so effortless now between Lois and Clark that their scenes together have quietly risen to just a hair beneath the Superman mythology on my personal list of reasons why I tune in each week.  I really enjoyed the nod to “Pilot” when Clark fumbled the books for the first time.  This season is seriously making me want to go back and revisit the entire series again, and I just did that this past summer.  The second thread comes in at a very close second for me.  Booster Gold dashes in just in time to save a clumsy kid from getting hit by a car and, fortunately, he’s played to pitch-perfection by Eric Martsolf.  I don’t know who was in charge of this casting choice, but it probably tops my list of best guest roles of the year.  I kept thinking as I watched this episode that I couldn’t imagine anyone else selling the character of Booster Gold the way Martsolf does.  His smile is just so pricelessly smarmy that I couldn’t help but laugh every time it was flashed.  Somewhere between Tony Curtis’s turn as The Great Leslie in Blake Edwards’s “The Great Race” and Clark Gable’s smugly confident Rhett Butler lays this performance.  It was truly that awesome.  Our third thread, unfortunately, was a pretty distant third.  Jaime Reyes’s character was, I suppose, developed as much as he likely could have been given the screen time allotted to him, but I was never quite as invested in him as I felt I should have been.

Clark had learned to tolerate almost anything, but when Booster suddenly attempted to start a conga line in the middle of the newsroom, he felt he had to intervene.

The rapid-fire wit continues as Lois and Clark make their way back to The Daily Planet.  I chuckled all through this entire sequence.  When Lois asks Clark if he’s sure he’d never seen Booster Gold before, he retorts back with “how could you miss that”?  I’m also a huge fan of Booster Gold’s costume.  I love how it looked just as schmaltzy and phony as the character himself, complete with Nascar-esque endorsements from one side to the other.  It was such a subtle yet hilarious way to establish this guy as the ultimate spotlight stealer and perpetual sell-out.  We find out that he’s interested in being interviewed by Lois to get his name out to the public, and that Cat Grant is after the same promotion as Lois and is trying to use Booster Gold to get her there.  One of the greatest things about this episode is how perfectly they wove Cat into the story without making her the most obnoxious thing I could imagine seeing on television.  Based on the Cat we’ve seen up to this point, this whole subplot just suits her character to a tee, and yet she comes off as a great comedic foil for Lois rather than the caricature we’ve seen in earlier episodes.  That’s not to say that that’s my final word on Ms. Grant.  But more on that in a bit.  Louis Febre’s fantastic score keeps the tone during this scene just right, helping us to laugh right along with all of the absurdity.  I also really appreciate how Lois and Clark are interacting now as though they’re going through all of these things together – as a team – and helping each other deal with their respective problems.  It’s a really cool move by the writers to have two problems (Booster Gold’s push for fame and Lois’s rivalry with Cat for the desk upstairs) with one solution: making Clark invisible so he can finally reveal himself as Superman.  I like this being done in an organic, logical way that actually makes sense for these characters rather than it just being an arbitrary decision made at an arbitrary time.

It wasn't so much Jaime's shyness that made him a social outcast as it was his tendency to dress badly, glare at people, and sweat profusely at a moment's notice.

Next up is our second Jaime Reyes / Blue Beetle scene.  We see that the poor guy is on the receiving end of presumably constant ridicule from his peers.  In fact, I almost had to wonder why this young man was sitting on a curbside with other people his age in the first place if he had this much of a problem fitting in.  Coming from a background not entirely dissimilar to this myself, I learned fairly quickly that the best prevention in those kinds of cases was to not be in the situation to begin with.  I’m not saying that I didn’t feel sorry for Jaime as a character, I just didn’t really understand him.  I think that if I had a single issue with “Booster”, it’s that Jaime is so incredibly one-note.  We know that he’s socially awkward, and that’s it.  In the episode’s defense, that’s also probably all we really need to know about him for the purposes of the story its trying to tell, but I felt like I simply needed more than an obviously introverted personality to feel any kind of real empathy for him.  It’s not a fatal flaw by any means, but I do think it was a missed opportunity and an unfortunate weak spot in an otherwise phenomenal script.  The contrast, though, of Lois trying to turn Clark into an invisible buffoon and attempting to do just the opposite for Jaime was extremely cute, and it made me like Lois all the more that she actually cared enough to get involved in even the most trivial of injustices.  It really shows how much she’s grown as a character and how much being with Clark has rubbed off on her.  I’ve always loved that Lois dedicated herself so fully to every cause she got behind.  She’s a great role model to look up to, and a great example of how each of us can do the little things that make heroes out of us all.  I think it was truly one of the great decisions in the history of Smallville to have Lois represent the potential impact that someone like Clark can have on the rest of us, whether on a TV show or, preferably, in the real world.

