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This week brings us an episode with no dopey subplots, virtually no comic relief, and a plot that moves forward with plenty of action and not too much exposition. It's like we dropped into an alternate universe where Smallville is awesome! Things start off with Tess doing Agent Waller and Checkmate's bidding by staging an awesome fight sequence in the streets of Metropolis. It's all a trap to capture the Green Arrow when he shows up to break up the fight. As it turns out, he's not the real target, but a means to an end. He manages to escape, but they grab Chloe, aka the Watchtower, who is their real target. It's all a part of Waller's plot to recruit heroes to fight against the alien invasion, and she needs Watchtower's intel to do it. Her tactics leave the good guys less than enthused. Even Tess ends up going underground in an effort to get away from them, since the only other way to leave is in a pine box.
With a good deal of teamwork, Oliver, Clark, and John Jones manage to save Chloe from Checkmate's castle headquarters. A reunited Oliver and Chloe share a sweet moment, but there's blessedly zero mope-filled romance this week. Meanwhile, John destroys the alien blood sample Waller stole from Lois a while back, effectively wiping out her evidence of alien life. He also wipes Waller's memories of the team's identities, but he has secrets of his own. It seems like he's working for some other mystery player, but he's been working in secret in order to try to keep the team off Checkmate's radar. At the end, Clark realizes he needs to work with Chloe instead of around her. In fact, they realize they all need to work together... which probably won't last long, but let's enjoy it while it lasts.
What would happen if the Amazing Race took a detour to Smallville? Would they be able to get through Chloe's dialogue with a straight face, or would they opt to bale hay instead? Get our take. Check back soon for the full recap.
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Want more? The full recap starts right below!Previously on Smallville: Oliver showed Chloe how to handle his arrow; the Martian Manhunter (a.k.a. John Jones) had his powers restored by Dr. Fate; a crazy doctor collected blood samples from aliens; Lois got one of them but it was promptly stolen by Amanda Waller; Sylvester Pemberton found Chloe (a.k.a. Watchtower) and was promptly killed by a baddie named Icicle; Sylvester's dying word was "Check!"; Tess (a.k.a. Agent Mercer) has a history of working for Waller; an army of superheroes was growing mostly off-screen and being collected by Waller for Checkmate and/or the Suicide Squad.
Currently on Smallville: A castle sits at the edge of a lake in a green valley, surrounded by snow-capped mountains. The castle towers are reminiscent of chess pieces. Also, this isn't supposed to be Kansas anymore, is it? Ominous music plays as we swoop toward the castle, through one of the windows, and into a sterile-looking hallway. The Checkmate symbol is emblazoned on the black floor. The last time we saw this place was in "Absolute Justice". The camera zooms through a closed door and into a room with black-and-white checkered flooring, pausing briefly over a chessboard that seems to be in mid-play. A woman sits at a desk by the arched windows. She stands up and walks over to the chessboard; it's Amanda Waller. She studies the board for a while, makes a move, a knocks over a white Knight with her white Queen. Is that a legal move? The angry elephant trumpets a note of confusion.
It's night in Metropolis, and Tess is just entering her Daily Planet office when she sees the white Knight piece sitting on the edge of her desk. She drops everything she's doing and goes into action, as if she's been expecting whatever the piece's presence signifies. She presses a red button on the underside of her desk, which opens a drawer behind her. Inside is a tray in which pieces of a gun are nestled. Tess expertly assembles the gun. [If that were my emergency gun, I would keep it assembled. - Zach] James Bond-style music plays as she goes to a cabinet in the wall, grabs a needle-tipped weapon and a small duffel bag. A bookcase moves to one side, revealing a shiny, metal-lined escape chute. Tess tosses the bag down, then hops into the chute, feet-first. By the time Tess lands in the alley outside, she's somehow changed from her office attire to a black leather outfit with a short, smart trench coat. Maybe the chute made a detour into Saks or something. She's also wearing a flattering black wig, cut straight across the brow. Tess walks through a crowded city street and winds up pausing in front of a florist's shop. She focuses on the lady shopkeeper, who's wearing an earpiece, and seems just as intently focused on Tess. Tess starts down the sidewalk and the shopkeeper follows. Tess runs into a man who levels a gun at her. Before she can react, the shopkeeper grabs her from behind. Tess swings the shopkeeper around in front of her, using her as a human shield when the man shoots. Shopkeeper goes down. Tess kicks the newcomer square in the abdomen. The action periodically slows to a crawl, giving us comics panel-style frames of the fight sequence. Tess punches him like they're in Raging Bull and gives him another kick that sends him flying backwards into a hapless bystander.
