#9.16 “Checkmate” Review

NOTE: Read no further if you want avoid learning important plot details before seeing the episode. It’s much better than the last one, so hopefully you will like it too, but read no further if you wish to remain spoiler free.

It looks like this episode is the first professional credit for writer John Chisholm and he got things going right from the start, so I think this is an excellent first effort. I loved the tease, well most of it. (I’ll talk about what I didn’t like about it later, since I’m not sure the problems I had with it were because of a writer’s choice.)

The tease was exciting and was truly teasing. The way it played out, it completely fooled me on what Tess was up to. The way she seemed scared by the white knight chess piece and then left via an emergency escape chute and the next time we saw her she was in disguise, they had made it appear that she was running from Checkmate. Yet, then at the end of the tease she hits Oliver who was trying to save her and then injected him with sedative right before she said ‘checkmate.’ Now that’s a tease that was truly teasing.

It was awesome.

The episode just got better after that: by kidnapping the Green Arrow, Amanda Waller ups the stakes in huge ways and we also find out that John Jones is apparently up to something on his own, hiding things from Clark. And then Clark going his own way as he continued trying to figure out what’s going on, Tess figuring out that Ollie’s Green Arrow because he just can’t keep his mouth shut, and Clark finally figuring out Tess is part of Checkmate. That was all awesome.

I liked the way the different stories, there were so many of them, seemed to hinge off of each other. One thing led to another, it didn’t have the episodic feeling a lot of these stories like that can often have on “Smallville.” (You know, this happens and that happens and this other thing happens, all seemingly without any direct connection to each other.) So, overall it was very was well done because they all didn’t feel like totally unrelated events.

I also liked how the stakes rose constantly throughout the episode for everyone, but especially for Clark. By the fourth act, he was forced to try and make a deal with Amanda Waller for Chloe’s life, but at the expense for everyone that had worked with Watchtower. It was a high price to pay and gave him a horrible dilemma, so I’m glad that with Oliver’s and Tess’s help, he was able to find and rescue Chloe without comprising anyone else’s identities.

I liked that Tess’ story in this episode filled in some blanks: it revealed how she had gotten involved with Checkmate in the first place and we found out that if she ever leaves it would cost her life. That’s a bit severe, but it does certainly give her strong motivation to ask her Oliver for help even after she’d gotten so angry at him. I thought he was a bit cold to her, but who could blame him for that. She kidnapped him and tortured him, now she didn’t realize Green Arrow was actually Oliver, but still. It would probably turn your ex-lover a bit on the frosty side.

I guess John Jones erasing Amanda’s memories of the events that revealed to her Clark’s, Oliver’s and Chloe’s faces was a bit on the Deus Ex Machina side, but I’ll take it. It’s a better solution than some one-off thing Jor-El could have done for Clark up in the Fortress, so I bet the writers are glad John’s powers are back. It’ll make some things like erasing inconvenient memories of Clark’s identity a lot easier.

One problem I had was with the continued near-deification of Chloe. I think they’ve gone too far in that. Yeah, Chloe’s important, but is she really THAT important to the team? Even if she is that important, why did they place the blame on Clark for Chloe’s vulnerability? Any human, compared to Clark, is vulnerable just walking around town, never mind trying to investigate a shady organization like Checkmate. It seems like Chloe took that in stride as part of the price of doing business as Watchtower, so I’m not sure I like them giving Clark yet another thing to be guilty about.
The episode built-up some storylines, like Chloe’s and Oliver’s growing affection for one another, and redirected others. Tess’ treachery to try and protect Clark at Checkmate’s expense could cost her life. Amanda’s reminder to Tess that there is only one way to leave Checkmate was chilling and was probably less a threat than a promise.

