Crossfire

DVD, Smallville S9 (Crossfire)

I don't know if it was indefinable, but I'm not entirely sure why I liked this episode, though like it I did. I think it's the uplifting, positive feel, not a depressing mire of emotion and crabbiness, or a villain of the week that has to be stopped. It's more subtle than that, perhaps so light on structure as to be lightweight in the plot department, but the characters carry it. Essentially, there are three stories playing out, one between Lois and Clark as they conquer daytime TV (or not) fronting 'Good Morning Metropolis,' another featuring Oliver's desire to put some good into the world, in practice, and the dullest being Tess' update on the Kandorian situation. You could almost count Chloe's personal mission to beat Tess' new tech security as a fourth strand, as she discovers Stuart Campbell, the young man working for Tess, and makes contact with the man on the inside. It's pretty obvious from the way they're introduced through competitive oneupmanship that we have another potential couple in the offing - I suppose they needed to do something like that with Chloe after Jimmy's demise, but it was rather telegraphed by the fact she's finding it such a challenge, and Stuart's impressed by the attacks, so there's a connection of professional pride even before they actually meet. I didn't think Stuart was a proper character until this episode as he's previously appeared as just another of Tess' minions, so it gives her operation a little more depth if we can see the people behind it, as they used to do with varying degrees of success when they were Lex' minions. So I won't write the guy off yet, and it could be interesting to see what an insider can do for the good guys.

I don't know how Clark managed to make it to Lois' TV audition without having to dash off and save somebody, but he did, which made me think it must be even less likely he'd be able to carry out a job like that on daily basis, where he can't just leave at any moment. One of the things I liked about the episode, and which helped to give it a feel-good factor, was that, quite apart from the expected doom and gloom I imagined the series to be about to enter after Clark's telling off for not letting Lois know about Oliver's problems, they skirt over those issues. Partly it's because Lois is no Lana, or even Chloe, who tended to think deeply and react even deeper. She's much more of a surface girl, not in a bad way, but her army brat upbringing has allowed her to accept changes and not react badly for long. Also, unlike those other two, she's a much sunnier, happy-go-lucky personality, that can't be brooding and moody if she tried, or not for long, anyway. It helps she's sweet on Clark, and that she needed him for her audition, but I appreciated their problem didn't go beyond a little light banter and slight irritation - it was probably as much about Lois feeling guilty for not seeing Oliver's troubles or doing more to help him, as for Clark staying silent on the matter, and with that clearing up of something that in earlier seasons would have been dragged out over episodes (if not seasons!), that's the only hanging negative dealt with. It makes you think the series, if it hasn't necessarily matured, as such, has got a new mix, and is more fun because of it, helping you realise Clark is much more suited to someone like this!

It was a big leap for the audience to take when Lois and Clark's first subject for assignment is online blind dating, thus setting them up for comedy and humiliation to an extent, and giving grist for their mill of uncertain status, toying with the ultimate destiny we all expect. And it seems to finally happen, with the pair getting together by the end for a face massage. Unnecessary, but it could have ended on a worse note, I suppose, and at least we got the Queen stuff sorted out as well, as his pining could have become an arc in itself. Not to say it won't, as Oliver usually gets what he wants (and I did love Clark's self-sacrificial attitude to what he thought was happening with Oliver and Lois, though it may also have been motivated by his own nerves hoping he could back out), but now he's got a protege on his hands. This idea to train some fighter, especially a female one, to stop someone ruining their life the way Oliver was doing to himself, came out of the blue. We all know he likes leading a team of heroes, and maybe the Justice League always being split up around the globe without him may have been a prompt for him to start another group, or a sub-group. Perhaps he chose someone younger than himself so he could have a more Fatherly role when he was dealing with her, but whatever the reason for his choice (might even have been seeing how she was treated by the guy who 'owned' her, his compassion guiding the decision to make her the offer), I thought from the episode's title that this would be about a new character called Crossfire.

Maybe it was, maybe if I knew comic books I'd be able to say that that is the origin of a character called Crossfire, getting pulled out of a tough life in the gutter by Oliver Queen, and we'll see her become this hero, but I'm not sure it was, because the title could just as well refer to the various matches and mismatches firing across the episode! Talking of firing, we had a nice effects sequence where Clark gets to remind us that he is, in fact, a superhero, and the series is about him, since most of the episode he's doing soapy stuff or comic relief. Clark stepping in the way of an automatic churning out bullets has been done before (and better - I can't remember the episode in Season 2 where he has to run alongside each bullet and whap it away, but that was more spectacular), but we don't often get good action sequences like this, and I particularly enjoyed the catching of a bullet right in front of Oliver's eye. It helped to round off an episode where I had to admit I enjoyed the experience, and didn't feel annoyed or irritated by story decisions or lack of a story. I didn't even mind the Kandorian scenes, where Tess is threatened by one of Zod's men, undercover as one of her security, and though we don't know how she did it, leaves Zod a message which shows she dealt with the guy in the most severe manner! If they could use all the characters as well as this on an ongoing basis it would transform the series, in my view. It would never be like the early, great seasons, but it could become something different, and still good. At least it's got better than the first few episodes threatened to, which is all I ask.

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