Echo
Updated 2009-10-18 11:54:30
Previously on Smallville : Clark went to train with Jor-El; Oliver bought out LuthorCorp, then was nearly kaploded to death by the Toyman, aka Winslow Schott; Oliver killed Lex with malice aforethought and pinned it on the Toyman; Clark felt that was a wee bit over the line; Tess and Oliver had a little somethin' goin' on but it's over now; Oliver has been trying to pickle his liver.
Tense, drumming music of the "time is running out!" sort plays while a dozen or so people sit bound and gagged in some kind of factory. There are a lot of factories and warehouses on this show, don't you think? Nothing ever happens at a department store or a Cinnabon stand or the DMV. If you want to survive in Metropolis, just stay away from the warehouse district and you're halfway to a longer, healthier life. Another hostage wearing a shirt and tie sits in a chair with a bomb strapped to his midsection. He's also wearing a creepy mask that looks like if one of those Easter Island heads had a baby with Chucky . Outside, cop cars and SWAT vans are gathering while a helicopter circles overhead. A cop in a bulletproof vest orders a barricade so that no one will get in the way. Cue Clark in his Emo Blur outfit, zipping up onto a nearby roof. Then he just stands there and looks around, right under the helicopter . In broad daylight, by the way.
Inside, the hostages sit and wait, as hostages are wont to do. One by one, they get zipped out by Clark until only the masked man is left. Then Clark burns a gigantic flaming S symbol on the ground within about five feet of this bomb-clad dude, which seems ill-advised. Clark addresses Masky: "Don't bother pulling the trigger." Uh, what? It seems sort of blatant that this guy is a victim . Clark speeds over to him, rips the bomb off, and then backhands him right out of his chair and across the floor. The mask falls off, revealing this poor sucker's unconscious face and duct-taped mouth. A digital timer flashes in the mask's eye. Clark looks at the bomb in his hand like, "Oh, shit!" He hunches down and covers the bomb with his body to lessen the blast. Still, the explosion blows out one side of the factory and sends two SWAT guys outside cartwheeling through the air. Clark shakily starts to stand up, but his hearing goes all wonky. There's a flood of jumbled, muted sound from the police radio outside and a flurry of indistinct voices. Plus, everything's sort of too-bright and slo-mo, so you know something superfreaky just happened.
A short while later, he emerges from a nearby phonebooth, dressed in his work clothes. He holds one hand to his temple in the international sign for "Ow, my head!" Lois screeches onto the scene in a red Chrysler. She rushes up to Clark, asking if she's missed the Blur. "He was long gone by the time I got here," Clark says. They joke about the phonebooth, but I'm too busy ducking anvils to recount it here. Lois stomps around the crime scene with Clark in tow. She comes to two cop cars that are parked together fender to fender, so instead of walking the extra seven or so feet around like a normal person, she decides to climb over them in her skinny skirt and high heels. She promptly slips and falls backward and into Clark's waiting arms. She braces her hand on his manly biceps and says, without opening her mouth, "Well, hello-o-o, sailor!" Clark knits his brows together to let us know he's confused. Lois clambers down from his grasp and he's all, "What did you just say?" "Nothing," she says. She tells him to get his hearing checked, then calls him "Hot stuff" with what passes for her thoughts. Clark looks even more confused. Somebody save him!
Daily Planet. Clark's in the elevator, doing a passable job of looking at a folder of work stuff, when the quality of light changes again and he rubs his temple to let us know he's feeling it. In the screen I have it paused on, Tom Welling's hand is bigger than his whole head. Either he has ginormous hands or a wee nubbin of a noggin. Out of nowhere, he hears Lois's disembodied voice going on about how little energy she has. She needs coffee -- no, wait! A B-12 shot! People still get those? Her voice goes on to babble about the lessons about underwear taught to her by "The General." I'm not able to picture her stern, strict father teaching her about underwear. Clark's in the elevator looking about as confused as a puppy who's just been shown the TV for the first time. Lois's voice complains about her thong underwear when the elevator door opens and there she is, surreptitiously picking her panties out of her ass. She freezes when she sees Clark, but it's not like the half-dozen people behind her didn't see her. She joins Clark in the elevator. He suppresses a smile and notes that Lois is in a good mood. She says she'd be in a better mood if the Blur had stuck around for a quote, so they'd know what happened at the factory. Clark says the Blur saved the hostages: "End of story." I expect the investigative journalism awards to start rolling in any time now. Lois goes on about how the "word on the street" is that their bomber isn't the one responsible. Yes, that would seem obvious from the fact that he was bound and gagged like the other hostages. I don't see why this is even up for the teensiest debate.