The episode answered some questions, but posed others. Why was Amanda playing chess with herself, going for a checkmate for the black king at the beginning? Was that a hint of what’s to come when Maxwell Lord comes to “Smallville” a few episodes hence? (He’s the Black King in the comic version of Checkmate.) Why did Tess get so startled by a white knight piece? Is she one of the White Knights to Waller’s White Queen? Was that guy that killed himself before he could spill his secrets to John Jones, Edward Lott, the other White Knight? Clark found that white knight among his belongings after he’d died which matched the set in Tess’ office. Was the doctor a White Pawn since he picked up that chess piece before following Chloe? And what was the deal with the red queen sitting on the chess board at the end? I couldn’t find anything online about a Red Queen in connection to Checkmate. And just who is John Jones working for? Whose back was he trying to protect? Why wouldn’t he come clean to Clark about it?

Just how did Clark get to a castle in Europe? The last time I checked there isn’t a land bridge between here and there and Clark isn’t flying yet… So, what did he do? Superjump from the Aleutians to Siberia? I guess it’s not that big of a deal, but unless that castle was in the Catskills, it’s a bit of a stretch he got there so quickly and was able to get Chloe back to Watchtower so easily.

This probably wasn’t a perfect episode, but as professional debuts go, I think John Chisholm has nothing to be ashamed of. He did an excellent job. I hope he writes for “Smallville” again.

Tom Welling was fantastic as Clark and he’s probably never looked better, he was actually beautiful in the rescue sequence. I don’t usually gush about Tom’s looks in my reviews, or at least I haven’t done that the last few seasons, but I have to make an exception this time. I don’t know if it was his hair, the costumes or sets or lighting or the way the sequence was staged, but he looked even better than normal and he looks pretty damn good usually, so that is saying a lot. It’s so nice when everyone works hard to make sure the lead looks fantastic.

On the acting side, Tom has a lot more going for him than just his looks. I liked how he played Clark pressing Tess for details, of course he wasn’t going to drop her, but she probably felt she couldn’t trust him completely so it was an effective tactic. I also liked how he played Clark dealing with Amanda Waller. She’s the type of person he has problems with, willing to harm the people he cares about to get what she wants.

Allison Mack did a very good job in this episode, and no, I don’t like where they’re taking her character, but I have no problems with what Allison is doing with it. Well, except for one thing. I think Chloe was too obviously scared while she was being held. She’s supposed to be this harder colder version of Chloe now, right? Chloe’s stockpiling kryptonite weapons and cyber-stalking everyone she knows because of a cold realization that someone needs to do these things for the good of mankind. So why didn’t Chloe at least act tougher? Somehow her being so petrified and passive seemed out of character in terms of what’s she’s been doing this season. Again, they can’t have it both ways. Either she’s cute, or she’s someone who coldly calculates what needs to be done, no matter what other people think. Chloe’s motivations are more complicated now than they had been so I would think something more complex would have been going on there, like they did when she was with Clark in the Watchtower. However, I did like her scenes with Oliver and Clark a lot and she did a great job in Chloe’s scene with the doctor at the hospital.

Cassidy Freeman was terrific as Tess. I think my favorite scenes with her were the ones Tess had with Oliver. I like the edge she gave her interactions with Oliver early in the episode. But what was great was that Tess had a really journey in this episode, she was so smug at the end of the tease as she stood over Oliver. Later she was angry at Oliver for lying to her, then at the end, after she’d turned on Checkmate, she was so scared. Tess went through so many emotions in this episode it was a wonderful character arc for Cassidy to play. She did a great job.

Justin Hartley was awesome as Oliver. He was adorable with Chloe after he came back from getting kidnapped and I liked how he dealt with Tess at the end. I’m not sure him cutting her off is entirely in his character either, but I liked how he played Oliver’s resolve to not soften.

It’s always a delight to see Phil Morris in the show, I’m glad they’re using more of his powers now that he’s gotten them back. I like how Phil attacks the role, John is an intense character and Phil does a wonderful job portraying that passion.

