sweet_zelda

Official Description

Zod (Callum Blue) continues to pose as "The Blur" and asks Lois (Erica Durance) to investigate one of Tess' (Cassidy Freeman) secret labs.

An explosion rocks the lab, and Lois is rescued by John Corben (guest star Brian Austin Green) who was a subject of multiple experiments.

While investigating the explosion, Clark (Tom Welling) is exposed to red kryptonite. An infected Clark takes Zod to the Fortress.

Tess turns to Chloe (Allison Mack) for help and they send in Corben to stop Clark from revealing all his secrets.

Written by Andrew Landis & Julia Swift
Directed by Mike Rohl



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now.it.all.begins

Thanks for starting Lynn!

Ron_Beckett

Thanks.

Can't wait for this ep!

Kp1227

Thanks for posting!
BAG returns tomorrow! Er, I guess tonight
Should be interesting

Addiction

tftnf

ocfan27

its not on until sunday for me...so my review will come then

Ron_Beckett

Okay so here is my review

Clark: I seriously love the episodes when we get him on Red K! I think he's been 'better' before but what we got was awesome. I just love when his inhibitions are stripped. When he confronted Chloe and then used his heat vision I thought he was gonna torch the place but him leaving his mark was just as powerful.

I always like at the end when Clark is off Red K where he explains himself. Lately it's been easy to forget that Clark is alone and has no real family so when he was on Red K he embraced Zod because he's Kryptonian as well I was totally disturbed by that partnership but at the same time it made sense.

Zod: Once again he is one of those villians that you just love to hate. It's funny how when it comes to all things Superman I end up rooting for the villian sometimes. Just goes to show the amazingness of the characters in the Superman universe.

I gotta admit the ending felt somewhat biblical. Wonder if the writers did that on purpose. It's always been Clark that has been seen as this kind of 'Mesiah' figure but then to see that symbolic scene with Zod, maybe they're shifting the 'Mesiah' complex to him. Seeing Zod cut himself and poor his blood had the whole Jesus feel to it, "Take this, all of you and drink from it. This is my blood of the ever lasting convenant which will be shed for you."

John: I was a fan when Brian Austin Green first made his appearance on Smallville so to have his return was just as amazing. Lois once again pulled another Clark Kent moment in that she was willing to give him a second chance despite his first altercation with the Blur. And I especially loved how it was John who ended up saving Clark. No where did I expect that.

Lois: It's a Lois Lane thing, I love seeing her go undercover. She always has some fun moments there. Loved her helping John out and she didn't even freak out when she saw his artificial Iron Man heart. Not much else to add here unfortunately.

The Couples:

Clois: Though we got little from them what we did get was beyond adorable! I just loved Clark coming in and kissing Lois and being "in bed" with her. And the smile on their faces was great.

I also loved how later when John was telling him how he felt about Lois, she told him with absolute certainty that Clark was "it" for her. That totally made me squeel at just how much she means that.

No matter what happens with Clois at this point these two know they are meant for each other and nothing can mess with destiny!

Zod/Tess: Definately a unique couple on this show but their heavy relationship always heats up the screen. They have so many secrets from each other and are always playing tug of war but then you put them together and put their lips together- that hard relationship of theirs and it's like 'damn!'

Final Thoughts: Once again another Smallville ep. that I'm truly satisfied with. Season 9 has been incredible. I can only imagine how things will be come season 10!

Kp1227

^Thanks for posting! Some interesting points/connections you made I'll maybe comment/post a review of my own here when I'm not so tired
To sum up it up very briefly and vaguely, I liked this episode, not my favorite. A lot of things I enjoyed, but also some things I didn't so much enjoy.

now.it.all.begins

So it’s review time again. I have to say that after I first watched the ep, I was a smidge disappointed because I had such high hopes for it, since I really loved Metallo, but it got better after the second viewing. Anyway on with the review:

Tess: I’m kind of confused as to where she’s been hiding out lately, but it’s good to see that she’s still alive and kicking. Her whole experimenting with Corben/mind control thing really reminds me of what Lex did with Wes in Prototype, when he was trying to create a super soldier to have at his beck and call. He’d be so proud of his former protégé. Tess goes to one of her labs to find Chloe there. I think she’s still smarting from Ollie’s rejection in the last ep, since she makes a point to bring him up in their first scene together. It’s kind of interesting to see their dynamic, since they have a little game of cat and mouse going with, “Oh you’re out and you’ve been keeping secrets”, “No, you’re out, since you’re not cuddling up to your own computers”. With all their secrets and manipulation this season, they seem to have a lot in common to me. I like how Chloe keeps looking around with the flashlight and Tess just kind of rolls her eyes at her and then goes to turn on the lights like, “Oh please. Stop with the cloak and dagger routine, we do have electricity here you know.” So now Tess knows that red meteor rocks effect Clark. Great. That’s just great. She knows too much about him as it is. Anyways, it looks like Tess has finally stopped seeing Clark as her savior/hero, which makes sense given the way he’s been manhandling her and torturing her lately. I’d actually have been very surprised if she was still stuck on her Clark worship. Chloe and Tess come to a temporary truce to find Clark and so that Tess can keep the Kandorians safe.

