"Injustice" Review!
Written
by C.M.
Houghton ("Triplet")
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NOTE: Believe me when I tell you that I will be including HUGE spoilers in this review. If you want to remain unspoiled, come back after you've watched this surprisingly enjoyable episode.
Wow.
Just Wow.
That was quite an episode. Writers Al Septien & Turi Meyer wrote a unexpectedly complicated installment.
There were so many twists and turns in the story that it was hard to keep score. Chloe was lying, Oliver was lying, and Tess was lying. Even Clark was lying, even though he was extremely uncomfortable with having the need to do it. The only person who told the truth in the whole episode was Oliver's Doctor-on-call, Dr. Emil Hamilton. With everyone telling tall tales, I was confused what was going on mostly because on top of all the lying, people weren't who they seemed to be.
Right from the Tease there were things that perplexed me. I mean, why would have Chloe tried to escape from Clark after he'd save her from that truck? It had been as if she hadn't known who he was. I don't care if she was running for her life from Davis, of course she'd know who he was. She never would fight him like that nor would she be confused by who had snatched her from certain death. There's only one person that would, Clark, and she had just screamed for his help. Why would she be surprised?
On the face of it that didn't make sense, so I blamed her behavior on desperation and fear overriding her knowledge about Clark. And maybe being with Davis all that time was just driving her a tad bit crazy. Her nonsensical actions in the "Beast" combined with the fact that her seeming a bit out of it in this one actually seemed to make some sense. Maybe she had been going crazy the last episode or two. That would certainly explain why she was helping Davis and had lied to Clark to cover it up.
Even if I could justify Chloe's initial reaction to Clark in my mind, her story about what had happened after she left with Davis didn't make sense at all. At the end of "Beast" Davis had said something about their need to keep on going if they were going to make it to the 'border before morning.' So Davis supposedly taking her to a motel just outside of Metropolis, as she explained to Clark, just didn't compute. She must have been lying to Clark, but why would she?
Then Chloe acting very tense and scared as Clark and Emil talked about how Leslie, aka Livewire, had died was strange too. That combined with her calling and meeting up with Rudy and Bette (Parasite and Plastique) later also made no sense. Why would Chloe align herself with Tess and the same people who had been 'trailing her' from the tease? She wouldn't ever do that since she hates Tess and she knows what a threat she is to Clark.
None of that made sense until later, only once it was revealed that Chloe wasn't really Chloe, she actually was a shape-shifter named Eva. That was a bit of a surprise and I didn't see that coming at all. It's things like this that make me glad I don't read spoilers anymore. What a terrific twist.
Of course Clark had no clue what was going on with Tess, but he does know that he can't really trust her. So her putting herself out there as Clark's hero-enabler at the same time she's going after Davis, possibly endangering people because of it, was understandably pushing his buttons. Learning that Tess had been behind the new Injustice League was news to Clark, but we hadn't really seen the consequences for Tess because of that. She was pretty much keeping Clark off-balance, so we'll have to wait until the season finale to find out what happens with that. However, her actions have completely cost her any good will that Clark may have had for her still.
I liked that Clark was so proactive the whole episode. He did things so smart too. Unfortunately he hadn't realized that Chloe wasn't really Chloe, so he discussed with Eva things he never would have admitted to anyone else otherwise.
I think it's an interesting twist that Tess finally got the confirmation she was looking for about Clark's real origins. It made the final scene between them far more interesting.
But what the heck was the end about? There was Tess talking with some disembodied voice that she had been apparently taking orders from to help Clark fulfill the 'prophecies' and now the same voice tells her that she's the savior of Kandor. What the heck is going on with that?
That's a bit confusing, but I sure am interested to find out what's going on. Especially since I don't think they ever really determined (aside from an off-hand remark from Chloe blaming Lex) who it was that had sent Clark that crystal that then had taken him and Lois to the Phantom Zone. Could this have something to do with that? Or was it Lex after all? I guess we'll see, but Kara had said something about Kandor surviving the explosion that destroyed Krypton and that she was going to look for it. How does the orb that Lex had found tie into Kandor possibly surviving?