Somewhere on a rooftop above them, Oliver, in Green Arrow mode, catches sight of the melee in progress. A car screeches around the corner. Oliver runs along a ledge, keeping up with it from above. He jumps from one rooftop to another, his balletic leap framed against the enormous, permanently full moon. On the streets below, the car has caught up with Tess. She takes her gun from her coat and rolls across the car's hood. When the driver starts to exit, she kicks the door, smashing his head through the glass. He falls to the ground. Tess runs into an alley, climbs and flips over a chain-link fence at the same moment Oliver is tumbling to a landing above. Tess touches ground near some weedy train tracks. A van speeds into view. Tess makes a run for another fence. The driver gets out, aims a gun at her and fires off several warning shots. Tess backs down from the fence, raising her arms in surrender. The driver looks sort of like Tom Bergeron, host of Dancing With the Stars. Oliver shoots the gun out of Tom's hand. "You could use some conflict resolution," Oliver says in a digitally altered voice. Oliver chastises Tom for shooting at his "date" and for his wardrobe. "Don't get me wrong, I love black on black," he says, "it's just a really hard look to pull off." Tess, coming to his side, smirks. Oliver clearly doesn't recognize her with the wig on. Tom goes for his gun and Oliver shoots him in the shoulder with a taser arrow. He twitches and falls. As Oliver turns, Tess cold-cocks him and injects something into his arm with her needle-tipped weapon. Another man walks into the scene -- it's the guy she kicked and punched the crap out of earlier in what was now obviously part of a ruse. He covers Oliver's head with a black bag. "Checkmate," Tess says with a smile. Somebody save Oliver! Or at least get that bag off his pretty face.
Watchtower. Chloe's frowning at a computer monitor full of static. In fact, all the monitors around the Watchtower seem to be on the blink. She types something at her keyboard, but nothing happens. Clark super-zips into the room behind her. "Did you try the power switch?" he asks. The monitors are on, doofus. "Didn't you get my texts?" Chloe asks, ignoring his attempt at tech support. She says she lost Oliver as he was tracking armed men near the monorail. "No radio, no beacon, no nothing," she says, her tone increasingly panicked. Clark tries to reassure her that things are fine, and that it's nothing to worry about if Oliver doesn't check in. Chloe points out that, unlike Clark, Oliver follows protocol. Clark has no idea there is a protocol, which is sort of Chloe's point exactly. Everyone checks in with Watchtower, except Clark. Clark thinks about that for a second then sidesteps the issue and asks if Chloe checked nearby security footage. Chloe says every camera in the area went out. Just then, the static on the monitors gives way to video feeds. Chloe clicks on the feed of the monorail where Oliver disappeared. John Jones is crouched near the tracks, looking at something on the ground. "Well, your buddy system works," Clark says. Chloe frowns. "I didn't call him." While Chloe watches the monitor, Clark whooshes out of Watchtower and appears a moment later in the video feed beside John.
