What a depressing episode. But in a good way, mostly, and not because the dialog made the pleasure center of my brain wither up and die. Things start off with Checkmate infiltrating Watchtower's firewalls, which trigger the new security systems Chloe installed. The only problem is that Chloe's still trapped inside and Tess Mercer is there with her, having tricked her way past security. For some damn reason, Chloe didn't design the system with an out, so the two of them are stuck there, commiserating about their love of Oliver, running out of oxygen and waiting for Checkmate to show up and kill them. And who should be heading up this particular operation but Agent Campbell, AKA nerdy little Stuart, AKA the peon minion that Tess shot through the eye a few months ago. Tess and Chloe manage to break out eventually, destroying Watchtower in the process, but they're still being tracked because of a device implanted in Tess's body. The only way to turn it off is to kill Tess, which Chloe does with her permission. She thinks about letting her stay dead but thinks twice and revives her. Checkmate loses track of them, much to Waller and Campbell's Chagrin.
Checkmate has bigger problems, though, like those pesky aliens. Clark enlists Oliver to find Zod. Oliver succeeds, and gets himself a fire-branded "Z" on his chest for his troubles. Meanwhile, Faora has become the de facto leader of the non-powered Kandorians. Zod left them behind because they betrayed him for a normal life on Earth. Faora still wants to stand up for Zod, because she still thinks he's a decent guy. Plus, it turns out she's carrying his spawn. With the help of some of Jor-El's writings, Clark convinces her that Zod went on to destroy Krypton and he's out to do the same to Earth. Before Faora and the others can really absorb much of this, Checkmate breaks things up. Clark stops them, but Zod absconds with Faora. He kills her for her betrayal, realizing too late that she was pregnant. He also destroys a bunch of Checkmate offices, the castle, and possibly Waller and Campbell, to boot. He then lies to his soldiers and says the humans killed Faora. Clark tries to convince them otherwise, but they decide to stick with Zod. Clark stares helplessly, earthbound, as the other, cooler aliens fly off without him.
It isn't just poorly planned panic rooms that would keep us from moving into this town. See our other reasons, then discuss this episode in our forums.
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Previously on Smallville: Amanda "The Wall" Waller failed to recruit Clark and the Watchtower gang to fight with Checkmate in the upcoming war against the aliens; Tess sort of went on the run from Checkmate; Zod was impersonating the Blur and living the high life, having gotten super powers from a transfusion of Clark's blood; Jor-El left the Book of Rao on Earth and Zod wanted it; Clark and Faora argued about whether or not Zod was an asshole; Tess ratted out Clark and some Earth-loving Kandorian soldiers to Zod; Zod reacted by giving his loyal soldiers a taste of his blood and thus super powers; Clark decided he knew what he had to do... that week.
Currently on Smallville: It's night in Metropolis and -- holy crap, the moon isn't full for once! Chloe's walking toward her favorite news-and-coffee vendor when she gets an alert from her phone. She glances at it, but at the moment she's more concerned by the fact that the grandfatherly vendor is in the middle of closing up shop for the night. "Hey," she calls out in good cheer, "don't tell me you forgot about your favorite customer?" "I thought you forgot about me," he calls back, glancing at his watch. "You're late!" He looks like a Joe, doesn't he? Let's call him Grandpa Joe, even though we'll probably never see him again. Chloe orders her "usual," but Grandpa Joe, with a glance at the coffee urns, tells her, "All I got left is strong n' burnt." (You can actually hear the apostrophe in his dialog, because that's how cute he is.) Strong and burnt is OK with Chloe as long as it's hot, which is a good thing, considering what happens to her beau later in the episode. While Grandpa Joe pours her coffee, Chloe browses the day's newspapers. "Y'know, I been meanin' to ask," he starts, "what kind of a job has a pretty young lady working all night every night?" Chloe tells him she works for a non-profit that helps people, which is technically true. "Tryin' to save the world, huh?" Grandpa Joe asks. "All night, every night," Chloe says as she pays for her pudding-thick coffee. They give each other warm smiles. Chloe heads back to Watchtower, which is visible way off in the distance. Girl really likes to walk for her coffee.
