Episode Report Card Tippi Blevins: C+ | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT Patriot Acting Up
By Tippi Blevins | Season 10 | Episode 7 | Aired on 11.05.2010
In the Suicide Squad van, Goatee readies the missile. Flag recites (but thankfully does not sing) lines from "The Star-Spangled Banner" to mark the occasion. "Missile is locked on target, sir," Goatee says, reverting to the generic Eastern European accent of earlier. At the same time, the Watchtower gang have assembled in their favorite phallic hangout. Clark is in his new red leather jacket, but it's unzipped so that the shield looks kind of like the two halves of one of those "best friends" heart pendants. He's looking at the screen where "ASSASSINATE HERO TARGET IN SMALLVILLE" is still blinking. "There's only one tattooed hero at that address," Oliver says. Clark looks at the screen, thinks about it for a while, and goes "I'm the target!" Have a cookie. Tess thinks it's odd that Flag would try to kill him rather than recruit him. She thinks Flag, having fought side by side with the super-powered, identifies with them. "To him, you're all freedom fighters," she says, "and he would attack anyone that threatens that." And yet, he tortures superheroes. Way to show the love, bud. Tess rattles off a list of those Flag might attack in his psycho zeal: "Presidents, senators, the military..." That makes Clark connect the dots between General Lane, the Vigilante Restriction Act and Flag. Clark zips away.
Flag launches the missile by simply pushing a big button that anybody could have bumped into. "God bless America," he says as it zips into the night sky. Sam and Lucy are walking to their car outside the Talon when the missile hits the building. Inside, the explosion hurls Lois and all her worldly possessions halfway to kingdom come. Suddenly everything slows to super-duper-slo-mo as Clark runs in. Lois falls incrementally toward the floor. A toaster does leisurely cartwheels through the air. The fireball expands at a glacial pace. As soon as Clark grabs Lois, everything speeds up again. The explosion rocks the Talon, blowing out the windows. "Lois!" Sam cries. I bet it smells like coffee for miles around now. Sam watches the fire with sad eyes. He seemed like the kind of guy who would go running in for his daughter, safety be damned. It's just as well he didn't, because Lois appears beside him as if by magic. He and Lucy embrace her. There's a whooshing sound and then Clark's symbol appears in flames on the wall of an adjacent building. Couldn't he make the symbol smaller, at least? Or maybe use a water-based paint instead of burning it into stuff? That can't be easy to clean up. And it seems like such a glory hog move. Sam is stunned to realize that the Blur saved his daughter's life. Does he not read the paper when he's keeping tally of Lois's bylines? The Blur saves her all the dang time!