This week brought ‘Smallville’ back up to a watchable show. If it weren’t for the soap opera drama in the Luthor world, this would have be a great episode. Oh well, you can’t have it all. Fans of the Green Arrow were most likely pleased because a good portion of the episode focused on his story.
Lionel is throwing a soirée for Senator Martha Kent, and she is wearing a diamond necklace he gave her. During the party, the Green Arrow shows up and steals the necklace from around her neck. Lois, who ironically came with Oliver Queen, sees what happens and chases after the bandit. When she catches him, they enjoy some Batmanesque banter and he leaves; but not before Lois gets ahold of a chain with a ring on it that he was wearing.
Lois goes to Chloe with the ring to help her with the story. They take pictures, but Green Arrow uses a gas arrow to knock them out and take back his ring. We then see him back home looking at a picture of himself as a child with his parents. Obviously the ring is a family heirloom. Lois is insisting on finding out who the Green Arrow really is, telling Oliver that she’ll have Arrow’s real face plastered in the papers.
The Green Arrow is shown breaking into Simon Westcott’s house to steal a necklace. He uses a prism arrow to redirect the lasers and takes the necklace. Clark shows up to confront the thief, and they quarrel. The fight reveals Clark’s secret to Queen. When Clark tells Chloe about the encounter she says, “Gadgets, against the Man of Steel?” She tells Clark that the arrows the modern day Robin Hood uses are made of untraceable titanium. The pictures of the ring she has are not clear, but she’s working on getting a better picture.
Lois is attacked in her apartment and kidnapped. She calls Chloe. Clark rushes to save her, but is too late. Oliver shows up and Clark says that Green Arrow kidnapped Lois because she’s trying to expose him. Oliver tells Clark that everything the thief has taken was bought from the black market and hen he leaves, obviously to go rescue Lois. Clark gets a message to call Chloe and she sends him a clear picture of the ring, which shows the Queen family crest. So, Clark goes to Queen’s apartment and finds the Green Arrow stuff. There are newspaper articles about someone making anonymous donations, and he realizes that maybe this new green guy may not be all bad, even if his methods aren’t completely honorable. Clark sees the tracking device Queen is following, and goes to help Lois.
The kidnappers are torturing Lois trying to get her to reveal Green Arrow’s identity, which she doesn’t know. Finally they realize she doesn’t know, and shoot her. Well, they try, but Arrow shoots the bullet out of the air (holy crap!) and takes out the kidnappers. He picks up Lois and uses another of his wonderful toys to “Bat hoist” them to safety. When Lois comes to she attacks the bandit and gets his crossbow. Holding him hostage, she tries to remove his glasses. Clark is watching from a distance and uses his heat vision to cause a distraction, allowing Arrow to escape. When the two heroes meet up Queen asks why Clark helped him, and Clark said he didn’t want Lois to find out she’s dating someone with a secret identity like that.
It’s clear that while they are both heroes, Clark and Queen have different philosophies about right and wrong. Queen says that the ends justify the means, but Clark can never believe that (being a Boy Scout and all). So Oliver gives him the necklace stolen from Lionel and tells Clark that if things are so black and white he can figure out who the necklace really belongs to.
On the Lex side of things we are once again treated to soap opera chum, but thankfully the storyline is slightly redeemed by the end. Dr. Groll informs Lex, with Lana there, that the object from the ship is a power source that could solve the world’s energy crisis. He also warns that in the wrong hands it could be used as a weapon. Lex tells him to continue working.
Lionel calls Lana to his office at Luthorcorp to warn her about Lex. He tells her that they must destroy the object so that Lex will not open pandoras box. Lana rides in an elevator with Dr. Groll and threatens him to come to her and Lex if Lionel ever tries to make an offer regarding the ship hard drive. Lex is impressed by Lana’s tactics and says that his father is afraid of what he’d do with the power. Lana knows the object is a weapon, but she still wants Lex to continue work so mankind has a chance of Kryptonian’s attack again.
Lionel and Lex meet, and it looks like everything was a ruse to test Lana. Lex wanted to ensure Lana was behind him. Lionel is trying to win his son’s trust back, but it’s not working very well.
What a turn around from last week. Maybe not the greatest episode, but they’re hitting all the right points with Green Arrow (even cheesy comic banter between hero and leading lady). All the gadgets and scenes with Arrow were pretty much great. I really love the character, and while it’s too much to hope for the Justice League to start this early I enjoyed Oliver and Clark’s discussion at the end of the episode. Their contrary philosophies were directly voiced, but we also saw the invitation to one-day work together.
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