Masquerade

DVD, Smallville S10 (Masquerade)

Another busy instalment, but a good one, this time with the theme of identity, something that you might think had been dealt with to death on a series all about Clark and friends' necessarily secretive nature, but somehow they manage to find more to say about it, whether it's mistaken identity, chosen identity, hidden identity or any other kind, and is a well written piece at that. We've had Lionel to contend with, and now it's back to the season's main villain, the coming of The Darkness known as Darkseid, already heralded by Godfrey and Granny, both bested, while Desaad was still out there. So it's his turn, and he scores a victory which we only know for sure in the very last second when the Omega mark is visible by the ultraviolet light of a Watchtower screen on the forehead of… Oliver Queen! I thought at the time that he was in danger of falling prey to The Darkness by going off to save Chloe in that wrathful frame of mind, that's why Clark told him to stay behind. If only Clark had had time to explain that the negative emotions and the manipulation of them could be used to turn Oliver, but even when we see him beating Desaad into the pavement there's no obvious sign he's been caught. But after the seven deadly sins trial Chloe endures and comes up trumps in, as well as Clark gaining enough assurance since he last encountered The Darkness to remain unaffected, Oliver was the only one not to be ready, but Clark never says anything about it. It was already too late.

The success of this season has been in how well they've dealt with a (presumably), reduced budget, and how it's led to an improved effort on the character side of the writing, something I keep pointing out. That's the case again here, with the two couples, Clark and Lois, Chloe and Oliver, both working well as teams, either in the field or in theory, Lois not getting in on the action, but supporting Clark's resolutions. At first, the most difficult problem is how they're going to get her Dad's soldier associates and Clark's superhero friends in the same church for the wedding, without everything degenerating into chaos, but Clark himself is far from in chaos, and is in fact making good use of the breakup of the VRA by whisking round the world doing hero duty on overtime, including a nod to English viewers with a visit to the clock face of Big Ben (complete with eyewitness video of the usual American view of us as cock-er-nies, though in their defence, if you're going to find a cockney, it's going to be in London, I suppose!). The exposure, and Clark being so close to far too many crime scenes, is getting risky as his face is open to be seen by any that can make the connection, with a forensic investigator making just such a wild suggestion when he meets him again at yet another crime scene, Clark performing a very simple, but no less impressive, act by saving the man from dropping down a hole, catching him and lifting the overweight guy up with one hand, then burbling about 'adrenaline' and 'centre of gravity' to explain it!

It's enough for both Lois and Clark to reconsider what face he shows, her solution being to sew a rudimentary hood onto his existing jacket and slap on the shades like a red version of Green Arrow, to Clark's disapproval. By the end of the episode, however, he's come to the decision: he's going to wear something else that will hide his identity. No, sadly it's not the red and blue suit we're waiting for and have glimpsed previously, it is in fact the simple prop of glasses and a decision to hold back on the heroic nature and become less visible, his real identity he's realised, the person he really is, is The Blur, so why hide that, but he will become more like the Clark Kent we know and expect from the old films, with that same pushing up the bridge of the glasses and a more unassuming attitude, which was great to see! Of course they'd added in the glasses before, last season I think was the first time, but they never stuck, only now we're coming to the end so why not go full Kent about it. Okay, so he's not quite the clumsy, awkward person Christopher Reeve pulled off so successfully, but it's a step in that direction and I applaud it. It only took them how many years to realise he couldn't just show his face willy-nilly? I like that the result is that he won't try to hide, he'll use Clark as his fake persona so no one would expect he could even be close to being super in any way, something they always avoided because it's a modern TV show aimed at young people, so they wanted him to be cool.

I thought all his powers had long been discovered, but here we get one more that I had never heard of, a variation on the vision powers he has: 'micro-vision' he's calling it, or the ability to zoom in to microscopic level, complete with a closeup of his eyes adjusting their lenses (much like Geordi La Forge in the 'TNG' films). It's a great little moment just thrown into the pot, and there are a number of these - another was when we see Oliver use some parkour acrobatics, running up a wall and drainpipe to get into the Desaad club when they work out that this is where the marked people have been coming from, and it is a house of horrors where shortly after Chloe goes through her trials. A simple device of temptation through various characters showing up, and I wish they could have used it as an opportunity to bring back an old character, perhaps someone who died because of her, or for some other reason, because this is another of the few episodes not to feature a returning character from a previous season as the guest, Desaad belonging firmly to this season. At least he's dealt with, so we should get to see Darkseid next, now all his minions have been sorted out.

As usual there has to be something to complain about being farfetched, and this time it's Chloe and Oliver getting mixed up in the FBI's investigation of the Desaad club simply by taking on the names of Mr. and Mrs. Jones so they can eat out at a restaurant due to their identities making life difficult. Surely the FBI would know at least the billionaire Queen by sight if they're active in the city where he lives and he's only recently become ever more on the radar thanks to the VRA and his decision to reveal himself as Green Arrow! And there were seemingly no consequences for the pair of them beating up the team of agents who kidnapped them. It was also a little weird that while Oliver breaks into the club, leaving Chloe outside, she's then kidnapped by Desaad and they never met within? He ends up popping back to Watchtower assuming she went there. But of course this is all small potatoes where 'Smallville' hails from and just the expedient way of getting them into the thick of the story at top speed. I doesn't matter, they pack in fun little asides, good development, a spot or two of action, and the four leads are well used: a good episode can really pep you up, and this season has done well in this regard, with this one another to add to the positive pile.

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