Booster tried his level best to stay calm, but after spending all morning scouring local novelty shops for every gold light bulb in the city, he really didn't feel like being bothered for an interview.

In one of the only straight expository sections of “Booster”, we get a few scenes that bring us up to speed on what’s really going on beneath the surface.  It turns out that the scarab that joined with Jaime earlier in the episode is actually a super weapon that Kord industries was attempting to recover when the car transporting it was stopped by Booster Gold’s debut save in our intro.  Clark sets off to find the scarab, and Lois decides to see what she can find out about Booster Gold’s motives.  I’ve really liked how Lois and Clark have carved out this method of being partners this season, even though they’re equipped to do totally different things.  They are great at supporting one another, and it’s really great that Lois is finally being given some vital things to do rather than just getting knocked out every week so Clark has someone to save.  I loved how vehemently she stood up for Clark with Booster Gold in the next scene.  And again, I don’t know exactly how they accomplished it, but the writers somehow made Cat Grant a funny character this time instead of just an annoying distraction from what we’re really interested in watching.  Using her zeal in a story about ambition to land a story and get a promotion just works wonders in giving her a purpose on the series.  We also find out here that Booster Gold is actually from the future and that he has plans of replacing Clark as the hero of Metropolis.  I did like the implication of just how important Lois is going to be in Clark’s destiny.  Booster Gold isn’t happy with being interviewed by anyone else, and that was definitely a nice touch.  The one thing I think the writers did flawlessly in this episode was making Booster Gold’s character endearing and sympathetic even through the sleaze and over-the-top machismo.  That’s not an easy balance to strike, and it just as easily could have gone the other way, but I just couldn’t help but like Booster Gold despite himself.

Clark was astonished. It had been more than ten years, and Lex actually STILL had people on his payroll trying to recreate the Porsch accident. This was just getting stupid.

I really think that the main thing that bothered me about Cat’s introduction to the series way back in “Shield” was Lois’s absence.  These two play off of one another so incredibly well that I simply have a hard time being too annoyed with Cat, even though I know her character hasn’t really changed all that much.  She’s still way too bubbly and forced of a personality to be even remotely realistic (a quality which bothered me last week with the real estate agent even during her single, brief scene with Lois on the farm), but somehow, that works just fine with Erica’s dead-pan Lois performance there as a foil.  I laughed out loud when Cat accused Lois of trying to steal her story and Lois just responded with the puzzled, irritated comment “I don’t want anything to do with him – or you”.  When things with Cat are played for that much humor, who has time to be annoyed with her character?  And speaking of comic relief that’s played just right, how about Tom’s portrayal of Clark this week?  His scene with Ted Kord really doesn’t do anything in particular to advance the plot of “Booster”, but it definitely sells the bumbling and meek Clark Kent persona in spades.  The only really important thing that comes out of all of this is the revelation that Kord is using Booster Gold to recover the lost scarab and that he’s promising to get him the key to the city in return.  But really, we probably could have assumed all of that already, and Clark finds all of it out by using his super hearing.  So really, this was pretty much all about seeing how well he slips into the new Clark Kent role.  And it’s really hilarious.  Tom completely sells the nervous stammer, and the milkshake line was seriously genius.  One great thing that this new side of Clark accomplishes is that it gives us something to laugh at while still actually advancing the mythology of Superman.  Those two things are typically mutually exclusive on Smallville, so I think it’s awesome that we can finally have both at the same time now that we’re so close the end.

Tables don't usually attack humans. Typically speaking, they're docile creatures and, when left alone, relatively harmless. Exceptions have been noted, however, as in the Reyes incident of '11.

Now, I will say that, despite my initial lack of connection with the character, I definitely did begin to feel a bit sorrier for Jaime as “Booster” went on.  I think the scene when he asks Booster Gold for help only to be totally blown off probably hit me the hardest.  I actually found it pretty difficult to see someone obviously scared and hurting try and turn to someone who’s positioned himself as a person who can help only to walk away empty handed and even more frightened than before.  This was definitely an effective way to show just how different of a hero Clark is than someone who’s just in it for the notoriety.  Booster Gold, at least at this point in the story, is far too self-absorbed to care about what he can actually do to help someone who truly needs him.  I’ve got to say that I’m still holding out hope that the show runners are doing all they can do cut corners until the series finale so that they can make it look as convincing as possible, because honestly, the special effects work in “Booster” was a bit shoddy.  When Jaime and the scarab join to form Blue Beetle, I was unfortunately taken out of the episode by the over-indulgent use of CG effects that just didn’t rise above that cartoony look that bad computer effects can sometimes take on.  It was almost like being transported to a Power Rangers episode right in the middle of a really good evening of Smallville, and that’s definitely not a good thing.  Fortunately for “Booster”, this plot thread was, as I’ve said before, the least important overall, so this wasn’t a total deal-breaker of an issue.  But I’m definitely hoping to see things look a bit better than this by the time May 13^th comes around.

