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
Back at the Kent house, Lois is chopping veggies while the General watches football on TV. The game is interrupted by a news report of a burning refinery in Smallville. "Clark should see this," the General says. "Remind him what a real hero is." Clark walks through the door, arms laden with groceries, bearing news of a cranberry shortage at the store. He totally could have run up to a cranberry bog in Massachusetts for some. Lois subtly directs Clark's attention to the refinery fire report. As soon as the General looks away, he super-zips out the door, leaving Lois holding the groceries. She says Clark went upstairs for something. Of course, now the General thinks Clark has been less than a gentleman, because apparently even in 2010 men aren't supposed to let women carry groceries. It gives them muscular, manly arms or some shit like that. Lois just smiles helplessly instead of sticking up for her man. Behind them, the news is reporting that the fire is out, thanks to the Blur. Clark's S-shield has been emblazoned into the side of the refinery. The General is unimpressed. "Leave it to the Blur to turn a fire into a photo op." Clark suddenly returns with a bag of cranberries and soot on his face. Lois wipes off a smudge, but the General is instantly suspicious. They go through this whole sitcom thing of Clark supposedly being upstairs but reappearing through the kitchen door. It is as lame as it is annoying. Clark excuses himself to answer a phone call from Oliver. When he hears what Oliver has to say, he tells everyone he's off to chop some wood, as his chore list demands. This, like everything else, makes Lois's father suspicious. As soon as Clark as out of earshot, he makes a call of his own. "Get me a full workup on Clark Kent," he says, spelling out the name. "He's hiding something."
Clark meets Oliver in the hayloft for a full-body scan. It doesn't involve the further removal of clothing, though. Oliver just waves the little wand thing over Clark until he finds the tag under the skin of his left shoulder. He shows Clark the skull symbol. Oliver is surprised that Flag was able to tag Clark through his impermeable skin. Clark supposes he used blue Kryptonite. How would Flag know his various weaknesses? Is Martha falling down on her Red Queen duties? Oliver says Tess is doing research back at Watchtower, then whinges about how Tess is acting like she owns the building now. Dude, she got a new desk and some chairs. She didn't hang her bras in your bathroom, okay? "If it wasn't for her, we wouldn't know about these tattoos," Clark reminds him. Oliver pouts a little but stops bitching. Clark hears someone approaching. "You gotta go," he says. "What, out the window?" Oliver asks. "Are we sixteen?" He laughs, but Clark is serious. Oliver sighs and does a neat somersault out the window, landing in a pile of hay.