SMALLVILLE Minicaps / Season 8, Eps. 5-8

The Smallville season 8 minicaps spends more time in Metropolis these days. It’s not Smallville’s fault.

Stewart here…

Clark has managed to escape the wreckage of the Fortress (whether Lex did as well is another mystery) and set out on the next phase of his life: without Lana and working as a reporter for the Daily Planet alongside Lois. But he also has a new boss in new Luthorcorp boss Tess Mercer, who has inherited Lex’s tendency to get involved in sinister alien stuff. Chloe and Jimmy get engaged, and we meet a possibly new friend in EMT Davis Bloome, who spends his time between saving lives and waking up naked in alleyways. I’m sure the latter part of that’s just a phase he’s going through. Anyhoo…

“Committed”

Nothing goes normally in Smallville, and that is true when after Chloe and Jimmy’s engagement bash at the Talon, the engaged couple get taken by a maniac who tests their devotion to each other (good thing they do love each other, because the last few couples end up dead). To find the duo, Clark and Lois pretend to be a couple to lure out the loon and get put through the same test. Want to guess how that turns out? Ok, I’ll tell you: they both really like each other but don’t want to admit it. Awwww.

“Buddy, I’m Chloe Sullivan, and this is not my first trip to the ‘being imprisoned by a psycho’ rodeo!”

–In other news, Oliver tries to seduce Tess to make up for wrecking their relationship, and that goes up to the “sure, I’ll have a one-night stand with you sexy man, but that really is it because I got important things to do” phase.

–This psycho does realize lie detectors can be tricked, right? On the other hand, he’s polite enough to let Chloe and Jimmy go once they pass his test, so, at least he plays by his rules. Plus, convenient he has a kryptonite bracelet watch on to subdue Clark. Where do you get something like that anyway?

–Speaking of weird but likely needed cost-cutting moments: I’m noticing the same stretch of Metropolis redecorated over and over again. It just throws me off a bit is all.

–Jimmy Olsen doesn’t have really functional parents (he at least knows one of them) and thinks kinky is pink fuzzy handcuffs. That’s cute…and creepy…but cute.

–Clark’s response to Lois thinking they slept together after the engagement party: “You’re hysterical when you’re hungover, Lois.”

“Prey”

Some news on that weird series of killings that have been happening in Metropolis this season so far: there’s a possible suspect for the killer…and it might be Davis! Or at least, Davis thinks it’s the explanation for him blacking out and waking up naked in alleyways. Clark needs Chloe’s help to find the killer, and causes some friction when asking to investigate the meteor freaks she’s counseling. Well some other meteor freak takes credit for the killings, so Davis is off the hook…or is he?

There you go, ladies: a naked man washing blood and gore off his body. No need to thank me.

There you go, ladies: a naked Sam Witwer washing blood and gore off his body. Please, no need to thank me.

–Clark’s starting to go out and stop crimes in Metropolis, and gets some good advice from John Jones (Detective John Jones, mind you) that it may be a good idea to get a disguise or something for this. I’m sure this won’t be an issue next episode (spoilers: it totally is).

–The killer has bone like eyelids? You don’t suppose…(thinking of a particular Superman nemesis)…maybe?

–Lois’ absence in this episode is explained away as her being “on assignment”, or at a “monster truck rally in Lubbock”. And Oliver’s absence is…well, he’s probably busy…

–Chloe’s kept track of 300 plus meteor freaks since the beginning of the show. That’s pretty substantial.

–“You can’t save everyone, Clark.” “The moment I believe that is when I stop trying.”

“Identity”

Clark really needed to take John Jones’s advice from last episode here, because while he’s in blurry action, he’s caught in a photograph that Jimmy takes. So now Clark is trying to find a way to keep himself from being exposed on the front page of the Daily Planet, and Chloe figures this might be an advantage for him, even if Clark doesn’t. And at work, a new employee at the Planet, Sebastian Kane, has the ability to read people’s memories. Tess is using Kane to find the missing kryptonian crystal, and that’s leads to some peril for Lois, and Chloe murdering him with her new Brainiac powers. Um, wait, did I just say Chloe murders someone? Intentionally? This is rather alarming to see.

“Gotta save Lois and take care of this mugger…ooooh! There’s a sale at Burlington Coat Factory!”

–Once again, a bad guy learns Clark’s secret and doesn’t bother to tell anyone else before getting killed. Just very odd the person doing the killing in this case was Chloe.

–Good news (sort of) in Oliver subbing in to throw Jimmy off of Clark being the blurry hero. Despite that, Clark relents and lets the whole thing go out. Could it be Clark is learning something important this season?

–Oliver has some drinking problems that got cleared up with that performance to throw off Jimmy? Okay, sure.

–I like that nice turn when you realize Lois knows exactly who Kane actually is as Kane is probing her memories. And later on, Lois tells Clark she is really interested in interviewing the mystery superhero. If she only knew…

–Clark STILL doesn’t like capes. And probably not that CG one Oliver swoops in with to save Jimmy from Tess’s goon.

“Bloodline”

Thanks to that kryptonian crystal mysteriously reappearing at Clark’s doorstep, Clark and Lois end up taking an unscheduled trip to the Phantom Zone where they run into Kara (yay!) and into the phantom of Faora, Zod’s wife (boo!). Faora possesses Lois and heads back to Metropolis to cause all kinds of problems (and talk with Davis for some reason), leaving Clark and Kara to find a way out of the Zone to stop Faora. But leave it to Chloe to find a way to retrieve the super-kin from the Zone…somehow. Somebody should be doing something about what’s going on with Chloe, don’t you think?

“Hey, Clark! Sorry I didn’t call, but I was busy binge watching Game of Thrones. Rough stuff!”

–Lois sure picked an awkward time to move back in with Clark at the farm, didn’t she? And just when she was telling him which albums he couldn’t borrow.

–Good news for Lois despite all of this: she got a raise after that encounter with Tess as Lois/Faora. Considering Tess’s night consisted of a tense encounter with Lois/Faora and getting knocked out by Oliver/Green Arrow while he was stealing that equipment, that was a surprise.

–Kara doesn’t hang around long before leaving to search for Kandor. It’s not the last we’ll see of her in the show.

–Speaking of kryptonian stuff: Davis Bloome may be a creation of Zod and Faora that was attached to baby Kal-El’s spaceship? Well, Davis trying to stab himself later on and the blade shattering (after surviving being impaled by Faora) certainly points towards that.

–Kara thinks Lois can take knowing Clark’s secret. His response? “I was beginning to miss these family lectures.”

NEXT TIME: Clark tries to save Chloe from Brainiac wiping her brain in “Abyss”, some unexpected guests arrive to enjoy (or destroy) Chloe and Jimmy’s wedding in “Bride”, Clark has to fight a foe from the future with friends from the future in “Legion”, and Clark investigates the shooting of one John Jones in “Bulletproof”.