Monorail. John is surprised to see Clark. Clark explains he's looking for Oliver. John looks uncomfortable, which immediately sets Clark's mode to "asshole." His tone is accusatory when he asks if John knew Oliver was missing. John frowns. "He was here on patrol when Watchtower lost contact," Clark says. John is a surprisingly terrible liar when he says he's just there on police business. Clark suggests they work together, but John's hesitation makes Clark wonder if he's already found something. "You need to trust me, Clark," John says. The reflection from nearby lights makes John's face look greenish. Awesome. Clark X-rays a slight bulge in John's jacket pocket and sees an earpiece like the florist was wearing earlier. There's a number stamped into a piece of it. "What do you know, John?" Clark asks with a dramatic flare of his nostrils. John sighs, realizing what Clark's done, and tells him so in a disappointed voice. With that, his eyes glow red and he vaults straight up off the ground and into the foggy night sky. He pauses for a moment in front of the permanently full moon before zipping away, leaving only glowing red contrail behind him. Clark watches him go, all, "Aww, I wish I could fly!"
A delivery truck rumbles down a deserted highway. Inside, a man is attaching battery cables to the handcuffs that bind an unconscious Green Arrow's wrists around the back of a chair. Tess stands in one corner of the truck, sans wig, and tells the man to "radio ahead" that they'll be at the airfield soon. He nods and heads into the cab, closing a sliding door behind him. Tess paces around her prisoner, removing the black bag from his head. He's still got on his sunglasses and leather hood. Tess reaches out to pull back the hood, but Waller's voice warns her away. Tess looks behind her at a monitor that now displays Waller's sneering countenance. Waller reminds Tess she doesn't have the clearance to peek. "I was just making sure that our acquisition is still secure," Tess says. Waller snorts at that, but congratulates her anyway for being able to get the job done after being "dormant" for so long. Waller dismisses her and Tess goes into the cab. The moment the door closes, electricity shoots through the cuffs and into Green Arrow's body, jolting him awake. He jerks so hard that his sunglasses fly off. "Welcome to Checkmate," Waller says through the monitor. She tells him she's working with the government. "The time has come to do your patriotic duty," she tells him. Oliver tries to snark his way out of the situation as he surreptitiously fishes a lock pick out of his gloves and gets working on his handcuffs. Waller gives him a spiel about recruiting people like him to help protect the nation's security. Oliver's about as enthused as you'd expect, but Waller doesn't care. She signs off and the Checkmate symbol replaces her image on the monitor. Oliver finishes picking his way out of the cuffs, grabs his sunglasses, and pulls a small explosive device from his glove. Is there anything he doesn't have in there? He blasts the back door off its hinges then hurls himself at it, using it like a toboggan as he lands on the freeway. Sparks fly between the metal and the concrete. Eventually he comes to a stop on the side of the road and hightails it out of there on foot as the truck comes to a screeching halt. Commercials!
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 . "His dying word was 'check,'" she says, the pieces finally falling into place. Chloe goes over to one of the computers.
She pulls up some security footage of John talking to Tom Bergeron, who she identifies as one Edward Lott, the CEO of a manufacturing company. "He seems pretty high-profile for a secret agent man," she says. Oliver thinks Checkmate may be recruiting people who are already established in business, while Clark suggests they may be planted there. The computer beeps with new information. "You're not going to be happy with where he was planted ," she says. Soon after his talk with John, he wound up in the morgue. Clark and Chloe trade serious looks. Oliver puts the brakes on: "Whoa, slow down, guys. You can't seriously think John murdered this guy." Instead of answering, Clark turns to leave. Chloe offers to go with him, but he zips off before she can finish getting the words out. "Looks like you got benched," Oliver says brightly. Chloe looks grim, but she's already thinking of their move. Together, she and Oliver figure out they should be looking up the nearest psych ward to talk to Icicle, who killed Pemberton. Oliver's raring to go, but Chloe stops him: "You know, Oliver, now that Green Arrow's officially on Checkmate's radar, I think it might be a good idea to just hang your tights for one night." The words sound like professional concern, but her tone and expression are personal. Oliver protests that they're not tights. Heh. "But I see your point," he says. "Unfortunately for me, that means attending a LuthorCorp shareholders dinner, which, yeah, I'd rather be shot at." Chloe smiles and starts to leave, but Oliver calls her back. A little stutter in his voice, he asks her to be careful. Aw. Chloe's as charmed as I am. Oliver watches her go, his expression going from proud of her to worried about what might happen to her.
