#9.5 “Roulette” Review

WARNING: There are HUGE spoilers in this review. Read at your own risk.

Have you ever seen the Michael Douglas movie “The Game”?

It’s a slightly older film, made back in 1997 when my youngest was still in diapers, so I know it’s been awhile. I also know it doesn’t get much love (it barely made any money), but I adore the film. I’m not sure many people had seen it or would even remember it, twelve years is a long time when you’re talking films. Yet, I know of at least one person who has seen it and remembers it pretty well: this episode’s credited writer, Genevieve Sparling. In fact, Oliver’s part of this episode would probably work pretty well as a Reader’s Digest version of that David Fincher film.

If you haven’t seen “The Game”, let me tell you about it: Michael Douglas’ character is depressed on his birthday (sound familiar?), since it was on the same birthday (the 48th) that his father committed suicide. So, seeing how empty Nicholas’ life has become his younger brother hires a company to give his older brother the birthday gift of a lifetime: a game that only the rich can afford. The game is tailored to the individual and it varies from person to person. It starts out innocently enough, then things start to go wrong and it appeared that a ‘gift’ isn’t what the company who sold the package to his brother really had in mind. They terrorize Nicholas and apparently steal all his money and leave him penniless and stranded in Mexico after he had to break out of a crypt.

So, this episode wasn’t quite the same, although it had a lot of the same elements. Oliver was kidnapped and left for dead somewhere in Metropolis, instead of Mexico, and his money wasn’t stolen before he got locked in a casket, it was stolen afterwards, so the parts that were similar happened at different points in the story. However, the mechanism of the theft was similar given the different technology available back in 1997. (It was sort of a phone scam then, not all that different than the phishing one .) The resolution was also somewhat the same, although the mechanisms of their reaching their resolutions were different. After having an epiphany of some sort, they both discover that there are good reasons to want to live.

Despite the similarities I’m not sure I’d call it a complete rip-off of Director David Fincher’s movie, ideas aren’t copyright protected – just how the ideas are expressed (so this is probably different enough to not really be a total rip-off), but it’s probably the closest the show has come to copying a story from any film. Another recent homage, if you will, was to the “Saw” movies in ‘Committed’ and ‘Mercy’. ‘Lexmas’ and ‘Apocalypse’ had some very broad similarities to Frank Capra’s “It’s A Wonderful Life”, but they weren’t really all that close. There were other stories that were similar to other genre ideas, body swapping isn’t a new idea for example (like ‘Transference’ or ‘Hex’), but nothing was as similar to something else as this was to “The Game”. Although, there was also a bit of a “Saw” influence too, with the taunting Oliver took from that disembodied voice in that warehouse.

While I think that the idea was too heavily influenced by “The Game”, I couldn’t really complain about the effect this story had on Oliver. He was shaken up and made to reexamine his outlook on life, which is probably something that needed to happen. The journey he took here was very compelling; I didn’t know what was going to happen next since it wasn’t exactly like the movie. However, I wasn’t surprised that his money was stolen the way it was. The guy handing him a computer to check his accounts with a computer he provided looked a bit suspicious.

I liked that he was forced to make a choice whether to save Victoria’s life. He tried to save her when he didn’t have to, even though her life wasn’t really in danger. Many people would have understood if he had let her die: she’d kidnapped him, tried to kill him and manipulated him into losing his fortune (or so he had thought). Why shouldn’t he just let her die? I’m sure for most people it would have been easier to just leave her there.

I loved that. While I had some larger problems with the concept of the episode, I did like the growth Oliver had shown in it. Whenever you can show, rather than tell, how much a character has changed then you’re doing a pretty good job. So, I have to give her kudos for that.

I know that this isn’t exactly the same type of situation as when Oliver had decided to kill Lex. He hadn’t orchestrated things to get Victoria’s life into danger, but I feel confident now that if Oliver had it to do over again, he wouldn’t have blown up Lex.

Maybe it was a bit of an extreme way to pull Oliver out of his funk, so I was surprised that Chloe was willing to go that far, but it worked. Thank goodness too. I shudder at the thought that his depression could have lasted even one more episode, so I’m glad that part of this season is over. I was getting tired of the pity party the show was asking us to throw Oliver every week.

