#8.19 “Stiletto” Review

NOTE: You know the drill. Don’t read this before watching the episode unless you don’t mind being spoiled.

Well, this episode was surprisingly entertaining although I didn’t really know that for sure until the day after it aired since my satellite TV reception decided to have a bad day. Thanks to increasingly unreliable receiver, the sky had a few high clouds, the first half of the show was all pixilated so I didn’t see much past the tease until the second half hour. Oh, well. That’s what’s iTunes is for, which I love, by the way. I’m SO glad to have iTunes after things like that happen.

But damn The CW for airing the show in only in the 16×9 aspect ratio. If anyone watching Smallville doesn’t have an HD TV then you get the cropped version, it’s no longer available in letter-box for the older aspect ratio (4×3) Standard Def TV sets like I got unless the cable/satellite provider decides to offer it. I just found out that wasn’t a fluke only on the more than lame Pensacola/Mobile, AL CW affiliate. You might remember that I had complained about this earlier in the season. The CW is so hard up for money they don’t want to pay for two feeds to their affiliates, so they only offer the 16×9 widescreen and it gets cropped when you watch on a SD TV like mine. So seeing the episode in its intended framing is another reason to love iTunes. So there are now two things in Apple’s favor.

I love having the option of iTunes. It really does help me when working on my reviews in addition to its other benefits. It’s so much easier to find a particular scene than fast forwarding or rewinding my TiVo and the image quality is generally better to boot, even when I don’t factor in the aspect ratio. Standard Definition TV generally just stinks and you can really tell even in the standard definition widescreen iTunes copies.

Like in Eternal, in the iTunes copy I could see that it was snowing in the scene with Clark and Chloe near that corn field where Davis had left all those bodies. Yet, I couldn’t see that in the SD TiVo version. Clark’s truck looked wet, but I couldn’t tell why, so the image quality improvement over my SD TV is yet another reason to love iTunes.

Although I really wish I didn’t have to go to the expense of buying the iTunes copies since I will still probably get the DVD set too. However, because of iTunes, I will probably wait to actually buy the DVD set until Amazon puts them on sale. I guess there will be no more running down to Best Buy on my lunch break to get the copies the first day.

Anyway, enough of that… Just know that once I saw the entire episode I really enjoyed it, which had surprised me. I had heard a little bit about the episode, Lois pretending to be a Superhero, and thought the idea just sounded stupid. I couldn’t conceive of a reason why she would want to do that.

In watching it, I thought that the mob boss plotline was a tad on the trite side, it probably would have fit better in the first season than the eighth, but all in all I didn’t end up minding that too much. The episode was mostly just fun, despite the bit of a downer Jimmy storyline and Lois being so unethical in trying to make up a story. Ultimately, I didn’t mind that too much. This episode had so much to offer otherwise which I did love, so I’ll have to forgive the episode for its faults.

Mostly I’m going to be forgiving because I absolutely adored Lois in this episode. I also loved all the little cute references to Clark and Lois’ future and on top of that Allison Mack outdid herself acting wise.

The jokes were all funny: Lois wanting to an ‘S’ on her costume, her costume squeaking making it impossible for her to be stealthy, the Red-Blue blur and Stiletto getting a shipper name on fan websites, Chloe joking about putting a stiletto heel in front of a klieg light like a Stiletto version of the Bat-Signal, Lois referring to going off to her ‘cave’, and then her breaking through a skylight just like Batman.

As much as I thought they were funny, I’m not sure why the show had included all the references to Batman. Maybe it’s because that’s the closest we’ll come to ever having Bruce Wayne in Smallville, which is sad. They’ve had two different Supermen, Superman Returns a few years back, why not have a Smallville version of Bruce Wayne even if he’s not yet fighting crime? The two men are close friends in the comics and had some time together in various animated , but they’ve never been shown in the same live version property. It’d be a huge first for the two characters and I would love to see it. I hope they can make it work and maybe bring in Bruce next season, even in some sort of cameo. Oh, well, that will probably never happen.

Anyway, I also liked all the little hints they had for Lois’ and Clark’s regard for one another. He’s a fan and Caroline completely sold the fact that he would, when he’s ready, give Lois an exclusive on the Red-Blue Blur. And despite Lois’ previous statements to the contrary, it’s clear that she still feels something for Clark. It was nice how Caroline showed us that instead of Lois or Clark explaining it.

