Smallville: Ambush

By Aden Penn

We spend the first few minutes of this episode watching Clark and Lois make doe eyes over each other in the kitchen. They are all glowy from their special night, and acting rather nauseating. It gets worse when Lois tells him she is not hungry for food, and convinces him they need to go outside on the porch swing. Ha! I knew it. Lois is a total freak between the sheets. If she had her way they would be doing it all over the Kent farm.

All of this cute shmoop is being interspersed with quick scenes of a rather ominous looking military unit. They are tracking a target, which is not only moving through Smallville but heading right to the Kent farm. This is a nice little flash foreshadowing, that breaks up the fan girl shipper fodder for a little bit so heads don’t explode.

Clark and Lois haven’t quite made it out to the porch swing yet, they took a break for a steamy kiss against the front door. They open the front door only to find they have company, and not just any company, they have family. Lois’s dad steps forward in full dress uniform looking a little less than pleased at the state of undress his daughter is in. And maybe a little less than pleased at Clark.

Now that the fire of the conflict is built, Daddy Lane is going to start pouring on the gasoline. Once everyone is in a better state of dress, Lois gives Clark a quick warning. He better be ready for a military style third degree, because this is what all the boyfriends get. Oh and by the way, he’s not a real big super hero fan. The good General starts off the fun by dressing Clark down for living in his mother’s house, and working in a basement. Lois tries to defend her love, and even Clark makes an attempt to assure the General that they take care of each other. Daddy doesn’t seem to pleased with this, and presents Clark with a list. Which actually includes scrubbing the bathroom tile with a toothbrush. As if that wasn’t bad enough, we find out that the General showed up with a little chip on his shoulder because Mrs. Kent is his opposition in the senate. And here comes the great conflict bomb, he is the senior military advisor on new Vigilante Registration Act. Clark and he go back and forth about the pros and cons of vigilantes. There is the stopping crime argument, the anarchy argument. Everything is covered and nobody wins. The big loss is when Clark asks Lois what she thinks about vigilantes. And her response? A quick change of subject. Yep. Lois is losing points.

Back at Watchtower, Ollie comes in a little beat up, but not too messed up enough that he can’t comment that he really isn’t pleased with how much Tess has moved in. It looks different, and he doesn’t like it. Tess kind of let’s it go a little more worried about the amount of injuries she is seeing on Ollie. Even though she is trying to help him out, he’s really not liking her anymore. When putting some iodine on a wound on his arm, it causes a not so good reaction. Tess scans the area and they find the sub dermal tattoo of the Suicide Squad symbol. Ollie is a little concerned, and Tess reveals she knows that symbol, and pulls up some info on the group, who Checkmate used at one time. The picture of Flag on the screen, and Tess is a little surprised to learn this was the guy that had captured Ollie before. She had thought that he was dead, and Ollie mentions that Rick Flag is trying to put together another squad. Now he’s worried about who else might be marked.

At the farm, Lois is working on cooking while Daddy is watch some football. His game is interrupted by a news bulletin about a fire at a refinery in Smallville. He makes an off handed remark that Clark should be seeing this, so he can see what a real hero looks like. Speaking of Clark he walks in with the groceries and Lois tries giving him a subtle hint to look at the tv. Of course Clark rushes off and fixes the problem. Daddy is of course cynical and says the blur is only doing it for a photo op. When Clark comes back there is a little deceptive lying going on, and the General gets a bit suspicious. Clearly the two of them are hiding something. Clark gets a call from Ollie and using the excuse that he has to chop wood he heads out to the barn. We see the General watching him, while making a phone call. Yep, he’s running a check on Clark.

Up in the loft, Ollie scans Clark and finds that same symbol on his shoulder. Ollie explains that Tess is working on finding out why they are being tracked, and oh by the way he really hates the way she is acting like she owns the joint. Clark comes to her side and said if it wasn’t for her they wouldn’t have found out about Flag. Their conversation is interrupted when the sound of someone coming into the barn is heard. Ollie’s presence is not going to help matters, so Clark makes him leave, out the big loft window. Thank god the General was too busy running the background check and didn’t see the acrobatic guy jump from the barn.

The company in the barn is Lucy. (oh yeah, Lucy showed up with the General) She brought Clark a lemonade and they talk about the infamous list. Apparently none of the other boyfriends have passed this test, and Clark declares that he will be the first. Lucy apparently thinks it would be a good idea to make a move on Clark, and even though he politely declines and tries to be a gentleman about it, she lays a kiss on his lips. Of course just in time for Lois to see. But what Lucy forgot to realize is that her sister is not stupid. She knows this is an ambush, and she pulls her sister away to give her quite the talking to. Which ends with sending Lucy out to get some ice.

Clark is working on his list, chopping wood in the barn, with his hand. She makes a joke about the General catching him doing it that way, and then the conversation goes downhill from there. Clark apologies for the Lucy thing, and is quick to bring up the situation with not standing up to her father about the vigilantes. He’s a little disappointed, and Lois plays the ‘you don’t have family to deal with card. She asks Clark not to make her choose sides, and that her family comes with the Lois girlfriend package.

Speaking of family, Lucy gets her own kind of ambush while she is out getting ice. Flag, disguised as a military man confronts her and asks for her help. He feeds her the line that her dad is in danger, and needs to get away from Clark Kent. He claims that Clark is a vigilante sympathizer and is hell bent on helping stop that bill. When she asks for proof, Flag hands her an envelope to give to the General. He also asks her to put a tracking device on him, so they can monitor where he goes and protect him as need be. Flag feeds her the line of “The US Army is depending on you” which is just the right thing to say to get her to agree to help.

