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When last we saw our heroes, they were having a post-funeral snooze in Egypt. The thing we know, it's weeks later and Lois has returned to Smallville, having been released by the government goons who were apparently responsible for their predicament. She's been trying to track down Clark, but no one will admit to having him in custody. Then, out of the blue, he returns home without powers. The only thing he remembers is being experimented on... by Chloe. Oliver, too, is released, but his memory of being seemingly tortured by the woman he loves sends him straight to the psych ward. Chloe materializes out of the wall to help him, which doesn't exactly convince him of his sanity at first. Then she explains that he and the others are actually being held by the VRA and everything they see around them is a computer-generated reality, designed to block and manipulate their abilities. She created an avatar of herself to lead them to safety. Also, her avatar is a kick-ass fighter and handy with guns, too.
Oliver trusts her and follows her to the top of the Daily Planet building, from which they leap in order to pass through a midair portal back into reality. Clark is not as trusting when offered the same route to freedom. He has some heretofore unmentioned trust issues with the way Chloe left them, but then Lois gives him a pep talk about trust and faith or some such and together they take the plunge. (They also have a nice little flight around virtual Metropolis, which, you know, time is of the essence so hurry up.) Turns out Chloe is now in command of the Suicide Squad, having convinced/blackmailed them into working with her. They and the newly revived heroes fight off the VRA and Tess, entirely off-screen, works her magic at Watchtower so that the good guys can return to their normal lives. For the time being, anyway.
Dinah's also in the mix, and quick to blame Chloe, but we'll get to that and more in the full recap. Stay tuned!
Want more? The full recap starts right below!Previously on Smallville: Clark proposed to Lois and she accepted; the Vigilante Registration Act came down hard on Clark and the other heroes; in response, they shut down Watchtower and went underground; Rick Flag led a group of outlaws called the Suicide Squad; having seen the future with Fate's helmet, Chloe traded herself to the Squad in exchange for Oliver's freedom; Carter Hall/Hawkman died and all the heroes took his body to Egypt, where a mysterious obelisk zapped them all into unconsciousness.
Currently on Smallville: Lois stands in the Kent farmhouse kitchen, looking lost. She holds a glass of water without seeming to realize it's there. The kitchen table is strewn with scrawled notes and pictures of her and Clark as a couple. "The Blue Danube Waltz" plays over the speaker phone. A chipper recording breaks through the reverie: "Your call is important to us! Please stay on the line, or you can reach us on the web at www.VigilanteRegistrationAgency.fed!" Lois looks like she's about to cry. Being put on hold makes me emotional, too. The Strauss starts up again, but then an actual human voice cuts in. A woman says she's checked all the databases and they don't have a Clark Kent in any of their facilities. Lois lunges for the phone so quickly that the glass slips from her hands, shattering on the floor. The woman on the phone suggests Lois check with the Justice Department. Lois, fuming, says she's done that. She's tried a whole bunch of other departments, too, and they referred her to the VRA. "Ma'am, don't get huffy," says the object of Lois's wrath. That just makes Lois even huffier, although she proclaims the opposite: "I am a general's daughter! I don't even know how to get huffy, OK?!" I'm not following her line of reasoning. Maybe being on hold for so long has messed with her mind. To prove just how un-huffy she is, she calls the VRA drone a bitch and threatens to come after her. That earns her a dial tone.
Lois gives a long, shaky sigh and starts to sweep up the shards of glass on the floor, as much to just keep her occupied as anything else. She hears the front door open and runs over to see who's there. Why, it's Clark! He's wearing khakis and a gray tee, and carrying a duffel bag over one shoulder. He stands in the sunlight that streams through the front window. Sweeping music plays. Lois runs into his arms. She tells him she was released a couple of days ago and has been trying to find him ever since. "Lois, it was the VRA," he says. Who else would it have been? Lois is furious, because the VRA's full of lying liars who lie about not being involved. Clark suggests they deal with all that tomorrow, and just be happy for now. He looks pretty unhappy, though, so Lois is worried something is wrong. He insists he's fine and follows her into the kitchen for a nosh. He sees the broken glass and bends down to pick some up with his bare hands. Just as Lois asks why they would suddenly release Clark, he cuts his finger on a piece of glass. He holds up his bloody digit to explain his freedom. "They took away my powers," he tells her. Lois doesn't want to believe it. "How could they?" she asks. He doesn't remember about his time in captivity and neither does she.