Smallville. The permanently full moon has decided to pay a visit to the old Luthor mansion. Inside, guests mill about and drink champagne and wonder why they had to go all the way to a farm town for a party. Oliver arrives in a black suit and matching shirt. He catches up to Tess and they jokingly complain about the rough day they've both had, neither knowing how true the other's words really are. Then he teases her about a bad deal with China she'll have to explain to the shareholders. "Wouldn't miss it for the world," he says. He was so eager to get there, in fact, that he barely had time to change clothes. Tess looks at his outfit and agrees: "Black on black? That's a hard look to pull off." "It's easier than you think," he says, a moment before realizing that Tess is echoing the Green Arrow's words from earlier. They both get "Oh, shit!" looks on their faces when they realize they've inadvertently learned each other's secrets, while giving away their own. "Green Arrow," Tess says unnecessarily. Commercials!
Back from the break, Clark has decided to go up to the lab to see what's on the slab. Sadly, it's just Edward Lott's corpse. In a tray beside the body, there's an evidence bag containing Lott's wallet and a white Knight chess piece. For some unfathomable reason, this makes Clark mutter Tess's name. I'd like to think it's some superhuman power of deduction, but the hamster that runs the wheel in his brain probably went, "Chess... Tess... [i]They rhyme[/i]!" He super-zips across town and into Tess's office at the Daily Planet. There's a chessboard set up on her desk, with a white Knight missing. Seems like the piece should be missing from Waller's board, since she's the one who set everything up, but whatever. Oh, and Clark has Lott's chess piece in his hand. Way to steal evidence, Super Doofus. Clark looks peeved. He X-rays the room and sees the hidden arsenal behind the walls. I wonder how you find a contractor for that kind of remodeling job? How would that be listed in the phone book? The angry elephant trumpets its displeasure. Clark zips away.
Checkmate castle. John Jones enters a room where the alien blood sample is being held in a display case. Around that is a sort of cage with windows. On the walls hang blowup pictures of the alien blood cells. John paces around the cage a bit, studying it. Waller enters the room behind him. "Thank you for coming, Detective Jones." He's surprised she knows who he is. They circle around each other, sizing each other up. Waller hints that someone else enlisted John before she had the chance. John says nothing. Waller thinks it's "somebody with a very high level of intel." I sort of dread what the show's going to pull out of left field for the eventual reveal, but for now it's intriguing. Still, John doesn't reply. Waller gestures to the cage. "You came for what's in there, didn't you?" Ya think? "That doesn't belong to you," John says. Waller speaks ominously of the alien threat it represents. John tries to sell her on the whole "make love, not war!" concept, but she ain't buying. She pushes a button a remote and a ring of fire goes up around him, trapping him inside his own worst fear. No offense, Waller, but you suck at getting people on your side.
Hospital. Chloe is standing out in the open, looking through a set of files. Girl, you need to be sneakier when you do that kind of thing. A doctor walking out of an elevator sees her. "Excuse me, those are my charts," he says. She hands them back to him and calls him "Dr. Brennan." He was the doctor who evaluated "special" patients who were on their way to Belle Reve. The only thing is, none of them made it to Belle Reve. The doctor walks away from her, unwilling to discuss the issue. She mentions Cameron "Icicle" Mahkent, but Brennan tells her to take it up with Belle Reve. Except, as Chloe says, they never made it there. Brennan threatens to call security, so Chloe backs off slightly. When Brennan goes to his laptop set up at the nurse's station, Chloe remotely downloads his files with her phone. Brennan's laptop beeps to warn him that security has been breached. Instead of getting pissed, he apologizes and offers to walk Chloe down to the archives himself. As they walk away together, the camera focuses on a chessboard set up beside Brennan's computer. He takes a piece off the board. A pawn, maybe? The ominous music doesn't bode well for Chloe.