Tess is continuing to prove her worth by catching a Suicide Squad transmission (“Assassinate Hero Target in Smallville”) and Ollie is proving his jerkiness by telling her that if Chloe were here she would have that decoded by now. He’s having some issues with being in Watchtower and seeing someone else do her job. Tess tries to tell him she is not trying to replace Chloe and that she needs to start treating her a little better.

Clark goes looking for the General in the barn, to tell him the list is done. The General sits Clark down and starts an interrogation, complete with the blinding lights. He starts throwing around some pretty serious accusations, because apparently there is no information to be found on Clark. The General says things like that can only be wiped by a high ranking official, pointing fingers at Mama Kent. Clark bites back like he should, accusing the General of witch hunting. The General shows him the pictures that were given to Lucy. They are of Clark with Kara. Now the General is accusing him of being in league with the vigilantes. The two of them go back and forth, with Clark bringing up that Lois is afraid to be herself around her family. He tries to soften things up by declaring his love for Lois and that he wants to spend every day with her. Which gets the reply from the General that this is the last day Clark will spend with his daughter.

Oh, but wait! There is still plenty of poo left to throw into the jetliner strong fan. Lois is pissed at Clark for not being able to deal with her family for just one day. Clark is quick to bring up what happened in the barn, and the pictures that Lucy planted in the loft. When Lucy and the General come downstairs, with their bags, she says they should all go spend the night at Lois’s place. Without Clark. She slips out to the car, but not before planting that tracking device in her daddy’s pocket. There is some back and forth talk, and the General orders Lois to come with them. She does try to get him to stay, so they can work it all out. That doesn’t work, and telling Clark she is sorry, leaves with her father. Losing more points Lane. Lots of points.

During this we see that the Suicide Squad is not only tracking the Lane family as they leave the Kent farm, but they have a nice sized missile waiting to be launched. Back at Lois’s place she finally gets a little braver. She tells her dad that she doesn’t care if Clark is hiding something, because she loves him. And that if her father loves her, he will respect that. Thank god she finally played the respect card! Now while they were up there doing all of that talking, the general was taking things out of his pockets. Including the tracking beacon. Which doesn’t get put back before the General and Lucy leave. We get a nice little creepy bit of Flag reciting part of the National Anthem as his cronies ready the missile.

Clark is at Watchtower getting a little education on being marked by the Suicide Squad and that Flag would try to recruit Clark before attacking. Tess explains that Flag sees super heroes as freedom fighters, and is after anyone who would oppose them. Clark gets the light bulb award for this episode and realizes who the target is. He of course rushes off to save the Lane family. The General and Lucy see the missile strike the building and watch in horror as there is much flaming explosion. Clark rushes in and swipes Lois, putting her down with the General. He leaves the mark of the blur of course, and the General gets a wake up call that a vigilante just saved his daughter.

Ollie and Clark find the van the Suicide Squad is hanging out in, and give it a good flip tossing everyone about. There is some back and forth about Flag’s actions being wrong, because violence is not the answer. Flag fires back that it is, and that he is doing this for his country. He claims that the bill being passed is simply going to give the government the ability to hunt super heroes, and that they need to stand up and show the public they need to be the leaders. Before anything can go any farther one of Flag’s cronies comes to, and teleports them both out of the van.

Now that all of the conflict and nasty is out of the way, we can start wrapping things up and tying pretty bows. The first bow is the Lane sisters having a little heart to heart. In the end they make up, and hug. I did like the line about they both got so caught up in trying to be the perfect daughter that they both forgot how to be sisters. The next bow is a little bittersweet with Ollie showing up at Watchtower with beer and Chinese food. Ollie makes a nice statement that because the two of them have been through so much, they are practically family. He and Tess kind of make up, and Ollie brings up a good point. It’s dangerous for him to be seen coming to Watchtower since he is out as a super hero. He does say that it is in good hands with Tess. I think that is about as nice as that is going to get right now for the two of them.

The General and Clark share the most longwinded wrap up of this episode, but important things were said. For a brief moment you think that knowing the blur saved Lois’s life would make the General change his mind about the bill. He says he likes the idea of Lois having her own protector but he doesn’t have faith that all of the heroes will do the right thing. Even though Clark brings up that this bill could be used to hurt the heroes, the General says he does have faith that America will do the right thing. (Yeah this is going to go so well) At the end of their scene we get a hint that Clark might be ready to ask Lois the big question, which I have to admit made me smile a little.

My favorite scene of the whole episode was at the very end. We see a shot of Flag, holding a copy of the Daily Planet which has a huge headline saying the bill has passed. He turns to face the camera, and while standing under an American flag he declares that this is an act of war. He gives someone the command “go” and we see a shot of building with an anti-hero flag hanging over the door, and posters on the windows. We then see that building blow up quite nicely as the teleporter guy walks away from the blaze and blinks out.

I think the passing of the bill and the aggression of the Suicide Squad are going to really push this whole thing forward. So I am thinking we can expect some really action packed episodes coming up. At least I hope so.

Aden Penn is a mild mannered document clerk by day. She divides her love between Orson Welles, Dr. Sheldon Cooper and Dr. Douglas Fargo. Things on her list of “Cool” include superheroes, Pop Tarts, most things sci-fi and giraffes. For more Aden, visit her website, Aliens & Airships.

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