In their next scene together, Chloe is doing whatever it is she does on the computers, while Tess is surfing the net with her cell looking for blogs. Chloe asks her about the weather in Seattle and I love her response, “Not a good time for trivial pursuit, Chloe.” They find Clark and Zod hanging out on the space needle in Seattle and Tess wonders about their sudden bromance. Corben walks in and they send him after Clark.

Later, Chloe’s tracking Corben, when they hear Lois come into the lab. Chloe hides while Tess distracts her. I love the little “Shhh” thing she does when she tells Lois that the government wouldn’t want their covert lab on the front page of the Planet. Chloe chloroforms Lois and Tess gets rid of all the evidence.

In her last scene, Tess tells Zod that Clark doesn’t have his best interests at heart and leaves a picture of him with Clark on top of the space needle for him to find. I like how she just picks up his glass and drinks from it. I wonder if this is a callback to their scene in Persuasion when Zod drank from her champagne glass. When she asks him if he’s not backing out on her, she has her back turned to him and actually looks kind of nervous. Zod is the only person she has on her side now, since Clark and Ollie have left her out in the cold, so if he deserts her, she’ll be really and truly screwed. He attacks her lips with his and then they continue to discuss business. Apparently they like to mix their business with pleasure. She tells him he’s losing control of the Kandorians and shows him a picture of Alia and Faora with Clark. Uh oh. Question: What’s going to happen to Tess when she realizes that Zod now knows about k-nite? That was kind of a big thing she was holding over him in Escape, but now he knows about it, so her ways of protecting herself are rather limited. I also wonder if Tess will find out that Zod’s been masquerading as the Blur and he sent Lois to spy on her.

Chloe: For the most part, I liked Chloe in this episode. I didn’t really care for her passing judgement on Clark’s relationship with Lois though, since it’s not a trust issue. It’s about keeping Lois safe. I did like her reaction to Clark saying he was tired of waiting for her. Instead of sniping back at him, like she has been a lot this season, she kind of just rolled with it and asked him what was bugging him. I thought her, “Oh snap” was cute. I also liked it that she fessed up about the k-nite weapons and didn’t let Tess take the fall for her. One thing though, I know that she says the weapons weren’t for Clark, they were for the Kryptonians, but like Clark said, he’s Kryptonian. I haven’t liked the way she’s been talking about them all season long like they’re some kind of subhumans or like they’re lower down on the food chain than the rest of the people on the planet are. She does this again in her later scene with Tess when she calls the Kandorians Tess’ “alien pet project”, which isn’t exactly the most flattering way to talk about people and kind of makes the Kandorians sound like dogs that Tess is training or something. But back to this scene. I think the framing in this scene is interesting with Chloe being on her knees and Clark towering above her. It’s a reversal from the scene in Metallo when Chloe got upset with Clark at the farm and it definitely indicated in both scenes who was the one in control. This scene looked very violent in the promo, like Clark flung Chloe to the other side of the Watchtower, so I’m glad it only came across as a swat in the actual scene.