As he pokes around in his memory, the room around him begins to shake. Lights flash. He sees himself strapped down inside some kind of laboratory chamber. The images are grainy with more quick-cuts than a McG action scene. Hands hold him down as he struggles in the chamber. Someone forces a tube down his throat. A huge syringe plunges into the side of his neck. A woman's face peers down at him from the darkness. She is blond, pale-skinned with worried eyes. She is Chloe Sullivan. "Put him back under," she says. A lid slides shut over the chamber, sealing him in like a coffin. Back in the Kent kitchen, Lois is holding his face in her hands, trying to bring him back to the real world. He blink-blinks a few times. "I was having some sort of flashback," he says. "Someone was experimenting on me." "Who was it?" she asks. He allows for an appropriately dramatic pause before answering: "Chloe." Somebody save him! At least get him a bandage for that finger!
LuthorCorp. Oliver stands outside his office, wearing khakis and a tee like Clark. He stares for a long time at a sign that's been plastered over the door, warning trespassers away from a "VRA investigation site." Oliver decides that he's not going to let a little piece of paper stand between him and his office and tears it down. Also, how sad is it that this is the first place he goes when given freedom? He has no home! He doesn't even have his silly jet anymore. With shaky hands, he pours himself a tumbler of scotch and drinks it down in one gulp. Ah, burns so good. He spies his cell nearby and picks it up. A cozy bedroom picture of Chloe greets him. He flashes back to his time in captivity. As in Clark's memory, he's strapped into a cylindrical chamber, wires affixed to his head. He sees Chloe injecting him with a syringe and then shoving a long plastic tube into his nose. Back in his office, he brings both fists down on a glass table, shattering it. Why does anyone buy glass tables on this show? They exist only to be broken into itty bitty dangerous shards. He staggers into a corner and slumps to the floor. Maybe he's upset because the VRA took away his giant vase of lemons and limes.
Watchtower. Clark walks into the ghost town that was once their superhero hangout. All the computers are covered with plastic sheeting. "Don't move," a woman says behind him. He recognizes her voice: "Dinah, it's me." She looks different since the last time she was on the show. Maybe it's the longer hair or lack of raccoon eyes. She has a double-ended blade in one hand and scoffs lightly before putting it away. "Not that I could do much with this except shred your threads." Clark points out she could damage more than his clothing, seeing as how they took away his powers. Dinah frowns and touches a scar in the hollow of her throat. "You, too?" Clark asks her what she remembers from the last three weeks. She describes flashbacks like Clark and Oliver have had. She also tells him she saw Chloe standing over her. Clark admits he saw her, too. Dinah thinks that Chloe is working with them, telling them how to take their powers. Clark refuses to believe that, so Dinah reminds him of Chloe's "dirty dance with Doomsday." This episode is brought to you by the letter "D," kids. Clark still doesn't believe Chloe is involved, but agrees with Dinah that they should find her. "Clark, if we find out she's turned on us, are you prepared to do what needs to be done?" Dinah asks. He makes a sad puppy face. Before he can answer, Dinah's cell beeps. She gets a text saying Oliver is at Met Gen. The music races with urgency while Clark looks at Dinah for a while. Feel the urgency!