While I am not surprised that Oliver keeps beating himself up over his apparent murder of Lex, I am surprised that has dragged on as long as it has. We all know that there’s no way that Lex Luthor is dead. He is Clark’s primary nemesis in all media: in the comics, film and in other versions of Superman on TV. He can’t be dead and it’s past time for them to clarify that.

I would think now we should be past the point that Toyman still needs to languish in prison possibly awaiting trial for a murder that Oliver framed him for, especially when the murder wasn’t actually ever committed. Maybe someone else was in the truck, someone already dead or maybe Lex planted genetic evidence (he’d had his brother and Lana cloned a few years ago, so it’s probably not that far of a stretch to think he might have cloned himself), to prove that Oliver didn’t really do anything wrong. He shouldn’t continue to be hung out to dry for a murder that didn’t happen, especially since an innocent man (well, he’s innocent of that crime anyway) is being blamed for it.

In a way, I can sorta see Lex letting it go on and letting people think he’s dead when he’s not. People thinking that he’s shuffled off this mortal coil will give him time to heal or arrange to get his revenge while his enemies are (thinking he’s kicked the bucket) caught unawares. Actually before the reveal with Chloe at the coffee shop, I had been thinking that Lex was doing just that and was behind the whole thing. Yet, in a way Chloe being behind it makes more sense. He was probably in no real danger ever. She had done it for the right reasons, out of love and concern for her friend. With some superhuman help (Dinah, Bart and Victor) she was able to pull things off she wouldn’t have been able to otherwise. However, I think that they need to clarify the truth about Lex’s current status once and for all and soon.

While I can sort of get on board with the homage to “The Game,” there are other things I really am surprised made it into this episode. There were either badly bungled or just plain wrong.

First off, why on earth would Victoria have Oliver’s car? She was in on the thing with Chloe to a large extent. She faked her own death and the later life-threatening danger, after all. She knew that the ‘game’ wasn’t really intended to clean Ollie out. At the end she said it herself: Oliver needed to see that he was still a hero. She was clearly working for Chloe, and had talked to her about the reasons for the scheme, so why would she take Oliver’s car? (His beautiful yellow $200,000 + Lamborghini…) I know he lost it playing roulette in the tease, but would she have really kept it since he was lured to the casino as part of the game she was hired to play with him?

Was it only to get Lois into an overly orchestrated catfight? I think so, because it makes no sense given the final reveal of Chloe orchestrating the whole ‘game’ from the start. While in the midst of the story, the fight seemed a bit over-the-top, but in retrospect (and during subsequent viewings) it was clearly contrived. The overwrought fight choreography didn’t help at all, either, but more about that later.

Another problem is that Clark seemingly has developed a very, very bad memory. When he talked to Chloe about where Jor-El knew Alia from, Kandor, the possibility of that city having survived the explosion of Krypton seemed to have never even occurred to him before. Funny thing about that, he should have a very, very good idea that Kandor had possibly survived.

At the end of ‘Bloodline’, the episode which brought Clark’s cousin Kara back from the Phantom Zone, she had said “When I was in that hell hole, I heard rumors that Kandor still exists. Kal-El, I think that a part of our civilization may have survived before the explosion. If I can find that city, I can save our bloodline.”

So, not only had Clark heard before about Kandor possibly surviving the destruction of their home world, he had even (in his next line after her statement) offered to help Kara find it! Even if Genevieve didn’t know, or remember, that little tidbit from last season, someone else in the writer’s room or in the production offices should have. It was only a little less than a year ago, ‘Bloodline’ aired only last November.

And it’s not like he’s forgetting something that happened five years ago about a stranger. I really doubt that Clark would forget something that happened less than a year ago that involved his sole living relative, his cousin Kara, which also dealt with his no-longer-existent home world. You’d think Clark’s memories about people and places so important to him would last a little longer than that, even if the writers’ and producers’ are being a bit on the air-headed side about their own canon.

That was a fairly big oops.

I am a bit disturbed that Chloe would push Oliver as far as she did, even getting her cousin Lois in danger (even if unexpectedly). Yet, her plan worked. Oliver was in a pretty deep funk and it probably would take a lot to jar him out of it.