Pam Grier did well, for the most part. The thing I had problems with most was the scene with Tess in the garage. When she was yelling at her about not securing the ‘detainee’, her voice got a shrill tone that just plain annoyed me for some reason. I guess that’s because I can’t see Amanda ever getting shrill, so I didn’t like how she read that line. Other than that, I like the gravity she brings to the role. She was great in the scene with Clark.

Director Tim Scanlan makes his directorial debut with this episode, but he has worked for years on “Smallville” as a producer. I’m not sure this was a perfect outing for him, some of the acting problems that I saw I think may be due to his direction. That said, I do think visually this was a stunning piece of work. I had some issues with the visual concepts, but I think the staging and blocking was very well done so hopefully Tim will come back and direct again.
The concepts I didn’t like about were a couple of the fight scenes, the one in the tease and later on when Clark went into action to save Chloe.

For the ‘fight’ on the street between Tess and the Checkmate agents it’s like someone, Tim maybe, saw “Spartacus: Blood and Sand” over on Starz and tried to copy the graphic-novel inspired fight scenes. However, this isn’t “Spartacus”. I adore Steven DeKnight’s show, it’s refreshing in a lot of ways and it’s graphic nature means it’s probably not for everyone, but the kind of fight scenes that show has do not fit the less strictly stylized “Smallville”. It seemed out of place.

In the later scene where Clark rushed to Chloe’s rescue was much the same, it felt out of place. It wasn’t similar in style: It was more like a series of still images which is different than the moving bloody tableaus of “Spartacus” and “300.” Instead of extreme slow motion spurting blood and flying bodies, the action in that scene was stopped in place. It was beautiful, well shot and staged, yet I didn’t like it. It was like they were trying too hard. There were a few problems, you could see the poles and lines running from different parts of the set or Clark’s coat that held things up in the air, so it wasn’t perfectly done. Yet, I think it was a worthy effort. Maybe they were trying to build on what they’d done in the final battle scene in ‘Absolute Justice.’

Another problem I had with it was that I think they were trying to change the so-called ‘Clark-time’ look too much. I liked the way they used to do it better, with everyone except Clark in slow-motion. When I thought of that, the original concept behind the look, it made me realize what had felt so off about the last fight sequence in ‘Absolute Justice’ and why what they did here, which went a lot further, actually felt more than off: it felt… wrong.
I think the original idea behind the so-called Clark-time, the super slow motion photography of Clark as everyone around him is almost completely still, has been undermined by this new technique. What made those sequences so cool was the idea of a guy who could move so fast that it would seem to him like everyone else is standing still. The Clark-time gave us a glimpse into what that might look like, if it were possible. That’s cool and still is and I hope this new style doesn’t mean they’re moving away from that.

Now, what they have done here was beautiful, even gorgeous. A few of the moments were even breath-taking, but I still didn’t like it mostly because in my opinion it just doesn’t fit the show. Although I thought the sequences were skillfully shot and staged, Clark shouldn’t ever be put on pause not even to help create shots as stunning as those.
Glen Winter had done a brilliant job in this episode, although I didn’t like how some of the scenes were staged, but the use of slow motion was technically well-done and the beauty shots were awesome. Everything looked gorgeous. I liked the high contrast photography of the scenes in the Checkmate headquarters especially. The memories that John had taken from the Edward Lott as he died were gorgeous, I loved he beauty shots of the chess pieces especially.

I don’t usually talk about editing, I hated editing in school mostly because I didn’t have the patience for it so I don’t usually have a strong opinion on that, but I have to mention it this time. The show was an excellent outing for Editor Andi Armaganian.

The rescue sequence with Clark and the memory sequence as Edward died were both beautifully edited.
And I loved the Checkmate set for Amanda’s office. It’s awesome. James Philpott did a terrific job with that.
I liked the episode a lot, it had great pacing and was beautifully shot. While I had some issues some of the details, overall this was a very solid episode from everyone and I enjoyed it. I give this episode 4.25 Red Queen Chess pieces out of a possible 5.

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