Met Gen. Swaddled in a straitjacket, Oliver huddles against the wall of the world's worst "observation room." Seriously, the walls appear to be made of concrete brick and there are fairly low-hanging light fixtures and big expanses of windows. You could do yourself quite a mischief in there, straitjacket or no. Oliver, luckily, is suffering his insanity quietly. He stirs only slightly when Clark walks into the outer room and calls his name. Oliver looks lost, and sounds it, too: "Clark, they win." Clark promises to keep fighting, but Oliver doesn't see how. "They've taken my friends, stripped me of all my weapons, messed with my equilibrium, and now they're in my head, Clark." He walks over to the glass window that separates them. He says, in a whisper, "They got me thinking that Chloe's behind this whole thing -- I saw her." He describes his flashback of Chloe performing an experiment on him. Clark's look of sad recognition prompts Oliver to ask if Clark saw her too. Clark doesn't want to answer, because he doesn't want to believe it. Oliver presses for an answer, but Clark only says he hasn't given up on Chloe yet. He promises to find out what's going on. He leaves with Oliver's pleas trailin
g behind him. "Don't you leave me here, Clark!" Oliver shouts, shoving his shoulder against the window. One of the overhead lights begins to fizz and pop. Oliver looks up just in time to see all the lights blow out in sparks of electricity. The brick wall begins to warp and bubble. As Oliver watches, a human shape begins to emerge from the brick. The shape is vague at first, then suddenly Chloe is standing there in a smart white suit. "Hello, Oliver," she says with a Mona Lisa smile.
He gapes and blinks for a while, thinking that he's seeing some drug-induced vision. "You're not hallucinating," she tells him. "That's kind of hard to believe, considering you just materialized out of a wall," he says. She takes a step towards him. He takes a step away from her. She says she's there to save him, but he doesn't believe her. He brings up the lab where he saw her. "You were messing with our heads," he says. "You tortured us." She's hurt that he would believe that. He paces around her, keeping his distance, wary. So she explains that the government captured them at Carter's funeral then stuck them all inside the Matrix. She doesn't use those exact words, but that's the gist of it. (Also, there's really neat, subtle background music here. It's nice to know that the show can do understated once in a while.) He looks at her for a long time, wanting to believe her, but he can't quite buy the virtual reality thing. She tells him that he and the others are still lying in that lab, trapped in something like a giant video game. "You're not real?" he asks. "I'm pretty much Chloe in the sky with diamonds," she says. She broke into the lab and created an avatar of herself to interact with them. Yet she couldn't get them to wear loincloths? Things are starting to make more sense to Oliver, except for the flashbacks. She explains that she had tried to disconnect them but they flat-lined, so she had to reconnect them. He thinks that over for a while, but time's a-wasting. "Look, Oliver, I gotta get you out of here," she says, heading for the door. He points out his current predicament, what with the cell and the straitjacket and all. She reminds him they're in a virtual world. "Because I believe that everything I see is fake, I'm not limited by it," she says. "I have power." She touches the door and it swings open. He concentrates for a bit and the straitjacket vanishes. He stares at his arms in amazement. "How'd you do that?" She grins. "I didn't; you did."
She leads him through the virtual Met Gen, which looks just like the real Met Gen, so kudos to those VRA computer programmers. She tells him she's taking him to the trapdoor that she's programmed. Where is it? 800 feet above a busy street. He makes some snarky rumblings about that and she's like, "Hey, it was more dramatic that way!" Actually, she says she had no control over where the door showed up. Chloe stops him when she sees two black-clad men carrying guns. She explains they're part of the computer's automated security system that runs every six minutes. If the virtual cops find them, they'll kill them. Like, kill kill, not just video-game kill. She offers Oliver this analogy: "If a skydiver's parachute doesn't open, the cause of death is not high impact; it's the heart attack you have because you know you're gonna die." But if you know it's all fake, why would you expect to die? There had to have been a better way to inject some urgency in this episode. Like, if they find you in the virtual world, a box of deadly blue-ringed octopuses will be automatically emptied into your real-world boxer shorts! They dart down another hallway only to find more virtual cops heading for them. Chloe pulls Oliver around a corner. He gallantly offers to hold them off while she runs, but she says she can handle them. "I just need to know one thing," she says. "Do you trust me?" "With my life," he answers. She gets a sly little smile, then pulls two guns out of nowhere. She coolly shoots one guard in the chest and kneecaps the other one. Oliver's face goes "buh?" for a second. "Let's go," Chloe says.