"Clark! I-I wasn't gonna go in, okay? I was just thinking about it. And so what if I was anyway, huh? Can't superheroes have a good time? It's just a strip club, not Club Desaad, so lay off".

One of the things that’s so impressive about “Booster” as an episode is that it rests solely on the shoulders of Lois, Clark, and two guest characters.  We don’t have Oliver, Tess, Emil, Lionel, or even Chloe to add anything to the mix, and yet it somehow stays compelling throughout.  I’m really happy to see Smallville remain so Clark-centric now that we’re into our last stretch of episodes.  That’s precisely as it should be.  All the talk between Lois and Clark here about his needing to step out as Superman gave me chills thinking about just how imminent that really was.  Somehow, having five episodes left and having three left is a big psychological difference.  I did really like Clark’s talk with Booster Gold (though it struck me as very strange that he came up by name on Lois’s cell phone – he’s been in town for a day and he’s already been added to her contact list?).  When Clark explained to him what it meant to be a real hero, I really got the impression that I was hearing Superman say those words.  I haven’t felt like that in an overt way on Smallville for a while now (maybe even since Season 9), but the feeling was definitely back during this episode.  Clark speaks from a place of higher moral authority, and for perhaps the first time, we really get the sense that that’s a place he’s finally earned.  I almost got the feeling watching this show that Booster Gold might not actually be so much the selfish character as he had first seemed.  The revelation of his stolen Legion ring makes me wonder if perhaps his mission was really to travel to the past to give Clark the final push that he knew he needed to become The Man of Steel.  I know a lot of people have had problems with Clark needing that kind of external influence to step up to his destiny, but I stand by my belief that none of us are who we are without those outside factors pushing us in both subtle and obvious ways in certain directions.  This may not be the most dramatically satisfying way to evolve Clark as a character, but I do think that it’s probably the most realistic.

The truth was, Clark had wanted to change in a phonebooth for several years now. It figured that when he finally got around to it, it would be the most conspicuously bright booth in Metropolis.

I think maybe one of the reasons I found the Blue Beetle subplot a little extraneous is that we aren’t ever really told what this character’s motivations are.  I suppose we could assume that he goes back to attack Booster Gold because of Jaime’s earlier scene with him, but that isn’t exactly made clear.  But one thing I can’t fault at all is how fantastic this whole sequence was handled.  Clark’s phone booth moment was one of the most geektastic moments ever on this show.  Louis Febre’s score was so absolutely big, so fantastically rousing that I wanted to stand up while watching Clark run toward that booth.  The drums just felt so epic in that moment, and that transition was handled perfectly.  I did have to laugh once again at Cat Grant’s complete lack of common sense or even self-preservation when under attack.  We saw this in “Shield”, and she certainly stays true to form here.  And again, I’m not sure if it was just the use of slow motion as a stylistic choice, but Cat just seems absolutely determined to be shot in this series.  Most people, I assume, would make some sort of effort to get out of the way of bullets or fatal energy bursts.  But Cat has no such instincts.  She’s right up there with that mother in “Superman II” who just stands under the falling tower with her infant while yelling for help rather than, you know, simply moving out of the way.  It’s a Superman tradition to have unrealistically hapless victims, though, so I guess I’m going to have to just let it go.  Aside from this rather unintentionally funny moment, though, the rest of the climax is just great.

Booster had been told time and again that it wasn't wise to question the honor of a Samurai. But really, what were the odds that one would show up here and start something? Oh, well, live and learn.

