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I'm really torn about this episode. The geek in me is all excited about all the comics tie-ins and the costumes. Then there's the recapper in me, who is aghast at some of the truly terrible acting and dialog, the plot holes, etc. I'll let my warring halves battle it out in the full recap. On to the recaplet! This is going to get confusing, especially if you aren't a comics enthusiast, so hold on.
Someone is killing off the members of the old Justice Society of America, one by one. A rumpled, homeless Sylvester Pemberton (a.k.a. the Star-Spangled Kid) is attacked while asking Chloe for help. He flips her into a dumpster for her own protection and ends up killed by someone or something that can shoot giant icicles. This sets Chloe on the path to digging up the truth about Pemberton, who, according to his arrest records was apparently part of a gang of criminals. Sandman is killed and either he or his attacker scrawl the letters "JSA" in his blood. Nobody knows what it stands for. Clark encounters a teen girl named Courtney Whitmore (aka Stargirl) at the hospital, bereft to find that Pemberton has died. Clark offers a shoulder to cry on, but she sees his Press badge and thinks he's just after a story. Meanwhile, Chloe and Oliver have tracked down one of the remaining criminals, a gruff and cranky fellow named Carter Hall (aka Hawkman, aka scruffy Michael Shanks). He's the keeper of a dusty old museum whose contents are obscured under sheets, and the keeper of the mentally shattered Dr. Kent Nelson (aka Dr. Fate), who, in turn is the keeper of a wizard-possessed mask named Nabu. I told you it was going to get confusing, didn't I?
At first, Carter is reluctant to go back to his superhero days, and he really doesn't like Oliver, but he's eventually persuaded when the pattern of deaths becomes obvious. He then persuades poor Dr. Nelson to once don the Nabu mask in order to become Dr. Fate. Dr. Fate tracks down Chloe and Clark at the hospital morgue, checking out the frost-bitten body of Sandman. Dr. Fate ominously tells Chloe that her fate is like his own. Why? Because, like Dr. Fate, Chloe can see what everyone else is doing (via Watchtower, anyway) but her own fate, like his, is obscured. When Fate looks at Clark, he sees the Superman cape. He zaps Clark over to the museum. When he comes to, Clark uncovers all the displays, revealing a treasure trove of comics geekery. There are weapons, trinkets, and costumes galore. The gang weren't criminals, but heroes who were arrested and discredited in the public eye some decades ago. They, along with a much welcomed John Jones (aka Martian Manhunter), all eventually decide to work together to find out who's killing the old JSA members.
Turns out, it's Cameron Mahkent, son of the comatose Joar Mahkent, both known as Icicle. Cameron, bent on revenge because the JSA are responsible for his father's condition, has been recruited by Agent Amanda Waller of an organization known as Checkmate. She's the one who's hunting down the former JSA members and using Icicle as her pawn. You know who else is her pawn? Lois Lane, who shows up at the story's midpoint to receive a package with all the JSA's criminal records. This leads her to the museum, where she encounters Fate. He intones something about her being important to the "savior" and "the sentient power." She eventually uncovers the truth about the cover-up and has a run-in with Waller, who's using Lois for her own means, but Lois is too happy to grab a headline to realize it. Waller also has some kind of history with Tess, as evidenced by the White Queen chess piece she leaves on Tess's desk.
Dr. Fate and John Jones track Icicle to a liquid nitrogen depot where he refuels his icy powers. He also skewers Fate through various vital organs. Fate, instead of saving himself, uses the last of his strength to restore John's long-gone powers. Icicle grabs the Nabu helmet and puts it on. The remaining JSA come together in the Watchtower to fight Icicle, who's even more powerful now with the helmet. The moral of the story is that everyone is stronger when they come together. Even Hawkman and Oliver eventually come to a grudging sort of admiration for each other. Along the way, the Watchtower gang also learn that they should treat each other more like family and not just like teammates. This leads to a cute scene where Oliver shows up at Watchtower to invite Chloe and the gang to dinner, for no reason other than to hang out.
At the end, Waller puts a bullet through Icicle's head, saying, "Welcome to the Suicide Squad." How'd she get hold of him when sure the JSA and Watchtower Buddies surely had him arrested? I guess Checkmate is just that powerful. As she walks out of Icicle's holding cell, she encounters Tess, who she awesomely addresses as "Agent Mercer." It's been a while since they last saw each other. Let's hope it's not very long until they see each other again.
I'm leaving out tons of details, and I probably got some things mixed up, but check out the full recap for what I hope will be a clearer story.
Discuss this episode in our forums, then check out our guide to the comic-book heroes and villains of Smallville!
Want more? The full recap starts right below!The show -- er, movie -- opens with a cinematic sweep of Metropolis at night. The accompanying music is appropriately grand, yet also quiet and menacing. The pace of the music picks up, becoming urgent as we swoop down to street level. Chloe's just exiting Radu's Internet Cafe with a nice, big cup o' joe in one hand and her cell phone in the other. She's leaving the latest of many messages for Clark, who apparently hasn't been calling her back She walks away from the cafe, telling Clark that she knows he's busy with all the Kryptonian stuff, but she really needs to get the "super gang" together. Girl, don't apologize. Take charge of the situation! Order him around! He responds to bossy girls. She says they need to start taking things more seriously. Suddenly, her phone makes a little electronic strangling noise. The street lamps and shop signs all around her fizzle and go dark. She looks around and finds herself completely alone. People on this show have got to start parking their cars in more public places; it seems like half the times their attacked, it's when they're walking alone to their cars. She looks up and sees a man standing on a fire escape landing, wearing a flapping trench coat and carrying a tall, glowing staff. She translates this as the International Sign For Get the Hell Out of There and runs.
The glowing light from the staff follows her into an alley. Heroic music plays as the light dims and reveals the man standing before her. He's wearing a star-spangled shirt beneath his trench and looks to be in his late forties or early fifties. "Who are you?" Chloe asks. "My name is Sylvester Pemberton," he says in an odd, stilted accent that I don't quite think is intentional. It's like a really bad John Wayne impression, with tinges of something Germanic. He says he and Chloe are both trying to put a team together. Chloe feigns ignorance, but he knows she's called Watchtower. He says technology these days makes hiding a lot harder. He politely calls her "Miss Sullivan" which makes me like him despite his weird, stiff delivery. As he steps closer to her, it's clear that he's more than a bit scruffy. He calls himself a friend, but Chloe scoffs. Just then, the breeze picks up and the temperature drops precipitously. Chloe shivers. Sylvester looks around, sensing danger, then picks up Chloe and flips her into a nearby dumpster, slamming the lid down after her. "Stay down, Miss Sullivan," he says. Aww. Through a handy screen in the side of the dumpster, she sees flurries of ice and flashes of blue light. There are sounds of a fight coming from outside. The dumpster shakes violently and projectiles of ice pierce the walls, narrowly missing Chloe. When the fight is over, Chloe climbs out of the now-frozen dumpster to find Sylvester lying on the ground, his torso full of bloody holes. He gasps shakily for breath. Chloe calls for help. He grabs her shoulder and says, "They came after us, they'll come after all of you!" He tries to say who's coming, but can only get out one last word: Check. Chloe frantically asks him who's coming, but he's already dead. Somebody save Chloe! Because it's too late for Sylvester.