The thing we see, she's getting into the elevator at the base of Watchtower. As the doors close her in, she touches her thumb to a glowing panel near the buttons. She's scanned from head to toe by lasers. A computerized female voice asks for verification. "Chloe Sullivan, password ." "Vocal and bio-analysis confirmed," replies the system. Chloe is let out of the elevator at the top of the tower. "Welcome to Watchtower, Miss Sullivan," greets her polite computer. Chloe's ready to get down to the business of world-saving when she notices a warning on one of her monitors. One of the Kandorian files has been accessed. Chloe goes quickly but quietly to a drawer but finds only a gun-shaped indentation in the foam within. A gun cocks behind her. She turns to face Tess. "How did you find out my secret?" Chloe asks. Tess, not lowering the gun one bit, says, "Oliver's voice wavered when I told him Watchtower had been kidnapped." Tess takes a step closer. "And I've seen the way he looks at you. It's the little things a girl tends to notice." Chloe points out that Tess didn't notice the gun is unloaded. Shouldn't she have brought her own gun? Did she not see the "Bring Your Own Firearm" note on the invitation? Tess frowns down at the gun and Chloe takes the opportunity to whack her across the face with a piece of computer equipment. She knees Tess in the ribs and grabs her weapon arm. In the process, the gun fires. But... but... it wasn't loaded! Ooh, girl, you lied! "Safety compromised," says the computerized voice. "Initiating lockdown." Alarms start whoop-whoop-whooping like alarms do. Chloe's face goes, "AW CRAP!" Metal irises clench shut around the windows and doors. Tess aims the not-so-unloaded gun at Chloe again and demands to be let out. Well, maybe you shouldn't have broken in! Chloe types furiously at one of the computers, but the system isn't letting her in. "We're not going anywhere," Chloe says. "Watchtower is in control now." Somebody save them from incessantly terrible security!
LuthorCorp. Oliver finds Clark waiting for him in his office. "I let myself in," Clark says by way of greeting. "Terrific," Oliver says, wearing an awful lot of clothes. "You hop up to the helipad or just super-speed past security?" Clark, feeling especially humorless tonight, says he used the elevator. He likes pushing the buttons because it makes him feel like a big boy. Clark says he needs to find Zod. Oliver's like, "Why aren't you asking Chloe like you and everybody else usually does?" He mentions all that expensive stuff Chloe has at her disposal, which he also takes care to mention he paid a lot of money for. Clark wants to leave Chloe out of it: "The last thing we need is to have a weapon like Watchtower fall into the wrong hands." Gosh, even in the right hands, it's kind of going to hell. Oliver realizes Clark is serious; he just couldn't tell before because Clark has the same facial expression 95% of the time. Clark tells him about how Zod pretended to be the Blur and put Lois in danger. "I think it's time to take off the gloves," Oliver says. Unless they're leather and they complete your ensemble, of course. Clark doesn't want Oliver getting into a tussle with Zod while he's still trying to keep peace. Because Oliver is a relatively intelligent person, he thinks this is nuts. "You know what this guy's capable of, right?" he asks. "And I know what you're capable of," Clark says. Oliver looks a little hurt by that. Clark goes on to say that he understands why Oliver's angry, but he can't have Oliver going off and messing up his "let's be friends with Zod" plan, which is occasionally punctuated by his "let's threaten to kill Zod" plan. Clark doesn't want to screw things up with his peeps because he wants to have a Kryptonian family on Earth. Dude, it's just going to turn into a bunch of obligations to help them move furniture and pretending to be interested in their kids' school plays. "We need to find Zod," Clark says, "and confront him my way." Oliver agrees to help Clark, so Clark sends him off to the mansion to see if Tess left any niblets of Zoddy info lying around. As Clark goes off to do his part, Oliver stops him: "You know, those Kandorians... they're not the only family you have here." Clark smiles like he means it.
