Hi. My name is Tom Welling. I played Clark Kent on Smallville and
you are listening to Always Hold On to Smallville. Welcome to Always Will One
to Smallville. In this podcast, we talked about each and every episode of
the Young Superman Show. Then we'rep from two thousand and one to twenty eleven
on WB and the CW. I'm your host, Zach Morning. I'm joined
by mister Daniel Prue. What's up, Daniel, how's it going. It's
been a hot minute since, uh we've been on the on the mics together.
But it's good to be back. It has been a while, hasn't
it. Now we've settled in for for you to come on the show.
When Clark gets new powers. Yeah, and I guess he hasn't gotten a
new one in quite some time. It seems. It's got one in new
one in a while, it seems. And this one's only temporary, it
seems. It's funny this. So we're talking about echo here, and I
remember, way back like early Smallville, like season one or two, they
interviewed the producers I think was Alan Miles. We're talking and they're like,
yeah, superpowers are like puberty, so there could be an episode where Clark
comes downstairs and he's great and we can have some fun with that, like
where it's a temporary thing. I'm like, Okay, that might have been
fun. And I could see like early more lighthearted Smallville doing something like that,
never what I expect him to do something like that, you know,
deep in deep in the show and then seriousness of the later seasons. I
don't know, what do you think about that? Would you have liked an
episode like that per se like we're, yeah, something out of left field,
something that's not what we would expect. Yeah, I mean I think
that would have been fine for an episode, and it definitely especially you know
early on if you sort of broke up the freak of the week with just
sort of like Clark now has to deal like you said, if he's green
or you know, he has three feet or something like you're like, what
would you And if it's just a temporary thing, I think that could have
been fun. Obviously that's not what's happened here. But no, this is
where something that's that sounds so much like a super boy like Silver Age comics
or something like oh you get third foot? Ors liked something like that that
would I don't know that that's not I don't know. I don't think that
although that that kind of whimsy might have fit. More like they had a
lot of fun with heat vision and even X ray vision and stuff like that.
That had some fun. Even when he got the super breath, it
was like there was fun things about it, right, and they always had
it good. They always had fun when you got the new powers. And
I think, I don't know, even something something like that, like it's
the same reason they changed the Red Kryptonite, you know, like in the
comics, Red Kryptonite does something crazy. You every now he's an aunt or
something like that, stumb we're not doing that. It's effective emotions. They
probably looked at all that like okay, let's let's not do anything like that.
So then we get this new power, which is mind reading, which
is interesting power for Superman to have. He has so many powers, as
we know. I'm glad that this is not one of them because at that
point, like who needs anyone else like that, like Martian Man Hunter,
Like Martian Man Hunter can do mind stuff and Superman can't. And that's like
a big like a big thing, and he can pade through stuff too right,
So like that to me, like the mental stuff, I'm glad Superman
doesn't have that ability on the regular, you know. Yeah, when I
was watching the episode, it was so funny to me because I was like,
I don't like this because it's so weird because it like it seems like
a really inconstant almost like you know, compared to his strength and his speed
and is in vulnerability. It's not that big of a deal, but in
a weird way to me, it like made him too powerful, like there
was nothing to stop him from like you said, like just kind of you
wouldn't need anybody at that point. You can just like do whatever he wants.
I don't know why that tips this yels for me, but I was
like, I'm glad this isn't like a thing he normally has. Yeah,
you know, this isn't like you know, in the anywhere in the comics
or any other shows or anything like that. But I'm I just I was
like, Okay, but then they do have a little bit of fun with
her, of course lowis and stuff, but right it almost kind of feels
pointless. We'll probably talk about it, we'll get you know. You said
that, and I thought about it too. I was like, are there
any other versions of Superman or comic books? Like, I don't know,
right, there's eighty five years of com books. I'm sure sure there was
some issues somewhere they might have tried, probably probably some silver righted Superboy story.
I know on Lois and Clark, like in like the fourth season when
other Kryptonians showed up, they did some mental like telepathy stuff. And I'm
I'm no Lowis and Clark scholar. I'll leave that to Matt SRICKX, but
I know they did they sits. I'm like, oh, well, the
Kryptonians do that with each other. I'm like, okay, I guess that's
fine. I guess for if they were gonna do it like for each other
or if they really wanted to go that route. But that's as far as
I as I know, they've ever done anything like that. Was Man because
like people have enough, he's a challenging enough character for people, right without
him solving every problem, and like you said, like this, he can
he can find any answer right, get any truth right. So it's it's
it's smart to not have him do this, timpery. But well we can
get in the weeds of this Bay. We're here in season nine, Daniel,
what are your feelings here in the in the stretch run, here,
we're in the we're in the last phase, or the Metropolis years. We're
in season nine. What are your thoughts on this era of the show?
Well, I, you know, initially, when I when I was first
watching the show, I only watched until I think season five or six,
so I want to say, and it didn't I didn't come back until goodness,
years and years later. I've actually only watched that the back half of
the show once. So, uh, picking this up to watch this episode
was interesting because I'm like, I forgot Tessa was a character, and oh,
I don't remember how Lex died. And also and so there's like there's
all these threads in the episode, and I'm like, I kind of had
to do a bunch of research just because it's been so you know, it's
been a few years since I've done my full watch the previously on Smallville.
Didn't prepare you first, Well, I get Clark's matt At I'm not like
at Oliver, uh, and uh, but I don't I just don't remember
was he actually responsible for the death of Lex. He was he was he
he uh, well he framed toy Matt. Well we'll talk. We'll talk
about the little little so SOT conversation here. But but yeah, this is
I can only imagine like you thrown into something like this is, especially being
unfamiliar with it, even I who loves season nine and I ranked season nine
is one of my favorite seasons. That the whole Oliver test subplot here,
I was like this, I have no memory of this, like even me,
because I feel like they they kind of in these first batch of episodes
they kind of did the same sort of thing with all of it, like,
oh man, he's depressed and drinking and sad about some stuff that happened,
and and anyway, it all just kind of blurred together for me,
no pun intended, blurred together. Yeah, no, that will be fun.
It's it's it's certainly a different vibe. But I think at this point
it was necessary for the show to change it's approached because I mean, how
how long can then? That's why those those college dropout youres like, oh,
I'm kind of dragged on. It's like, what you're still living on
the farm, Alna is still around. You're not gonna marry or so what
are we doing? Like, you know, it's the show. It kind
of rebooted itself in season eight, and then it like kind of rebooted itself
again almost in season nine because he's the blur now it's a whole other thing
when he's running around that's on his chests and stuff. So anyway, it's
one of my favorite eras, and it's fun to revisit, and I you
know, I haven't as much as I enjoyed it, I haven't rewatched it
much as much either because just by the nature of it coming near the end
of the show. Yeah, you know, in those early years, you
get to DVDs, you watch them and they becoming favorite episodes over and now,
and then it becomes so much and it's like, well, I'm just
gonna wait for the next episode, and then the show's over and then like,
well I'll do this podcast and I'll go back to the beginning. So's
I really haven't. I've tried not to like watch ahead or anything other than
if I'm doing like a commentary on the Patreon or something like that. Like,
other than that, I don't like randomly watch ahead because I want to
come to these relatively fresh, because it's so fun to not even remember stuff,
which we'll talk about in our conversation here, So anyway, let's get
into it then Echo. Well, no one has the right to take the
law into their own hands, not even the blur don't try to run or
you will die. Smallville All new episode on its new night Friday at eight
seventh Central. Echo is the fourth episode of Smallville's ninth season. It aired
on October sixteenth, two thousand and nine. Was written by Ryan Q.
Miller and directed by Wayne Rose. A couple notes there, Brian Q Miller
goes on to write the Smallville season eleven combooks because there are also the comic
writers and they worked on smallvill so perfect person to write those. And I
looked up Wayne Rose. I'm like, that name does not look familiar to
me. And this is the only episode they directed of Smallville, directed a
whole lot of Bowstar Galactica. Oh all right, one episode of Smallville though,
and then nine episodes of Power Rangers Ninja Storm. Ok, there you
go. Is Power Rangers also filmed in Canada? You know that's a good
question. In the two thousands of apparently Power Rangers Ninja Storm a series that
I am not familiar with, of Power Rangers in the early two thousands.
They probably did shoot that the the the non Power Ranger stuff, because you
know they ship that out to America. All that, all the Superhos stuff
shot in Japan, and then they put the I don't know the quote unquote
human the Senti stuff in Japan, and then the rest of the stuff when
they're hanging out of the juice bar, that's that's where they should. They
probably were shooting in Canada, and he probably was a Canadian director, knowing
that a lot of those CW shows as well shot out there, So that
is probably why. So what we're doing here in this last era of the
show, dan As, I'm asking people about the ratings watch is what we
call it. What do you think this episode got ratings wise on a Friday
night? Now, remember they're on Fridays, okay, on the CW.