Hospital. Maybe they should change the name of the show to Metropolis General Hospital since we spend so much time there anyway. It'll be like Grey's Anatomy with super powers. Clark shows up to check up on Chloe, who's just finishing up her exam with an ER doctor. Clark asks if she's OK. Chloe laughs it off as "just some moderate frostbite." These people have become so inured to injury and danger. Chloe's more concerned about Clark, since she hasn't heard from him in days now. Clark apologizes for playing phone tag with her, but Chloe says no apologies are needed -- he's been busy protecting the streets of Metropolis and chasing down Lois Lane. Plus, he's leading the Kandorians on top of all that. There are people all around them while this conversation is going on, but I guess everyone else has become inured to weirdo talk from random people. "I'm only helping them find their place here," he corrects her. They're just trying to make a home on Earth, like John Jones did when he joined the police department. Last week, you were angry enough to threaten to kill them and now you're helping them study for their citizenship tests? All right. Chloe is skeptical about the Kandorians and gives Clark a look that says, "You poor, big, crazy alien." At this point, they both notice that a doctor is giving a cop the bloodied shirt that Sylvester was wearing. Chloe also notices the star-spangled cell phone that passes between the doc and the cop. [Between that phone and the Gleek-phone used by Zan and Jayna, it seems like customized cell phones are the hot new hero accessories. - Zach] She takes out her own phone and goes over to sneakily download Sylvester's phone records. Clark, meanwhile, notices a pretty blond lady having an emotional outburst in the hall behind him. A cop has just told her that Sylvester is dead. She doesn't want to believe it. She looks sort of like an older version of Hilary Duff. She sniffles and wipes her eyes. Clark approaches her with a word of concern. She cries that her friend was murdered. Clark politely offers to sit down and talk with her, but she sees his press badge and thinks he wants a story from her. She gets the hell out of there. Chloe sees the exchange and walks over to Clark. She fills Clark in on the rest of the info: Sylvester had a uniform, had a staff that could control light, he knew about Watchtower. "And he was killed by ice from someone... or some thing." It's all reminding her of the Wall of Weird from the old days. She puts Clark on the job, giving him the phone and telling him Sylvester's last phone call was with a man named Wesley Dodds.
Speaking of Wesley Dodds, he's sitting in a cluttered apartment full of retro-looking doodads, like thermoses, clocks, and multiple coffee percolators. Oh, and there's a gas mask, because no crazy hoarder's pad is complete without one. He's asleep in his recliner when he starts to dream of Sylvester being killed by a pale young man wielding a giant icicle. He wakes up in a sweat and crosses the room calmly to where the gas mask is displayed with a dark green coat and hat. He stares at the mask for a while, with either reverence or dread, before donning the outfit. Now transformed into the Sandman, he studies himself in the mirror for a moment. A figure appears behind him in the mirror, too fuzzy to make out the details. The intruder says he's the one from his dream, and taunts him about the Sandman dreaming of killers. "It's time for the Sandman to finally have a good night's sleep," the stranger says, in a really annoying tone of voice. The Sandman's gas mask freezes and shatters.
Watchtower. Oliver shows up, having finally responded to one of Chloe's ten messages. They've got the poor girl in another fugly shirt this week, with a torn shred that crosses her chest in a weird way. She's frustrated because she's been trying to get in touch with the other "Super Friends" but no one's gotten back to her. She thinks the group needs structure. They need etiquette lessons about returning calls, is what they need. Oliver notes that Chloe's on a kick lately, monitoring phone conversations, bank records and emails. "Big sister is watching," Chloe quips. He notices that his own personal email is up on one of the screens. He hurries to explain: "I want you to know those messages between Canary and me were purely platonic." Chloe moves right past that and focuses on the job at hand. She pulls up Sylvester's criminal record, citing arrests for fraud and embezzlement. She says he has no family but there was a friend who showed up at the hospital. She pulls up security video from the hospital and gets a snapshot of the girl from earlier. She matches the picture to a Courtney Whitmore's high school ID card, identifying her as a sophomore. Girl is 30 if she's a day. Chloe reads from Courtney's record that she hasn't been to school in the last three weeks. Chloe doesn't think she's the killer, but she thinks the girl does know something. Chloe prints up a picture of Sylvester's glowing staff to give to Oliver. It's locked up as evidence, so it's up to Oliver to break in and get it. I guess the picture is to help him ID the right staff in case there are a bunch of them locked up in there.
Clark is just showing up at the Sandman's apartment. The place is a wreck. Clark calls out for Mr. Dodds and receives no reply. He notices a splash of blood on the screen of an ancient TV, then catches sight of Dodds lying dead on the floor, his chest and abdomen riddled with bloody wounds and bits of ice. The dead man's outstretched arm leads to an overturned table, where he scrawled the letters "JSA" in his own blood. Clark frowns. Commercials.
Returning to the hospital, Chloe meets up with Dr. Emil Hamilton in the morgue. He's got the late Wesley Dodds on the slab. "No bullets, just residual ice again," Emil tells her. Chloe realizes Dodds and Sylvester were killed by the same kind of ice weapon. Emil says the ice has human DNA in it, meaning the attacker is a meta-human. (Formerly known as Freak of the Week.) "Well, that explains my arctic ride in the dumpster of doom," Chloe says. Almost Shakespearean, isn't it? Oy. Chloe thinks for a moment, frowning, then goes over to the desk where the Sandman's gas mask has been placed in a plastic evidence bag. She fishes it out, getting her prints all over it and contaminating the evidence, but whatever. She studies the mask for a while. Emil says behind her that Clark told him about the letters left at the last crime scene. Does Chloe have any idea what "JSA" stands for? She wonders if it's some kind of calling card, because the killer seems to have some kind of score to settle. [Except the letters were written by the victim, so it can't be a calling card. - Z] She goes off to find Clark and do some digging.
We go to a heretofore unseen location. There's a black-and-white checkered floor, overhead fluorescent lighting, and no furnishings to speak of. A man in black with a platinum fauxhawk sits in the middle of the room, laying out the mugshots of various men and one photograph of Courtney from her yearbook. He smiles as he takes a knife and draws an "X" through the faces on some of the photographs, starting with Sylvester, then Dodds, and finally picks up Courtney's picture. He has white glittery skin. He looks like if Clint Howard had been an aspiring club kid. Now as the camera moves around him, we see a symbol painted on one wall, showing a knight chess piece inside a target with cross hairs, surrounded on two sides by a checkerboard pattern. Welcome to Checkmate, bitches!
Daily Planet. Clark and Chloe are in the archives, looking through old boxes of news reports. Clark grumps about having to dig so deep, but Chloe says there wasn't anything online but Sylvester Pemberton's rap sheet. "Maybe they didn't want anyone else finding it," he says, plucking a file out of one of the boxes. Chloe comes over for a look. The file has the mugshots we've seen before, along with other papers. Clark says Pemberton worked with 12 other known criminals, including Dodds. "He mentioned bringing a team back together," Chloe says. Clark, stating the obvious, says that if they're being brought together, it means at some point they broke apart. Chloe digs around in the box some more and finds an old-timey film reel. They set up a projector and have a look. Clark, looking at the file, says they were systematically caught and brought down, but the crimes don't seem to match who they are. There's footage of a slightly younger Pemberton being led away in handcuffs. up is Wesley Dodds, who had no criminal record before being arrested at a violent student demonstration. The man shown being arrested is Al Pratt, a physics professor. A boxer named Ted Grant is shown being dragged away by cops. The rest of the file shows men like Jay Garrick and Alan Scott, the latter of whom is shown in the film wearing his Green Lantern ring. Even a grandmotherly old woman is shown being arrested. The arrests didn't stick, though, because each one of them tried to take the fall for the other. "I guess during the Golden Age of robbery and racketeering, there was honor among thieves," Chloe says. Clark thinks it goes beyond honor. Chloe thinks it sounds like Clark admires them. "I admire their loyalty," Clark says. Chloe raises an eyebrow and smiles. She tells him she'll stay behind to finish the research, but he needs to go find Carter Hall, who's the name on Sylvester's call list. They glance back up at the film in time to see the aforementioned Mr. Hall being violently taken down by cops. Aw, it's Michael Shanks! Welcome back to my TV, Mr. Shanks! Chloe wonders aloud, "What kind of a team was this?" Heroic music soars. Clark frowns ever so slightly, thinking... possibly about his grocery list? It's hard to say.