Watchtower. Tess is stupidly firing shots at one of the metal irises. Bullets go pinging off as they are wont to do, doing no damage whatsoever. Chloe even points out the stupidity: "In the event that I die of starvation or, oh say, a ricocheting bullet, do you mind telling me how you got in here?" Tess snarks on Chloe's sloppy spying tactics, leaving bits of DNA all over the place. She shows Chloe a little device and calls it a "DNA cloak." Chloe hopefully makes a mental note to invest in some surgical gloves. Oh, hey, the credits just said that Justin Hartley co-wrote this episode. I was wondering why the dialog was so much less painful than it usually is. As one of the actors often burdened with the most cringingly awkward lines, he must have been careful as a writer not to inflict such trauma on his castmates. Very considerate of him! Anyway, Tess points out they should be more concerned with getting out. Chloe goes from computer to computer, but getting out is impossible. She set up the new security system after Checkmate kidnapped her. "The only problem is, I was supposed to be on the outside," Chloe says. That... seems like a crappy plan. They can't even call out, much to Tess's chagrin, thanks to the lockdown blocking the signal. The computer alerts Chloe to a still-active threat, which makes her realize it wasn't Tess's attack that triggered the system. "We're on lockdown because a hacking transmitter was detected," Chloe says, reading over the display. Some information was stolen before the firewall stopped it but something's, still trying to get through the other firewalls and give away their location. Chloe turns angrily to Tess. "What did you bring in here?" "Nothing," Tess insists. She just wanted to erase the files on the Kandorians. "I knew you were the Kandorians' lapdog," Chloe says, "but I didn't realize you were Zod's little bitch, too." Tess looks hurt and pissed all at once, but doesn't pop Chloe for the insult. Chloe figures that if Tess isn't behind the attack, there's one other group that might be.
Dark and foggy road. A delivery truck speeds through the night. Inside, a man sits at a computer screen, monitoring different feeds from traffic cameras. His back is to us, but another man sitting beside him says, "The signal's scrambled, Agent Campbell. Watchtower sent up some kind of halo of interference as soon as the tracker went live." The second man is looking at a screen that displays Tess's Checkmate profile. He gets up to do something; I think it's Dr. Brennan. Amanda Waller checks in via video conferencing. Agent Campbell gets a gun ready and lets Waller know that they're narrowing down Watchtower's location. His left eye, partially hidden in shadows, is surrounded by scar tissue. "Good," Waller says. "We can't afford to make a mistake with the Red Queen so close." She goes on, "Don't make me regret putting my little White Knight back in play." Agent Campbell gets up to face Waller's image; as he does so, his reflection comes into view. It's Tess's little minion, who she shot through the eye a while back. He's wearing glasses, the left lens of which is blacked out in lieu of an eye patch. He promises to have Watchtower by dawn. Waller looks twitchy but wishes him luck. Stuart, looking suddenly 20 times hotter than he did earlier in the season, turns to his colleagues in the truck. "You heard the Wall, gentlemen. Let's show Mercer how we feel about a little thing called 'treason.'" Not good, right? You don't feel good about it, right? I'm just guessing.
Watchtower. Chloe's thinking out loud about where Checkmate would hide a tracking device. Tess dumps out her purse onto a table. She brought her purse to a high-tech break-in? Chloe picks up a tube of her lipstick, snarking on its lurid name. "Fever-colored lipstick? Really?" Tess snarks right back: "Well, I was going to go with 'Plain Jane' but you seem to have that market cornered." Tess wonders how much data Checkmate could have downloaded so quickly and the short version of Chloe's answer is: a lot. "They could have downloaded my entire team's database," she says. Tess is at least as worried about them having information on the Kandorians. The computer lets them know that another firewall has been breached. Chloe starts thinking that the device must have been planted directly on Tess. She scans Tess with a thingamajig and finds something implanted under her skin. Tess, freaked, strips down to her undershirt and pleads with Chloe to get it out of her. Chloe responds by slicing into Tess's shoulder with a scalpel. The device responds by scooting away, burrowing along under Tess's skin like it took a wrong turn at Albuquerque. Tess seems disturbed but not surprised: "When it feels threatened, it burrows deeper into the host. We'll never get it out now." She puts her shirt back on. You don't want a bandage or something? "How do you know that?" Chloe asks. Tess explains that it's a Checkmate device, powered by her biorhythms. Tess looks like she wants to cry but holds it in. Chloe's unsympathetic: "You know what they say: you lie down with dogs, you end up with fleas." Tess reminds her that once Checkmate finds them, they'll both be dead. Chloe's like, ohh, yeah. Damn. Commercials.