Now for a little context, right, last week's episode, Rabid the Zombie
episode got two point three million viewers, okay, and the season premiere Savior
two point five eight. So that there's your context here, we are what
do you think this episode got in the ratings? Let's say that it's still
going down consistently, so we'll say two point one. All right, you
would be wrong two point six to one. WHOA went up? People love
zi It's the early two thousands, mid two thousands. People love zombies.
Dad, all right, Okay, so I guess they're like, I love
this show. I'll watch another one. I was just trying to think of,
like, like even like in the in the trailer for the episode,
what would be there to draw people in? And I don't know that there
was enough there. But Okay, I guess I'm wrong. But like I
joked about off the top with you talking about getting caught up, there is
a previously on Smallville, Justin Hartley says, it's previously on small But we
get little bits and pieces about Clark and Jireau and their training and toy Man
big stuff from season Dave tory Man episode Wherelex got blown up. Oliver did
pin that murder on the toy Man, so that's why he's after revenge here.
And then we got Oliver burning his green arrow costume, which she did
in the last episode because he's in a dark place. And he's in a
dark place because he kind of fumbled the ball with the whole doomsday situation last
year and Henry James Olsen died and that is why Oliver Queen is upset.
I think Chloe's also have some blame in that also. Everybody had some blame
how that went down, but Oliver's taking it especially hard. Now. He's
he is in a dark place, but he's he's physically in a very bright
place. He's in Mexico, right, So he's so I just wanted to
point that out this seats. It's the juxtaposition of his internal external circumstances.
Brilliant started telling air, but the episode starts out and it's it's all these
bound and gag sweatshop workers. It seems like in a storage unit. It
seems that way to me. Apparently it's a subsidiary of Queen Industries. Yeah,
I don't know if well, you know, maybe he's not doing things
above word, but yeah, why would you? Okay, I guess that's
that's what it was. Yep. I feel like they I feel like they
didn't quite have the budget for whatever it was supposed to be, and they're
like, we'll just shoot it like a sturge in it. And then it
became when it became perhaps because I guarantee you I don't know what it's from,
but that when we see like a helicopter and I'm like, that's got
to be from a movie or some WV stock footage, Metropolis, PD,
the Swat Team all that. But hey, this is where it's cool.
This air of the show, we see the blur show up. Clark just
shows up on a roof and surveys the scene. And I don't know,
he's gotta be a little more careful though, because usually he's like in the
shadows and stuff, but he's it's the daylight, man, Just stand up,
someone's gonna see you. Yeah. They're lucky that this was like right
right. His iPhones were coming out, you know, so yeah, yeah,
cell phone cameras were not what they were back then, so I think
you could still get away with this, But today absolutely no way Clark could
get away with this with this no bass stuff or have no secret identity.
Basically, it's pretty cool effect. We see everybody tied up, and we
see like a little like toy looking masks. I think I think like it
looked like a toy mask on one of the main guy with the gun,
right, I don't know, yeah, something like that. At first,
I was like, is that gonna be the toy man? Is that going
to be the guy? But it was like a reveal later, but we
see like the black blur of him, like blurring in saving the people.
It's a it's a pretty fun save. I think, yeah, no,
it was good. It was good. I guess he thought that the guy
was the toy man too, because he throws him and I don't like,
this guy look like a hostage. I don't know, like I don't.
It's a good thing he got this mi reading thing because I figured he read
the situation wrong, which I guess triggered what happened, right, I don't
know. I was surprised. Yeah, he just kind of chucks him across
the room and then just like I'm okay, I did my thing, and
I'll burn the thing on the ground and leave. And I'm like, you
didn't really do any I mean it's not you did save people and you and
you ate the bomb, but maybe you know, do some fact checking.
I guess that's the lesson he learns, right. I guess it is right
because I mean, yeah, well, well we'll get to any times,
Darrell. But like I'm like, I didn't. I was confused. I
was like, well, because I was like, is that toy man?
The mask comes off, it's not. It's a guy with a bomb.
It looked like he was tied to a chair too, so it didn't look
like he was like responsible. I don't know, but Clark, Yeah,
he sees this bomb, he hugs it, it blows, it blows the
s off his chest. I thought for a second, like, are they
gonna do somewhere Buddy comes in but they don't know he's the blur because his
s is gone. But they didn't. They didn't really do that. He's
just kind of like we see like and I guess they're there. It's very
similar to like what they do for Superhero, where like everything gets kind of
like blown out all around him and like blown out visually. You know when
when when it like has the mind reading and that's what the you know,
that's what this is, right, He's he's kind of confused. He's taking
so long to get out of there. I'm like, someone's gonna see you.
Yeah, there's a big hole in the wall and he's just sort of
standing there and I'm like, God, yeah, you need to get out,
but this is apparently what triggers this new power. I did like how
he changes in the phone booth. Huh yeah, And again I love this
there of the show where where Tom Willens dressing his age finally you know,
he's wearing like a nice fitting dress shirt and tied. He's just missing the
asses Dan right, Yeah, you know, maybe that's that's for the next
power he needs. He needs to get a prescription maybe so. So he
gets out of this film with he's looking around and he almost gets hit by
Lois. It's kind of irresponsible driving. Frankly, Yeah, it's only the
first of two times she almost runs him over in this episode. True,
it's all that. It's all that, the tension, that unresolved tension.
I think it is between the two of them manifesting. Yeah, Clerk's like,
yeah, we're just trying to call you, and she's like on a
payphone, which is you know. I like how they use the payphone here,
like the phone booth, Like that pays homage to the classic Superman changing
in the phone booth and the whole thing. So I think that's a fun
way to incorporate that in the twenty first century, where where I mean,
there are there are no payphones anymore, right, I mean I haven't seen
one. I probably hadn't even seen one for ten years when this came out,
so yeah, it's been a long time. But then he starts hearing
all these things like Lois trips and he catches Serge, Oh Hello's and all
this stuff and hot stuff and and he Clark is so slow in the uptake
here what's happening? But I think I think that's very in character for him,
though, isn't it. You know, it's interesting because I was watching
it, I'm like, man, he is he's kind of dumb like here,
Like he's just like, it's pretty simple to see what's happening, Like
she's clearly not moving her mouth or anything like that, and uh, you
know, it's got that echo of fact of course that all you know,
teleopathy has. And he's just like what is what? Like, what what's
going on? I mean it's like, you know, come on, man,
put this. Put two and two together here. I think you could
figure this out. Now. This is a storytelling trope. So I don't
know what we call this a movie plot as an episode, because I don't
think it's necessary, Like I think about like what women want or something like
that for example, right right, But it's not. It's more like this
has been a Twilight Zone episode like this. This is a trope in fiction.
So I don't know, would you call this a movie plot as an
episode or not? Oh god, I mean that plot line. There's the
thing is, there's so much going on in this episode. It's really tough
to like because that's only part of it and it only lasts for half the
episode. You know that's true, Thanks Dad, We'll get there. Yeah.
Yeah, I don't know if it counts or not, but I think
that's a good point. I think you know, when you think of the
when you think of these famous like famous listen to you guys know what I
mean, small old fans. We all know fast and the various right that
the Saw episode, which is probably the most egregious, but it's actually really
good b for BT plot point for plot point. This this is an element.
So yes, even though we've seen this in other forms of media,
I'm not gonna I don't think we should count it. So that's a good
call there, good call there, all right, But that's our that's our
big stinger out to the opening credits, like like Lois thinking something that she
doesn't say. It's so it just throws straight. They're usually so good about
like the punctuation work, but there's not. It's just kind of weird to
me, like I was anyway, it's all playing into Clark just not figuring
this stuff out. So he cuts the open credits and we come back and
Clark is He's in an elevator. He's kind of overwhelmed by Lois's thoughts.
Lo is the only person he's hearing so far, and then later he hears
everybody, which I don't. I don't think they really explained that, did
they? No, they did not. It wasn't clear and she only only
heard her sometimes. But you know, he takes advantage of the situation.
It does she is a lie here about uh? Or he does one of
them does about I'm not a mind reader. I was like, ah,
but you are what you are anyway. I thought that was cute. But
he is so slow, and he's like leaning in looking at her mouth.
He's close. Did you say something? Yeah? It just makes him look
you know, he's bumbling. He's bumbling Clark at this at this moment.