All right, when did these arrests take place? The film looked like it was from the 1960s, but no one seems to have aged more than a few years in the interim. This drove me nuts on my first viewing of the episode but I think I'm just going to have to stop thinking about it or I'll never get through the recap. [Comic books have so many different ways of keeping people from aging it's not even funny. Most of them make zero sense in a TV show, even this one. - Z]
Clark zips over to a sturdy-looking stone building that's on the corner of a busy city intersection. Inside he finds a well-appointed mansion that looks a lot like the Luthor mansion, actually. A voice behind him says, "The museum is closed... permanently." Clark turns to see Carter Hall. The years have been especially kind to Mr. Hall. Clark introduces himself as a reporter from the Daily Planet and offers his hand. Carter pointedly doesn't shake it. Instead, he asks Clark what he wants. "I came to talk to you about a few of your friends," he says. Pemberton and Dodds were both murdered. Carter glances down. Coming from another room, a man's frantic muttering reaches Clark. Clark goes to investigate and finds a man huddled in the corner, clutching a bowling bag and rocking back and forth. He mutters about Pemberton and Dodds dying. Beneath his voice, there's an indistinct, otherworldly whispering. "Who's that?" Clark asks. The man mutters that he's Dr. Kent Nelson. "But the doctor's out," he says. Way out. He holds his bowling bag closer. Carter says he hasn't talked to either Pemberton or Dodds in years, but Clark points out that Pemberton called him several times before his death. "I didn't answer," Carter says gruffly. OK, every time you see where I've written "Carter says" anywhere in this recap, just imagine that the adverb "gruffly" appears immediately after. Because he's all about the gruffly. Dr. Nelson keeps muttering to his bowling bag, telling "Nabu" to stop whispering. This prompts Clark to X-ray the bag. A metal mask turns to meet Clark's super-powered gaze and radiates a flash of golden light. Clark blink-blink-blinks. "We have nothing else to say," Carter says, stepping between Nelson and Clark. Clark, a bit shaken, gets out of there. The ethereal whispering continues. Nelson scampers over to Carter, saying, "The helmet says he can help!" "We only help ourselves, Nelson," says Carter, patting the other man on the shoulder. "Like we've always had to." Then answer your damn phone once in a while, dude.
All right, what's the deal with the museum? There's an actual superhero museum and yet no one -- and I mean no one -- remembers any of these superheroes? I mean, it's right there on a busy intersection in the middle of the city! Even if it's "permanently closed" like Carter says, they go around leaving the door open so schmoes off the street can wander in. It makes no sense! Sigh.
Out on the streets of Metropolis, Oliver is calling Chloe to tell her that Sylvester's "glow stick" was missing from the evidence lockup. Hey, speak of the devil! There's Courtney, walking along in broad daylight, carrying the giant, golden, crystal-tipped staff now! Oliver jogs over to her. She scowls at him, which makes her look even older. Oliver points out the staff doesn't belong to her, but she snots that it belongs to her now. He follows her into a deserted alleyway. "It'd be a shame to miss your junior, junior prom because you got arrested for breaking into police lockup." She whips around to face him, staff at the ready. Oliver tells her to cool off, he just wants her help because two of her friends have been murdered. The second murder comes as a surprise to her. She seems about to listen to Oliver, but Nelson jumps into the scene just then. "We help ourselves," he says, grabbing onto the staff. Light flashes from the crystal and Nelson disappears with Courtney, leaving Oliver to gape at the empty air in front of him. Commercials!
Oliver and Chloe show up at the parking lot where they're looking for Sylvester's car. As they look for his car, they wonder why Courtney was "kidnapped" when the rest of the victims were criminals. Chloe thinks it might be that Courtney knew something that Sylvester was hiding. They quickly spot his car, because it's got more fins than a Japanese koi pond. Someone who knows more about cars will have to specify what model this ride is, but it looks like something from the late 1950s or early 1960s. There's a small American flag fixed to the antenna and the Metropolis license plate reads "STAR." Oliver gets his lock picks out, but Chloe just opens the unlocked door with a teasing smile. Inside the car, it's obvious that Sylvester's been using the place as his home. There are empty food wrappers, clothes, and blankets strewn all over the seats. Oliver finds a journal inside the glove box. He closes the box, revealing the car's name: The Star-Rocket Racer. Oliver snarks that this must have been the getaway car. As he flips through the journal, he sees pictures of Aquaman, Canary, Clark, Chloe, and himself. "He knew our identities," Oliver says, handing the journal to Chloe. Chloe thinks this means Courtney knows, too. She didn't seem to recognize Clark in the hospital, though. They trade concerned looks.
Back at the superhero museum, Carter is annoyed. Partly because he's always annoyed, and partly because Nelson has just showed up with Courtney. "You shouldn't have dragged Sylvester's sidekick into this," Carter says. Courtney protests that she is not a sidekick: "I'm his protégé." "You're a little girl," Carter corrects her, grabbing the staff out of her hands. The staff close up looks sort of like gilded plumbing pipes. He tells her to go home and turns on his heel. She follows him through the museum, telling him that the coroner's report said there was frostbite around Sylvester's wounds. "It's him, isn't it?" she asks over Carter's shoulder. Behind them, Nelson babbles about Jack Frost nipping at their toes. Courtney lowers her voice and tells Carter that Oliver had said there are two dead now. They have to do something. Carter takes a long moment to let emotions of pain and regret play out over his lovely, scruffy face. Nabu/Nelson whisper about them needing to do something. Carter takes a breath and turns to Courtney. "Look at Kent Nelson," he tells her. He's currently huddled behind some furniture, but he spends most of his days wandering the streets. Courtney says, "So Dr. Fate is incapacitated; the Sandman and the Star-Spangled Kid are both dead." She lets that sink in for a second, then: "You were their leader. What's your excuse?" He looks pained, but says nothing until she says she'll turn to another team for help if she has to. "Those kids playing hero are hardly a team," he grits out. Courtney says if he'd helped Sylvester when asked, maybe he'd still be alive. Carter scoffs and walks away, telling her not to waste her breath. "I've got enough guilt to last 20 lifetimes," he says. Carter reaches for the door just as Courtney brings out the big arsenal. "What would Shiera have done?" she asks. That gets him to stop. He lets his guard drop a bit as he turns back to look at her. Triumphant hero music plays.
Out in the rainy city, Clark is getting into Chloe's car. He wants to know how they knew his and the others' identities. "I think they've been tracking us for a long time," she says. "Let's just hope the prime murder suspect hasn't." She hands him a file on Joar Mahkent. His police records identify him as a "cryokinetic hitman," aged 43 at the time of his arrest. He was known as the Icicle and he's currently at good old Metropolis General, still recovering from injuries he sustained years ago.