The warehouse formerly known as Zod's secret hideout. Some Kandorians kneel on two white strips of cloth that have been arranged in a cross pattern. There are candles everywhere. Faora kneels in the cross's center, a bowl of water before her. Some small, unseen object is passed from person to person while Faora waits in a halo of light, looking rather beatific. Her usual no-nonsense ponytail has been traded in for soft waves. Clark walks in and has the sense not to interrupt whatever is going on, instead hanging back to watch the ceremony. The last person to hold the mystery object before passing it to Faora is her sister Vala. Faora places it in the dish of water; it's a bud that opens like a lotus blossom, but with pretty light effects. The ceremony complete, everyone gets up and leaves, save Faora, who stays to talk to Clark. He's glad she's preserved some of their culture. "I wish everyone saw it that way," she says. "Zod took the rest of our people and disappeared." Clark's confused because he thought everything was going so awesomely with settling in on Earth. Faora now thinks they were wrong to follow Clark's lead and now they've been left behind. Now they're waiting for Zod to come back and forgive them. Clark doesn't want her falling in with Zod again. "You never trusted him, Kal-El," she says angrily. "All Zod wanted was to give us powers so we could protect ourselves." Clark breaks the news that Zod's had powers for a while now and asks her to come see something with him.
Luthor mansion. In full Green Arrow gear, Oliver breaks through the window above Tess's office and rappels inside. He slinks over to the desk. Something comes crashing through the window and lands with a thud on the floor. Oliver, startled, raises a crossbow. A man lies on the floor, his face bloodied. "You," Zod's voice says, "are unmistakably the one they call the Green Arrow." Oliver redirects his aim to where Zod is standing on a landing above him. "A rebel with many causes," Zod says. "Glad to know my reputation still precedes me," Oliver says. "You must be Zod." And now that you know each other, you can be Facebook friends! Oliver calls him a "soldier with no army." Well, poo, now Zod won't want to be friends with you. Zod seems pleased that Oliver knows him, at least. Oliver, for some damn reason, lowers his weapon and has a better look at the guy on the floor. Zod talks about how "that one" told him all about Checkmate before he died. Guess he didn't have one of those foamy suicide pills like Tom Bergeron's doppelganger did. Zod invites Oliver to join him against their common enemy. "Well, I'm flattered," Oliver says, "but if I let you go after Checkmate, you'll start World War Three." He raises his bow again. The two shots focus only on each man's eyes, first as Zod teases Oliver for thinking he's fast enough to shoot him, and then as Oliver retorts, "I've always been taught to favor accuracy over speed." For which Chloe is surely grateful. The arrow leaves the bow in slow motion. Instantly, Zod speeds forward and shoves Oliver across the room. Zod takes a step toward him before he realize something doesn't feel quite right. He crumples to his knees and sees the Kryptonite arrow embedded in his thigh. He pulls out the shaft (dirty!) but a vial of green liquid remains stuck in his leg. He slumps over. "Bullseye," Oliver says. We switch to the scene before he can add "neener neener!" but it's implied.