In her next scene, Chloe is investigating the lab she sent Clark too and finds Tess there. They do a little verbal tetherball before Chloe goes back to looking for what could have set Clark off. She finds the red k-nite and in a less than intelligent move, tells Tess what it does to Clark. Tess. The woman that both she and Clark don’t trust. In a way, this seems like a contrived move to enable Tess and Chloe to work together to find Clark. Anywho, they decide to combine forces and manage to track Clark down to Seattle and they use Corben to go after him. Um how did Chloe give Corben the key? Does she happen to walk around with it on her or something? Is this like how she seems to walk around with k-nite on her? So yeah, it was very smart of Chloe though to pretend to lose the signal for Corben, so that Tess wouldn’t find out about the fortress. After Chloe does this, Lois comes in and she hides. While Lois and Tess banter back and forth, Chloe sneaks up behind Lois and chloroforms her. I don’t understand why she does this. Clark’s already taken care of with Corben going after him and she has nothing to lose from Lois exposing Tess’ undercover lab. And poor Lois could suffer brain damage and what not from the amount of times she’s been knocked out in this episode alone. What did she think Tess was going to try and kill Lois or something? Tess didn’t have a gun on her as far as I could see and we know Lois can fend for herself when it comes to hand to hand combat. I just don’t get it.
In her last scene, Chloe is trying to clean up the Watchtower, and while I don’t appreciate Clark validating Chloe for creating the k-nite weapons, I do like that she accepts her share of the blame in this scene, even though she didn’t actually apologize. This was much better than seeing Clark grovel at Chloe’s feet in the last ep. What was the point of making a big do dah about Chloe making and hiding the weapons though, if Clark was only going to say, “Chloe you were right. Your kryptonite weapons saved the world”. There’s still a trust issue between the two of them and Chloe not believing that Clark can handle things on his own with Chloe feeling the need to hide them from Clark in the first place. Clark really should have asked her about why she didn’t tell him about the weapons. She explained why she had them made, but she never told him why she didn’t tell him about them. If Clark was so cool and understanding about it at the end of the ep, after he was off red k, I’d think that if he’d been told about the k-nite when he wasn’t on red k, his reaction would have been similar to his reaction at the end of the ep. Also, when is Clark going to find out about the tracers Chloe put in the Kandorians’ IDs? Because that could still come back to bite him in the ass. Another thing, Clark talking about Chloe and Lois’ relationship and Chloe just saying it’s because their “family”, rang kind of hollow to me. We haven’t really seen them act like family, since S5. I know this was supposed to draw some kind of parallel between Chloe and Lois and Clark and Zod, but it didn’t really work for me. Although I suppose Clark sees the Chloe/Lois relationship through Lois coloured glasses, since she still dotes on her baby cousin. Anyways, on a whole this was one of the better episodes of the season for Chloe for me.

Zod: First of all, the man needs to work on his timing. Stop interrupting Clois man! Geez. Second of all, stop calling Lois in general and do your own dirty work! You have abilities now, that should make things much easier for you.

On another note, I liked his bro bonding scenes with Clark and thought the shots of him blowing up the trailer full of k-nite and then Clark and Zod walking away from the explosion were really well done. I like the reveal to Clark that Zod has abilities and then the way Clark circles him when he decides whether or not to join forces with him. I also like how Zod keeps quoting these philosophers and authors. Just how much time does he have on this hands to read exactly? Clark holds him by the throat and says he lied about having powers, but Zod just removes his hand as cool as a cucumber. He tells Clark he got his powers from his blood. He’s very smart with the way he plays on Clark’s fears of loneliness and being different and using the k-nite weapons as a way to unite the two of them. He convinces Clark that they should work together and this is the beginning of a beautiful bromance...temporarily at least. They blow up the rest of Chloe’s stockpile of weapons and talk about Jor-El. Zod reminisces about his friendship with Jor-El and they draw a parallel to Zod’s relationship with Jor-El to Clark’s relationship with Lex. Zod offers Clark the chance of having a family that truly understands him and they go off to Seattle. Zod says, “If only your father could see us” and Clark decides to have a little fun and let it snow, let it snow, let it snow before they go to the FoS.

At the FoS, Clark welcome Zod home, then fiddles around with the crystals to try and get Jor-El to talk to Zod, but Jor-El is curiously silent. Clark thinks he doesn’t need the fortress anymore, but Zod tells him about the Book of Rao (one more thing Chloe needs to tell Clark about) and how that contained all their knowledge of the universe. Corben shows up at the FoS and Clark and Zod work together to make him a popsicle. This reminds me of how Jor-El made Clark a popsicle in Blue in season 7. Corben breaks through his icy prison and swats Zod aside like a fly. After all the action is done, Clark realizes that Zod left.

I think I’ll skip over the Zod/Tess scene since I already mentioned it and go straight to the Zod/Kandorians scene in the FoS. This is really, really bad. Zod takes a k-nite knife and slits his hand, pouring his blood into a bowl. He lifts it above his head and encourages the Kandorians to take part in their birthright. This is another strong biblical image with the whole drinking the blood from the same cup thing that is like the last supper when Jesus said the wine was like his blood and they drank from the same cup. I guess this answers the question of whether or not it had to be Clark’s blood to give the Kandorians their powers. I wonder why Zod waited so long to give them their powers then, since he could have so the whole time. Maybe he was testing them to see who was still loyal to him first?

Clark: Aside from the questionable choice of Clark lo-jacking Lois’ keychain (which I’ll get to later) I thought that Clark was awesome in this ep. The last time we had a red k episode was in S6, so we were way overdue for another one. Fair warning, I will spend a lot of time gushing over the ridiculous hotness of TW in this review, because hot damn the man is fiiine. I’ll skip the Clois scene for now and get into that later. So Clark sees that Lois got hurt and he’s now very concerned about her safety so he asks Chloe to tell him what she’s been up to, because he apparently had Chloe lo-jack her keychain. Not a fan of that I’ll admit, but more on that later. He finds the secret lab where Lois was the night before and ends up inhaling red k.