I’m a bit skeptical of Lois all of a sudden becoming so chummy with Oliver again. They were clearly over, despite Ollie’s longing for her a couple of episodes ago in ‘Rabid’. He’d also been on a complete bender for months and totally MIA. She even made references to him being too drunk to notice his factory blowing up just in the previous episode, ‘Echo’. Why would Lois, just a week or so later, be so sure that Oliver would keep their standing yearly birthday plans? I don’t think she would. Again: that seemed a bit contrived, as did her overblown anger at Clark for not telling Oliver’s secrets. Not that I have complaints about Erica’s acting in that regard, she did a marvelous job. I’m just questioning the motivations…

She knows that Oliver has secrets. It’s not even clear that she is aware whether Clark knows about Oliver’s alternate life as the Green Arrow. Even if she is hurt that Oliver didn’t tell her the truth, she can’t expect Clark to violate Oliver’s privacy that way. She hasn’t made it her business to tell Oliver’s secrets to Clark, yet she expects Clark to tell her Oliver’s? Not cool. And I see why Clark did what he did and I even understand why Lois got so angry (he had just lied to her about Oliver being okay back at the farm), but, again, the depth of her ire was contrived. However, I suppose it will make for some good drama later when they get around to apologizing to one another.

Oh and why would Lois act as an enabler to Oliver? Wouldn’t a drinking game be the last thing you’d want to do with a man who’s been on a several month long bender? It’s great that’s she’s such an awesome friend to Oliver, but would that really be in his best interest?

While I’m talking about that, would Oliver and Lois really play beer pong? It’s a drinking game for college kids involving ping pong balls and half-filled cups of beer (which is usually a team game anyway). Unless she’s really bad at it and he likes getting her drunk.

I dunno, maybe it might be Lois’ thing, but I don’t see Oliver doing that. Yet, she has a joi de vivre that just might be infectious. I’m betting if someone like Lois asked, not even Oliver (billionaire and closet vigilante) would be able to pass up the invitation.

As for the minimal involvement of Clark in this episode, I actually expect that of episodes that precede Tom’s directorial stints, but this time that wasn’t the case. As much as I love Oliver and Lois, this isn’t the Green Arrow show with Lois one of his supporting characters. It’s a Superman show and it’s a shame when Superman isn’t in an episode very much. Hopefully they’ll make up for it in the next episode.

There were actually things I did like about this script, despite the fact that I’ve spent the previous 2,300 words or so ripping several things about it to shreds.

I loved the Clark and Lois scenes. They were light and fluffy and very cute. It was nice that he, again, figured out ways to get away from Lois long enough to save lives without her being any wiser. I really hope they keep that up. The comedy was good, loved Lois’ line about most guys not complaining about the possibility of her suddenly becoming shirtless.

I loved that Clark made reference to an ‘anti-life formula’… Well, to be honest at first I was confused and then I saw people talking about it online and caught a link to the Wiki page for it. Apparently it’s from Superman comics. The Anti-Life Formula is something that will grant the person who has it the ability to completely control another’s life, thus making them have no life, so an anti-life formula. It’s tied to another major Superman villain, Darkseid. It’s a vague reference so maybe it’s foreshadowing that will happen and maybe it isn’t, but it’s pretty cool they dug into the comic canon to find that reference. That was a nice touch.

I also liked the ending scene a lot. It was good to see Oliver back in the saddle again, as it were, there at Clark’s side, ready to combat crime again. The foreshadowing of coming complications of the Kandorian story arc was a pretty good cliff-hanger too.

The drama in this episode was terrific. It was good fodder for the cast to show off their acting chops and the stakes kept rising throughout for all the characters. The dialog was good as were the act breaks. Overall, it was a capably written script by Genevieve, even if I didn’t like all of the details.

Tom Welling wasn’t in this episode much considering he plays Clark Kent in a Superman TV show, but when he was on screen he was awesome. I loved how he had Clark deal with Lois showing up unexpectedly for movie night. That was a cute series of scenes, Tom plays Clark so cute when he’s flustered so I adored that part of the episode.

I also liked Clark at the end of the episode. He’d taken charge and Tom played that part very well. I liked the way those scenes were written, but I also like how Tom played them. He plays the steely determination that is more Superman than Clark Kent very well.