Daily Planet. Clark and Lois sift through computer files, trying to find the facility where they were being held. So far, nothing looks familiar. "What if Dinah was right?" Clark asks. "What if Chloe is responsible?" Lois reminds Clark of Dinah's past as a right-wing radio personality. She calls her audience "tub-thumping, love-it-or-leave-it morons." Cue Dinah's entry into the scene. "How does it feel to be on the run from the war hawks you rallied behind?" Lois asks sweetly. Dinah gives her a look, but ignores her. Instead, she says to Clark that Oliver has escaped from Met Gen. She pulls up security footage on the computer to show them Oliver leaving with Chloe. Clark thinks Chloe must have a good reason for not contacting the rest of them, although he's starting to sound a little doubtful. Dinah reminds him Chloe experimented on them. "Chloe would never hurt Oliver," Lois says. "Not unless he got in her way," Dinah says, pulling up footage of Chloe shooting the (virtual) cops. Clark and Lois look aghast. Hey, the guy pulled a gun on her first. Anything that happened after that was all about self-defense and looking cool in slow motion. Lois stands up for her cousin, but Dinah blathers on about how Chloe took those men out in "cold blood." Dude. They pulled guns first. Did they take her brains along with her Canary Cry? Lois and Dinah bicker with each other. Clark wisely stays out of it. He gets a text on his cell from Chloe, telling him to meet her on the roof. At this point in the bicker fest, Dinah is saying, "Violent criminals deserve to fry. If your cousin is one of them, then that's a campfire I'm not ashamed to sing around." Y'all are all kinda violent, don't you think? Lois asks Clark for his opinion, but he's gone.
He's just stepping out onto the rooftop where Chloe and Oliver are waiting. Clark can hardly believe it's her. She runs into his arms for a big hug. She says she doesn't have long, but he wants an explanation for the two guards and the flashbacks. Oliver and Chloe explain about the whole Matrix situation they're in. The government wants to figure out how to turn Clark's powers (and Oliver's skills) off and on, which is why he doesn't have abilities here. If they choose to work with the government, they get to keep their powers. Clark's still confused about the flashbacks, so Chloe explains how she was trying to disconnect them but things went badly. Oy! So much of this show is people explaining stuff to other people who weren't in scenes where stuff was already explained. Group scenes! Look into it! Guards are advancing up the steps toward the roof. Clark's still kind of unsure. "Look, Clark," Chloe says, "I can get you out of this world of weird, but only if you truly believe it's fake." She's talking too fast for his brain to process. The guards pound on the door, but Oliver's blocked it with a 2X4. Chloe urges Clark to follow her to the roof's ledge. "We have to jump," she tells him. "It's the only way you can get through the portal and into the real world." Clark still has questions. She asks him to trust her. A helicopter circles overhead, scanning the roof with a searchlight. Chloe offers Clark her hand. He reaches out, but hesitates. "I can't," he whispers, pulling away. "I'm sorry." With an apologetic look, Chloe and Oliver leap from the roof and plummet through a midair flash of light.
In the real-world lab, Oliver wakes up. The cover on his chamber slides open. He yanks the wires off his head and stumbles to his feet. Chloe's standing there, waiting for him. He looks at her like he's afraid to believe. "Are we dead?" he asks shakily. "This might help you decide," she says, and pulls him into a kiss. I hope someone's been brushing his teeth for the last few weeks. As the camera pulls back from the reunited couple, the rest of the lab comes i
nto view. It looks like a hangar. Several more chambers like Oliver's are set up, each connected to an assortment of computers. At least two guards lie (most likely dead) on the floor. Rick Flag walks in with Deadshot in tow. Flag utters the single worst line ever spoken on this show: "Keep your shirt on, Queen." Horrible! He says there's work to do. Oliver steps between Flag and Chloe. Both Flag and Deadshot pull their guns. "Stand down," Chloe barks at them. "It's OK, Chloe," Oliver says. "I got these ladies." Over Oliver's shoulder, Chloe ever so slightly raises her brows. The guns are put away. It dawns on Oliver that it wasn't his manly bravado that cowed these fellows. He turns to Chloe: "You're working with them?" "I can explain later," she says. "I did what I had to do."