Just so you know, in comic book canon Kandor is a city from Krypton that had been taken before the planet was destroyed. The entire city (including its inhabitants) had been miniaturized and placed into a bottle. The origin of the bottled city had varied a bit depending on the book, but most versions have Brainiac take and shrink the city. He had wanted to keep it as part of a sort of a living archive of different civilizations. Usually, Superman finds Kandor and (unable to restore it to full size) keeps the bottled city in his fortress for safekeeping.
This must be setting up something for next season. I can't see them making Clark deal with Kandor at the same time the show needs Clark to finally take care of Doomsday.
Probably my favorite part of this episode was how well the twist with Eva was handled. As I believed I've mentioned before, when the twist doesn't work well after you view the episode a second time, it really kills the entire episode. For me, that's the key in having a twist and Smallville doesn't always handle that well. Think of the twist in "Lucy" for an example of when they'd gotten it wrong.
This time, like in "Gemini," they did it perfectly. Even knowing the twist upon subsequent viewings, Allison's dialogue as Eva-as-Chloe fit Chloe well enough that it was hard to guess going in what was really happening. I completely didn't see it coming that Chloe wasn't really Chloe so I give them serious props for that.
I guess the only problem I had with the writing of the episode was them killing off Livewire. Why the heck did they do that? I know she's not a major canon character, but she is from previous iterations of the Superman tale. She was introduced originally in "Superman: The Animated Series" from about ten years ago. Livewire, a shock jock who became shocking with her ability to control electricity I guess was supposed to be humorous, but she had also subsequently appeared in the comics. So why kill her? She might have made a good returning villain for next season. Oh, well.
I also wish they'd spent a little more time with the Injustice League, but I'm sure it will find its way back to the show next season. I like that they already established that Bette and Rudy planned to expand the Injustice League to include other former inmates of Black Creek. It certainly will make for some good action fodder next season anyway, so it didn't really bother me that the emphasis in this episode was on Clark and Tess. It's a Superman show after all, so that is how it should have been.
As much as I liked the actor who played him, I didn't like that Parasite's power to absorb another's power was permanent. It never has been before. It usually just wears off after a few hours, although in some more recent stories he can keep the powers he takes from others for up to a day. If Parasite does come back, his skill permanently taking Clark's powers will make any conflicts they have very repetitive. Each time Clark loses his powers to Parasite, the resolution will be the same: he'll have to force the man to do it. Not only will that make Parasite a bit boring, but it will hamper the dramatic impact of his ability. Maybe he shouldn't come back, unless they can do something different with than him stealing Clark's powers.
Aside from the few problems I had with it, this episode laid some really good groundwork for coming confrontations in the season finale, "Doomsday." New complications were introduced and older ones had been expanded on. This episode was dark and largely thankless because it acted mostly as a bridge to the next episode, but it also had some very effective dialogue, a steady pace, and awesome act breaks. Writers Al Septien & Turi Meyer both did an excellent job.
Tom Welling did a remarkable job as both an actor and director in this episode. I'm going to talk about the acting bit first, as I always do. So I'm going to talk about Tom as a director again after I talk about the actors a bit and throw them all some love.
Anyway, Tom was terrific in this episode as Clark. There were a lot of little acting moments of Tom's to love, but probably my favorite one was when Eva died in his arms before Clark realized that she wasn't Chloe. The moment hadn't lasted long, a few seconds maybe, but Tom did an awesome job adding in just a hint of Clark's horror and devastation before Eva morphed back to herself. Then you could almost see when the realization hit Clark of who she was and what had happened. He was awesome. Tom really has a very good grasp of who Clark is, so I'm impressed how well he acts in the episode he also directs.
Allilson Mack did a terrific job as Eva-in-Chloe. It took me a second viewing to know just how well she did. Just like Tom had done with Bizarro in "Gemini," Allison had to keep her hand close to her vest, as it were. She couldn't tip her hand too much, or the audience might have suspected before the third act reveal that Chloe wasn't really Chloe. She made it believable the first time that she was Chloe, just acting a little out of character. On the subsequent views, the episode still stood up even knowing the truth. That's a beauty of a good twist: make the characterization different enough that it's believable later that something else completely different had been going on, but not different enough to spoil the reveal.