Clark’s save was worlds more epic than it was in “Shield”, and even Booster Gold finally gets a moment to shine when he sends Blue Beetle flying across the room.  While I appreciated Cat’s epiphany that it was The Blur who ultimately came to her rescue, I did have to ask myself why this hasn’t dawned on her before now.  As Lois pointed out to her earlier in the season, The Blur has saved her more than once in the past.  Did those saves somehow mean less to her than this one?  If so, why exactly?  Then again, I suppose no one could argue that Cat has ever been portrayed as the sharpest knife in the drawer, so I guess it does make sense for her to come to this conclusion far later than anyone else ever would have.  I really have to give “Booster” credit for giving even a side story that I wasn’t entirely invested in an emotionally poignant resolution.  Booster Gold’s emotional growth over the course of this show was really executed well, and I even found myself truly caring about Jaime’s character for maybe the first time, too.  It makes me sad in a way that we won’t have any more time with these two, because I feel like I was just beginning to get to know both of them by the time this episode ended.  Oh, well.  I suppose it’s one of the tenants of any great piece of entertainment to leave the audience wanting more.  I liked the choice of having Clark let Booster Gold handle this climactic moment with Blue Beetle.  Part of what makes Superman such an enduring and different comic book hero is that his mission isn’t simply to put the wrong things right or to save people from peril.  He’s truly invested in making the bigger differences that create heroes out of ordinary people.  He’s there not only to help people, but also to inspire them to help themselves.  If there’s one thing that makes Superman my favorite superhero, it’s probably that very element, and I’m thrilled to see Smallville getting something that essential so very right as its run comes to a close.

As Booster droned endlessly on about the true nature of a hero, Clark began to eye Lois and think of what he could possibly say to her to score later on. Oh, oh, he knew what would work. Sweet.

“Booster” wraps up with some of its strongest scenes yet.  The first reflects on many of the points that were made in the previous sequence, but takes a more literal approach.  I really liked the dialogue here between Clark and Booster Gold.  One thing that makes this character so interesting is how he began his life in the distant future and continues it in the present because he made all of the wrong choices.  It definitely puts an interesting and unique spin on who he is, and it made me like him even more than I already did.  I don’t know about anyone else, but I found an almost early Season 1 Whitney Fordman quality in Booster Gold at times (back when Whitney was portrayed as a more self-centered, one-note character, that is).  The failed football career being thrown in went even further toward reinforcing that similarity for me.  In any case, it’s just fantastic watching Clark step up to be a leader and an inspiration finally – not just to those around him, but to his fellow heroes as well.  There’ve been more and more moments lately that entail Clark being the moral center of all of our major protagonists, and I think it’s worked fantastically well, especially in scenes like this.  I thought the point he made to Booster Gold about how the small victories sometimes mean the most even when they’re not publicized was really great.  It made me reflect over the last ten years of this show and just how often Clark had done the right thing – the selfless thing – even when it meant no recognition at all.  The thing about Clark is that he loves everyone on Earth, as he must as the world’s greatest hero.  And real love like that is steadfast and doesn’t ask for thanks in return.  Season 10 is doing such a wonderful job of bringing this series full circle.  So many moments early on in Smallville felt so frustrating back in the day.  Watching things now, you really get a terrific sense of just why all of those moments were so very necessary to mould Clark into the man he is today.  He learned to be this kind of a hero through years of trial and error, and always trying to do what was right, never what was easy or fair to himself.  That might have made for some frustrating moments in television, but it’s the stuff true heroes are made of.  I think Booster Gold finally begins to understand that by the end of this episode.

"I'm just here to support my friend Jaime, Lois". "Yeah, but it's HIS interview, Booster, and this is the third time you've broken in for no reason. Also, you're loaded. So could you maybe go sleep it off"?

Jaime’s send-off was a nice little scene of its own, and I really liked the fact that “Booster” kept such a consistent through-line with Lois’s story this week.  She really followed through with Jaime here in making him feel special.  Her comment to Kord about not everyone being able to control Blue Beetle was particularly sweet.  If anything, I’m getting a bit annoyed with Smallville for throwing out all of these perfectly amazing spinoff show concepts just as our series is ending.  I’d love to see where Booster Gold and Blue Beetle’s story goes from here, and I’ll bet I’m not alone in that sentiment.  Between this episode and “Scion”, there’s a lot of fertile ground that’s presumably being left untilled for The CW, which is really unfortunate.  One of the benefits of a show that’s based in a comic book universe is that, inherently, it’s populated by interesting and colorful characters.  When Season 10 began, I remember worrying that the final year would be too bogged down in introducing side characters to really give us that last 22-episode mythological thrust that I felt this show needed.  I’m happy to say that I was wrong.  While this past season has undoubtedly been chock full of new faces, I truly think that nearly every one of them has played a pivotal role in guiding Clark’s penultimate steps toward his destiny.  And one thing we also can’t forget is just how much bigger Clark’s world is bound to look now that he’s looking at it globally.  It really wouldn’t make sense for these ever-wilder personalities not to be emerging from the woodwork.  We’re only three episodes away now from aligning with classic Superman comic book lore (though admittedly, I’m still curious as to how they’re planning to resolve the whole part where Lex knows Clark without the glasses), and I think a more character-heavy canvas is just the right approach for where we’re headed.

