Smallville “Ambush” 

Thanksgiving came a little early this year in Smallville as this 7^th episode of the season featured the return of General Lane and Lucy Lane, plus a whole lot of other craziness. While not the best episode of the season so far, it had its moments and overall was a solid chapter in the Smallville final season story.

It’s Thanksgiving and what better way to celebrate than a surprise visit by the General and Lucy Lane to spend the holiday with Clark and Lois.  While Clark and Lois’ dad squabble over a new vigilante registration act (overseen by General Lane), the Suicide Squad zeros in on the General wanting to eliminate him and his bill to make all super-powered peoples register with the government.  It’s up to Clark to not only track down Rick Flag and the Suicide Squad, but also to win over Lois’ father in a bid to win his approval.

For a show as simplistic and lowest common denominator as Smallville is (and I say that purely with love), I thought the plot this week was pretty damn complex.  It was one of those plots where you had to work to have a good time.  Maybe it’s just me and I was having an off night, but there were a few plot points I just did not follow at all.  At one point Lucy goes up to Clark’s barn and tries to seduce him to get under the skin of Lois.  Lois knew immediately what her sister was doing and put the kibosh on it.  I’m sure Lucy had a valid motivation for doing that, but seeing as though I can’t remember her last episode she was in (it was all the way back in Season 4) and having no reason to do it in the current episode, I was just left confused.  It seemed to blow over just as quickly as it came and was a head scratching moment for me.  Again, there might have been something I completely missed but that’s kind of my point.  If you can’t understand Smallville, either you’re out of it or the episode is just whack.  For the sake of my ego, I’m going to blame the episode.

I was glad to see the Suicide Squad take more of an active role and really set up the storyline of the vigilantes being forced to register.  Sure it’s become somewhat cliché in the comic book world (Watchmen, the whole Marvel civil war) but it’s never been transferred over into the live action medium and I welcome it with open arms.  Random thought: if everybody knows that Oliver Queen is the Green Arrow, why does he still use that ridiculous big boy voice when he’s fighting crime?

I never thought I’d hear myself say this, but I think Cassidy Freeman is really the MVP of the season so far.  Even though she was relegated to a very minor role this week she had a phenomenal scene with Oliver towards the end where you really felt not only the chemistry between the two of them, but also got the sense of history between them.  They’ve been through a lot together and to see them sitting back and sharing a beer felt very genuine and not forced.  While I’d rather see Tess be involved with the whole Mommy Mercer/Mini-Me Lex storyline, this was a nice change of pace to see Tess as somebody that just wants to fit in.  Her character kind of reminds me of Benjamin Linus on Lost.  I think deep down she just wants acceptance and maybe in the past she didn’t always go about it the right way.  As far as the Tess/Lex storyline, I see the December 3^rd episode is called “Luthor”, so I’m looking forward to her being able to really shine.

At the heart of this episode was the relationship between Lois and Clark.  It was interesting to see not only the hold that the General had over Lois, but how much it irritated Clark.  And although the resolution was handled a little clumsily, the final talk between Clark and the General was well worth the price of admission.  It was implied that Clark asked the General for his permission to ask Lois to marry him, which when Clark does ask will no doubt be one of those great milestone moments for the show.  This episode was all about setting up the future and I can’t wait for the inevitable pay offs.