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
Clark, with chore list in hand, goes to the barn looking for the General. "List completed and accounted for, sir," he says to what seems like an empty barn. He notices an impromptu interrogation setup in the middle of the barn, with a chair and spotlight. General Lane emerges from the shadows, wearing fatigues. He plucks the list from Clark's hand and makes him sit. Sadly, it is not on a Judas Cradle. The spotlight focuses on Clark like he's a day-old wing at KFC. "Lois likes to date men of action," the General says. "Men who make the news." He disses Clark for only reporting the news. He can't see why his daughter would be interested in him. Clark suggests he ask Lois. The General did something even better and more psychotically inappropriate: "I asked somebody at the Pentagon, instead." The General says with equal parts disgust and suspicion that Clark's record is clean. He suggests that Clark's mother (a.k.a. Senator Kent) wiped it out.
Clark gets up from his chair. "Excuse me, sir, but what gives you the right to spy on us?" He manages to sound amazingly polite, given the complete lack of decency he's been shown. The General blusters about being a four-star general and a war hero. He knows when someone's hiding something. He points to Clark's list of chores, which no one could have completed without help. "You're looking for enemies where they don't exist," Clark says. "Just like your vigilante witch hunt." He turns to leave, but the General is intrigued that Clark brought up the vigilantes. He smiles like a reptile would smile, had it the requisite lip flexibility. He presents Clark with the envelope that Lucy "found" in Clark's loft. It contains pictures of Clark talking to Kara. For some reason, this is a smoking gun to the General, even though he should have already known that the two were cousins. "You're in league with them," the General says. "I'm not on trial, Sam," Clark says, dropping any titles of respect. "You want to protect the United States, but as soon as you're threatened, everyone's rights go out the window?" If this episode had been made a few years ago, that would have been quite the stinging commentary on the Patriot Act. Clark says Lois is afraid to be herself around the General, and with cause. They get into a shouting match that should be largely family to anyone who's ever dated anyone with hardass parents. "I love your daughter," Clark says with all the fervor he can muster. "And I don't want a day to go by where I'm not with her." Alas, Sam is not swayed: "Well, I hope you enjoyed today, because it's the last day you'll ever spend with her." He stomps off, leaving Clark to make sad faces all by himself.