The next time we see Clark, he’s busy at the computers and has apparently uncovered Chloe’s stash of k-nite weapons. Question: If Clark can do all this by himself, why does he usually have Chloe do the tech stuff for him? He assumes that the weapons belong to Tess, but Chloe fesses up that they’re her weapons. I wonder if she ever would have told him about them, if he hadn’t found out about them himself. Clark is pissed and yells at Chloe for betraying his trust and pushes her aside. He compares her to Tess, which is rather appropriate for this season, and she pleads with him to see things from her side and asks him, “What if there was a war?” Clark says there already is one she’s about to lose it, then burns his shield onto the wall of Watchtower.

Clark then goes to track down the k-nite weapons and sees Corben. His smirk when he sees him is just.... I also love the look of realization on his face when he sees that Zod has powers. Clark follows Zod and confronts him about his powers. Zod tells him he got them from him and Clark circles him like a vulture circling his prey. How is it that he makes walking look sexy? I’m going to just start saying *THUD* instead of using the smiley for it, because otherwise I’ll use up my entire image count swooning over the sex god that is TW. Zod plays on Clark’s fear and it looks like Clark isn’t going to buy what he’s selling until he reminds Clark that his friends stockpiled k-nite weapons around the world to kill him, how much they have in common, and that he just saved his life. Clark tilts his head and gives Zod a half smile as he holds out his hand to him. They clasp each other by the arm and their bromance had begun. That little head tilt thing and the way he held out his hand was way hotter than it should have been. *THUD*

Where was I? So yeah they decide to go blow up Chloe’s weapons together and Clark isn’t too happy when Zod brings up Jor-El. He’s bitter that he didn’t get the chance to know him like Zod did. Zod talks about how he respected Jor-El and says that Clark must have had a friend who he had that kind of connection with, “like you were opposite sides of the same soul”. Aww Lex mention! Zod offers Clark something he’s always wanted: Complete acceptance from a family who understands him and what it’s like to be him. Oh Clark, I feel for how lonely he must have been all these years. Clark is pleased with this and decides to mix it up a bit and they zoom off to Seattle, where Clark decides to make it snow, before he reunites Zod and Jor-El. It’s actually kind of amazing that Clark waited this long to goof off and do something fun while he was on red K, and it goes to show how much he’s matured and how far he’s come in the past few years. Usually when he’s on red K, he completely shirks his responsibilities and indulges himself in women and a bunch of questionable activities and his completely different than how he usually is. The change in his clothes from the red/blue to the black leather is usually the first sign that Kal’s made an appearance. However, now that Clark’s already been wearing a lot of dark colours, and he’s still pretty focused on his job, the change isn’t as drastic. I’m very happy that his relationship with Lois is solid and that he didn’t go off with some random woman, this is like Crimson when Clark stayed with Lois while he was on Red K for the most part, instead of immediately running off to find someone else after she stopped their makeout session in the DP office.

Anyways, Clark takes Zod to the fortress and tells him, “Welcome home, brother.” This reminds me of Desmond in Lost who pretty much calls any guy “brother”. Clark fiddles around with the crystals to try and get Jor-El to say something to Zod and is frustrated when he’s uncharacteristically silent. He thinks he’s learned all he needs to know from Jor-El and Zod tells him about the Book of Rao...it would really be helpful if Chloe told him that she saw Jor-El hiding something right about now. Corben shows up at the fortress and Clark uses his laser vision to make shards of ice rain down on him. This reminds me of Arctic when the whole fortress came crashing down on Lex and Clark. Fortunately, that doesn’t happen here. What does happen is that the ice shards make Corben’s chip fall off. Then Clark and Zod work together to freeze Corben, only to have him break out of it seconds later. Corben tells him that someone that cares about him sent him to save him and Clark kind of sneers at that. After he’s been cleansed of his red k infection, and he sees that Zod left the FoS, he appears to realize that he made a mistake in showing Zod the FoS.

In his final scene with Chloe, Clark apologizes again and basically tells Chloe that she was right to make those weapons and that they saved the world. Those weren’t the only thing that saved the world if I recall correctly, but whatever. He fails to ask her why she never told him about them in the first place and waxes poetical about Lois and Chloe’s relationship and how he wanted to have a brother in Zod. This makes me think of the LnC ep when Lex had that clone made and how Clark wanted to have him as a brother, since there was finally someone who was a lot like him, with the same abilities as him, who could understand his struggles in a way no one else could. I want to give Clark a hug and tell him everything will be okay and he should just freaking tell Lois already, because it would certainly help him a lot if he could talk to her about these things. But yeah, I love how Clark clearly explains why he did the things that he did, so we can understand his actions. Oh Clark, I still love you.