They go back and forth about there being hostages but no demands as they cross the basement to their desks. Lois checks her phone and Clark hears her say -- once again without moving her mouth -- that the Blur hasn't called her. She mentally sighs about being nothing to the Blur. Clark says Lois's name and she snaps out of her funk. She lies that her computer's frozen up and then casts a glare over some guy standing behind her. He's chowing down on a donut. Her thoughts tell us that he's Jeff the intern, and she's annoyed at him for taking the last maple donut. Clark zips away in front of everyone in the office and then he steals Jeff's donut . Jeff stares at his suddenly-empty hand and then Clark gives Lois the partially eaten donut . Oh my God. OH MY GOD , how stupid, rude, and disgusting is that? Superzip your damn self to the donut shop to get her a fresh one, you stupid, rude, disgusting thief! Jeff could be festering with mouth herpes for all you know! He could have gone Number Two without washing his hands after! He could be a compulsive masturbator or a habitual nosepicker with swine flu! So very gross and wrong! God! I'm sorry for all the italics and exclamation points, but this... this is just the worst thing ever. Lois hesitates then happily chows down on the cesspool of pilfered maple, grease, and e. coli because Clark lets her think it's actually his donut. Clark looks exceedingly pleased with his disgusting thievery. They get to work, looking through Clark's work folder. Turns out the factory is a subsidiary of Queen Industries. Clark says it should get Oliver's attention. Lois's thoughts say, "Only if he's sober enough to give a crap." Clark replies out loud, "You might be right." She's confused, he's confused. She's still eating that donut all through this so I can't focus on anything more specific than that.
Finally, the scene is over. Clark has apparently called Chloe and now he's meeting up with her at a coffee cart outside the paper. "What am I thinking right now?" Chloe tests him. He can't read her thoughts. "So far it's only been Lois." Chloe goes on about how she's familiar with all the "strange and unexplained" but how does Clark know this isn't just broken superhearing? "You don't just catch ESP," she says. I think Lana might disagree . Clark says, "As loud as Lois is, even she can't speak with her mouth closed." Chloe has to admit that's a good point. She says she'll do some research, but asks why he doesn't just ask Jor-El. Instead of answering, he gets another one of his bright-lights-big-headache moments, though this flash doesn't seem to be accompanied by any overheard thoughts. Chloe is concerned, but Clark assures her he's OK. She goes off to do her Chloe thing and Clark gets another flashy. This time, he overhears the thoughts of people on the streets. It's a jumble of slightly depressing inner monologues. Oddly, no one cusses in their thoughts or thinks about porn.
Fortress of Solitude. I just noticed that some of the ice pillars are still black. Is that a bad sign? Or is it just a sign that the props department didn't have the money for new pillars? Clark calls out to Jor-El, asking if this new mind reading thing is one of his trials. Jor-El's voice tells him: "I planted within you the seeds for this trial, designed to self-manifest when it was most needed." Jor-El thinks an error or mistake in Clark's judgement triggered the ability. Clark seems unphased by thoughts of his dad planting seeds in his stupid head without telling him. Clark doesn't think there was an error, because he saved everyone in the factory. Jor-El tells him that "assumptions are flaws" and part of Clark's adopted human instincts. "They are beneath you," the pompous alien intones pompously. Clark is supposed to nurture his Kryptonian intuition. If Kryptonian intuition keeps him from stealing people's spittle-moistened donuts, I'm all for it. Jor-El tells him that understanding humans will help him better protect them, which, I dunno, sounds like Clark should be nurturing his human instincts, in that case. Would you tell Jane Goodall that she needs to think less like chimps in order to understand chimps? I think not. Jor-El tells him the ability is only temporary and that he must learn to focus: "Perception can be the difference between life... and death." Clark stares around for a while as ominous music plays.
