Episode Report Card Tippi Blevins: A- | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT War Games
By Tippi Blevins | Season 9 | Episode 17 | Aired on 04.09.2010
The guy who looks like Tom Bergeron walks into a dark alley where his car is parked. What the hell is with everybody on this show parking in dark alleys? Nine times out of ten, it leads to death or a savage beating! Tom either senses someone watching him or assumes someone is watching him, considering his poor choice of parking space. Sure enough, John Jones is standing on a nearby rooftop, eyes glowing red. John lands in the alley. "What do you want?" Tom asks. "I believe you've made a critical error," John says, revealing the ear piece in his hand. "I believe this is yours." Tom whips out a gun and fires, but John simply places his hand over the barrel and diffuses the blast. He demands to know the location of Checkmate's castle. Instead of answering, Tom asks, "Who are you working for?" "Someone who will not hesitate to expose your double life," John says mysteriously. Is it Gossip Girl? I bet it's Gossip Girl. Tom looks scared, but says nothing. He swallows hard and immediately starts spitting up blue foam. He falls to the ground, convulsing. Instead of rushing him to the hospital, John uses his Martian powers to probe Tom's mind for information, seeing images of the castle, Waller, and various chess pieces. Tom sputters and dies. John closes the dead man's eyes.
The delivery truck from earlier is parked in a hangar-like facility, possibly at the airfield that was its aforementioned destination. Tess inspects the door the Green Arrow blasted through. "Clearly, you are rusty," Waller says as she walks in with two armed henchmen. Tess lowers her gaze. Waller says she knew Green Arrow escaped the second it happened. Tess says nothing. "Did you properly secure the detainee?" Waller asks. Tess tries to explain about the hidden lock pick, which only pisses off Waller even more. "The correct answer," she barks, "is, 'No, I did not properly secure the detainee!'" Waller calms down and walks over to Tess, saying how disappointed she is. The angry elephant blasts its trumpet to underscore the sentiment. Waller goes on: "Green Arrow may not have been our end game, but he was our opening move." Tess asks for another chance to get him, but Waller thinks Tess's loyalties may lie somewhere else. Tess swears her full commitment. "You'd better be, or you're out," Waller says. "And we both know there's only one way out." Tess looks scared.
Watchtower. Clark is impatient as Chloe tries to track down the earpiece's serial number, as seen when Clark X-rayed John's pocket. Chloe, worried, says the earpiece seems to be government-issued. "Why would the government take Green Arrow?" Clark asks. Oliver walks into the room at this opportune moment, with a quip at the ready: "Considering what I pay out every year, it better not be for tax evasion." Clark and Chloe both turn at the sound of his voice. Chloe, obviously relieved, rushes over to him and throws her arms around his neck. They hug and look into each other's eyes with big smiles as Clark watches their reunion. He gives them all of three seconds before interrupting: "I'm glad you're safe, too," he says, a slight tang of piss in his voice. Did he want a hug from Oliver, too? Oliver and Chloe, momentarily oblivious, rub noses and continue holding on to each other. They finally glance over at Clark, who prompts Oliver to fill them in on what happened to him. Chloe and Oliver finally sheepishly tear themselves away from each other and get down to the matter at hand. Oliver, using terrible, pork-related dialog I won't repeat, explains the scene we saw earlier, up to and including Waller telling him about recruiting heroes for the government. "I'm guessing you didn't get the Evite," he says when Clark looks confused. "No," Clark says, "but someone else did, which explains why John Jones was covering for them." I guess it's not the wildest leap someone on this show has ever made, but still: Huh? The only other bit of info Oliver has is that the organization is called Checkmate, which triggers Chloe's memory of Sylvester Pemberton's death and how he warned her that "they" had come for the Justice Society and would come after Watchtower's gang next. "His dying word was 'check,'" she says, the pieces finally falling into place. Chloe goes over to one of the computers.