Watchtower. The increasingly annoying computer voice announces that the air supply has been terminated. Chloe fetches two bottles of water and gives one to Tess. They sit together on the floor, sweaty, their backs against the iris that covers the door. "We've got three minutes of air left," Chloe says. "You think Checkmate will find us before then?" Tess isn't especially looking forward to either option. "Damned if we do, damned if we don't," Chloe says. "Just damned," Tess says quietly. She just wanted to save the world, she says. "That's funny," Chloe scoffs, taking shallow, labored breaths. "Last time I checked, you were just trying to get rid of everyone in it." Tess points out that Chloe doesn't trust people any more than she does. "This entire building was programmed to prevent anyone from getting close to you." Chloe at first looks at Tess like she's crazy, but the disbelief gives way to worry. She realizes she's lost her faith in people. "It's why you won't let Oliver get close to you," Tess says. Chloe, tears in her eyes, nods once: "And why I can't blame him when he eventually leaves." Tess doesn't think that will happen. Green Arrow has a purpose with Chloe. "It kills me," Tess says, "because you have everything right in front of you and you can't see it." They look at each for a long time, open and honest, or as open and honest as these two get. Chloe hears the latest announcement from the computer and realizes the final firewall has been broken. "As long as they torture us with the AC on, I'll die happy," Tess deadpans. She holds the water bottle to her brow. This gives Chloe an idea and she races over to Watchtower's cooling system. The mixture of liquid helium and nitrogen is cold enough to shatter steel. But she hesitates, because all the data will be lost once the mainframe melts down. Girl, you should have made backups! Dying seems like a worse option, though, so she pulls one of the coolant tanks and tosses it toward the iris. Tess aims her gun and fires. The iris freezes. Chloe and Tess, seeming to understand what needs to be done without speaking, simultaneously run over to the desk and use it as a battering ram. The metal shatters like so much styrofoam. Tess runs and Chloe is close behind her, but she pauses at the door, looking back at Watchtower. The computer voice slows. The computers blink off. Chloe finally runs.
Watchtower and its "halo of interference" now down, Agents Campbell and Brennan are able to get a signal again from Tess's tracking device. Her location pops up on the monitoring station inside the Checkmate truck. "Safeties off, gentlemen," Campbell tells the others. "Shoot to kill." Commercials.
Clark's loft. Faora, looking over a notebook of Kryptonian writing, is stunned to discover that Zod destroyed Krypton. Clark, hanging back until then, takes a few steps toward her. "My father sent those messages here to Earth to help me stop history from repeating itself." Faora looks like she's going to cry. Don't be sad, Faora! At least your hair is pretty! Clark gently tells her he wanted to trust Zod, too, and didn't want to have to tell her about all this icky world-destroying stuff. He finally realizes (for now) that Zod can't be trusted (for now) and has to be stopped (for now). Faora paces a bit, still shaky, and says, "I'd hoped that what Zod had given me would reunite our people." Clark's confused, but then he starts thinking about that ceremony and notices that Faora is resting her hand on her belly in the universal symbol for "I'm knocked up." Using his super-hearing, he detects the baby's heartbeat. "You're pregnant," Clark says, "and Zod's the father?" Faora, finally letting the tears come, nods. Clark is thrilled, because the baby means that Krypton lives on and that Faora can have a real life on Earth. Faora doesn't look so sure.
Luthor mansion. Oliver gets up to check out a nasty bruise/cut on his side. "Why don't you just murder me now?" Zod asks, still curled up on the floor and looking pukey. "Isn't that what your race does?" Hey, humans don't kill everything -- mostly just the things that are scary and/or delicious. Oliver would love to kill Zod, but he promised Clark he would try to save the world peacefully. "But you bulldoze me again, and I just might have a change of heart." Oliver walks away to do... something. Zod continues to look like he's going to barf.
Clark's loft. Faora is sketching a picture of something Zod's been looking for. She shows Clark the octagon covered with symbols and says it's the Book of Rao. Clark's like, isn't that just a Bible? Faora explains about how it wields great power. "If Zod were to get his hands on it, who knows what he would do?" Clark frowns. He always knew books were bad! Just then, Oliver calls to let him know he's got Zod. "I'll be right there," Clark says. "Why don't you take your sweet time?" Oliver says, tempting fate. "Because I have everything under..." He notices that Zod's gone. The Kryptonite vial that was in his thigh lies on the floor. Oliver, never one to leave us hanging, finishes: "...control." He turns to see Zod, standing patiently behind him. As Clark listens from the other end, Oliver lets out an agonized scream. There are sounds of a struggle. Oliver screams some more. Clark listens for a while, then goes, "Oliver? Oliver!" He listens to the screaming a little bit more just to make sure it's really super-painful and then finally whooshes out of the loft.