Metropolis General Hospital, our home away from home! Lois and Clark are in an injured hostage's room, where Lois is trying to badger this poor woman into giving a statement. The former hostage says nothing. Clark uses his new ESP to hear the woman worrying in accented English about being sent away. Clark assures her they're not with the INS. Lois gives him a WTF face until the woman starts talking about the man she saw. Some time later, they're talking to another hostage. This one's got sort of a Steve Buscemi thing going on, except with straighter teeth. He gives conflicting information about the bomber and pointlessly refers to Clark as Lois's "boyfriend." His thoughts betray him: turns out he's just milking the experience for excitement. Clark lectures him about how lying to them might be OK, but lying to the police will land him in jail. "Is that understood?" he asks sternly. Buscemi Lite admits he didn't see anything. Lois looks at Clark like her thong just combusted.
Later at the nurse's station, Clark's new ability lets him overhear a nurse who's just given him a patient's chart. She thinks Clark is cute, but worries about getting fired for helping him. Lois shows up to give Clark a donut to replace the poop-tainted one he gave her earlier. They walk together through the hospital and talk about how the "Mr. Murphy", the guy with the bomb, just got out of surgery but is still unconscious. Clark calls him "the mystery man's puppet," so it sounds like he's finally realized this guy is not to blame. Also, did this guy need surgery as a result of Clark hitting him? Wouldn't it be nice if they didn't leave this kind of thing so vague? Because it makes Clark look kind of bad for flirting with Lois while some innocent guy he mangled lies unconscious in a hospital bed. Anyway, Clark and Lois have a long, awkward scene where Clark asks her out to dinner after her thoughts say she's got no plans besides eating ice cream and watching Lifetime. There's lots of pausing and staring back and forth. It's a date, but not a date. There will be no dinner, but there will be a monster truck rally that Lois has been wanting to go to, according to her inner dialogue. Lois agrees to meet him there, but they'll be taking separate cars to avoid "drama." Good luck with that. It's already too late to avoid creepiness, which is what Clark using her thoughts to woo her really is.
Over thirteen minutes into the episode and we're just now getting to Oliver's part of things. There's a seedy bar in Mexico, judging by the faded flag painted on the inside wall. You know it's seedy because at least one of the patrons has a gun blatantly tucked into the waist of his pants. Oliver walks in looking like he's mistaken it for an Abercrombie & Fitch catalog shoot. His toes are well-manicured in his flip-flops, his jeans are artistically distressed, and his white button-down is carefully wrinkled. He staggers and bumps into stuff to show us he's drunk. Two senoritas immediately descend upon him and he orders them all drinks with a big wad of money. The barkeep looks like he wants to spit on Oliver, but he doesn't get a chance because three local toughs walk into the bar. One of them, who appears to be the leader, accosts Oliver for messing with his wife. The music becomes frantic. Oliver drinks and then, clearly possessing a death wish, dickishly asks the guy in Spanish, "Which one is your wife? The short one? Or the ugly one?" One of the toughs throws a punch, hitting Oliver square in the jaw. Then someone behind them shoots a gun at the ceiling, getting their attention. It's Tess, fully recovered from her zombification last week and wearing a completely awesome leather shoulder harness/vest thing that I immediately wish I owned, but know I would never wear. She levels her gun at the toughs. "Really?" she asks Oliver, who's face-down on the bar. Tess sends the toughs and their ladies scurrying out the door with a flick of her gun. Oliver pulls himself up and pours himself a drink. "You know, Mercy, if you wanted more face time, all you had to do was ask." She crosses the room towards him. "This is me asking," she says. Fantastic.
Talon apartment, night. I wish they would just reestablish the location of Smallville so I could stop wondering why people are driving hundreds of miles every day between there and Metropolis. Lois is taking a pair of scissors to some old jeans to make herself a pair of cutoffs to go with the mannish, sleeveless plaid shirt she's wearing. Chloe walks in and teases Lois: "Why so fancy?" Lois says she's going to see the monster trucks. Chloe thinks it's more than that and asks who her "prince charming" is. Lois is surprised to hear herself saying it, but it's Clark. Chloe does a double-take. Lois gushes about how they've been on the same wavelength all day. Chloe: "I'll bet. Sorta like he's been reading your mind?" Lois goes on about how she and Clark are more than just partners, and how she's gotten so used to "carrying the load" all by herself but maybe now she doesn't have to. Girl, don't be talking to your (essentially) widowed and friendless cousin about being alone. "Clark and Lois versus the world," Lois says, smiling like a dewy-eyed school girl. Chloe stands behind her looking like a piranha has just spontaneously started eating her intestines. Lois gives Chloe a quick hug and says, "Don't wait up!" Chloe looks after her as she leaves. The piranha starts in on her soul.