So I guess, so he really is playing playing the part here, right,
but he hears, like you said, he starts to as any of
us would, right, use this steer vent and she's like talking about how
she's hungry. He missed the lat stonenuts, so he goes and gets her
one, and you know he's he's playing that up. But they find through
the research here about this bombing because they you know, she wanted to she's
always after the blurb, but they missed him, and they want to find
out what was going on with this bombing. And it turns out this this
sweatshop is a subsidiary of Queen Industries, which is which is which you know
plays into Oliver later. Apparently Clark could call Chloe and they meet on the
street. I guess they wanted some exterior scene here. Usually, like Rick
Clark, he should just go up to the watchtow or whatever and talk to
her, but they just catch up over a cup of copy walking down the
sidewalk about his new power. Huh yeah, I mean yeah, I guess
that's it. But it was just weird because like he calls her right away.
I guess, like like as soon as he gives low as the doughnut
he just goes do but whatever, that's okay. Now, he says that
he's only hearing Lois's thoughts, which which Chloe is like annoyed by. I
gotta tell you, man, like, yeah, you you know you've been
You've been on on episodes over the course of this podcast. A big Chloe
fan here, right, My stock has dropped so much on her. I'm
like Chloe, she's so like jealous in some way about Clark in Lewis,
but it's like she always uses some other reasons to be upset, which is
maybe justified, but the way it's played and the way it all comes off,
it's like I don't like it. I don't like it, and and
this is like the first it's just that in this episode, like, oh
yeah, I don't like the vibe that Colo is giving off here. No,
totally, she's a yeah, she's not very nice about the entire situation.
You know. He's Clark literally just he confides in her and he tells
her what's going on, and he's looking for some advice and she's just sort
of she's not having it. So yeah, go go talk to your dad
about it, you know, the cryptity because he had been training, which
Orella as we see, Sochloe's like it's gonna take off. And then and
then Clark's standing on the street and I and I thought, maybe he's gonna,
like you hear somebody like if I miss this, I'll be fired or
this or that, or he hears all somebody hears all these things, right,
all these potential crisis happening, And I thought, oh, maybe maybe
he'll use this power to to save someone. But he doesn't. Yeah,
but he just he just hears all this stuff. And I was like,
oh, okay. So we go from him being like overwhelmed cut to the
Fortress of Solitude, like there's no like I just I just was kind of
hoping like he'd like stop a car accident. Could you see a woman in
a car? And I'm like, okay, well this is setting up.
I don't know. I don't know, but I'm like, I feel like
there might have been an actually scene here they wrote, and they're like,
we don't have the budget. They cut it, so like a scene like
in Superman Returns where he just is sitting up, you know, in orbit
and listening to everybody. Yeah, he's like trying to like focus and find
the one person that's in trouble or whatever. Yeah, I could see that.
Yeah, and it is it is very similar. Again, it's very
similar to the Superhero, isn't it? Because it's just it is him just
absorbing stuff and the only thing is it's thoughts and not speech. But it's
it's the same. You think the same process would apply with him sifting through
right things he was picking up on his transmitter or whatever you want to call
that. So, so we do cut to the fortress. Clark and Jurrell.
They're on good terms. You know, they've been training. Terrence Stamp
Special guests appearance. Now, if you had to guess Dan how many episodes
of Smallville Terrence Stamp was in as Jarrell. But what would your guess be?
My goodness, Wow, he's got to be in every It feels like
he's in every finale and premiere. I feel like he's or most of them.
I'm gonna say. I'm gonna say twenty okay, very close, twenty
three ooh nice, And some of these are like, you know, stock
audio or something. So that. So, for as far as when Karen's
Stamp actually did new work, you might be right about twenty What did it
surprise you to know that this is his last appearance in season nine. That
would be yeah, I would find that because it's only episode four, right,
so right, especially especially if he's got like such a like Jooryl's keeping
such good tabs on Clark that he's like he knows what he needs and it's
like giving him, I don't know, some sort of weird powers to teach
him a lesson. But okay, I guess I planted within you the seed
for this trial. I'm like, what, like, what does that mean?
Like does it like when he was training there, like he just slipt
the little thing and his and his sub Jeorrel. I mean, as we
know on this show, these Kryptonians way too powerful. They can reverse time,
They can you know, freeze you, uh, resurrect and clear disease
and do all kinds of stuff. Right, So god level Jorel here is
in play. You're just giving him a power. This is him explaining because
car said, hey, did you do this? What's the deal man?
That was? It's crazy to me because looking at it, I was thinking,
like, okay, was in this series finale? I think he's in
the one for that because he talks to Kara Supergirl, and then I was
like, I don't know, is he in any other ones? And he's
in the season as you're to your point premiers of Allege. He's in the
season premiere of season ten because Clark talks him like in the Afterlife, and
then he's in stock Audio and Kent, which is the alternate universe episode where
Clark gets the other Ultraman to go to his fortress and stuff. But it's
like, wow, like in a season where we actually get a physical Joerel
later and Zod is here and all these Scryptonians, right, they don't you
Terrence Damp at all. It's strange to me, Like, as you said,
like they're so close now and we're four episodes in you think this is
just setting up more to come, but no, this is it. Yeah,
So like, yeah, that would make total sense if Darrell and at
some point interacted, you would think that they probably should have. Wh why
not? Maybe I know he goes to the fortresses, you refuse to speak
to me, which I'm like, Okay, I can see that that's a
nice way around that I'm not talking to this guy, right, But anyway,
it's just interest because weird like, there's we have far more episodes of
Terrence Stamp behind us than ahead of us, which is just surprising to me.
As we get further into Superman and mythology and stuff, you think that
stuff would increase. But anyway, Darrell gave Clark this power to work on
his Kryptonian intuition, and I do like how Clark's like, hey, don't
underestimate who wins, and Clark's like, when you should you? Because it
works both ways. Clark's like, well, don't underestimate him, but Drell's
like, hey, like you, you're underestimating them by just taking everything to
say face value. So I thought that was interesting. He says perception can
be the difference between life and death. Very true. Yeah, okay,
I don't know if now is the right time to talk about this, but
this makes no sense to me. I don't perception like okay, So by
giving him an extra ability and then taking it away from him, I don't
think that teaches him about the ability of perception. I'm not really sure what
he learned or when. I Like, at the end of the episode,
right he's talking to Oliver and he's noticing that Oliver sat and I guess that's
normally he would have just ignored that or something. Is that the lesson he
takes away from this. I'm not sure what the plan and the payoff was.
I mean, that's fair, but this clerk, I believe it all
right, It's true, like it's almost too too small of a sample to
make any real difference. But I guess, I guess throughout the episode,
like he and especially with his stuff with Lois and stuff like you see,
like he's realizing like, oh, people don't always say what they need or
think, which is a ridiculously base level lesson, but apparently he needed it.
I mean, you know, as a as a living being, a
conscious living being, you think he would have gleaned that at the age of
two like the rest of us. But that's fine, Okay, that's you
mean, people lie anyway. But then we go to we go to the
hospital, Troupel's General. We have turns out three plus ones over the course
of this. I don't know more people went, but we saw three different
people in the three in the hospital beds, and that's what we're counting for
this episode's sake. But the first person that they talked to, it's apparently
an undocumented worker, because Clark has to tell him like, I'm not with
the I n S. Because she hears her where You're like, oh no,
they're gonna send me back, and my baby, I'm like, god,
yeah, y'all, like this is Queen industries. Like do do you
understand the implications of what you're saying? I don't think they did. Yeah,
yeah, it seems like it's a kind of an oversight, or maybe
it's just so far down the chain that I don't know. Yeah, it's
so weird. It's so bizarre because it's obviously important enough that it brings Oliver
back into the world and he's aware of it, so like, yeah,
just feels like it's weird that it's like under the books textile making like in
Kansas, Like I like, I don't know what is going on here,
but okay, that's fine. Yeah, it's strange. It's strange. So
yeah, because Louis is trying to talk to her and she wanted talking to
Clark mentions the whole like, oh we're not you can talk to us,
and then she opens up and the next guy is like a very excited liar.
He's like he was he was short and fat, and then he was
tall and thin, and and then Clark kind of zones in on him and
hears that. He's like, oh, man, maybe maybe seen in we'll
talk to me next or so like he sees like glory and then the attention
of it all, and then Clark calls him out. He's like, well,
you understand that if you lied to us, it'll just bl and Lois
seems really like turned on by Clark's assertive this year. I thought they just
pay a lot of attention to her reaction to it. I thought, yeah,
he he We get like a glimpse of Stern talking uh Clark, and
yeah, I guess she's into well it makes sense, you know, her
father, that kind of kind of man, so maybe that's a thing.
But yeah, she's picking up what he's putting down there, and he's like,
oh the liar hospital patient. He's like, oh, I didn't see
anything. You guys are right. So they move on from him. We
got a third guy later, the alleged bomber, they think at this point,
but we'll get to him later. And then Lois brings Clark like a
bagel or something to be even when he butter donut and they're like, all
right, let's call it a night, and then she leaves. She's like,
oh yeah, I have plans and with lifetime and ice cream and that
kind of thing. So then Clark he decides to seize this opportunity. He's
like, oh, well, then, Lois, I was thinking that we
could go out together. And then he hears her think, oh, it's
Clark KNT asking me on a date, and he's like, well, no,
like a date. And then it's I think it's a very fun back
and forth here. What about you? Yeah, I mean, you know,
I'm unabashed, unashamed Lois fan, so anything anytime she's on screen,
especially when they're being cute together, I'm like, so that was the best
part of the episode for me. I love when they're all doing it.