The thing we see is a man's horribly burnt face. But since the CW wouldn't let such a thing happen to someone so purty, we know it's the guy Zod killed earlier and not Oliver. Clark rushes into the room and sees him, looks sick for a moment, then notices Oliver lying across the room. He zips over and checks Oliver's pulse. It's then he sees the "Z" symbol burnt into Oliver's chest. "Zod," Clark says in case we hadn't figured that out. Hurry up and call in a team of plastic surgeons! That perfectly chiseled chest must be saved!
Checkmate truck. Waller, via video camera, is telling Agent Campbell there's been a "change of plans." She's got Watchtower's information on the aliens and doesn't care about tracking down Tess anymore. The minute she signs off, Campbell tells Brennan to stick to the original plan. "Sir, you heard Waller," Brennan protests. "We have our orders!" Interesting; despite being 20 or so years older than Stu, Brennan seems to be subordinate. Stuart pisses on the orders. "I just spent the last five months in recovery from what Mercer did to me," he says. "Now this op is over when I say it's over. Understood?" Brennan just looks down and swallows.
Met Gen. Chloe's leading a baffled Tess through the hospital corridors. Tess doesn't understand why Chloe is still with her, since Checkmate wasn't able to get a hit on Watchtower's address before they escaped. Chloe explains Tess is still a liability, with all she knows about her team. They come to a supply room in a quiet part of the hospital. "There's no sense in both of us getting captured," Tess says, but hands Chloe a lock pick nonetheless. Chloe picks her way through the door, telling Tess, "I'm not letting you out of my sight until we get rid of your little friend." That seems good enough for Tess, who follows Chloe into the room.
Warehouse formerly known as Zod's hangout. Faora is giving the non-powered Kandorians a speech about standing against Zod. "I will not let my child be raised under a tyrant's rule," she says. "We cannot let our future be guided by a tyrant's hand." She speaks passionately/ and well, making me wish we'd actually gotten to know the character better before now, because the actress is pretty good. Vala is one of the assembled Kandorians; she looks scared listening to her sister. Faora goes on: "Our past ended in war; let our future begin in peace." Fate has a different, plan, though, and a smoke bomb comes crashing through one of the windows. Checkmate agents, dressed in black riot gear and carrying weapons, storm into the warehouse. The Kandorians get their asses handed to them. "Enough!" Faora shouts. Waller strolls into the warehouse, echoing Faora's command. "The leader comes with me," Waller says. "We have a few things to discuss." As Faora is marched out of the warehouse by one of the agents, Waller casually tells the rest of her men to "dispose" of the remaining aliens.
Met Gen. Oliver is being wheeled through the ER, Clark at his side. I wonder how they'd explain a wound like that? "I, uh, fell on a very large cattle brand down at the Ziegler ranch." Oliver, in a daze, wakes up long enough to warn Clark that Checkmate is after the Kandorians.
Warehouse. The Kandorians kneel as armed men place black cloth bags over their heads. Vala is the last one with her face still showing. "Please," she begs. "Our people have done nothing!" The soldier bags her without answering. Her vision (and ours) now obscured, she hears a whoosh and the sounds of a fight. A moment later, her bag is removed -- by Clark. She looks around and finds the Checkmate agents have been subdued. What a clever way to stage an inexpensive fight! Vala tells Clark that Faora's been taken. He whooshes off. Commercials.
Hospital supply room. Chloe breaks through a glass case and pulls out a large, pre-prepared syringe of Atropine. (Did you know Atropine is made from plants that are related to tomatoes? Interesting, huh? There's your botanical lesson for the day!) Tess freaks out at the thought of what Chloe might be planning to do with it. Chloe explains that since the tracker is powered by Tess's "biorhythms," then she's going to have to stop her heart. "I have to kill you, Tess," she says. She holds up the syringe. "And this is the way I'm going to bring you back." Chloe starts getting a defibrillator ready. Tess is naturally incredulous at this plan, but Chloe asks for her trust. Tess looks at her for a long time, realizing what little choice she has, and lies down on a gurney. Chloe places the pads on her chest. "Ready?" Tess takes a breath, looks her in the eyes, and says, "Do it." She gasps as the shock goes through her, back arching, then falls back, dead. Outside in the hall, Stuart, Brennan and another agent are puzzled as to why the signal suddenly went dead. Stuart spies the supply room, gets a knowing look in his eyes... or eye... and kicks open the door, gun drawn. His anticipation quickly turns to disappointment when he finds the room unoccupied. He and the others back out of the room to keep searching.