Clark is still at the hospital. He's walking around replacing the charts he's been looking at. You know, one time I tried to get my own chart from one of those door hanger thingies, and a nurse was all up in my face in about a nanosecond. Clark overhears a man's thoughts saying, "He forced me to do it. It wasn't me. I'm innocent!" Clark frowns and follows the thoughts to the aforementioned Mr. Murphy's room. Murphy, despite still being unconscious and most likely doped to the gills on pain meds, is an excellent and detailed expositor. His thoughts explain about someone strapping the bomb on him, talking about toys, and wanting Oliver Queen to "pay for what he'd done to him." Clark nods and whispers, "Toyman." He zips into action.
Finally the Toyman shows up in this episode. Well, sort of. We don't see him but we see his cluttered workshop, with various toys like those creepy cymbal monkeys strewn about. On a desk, a copy of the Daily planet helpfully reminds us that he's still at large. He giggles maniacally offscreen: "Let the games begin!"
At the Mexican bar, Tess and Oliver appear to have the whole place to themselves. The gentle music of seemingly genuine concern plays. Oliver sits at the bar, drinking. Tess watches him from across the room. "What the hell were you thinking?" she asks. "They could have killed you." He says she didn't give them a chance. Oh, boo frickin' hoo. If you want to die, don't do it in some passive-aggressive way that results in someone else having your blood on their hands. His shirt is awesome, though. I've just noticed there's this cool embroidered detail on it. I'll have to see if I can order one from A&F. Tess gets after him for not knowing about his factory blowing up and not giving a damn about anything anymore. He drinks some more and says she wasted jet fuel to come lecture him. "Your company is failing," she tells him. His shareholders are upset. Oliver thinks she should just tell them the truth and take over the company herself: "It's what you've always wanted, isn't it?" Her voice is soft but stern as she asks him why he's punishing himself. He doesn't say. She comes up behind him and touches his shoulder. "Oliver, what did you do?" Sad, tinkly music plays. Oliver gets teary but pulls himself together and turns to face her. He wants to know what she really wants from him. She drops the ruse and her expression slowly hardens. Cassidy Freeman is awesome at conveying a lot with subtle facial expressions. Her eyes are always engaged. Tess wants Oliver to address the shareholders. "Cheer up," she says with an eerie smile. "You can fall down drunk in a gutter as soon as it's done." She turns and leaves. Oliver pouts.
Daily Planet. Night. Clark walks in and hears Chloe thinking: "It's a good think he can't hear what I'm thinking, or else -- " He finds her waiting at his desk and cuts her off: "'Or else' what, Chloe?" She crosses the room towards him and tells him she doesn't want him to break Lois's heart. Clark looks confused, which is pretty much his default setting. So Chloe explains it for him: "You can't just trick someone into dating you." Clark gets defensive. Plus, he doesn't even think it's a real date. Chloe disabuses him of that notion and then gets after him for apparently standing Lois up. Clark's all, "But I asked her out before I knew our bomber was an innocent man!" Nuh-uh! You called him the "mystery man's puppet" before you asked her out! I just recapped it! So there , doofus. He shows Chloe the same newspaper we saw on Toyman's desk. In the accompanying pic, Winslow looks less like a mad bomber than a chubby, sad-faced cocker spaniel. Clark says that's why he didn't call Lois back: "Last thing I need is her showing up here and following me into harm's way." There have to be a dozen better ways he could have covered himself here, but... eh. Whatever. Clark says, "Winslow's trying to smoke Oliver out. He's insane." Chloe agrees that Winslow was insane enough even before Oliver framed him for Lex's murder. She tells Clark about Oliver addressing his shareholders tonight at a black tie gala. Clark tells Chloe to wait at the Watchtower, then zips off to rent a tux, I guess. Or maybe he'll just steal one.