Although Clark, you know, tripping over himself again, he knows he can
read her thoughts. And then when she's like, oh, is he ask
you me on a date? He's like no, I'm like you are though,
like why are you Why are you surprised by this reaction? I just
that's the thing, right, Like, but yeah, you should, this
is your goal, Like, so why are you playing it down just to
just to be safe anyway. I know they have a lot of baggage over
the years between the two of them, but but no, to me,
like, I really enjoyed this episode and it'll be interesting that I haven't really
decided what I'm gonna give it at the end. I forgot our conversation with
the terminate. But the strengths of this episode is them, their interplay,
their relationship, the back and forth. It's pretty adorable. You know,
it's been established that Lois likes this for whatever reason, monster truck rallies.
It's a thing on the show. So he hears her think about that,
and then he's like, well, you know, we could go to this
monster truck rally and she's like, oh my god, Like he hears how
excited she is. I did like this rule of like two cars and no
drama standard procedure. Yeah, yeah, that was good. I guess it's
the most Midwestern thing that they could think of, Like like, maybe that's
what it is. Have you ever been to a monster truck rally? I
don't think I have. I have not either, and I've seen ads for
them and I just never saw the appeal. I'm like, oh, a
big truck crushing cars or cars. Yeah, okay, yeah, I don't
know, but Hey has a huge fan based Lewisling among them. Yeah.
Then we cut to Mexico. It's very obviously Mexican. If you know it
was Mexico yet you could tell by the giant Mexican flag on the side of
the wall and all these things. And Oliver, Yeah, yeah, very
Mexico, very Mexico. Oliver wanders in to a bar, already drunk,
clearly, and I I had zero memory of this at all. I was
like, what is this? Why how I been? I guess it's not
very that memorable. It's just just typical, like, oh, I'm a
rich guy, and look at all those cars and what I got to narrow
I've got purple stuff. Anyway, Oliver being Oliver, I guess, yeah,
it was. It was fine. I guess the point across. I
guess he was, you know, flirting with some married ladies that I guess
wanted his money. Yeah. Yeah, apparently, because you think it's just
like, oh, some women at a bar, like, oh, who's
that cute new guy. Apparently they're wives of some like, you know,
tough guys, because one of them comes up to the to oliveries of hey,
why hit him my wife? And he's like, which one's your wife?
And he's making fun of like the other his henchman or his wife,
and then they get in a big fight and then out of nowhere, Anosi
goes off and it's tests what is this? I mean, if you want
to clear a bar, it is a good way to do it. I
guess I don't know if it would sort of pass inspection today, but that
she does a lot in this episode. And I forgot like sort of what
kinds of things she gets into, but apparently it's everything. Yeah, that's
the thing. She's kind of a I mean, they define her character's time
goes on, but like she's kind of blank slates. They can kind of
do anything with her. I guess she's so new. I mean she's only
been on the show for a year. But I was like, oh,
oh, Test is here this episode doing stuff I didn't I had no memory
of any of that. By the way, you watch This is Us,
Yeah, okay, on This is Us. Justin Harley plays a character and
called Kevin Kevin Pearson, and he has like struggles with like alcohol and and
addiction, and he gets into dark places a lot, and I'm like,
this is his like demo real for that It's it seems now it's he's fine
here. But I gotta tell you, man, this Is Us is a
really great show. I do recommend it. And he really justin Harley Man.
Like, I'm not saying he was bad on Small Villa or anything.
He was fine, and he was he was really good at certain times,
right, but it never did. I watched this like that guy is gonna
win Emmys one day, right, you watched This is Us and like,
this guy deserves an inny. So I'm just saying I could see a lot
of Kevin Pearson in this dark place, Oliver Queens in these in these early
episodes season nine? Is he the lead on that show? It's about three
siblings they call himselves the Big Three. He is one of those three?
Okay, and Peter Petrelli is his dad. Oh okay, if you cheer
ros yeah yeah. Anyway, Wait is that enough? Is there enough age
difference? Okay? Well, there's flashbacks and stuff. It's all. It's
all told the different time periods. It's just kind of the hook of the
show, which is like the most interesting conceit so anyway, check it out
if you're looking for a show to watch. It's on Hulu, just like
Smallville, so at least it used to be. It's probably on Peacock.
Now I don't even know, at least at least streaming services whats where.
But uh, we cut to Lois getting ready for her date. She's cutting
up, cutting up jeans and getting her getting her stuff on. Now you
know, I have a category here called Lois's costume Closet, and I want
to I want to include this in the category because she's getting all dressed up
to go this Monster Truck Rally. What do you think is is that a
fair Talyboard edition? Dan? I would think so. It is interesting that
she doesn't have, knowing that like we do, how big of a fan
of Monster Truck Rallies that she is, She doesn't have jeans that are already
cut up. I don't know how often one would need to cut up new
genes. But you know it's fine, it's fine for this. Well,
it's because she's going with Clark, all right, she wants to wear something
special. Maybe that's where I'm gonna hate Kennon. And usually I usually I
use this category for like stuff she's gonna go sneak into something with and I'm
like, ah, we gotta count it's fun. It's fun. So she's
making a new outfit, that's why Ki. But then of course, buzz
kill Chloe comes in. It's like, oh, look at you, who's
the Prince Charming? Who the f do you think it is? Chloe?
Like who else would it be? She's like, oh, and this is
cute because look they've they've had to come along. I was not sold on
Clark and Lewis like you were from the from the start. They have to
have to come a long way to get here. But they're doing the work
and I respect it because they had like a brother sister vibe that started,
and they to me, they had way too many like we don't like each
other because we're gonna be married in the future jokes and that was so there
was too much of it for my taste, right, But now they realized
that, like, okay, we did all that nonsense, but we need
to get back to what the core this should be. And they're doing it
because Lois is like, look, I never thought I'd said this out loud,
but it's Clark Kent and she's really excited about their date, and then
Chloe's action was like, eh, it just like Chloe, stop it.
Yeah, and she doesn't even I don't think it feels like Lois doesn't even
clock it, Like no, like normally she would, you know, really
maybe snipe back a little bit or say like what's your deal? But yeah,
Chloe is just a big old stick in the mud the whole time.
And it's like that this is And at that point in the episode, I
was thinking, is this episode trying to tell us that Clark using his power
to go on a date with Lois is bad, like like it's him abusing
his power or something. We're taking advantage of Lois in some manner of fashion,
but that the episode never goes in that direction. Oh, I guess
I would pick a direction, right, because that's an interesting idea, Like,
Oh, I got this new power and I'm kind of it's like a
crutch and I'm using it too much for my own benefit. I need to
like get some perspective, like have that conversation, like maybe have a follow
up at Jorell, who I thought maybe we'd have a follow up with,
but no, he's gone. Thanks Dad, that's it. Uh? I
keep I keep quoting that because it's such a strange thing. We'll get to
it at the end. But yeah, like Chloe, I guess she's the
only person to wear this happening, so she's the only other point of view
we have. And she seems like, oh, it's like he's guessing what
you're thinking. Huh back, why are you so upset? Like he's making
her happy? What is the problem? You know? M hm. He's
not nefarious about it. It's like stuff they would have done anyway. Anyway.
I just buzz go Chloe here, and it's just like, yeah,
I don't she's not jealous of Clark anymore. I shouldn't be. It's just
I don't know. I get I get flashbacks to like old petty jealous Chloe,
and like it's not a good look on you from like season two,
right, Like it's like that same like same energy, and it's like,
man, they're just going up, they're just going to the monster trucks.
Just let them go have fun, you know. And she was having such
a nice moment, like Loe's just like I I maybe me and Clark against
the world, and I'm like, that's that's nice. That's a yues support
that support your cousin and your friend when she's going out with your other friend,
you should be happy about this. Well, while this is going on,
Clark is hanging her out the hospital to get more information with his with
his new mental powers, and he and he hears the who they thought was
the bomber but really isn't like or not the mastermind of it all anyway.
I don't know if he was an accomplice or what he was actually, I
don't think they really they haven't really let us know. But he hears him
like thinking to himself or something about toy Man and basically incriminating the toy man
here and this is our third person in the hospital, so plus three total.