As soon as they leave, Chloe comes out of her hiding place between two carts. She checks to make sure they're gone before going over to a body bag. She unzips it, revealing Tess's still-dead face. She looks down at Tess for a long while, surely thinking of how easy it would be to let her stay this way. She even makes it a few steps toward the door before her conscience stops her. She makes a face like she can't believe she can't go through with it, whispering, "Son of a bitch!" She marches back over to Tess's corpse, thinks some more, then stabs the Atropine syringe into Tess's chest. She depresses the plunger and waits. And waits. Tess remains dead. Chloe looks confused, horrified that maybe she waited too long. Then all at once, Tess is alive again and sucking in deep, shaky breaths and sitting up, the syringe still protruding out of her sternum. She pulls the big damn needle out, whimpering, while Chloe watches, astonished. Chloe reaches out a steadying hand when Tess almost stumbles off the gurney. "I really... I really didn't think you'd bring me back," Tess says between gasps. "Neither did I," Chloe admits. Chloe helps Tess to her feet, but stops her at the door with a warning. If Tess says anything to anyone about Chloe and her people... "time, you won't wake up," Chloe says. "You understand?" Tess, echoing Chloe's earlier words, says, "Guess you'll have to trust me." Tess's expression is unreadable. Chloe frowns like maybe she thinks she just made a mistake.
Warehouse exterior. Waller, alone with Faora, tells her that some of Checkmate's field offices have just been destroyed by Zod. Faora disavows any allegiance with Zod. She and her people only want peace. Waller's not into the whole peace thing, so Faora offers to help her stop Zod. "Defecting means betraying your own kind," Waller says. "I'm only betraying one," Faora says. And right on cue, that "one" shows up at that very moment to fling Waller into the windshield of a parked car. Zod marches toward Waller to finish her, but Clark super-zips into his path, stopping him. He punches Zod in the chest, sending him crashing into the side of the warehouse. Zod floats calmly back down to the ground. "Checkmate's actions demand justice," Zod says. "Murder isn't justice," Clark tells him. They give each other the stink eye for a while before Clark goes to check on Waller. Zod takes the opportunity to fly off with Faora. Clark stares sadly at the empty spot where they'd just been standing.
Now Zod and Faora are in what seems to be an entirely different warehouse. Faora stands at attention, hands folded at the small of her back. They reminisce about the time Zod saved her life at the Siege of Argo. "There were many losses that day," Faora remembers. "Not for me," Zod says, smiling, tears coming to his eyes. "Because I found a young and beautiful cadet who would become my trusted right hand." He speaks warmly of how brave she was, how much he trusted her. "I depended on you, across time and space," he says. He looks closely at her, seeing only contempt in her eyes now. She doesn't deny it. He takes a few steps away from her, asking how she could betray him. "I shared my bed with you," he says. "I didn't turn my back on you," Faora says. "You turned your back on us, when our only crime was trying to forge a life for ourselves on our planet!" There's a really distracting, moving shadow from a slowly moving fan that very nearly ruins an otherwise well-staged scene. Zod blah-blahs about how he would have razed the planet if he'd known his men had betrayed him. He gets all up in her face. "Only I will lead us to the age," he whispers. "All will follow... Zawd." Faora is defiant: "You already sacrificed one world for your ego." The big psycho baby looks like he's going to cry. "You know nothing of sacrifice," he says. She touches her belly and tells him, sadly, "I know more than you ever will." He commands her to kneel. She refuses. He grabs her by the throat and squeezes the breath out of her. She never looks away from him even as she falls to the ground, dead. Only then does Zod notice the ceremonial flower she'd been clutching in her hand. Now he sees her gently swollen belly and understands what he's done. He falls to his knees beside her, placing his cheek to her abdomen, hearing his baby's heartbeat. He listens as the tiny heart slows and finally stops. Zod touches Faora's hair and closes his eyes. When he opens them again, he's different. He wasn't entirely sane before, but it's like something in him shifts or closes off. Callum Blue is such a good actor when he's not talking. Commercials.