Ace of Clubs: Where Metropolis's social elite meet to be torn to shreds ! A bunch of Canadian extras are standing outside all dolled up in evening attire. A guard with a clipboard mills around making sure people are on the guest list. Clark whooshes onto the scene and reads the guy's thoughts as he goes through some of the guests' last names. Clark uses one of those names to try to get into the party, saying he's "Kennair." It would have been hilarious if the guard had looked at his list, then at Clark, and then was like, "You don't look like Mitzi Kennair! Imposter!" The guard checks the clipboard and asks if "Mr. Kennair" has a "plus one." Before he can answer, a gigantic monster truck rumbles to a stop behind him. Lois climbs down from the passenger side in a figure-flattering gold dress. Clark asks her what she's doing there. Her thoughts answer, "Standing in the shadow of six-and-a-half feet of handsome," then chides herself about needing to kick his ass. I don't know if Durance is trying to look guarded or hardened, but it's coming across like her character's thoughts are just not reaching her eyes. Lois accuses Clark, out loud, of ditching her and not telling her about Oliver's return so that he could have the article for himself. "You can't get rid of me that easily -- I have the Internet on my phone!" All right: Heh. She stomps past him. I guess she got the dress from the monster truck driver? Maybe it was drag queen night at the rally. Clark tries to explain, but Lois isn't having it. "Bros before hos," she says of the journalistic world. Her thoughts are sad because she thinks this was never about "more than a story" for Clark, and might never be. She plasters on a fake smile and walks with Clark into the party.
Inside the party, Clark tries to get Lois to leave by saying he can cover the story on his own. Lois chides herself in her thoughts for getting attached: "They always leave." Part of what's slowing this episode down is that the action comes to a dead halt while Clark's listening to what people are thinking. It's like watching a sitcom where the actors wait for the audience to finish laughing before going to the next line, only worse, because it's not funny. Lois, for no discernible reason other than to get her out of this scene, decides that Clark can "fly solo" on the story and leaves. Clark watches her for a moment as she leaves, then starts listening in to the shareholders' thoughts. They're worried about losing money and about Tess ruining the company. One woman's thoughts snark about Tess: "Oh, so the devil came in a blue dress tonight." It's sort of an uncharacteristically fugly dress, too. Tess stands at the podium and introduces Oliver to the crowd as their "fearless leader." There's a smattering of applause. Oliver takes the podium and starts reading his teleprompter: "Hopefully, I can remain upright long enough to say what..." He trails off when he realizes what he's saying. He looks down at his screen, then tries to play it off like his speech writer has a sense of humor. People in the audience chuckle. The screen tells Oliver to use the earpiece, which he does, causing some feedback in the mic. Everyone grasps their ears in pain, including Clark. There's a flash of light and then he can no longer hear anyone's thoughts. What a conveniently inconvenient time for that to happen. "Thanks, Dad," Clark deadpans. The Toyman's voice comes over Oliver's earpiece: "Oh, yes, Mr. Queen. It's your old playmate, Winslow Schott. I'm sure you remember. You framed me for murder, after all." How could we forget? It was the episode that got Omar G. 's worst grade ever . It cuts back and forth between Oliver at the podium and Toyman's sweaty face talking from his undisclosed location. Toyman tells Oliver that he'll have to read everything he's written or die. "If you move one muscle, I will kill everybody in this room." Toyman tells Oliver with maniacal glee that Oliver is standing on a pressure plate rigged to a bomb. He laughs and laughs.
Oliver slowly begins to read from the teleprompter. The assembled crowd looks puzzled as Oliver confesses he's got a silver spoon in his throat, never worked a day in a life, and has a selfish nature. Clark hears this and looks concerned. Oliver pauses, but the Toyman goads him on: "We haven't even gotten to the good part yet." For some reason, I'm tired of seeing the name "Toyman" so I'm switching to his real name, Winslow. Anyway, a sweaty Oliver hesitantly goes on to read aloud that he's put his own needs ahead of those of his employees, and that the only thing he's been selfless enough to part with is "the blame for a heinous act." Clark calls Chloe and tells him his new ability is gone and he needs to find Winslow. She hacks into the building's security feeds. Back at the podium, Oliver is saying: "I am Oliver Queen, and I am a coward. I'm a thief. And I am..." He trails off, unable to read the words on the screen that call him a murderer. Winslow shouts at Oliver through the earpiece for framing him for Lex's murder. Clark uses his X-ray vision and sees the bomb under Oliver. He tells Chloe on the phone that they need to get everyone out. Oliver hesitates. Winslow: "Confess!" Oliver resists. Chloe gets into the security system and activates an alarm that gets everyone scurrying to safety. "I'm not gonna ask," Clark says weirdly, then adds: "Nice work, Chloe."