Lois/Corben: So I’m just going to put the Lois and Corben part of this review into one section, since most of their scenes were with each other anyways. So we open with Lois in a lab coat and glasses totally rocking the nerd look. She’s talking into a camera pen about the secret lab she’s in and how Tess has been experimenting with K-nite. She pushes a cart towards a veiled section of the lab only to be stopped by a security guard who sees that the name on her ID tag says, “Hank Wu.” *Facepalm* Oh Lois, I’d have thought you’d been more careful about that. She tries to talk her way out of it by saying that “Hank” is short for “Henrietta” which I guess is possible, but that still doesn’t explain the “Wu” Lo. The head lab technician tells the security guard to inform the boss that the upgrade has been compromised and tells him to get rid of her. She struggles against him while the lab techs realized that Corben escaped. They set off the alarm and Lois uses the opportunity to free herself and punches the guard then kicks him the groin, then in the shoulder. He goes crashes into some chemicals and knocks open a container of gas. Lois sees the Bunsen burner and realizes that the lab is about to go boom and she needs to get the hell out of there. She makes a run for it and is saved by Corben. I just realized that that makes 3 explosions in one episode. Is that the most explosions we’ve had in one ep or have there been more?

Lois wakes up in her apartment the next morning to a smiling Clark Kent, with no memory of how she got back to her apartment. I really hope that Lois was wearing that underneath her labcoat, because it would be kind of squicky if Corben undressed her. Clark is concerned about her and he wants her to tell him what she’s been up to, but she tries to distract him, only to have Zod!Blur call her and interrupt their alone time. Lois talks to Zod!Blur then gets off the phone as fast as she can to go after Clark. She ends up seeing Corben hiding in the Talon basement. Speaking of the Talon...I know this is way after the fact and I should have asked this ages ago, but the Watchtower set now is what the former Talon set was, right? Because I’m pretty sure the last time we saw the Talon set was in S8 when Lana came back. But yes, back to Lois and Corben. Lois sees Corben on the floor in pain, and she picks up a wrench and slowly comes towards him. She vividly recalls how he tossed her aside they last time she saw him and is extremely wary of him. I wonder if it was intentional that they made Lois pick up a wrench, since that’s what she picked up in Metallo before he swatted her aside like a fly. He calls her “bright eyes” and I’m reminded of Jimmy, since that’s what he used to call Chloe. *Sniffles* I’m okay now. He tells her she has a knack for getting herself into trouble and that he just wanted to get her home. He didn’t mean for her to see him. Lois then realizes that he’s the one who saved her. His mind is almost normal now, except for the upgrade they put into him so that they could control him. Lois asks him who did this to him and he tells him it was Tess’ scientists did. He’s in great pain throughout this scene and BAG is just fantastic. Lois asks him what’s happening to him and he tells her that he needs to find k-nite before his heart stops. Lois puts him in her car and he gratefully tells her, “Thank you” before they drive off in search of k-nite.

Corben refuels on k-nite, in one of Chloe’s armouries and gets super strong right before Clark shows up, followed by Zod who blows the trailer to smithereens. Fortunately for Corben, the only thing that got damaged in the explosion were his clothes. Lois drives up to the site and looks for him. He tells her to stay back, but she’s Lois so naturally she doesn’t listen. She finds him stark naked using some kind of box to cover his private parts. Heh, this brings back flashbacks to Crusade when Lois told Martha she has a soft spot for stray dogs and naked guys. I guess that’s still true. She tells him, “Glad to see you’re looking so good” and he says, “Thanks, you look pretty good too.” She corrects his assumption that she’s complimenting him on his looks, and says she meant “strong, healthy, alive” as she hands him her coat to cover himself with. Heh this reminds me of Gilmore Girls when Rory finds Marty naked in the hallway and passes him her robe to cover himself with. Good times. Corben tells Lois that the Blur did this to him and Lois refuses to believe that he would do something that violent intentionally and reminds him of how he acted during their last encounter.