Back at the museum, Carter has resumed his leadership role. "We're going to need him," he says to Nelson, who's still clutching the infernally whispering bowling bag. Those are words I never thought I'd type. Nelson looks scared out of his gourd. He drops the bag onto a nearby table and backs away from it in fear. "My morality may have wavered, but yours never did," Carter says. Poor skittish little Nelson goes back to the bag. He says he can't remember his life before becoming Dr. Fate. He thinks he had a wife, and a family, but he doesn't know where they are. His voice trembles. He's almost crying. Poor guy. "I scared them away," he says. Carter lays a hand on his shoulder. "Not all of them, my friend." Nelson nods with determination and slowly opens the bag. Light streams out. He takes out the golden helmet, whispering to it. "Please, Nabu, don't whisper too loudly. Don't show what could be, or not be." Good luck with that. Taking a deep breath, he holds the helmet up to his face and it molds itself around his head with a starburst of light. He screams. From the mask, a blue and gold costume forms around Nelson's body. A glowing ankh flashes momentarily behind his head. He turns back to Carter and Courtney. His voice is deeper now. "Greetings, Hawkman," he says. Nelson's all gone. "Dr. Fate," Courtney breathes with reverence. Carter crosses the room to a wood-paneled wall. Doors slide open as he approaches, revealing a display of the mask, armor and wings of his superhero self. He picks up the mace that completes the ensemble, testing its weight in his hands. "Time to go hunting," he says. The heroic music reaches a drumming crescendo. Commercials!
Hospital. Again. Clark and Chloe are in mid-conversation when we find them walking together down a hall in the criminal containment ward. Clark wonders what could have torn apart such a close group of people. "They were criminals and they got caught," Chloe says with uncharacteristic harshness. Clark's intuition is telling him that Carter's hiding something more in the museum. Plus, there were sheets covering everything! Chloe stops at one of the patients' doors and grabs a clipboard of medical files. She sighs with disappointment as she reads that the Icicle's been in a vegetative state for ten years. Dead end. "If that's true, then there's no way he can be our killer," Clark says. Thanks, Captain Obvious. Suddenly a golden light and now-familiar whispering begin to emanate from Mahkent's hospital room. Clark and Chloe inside to see Dr. Fate standing over Mahkent's bed, glowing fingers extended over the unconscious man's face. "What are you doing to him?" Clark demands to know, grabbing Fate by the arm. Fate fixes him with a look. With a flash of light, he sees an image from Clark's future: the Superman cape fluttering in space. "Your fate is utterly binding," Fate says to him. "You are of value, Clark Kent." Tell that to the show, dude. He's practically a guest star now. Clark jerks back from Fate. Fate turns to Chloe. "But you... you walk the same path I do, Chloe Sullivan." Her eyes widen in fear. "Who are you?" Clark asks, losing his characteristic bravado. Fate offers to show him. Holding up his hand, an ankh glows in his palm. In a burst of light, he and Clark disappear, leaving Chloe alone in the hospital room with the vegetative criminal.
Later, Chloe returns to the Watchtower. She calls Oliver and tells him Clark was taken by one of Sylvester's old gang somehow teleported him away. As she's talking to him, we see Oliver on the other end, dressed in his Green Arrow gear, running around and somersaulting off various rooftops. Showoff. Chloe tells him that the stranger wanted to show Clark something. "Where would they take him?" Oliver wonders. "Maybe the same place they took Courtney," Chloe says. Speaking of whom, Miss Whitmore is now sauntering through the streets, dressed in blue leather shorts and a star-spangled belly shirt. She wears a blue mask over her eyes. Oliver tells Chloe that his satellites picked up the glow from Sylvester's staff and he's tracked it down. He perches on a rooftop above Courtney. "It's getting stranger," Oliver says, watching the patriotic teen streetwalker below. He realizes she's purposely making herself a target by walking around in Suicide Slum in the middle of the night. He calls out, "What the hell are you doing here?" She shouts at him to go away, but he flips off the roof and lands in a crouch beside her. His knees are going to be total crap by the time he's 40, if he keeps jumping around like that. He compliments her on her obvious American pride. She snits that at least she's proud of something other than herself. "I know what kind of hero you are, Green Arrow." The air quotes around "hero" are implied. He can't believe she's talking down to him. He demands to know where Clark is.
Suddenly, a blast of snow suddenly knocks Oliver to the ground. Rockin' music plays as Icicle steps into the scene. "Anyone up for some ice cream?" he asks. Um... ew. The staff materializes in Courtney's hand. Icicle pops up to grab her from behind, holding an icicle to her throat. He asks if she's supposed to be the new Star-Spangled Kid. "It's Stargirl," she says, bapping him with the staff and whirling away from him. She aims the staff at him for what seems like ages while he recovers instead of just blasting him. The icicle in his hand lengthens. Ew, again. They start battling it out, using their respective weapons like swords. This goes on for quite a while. Oliver's still lying around, I guess. More fighting and rock music. They ram the points of their weapons together in a game of super-powered chicken. They each stand their ground as the energy in their weapons grows. Finally, the energy culminates in a blast that sends both of them hurtling 20 feet away from each other. Their weapons clatter to the ground. Courtney make a move toward the staff, but then Icicle remembers he can shoot ice projectiles out of his hands and does so. Oliver shatters the projectiles with a well-timed arrow. The snow disappears. Courtney turns to Oliver, pissed that he ruined her chance to get the first shot at Sylvester's killer. Girl, you did get the first shot. You just didn't win. "He promised me," Courtney pouts. "'He' who?" Oliver asks. Oliver looks up as a whooshing sound from above rockets towards him. Hawkman swoops down, picks up Oliver, and whooshes back up into the sky with him. So... Icicle is just gone, I guess? It's like he just... stopped being in the scene.
Back at Watchtower, a concerned Chloe is calling out to Oliver on the phone. He doesn't answer. She hears a high-pitched whooshing sound and turns toward one of the big stained-glass windows just in time to see Oliver hurtling through it. Oliver: "AAH!" Chloe dives for the floor. Oliver tumbles to a stop amid broken glass and shards of the window frame. He has several small, decorative cuts on his face and arms. Chloe rushes over to him. "Oliver! Are you OK?" "He'll live," Hawkman says behind them, in an even gruffer voice than before. They look up to see him hovering outside the broken window. He offers a parting warning: "Now stay the hell out of our business. time, I won't ask so nicely." Chloe and Oliver gape as he whooshes off into the night sky, silhouetted against the permanently full moon. Commercials.
Watchtower again. Chloe tenderly tends to Oliver's boo-boos, dabbing at each cut on his arm with some kind of superhero Bactine. Oliver calls Hawkman "Pigeon Man" (hee!) and thinks he's got Clark locked up somewhere. "I don't know who these people are, but they sure as hell don't like us." Aw, he sounds so sad. Poor jerk-face. Chloe dabs at a particular nasty ouchie, eliciting a soft "Ow!" from Oliver. "I thought you said it didn't hurt!" Chloe says. "I lied," Oliver grumps. Heh. I have to admit they're sort of cute. With a final, painful dab at his forehead, Chloe packs up her first-aid kit. She's pissed that a secret society of super villains can tear them apart like this. She mopes that maybe she should give up on getting them all back together again. Oliver doesn't like what he's hearing. "Don't give up on us yet. We may be a bit dysfunctional, a bit hard to wrangle at times, but when the chips are down, we're always there." Or at least when there's room in the show's budget for all of you. Chloe counters that they were able to take Clark away from them. Oliver holds up a throwing star. "And I took this away from the winged wonder when he yanked me into the sky." Chloe thinks it looks like an antique (it looks brand new), like it belongs in a museum. Ding! Light bulb! Oliver proposes they get some reinforcements and head over there. And who do they call for reinforcements? A quick cutaway shows Detective John Jones answering his phone. Aw, we've missed you, you elusive Martian Manhunter, you!