Luthor mansion. As the shareholders file into the dining room, Tess pulls Oliver into her bedroom. "The only way you're getting me back in here is by force," he says. She throws a candlestick at him and tells him not to flatter himself. "The best thing I ever did in this bed was kick you out of it." Somehow I find that hard to believe. He snarks that that's one thing out of her mouth he can actually believe. Tess crosses her arms. She can't believe he's been the Green Arrow all along. Furthermore, she can't believe he wears tights. "They're not tights," he says pissily. He takes a step toward her. She grabs a knife from her nightstand. Oliver simultaneously grabs the nearest weapon he can find, which is a puny letter opener. Heh. He lowers his outclassed weapon and reiterates, "They're not tights." "They look like tights," Tess says, circling around him. They bitch and moan at each other for a bit until Tess hurls the knife at him. Oliver shields himself with a nearby book, stunned when the knife-point lands squarely in the cover, just inches from his face. He seems genuinely surprised that she was aiming to kill. He advances on her, but Clark whooshes into the room and commands them to stop. Oliver tells him that Tess is working for Checkmate and knows his identity. Clark wants information from Tess, but she balks. "Maybe the view will change your mind," he says. He grabs her at super-speed and almost instantly they're standing on top of a building in Metropolis. He dangles her near the edge of the roof. She begs to be let down and he pulls her away from the ledge. He demands she tell him about Checkmate. She was recruited by Waller a month after she started working for LuthorCorp. Waller wanted to know about Lex's alien investigations. "At first, I thought she was crazy," Tess says. "But then Lex's files changed your mind," Clark surmises. Tess promises she never told Waller about the Kryptonians or about Clark. She sounds terrified, but Clark shoves her up against a wall. "I wouldn't believe your dying breath," he says, all up in her face. Tess cries. It comes out that it was "something they call Watchtower" that was the real target, not Oliver. Clark looks scared.
At that moment, Chloe is being forcibly marched into a room at the Checkmate castle by three armed men dressed in black. She's handcuffed and a black cloth bag covers her head. The men push her to her knees and pull off the bag. Gagged, she looks around in terror, panting for breath. Commercials!
LuthorCorp. Tess, looking a little bedraggled from her time with Super Douche, walks into Oliver's office. Her face is red and tear-stained. Oliver's sitting at his desk and makes some snarky remark to her, but she ignores it. "Clark's in trouble," she says, voice thick from crying. Oliver doesn't believe her at first, so she tells him that Clark went off to Checkmate's headquarters after she told him they'd captured Watchtower. That gets Oliver's attention. The camera cuts to the castle. An armed guard walks the hallways, stopping when he hears Waller's frantic voice calling for help. He rushes to the blood sample room where Waller seems to be trapped inside the ring of fire. It burns, burns, burns, so she demands the guard get her out of there. "The prisoner overpowered me," she explains. The guard puts out the fire. Almost at once, John drops his Waller disguise and uses his Martian mojo to render the guard unconscious. John looks pretty pleased with himself. Or maybe he just liked being Foxy Brown for a little while.