The next time we see them, they’re boarding a bus headed for South Dakota. I’m guessing they ditched her car to try and keep it covert and make it harder for Tess to find them. On a side note, I totally have Lois’ hat. Hee! So yeah, Lois is taking Corben to a military base in South Dakota. Her dad assured her that Dr. Vale is the best guy around. Nice comics reference, since Dr. Vale played a key role in creating Metallo in the comics. Also that’s two times she mentions the General in one ep! Yay, they remember that Lois has a family! Squee! Corben says that he can take things from here and he doesn’t want to get Lois into any more trouble than she usually gets herself into. Lois refuses to leave him until she knows that he’s safe. Corben sees a woman struggling to put her back up on the shelf and decides to help her out. Unfortunately for him, she’s one of Tess’ goons and puts the chip on his neck. When Lois sees Corben getting off the bus, she tries to follow him, only to be drugged by one of Tess’ other goons. Question: How does Lois get off the bus, since it kind of looks like he just left her there? Also, how did no one else on the bus see/comment on Lois getting stabbed with a needle, because the goon wasn’t exactly subtle about it.

Corben goes to the lab and gets his orders from Tess and Chloe who send him to the FoS, while Lois goes back to the lab and finds Tess there. She spots the red k-nite heart and threatens to expose Tess when Chloe chloroforms her. That’s three times she’s been knocked out in one episode, which I’m assuming happens in the space of 48 hours. That cannot be healthy for her. Corben ends up saving Clark and curing him of red k infection by stabbing him with green k. When he leaves he says that Clark can thank him later.

In the last Corben/Lois scene, he pulls her aside on the street and she asks him if he took lessons on how to do that. He teases, “Okay, shouldn’t an appropriate response be ‘thank God you’re still alive, too bad you’re wearing clothes this time’?” Lois says, “Yes, that’s it. The first part.” Heh. Lois asks him how he got away from Tess and he gives her the reader’s digest version of what happened. At least he told her something. She opens her purse and shows him the red k-nite heart. How on earth did she manage to swipe that before Chloe chloroformed her? Tess would have seen her grab it. It’s not exactly something you can put in your pocket. He pulls her into an alley and asks her how she got it. She says it’s a souvenir from her own little adventure. What he says to her next is just completely swoonworthy, so please forgive me for transcribing the whole thing:

John: “You know the first time, I saw you, I never thought you’d end up being my hero. Of course I was hoping to escape with a different heart. You know, Lois, you’re the only one that’s been honest, and loyal, and brave.”
Lois: “Wow, that’s a scary high pedestal of adjectives you just put me on.”
John: “You’re the only one that’s given me a chance. I mean, I...I can’t tell anyone else about me. You’re the only chance that I have of living an honest, honest life. And if I were to disappear again, I would want to disappear with you.”
Lois: “Oh...me? John, that means a lot, but I’m with someone else. He’s a little on the squeaky side, so I probably won’t pull back the curtain and reveal our wild and crazy ride, but he is it for me.”
John: “Okay. Sorry, I, uh...do you have one of those words for now?”
Lois: “Maybe if this were another lifetime.”
John: “Yeah. You know I really hope that your guy knows who you really are...’cause you are a real...dame, Lois Lane.”

Wow...just wow. This is hands down my favourite scene between the two of them in the course of BAG’s three episodes on the show. This scene has so much heart and emotion, because it rings true to me. Unlike Z’s sudden interest in Clark in Warrior and the way she forced herself on him knowing he had a girlfriend, Corben showed a romantic interest in Lois from Savior and he had no idea that she was with someone else in this episode when he told her that he wanted to be with her. Also, unlike Z, who didn’t want to take a no for a no, when Lois told Corben about Clark, he immediately backed off. Another thing is, depending on the delivery of these lines, they could have come across as totally cheesy, but BAG worked them out. He wore his heart on his sleeve in this scene and you can see how much he’s come to respect and admire Lois, not only with his words, but also with the way he looks at her and how disappointed he is when she tells him she’s with someone else. I love though how Lois handles this with such grace and lets him down so gently and the way Corben responds to her rejection, since he knows that she’s again just being honest with him. Honestly, if I wasn’t such a hard core Cloiser, I’d totally ship them. They have way more chemistry than she ever had with AC or Grant, and those guys were actually love interests for her. This scene shows how far the two of them have come since they first met and I love all the adjectives he uses to describe her, because she definitely shows how “honest, and loyal, and brave” she is in this episode. Like in Conspiracy when Lois stayed with Zod, she once again goes out of her way to help someone she barely knows...and in this case it’s even more amazing, because this guy kidnapped her and nearly killed her the last time she saw him. However, once Lois realized that it was the meteor rock that made him act that way and that he saved her life, she immediately returned the favour and got him to some k-nite to refuel...but she didn’t just stop there. No, she went further out of her way to try and get him to a safe place so he wouldn’t become Tess’ mindless drone. I adore her humility here and how she balks at the way he talks about her. Instead of acting like she deserves his praise, which she totally does, she’s uncomfortable with it and doesn’t quite know what to do with it. This goes along with what I’ve been saying all along about Lois being confident in her journalistic abilities, but having her insecurities about herself as a person and the way others see her and why people would like her. What I also loved about BAG’s return, was that they laid the groundwork for it since Echo when Tess gave the Toyman the k-nite heart and they mentioned him again in Conspiracy. I like how this episode gave Corben the chance to redeem himself and proved that, like we saw in his home video to his sister in Metallo, he’s a genuinely good guy. By ending this episode on a positive note with regards to Corben and giving him the red k-nite heart, TPTB left the door open for BAG to come back next year and I truly hope that he does come back. He’s still my favourite guest star for S9 so far and one of my all-time fave guest stars on the show ever. I think that just like in Metallo, he stole the show with this episode, so kudos to BAG for an incredible job. Don’t be a stranger you hear?