As the crowd thins out, Clark sees Winslow standing on the balcony outside. He grabs him by the lapels and demands to know how to disarm the bomb. "I don't know who you are ," Winslow says prissily, "but you're ruining my game!" Clark insists this isn't a game and that a man's life is at stake. Clark thinks about it for a while and realizes that Winslow would have to know that Oliver wouldn't have let all those people die. "But you knew that already," he says, talking himself through the puzzle like he's playing the bonus round of Wheel of Fortune and the only letter on the board is a Q. He figures that Winslow doesn't allow for human error, that he has to control the outcome, and that's why the timer was on the mask at the factory. "The pressure plate Oliver is standing on is fake," Clark concludes. He also concludes there's a timer and wants to know how long Oliver has. He holds Winslow part of the way over the balcony's railing, but Winslow doesn't divulge anything. Oliver, back at the podium, keeps focusing on the word "murderer" on his teleprompter. He looks down at the plate, looks at it some more, and takes a deep breath. On the balcony, Clark pulls Winslow up and realizes the real Winslow would want to live, "So he could dance on Oliver's grave." Winslow starts counting down from five...four...three... Clark uses his heat vision and sets Winslow's face on fire . I mean, luckily he turns out to be a robot, but Clark didn't even double check with an X-ray first. I don't see how this is any different from all the other lucky, presumptuous saves Clark has made over the years or how having temporary telepathy had anything to do with anything. Clark lets the robot drop, saying, "No one wins the game if you both lose." Uh... duh? Still at the podium, Oliver screws up his courage and steps off the plate. Clark crosses the room toward him: "How did you know the pressure plate wasn't real?" Oliver the suicidal sad sack replies: "I didn't." Clark is stunned. Oliver explains he waited until everyone had left, and knew the explosion wouldn't kill Clark. Clark looks sad. Oliver looks sad. And yet, I'm not terribly sympathetic. The guy was ready to die, but still didn't want to 'fess up about the murder.
Later that night as cops leave the Ace of Clubs, Oliver drinks whiskey and continues looking sad. Clark approaches him and lets him know that the real Winslow has been arrested thanks to Chloe following the feed from Oliver's earpiece. "He's on his way to Stryker's right now." Clark must sound noticeably less pompous than usual, because Oliver prompts him to say what's on his mind. "I haven't been paying enough attention to everything," Clark says to Oliver's back. His tone through this whole scene is very soft and gentle and his gaze upon Oliver is quietly intense. That, along with all the sparkly lights and the balcony setting and the tearful manpain, brings an almost romantic note to the scene. In honor of the olden days of recaps, I'm awarding this the Gayest Look of the Episode. Clark admits he hasn't seen the warning signs around him. He takes a few steps toward Oliver. "There are people in need that I've neglected." He stands beside Oliver. He goes on: "I didn't realize how bad things were. I'm sorry I haven't been here for you." On the one hand, I'm glad Clark seems to be doing less of the self-righteous judgy thing than he used to, but in this case I think a little bit of it would be justified. Oliver doesn't think he's worth Clark's concern. I almost expect Clark to take Oliver's face in his hands, whisper "yes, you are," and then start smooching on him. Instead, he lets Oliver go on about how the speech in there was a fact sheet of his sins. He also launches into a story about how he was only five when his parents died, which doesn't jibe with the pilot episode, but whatever. He boohoos: "Everything about my life isn't really mine, it's theirs. I didn't earn it, and it's all a lie." Oliver thinks everything from the Queen name to the Green Arrow are just masks he wears and he's realized there's nothing underneath. Clark: "There's something behind those masks. You're just afraid to face it." Clark thinks Oliver isn't running from who he is, but who he's becoming. He doesn't have to face it alone, Clark says. "Just because you've given up on Oliver Queen doesn't mean I have." Lots of sensitive, manly staring. Oliver thanks him. Clark quirks a smile at him. When they hear sirens on the streets below, Oliver tells him to go be a hero. Clark smiles again, then zips away. As the door closes behind Clark, Oliver sees a reflection of Lex in the glass. Well, it's a bald guy in a purple shirt and dark suit, and the eye bears a resemblance to Rosenbaum, but the rest of the features are hidden in shadows. Oliver frowns, clenches his jaw, and stares harder at the phantom Lex. He hurls his whiskey glass at the door. The image dissolves, leaving only Oliver's reflection.