I liked how she played Eva-as-Chloe as a little scared of Clark. She was jumpy and on edge in almost every scene with Clark. Like when she was scared by Clark when he showed up so suddenly in the Isis Foundation as she looked through all of Chloe's stuff. I wonder what she was looking for, I guess we'll never know, but the way that Allison played it Eva was more than just startled by Clark's sudden appearance, she was petrified of him. As Eva looked up at Clark, scared and tense, that was the perfect choice, yet it didn’t seem all that different than what Chloe might do. Despite not playing Chloe at all, Allison delivered nearly a perfect episode.
Justin Hartley did a fantastic job as Oliver Queen. When he puts the charm on, Oliver is just so lovable. Even as Oliver was playing Tess, trying to get her fingerprints on that bottle, it was so well played. Justin just gave Oliver enough of the billionaire hedonist flavor that he needs to pull off something like that, even as he slyly pulled one over on Tess. He portrayed Oliver as also being very effective in dealing with Clark, even as angry as Oliver was with Clark for lying to him. I think I'm probably more on Clark's side, but the way that Justin played it I could see Oliver's side too. His anger was well motivated and Justin delivered another wonderful performance.
Cassidy Freeman did an amazing job as Tess Mercer. She played Tess as in control and yet confused and scared when things got out of hand. The way that Cassidy plays Tess, she's one cool customer, easily killing when threatened and not above lying when it benefits her. I especially loved the scene in the Tease between Clark and Tess. At the end of that bit, the way that Cassidy played Tess, it was like she was the spider waiting for the fly to go into the web. She had an evil little gleam in her eyes as she smirked when Clark disappeared, as Tess had no doubt planned. Yet, she had Tess show some vulnerability too.
In the scene in Tess' bedroom, Cassidy played Tess as so hard edged and defensive with Oliver. Even while Tess was reluctantly charmed by Oliver's boldness, she wasn't going to let him talk his way back into her life. Yet, when the Plastique attacked and Oliver was hurt, Cassidy gave Tess a hint of desperation when she thought that he might be seriously hurt. Instead of playing Tess like she's a wolf in sheep's clothing, which would be an easy choice to make I think, Cassidy has made Tess more like a Sheep in Wolf's clothing. She has a hard exterior, but can't always hide her more vulnerable inside.
In the scene with Tom in the barn, Cassidy made Tess almost devastated that Clark thought she was like Lex. She now hates Lex and the way that Cassidy played it, it was clear that statement really hurt. That was another wonderful scene, I love it when Cassidy and Tom have scenes together. Their chemistry is terrific, but she was marvelous throughout the whole episode. I love watching her do her thing.
Jessica Parker Kennedy as Bette/Plastique and Brendan Fletcher as Parasite were both wonderful. I loved seeing Bette again. The way Jessica played her as idolizing Tess was great. It made sense with how she later turned on her benefactor. Brendan Fletcher was very effective in his part of Parasite, Rudy Jones. I liked the menace he brought to the role. With the apparent intention to extend the Injustice League storyline through next season, I hope both Jessica and Brendan can both come back.
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Alessandro Juliani as Dr. Emil Hamilton was very good. He wasn't in this episode much, although I think this is the most we've seen of him all season, but he made very good use of the time. He played Emil as a good goldmine of information for Clark. That's a role more usually played by Chloe or even Oliver, but I liked the way he portrayed that. He played Emil as confident and wise, a person Clark could depend on. I hope he comes back next season too. I like his character a lot.
Director Tom Welling did a remarkably good job in his fourth foray behind the director's chair. He got excellent performances from all of his actors, even from the actors playing smaller guest parts, and kept up a very good pace. I also love how beautifully well shot his episodes tend to be and this one was no exception.
Now, I know I talk about the Directory of Photography a lot in my reviews (I love a beautifully executed shot almost as much as I love a strong act-break cliffhanger), but since I know the director has a lot to do with the blocking (deciding who goes where and when and what they do when they get there) within each scene I think a large part of why I loved this episode as much as I did was more thanks to Tom's directing than to anything else.