Allison Mack was barely in this episode, but she was terrific in what scenes she did have. Although, I didn’t completely like Chloe being behind the ‘game’ that she’d trapped Oliver in, I did like how Allison played Chloe doing that. Chloe isn’t always a good liar and it was nice to see her lie badly a few times.

I loved that scene with Oliver especially. I liked the way she played it when Chloe realized she’d been caught. It was a subtle change in her body language, but the way that Allison played the scene it was like Chloe didn’t think that Ollie would figure it out. I liked how she had Chloe lay it all out for Oliver, even the subtle, implied ‘yeah, right?’ when she said that there’s no way that Clark would have ever agreed to the risks. Maybe Chloe should sometimes ask herself ‘What would Clark do?’ when moral dilemmas come up. Probably my favorite part of that scene was the end. Allison played Chloe as loving and caring, despite everything. She gave Chloe a very nice gentle, but sure, resolve that was perfect.

Erica Durance gave a terrific performance as Lois. She gave Lois a vulnerability that was awesome, yet she was so strong at the same time. I liked how tenacious she played Lois when she went with Clark to find Oliver. She was adamant that they find Oliver, yet when she found evidence that he had tried to kill himself, she became so sad, so vulnerable. She played that perfectly and made the scene heartbreaking. I’d also say the same thing about her final scene with Oliver in the fifth act, but when she started joking with Oliver I liked that too. It was another terrific episode from Erica.

Justin Hartley has given another really stellar performance. While I wasn’t all that happy with the story itself, I have no such complaints about Justin’s performance. He did a wonderful job portraying Oliver through wide-ranging types of emotions, and it sounds like through a bit of a head cold. I hope he’s feeling better, his voice sounded a bit rough in that final casino scene with Victoria. I especially liked the scenes at the end with Lois, Chloe and Clark. I haven’t been too happy with this descent into some abyss of self-loathing that Oliver had gone through, but I’m glad Justin had a chance to show us that he’s more than just a pretty face. The man can really act and I’ve enjoyed that part of this episode very, very much.

Steph Song was terrific. She played Victoria/Roulette as smart, sexy and with a get-down-to-business attitude. Even when she was playing Victoria playing Oliver, she had a sexy, edgy quality that I liked. She played it perfectly, making Victoria seem strong yet believably made her seem vulnerable too. The tears she was able to produce in the street scene was a nice choice. I hope she makes a return visit.

Directing-wise, Kevin G. Fair turned in yet another strong episode. Everyone from the top down gave excellent performances and I liked how fluid the camera was in this.

Director of Photography Barry Donlevy did a terrific job shooting this episode, with what looks like very capable help from Chris McMullin, his A Camera/Stedi Cam Operator. I like the way it started, with the music montage at the beginning. With Vikash Patel’s beautifully delicate editing and the nice use of slow motion photography, with the graceful transitions between shots along with that song that played over it, the montage was fantastic.

I loved the Stedi Cam work in several places during the episode. The bit in the tease after the camera followed Oliver out onto the street was very nicely done.

Also, I LOVED the crane shot (I think it was a crane shot) at the end that started low on the gargoyle and then rotated around Oliver and moved up and pulled back as the camera continued moving, ending up with the camera looking down on him as he stood watch over the city. It was a beautifully done shot.

I don’t usually have too many complaints with the stunts, so I had look up who was the Stunt Coordinator on this episode; it was Jacob Rupp. (Sorry, Jacob… You can thank iTunes for making the credits legible.) Most often, the fights look pretty realistic, but in this case I didn’t buy the way that fight between Lois and Victoria played out. It looked too choreographed, almost like the way a Jackie Chan movie’s fights are done: quick and almost going by a beat. I could almost hear someone counting as they went back and forth. Maybe making it look like an Asian martial arts film was the intent, but I don’t quite buy Lois being that good compared to Victoria. (Roulette’s a skilled martial artist in the comics.) It wasn’t quite as stylized as the “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon” style with all the wire work (although, in a way Clark’s fight with Alia in ‘Savior’ was a bit like that), but this still looked too rehearsed.

I would also like to object to the show again have Lois getting knocked out so easily. The woman must have Swiss cheese for brains at this point since she’s been knocked out so often. That is getting a bit ridiculous, but if they insist on having Lois out cold every episode it might be more believable if she took a hit that looked like it could have actually knocked her out. She merely fell to the floor in that casino scene.