Clark and Lois’ banter has never been better. Probably my favorite scene for them was the little phone chat Lois and Clark (as the Red-Blue Blur) had at the end. It’s pretty clever that Clark figured out a way, probably with Oliver’s help to get the technology, how to disguise his voice so he could talk to her without Lois realizing that who he was. I loved that Clark agreed with Lois that as a moniker ‘Red-Blue Blur is a bit of a mouthful and that he knew that she would eventually find him a better one. And he’s right because it’s Lois that first calls Clark ‘Superman’ in the comics. I also liked the reference to the first Superman film when Lois asked whether Clark could read her mind. (Although that line is from possibly my least favorite movie scene ever, so much so I always fast forward through that whole bit when I watch my “Superman: The Movie” DVD.) That was funny and an especially nice scene, it was a much needed lighter scene to finish out the episode.

I really loved that poor Jimmy, so pale and obviously strung out on drugs, still has pictures from his wedding in his digital camera. That’s terrific because it shows that maybe it’s not all too far gone for him and Chloe, despite the very quick divorce. Do they still have Vegas quickie divorces like they used to in the old movies? I guess it’s only on TV can you get an instant divorce on a drugged-out bartender’s salary, but Jimmy still keeping those images on his camera surely must be a sign of lingering affection for his ex. It is an especially nice touch since Chloe seems to be still missing him too. After all, she’s still lists him as a friend on FaceBook.

I always like Caroline’s dual-purpose dialogue. She always has her characters talking about one thing when to the other person in the scene what’s being said means something completely different. It gives her scenes a very nice, multi-layered feel that is really very nice. It’s like movie dialogue, actually. Clean, to the point and yet not ‘on the nose’ (too obviously to the point that it’s like the characters are explaining even simple things like the audience is filled with idiots).

It was an especially nice nod to the comic canon to bring in Bruno Mannheim. In the comics Bruno’s in charge of a major crime syndicate called Intergang and he’s brutal, so it’s fitting he’d take over by murdering the previous crime boss, Milano. Bruno has gone through a lot of different storylines in the comics and in “Superman: The Animated Series” but in Smallville I think he’d be a good villain for Clark. Maybe Bruno will come back next season after he gets out of jail. Bringing in Intergang for the next (and maybe the last) season would probably be a good thing. And Bruno having it in for Clark, the reporter responsible for his time in jail, would be a nice story to carry into next season. I also liked the actor who played Bruno, Dominic Zamprogna. I hope they figure out a way to use him and that he comes back.

Probably the best part of the episode was that despite the seemingly disparate storylines, Caroline managed to tie them all together. Everyone was affected by Lois’ masquerade in some way. Lois’ made-up Superhero intersected very nicely with the mob crime ring, Chloe’s work with Oliver and Clark, Jimmy’s growing dependence on illicit drugs and even Davis’ still hiding out in The Talon basement while Chloe lies to Clark to cover up that he’s still alive. I suppose the story that was sort of hanging out on its own the most was Chloe’s and Davis’ since it had very little to do with Lois’ masquerading as a Superhero. However, Caroline managed to connect them pretty well when the mob hood tried to strong arm Chloe to revealing what she knew about Stiletto, Davis was forced to step in and save her, despite the fact that we didn’t ever see him.

I guess that’s a pretty neat trick too: having an episode with Davis killing people without us ever actually seeing Davis. I checked and Sam Witwer has already been in 10 episodes so far this year, so with Sam Witwer being that at his 13 episode maximum it looks like they couldn’t get him in even a little since he is in the final three episodes of the season after this one.

Is The CW so hard up for cash they can’t afford to pay Sam for this episode? If he had been in this, it would have made his total episode count get to 14, which isn’t what they would have wanted. Sam was reportedly signed for a standard 7/13 contract, where an actor signed for a recurring character is guaranteed at least 7 but no more than 13 episodes. I think if they go over 13 episodes the actor moves up a notch or two in pay scale (according to SAG contract rules) or they’d have to renegotiate the contract, or something else expensive, hence the reluctance of producers to let actors go over that limit.

Anyway, that’s sad, if that was why we didn’t actually see Davis. They probably should have planned things better for him, but I guess I have to give Caroline brownie points for making this episode work for Davis without Sam even showing his face. Davis not being directly in the episode worked very well, actually.