At the Superhero Museum, Clark is passed out on the floor. He slowly wakes up and gets to his feet. He's alone, so he takes the opportunity to have a look around. He pulls the sheet off one display case, revealing a treasure trove of hero memorabilia that would make geekdom wet its collective pants. There's Wildcat's boxing gear; the Green Lantern's, uh, green lantern, along with his mask and ring; and the original Flash's winged helmet. He goes to the case and pulls off the sheet. He finds Mr. Terrific's weight belt, Hourman's hourglass, and some of Hawkman's extra weapons. Another case holds Hawkgirl's helmet, shattered across the right brow. The sheet he pulls off reveals a large, circular marble table, inlaid with gold and black lettering that reads "Justice Society of America." The final revelation is a painting that shows all the JSA sitting at the marble table in their superhero costumes. In the painting, Hawkman and Hawkgirl hold hands. Reverent music plays. Clark remembers flashes of the criminal records and film reel he and Chloe found, matching them up mentally with the painted images he sees now. There's a clip we didn't see earlier, showing Kent Nelson being dragged away in a straitjacket while his wife watches, crying.
Just then, Hawkman comes in for a landing behind him. Clark asks why he was brought here. Hawkman: "Dr. Fate says you're a big deal, but I don't see it." You should see him without his shirt. Dr. Fate emerges from the shadows to say, "Clark Kent is not like the others; his path is righteous." Self-righteous, maybe. Courtney comes into the room. "If Dr. Fate says he's OK, then he's OK, right?" Hawkman remains silent... gruffly silent. Courtney tells Clark he was brought there because Sylvester wanted to form a new JSA with the surviving members and the new kids. He should have started a Facebook fan page. People will join anything on Facebook. Hawkman is jaded, though, and thinks the new generation of heroes will make the same mistakes the last one did, and the one before that. Clark frowns. Hawkman says, "It's obvious by how you skipped your homework. You don't even know who we are." Clark: "You don't know who we are, either. But none of us here are the bad guys." An arrow pierces the air between them, striking the painted image of Hawkman right in the heart. "You so sure about that?" Oliver asks. Oliver joins the group, saying that Hawkman threw him through a window. Hawkman: "I hope I didn't make you cry." Just a little. Oliver and Hawkman whip out their metaphorical wieners and start trading insults and threats. Oliver advances on Hawkman, who neatly flips him onto the table. He raises his mace just as Oliver raises his bow. John Jones walks into the room at this point, wearing a green shirt and red suspenders under his black coat. "I hope it's not too late to say we come in peace." Heh. Tense drums! Tense stares all around! Commercials.
We rejoin the group sometime after they've cooled off a bit. They've gathered around the table. Hawkman promises that once they've taken care of the Icicle, his gang will fade away again. "We're not asking you to," Clark says. (Smallville budget department: "Yes, we are.") Carter, no longer wearing the Hawkman mask, says all they want is justice. Oliver gets all huffy. "Everything we've heard about you is a little blurry when it comes to justice." Courtney protests, but Oliver cites their long criminal records. Oliver, dude, your house is made of glass; quit throwing stones. Chloe doesn't have enough Bactine to dab all the wounds you'd incur. Courtney says the records were falsified, but Carter cuts her off because it's none of their business. John says they're making it their business. He goes on to tell them that even when he had the power to leave Earth, he didn't, and for one reason: "Hope." Humans have a capacity for violence, but a greater capacity for hope. Everyone looks thoughtful. Clark reminds them that there's a murderer out there and he's not going anywhere as long as the JSA knows something about him.
Daily Planet. Lois Lane walks into the office, talking a mile a minute. She's telling an unseen Clark about her crappy morning and being late for their breakfast and her broken-down taxi. To top it off, a bus drove through a puddle and splashed her with mud. By the time she got to her interview, she was interviewing the cleaning crew about how to get the stains out of her clothes. This whole time, she's been talking to some guy's back who doesn't even really look like Clark from behind except in the most basic "tall guy with dark hair" sort of way. She pours two cups of coffee. "Clark," she says to the guy's back. He turns around to face her. He looks vaguely like old-timey comics Clark Kent, with neat, oiled hair and black-rimmed glasses. He thanks her for the coffee and leaves. What in the hell was the point of that? To show Lois has all the observational skills of a block of cheese? She scoffs, thinking of the real Clark. "What could be more important than a breakfast date with the great Lois Lane?" There's not enough room in this recap for me to list all the things. Just then, a black-and-white checkered box is dropped onto her desk. She eagerly opens it to find all the JSA's criminal records and a note that reads, "The truth will set you free." Tess Mercer comes up behind her and snarks about Lois's dirty attire. "Mud-wrestling again, Lois?" You wish. Lois stuffs the files back into the box and turns to face her boss. Lois asks what Tess is doing there. Well, the writers finally remembered she exists, for starters. Tess sees the box and says the package is for her; the mail room must have just sent it to Lois by mistake. Lois points out that the package was addressed to her, not Tess. "Guess I haven't had any problems," Lois says. "No, but you will," Tess promises. Lois stares after her blankly.
Hospital again. Little boy Icicle shows up to carry on a one-sided conversation with his comatose father. "What they did to you was an injustice," he says. "They took away the only family I ever had. I've only just begun to take away theirs." A tear forms in his eye, turning to ice as it drops from his cheek.
Back at the Museum of Justice, Carter's lecturing the whippersnappers. "Back in my day, we trudged through five miles of snow just to put on our tights! You young punks, changing in phone booths! What are ya? A bunch of layabouts, is what ya are! Now scram while Grandpa finishes his oatmeal!" Actually, what he says is, "The JSA was cleaning up the streets before you were in diapers." He says they tried to stay out of the public eye, but a government task force somehow "got wind" of their activities. Maybe they walked by your big, honking superhero museum. [Yeah, seriously, because that organization hasn't found Clark yet, and he has a severe problem with staying out of the public eye. - Z] The government wanted the heroes to work for them, unmasked. They refused, and the task force went after them, arrested them, had them institutionalized. "They forced us out of the skies and off the streets," Carter says. Through all of this, Clark listens with the very slightest concerned expression. I've seen people more upset about losing a sock at the laundry. Dr. Fate adds that they were torn from the families they were trying to protect. Oliver wonders why they didn't fight back. "We did, for as long as we could," Carter says. He sighs. "I wasn't the leader everybody thought I was. I made too many mistakes." Clark nods slightly and wonders about his socks. Finally, he remembers he's a superhero himself with something to contribute to the conversation. "I've made mistakes, but I haven't quit," he says. Boy, you quit at some point almost every season. Carter scoffs that Clark hasn't even started yet. Clark thinks Carter's making everything too personal, but Carter thinks that's their strength. Courtney tries to play peacemaker, reminding Carter they have more important things to do. Seriously, there's way too much jawing going on. Get fighting or something! She says if they don't team up to stop Icicle, he'll go after the remaining members of the JSA. "It's obvious you still care about this team," Clark says. "If you didn't, you wouldn't have kept watch over [the museum]." Carter thinks about it, then proposes a temporary alliance. "Do you have any idea where we could find Icicle?" Clark asks. "I've got one or two," Chloe says, walking into the room for the first time. Do these people never lock the door? Carter snarks that Chloe must be their secretary, but John Jones says she's their eyes and ears. True enough, she's hunted down security footage of Icicle visiting his father in the hospital. "And if he's anything like his father, he's going to need to replenish his abilities with some liquid nitrogen." Thank God, a plan at last! If Chloe hadn't invited herself over, they'd be arguing in gruff whispers for the rest of the movie. All Chloe needs is a computer to look up the nearest nitrogen depot. The JSA lead her to a corner of the room where the finest technology of the early 1980s sits gathering dust. The computer has a rotary phone and 5.25" floppies. Chloe stares at it curiously. Wait till you see the printer; it's made of a bird who pecks images into stone tablets!