Although, I must say that I did like the foot chase through Metropolis and the fight in the club just before that. The fight was exciting and the chase was thrilling. Those were both very well done.

Production Designer James Philpott and his Set Decorator, Andrea French, did a wonderful job redesigning/redressing the Talon coffee shop set to be a cheesy casino. I couldn’t even really tell it was the same set at first until one shot showed the stairs going up. They did a terrific job.

I really liked the red sheath dress that Melanie Williams had Roulette in. She looked fabulous in it, and the slightly different dress she put Lois in suited Erica’s figured very well. I also liked Oliver’s white linen suit.

I’m still not liking the very smooth, pin-straight hairstyle for Erica. It’s too shiny and looks unnaturally stiff, again like Lois is using too much hair product. I hope Key Hair Stylist doesn’t make this a recurring theme for Lois. I do like what’s she doing with everyone else, though. Tom’s hair looked awesome the whole episode as did Justin’s and Allison’s. I like the shorter hair cut for Allison is adorable and suits her face well.

Tina Teoli, Key Make-Up Artist, did a wonderful job in this episode. Not sure what she’s doing differently with Allison Mack’s make-up, but Allison’s eyes looked particularly beautiful in the last scene with Oliver at the coffee shop and again in the final scene with Clark at Watchtower. The make-up was subtle and fit her character perfectly, it looked very natural and not overdone like some wannabe movie-star.

I loved the music for this episode, so composer Louis Febre did another outstanding job. The discordant tones were the perfect choice when Oliver was losing consciousness out in the street.

I also liked the song that played over that, ‘Daisy’ by Brand New, so whoever chooses those things did a very good job. It was about losing the lust for life, as Oliver said so himself he had lost his so that song was perfect.

I don’t normally complain much about the Special Visual Effects, or CGI, they usually are so good that it’s hardly noticeable. Like that roulette wheel close-up matched with that CGI ball bouncing around. I had to look at that several times, but I’m pretty sure that was a special effect not a real ball. However, another effect they almost completely blew was the dog jumping through the glass. I think I could have drawn a more realistic looking pattern for the broken glass, it was that rough. It completely pulled me out of the scene at a time when the audience shouldn’t be reminded that ‘Smallville’ is a TV show with next-to-no budget. I think Entity FX and Entity FX North need to work harder to do a better job than that.

Now, I come to the part where I grade the episode. I usually try to come up with some halfway cute, or even possibly almost humorous, grading scale and I usually give a short sentence or two reason exactly why the episode got the grade it did. Even with that, I always get flack about the grades I give the episode, especially with the more controversial ones. People get upset, I guess, if I’m not validating some particular perspective on the episode. So, this time I want to explain a little bit my thinking on the process:

I will sometimes judge an episode more highly than others, even when there is so much to hate about it, if the episode (even with all its faults) managed to be an enjoyable one. Like this one.

Man, there was a lot to hate or strongly dislike about this episode, so many head scratching moments, but there was also so much to love too. So much so that, despite its faults, in the end I’m almost killing myself that I’m going to have to grade this higher than I would have normally because it was just so entertaining. Everything was so well done, except the oopsies I’ve pointed out, of course.

This episode was extremely difficult to grade because it was just so enjoyable, so I had to compare this in my mind to similar episodes in the past. The one that I kept getting back to was last year’s nearly unwatchable ‘Toxic’. I graded that one higher than I would have otherwise because, for the most part, it was an enjoyable episode, but it didn’t stand up as well to being viewed multiple times as this one did.

Then, I had given ‘Toxic’ only 3 thorny toxic flowers out of a possible 5…

Perhaps that was too generous, but I don’t think this one was only a half a point better than that one. Also, there were other episodes that I had graded as a 3.5 that weren’t as entertaining as this one. This was more entertaining and much better acted than the previous episodes I’d graded as a 3.5 (‘Wither’, ‘Subterranean’ and ‘Turbulence’ to name a few).

Since I don’t grade with quarter points, I’m going to have to give this 3.25 mud-stained white linen suits out of a possible 5.

Note: The views of Triplet don’t necessarily represent the thoughts and feelings of everyone at KryptonSite. Send her feedback.