That's why Clark's like, oh Winstel shot toy Man. He's back,
right, And then we cut to like the outfit of the toy Man somewhere
in the newspaper article we saw from a previously on of like you know,
toy killer on the toy bomber on the loose or something, which is which
is after he had he had quote unquote kill Lex Luthor. And then he
picked up a little sunglassess like, oh what the guy's for good. Do
you remember the toy Do you have a strong feelings or impressions about the toy
Man on Smallville? No, I mean, you know, I he toin
into me always strikes me as a Batman villain. I don't I just don't
know. I don't get why he's ever a Superman villain. But it's fine.
I forgot that he was on Smallville, and then when I saw him
here, I'm like, Okay, I see what they're doing. He's crazy
and he likes toy bombs. Yeah, like that's his thing. I guess
it's just weird when you see it, like sort of played straight, you
know what I mean, Like like he's an actual threat. And we'll get
to the other scene. I really want to talk about Clark melting his face
off, because I've forgotten that's hardcore. Yeah, that's like so in Smallville.
The Fisial Magazine number thirty three available wherever magazine just sold. There's an
interview here with Chris Gothier, who plays toy Man. Now you might recall
that he played the It guy in season three, the episode Delete. It
was just one scene like Lex goes down to like the the It and it's
this guy, and it's funny how this kind of worked out. So anyway,
they talk about this in the interview, Chris Gothia says this quote,
it's so cool how that worked out five years ago. I for Lex,
I thought that was great how that panned out. People have been casting illusions
that this was in the works that I was hired five years ago for this
five seasons from now, keep your schedule free. I had so much fun
on the set because he had worked for Lex and then for Oliver Queen and
they did the timeline works. So Mike, Hey, Cannon, that guy
Alex saw that one scene wasn't a toy man. It's totally cool. But
you mentioned like how he played and stuff. So he's talking about how he
played the toy man and he says, quote, I didn't want to play
him too over the top because it's TV. I also didn't want to be
too crazy, So I hope I met a happy medium. I wanted him
to be creepy. If he was too over the top, it would have
been cheesy. I wanted to have some realism in there. At the same
time, he is an insane figure obviously for that evil and kill people.
Something's messed up in you. I did a little bit of research about the
character. I'm a fan of cult things. I looked at Wikipedia, and
I just went with ma instincts. So I know, I actually really enjoy
him on Smallville. I think he's a very comic book villain in this world
which doesn't have a lot of comic But that's every Hey, it's Comico show
every now that it's if every villain were like this, i'd be like,
but look for every now and then little flavor. I like it. Yeah,
when you were talking, we were talking earlier about like the like sort
of the tone and the feeling of season nine, I'm like, this is
definitely something that doesn't exist in an earlier Smallville. You know what I mean,
it's not like this word's because it does. It leans way heavier into
that, like the comic stuff, like the really really comic y stuff.
When then yeah, like you said, it's it's fine. Yeah, I
think my favorite toy Man, I think all my favorite versions of all the
Superman villains or Superman the animated series. Yeah, because that's a creepy just
a creepy dowing Man guy. That's a good call, Like he'd fit our
idem with the Riddler or something, right, like why why is this?
Why is this guy who who decided this should be a Superman villain? Yeah?
I think they got their Yeah, their notes mixed up because h one,
the one guy there is in Batman the animated series. He has the
ventriloquist dummy. I can't remember the scarface. Yeah, yeah, yeah,
is that who I'm thinking of? Yeah, well there's in the Gray Ghost
episode, the one that of West there's a there's villain called the Toy Bomber
okay maybe, and he has plain remote control planes and stuff, and he's
got toys and stuff and like that's almost like a toy man. But it's
like, no, that's a that's a Superman villain. But anyway, but
then you got villains like a prankster. The guy was on Leelson Clark a
couple of times. He's from the comics, so these are you know,
you gotta sympathize with the comic writers, and like I have a running out
of ideas for villains, so they just start copying Batman and stuff. But
anyway, but he's here. I Requiem was a very complicated episodes, the
one where they lot of got the Kryptonite and the kill Lex. All this
crazy stuff is going on with his last appearance, but I thought he was
a highlight of it, and I'm glad he's He's part of the smuvele Mythos
here. So anyway, we do you see him again? Two? Right?
We do we see him again? In season ten? Uh? He
in the second to last episode of the series. Oh wow, he forms
the Legion of Doom, which goes nowhere because it's the end of the show.
So anyway, so then we get to Tests and Oliver, she's like,
you know, talking like, hey, what are you doing? Like
I one of my favorite lines, she says, I wrote it down is
your stock is worth less than you think of yourself. Just now I thought
was pretty good. H And she doesn't know why he's punishing himself because she
doesn't know any of this stuff about how Jimmy died or any of that happened.
So this is like a good feelings is actually good emotionally connecting the scene
between the two of them, and then Oliver like he can Oliver's back is
to her the whole time. He can tell like it's kind of getting to
it WI and then he kind of pulls himself together, and I guess he's
intuitive, which is the theme of this episode, because he's like, what
do you want to sounds like you need to do the talking. Apparently she
needs him to address the shareholders because you know, our our sweatshops are being
blown up and we need we need our CEO to address it. Yeah,
why it's so weird. It's I keep coming back and that I'm sorry,
but it's so straight. It doesn't it's it is bizarre. I mean,
it makes sense right that toy Man knew to target it so that now he
has a reason to go back and go into the public sphere. But like
you said, it's just why pick that of all things? But yeah,
so Oliver, I don't know if he was hoping, like for an actual
thing. Here's like, so is that all you want her? And she
says, I've learned not to expect too much from you, Oliver, Like
damn, yeah, because they had you know, they had a relationship in
the past, and I thought that was I always always mentioned this. I
think it was clever to tie tests into Oliver's past because that kind of helps
like justify her presence on the show, because obviously they made her up in
season eight, right, there was not even a thought of her. But
I'm like, okay, well she knew her and him, like you can
kind of put the pieces together, and it just kind of helps es her
into the show, her place in this universe. So I don't I still
know why she showed up like looking like Laura Croft. It's for this scene.
But anyway, yeah, yeah, because she least like wheels up in
twenty like we military tests now all of a sudden. But anyway, then
I swear I swee come back to the Daily Planet. Clark chills back up
there, and here's Chloe. He's like, well, if he could read
my mind, we can He's like, or else what chloy? Because she
did because last time she knew Clark could only hear Lois, but now he
hears everyone. She's liked, well, you're here breaking my cousin's heart.
And anyway, yes, he stood her up on this. This was actually
I think they could have done but they were They could have done this a
little further, like we didn't see Clark like cancel with her or anything.
It just all of a sudden, like he didn't go I don't know.
That was a little messy to me, what do you think, Dan,
Yeah, I mean it is weird because you know, why wouldn't he also
tell Lois because it's not like she's not involved in what they're doing. It's
like, yeah, I guess maybe what does he think is going to like
does you think it's going to be I don't know, maybe he just thinks
it's going to be dangerous or something. But yeah, it's weird that we
don't get it. Yeah, I mean there are ways you could have played
it off to not like, I don't know, man, like you've been
working on this. You guys have had a lot of failure to launches.
You could have tried to make this one work a little better. Fortunately it
turns out okay in the end, all things considered. But I think he
thought he could have to go do Blur stuff, and you don't want to
involved and be danger because the toy man, you know, dangerous guys got
bombs and prisoners and and all this sort of stuff, So he didn't want
to get her too involved. But she's already kind of circling this story.
So I do like how Clark clarifies so well, it wasn't really date,
It was not date like that makes it like that made it okay any better?
Have you learned nothing? You know from your mind powers? They're on
the case, right. He gets her to kind of, you know,
do her investigation, get to watch Tower and do your superhero thing. I'm
gonna go to this party at the it's at the Ace of Clubs, so
that they find out that Oliver's back in town and he's making this big announcement,
so that this obviously this is all part of the plan for uh toy
man to draw it. Oliver, he uses his mental powers to to read
the bouncer's name, to read the bouncer's mind as he's reading the names off
the list, to just pick a random one to say that's so he is,
Huh, if only were that easy to get into these parties. Yet
well, you know, he could have just looked at it as well,
you know, with his X ray just saying he doesn't need Yeah, that
was kind of a flimsy use of that, but that's okay. He forget
that's the very superman thing, Like he gets these other powers, then he
forgets he has the other powers, like older powers. But well, even
he has trouble keeping tracking on a lot, there's a lot to know,
so and then like Clark, he gets in under some fake name and like
do you have a plus one? And then on cute, a giant monster
drug shows up and I al wants HiT's Clark. I gets it two times
in one episode. Uh level, someone sits him. And so we're to
believe that she got one of the monster truck guys to drive her to this
party because she heard Oliver was back. Is that where to believe? That
makes more sense than what I was thinking, Well, we did. I
thought she drove it, but I guess she did get out of the right
side of it, so that makes way more sense. When she left her
person in the car, she tells Clark that they hope they has an open
bar because they left the person. Now she's wearing something totally different than we
saw her dressing up for, which also confused me. Yeah, I guess
the idea is that he she also had the driver stop and get a very
fancy dress for this black tie affair that she was trying to crash and she
found out because I don't I don't know, does has that ever explained?