Daily Planet, night. Tess arrives at her office to find a chess piece sitting on her desk. Specifically, it's a white Queen. Tess looks a bit freaked out. The music is shrill and discordant. Commercials.
Watchtower. Courtney and Chloe are inside. Courtney is impressed. Sort of. She glances around at the computers and all the other technological doodads that don't have dials and vacuum tubes. "It's missing something," she says. "Where are the pictures? Or, you know, a place to sit down and eat?" Chloe looks at her like this is a foreign concept. Courtney says Sylvester used to reminisce about the JSA spending Thanksgivings together with the spouses and kids. "So it was like a family," Chloe says. "It was a family," Courtney says with a big smile. The concept grows curiouser and curiouser to Chloe. She asks Courtney how she got involved with the JSA. She tells the backstory of her stepfather, who was once Sylvester's sidekick, called Stripesy. They have a chuckle over the name. Courtney found their old stuff and decided to put it on, at first just to annoy her stepfather, but after she saved someone, she was hooked. [No mention of the source of the staff, which used to belong to Starman? No? Probably for the best. - Z] Chloe seems a little surprised that Courtney's not actually related to any of the heroes. "Family's not just about blood," Courtney says. She gestures towards Chloe's computers. "And watching people doesn't make them a part of your life." Chloe considers this. Courtney thinks Chloe's team would operate better if they didn't only get together when there was trouble. Chloe looks sad. A computer voice announces that there's an incoming call from Green Arrow. Chloe fills him in, saying that she's put the word out that Icicle's father has taken a turn for the worse. They ought to be able to catch him when he shows up at the hospital for another visit.
Oliver and Hawkman audition for The Odd Couple: 2010 on a rooftop somewhere. Oliver says, "I hate waiting." "But you love talking," Hawkman says. He tells Oliver to shut up. Oliver has no idea why the two of them were teamed up until Hawkman says it was his idea. "So I could keep you in line," he says. Oliver does his best not to get into another wiener-measuring contest, even though Hawkman calls him "Green Punching Bag." Instead, he tries to reason out why Icicle is going after all the JSA now, decades after they put his father in traction. "Because revenge is a dish best served cold," Hawkman says. Ugh. The background music has a slightly comical note, not unlike the music that often plays in Clark/Lois scenes. "Oh, you're telling jokes now!" Oliver says. Hawkman just glares at him. Gruffly.
At the Museum of Justice, only Clark and Dr. Fate remain. Dr. Fate wanted time alone to talk to Clark about the "hope" that John mentioned earlier. They walk through the museum together. "You are that hope," Fate says. "I have seen it." "Because you've seen the future?" Clark asks. No, because he saw the script. Fate stops and bows his head sadly. He can see everyone's fate but his own, and sometimes it scares him. "But when I see the future of someone such as yourself, I believe in tomorrow again." He looks at Clark. What he saw was that Clark will lead the new generation of heroes, as Hawkman once led theirs. This is all reminding Clark of the Legion, who came from the future and knew of his destiny. "But they were as vague as you are," he says. Fate gets specific: "Although Lex Luthor is your ultimate opponent, you will triumph over him." The gears turn in Clark's brain, struggling to bring up old junior high English class lessons about verb tenses. "Lex is dead," Clark says. Fate says no more about that. Instead, he says that when Clark finally shows himself to the world, it will be a different age... a Silver Age, if you will. People will look up to the sky and see him as a symbol of hope for tomorrow. "You will help everyone to embrace it," Fate tells him. Clark looks mildly perturbed.
A knock comes at the door. Lois's voice calls out. Clark panics. Fate says that Lois is the key. He uses his magic powers to open the door from a distance. Lois tentatively peers inside. Clark superzips away, unseen. "Hello?" she calls out quietly. She tiptoes inside. She prowls around the darkened, creepy museum. She whispers to herself, "Careful, Lois, this is the part where the doomed girl runs into the guy with the hockey mask." Right on cue, Dr. Fate appears behind her, the red eyes in his golden mask flaring brightly. "Greetings!" he greets. Lois humorously yelps and spins around to face him. He tilts his head like a curious puppy wearing a golden helmet. They circle around each other. "Nice helmet," Lois snarks. "Thank you," he says in an awesomely hilarious and totally earnest way. Lois says she's looking for Carter Hall, who was one of a group of masked men who was "railroaded out of business." He ignores that. Instead, he says he sees her fate. "You are the one he will need, he is the one you will need." She's understandably confused. "The savior who will heal us all," Fate clarifies not at all. "The sentient power," he tries again. This whole time, she's been slowly backing away in the direction of the door. When she crosses the threshold, Fate holds up his hand and superpowers the door closed between them. Lois: "I wonder if he does horoscopes?" She uncharacteristically leaves the scene instead of badgering the nice helmet man through the door.
Checkmate hangout. An unknown woman walks down the hall toward the room we saw earlier. Inside, Icicle sits on the floor once more, surrounded by the JSA's mugshots. "You're taking this assignment too personally," the woman says. The woman walks fully into the frame for the first time and it's the very awesome Pam Grier. Icicle points out this is personal. I know this kid's probably going for a comic book villainous delivery, but it's annoying the hell out of me. He calls her Waller, and she corrects him: "Agent Waller." They needlessly repeat the reason why Icicle hates the JSA, and Waller adds that Icicle's mother died of hypothermia giving birth to him. Ladies, you ever get that... not-so-warm feeling down there? "Who do you blame for her death?" Waller asks coolly. Icicle leaps up and blasts some ice in her direction. She's unfazed. He warns her not to get him all twisted up. She may have pulled him out of Juvie, but he only agreed to help her so he could get the JSA. He keeps the snow blasting at her, but she just tells him the cold doesn't bother her because she's from Chicago. He releases her. He blames the JSA for making him seek revenge and turning him into a killer. "So it is personal," he says again. If Waller doesn't like it, she can find someone else to clean up her mess. She admits Checkmate should have finished the job long ago. "Then let me finish it," he hisses, and turns back to his mugshots. Behind his back, Waller gives a strange smile and saunters out of the room.
Daily Planet. Clark's on the phone with Chloe. She updates him on everyone's whereabouts. Clark, for his part, has been looking for Lois but can't find her. All he knows is someone led her to the museum. "Someone wants her to get caught in the middle of this; it's just a question of who," he says. He spies Tess rifling through Lois's desk and confronts her, hanging up on Chloe without saying goodbye. Dude, you're still on my phone etiquette shit list from last week. Clark threatens to take the files in Tess's hands if she doesn't give them over. She turns to him with a smile, savoring the idea. "Well, it sounds like fun, but given our last encounter I should probably stay out of the sandbox." He flips through the file. "Suspicious much?" Tess asks. She says he and Lois might be perfect for each other. She also says it must be hard for Clark to be such a nosy person's boyfriend. There's a tone of threat in her side of the conversation. Clark demands to know what Tess knows about all this. "Just that your girlfriend is in way over her head," she replies. She walks away with a cocky little smile.