"Oh my God. She's doing it again, isn't she? No, Clark, seriously, help me. She's been doing this smiling thing behind my back since "Icarus" and it's REALLY getting scary. Clark? Where are you going? Clark?!"

Back at The Daily Planet, we get yet another of what I’ve come to not-so-affectionately refer to as the “Cat Grant Reformation” scenes.  It seems like every time we see this character, there comes a point in each of her episodes where the writers realize just how kooky she is and write in this sweet change-of-heart moment to make us like her.  And you know, I have to admit that I did enjoy this scene for what it was.  Clark’s bumbling was hilarious yet again, and the cookies Cat brought in for Lois were pretty darned funny.  I love that Lois is getting promoted from the basement finally, although Clark being left behind in journalistic hell next to Satan (who’s inexplicably disguised as a ditzy blond) isn’t exactly a development I approve of.  I feel like, on the whole, the writers are doing a phenomenal job getting things where they need to be by the time this series ends.  But I would like to see Clark and Lois working together like they were in the flash forward scenes of “Homecoming”, and I somehow don’t see that happening in just two episodes of development.  Then again, I’ll gladly add that to the list of things I’d love to be wrong about after the finale airs.  The thing is, Cat Grant, for all the effort that is obviously being put forth to make her more or less likable…really just isn’t.  Yes, she’s been used to far better effect in her last couple of episodes than how she was introduced.  And yes, her role in “Booster” was hands down her best yet.  But the fact remains that she’s still a one-note, gratingly irritating character.  I know she’s written to be that way, and I certainly don’t fault Keri Lynn Pratt’s acting.  If anything, I think it’s her skill as an actress that brings this character so vividly – so unfortunately – to life.  I know that we’re supposed to get on board the “well, maybe she’s not so bad after all” train by the end of this episode, but the truth is, this is the same character who had a heart-to-heart talk with Clark at the end of “Shield” that never changed her in the slightest.  She’s the same one whose existence was only tolerable in “Isis” because she was the butt of nearly every joke.  She’s the same one who still hadn’t figured out who the good guys were as recently as “Icarus” and very nearly turned Lois in to VRA authorities.  And now we’re supposed to think that she’s had a change of heart yet again?  I’m sorry, show.  You almost had me convinced this time, but I’m not buying it.  Cat Grant is evil, Cat Grant is annoying, and – thankfully – Cat Grant is now a memory.

"Okay, let's try this again. This is a job for SUPERMA...oh, awesome! Seriously, Lois?! Where's my supersuit? What if someone needed me right now? This isn't funny anymore".

The final scene in our episode was probably one of my favorites of the show, which should come as no great surprise to my regular readers.  I know I’ve been saying this on a nearly weekly basis, and I hate to sound like a broken record, but I simply love the way that Season 10 is handling Lois and Clark’s relationship.  I could relate so much to this scene that I just couldn’t help but adore every moment of it.  I think it was incredibly sweet that Clark would worry about how being with him would reflect on Lois.  As someone who’s been with someone in the past who wound up reflecting poorly on me as a person, it’s a painful thing to realize that those things actually do matter when you choose to be with someone forever.  But the converse is also true.  When you know someone’s heart, see them for who they are and unequivocally know them to be beautiful inside, then it stops mattering how that person looks to anyone else in the world.  All that matters is that you’re close to them, and as long as you know who they are and they know you back, nothing could ever touch either of you.  It’s all about being a team and holding the world up together so it doesn’t feel quite so heavy anymore.  I think Lois has found that in Clark to the point that his concern just seems sweetly needless.  She’d never be worried about others’ perceptions of her when she knows the true man he is inside.  She believes in him.  And that’s the only thing that’s important anymore.  I think real love is just that way.  It happens when there’s this mutual and infinitely patient understanding that neither person has to be anything to anyone except themselves to one another.  “Booster” was a lot of fun.  It had something for just about everyone, from comic relief to super-powered battles to a wonderful, last-act Clois fix.  It wasn’t my favorite episode of Season 10 (it might not even place in my top five), but my being able to say that and still enjoy it as much as I did is less a criticism of the weakness of this episode as it is a testimony to the strength of Smallville’s final season as a whole.  Why does this series have to end again?