She just shows up. It's very convenient. It's all very convenient. And
look, I look, I enjoy this episode quite a bit, but there
are some plot holes here that could have filled in, and they're just a
little messy. And this is one of those messy spots. Okay, it's
one of these messy spots because they just had to get them here at the
same time. But they could have done they could have just avoided the monsters.
Now rewriting it, but I'm like, you could avoid the monster truck
thing entirely. I'm like, hey, b a plus one to this thing
that we have tickets for to see, all right, you could have just
it could have been a little more organic. Do you think that maybe?
Uh, like in Toronto that week there was a monster truck rally and they
just were able to get one for cheap and that was and maybe that's why.
You know, that's a good point because that's not that they spend a
lot of time on it. But it is a giant monster truck prop.
I mean, if you're trying to save budget, why would you put that,
Why would you even put that in the episode? But it is very
comical. It's very low stlane to show up in a monster truck from a
monster truck rally, so so get on to their show. She says something
like, you can't you can't keep things from you small, I have the
Internet on my phone, so two thousand and nine. It's so cute.
So yeah, that's really funny. But she she's basically her theory is that
Clark, you know, ditch your for this and bros. She says,
bros. Before hose, Well, there you go, quote unquote from Loew's
lane herself get to go see Oliver and keep the story or something like that.
That's kind of where she is about it. That's where he is about
it. We get in there and Clark starts scanning the crowd and hearing just
all kinds of nonsense and and then he gets these mixed messages from Lois Like.
It was strange to me that I thought she was saying, Oh,
I'm just gonna go, and then he was hearing like conflicting things, and
I thought she was like, and this is a classic blowest anything, like
I'm just gonna get some there, I'm gonna, you know, give me
a drink. And then she goes off and does more investigative stuff. But
I guess she really did just really just went home. This time, Dan,
Yeah, she was just you know, they didn't want her there for
the scary stuff I guess the bomb and the uh Oliver pouring his heart out
and that was it. She just was gone. Yeah, So why get
there first? Why even be there like at all? Kind of again,
yeah, I think it's a monster truck thing. Man. I think that's
just because there's not really she doesn't really serve much purpose going there and then
just leaving. Yeah, yeah, like why even never show up at all?
Strange? Like it doesn't like bother me, But I'm just confused,
Like it's just like, yeah, because she gain how many times have we
seen like Clark and Lewis show up somewhere and they both make their excuses to
go do you know her lowest Lane thing and he go does his Superman thing?
Right, Uh, but she doesn't really just go home. But then
she went home, She went off there you go. But then we have
Oliver addressing the crowd and uh, it's kind of funny. He has well
Test introduces him and he comes out. He's like,'s see if I'm
gonna stay up right long enough to say this, And he's like, huh,
speechwriter's got a sense of humor and everybody laughs, you know, you
know, like because you think you don't know where this is coming from yet,
but apparently the speech is coming from the toy man boy put on the
ear piece and then like there's this big everybody hears some big sound, right.
I don't remember the sound part, but it's visual. I don't know,
like Clark lost his power here to hear right, right? But I
thought everyone was everyone reacting to it or was that just the visual light of
like him that Yeah, I don't remember. I don't recall thinking that anything
odd happened. I was confused because they were trying to show you that,
like he lost his power, and the way they show this power is like,
you know, the overblown light sort of thing. And I wasn't sure,
like are people reacting to this or not? I don't know. And
then Clark's like, huh, thanks Dad. Just such a strange reaction for
him talking to like him talking to himself about Darrell saying that about him losing
his power. It's very strange. I again that that whole plot like is
just so so bizarre because like, okay, so he chooses this moment for
now Clark to learn the lesson about perception. But I don't know how he
does that. I'm not sure what happens next that facilitates like his plan moving
forward, But it shouldn't matter what even happens next, because how would he
even know? Yeah, well, yeah, I guess. Well, yeah,
that's another issue entirely. But it real exists out time, outside of
time in space clearly. So toy Man starts saying, like, we're gonna
play game, toy Man says, and they're shooting. They're shooting toy Man
real tight, so you can't see where he is, which I think is
clever because it kind of pays into like the double reveal later you see his
like his eyes or his mouth or something like that, and reveals that Oliver's
on this pressure play this bomb, right, so like if he steps off
of it, it's gonna blow up and he has to stand there and he
has to read the cell prompt everybody it's gonna die, right, So he's
reading this pretty damning speech about himself. He's like a silver spoon in my
mouth and all that. Although it turns out to be pretty good therapy for
Oliver at this point. H Yeah, he says, it's a he says
it's a fact sheet. Yeah. So yeah, he's talking about how he's
a liar and a cheater, and he says, did you clock this?
He says, my name is Oliver Queen. He says that I'm like he
said the thing from Arrow. You have failed the city. No, no,
no, we can't do I never thought I never thought that this.
Oliver Queen said, my name is Oliver Queen. It was so funny to
find it in like this speech here in this episode. But Clark X rays
everything and he sees that he sees the bomb with like a like a timer
on it. He tells Chloe like to get the building, clear it out.
So she she's hacking away and and hacks into the alarms. Just everyone
evacorad the building. And you know, I don't know, like in the
old days, you just be like, a right, we need everybody out,
Like Clark would have pulled a fire alarm or something. Why why okay
whatever if we have hacker Chloe here to to say the day here. But
toy Man really wants him to do uh, to confess that he killed Lex,
And he's like, you didn't have any problems telling him I killed Lex?
So which is a good point, like like toy Man shouldn't be doing
what he was doing, but Oliver shouldn't have pinned the murder flexing with her
on toy Man, right. I mean it's toy has killed a lot of
people, but he didn't kill like suth Her. Yeah, So everybody clears
out and then we get this reveal of toy Man like on the balcony or
something close to the balcony, right, and then Clark just goes over to
him and man handles him, and I love it. He says, I
don't know who you are. Well I was gonna ask that too, because
I'm does does do they not interact in the first episode that he's no,
it's all it's all Oliver, and it's all like lex uh working with toy
Man and then a toy Man like getting Oliver queen because he's he's fixated on
Oliver because that's the guy who like fired him and all that stuff. So
it's like Avengers endgame switch. It's like you took everything from me. I
don't even know who you are. So my other question was does he is
He also not concerned about his identity. That is a problem. See that's
and that actually actually that that plays, and then when he comes back and
the end of season ten, like he knows his identity, which I'm like,
yeah, because you just carelessly sped up to this guy was like gonna
throw him off a balcony or something. This is where I believe we're supposed
to learn how Clark uses in tuition to defeat toy Matt right, because we
keep cutting back and forth to like Oliver on the on the podium, like
preparing himself for dead. I think some good moments of Oliver like collecting himself
and breathing, like like just mentally preparing for what's gonna happen. But then
Clark's like with real winslow shot and this and that in the game, Like
I think we're supposed to take that Clark would not have come to these conclusions
without his telepathic power. I guess, I guess if. But what if
he still had his power and then he wasn't reading this guy and that could
have been the reason that that the reveal happens. That's good idea, But
I counter that and say he can't use the temporary power to save the day,
right, because that would because that would defeat the purpose, and that's
a crutch he's not gonna have. They didn't think this through. I mean,
yeah, they should have made it more clear, like, oh,
from what he learned from this my reading stuff, he's able to read this
guy that he otherwise wouldn't have been able to. Okay, sure, and
that's what they think they're doing. I don't know if they are or not.
I don't know because I'm because Man's a crazy guy and it's an android.
It turns out Clark just heat visions his face off. I was I
was blown away, honestly. I was like, that is a lot uh
to do if for something you're not one hundred percent certain on. First of
all, I didn't like the path that he takes to get there, Like
you said, all those facts that he goes through, toy Man wouldn't do
this, and you wouldn't be human error and all this stuff, and I'm
like, you're like literally jumping from conclusion to conclusion here, and also what
if you're wrong? And also why not like just just X ray vision this
dude. They should have put in a shot of X ray vision. Absolutely,
they should they should have done that. And then he kills him.