Waller, in her office, is going over some paperwork. She's probably filling out a requisition for more chess pieces. It's the mundane, bureaucratic side of comic book villainy you don't often get to see. Clark whooshes into her office. Seems like he'd go looking for Chloe first, but the hamster in his brain is probably still exhausted from making that Chess-->Tess connection. Clark stands in the shadows. Waller, seemingly unsurprised to see him, says, "I liked your colors better when they were more patriotic." "Kidnapping is illegal," Clark says, "even for the government." I don't know whether to laugh or cry. "I don't have time for polite requests," Waller says. Well, this whole kidnapping/blackmailing thing you've been doing doesn't seem to be saving you a lot of time, either. She says there are aliens among us. Clark, still in the shadows, looks constipated. Waller wants Clark's help in fighting the aliens in an impending World War Three, but Clark, like John, is antiwar. "If you don't stand with us," Waller says, "you stand against us." She tells him it's time for him to pick a side and shows him video feed of Chloe at gunpoint to help him make his decision. Waller tells him to step out of the shadows and she'll let Watchtower go. Clark obliges. Waller's impressed with how purty Clark is, but she wants his loyalty. Clark makes a threatening move toward her, but she stops him with the promise that "Blondie" will die. "I know you're fast, but you can't stop a bullet if you don't know where she is," Waller says. "That would be murder," Clark says. Gee, ya think? Waller wants to know the location of Watchtower's database so she can track down Impulse, Black Canary, Cyborg and the others to fight in her war. "It's your move," Waller says. The hamster in Clark's brain snores fitfully.
Meanwhile, in the blood sample room, John is using his abilities to walk through the protective cage. He shoots beams of light from his eyes and the sample dissolves in a swirl. Back in Waller's office, she's taunting the "Blur" for protecting the streets of Metropolis while leaving Watchtower vulnerable. "I did not abandon her," Clark protests. In the checkered room, Chloe cringes away from the gun. "All you have to do to save her life is give one simple address," Waller says. Before Clark can answer one way or the other, the lights go out. An alarm sounds. In the checkered room, one of the gunmen asks for permission to shoot. Clark picks up on the sound of his voice.
What follows is the probably most creative action sequence the show has had in a long, long time. Or possibly ever. As the gunman pulls the trigger, everything slows to a crawl, and then stops entirely. The ensuing fight takes place in freeze-frames that evoke comic book splash pages or panels. The "pages" are, in sequence: Clark busting through the doors; a gunman suspended in midair as a result of a super-shove, his gun flying from his hand; Clark, his coat frozen in mid-flap, punching another gunman; a closeup of Clark's pretty eyes; the bullet from Brennan's gun, departing from the barrel in a flash; Clark, halfway to grabbing the bullet; his hand stopping the flame-trailing bullet against a backdrop of Chloe's wide-eyed gaze. The action resumes at normal pace as Clark shoves Brennan into a wall. As Clark crouches beside Chloe to remove her gag, the sirens wail and the lights flicker on and off. One moment, Chloe and Clark are there, and then when they lights flicker on again, they're gone. It's just all so very awesome that the show needs a commercial break to recover.
Watchtower. Clark whooshes Chloe to a chair and sets her down and breaks off her cuffs. Clark tells her that he didn't tell Waller anything. "Well, at least we have that," Chloe sighs. And, you know, your lives. Clark looks at her for a moment. "I'm sorry, Chloe." She looks confused, so he goes on: "I'm sorry for everything." "I think we're both a day late and a dollar short in that department," she says. She gets up and tries to get back to work, but he presses on. He acknowledges abandoning her. She turns toward him. "You didn't abandon me, Clark, you pushed me out of the way." What's going on here? Two episodes in a row where people acknowledge their problems and talk like human beings? Clark says he thought Chloe would be safer that way, but Chloe thinks he didn't trust her. Clark looks sad. "I've broken your confidence in me," Chloe admits. "You saw Watchtower as Big Brother, and you turned away." She thinks he was probably smart for trying not to depend on her. Clark doesn't take the out: "I didn't give you enough credit. You're the one who brought us all together. You're the one who saw our potential." They look at each other openly and honestly and let it sink in for a minute. Then the moment passes and it's back to the matter of Waller knowing who they are now. "She not going to stop coming for us," Chloe says. Clark looks sad again.