A moment later, Lois walks into the room and sees Clark sitting at his desk. She teases him about missing their breakfast date. It's a big improvement for her that she's not berating him about it, I guess. Clark says he's heard she's working on a big murder story. Lois whispers that she's got some extra-super-classified intel. Clark forces a smile and asks to take a look. Nope; he missed out when he decided not to show up that morning. She clutches a metal file box to her chest and walks through the office, Clark trailing behind her. She grins, clearly enjoying taunting Clark. "We could be like Woodward and Bernstein," Clark offers. No dice. He tries another angle: If it's so classified, how'd she get on the case? "I was hand-picked by an anonymous source," she beams, leading him into the archive room. She finally lets him in on her intel, telling him that the people who were killed had fabricated criminal records. They were vigilante superheroes, like the Blur. "I met one of them -- he was wearing a gold-plated helmet and a cape." "And that's all you know?" Clark presses. No -- she also knows that their leader Carter Hall almost killed someone named the Icicle. Not only that, but the Icicle had a son who was sprung from Juvie by someone "very high up" and his records were sealed. "Now, I'm not supposed to know this, but there were other bad guys that these underground heroes fought, and every one of them has been released secretly." They and their records are missing. She gives Clark a triumphant look. Clark frowns as he realizes someone's collecting bad guys. Don't worry; I'm pretty sure this has been a plot in a past season and nothing much came of it.
Creepy, dimly lit nitrogen depot. John Jones and Dr. Fate show up and have a little chit chat about how John has been forced to live as a human ever since he used up his powers to save Clark's life. "You see what I see in Clark Kent," Fate says, "but without the aid of the helmet of Nabu." John just looks at him. Fate explains about how seeing into people's future eventually became too much. He asks John if he had a wife before his people were destroyed. John's visible sadness acknowledges that he did. "And a daughter," he says. They both miss their families. Suddenly, there's electrical sizzling sound and the lights flicker. "We are in danger," Fate announces. Maybe you wouldn't be if you hadn't been standing out in the open, just gabbing away while waiting for the homicidal maniac to show up. John whips out a pair of handguns. He and Fate sneak around until they come upon dead, frozen guards. "It's too late, he's already been here," John says. Dr. Fate tells him it's not his day to die. He flings a glowing, ephemeral ankh at John, hurling him into a temporary tear in the universe... or something. You can see Mars behind John as his human guise melts away and his true, green self emerges. Then, just as quickly, he looks human again and the tear heals itself with a blast. John falls unconscious to the floor. Icicle pops up behind Fate to skewer him with a spear of ice. As Fate drops, his helmet comes loose. Icicle sees it and hears the incessant whispering. He picks up the helmet and smiles.
Clark meets Courtney at Metropolis General. "I'm sorry about Dr. Fate," he says. Damn, news gets around fast. She says that Hawkman flew off and Green Arrow went after him when they heard about it. "And John?" Clark asks. Dr. Emil had him transferred to a secure room. I could have sworn his name was Dr. Emil Hamilton. Is he like Dr. Phil, going just by his first name? They meet the good doctor and discuss John's condition. Seems he's undergoing some kind of "incubation" but the doc doesn't know what the end result will be. Emil goes to check on John, leaving Courtney and Clark to talk. "Part of me wishes Hawkman would find Icicle first," she admits, because he would do what she wouldn't. "I know it's wrong." Clark agrees. She says the JSA has always done the right thing, until the end when Hawkman crossed the line. "Then it's up to you to make it right," Clark says. No pressure or anything. Courtney smiles and says Clark reminds her of Sylvester. Clark earnestly tells her not to let Sylvester's torch -- passed on to her -- go out. "Keep his legacy alive and you keep him alive," Clark says. She nods.
Archive room at the Daily Planet. Lois digs through some new boxes of information. Waller's voice says behind her: "Those are classified." They were left there for Lois, Waller tells her. "Who are you?" Lois asks. Waller smiles. "If I'm going to give you a front-page story, does it really matter?" I would think so, yes. Lois disagrees with me, though. She just wants to know why she was chosen. Waller flatters Lois, telling her that Lois has a way of digging up skeletons. "You embraced the truth." Except when it comes to finding out who her anonymous source is, I guess. Lois remembers the card she received earlier, about the truth setting her free. Waller holds out a portable hard drive. She might as well be handing over a poison apple, but Lois takes it.
Pop-cicle's hospital room. Icicle has brought Fate's helmet for a visit to daddy. "This is it, Dad. This is gonna help me finish them off." He holds his father's hand for a moment then says goodbye. "I love you," he says tearfully. Then for some reason he unplugs his father's life support machines. Mercy killing, I guess? I don't really know. He holds the helmet up to his face. It molds to his head and shows him glimpses of the battle that happens toward the end of the show. He screams. It's not that bad, dude. Commercials.
Museum of Justice. Carter smashes through a glass case to retrieve a weapon. Uh, aren't you in charge of that museum? Don't you have a key? Oliver's there with him and thinks they should group with the others before they go after Icicle. Carter scoffs. "You go back to Sherwood, Robin Hood. I'll turn Icicle into slush myself." Ugh. Oliver looks at Hawkgirl's shattered mask and theorizes that it was what happened to her that made things go bad. "Was she your partner?" Oliver asks. "My wife," Carter says. Off Oliver's surprised reaction, Carter asks, "What would someone like me know about love? I only know it ends." He says it always ended in all of his past lives. This surprises Oliver even more. Carter explains about how he and his wife were born a thousand years ago, cursed by an enemy, to fall in love and die over and over. "The sooner this life's over, the sooner I see my wife again." He takes a knife from another display case and sharpens it. Oliver waits a few seconds, then says he's never had a connection like that, or not one that lasted. Carter scolds him. "Because you hide it!" Oliver doesn't want anyone to know how important they are to him. "So you act like a jackass," Carter says, emphasizing each work with a swipe of the knife against the whetstone. Oliver looks like he's going to cry, but he bucks up and says he knows what it's like to want to die, but Courtney's counting on him. "So why don't you take the death wish and shelf it?" Oliver says. I wish he'd said "shove it" instead. Oh, well. Carter scowls but puts down the knife. Oliver hands him his mace. "Thing's heavier than it looks," Oliver says. Carter: "You get used to it." Meaningful looks.
Later, Hawkman and Oliver are winging through the night sky. Hawkman deposits Oliver through the Watchtower's already-broken window. Oliver rolls inelegantly across the floor, coming to a stop with a thud. "You know, you really gotta work on your landings," Oliver snarks. Hawkman, who's just landed beside him, snarks back: "It would have been a lot smoother if you hadn't thrown up." Heh. Also, ew. What a disgusting surprise for anyone who happened to be on the streets below, looking up at that moment. Courtney and Clark walk in through the doors like relatively normal people, Courtney in her patriotic streetwalker gear and Clark in his Emo Blur outfit.. Heroic music swells. Oliver asks after John. "There's not much more they can do," Clark says. Chloe joins the group and sighs. "Then I guess we'll just have to wait." Why? Clark's fought bigger foes by himself. Surely they don't need everyone to take on Icicle. [Especially since Icicle is far from the deadliest foe the JSA has ever faced. He's kind of B-list. - Z] Hawkman disagrees with me, saying they should have stuck together from the beginning instead of pairing off. Suddenly, Icicle materializes in the middle of the room in a blast of blue light and snow. He unleashes a swirl of icy energy that chokes Chloe like a noose. She gasps and chokes. Guess she's not from Chicago. For some reason, Icicle drops Chloe instead of killing her. [Probably realizing he should have attacked somebody dangerous first. - Z] Courtney runs over to check on her.