That must have satisfied him for the time being, because after a quick word from our sponsors, everyone seems to be working together quite peaceably. Flag, who apparently never changes clothes, brings Oliver and the viewers up to date. The VRA doesn't know yet that they've taken over the facility (their security is as shitty as everyone else's on this show) but they'll be coming. Deadshot is on duty on the east side of the perimeter. Flag wants Oliver to cover the north. Oliver seems amenable. "What exactly are we up against here?" he asks. Shouldn't you know by now? You've been kidnapped by them twice. Flag says the VRA ops are highly-trained lethal killers. "Video cameras picked them up four klicks away," he says. They don't have long. Chloe goes back into the virtual world to get the others out.
Her avatar materializes in the all-purpose dark alleyway that this show seems so fond of. She sets her watch for six minutes. Dinah pops up behind her and gives her a shove. "Go to an alley, you'll find a rat," she says. Chloe's like, "We don't have time for this shit!" But she says it more like, "Canary, you're caught in a virtual cage and you don't even know it." Chloe sighs. "But I can help you fly the coop -- you just have to meet me on the top of the Daily Planet." Dinah is not won over by these crappy metaphors. She demands the return of her powers. Chloe tells her she never lost her powers, but Dinah's not buying that, either. She calls Chloe a traitor and moves to grab her, but Chloe does a neat little backflip off the wall, vaults over Dinah and lands on her feet. The two of them circle around each other. Dinah tries a few karate chops, but Chloe deflects every move without effort. Chloe sweeps the leg and Dinah goes down. She jumps to her feet and pops her double-ended blade out from the top of her boot. Again, Chloe evades every move. The whole time, her expression shows just how over it she is. Dinah goes cartwheeling down the alley, whips out another knife and hurls it at Chloe. The knife stops inches from Chloe's unflinching face, just hanging there. Chloe plucks the knife from midair while Dinah gapes. Chloe sighs. "I told you, Dorothy, this is all a dream," she says. "Now, before I send you back to Kansas, I need to know one thing: where's Lois?"
Back in the real world, the VRA ops are mobilizing. Lieutenant Trotter is in one of the cars, sneering with disdain as she orders her men to move in. At the same time, Dinah is waking up in her lab tube. Her hair looks better now than it did in the virtual world. Being unconscious did wonders for her style. Dressed up in his greens, Oliver is waiting for her. "This canary's gonna have to eat some crow," she says. Ugh. Flag reminds them that the VRA ops are closing in. Dinah apologizes to Chloe for not believing her. Chloe: "What happens in cyberspace stays in cyberspace." Ugh, again! Chloe asks them to hold off the VRA as long as possible, otherwise she won't be able to get Clark out. She's sad that Clark doesn't seem to trust her anymore. Oliver says it's because she left them, but he sounds more matter-of-fact than snotty. Still, she looks hurt. "Just keep trying," he says gently. She lets us know there are only 17 minutes left in the episode.
In the virtual world, Clark is wandering around the virtual streets of virtual Metropolis. He finds Lois outside the DP building and follows her inside. He's worried because he's starting to go nuts like Oliver. "We need to find out how Chloe's working with them," he says. "Get my powers back so we can stop them." Lois, who has since talked to Chloe off-screen, tries to calm him down, but Clark is feeling stubborn. He tells her he saw Chloe and Oliver jump off the building. Lois tells him that's how they escaped the fake world they're in, but Clark seems to prefer thinking he's losing his mind. He thinks they're all suffering from PTSD. Lois reminds him of all he and Chloe have been through: "You've battled Luthors, you fought with demons from outer space and you've battled supernatural hexes together." She thinks there's more going on here, so Clark admits he just doesn't know Chloe anymore. "I don't know who she's working for," he says. "I don't know what she wants!" "Because she left?" Lois prompts. "Because she didn't say why," he says. These would have been some nice character insights to have during the first half of the season, don't you think? He's seemed totally fine with Chloe leaving until they needed a dramatic conflict in this episode. Clark is hurt that Chloe didn't believe in them enough to confide in him. He busies himself with things on his desk, not looking at Lois. Lois gently tries to steer him onto a path of self-realization, telling him it's hard to trust someone who has secrets. Clark doesn't say anything. Lois gives him another nudge, reminding him that sometimes people keep secrets to protect those they care about. Clark gets it. Chloe and Lois trusted him when they knew he had secrets, now it's time to trust Chloe. Lois wants him to listen to his heart, but he still looks doubtful and sad.