You know, Oliver's downward spiral and guilt fest would mean a lot more if 1) one of the "good guys" would at least suggest he turn himself in, and 2) it weren't virtually guaranteed that they'll find out Lex didn't really die and all of them will act like this absolves Oliver. I would rant more about this, but I used up most of my moral outrage on the disgusting donut incident earlier.
Winslow's sitting in an interrogation room wearing orange prison togs. "I! Want! My! LAWYER!" he shouts at the empty room. He shouts some more, but the person who finally comes through the door is Tess. She approaches and sets an aluminum case on the table between them. Winslow recognizes her: "You're Oliver Queen's business partner! Sorry about trying to kill your boyfriend." Why do people keep assuming that guys are people's boyfriends on this show? Tess just looks at him. Winslow feyly puts a hand to his mouth and feigns fright: "Ooh, you're not here for revenge, are you?" Tess says it's something like that. She smiles and walks back to the door, making sure it's closed. Winslow looks suitably scared. Tess whips out a big honking gun and says, "Leave Oliver the hell alone." Then she proceeds to blow out Winslow's left kneecap. He falls to the ground, writhing in pain. Tess smirks: "Pretty please?" Winslow calls for help, but no one comes. Tess explains she and the guard have an agreement to make it look like Winslow tried to escape and Tess shot him to stop him. Winslow cries that they'll put him in solitary confinement. Tess crouches on the ground beside him and pets his arm. Solitary is just where he needs to be, she says, to spend some "quality time" with a new toy. Winslow, despite the pain, is intrigued. Tess opens the case she'd brought in and shows him. Winslow reaches in and pulls out John Corben's broken heart . "It's beautiful," Winslow breathes, the pain of his gunshot wound apparently forgotten. Tess agrees. She caresses his face and tells him, "It's a meteor rock powered heart, and you're going to tell me how it works." Toyman looks genuinely thrilled at the prospect, as does Tess.
Daily Planet, dawn. Clark is making copies when he sees Lois coming into the office. They stare at each other through a window. Sad guitar music plays. They stare some more. Lois fixes herself a cup of coffee. More staring. Clark finally sighs and approaches her: "You missed all the excitement last night." Lois wonders why she didn't read about Clark's "exploits" in the paper that morning. Clark hands her his article, with "Lois Lane and Clark Kent" in the byline. He asks her for help, saying he missed his deadline. She seems flattered, but I would be annoyed at being patronized. She agrees to help him. Clark: "Guess I'm not ready to fly solo just yet." Ugh. Lois takes the article over to her desk and marks it with her red pen. He watches for aes as she makes edits. She gives him back the article and he apologizes for letting her down. She points out that Lois Lane doesn't usually allow herself to be stood up. Clark: "Well then it's a good thing it was just like a date." More smiling and staring back and forth. Then they do that annoying "cute" thing where everyone speaks in hypotheticals that aren't really. Clark teases that he wonders how someone would get a second date after messing up like that. Lois says that "someone" should try again on a slower news day, but Clark doesn't think there are many of those. Lois agrees. "I'm sure people would make sure they got it right next time," Clark says. Smiling. Staring. "My thoughts exactly," Lois says. They smile and stare at each other for eons while the camera pans around to show them standing silhouetted against the Daily Planet logo. They'll probably still be standing there, staring at each other when next week's episode opens.
Grade: C-. The Tess scenes and some of the Toyman stuff kept it from being a D, but just barely.
Tippi Blevins is just glad no one in the episode uttered the words, "Can you read my mind?" You can send her questions and comments or just about anything else at b_tippi@yahoo.com. But please... no used donuts.