The ending of the fourth act was actually chilling with Chloe helping Davis get rid of evidence. Although, I would have thought that she’d be smarter than to drop the bags in the dumpster behind the Talon… It was heartbreaking to see how much it was bothering her to be forced to be Davis’ helper when she’d rather be helping Clark. Instead she’s hiding bodies and lying to her best friend. It was a hard episode for her and her being alone, without Doomsday directly in the picture (likely thanks to the limitations of Sam’s contract keeping him out of this episode), really hammered home how isolated she is thanks to her deal with Davis. She asked for space in that one scene with Clark and it was obviously something she doesn’t actually want. Her suffering because of her self-imposed isolation should build up nicely to the rest of the season as that situation will no doubt soon be coming to a head.

I guess my biggest problem with the episode turned out, in the end, to not really be a problem for me since it all pretty much worked out. I was initially bothered by the fact that Lois had thought that creating a false story was a good idea. Yeah, I get it her stated reasons. Lois was feeling no love from the Metropolis reporting community. She was so upset by that it might even make her subterfuge understandable. It’s hard to toil away in the basement unnoticed. Yet, didn’t they just show how much attention Lois WAS getting just about a month ago back in “Hex”?

Man, you really gotta make up your mind on things like this.

Either Lois is the next best thing to sliced bread when it comes to reporting in Metropolis, or she’s not. You can’t have it both ways and have the story still work. This is the kind of crap that used to happen with Lana all the time, her motivations and the situations she found herself in would mold themselves to the story at hand. I can see a bit of this happening, people don’t always act predictability in real life, in fact they hardly ever do, but to vacillate so wildly doesn’t seem very realistic. Either Lois is a star reporter, or she isn’t; either she’s feeling on top of the world, or she doesn’t.

I’ll grant that maybe Lois’ perception of other people’s feelings about her talent is different from what Chloe’s was back in “Hex”. Chloe saw a snapshot of Lois’ life that might not have been completely accurate, or even might have been affected by her own preconceptions about Lois’ life. If that’s the case than I can sort of see it.

Lois is at times on the unconfident side and insecurity would probably explain quite a bit, so maybe it’s not that big a stretch, but still… Lois has an intern doing her dry cleaning and bringing her coffee and people congratulate her on her stories as she walks through The Daily Planet. Isn’t that a clue she’s more than a nobody? But perhaps she said it herself, ‘You’re only as good as your last story.’ Not being invited to the party must have been a blow to her ego.

So I guess I can see the temptation for Lois. Even stars in news reporting get insecure and start making stuff up, so that’s probably not that big a stretch really. Real life news goes through little spates now and then with some very well-known reporters all but manufacturing stories, or at least not doing any real reporting since they don’t bother to research or even do fact-checking before they go to print.

It’s a cultural phenomenon. Even The New York Times had a star columnist just making his stories up not too long ago. So I can understand them wanting to Smallville-ize real-life events.

Yet, even with understanding all of that maybe the premise was a bit thin. It is more than a bit on the contrived side, especially since I’m not sure Lois would ever feel that desperate. Yet, I’m glad that Clark kept to his moral high ground and told Lois that she had to kill the story and make sure it never hit print.

I just don’t see Lois making that kind of mistake. She may not be a perfect reporter, she is a legendarily bad speller after all, but it seems to me like she’d have some ethics. Yeah, she used to work for the Inquisitor, but she had appeared to have escaped from her tenure with that rag with her dignity, and her journalistic integrity, more or less intact.

I’m glad she made the mistake and only her friends and family had known about it. Making up stuff like that really could have destroyed her career if that story had gotten out.

But come to think of it, since the story on Stiletto had never been published, how exactly did the fan web sites hear about the new crime fighter so they could try to act as a matchmaker between her and The Red-Blue Blur? Yeah, the over-the-top fansite gushing was funny and reminded Clark that he needs someone more to hang with aside from Chloe or Oliver, but that was very contrived too, wasn’t it?

So, no: this wasn’t a perfect outing for the writer. However, overall this was another highly entertaining episode from Caroline Dries. I loved the pace of the episode, the twists and turns, the awesome act-breaks and how everything seemed to almost seamlessly tie together. The continuity was very good too. The episode was amusing and I loved the dialogue. I also loved the fact that the episode setup some great complications that will no doubt need to be dealt with in the coming weeks leading up to the season finale.

Tom Welling did AWESOME as Clark in this. Probably my favorite scenes were the ones when Clark was with Chloe and Lois. I loved the terrific little look he had Clark give Lois when he was pretending to be in pain. It was like Clark was trying to gauge whether Lois believed his injuries were still painful, even though they had already healed.