In the real world, Trotter sneaks up on Chloe as she tappa-taps at the computer and whacks her in the head with the butt of her gun. Chloe goes down. Trotter sneers disdainfully, as is her wont. The other VRA ops join her. One of them takes Chloe's place at the computer. "Make sure Kent never makes it out of there," she says. "Do whatever it takes to stop him." She tells him to use Chloe's avatar. We cut to Virtual Chloe as she's crossing the street. Suddenly she staggers and frowns as if in pain. A moment later, a look of evil determination comes over her face.
She finds Lois and Clark waiting for her in the DP basement and acts like they're talking crazy talk when they express their readiness to jump off the roof. She says they're delusional, suicidal. Lois somehow realizes this isn't real Chloe (or even Virtual Real Chloe) and backhands her into the room. Lois drags a bewildered Clark into the elevator.
Back in the real world, the VRA ops are marching a blindfolded Chloe into the wintry dead of night. A hail of gunfire blows out all the windows on the VRA vans. Rick Flag advances on them, firing until his gun empties. He whips out two more guns and keeps firing. The "highly-trained lethal killers" don't get a shot in, despite the fact that Flag is completely out in the open and wearing a pretty bright orange shirt, to boot. Trotter orders Chloe killed. One of the ops shoves her to the ground. She rolls to her feet and pulls down her blindfold. From some distance away, Deadshot takes aim and fires two shots that swerve around Chloe and take out her would-be killers. Another op moves to grab her. An arrow slices through the air, blocking his path. Oliver beats him down, earning an appreciative smile from Chloe. Trotter goes after Dinah, who employs some fancy gymnastics to avoid being shot. Trotter's gun clicks empty. Dinah, who has found the time to paint on her mask, blasts Trotter with her "Canary Cry," blowing the woman off her feet and into a nearby fence. Heroic music plays as Dinah, Deadshot, Flag, Chloe and Oliver meet up. I'm liking this team. They should come up with a snappy name.
As is always the case in the real world of Smallville, the moon over virtual Metropolis is full. Clark and Lois step out onto the DP rooftop to find Chloe waiting for them. She tries to instill doubt into this newly determined Clark, telling him that he's the most reluctant of all the heroes to accept his "abnormalities." She says if he jumps and doesn't 100% believe in it, he'll die. Another Chloe pops up, and then another... and another. Suddenly there are about eight Chloes on the rooftop. Clark finds himself filled with doubt again. "Don't listen to it, Clark," Lois says, coming to his side. She gives him a heartfelt speech about trusting himself, like how he trusted himself to tell her his secret. He looks uncertain. Oh my God, just bounce a ball off the rooftop ledge and shout "Get it, boy!" "I believe in you," Lois says. That seems to give him the push that he needs. With a little smile, he takes her in his arms, crouches down and draws on the surrounding energy to propel them both into the sky. The force of their blastoff knocks all the Chloes down like little blond bowling pins. Clark and Lois zoom across the sky, flying past the golden orb atop the Daily Planet building. Majestic music plays. They smile at each other. It really is a neat moment, although I can't help but think they really need to hurry their damn selves along. Time is of the essence, kiddos! They fly a little more and then rocket toward the portal, vanishing in crackling light before they can hit the ground.