Clois: Last but not least, Clois. We only had one scene with them in this ep, which I admit disappointed me, because I was hoping for more...a wrap up scene would have been nice. However, hopefully next week, we’ll get to see more of them. Their scene opens with Lois sleeping when Clark comes in. He crawls into bed with her and kisses her neck and her shoulder while he watches her sleep and smiles at her as she starts to wake up. *THUD X infinity* Can I get my own Clark please? I’d love to wake up like that in the morning. I love how this scene shows how much he adores her and how comfortable they are with each other. I’ve mentioned on the Clois thread already, but I think it bears repeating that I don’t think that’s something you’d do with someone you just started dating, so this shows the level of intimacy Lois and Clark have reached in the past few months since they started seeing each other. Also, it’s nice to notice their progression since Escape when they were nervous about getting into bed with each other and taking things to the next level, well there are certainly no nerves about that now. I noticed a parallel between this ep and Metallo, since in both episodes we have a scene of Lois sleeping and she’s awakened with kisses. In Metallo, Shelby wakes her up, and in this ep Clark wakes her up. I’m sure she preferred Clark’s wake up call to Shelby’s. So Clark tells her, “Hi” and again I swoon at how he can make one word so freaking sexy. *THUD* He grins at her, while she smiles back at him and asks him how he got there, then checks to see that she’s wearing clothes and wonders how she got there. I love how before she checks, her hand is on his and her fingers are in his sleeve, and the way that his right arm is supporting her neck and shoulders. Hee, I love the little Wellance touches that really sell the Clois relationship.

After Lois checks her clothes, Clark pulls the covers back and says that it must have been some night. Lois tells him she was chasing down a red-hot lead and ran into a wall. Clark notices a cut on her arm and immediately lifts up her arm and asked her what happened. She tries to brush it aside by saying that she was cut it with her Dad’s Swiss army knife when she was opening her Hangover DVD, but Clark can tell that she’s lying. Although it is super cute when she asks him, “You wanna kiss it better, soldier?” He asks her, “What’s going on, Lois? You’ve been AWOL for over a week. Now I know we agreed that a little mystery between us would be good, but I’m worried about you. C’mon, I think it would be a good idea if there was nothing between us.” This line may seem a bit hypocritical, since Clark has this huge secret that he’s keeping from Lois, but I’ve seen people say that Clark’s completely compartmentalized his life and I tend to agree. He doesn’t really view his secret as a factor in their relationship and kind of looks at like it’s just another job now...like if he was actually the secret agent that he said Zod was. He’s trying to keep her out of that side of his life, because he thinks she’s probably safer that way, which also explains why he hasn’t called her as the Blur since Idol. Lois tries to distract him from his line of inquiry, when she says, “I think that can be arranged” and moves toward him on her knees while she’s still on the bed. He says, “Lois” like he wants to talk some more, but he’s only a guy after all and he has missed his girlfriend, so when she puts her hands on his jacket, tugs him towards her, and raises her lips to his, he caves, puts his hands on her shoulders and leans in. Unfortunately, they’re interrupted by her damn phone! That’s the second time Zod’s interrupted them! What is everyone allowed to make with the loving but Clois? I really, really want to kill that phone. Lois tells him that it’s Randall, because she has promised the Blur, or the guy she thinks is the Blur, not to tell anyone that she’s talking to him. She says she has to take the call and apologizes, and Clark says he understands, but he’s looking at her like she kicked his puppy. Poor guy is so disappointed. At least Lois gets off the phone as quickly as she can and goes after him.

