Siren

DVD, Smallville S7 (Siren)

I should have known they hadn't been using the clock tower several times in the last few episodes without reason, and finally, we get to the return of Oliver Queen, aka Green Arrow, the moment I was waiting for. But how surprising, they drop the bombshell on Lois as soon as he's back about his real identity. If they were going to do that (I can't say I ever anticipated it), I felt, they should have had a big build up to it, but the scene where Canary (if that is her name), sonically smashes his secret glass doors to reveal the archery gear could easily have been the usual thing of Lois being knocked clean unconscious to avoid just what happens: she learns the secret. It was a good thing for an episode to explore, and for once I felt a strong theme emerge and play out across the episode, which can't often be said.

The theme is to do with destiny I suppose, and whether one can stand in someone's shadow, sharing that person with the world, or not, via complete honesty and the value of knowing who's who and what's what. Okay, that doesn't sound such a strongly precise theme, but it was better experienced than explained. The negatives were all in the soap aspects, with lots of romantic conversations, if not actually romance, it's often about that, and I don't enjoy such things so much in my super hero drama. I began to feel that even the return of Green Arrow couldn't save the episode from such drudgery, but enough scenes contained a seed or two of promise, and the occasional action beats worked well enough that it recovered itself for me, and I ended up liking it, on the whole.

The action revolves around a new character, appearing out of the night like Catwoman (and in as equally ridiculous attire as that DC villain. I mean, fishnets? Really?), but here my low level of comic knowledge (almost none), stymies me as I had never heard of her and she looked like just another super girl, as if there are ten a penny out there, except I'm sure those that knew her got excited. There was no mystery as to her true identity since Dinah Lance, the reporter at the Daily Planet is introduced in the same episode. What coincidence! Never was there any attempt or hint at an explanation for her sonic power, though in balance I felt the visual representation of both the scream and its effect on Clark's super-sensitive hearing achieved its visceral ambition (and I enjoyed a smug moment for Clark where she assumes he's a puny human, tries to kick him and knocks herself flying from the impact!). I expected her to be able to do the same to Lex' bullet as she did to Arrow's, er, arrows, but here again is where my ignorance of the character let me down. It meant Clark could come rushing in to slap bullets and arrows, but not knives away. I wasn't sure what to read into his choice to stop the bullet heading for Canary, the arrows heading for Lex, but not the knife for Lex. Did he want Lex to be in pain? Did he not have enough time to save both and realised a knife would cause less damage than a speeding bullet? And how did Canary see him stop the bullet, or are her visual reflexes so much faster than ordinary humans?

If an episode's leaving me with a questioning aftertaste I feel it's done something right. What it doesn't do so right is handle the way certain people are represented over the duration. Clark comes across as really petty for not being able to forgive Lana for connecting more with his evil double in the previous episode, and yet he's happy to talk it over with Chloe. Maybe that's realistic, and I liked how it was resolved and that he chose to spill more secrets to Lana at the end to show that he also has done wrong, although I don't think there will ever be an end to secrets between them. For example, I'll bet he never tells her about the time they actually married and it got her killed (though there was a fun reference back to the episode where Oliver set Lois up to kiss the 'Green Arrow' and really it was 'someone else' while he stood by!), but at least the episode didn't play out in such a negative way as it often has in the past.

Another surprising turn of events was Lana's visit to Lionel, her refusal to help him uncover evidence against Lex, and her realisation of what she became, something that she says Clark pulled her back from. She resolves to be an honest, good person, and it puts Lionel on the back foot as he sees he doesn't have any leverage left to use on her. Mind you, I still maintain she's not the real Lana, but a clone. There was even a sly reference in this direction when Chloe points out to Clark that Lana isn't the same girl she was in High School, which felt like those call-out lines characters say without knowing it, about Clark's destiny. Or am I reading too much into such comments? Lex himself doesn't get a great deal to do this week, apart from a healthy ability to fight when he takes on Green Arrow. It was not what I expected to see from the guy, as usually he gets kidnapped or knocked on the head and his forte has never been physical combat. Maybe he's in training these days? Or maybe he's a special, advanced clone himself? I'm seeing clones everywhere now!

This was very much a Lois episode, so it's a little strange that she comes out appearing extremely selfish, but in a good way, kind of. It was unexpected for her to reject Oliver's plea to get back to together, noble in some way, but in greater part an utterly selfish move because, knowing his secret she doesn't want to share him with the life in which he goes off to fight crime. It's something that comes up between Clark and Queen too, when tempers fray and his righteous indignation flares up, pointing the finger at Clark for having an easy life settled on his farm instead of fighting injustice. It's an old argument between them and it's not going to be resolved in one episode. Not even when Clark accepts his ultimate destiny would he be a slave to Queen's tune, but the friendship quickly returns as they realise they need each other, and there's little point bickering over it. Queen does get a new recruit with Canary agreeing to join his cause against Lex, though if all they do is visit factories and plant bombs it's not a very glorious battle. I also found Canary's quickness to give up her vigilante days just because she found out she was on the wrong side, unbelievable, so maybe she didn't really mean what she said, especially seeming so eager to join Oliver's band of merry men.

I think Lois' selfishness came across more because there's never any scene when she acknowledges the death of Gabriel Grant. She's just right into the next guy that comes along. Does she know he died? It felt like she hadn't been informed and it seemed ridiculous that there was no scene in which she even talks about him, except as being an antidote to Oliver! It was also a moment when Clark and Lana display a great lack of commitment when she suggests he thinks she isn't the girl he'll end up with, and he admits that he can't see the future. That's not very reassuring, is it! But even with some character traits to disapprove, the characters and the episode recovered well before the end, playing with our knowledge of Lois and Clark's eventual role, side by side, so that I came out of it feeling the sum total was a good experience. I hope Green Arrow sticks around, and it would be fun to have the other members of the JLA (as it isn't called yet) around. One thing bothered me: Lois speaks about how her Father 'was' a General. I don't remember any mention of him dying or quitting the army, but I may have simply forgotten. And is Lois really so simple-minded that she believes Clark and Chloe didn't realise Oliver's secret identity?

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