The battle ensues in slow motion: Clark blasts Icicle's stolen helmet with his heat vision, Green Arrow shoots an arrow at him, Courtney flips through the air with her staff all aglow, and Hawkman whacks Icicle up the head with his mace. Icicle falls to the floor, but leaps up a moment later, repelling the heroes with a blast of cold energy. Everyone falls. Courtney drops her staff. Icicle prepares to blast her, but John Jones whooshes in through the window just in time to stop him. "I thought I killed you," Icicle overacts. John fixes him with a look of badassitude. "I'm Mars's sole survivor -- there's a reason for that." Icicle blasts John. John's human form flickers and glows green for a moment, but he's unharmed. Clark takes the opportunity to shoot some heat rays at Icicle. Courtney thwaps him with her staff. Hawkman steps forward to loom over Icicle, who looks up at him for eons without doing anything. Hawkman swings his mace and knocks the Nabu helmet clean off Icicle's head. Icicle lies unconscious on the floor. Hawkman holds up the helmet, looking it in the eyes like he's auditioning for Super Hamlet. "I'm sorry about your friend," Clark says. "So am I," Hawkman says. Clark looks slightly sad. Commercials.
Museum of Justice. Carter puts away his Hawkman gear. He says to Clark, "You're not like the others, are you?" The others are kids looking for thrills, or they have a chip on their shoulder. He says Clark doesn't do this for glory or vengeance. Eh. Carter grudgingly admits Clark's team is pretty good. They trade smiles. Then Clark "Debbie Downer" Kent mopes, "We're not a team, not like yours." "Why, because of you?" Carter asks. Clark looks sad. He says they're his best friends but he doesn't think they can be what the JSA was. Carter claps him on the shoulder and tells him to trust his friends. He gives Clark a pep talk (gruffly) about being human and making mistakes, but always trying. Carter reminisces about his kingdom being attacked and taken from him. "It was only then that I realized it wasn't the throne that was important; it was my people." He stops a moment to look at his wife's mask in the display case. Then he tells Clark, "You will soar higher than any one of us." Once Clark gets his head out of his butt, anyway. I'm paraphrasing a bit. Carter gives Clark a smile. Clark wonders if Carter will give up the wings now. No, he'll teach the coming generation of heroes. Clark looks proud. Courtney joins the discussion and asks what Clark calls his team. He thinks about it for a moment and then: "A work in progress."
Watchtower. Chloe's picking up the debris left over from the fight. There's a whooshing sound behind her. She starts to reflexively greet Clark, but turns and realizes it's John Jones. She chuckles. "If it isn't my favorite Martian." Chloe remarks that he seems to be enjoying the return of his powers. John says with sadness that they come at a cost, because Fate used his abilities to restore them instead of saving his own life. Chloe gets thoughtful. "What happens to the helmet now?" Someone worthy will be drawn to it, John says. Oy, it better not be Chloe; surely she already learned from the Brainiac episode that overwhelming your brain with information is bad. As for John, he plans to keep serving Metropolis as a detective. "Using every tool I've got," he adds, showing off his two-gun holster. "Me, too," Chloe says. To prove it, she goes to one of the surviving computers and taps away. John gently compares what she's doing to what happened with Dr. Fate. "There is a limit to the knowledge one can have," he says. "It drove him to the edge of sanity and he fell off." John says Chloe runs the same risk. Chloe scoffs, saying Watchtower and the helmet are two different things. John sweetly lays his hand on top of Chloe's. "I only say because I care." Chloe, Clark and Oliver are his only family now. Chloe looks near tears. Just then, Oliver breaks up the sadness fest by waltzing into the room, all smiles and casual clothes. "What's up?" Chloe asks. "Nothing, actually," Oliver responds, as if surprised to hear himself say it. He just wanted to invite everyone to dinner. John jumps on the dinner train right away, but Chloe's momentarily so confused she can't answer. What is this... din... ner... you speak of? Eventually, she joins them, sassing at Oliver: "Fine, but you're buying, Mr. Queen." Oliver volunteers John to buy dessert. "On Mars, we never had dessert," he says as they head out. "But I have grown especially fond of cookies..." Oreo, you missed a marketing tie-in opportunity!
Daily Planet. Lois drops the day's paper onto Clark's desk to show off her front-page byline. "Who Was the Justice Society of America?" asks the headline. A bunch of talky, gruff old guys, mostly. Clark congratulates her. She takes her seat opposite his and says it's hard to believe they could have been swept under the rug for so long. "Well, thanks to you, the world now knows who they are," Clark says. "Maybe we'll be seeing more of them." When's the Sweeps period? Lois muses about meeting someone who could tell her fate. She smiles, then gets all awkward and looks away. Clark prompts her to tell him what Dr. Fate said. "Yeah, well, he was just babbling about how I'd be there for him and he'd be there for me," Lois says. "Who's the 'him'?" Clark asks innocently. She tells him the "savior/sentient power" thing that Fate mentioned. I'm getting a chuckle out of Clark being called a sentient power. Lois glances down with a smile, then back up at Clark. Clark smiles at her and asks if she believes in fate. "Only the kind you make happen," she says.
Checkmate. Icicle's tied to a chair in the checkerboard room. The lights above glow red-hot. He struggles against his bonds and shouts at the empty room about being transferred to three different prisons before ending up here. "I haven't slept, I haven't eaten, and I'm burning up!" Eventually, Waller enters the room. Icicle complains that the helmet screwed him up. No, I think you were screwed up before then. He begs to be released so he can finish the job and take down the JSA. Waller smiles down at him. "You knocked on their door, you got them back into the game and back into the public eye. That's mission accomplished," she says. [Did he need to kill so many of them in the process? - Z] It's all she needed from him. Besides, he doesn't have what it takes to take them down. He strains and growls at her. Waller warns of an army of heroes growing and she's going to need them to survive the coming "apocalypse." What an odd, convoluted plan. Which is to say, she's a perfect fit for Smallville. "Apocalypse?" Icicle repeats. He complains that that's not what he signed up for. Waller disagrees: "Oh, but it is." She levels a gun at his head. "Welcome to the Suicide Squad." Bang!
Waller walks out of the room and closes the door behind her. Tess is waiting in the hall outside. Waller greets her: "Agent Mercer, it's been a long time." Tess says nothing. As she turns to follow Waller, we see Mercer's badge identifying her as a member of Checkmate. Ominous music! Close-up of the chess piece symbol! The end.
As a standalone, this "movie" was pretty fun and engaging, for the most part. But as a part of Smallville, it's a bit problematic. We're 11 episodes into possibly the last season and they're just now introducing these huge plots. The show already does a crap job of showing what Zod and Tess are up to on a regular basis (instead, we just hear about it after the fact) and now there's Amanda Waller and Checkmate to add to the off-screen goings-on. You know what this means? Get ready for even more exposition where characters talk about interesting-sounding things they've done but that we never actually get to see. But, like I said, it was mostly fun, which is rare these days for this show. So... thumbs up.
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Tippi Blevins wrote this entire recap in a gruff voice. You can reach her at b_tippi[at]yahoo.com or on Twitter.