Now with regards to Clark lo-jacking Lois’ keychain, I must say I’m not a fan of this move. I don’t like that Chloe’s been spying on people all season long and I don’t like that Clark spies on Lois here, although I think their motivations are completely different. I’m actually surprised that they said that Clark had Chloe lo-jack her keychain, since I would have thought that Chloe would have been keeping tabs on Lois already. Like I already said, I don’t think this has anything to do with not trusting Lois, and has everything to do with keeping her safe, since she had been AWOL for a week and when he tried to get her to talk about it she deflected, but I don’t like how he went about this, since it looks to me like they’re trying to justify Chloe spying on everyone by having Clark use her methods to spy on Lois. Clark has superhearing and a bunch of other powers at his disposal, so why does he need to resort to Chloe’s methods to keep track of Lois? Clark keeps track of Lois in the comics by listening to her heartbeat, but by the time they get to that point, Lois is usually in on the secret and knows that he does this. She’s given him her consent. However, here Clark violates Lois’ privacy and I can’t help but think that she would be pretty pissed off if she found out what he was doing. As I already mentioned, I firmly believe that Clark just wants to keep Lois safe, since she has a knack for getting herself into trouble, and I’m glad that he at least tried to talk to her before resorting to spying on her, so while I can kind of understand his reasoning, I still don’t entirely approve of the way he goes about keeping her safe.

One last thing, I loved Lois’ line in her last scene with Corben about Clark being it for her. This is another thing I wish we’d gotten with Clark and Z, instead of just having him say he was interested in finding his fantasies somewhere else. This is the third time this season that Lois has talked to someone about her feelings to Clark/how much he means to her. She talked about Clark to Chloe in Echo when she was getting ready to meet him at the monster truck rally and said that they’d be “Clark and Lois vs. the world”, she talked about Clark to Ollie in Crossfire when she let him know she wanted to be with Clark, and she does it this episode when she talks about Clark with Corben. We haven’t really gotten that from Clark yet this year. I know he’s talked to Chloe a little bit about his relationship with Lois, but he hasn’t actually said something along the lines of “she’s the one” or “she’s it for me” and I’d really like to see that. His actions have clearly show this year that he’s head over heels in love with Lois, now I just need him to verbalize that a bit more. I’m not discounting all the incredibly sweet things he’s said to Lois this season either, but I’d really like to see him talk about his feelings for Lois with someone.

Overall, I thought that this was a really strong episode, but like I said before I preferred Metallo to Upgrade. And holy moly, I think this may be my longest review yet! Lastly, BAG, I love you. Please come back! Next week: Clark finds out what Zod’s been up to and he’s not happy. Not happy at all.

elemaria91

@now.it.all.begins

I really appreciated your analysis but something bothers me... You question why Chloe and Clark didn't talk about why she made the weapons without talking to him but you gloss over the fact Clark withheld the fact that the kryptonite weapons played a large part in protecting the future from Oliver and Chloe... They are both at fault here. Chloe is not the only one holding stuff back. It also bothered me that you said Clark and Chloe both had different reasons for spying. They didn't. Clark was spying to protect Lois and Chloe spies to protect the JLA and the world. Neither are in the right.

ocfan27

i thought i was going to hate it...but i didn't surprisingly enough...i enjoyed the episode...i like clark/zod working together

now.it.all.begins

elemaria91, first off, thank you for taking the time to read my review. I know that it's mammoth in size and that would scare some people off. Secondly, I appreciate your comments and your respectful way of stating them. Please call me Rachel. I see your point about Clark withholding the info about the K-nite weapons in the future, but that still doesn't explain why Chloe didn't explain to Clark why she had them made and it still shows her lack of faith/ trust in him. Also I see Clark spying on Lois vs/ Chloe spying on the JLA as two different things, because Clark only did that after he tried to talk to Lois first and she was clearly in danger, whereas Clark can protect himself for the most part and Chloe had no reason to keep the cameras up in Clark's place after he came back. How was she protecting him by keeping the cameras up in his place? Also how she was protecting him by monitoring his phone calls with Lois? If she hadn't been monitoring them, Lois never would have suspected Clark was the Blur in the first place. I also don't see how Chloe planting a tracer on Ollie's belt keeps him safe, and ditto for reading his e-mails.

sweet_zelda

In general I just enjoyed the episode

What I really liked was that Clark finally made some kind of confession as to why he's hanging out with Zod. In a way though, this reminds me eerily of Chloe and Davis last season where everyone else could see the Titanic sink except for the passengers themselves. I love that Chloe and Clark openly fight every once in a while now, instead of not talking at all. I was glad that she confessed about the weapons. And I love that she tried to remove the burnt sign off of her wall herself

Yeah, I don't think so, though His initial reaction was to basically declare war on Chloe and while I suppose he was on Red-K during that time, I think that this was exactly how he felt. By the end of the episode he had had time to think about it which was why he was so seemingly cool about it. But I don't think he would have been had she told him about it.

I do absolutely adore Brian Austen Green. He should come on this show as a regular. I love his scenes with Lois as well as everybody else. He really is a wonderful actor, he plays the nuances very well.