I also loved the scenes he’d had with Chloe. He made it believable that Clark would listen to her, but not quite understand what she was doing. He knows her very well, and Tom treated those scenes delicately. Without saying anything directly, Tom made it clear that Clark doesn’t believe Chloe’s ‘fine.’ He gave the scenes the very subtle touch that was needed.

I absolutely adored the final scene between Clark and Lois. Tom played Clark as genuinely touched by some of the things that Lois told him, yet there was enough toughness and resolve to make it feel like he’s already Superman, even though he’s not yet wearing the tights. It was a reaffirming scene for Clark and Lois both and it was a total joy to watch.

Allison Mack did a truly remarkable job as Chloe in this episode. Allison was terrific in the scene at the end of the fourth act when she was helping Davis get rid of evidence. It was heartbreaking, but I loved the later scene with Clark in the apartment. It was like Chloe was barely holding herself together. She played Chloe as believably rattled and upset at having to lie to Clark. She’s alone and can’t even confide in her best friend and the way that Allison played it Chloe’s vulnerability came through in a terrific way. I think it was probably one of her best episodes this season, in a season of very good performances from Allison.

Erica Durance did a fantastic job as Lois. I loved the terrific way she played Lois juggling the different aspects of this episode for her. She was cute as the wannabe Superhero, the way she had Lois posing for Jimmy was wonderful. She gave Lois a playful quality that I would completely buy someone pretending to be a Superhero to have. It would be a blast to dress up and fight some crime. Also, I completely adored every scene Lois was in with Clark. Erica and Tom have a wonderful chemistry. In the rescue scene I loved how Erica played Lois as being so resolved to help Clark, even though the odds had been so impossible for a person with no superhuman abilities at all. It was cute when she was surprised at how well jumping through the skylight had worked. Erica’s acting was particularly effective after he’d gotten hurt and she was so upset.

I thought that the scene in the phone booth was terrific. Erica played Lois as awed and humbled that The Red-Blue Blur would call her like that, yet didn’t forget to bring her reporter cynicism along. In that scene she also gave Lois a touch of vulnerability even as she tried to show the Superhero that she really cared about him and he could depend on her. It was another wonderful episode from Erica.

Aaron Ashmore did a fantastic job as the strung out Jimmy. I am not overjoyed with the drug-addicted Jimmy storyline, but I think he played it better in this episode than he had in “Turbulence.” I liked how proactive he was when needed, it wasn’t a stretch to believe he wouldn’t hesitate to take on a mobster to help his friends.

Director of Photography Glen Winter shot the episode. The lighting was all terrific. I liked the Rembrandt lighting in the Tease after Lois had gotten better of the hoods. I also loved the framing throughout, but I also liked the colors and exposures used. It was very telling that right before the bright apartment of Chloe’s, Jimmy was scoring drugs in a gray, slightly overexposed alleyway in Metropolis. It made the alleyway look gritty and more washed out, like the color had been wrung out of the city. That was a beautiful choice. It visually underlined the differences between Chloe’s current situation and Jimmy’s: he’s living in the underbelly of life, lying and buying drugs. Compared with the far warmer scenes that bookended Jimmy’s drug score scene, the lack of color really hit home how far down he’d gone. That was a wonderful choice.

Yet, this was an episode filled with terrific choices from Glen. I especially adored the long shot of Lois in that phone booth as Clark talked to her from the rooftop across the street. The way the camera was so high up at the end of that was awesome. I especially like after the end of the call and Lois was walking away, when Glen pulled focus onto Clark, and then dropped the camera down and changed to a close-up as Clark turned around and he did it all in one smooth motion. What a terrific way to end the episode about heroism, pushing in on Clark looking happy and heroic.

Melanie Williams did a wonderful job with the costumes. I loved Lois’ Stiletto costume. It suited Erica’s figure almost perfectly and wasn’t completely a stretch that Lois could sew that herself. Her hair and make-up looked terrific too, so kudos should also go to Key Hairstylist Sarah Koppes and Key Make-up Artist Natalie Cosco.

Not quite perfect, but probably one of the more enjoyable episodes of the season. I should probably start giving out grades in quarter points, but since I don’t I give this episode 4.5 squeaky skintight pleather Stiletto outfits out of a possible 5.

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