Checkmate castle. Waller waits in her office for the power to come back on. The door opens behind her. Without turning to see who it is, she says, "Tell me you caught them; I can't wait to see the look of defeat on their faces." A ray of light washes over the back of her head. She turns to see John Jones, the light emitting from his upraised hand. Images flash through her mind as the identities of the Watchtower gang are wiped away. When it's all over, Waller is left slumped over on a sofa, disoriented, and alone.
Metropolis, night. Tess sits at a table outside a coffee shop. After a moment, Oliver joins her. All her usual bravado gone, she's surprised he showed up. He snarks about being safe from her in such a public place, but she doesn't have a snappy comeback. Instead, she just apologizes -- for everything. Oliver doesn't accept the apology. "I told you how to shut down the castle's power grid," she says hopefully. "That's worth something, isn't it?" He's still not willing to budge, though. Eventually, Tess gets around to saying this might be the last time she sees him. "When I joined Checkmate, I took an oath. An oath I want to break," she says, "but there's only one way to leave Checkmate." She plans to go underground, but took a chance to meet him. He's still unsympathetic, though, jabbing at her for finally doing something moral for once. He demands to know what she wants from him. She wants his forgiveness. She takes his hand and asks for his help. "Please?" He thinks for a while, then talks about their past together, back when he could still trust her. "Then you betrayed me, Tess," he says. "You, of all people." She looks down. He leans forward like he's going to kiss her forehead, but he's just getting close to drive home his parting words: "If you ever come near me and my friends again, I will expose you to the world. You understand?" She nods once, almost imperceptibly. With that, he straightens up and walks away, leaving her to cry into her hands, alone. She has to be up to something, right? I mean, she was so badass with Zod last week!
Oliver, walking down the street, is met by Chloe. He lights up when he sees her. "Thanks for keeping my seat warm at Watchtower," she says, all grins. They fall into step with one another. He says, teasingly, that she shouldn't get used to it. She playfully gushes about how he flipped the power switch at just the right time. "I kind of liked being out in the field," she says, "knowing I had a warm bed to come home to." "That's very funny," he says. He takes her hand and turns her around to face him. He stops joking around. "You scared the life out of me." She smiles up at him, tells him to be careful. "Or I might start to think you're falling for me." The way he smiles back at her says he already has. This can't end well.
Smallville. Clark stands in the window of his old loft. With a whoosh, John is suddenly standing behind him. "Your identity is safe for now," John says. Clark admits Waller's not wrong, judging by the future he saw where Zod started World War Three. "She was right about being prepared," he says. "You don't have to join her," John says. Clark thinks he'll eventually have to choose a side, but John protests, because he's supposed to be an "ambassador" to bridge the alien and human sides. Clark moves past issues of diplomacy and wonders why John didn't include the rest of them in whatever he was doing. "I would have told the team what was going on," John says, "but I wanted you and the rest of them to stay off Checkmate's radar." So why not tell them now? Clark reminds John he's not doing this alone: "Who are you working for?" John paces a bit. "Let's just say there are more players on the board than you might think," he says. "And when it comes to choosing sides, things aren't always black or white." Clark frowns, but doesn't press the issue. He lets a dramatic musical flourish finish out the scene for him.
Castle. Waller and Brennan are walking into her office. Waller wants a copy of Tess's last physical. Brennan asks if they'll be moving forward with the operation once the systems are up again. She doesn't answer because she's just sensed that something about the office is different. "Who's been in here?" she asks. "No one," Brennan says. But there, on the chessboard, instead of the usual black and white pieces, is a solitary red Queen. "We won't be renewing the operation," Waller says. "We've been blocked by a new player." She wipes the red Queen off the board, saying, ominously, "It's time for a new game." Dun, dun, DUN! Stay tuned week!
Discuss this episode in our forums, then see what other superbeings have crossed Clark in our guide to the Heroes and Villains of Smallville!
Tippi Blevins promises no superheroes were kidnapped in the making of this recap. You can email her at b_tippi@yahoo.com, or find her on Twitter.
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