Checkmate castle. Stuart is already brainstorming a plan for how to find Tess without the tracking device when he approaches Waller in the hallway. A medic is tending to a small cut on Waller's forehead. Not bad for being thrown into a windshield at 50 miles an hour. Waller follows Stuart, but she's talking about how Zod has been destroying Checkmate's field offices. On top of that, the "Black King" is missing and they're at war. She tells Stu to contact the U.N. "We have to regroup before they strike again," she tells him. Oops, too late: As they round the corner, they find four dead guards lying on the floor, the walls splashed with their blood. A door hangs off its hinges. The overhead lights flicker. Stuart's one remaining eye takes in this bloody tableau and doesn't like what it sees. Waller looks similarly distressed. Things are about to get worse, though, because an eerily calm Zod steps through the demolished door and blasts them with his heat-vision. Stuart and Waller run, but it's hard to imagine successfully escaping a super-powered alien overlord who's off his rocker.
Met Gen. Chloe is at Oliver's bedside, holding his hand, her expression full of worry and possibly love and looks down at her strong, burnt and hot man. He's asleep and doesn't open his eyes when she touches the side of his face. She notices Clark waiting outside the hospital room and goes to see him. He has a cup of coffee waiting for her, but Chloe's looking for something else: "Please tell me you found that Z-branding bastard so we can slap him back across the universe." She's angry, and maybe a little angry at Clark, judging by the way she looks at him. Clark says he can't find Zod or Faora. With some hope, he adds, "Maybe if I can find the others, I can talk some sense into them." Chloe noticing a TV behind Clark, says, "We may be too late for that." There's a news report showing the Checkmate castle in flames. Clark realizes that Zod has declared war. Chloe gets an alert on her cell. Her "eye in the sky" has picked up activity at the Fortress. The day just keeps getting better and better, huh, Clark? He whooshes away.
Fortress. More than a dozen black-clad Kandorians have gathered inside. Zod walks into their midst, carrying a lifeless Faora in his arms. With care, he lays her down on a black crystal altar and turns to face his men. "What was to be the first son of Kandor is no more," he says. He tells the soldiers that they have no choice now. The sadness and sincerity are gone from his face; he wears the mask of a charismatic leader, a politician. "The humans killed the mother of my unborn child," he says. He blinks for effect and adds, "The mother of your future!" Clark shows up at this point to contradict him: "That's a lie!" The soldiers part to let him in. Vala is among them. Clark tells them that Faora was alive the last time he saw her, and then Zod took her. Zod is not perturbed by Clark's accusation, and merely points out that Clark, the traitor, can't be trusted. "He saved the life of the woman who held you hostage." Clark tries to appeal to Vala on behalf of her dead sister, but, frightened, she sides with Zod. One of the soldiers steps forward, face to face with Clark. "They will hunt us to the last man," the soldier says. "But they will fail, for we shall never be defeated." He pledges to follow General Zod. He and the others kneel in salute. Zod, enjoying his power, tells Clark, "Krypton will rise again, and all humankind will kneel before Zod." Some of us will fight you just for speaking of yourself in third person. Clark is defiant. "I'll never let that happen!" The soldiers stand. Zod and his men close in around Clark. Zod, with the small, self-satisfied smile of a crazy person, tells him, "You won't be able to stop us." With that, the Kandorians launch themselves straight up into the sky. Earthbound, Clark only watches them go, then stares at the ground at his feet like the saddest 200-pound sack of potatoes you ever saw. The end.
So, all in all, a good job by Hartley and his co-writers on this episode, and kudos to the director for some clever direction in places. Good acting all around, too. Maybe the regular writers will take a cue from Hartley and tone down the not-so-clever clever dialog from now on? Probably not. But we can hope.
week: Martha Kent is back! And girl looks piiiissssed.
It isn't just poorly planned panic rooms that would keep us from moving into this town. See our other reasons, then discuss this episode in our forums.
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Tippi Blevins sometimes thinks the show needs a big dose of Atropine to bring it back to life, but not this time. You can email her at b_tippi@yahoo.com, or find her on Twitter.