But that was so shocking, though we would have lost the shock factor if
he had just melted his face off in this in the smovel toy Man we
have not seen never about before in the comics. That's a very common thing
like that. There's a whole thing where I believe and this is get kind
of kind of dark here, but like and as I understand it, in
the comics, a toy Man killed Cat Grant's son, but then they kind
of softened the character later, Well, that was an android duplicate of toy
Bad. So like that's they've done that before. And and I think on
Supergirl even because the son of toy Man Win shot well Kara's friend at the
at the CatCo on Supergirl Show, but there was an episode of the first
season with his dad, the proper toy Man. I think he was like
an android in that too, So that's a that's a thing like that,
that's a thing for the character. But in this universe to have a perfect
because he's there's no indication this guy is an android, Like he's just acting
like normal and all that stuff. It's it's a big leap. And we
just had Metallo a couple episodes ago and that was Oh luka, there's advanced
really in technology. Even this guy over here just made a freaking what the
what's the life model decoy? Right? Yeah, this is some wild tech.
I mean, like, I just am still shocked that he just heat
visions his eyeballs out, and like, like what made him think that that
was a good idea even if it like like even if it was a robot,
he was not in any danger. No, Like it wasn't doing anything.
It was just talking to him. I was just I was shocked when
I saw it. I'm like, that's a very like Superman thing to do
if he knows he's dealing with a robot. But like, this is Clark
Kent who's not exactly sure of himself and is confused right now, and I'm
just gonna, okay, I guess we're going for it. Hey man,
We're in season nine, now, Okay, this is what we do.
This is how we handle our problems. And then he's like, no one
wins a game if you both lose, Like I think that was supposed to
be a profound statement, but I'm like, well, yeah, obviously,
yeah, that's like his like I got you to you in right, So
it turns out that it was on a timer, right, the the the
bomb that Oliver's standing on, and Clark kills me like, well you you
wouldn't want to be blown up too. You want to dance on his grave.
So that's how I know you're an android or whatever. Right, So
Oliver steps off the plate, he thinks he's gonna die. Clark's like,
oh, well, how did you know it wasn't real? And Oliver's like
I didn't. Clark's like, oh, you were more disturbed than I thought.
Yeah. That just kind of hangs there for a while. It's like
they really want you to know that that Oliver is kind of has a death
threat. He's a he's not in a good place mentally. That's rue,
yeah, you know. And they followed up with a scene on like the
balcony with Oliver and Clark, and I think it's a pretty good back and
forth. And Clark's like, yeah, there's danger all around me and I
was missing the warning signs and and that's why he needed this lesson apparently,
And uh, he does mention that Chloe followed the feed from the ear piece
that toy Man had Oliver where and they already arrested toy man. I'm like,
okay, And for a minute, I was like, are we ever
gonna see the real toy man this episode? At all of it? But
see, but that's why those those shots of like his eyes in his mouth
are really were clever, because you thought, oh, it's because he's in
the crowd and they want to reveal that. No, it's because he wasn't
even there. Like that tracks like it's as absurd and blindsided as we were
by that robot tracks from what they showed us to that point. Anyway,
if we're to assume he's he's a mechanical genius, which I guess test does.
But arm was there, right, Okay, need to play some math
here, Oliver says. And he's talking to Clark and they're reconnecting here and
Clark apologizes for not being their first friend and stuff. So Oliver starts talking
about he was five years old when his parents died. Okay, okay,
his parents died in nineteen eighty nine. First shot of Smallville is the one
of the first shots of novels. Whyn't Luther read that newspaper Queen Industry ceo
missing it? See, so that means Oliver was born in nineteen eighty four.
Okay, okay, tracks Lex was nine years old for the meteor shower.
He was nine when he lost his hair. Was born in nineteen eighty
That means Lex is four years older Oliver, although they're played as contemporaries.
And if you remember in season six that the whole episode where they go back
for like a like reunion to that private school they were at, and they're
like all the same age, and they're either all the same age or Lex
was always played as younger than Oliver and his like frat boy friends because they
used to pick on him for his comic books and stuff. So somebody messed
up on the timeline here, Oliver. Why couldn't Oliver have been nine when
his parents died, they would have the same age. Or I was twelve
and he's older and he's an upperclassman picking all Lex, right, And I'm
like, that's like, I know, it's a little thing, but like
that annoyed me when I did when I ran the numbers, Yeah, maybe
maybe the script said nine and he just said five. You know, he's
been drinking a lot. That's true, that's true. He just had in
your death experience. He was confused about the facts of his life, brought
to you by the show that showed you a tombstone for Jonathan Kent, which
said he was born like six years before we saw his mom pregnant with him
in flashback episode in season three, So no surprising. Look, I don't
say this to like tear the show down. I find it fun to kind
of try and make these things work because I know they got lots of people
and lots of episodes and seasons apart, and no one's no one. Now,
if I were running a show, I would have some master timeline or
something, but you know I don't have that kind of These people are trying
to crank out twenty two episodes of season Okay, things like this are gonna
slip with the cracks, right anyway, we're Star Trek fans. We know
how it is. We certainly do, that's for sure. But you're telling
me that, Oliver, that means he's That means he's twenty five right now
like his man's twenty five. That means he was twenty two and season six
and he was around with the Green Arrow. Yeah, he definitely does not
seem that age. No, I mean to be fair, none of them
do. None of them are age appropriate. Yeah, Clark seems like he's
thirty now he's actually twenty one. But look, this is a good pep
talk between the two of them, and they seem to, you know,
we'd be back on the same page after having a rift, which was developing
all through last season and especially at the finelle. So I like how there's
some sirens and Olivers like sounds like they're playing your song, Go Go Save
the world, don't go be here. That was cute, I thought,
Yeah, So then Clark runs off and and and then oliver S's reflection in
the window and who is it? Dan? It was lex Or or somebody
that looked a little bit like lex someone who looked vaguely enough like micro rose
mom if we put him in the shadows. Now, I thought, did
they get the same guy from recrihem the last toy Mate episode, because you
know Darth Lex as we've called him, run with the mask and the shadow
and the bandage because that I don't know what they did that CGI trickery or
whatever they did that was like that looks like micro roseam would a bandage like.
I thought they did a good job with that. This guy was like,
uh, Aaron Howie is the actor. This is the only thing he's
ever been in. Wow. But he did write something called Dance of the
White Tiger. Those are his only two IMDb credits. So I guess they
just thought they put out some casting call for someone who would shave their head
and look vaguely enough like micro Osamon if we put enough shadows on him.
But this is just to show you that, like Lex's murder is haunting Oliver
and he he throws a drink at the reflection and then it the I don't
know, this is kind of cool. The liquid phase down and becomes Oliver
like he's you know, I don't know like that was that was. It
was totally needless and melodramatic, But fine. I guess they couldn't really pay
for micro Rosenbaum's rights for a reflection. They just want you to know.
Oliver is not in a good place there, it is, even even though
he just he just had a good talk with Clarke. He'sid not cured so
to speak. Right, he needs a hug. I think, really he
doesn't need a hug so because the toy man, real toy man, real
toy man and any custody here he screaming that he wants a lawyer, right,
and then Test walks in. I had known memory of this. But
Test is doing all, like you said, testing all kinds of things.
Yeah, she can do whatever she wants. I mean, is he him
just jail? Like is he just like County jail or like you know,
Metropolis jail, because she says she bribes the guard but there's more than one
person out there. Whatever, it's fine, it's easy. It's just such
a way to get her in there. But she shoots a guy. I
mean, she shoots in fullice custody, so you know, me and the
guard. After understanding, you try to escape and he shot you in the
leg, and now you're gonna get solitary. I noticed that she's like she's
like wearing like more eyeshadow because she's evil in this scene. It's something I
noticed when she first showed up in season eight, Like the first couple episodes,
they weren't like sure what they were gonna do with her, Like,
well, she's the new legs and she's bad, and like they kind of
like gave her that I don't know, like the heavy eye makeup, implies
you're evil. That's TV language. We all know this, right, So
she's more in this scene and uh, she's like, no, Solitaire is
gonna be good for you and your new toy. And she opens up this
case and it's Metello's heart from a couple episodes ago, and she wants him
to figure out how works. And they're on the same page about it.
He's excited about it, she's excited about it. That actually makes a lot
of sense because apparently winslow Shot is a cybernetic genius. Sure ye like robotom.
Now he just needs to put a crypt kryptonite hard in one and Clark
won't be able to laser. I guess yeah. I don't know if they
ever call back to this. I mean, Metalla does show up later in
the in the season again, and then when and then when toy Mann is
forming a legion of dow Uh, a stunt double of Brian Austin Green is
there at the table and Shadow I'll say that, so there's a connection there,
But I don't I don't ever remember this coming up verbatim anyway for the
rest of the season. But but he's going away for jail for a while
and the next time we see him, he's in jail. So I think
he's been in jail this whole time, do you okay? Again? Her
plan is to give him this advanced alien technology so that he can work on
it while he's in jail. What is he working on it with? Like?