The camera was far more fluid than is normal for "Smallville" and the way the camera and actors moved together was fantastic. I've never been on a professional TV set in my life (unless you count the year I was a camera operator for the local ABC affiliate news casts, but that's not really the same thing). So I'm partly guessing at this, yet knowing what I do combined with my background in theatre, I think it's pretty safe to say how this well episode was staged, it must have taken some solid rehearsals and a director with a clear concept in his head to pull it off.
The thing I like best about Tom as a director is that I don't think a lot of other directors have the same scenic sense that he seems to have. Everything was so fluid. I think it actually was a lot of fun to film this than normal. It must have been fun for the actors to work so dynamically within the scene. Getting this kind of collaborative effort to such good effect was always the best part of theatre for me. It was so different than normal too. I know from working on a tour any break from the routine is welcome and this wasn't at all a routine episode. I watch each installment several times to write these reviews and what we got in this one wasn't much like the more routine master scene type of setups the show usually uses. That, in and of itself, must have made it more fun to work on I would think.
To explain what I'm talking about, a 'master scene' is the typical shooting style you get in most dramatic TV and a lot of movies. In order to get good 'shot coverage' of a scene, it's like in journalism, you start with the big picture (the master shot of the scene) and work your way down to the details. You start with a wide shot of the actors, or the location or set, before setting up closer two-shots and the over-the-shoulder shots and tight close-ups and inserts as the scene progresses. Now, you can't totally get rid of the requisite alternating over-the-shoulder shots, they're pretty much required in dialogue heavy scenes, so they were present in this episode, but for the most part the camera work in this episode was a lot more fluid than normal.
When I was watching this episode, I suspected that Tom was doing something very different so I went back and watched some previous episodes from this season and looked at the scene construction more closely. Only when Glen Winter was directing, and had Gord Verheul as his Cinematographer, was the camera anywhere close to this fluid. The camera was very mobile and I don't think it's something that all directors are capable of conceiving of. I think it requires visualizing the scene in three dimensions instead of two, so bravo to Tom for not only being talented but showing off his smarts when he directs.
However, since I do try to be honest (even when I'm gushing), I do have one complaint about the episode that Tom delivered here. As much as I liked the very mobile camera in this episode, I thought the alley scene between Clark and Plastique overdid it. It was just too much. The near constant movement of the camera in that scene seemed a bit self-indulgent. A little ongoing circular hand-held camera movement can go a very, very long way.
However that was a minor thing. All-in-all, I loved how Tom directed this episode mostly because I just don't know how Tom can do such a good job directing even while he acts in an episode. However he does it, I hope he keeps it up next season. I really look forward to his directing each and every time. He always deliver the goods.
And I would like to add an aside here. As an avid Tom Welling fan, as if you hadn't guessed I was one, and as a huge fan of the show and the process of making film and TV, I just want to say that I would adore it if Tom would give us a commentary on one of the episodes he directs. Now, we haven't heard a thing yet about what's on the season 8 DVD set yet, but I don't think we're getting commentary on this episode. Too bad. I think this episode showed just how smart he is as a director. He made some brilliant choices so getting some insight into his thought processes as he worked this episode would be awesome. I'm sorry to think that we may never get that.
Anyway, Director of Photography Glen Winter shot a beautiful show. I loved how fluid the camera movements were. The way it was shot, so dark, fit in perfectly. Even the daytime interiors were shot with a high contrast ratio which just made the whole episode so bleak.
I also loved all the changes in focus and the tilts and pans, all done in the same shot. I suppose it's a practical thing, but I like the affects it has on the shots. By practical I mean that it's cheaper, or I believe it is.
I do know that one the most expensive things about making movies are all the setups they do. A 'setup' is the camera and lighting positions for a particular shot. Changing setups, getting the lights and camera and the actors rehearsed and ready for the next take, is time-consuming and expensive. The more setups you have, the more the crew has to move stuff around and the more the (increasingly more expensive) actors need to sit around waiting for their next scene. All that moving stuff and waiting around for things to happen can get expensive. The less you have to shut things off in order to move them around for the next shot will save not only time, but money.
I don't know how much money shooting the show this way might have actually saved, maybe the longer rehearsal time that would have been likely required offsets any costs savings from using fewer setups, but I did like the effect this change in technique achieved.