Kent Farm. It's sunny and the cows (the cows!) are mooing. Inside, Chloe's in the living room, looking at a framed photo of her with Clark and Pete. It's from the first season of the show and they all look like babies. Seriously. I remember thinking back then how Tom Welling looked much too old to play a kid, but now I think his first-season self looks like he just plopped out of the womb. Chloe looks at a picture of Clark and Lois at this season's homecoming episode. I think she, too, is marveling at the age difference. Clark walks in from the kitchen. "It wasn't the same without you," he says. "I can't believe it's been five years already," she says. It's been ten years! TEN! Oh man, am I suffering from PTSD now? Oh, she means since they graduated high school. All right, then. Chloe's sad about how much she's missed out on, but Clark reminds her she was able to save them. If she'd been there, Trotter would have captured her, too. Chloe credits the Fate helmet for warning her. Clark's a little uneasy about working with the Suicide Squad. Chloe tells him that "every Frankenstein has a human heart." But just in case relying on decent human nature didn't pan out, she also destroyed Rick Flag's secret missile system. "I gave him a choice: I could either report them to the government, or they could report to me." That... doesn't seem like the best plan in the world. But Clark seems sort of impressed. He can't believe this is the same girl in that high school picture. Speaking of high school... Clark almost shyly asks how she managed to trust him back then, before he told her the truth. They have a nice little talk about trust and secrets and how lies are sometimes for protecting people. He regards her with respect and understanding. "You never gave up," he says. "And I never will," she tells him.
At this point, Lois walks in through the kitchen door, arms laden with groceries. She has good news: Tess just texted her that Trotter and her men are "enjoying a taste of their own virtual venom." Does that mean they're hooked up to those computers? Chloe is pleased that Trotter won't be able to tell the world Clark's secret anytime soon. Yeah, but... what's keeping Slade Wilson from blabbing? Or any of the other VRA ops who didn't happen to be at the raid? There are only five minutes left in the episode, so we're probably not supposed to worry about these things. Clark seems glad, too. Lois takes the rare opportunity of their togetherness to ask Chloe to be her maid of honor. Chloe practically explodes with sunshine and smiles as she throws her arms around her cousin's neck. So that's a "yes," it seems. Clark watches the ladies hug, giving them a goofy grin like, "Those crazy ladies of mine!"
Watchtower. Oliver is wearing a nice suit and holding a gigantic bouquet of red roses. Seriously, even his impressive biceps must be straining under its weight. He's alone and deep in thought when the door opens behind him and Chloe enters, wearing what I thought at first was a long black dress. They are, in fact, long flowing pants with a sparkly halter top. Oliver, suddenly a bit awkward, gives her the roses. Now that they're back in the real world, they have to deal with real things. "I just stopped looking for you," he blurts out. "I figured that's what you wanted, right?" Chloe can't look at him for a few seconds. She puts the roses down, lest she herniate herself. "You have no idea how much it means that you trusted me," she says. There is a distance between them, literal and otherwise. They have to feel their way around it, testing it like a wound for tenderness. He's hurt that she didn't at least call. She says the Fate helmet warned her to stay away. She takes a step toward him, but he doesn't move. "Did the helmet say anything about how I'd be sitting alone, listening to old voice mails just to hear your voice?" He says he looked at every stranger's face, hoping to see her smile. Chloe's eyes fill with tears. She says she figured it out without the helmet. She takes another step toward him. She says she didn't trust herself to reach out to him. If she saw him again, she wouldn't be able to leave when she needed to. She's dreamed about coming back to him, every day. She takes a final step toward him, eyes pleading with his. "You sticking around for a while?" he asks. "Yeah," she says. There's a long moment when things could go either way. He could let the moment pass and walk away, or close that last little bit of distance. Finally, he smiles and says, "Good." He takes the last step and pulls her into his arms. They kiss and kiss in the middle of the shuttered Watchtower. If they had dinner reservations, they're probably going to be late.
Kent Farm. In the loft, Clark thumbs through Carter's journal. There's an old picture of him in expedition gear. Lois cheerfully pops up to tell Clark she's picked out the flowers and bridesmaid dresses. She sees the book and tells Clark that Carter would be proud of him. He says he's been thinking about Carter, and also about what Lois said in the virtual world. "You made me believe," he says. "And you got me to fly... even if it was just in cyberspace." They kiss and reminisce about the flight. Clark teases her (and us) with the possibility of a flight in the real world. "I've al
ways believed you can do the impossible," she tells him. "And one day you will." They kiss again while romantic music plays. Lois finally excuses herself to make a conference call with Perry. Clark grins to himself for a while... then he smiles for a while... and that's how the episode ends. Enjoy the brief moment of sanity while it lasts, kids!
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