What is he just looking at it like holding it, like absorbing it
through his fingertails. It's just he doesn't have too old lady, like,
what is he supposed to do? That's that's fine, it's fine. That's
a good point. Lex would have taken him out of jail, put him
in the level thirty then one or something. But she doesn't want to hold
anyone against their will. She's gonna let the state hold them against their will,
right anyway. But I think that was a fun way, and I
forgotten about that. I think it was a fun way just kind of connect
things, especially earlier in the season, and it does track and it makes
sense. So then you gonna wrap up Seat of the Daily Planet. Lois
comes in wearing sunglasses. I took that a shorthand like she had a hangover.
Maybe she went home and drank some because she was depress about all they
things went with Clark, and we see a an article that Clark had written
with a byline with both of them take a screenshot of this. It's fun
and I think this is a very smart and very cute way for Clark to
kind of patch things up with her. Yeah. No, I again,
I've already mentioned how much I love all this stuff, but it's it's really
good relationship building, where like she's she was upset and still is too little
to a degree, but he is making right. He's making it right.
He understood that he screwed up and is trying to help her, and it's
so cute. It's such a great little scene. And then they talk about
a real date at some point as well. Yeah. Yeah. And in
Smallville the Official Magazine number thirty four with Erica Durantz and she talks about this
episode a little bit and where Lewis is the Clark, and she says,
quote, Lois is still trying to figure out what she's feeling for Clark.
She's drawn to the blur as well. In some ways she sees something unique
in Clark, so she's drawn to him first. It's very confusing for Lois,
and I don't know if Lois really believes Clark feels that way about her.
Again, Lois is protecting herself, which is why there's a constant cover
whenever she's around him. What if he doesn't feel that way, then it
would be really awkward. Right now, Clark is a great friend, so
it's more her fear of messing up another friendship, especially as this one is
so important to her. She's basically afraid to move forward and really step out
on a limb to tell him. Speaking of that quote, I laughed out
loud in her and she's like, is that supposed to be an oli branch
because there's gonna be a whole tree in there. Yeah, that was good.
Her one liners are always funny. But you know, it's interesting that
just listening to that and then thinking about because in this episode, I mean,
it's it's very clear that she definitely has feelings for Clark, like she
she in her head. She's getting all excited every time they're talking, even
when she's talking to Chloe, like she's excited about it. So she you
know, she's there, Her character is there in that place. They're just
I think teasing it for even a little bit longer, did you cock the
Lois is left handed. Apparently I didn't. I did not. She takes
because of course, like, oh, you help me with this article,
and she started marking up and I'm like, whoa. First, I guess
Erica durantsmust have left handed. I'll else, why would you do that?
But now I'm like, have we ever seen this? So we were?
Do we know this before? Like, I'm just so fascinated about it?
You're not left handed? Are you dead? I am not? No?
Okay, dad, the odds are the near of us were because this is
only two I don't know, Like, I just I'm gonna keep an eye
on for that now and never I never get it a second thought before.
I'm sure we've seen Lowis Wright things on this show, but I don't know.
They just just the fact that, like they dwelled on it a little
longer. I'm like, wait a minute, that's her left hand, So
I'm gonna keep an eye out for that. But no, this is this
is real. This is real cute. And they talk about being stood up
and about on a date and Clark's like, well, it's a good thing.
It was just like a date, super cute. He's really trying.
Uh, He's used that excuse like three times in this episode. He thinks
it gets him out of everything, and does it? Does it? Does?
They talk about second chances and he's like, well, you know,
how would a guy get a second chance? She's like a slow news day
and he's like, well, those doesn't happen very often. She's like,
yeah, well, hypothetically speaking, and he's like, well, hypothetically speaking,
and then she says, my thoughts exactly look at that episode about mind
reading what a line and on. And then they do this like kind of
like camera like does it like almost like a like a like a half circle
around just to see them and Daily Planet logo. I'm like, okay,
I get why you did that. I don't think we needed that. But
it's like, remember it's low as the clerk in the Daily Planet. An
unmotivated camera move, I guess is my commentary there at the end. But
no, that's a really cute scene. And so that's the thing. Like
we've been talking through this and we've been poked some holes in it, but
I just like the strength of this episode is the two of them and their
interplay, isn't it. Yeah, it definitely is, And I wish I
mean, you know, God, I kind of wish there was less Oliver
stuff and just more of that, like like make the whole episode sort of
farcical and fun like that. You could keep the toy man stuff maybe and
I don't know how you'd be able to tie it in at this point,
but you know, maybe something else then, but maybe maybe two less scenes
of Oliver in Mexico and just have him show up at this yeah event,
right, So yeah, that's true that they almost didn't go because in my
mind I was like, Oh, that's the fun and where he has the
mind powers, right yeah, And I'm like, oh, it's it's Oliver
and tests and she has a newsy and there what are you doing? So
anyway, No, no, no, that's great and and but you end
on this on this little moment, and you know that the season's been building
more towards like them finally being a couple, and and this is just really
building towards that. So it's a really delightful and to what I thought was
a really delightful episode Small Vale season nine on Blu ray and DVD. Between
two worlds, You sent me here to fulfill destiny Between two lives t boos
and fate loss one hero must decide his destiny. You have no idea what's
up against this? Now season nine sores with amazing extras that take you into
the heart of the Justice Society of America. Small Ville season nine on Blu
ray and DVD September seventh. Echo got an eight point two out of ten
on IMDb, and Neil Billy from The Superman Hope Age gave it a three
zero point five out of five, and his exact quote is, quote,
Eh, wasn't that bad? Wasn't that great? Cool face melt I give
a three point five five. So even even Neil, who has been pretty
down on this show, was won over by the face melt. Dan,
It's a big moment, man. It's a It's a bold choice, that's
for sure. Now. On the letter grade scale A to F, what
would you give this episode? It's it's tough for me, it really is.
It's just it's it's parts of it are weird and like disconnected and and
there's a lot going on. But I just love the Clark and Lewis,
you know, I'd say, given a strong B, maybe B plus,
I'll give it to B plus And on the on the the strength of those
two characters, and I thought the Toyman stuff was interesting as well. Uh,
and then of course you know the face melter, So what else can
you say? Yeah, you know, going in this, I was like,
oh, miss, let's like an A A minus like talking through it.
There are some some messy parts of this episode. So I'm gonna be
in align with you. I'm getting you hear a B plus on the strength
of them, on the strength of performs. Hey, I enjoyed toy mat
right and then and then then and then that faceball gives it the plus absolutely.
But yeah, the Oliver stuff, I didn't remember it, and I
understand why because it's so just disposable and forgettable. And have they lean more
into the and or had a message of like, yes, and this is
why you shouldn't abuse this power, or this is what you've learned from this.
But there's no like I thought there should be like a recap of Jorelle
or something like, well, thanks for giving me that. I guess now
you have unlocked the But there's none of that, right, not that it's
necessary, but I don't know, like it just it feels like they got
really far in this idea and then just is kind of like, just like
the episode itself, that just take the power away, like it's done,
We're done with that. It just away exactly. But that's gonna be a
B plus for me, a B plus for you. Let's go to the
tally board. Just a couple of things this week, Hospital visit plus three,
the three uh workers from Oliver Queen's sweatshopoes. I guess yeah, that's
gonna be my biggest takeaway now this somede. But that's gonna bring us to
one hundred and thirty nine. One hundred and thirty nine so far. I
am hoping, and I think we have a shot we can get to two
hundred before this show's over. Hospital visits, we'll see, uh, but
that's one hundred three nine so far. And then Lois's costume closet, like
we discussed, Hey, she's making literally making an outfit to go to this
monster truck rally plus one. That's gonna bring us to ten so far.
And hey, Bechdel test fail, big time fail, because all Chloe and
Lowe's talk about is clark yep. Oops, oh there you have it.
There you have it. Well, then always a pleasure to have you on.
I'm glad Clark got another power, so we can talk about another episode.
If people want to find you and your podcasts out there online, where
can they find you? Yeah? I host a Star Trek podcast over on
the Nerd Party Network. It's called SETI Off the Three. We three guys,
we just chat about all things Star Trek and who boys are a lot
going on in Star Trek right now, so uh, come give it a
liston. It's a good show. Uh, and that's where you can find
me. Awesome. Yeah, I hate The Card season three, right,
dream come true? It was a thing, that's for sure. Oh maybe
not a dream come true for you. Go check them out on City Off
the Three. So they had to think about The Cards three. I loved
it. I love the Card season three. I was. I was not
too excited about The Card season one and two, but season three gave me
everything I was looking for. So anyway, no, no coachat now,
I'm gonna go. I'm gonna go right now and find out what you guys
talk about it over there? So there what a tease? What are But
anyway, well, well we'll have you back on. Uh you know before
the show's over. I might not have to be a new power episode.
But that's always fun talking small with the dance, and we'll find a spot.
So sounds good, sounds good. But we'll be back next week talking
about Roulette and until then, Always hold on to Smallville, Always Hold On
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