PRE-CREDIT SEQUENCE
CAIRO:
Lois moves away amongst tents in the desert, calls Perry on her cell and then enters a tent, where he checks out a drawing of Egyptians when Carter Hall enters the tent, proclaiming the couple in the illustration were “star-crossed lovers.”
The first shot, unfortunately, features REALLY cheesy visual effects as a jeep moves toward an area filled with tents; a jeep that leaves no trail behind it. Very odd. When we cut to Lois and she’s on the cell phone, she, quite amazingly, has no problem getting through even in the middle of a mini-sandstorm. Not sure who the service provider is, but sign me up! It’s admittedly cool to see Carter Hall, but unless you’ve seen “Absolute Justice” the audience isn’t sure why this character is instantly treated with such import. Still, nice to see Michael Shanks back and it’s noticeable from the outset that he’s pulled back from the Christian Bale-life gravelly voice approach he took last time for this appearance.
DAILY PLANET
Clark is calling Chloe, desperately trying to find her. He’s saddened to see the cover of the Daily Planet, announcing Lois’ relocation. He prints out a plane for himself to go from Metropolis to Cairo. Cat Grant shows up, turns on a radio playing anti-hero rhetoric from a host named Gordon Godfrey and nearly smashes the radio. A moment later, Cat announces that she’s Clark’s new partner.
Clark’s growing panic over Chloe’s whereabouts is nicely played, as is his sadness over Lois’ departure. At the same time, there’s an attempt to go all cutesy with the Clark/Cat interplay, but she just doesn’t feel natural in that role. Maybe she’ll grow on us, but actress Keri Lynn Pratt isn’t making it easy.
ACT I:
WATCHTOWER
Oliver is rapidly discovering that all digital traces of Chloe have vanished; it’s as though she never existed. Tess, having gotten a message from him, arrives and they discuss the situation, with Tess pointing out that if Chloe has disappeared, then it’s likely from Chloe’s own handiwork. The final word Oliver has gotten is a goodbye email from Chloe. Tess admits that she did reset everything in the memory banks according to Chloe’s wishes.
CAIRO
As Carter and Lois talk (and she talks INCESSANTLY), mention is made of the goddess Isis (which will become an issue in episode 10.5). Carter talks about the ancient sun god Ra, which Lois equates to Clark and what he really is, wondering aloud what his life must be like.
One of the cool things we get from this scene is Lois allowing herself to become lost in her knowledge of Clark, the excitement building as she ponders what a life with all of those abilities must be like. This scene does drive home an interesting interpretation of THIS version of Lois Lane: in the past – and this includes Richard Donner’s Superman: The Movie – Lois’ infatuation with Superman began pretty much from the moment she met him; she fell in love with the god rather than the man. On Smallville, conversely, her feelings for Clark grew first and had grown into a full-fledged romance BEFORE she discovered the secret of his powers. This serves to remove the superficial romance aspect of the relationship we’ve seen before and reveals something substantially deeper. On that level, it’s probably one of the strongest moments in the episode.
METROPOLIS
Cat and Clark get into her car, which is targeted by Deadshot (Bradley Stryker). Using a bullet that the ones from Mark Millar’s WANTED would be envious of, it misses a variety of people and strikes the gas tank of her car. At super speed, Clark rescues Cat from the exploding car.
Cool effect, but one has to wonder: why the hell is this version of Deadshot going with a cowboy look? It feels like Jonah Hex walking down the street rather than the character from the comics.
ACT II:
DAILY PLANET
Clark tries to find out what Cat is caught up in, which leads into a discussion about vigilante heroes and her proclamation that they could change the public’s perception of them if they would just step out into the light. Changing the subject, he says he wants to get her somewhere safe, and suggests that no one would look for her in Smallville.
TALON
Oliver is still looking for Chloe and is searching for clues when Cat suddenly enters the apartment there. Changing to Green Arrow, he easily wards off her defenses and, when she says she has proof about the evil of the vigilantes, he takes her cell phone and departs.
Not sure where this scene is eventually going to lead, but the problem with it is that while Justin Hartley is playing it all pretty real, again (and desperately trying not to belabor the point) Pratt is coming across as too light to root it and make us believe in her as a character. Her dialogue is falling fairly flat.
DAILY PLANET
Clark is talking to Tess and they start sharing clues, with Tess realizing that the hunter is Deadshot and noting that he was the one target that managed to elude Checkmate.
UNDISCOLOSED LOCATION:
Deadshot is carving a name on a bullet, eventually revealing it to read “Clark Kent.” Still trying to get a sense of menace from Stryker, but so far it isn’t happening. Maybe there just hasn’t been enough screen time at this point, but the reveal of Clark’s name on the bullet isn’t as shocking as it is likely intended to be.
ACT III:
THE TALON
Cat is packing her things when she hears footsteps in the hall. Picking up a large knife, she approaches the door, and is shocked/relieved to find Clark standing there. She goes on again about the “vigilante agenda.” Clark confronts her with her own agenda, asking why she changed her name. This leads to them sharing aspects of their life, Cat regretting a bad relationship that resulted in the birth of her wonderful son; and Clark, without mentioning Lois by name, offering up his own regrets. He opens her mind up to the notion that her fears of her ex is possibly fueling her anti-vigilante feelings. Clark gets a message from Tess and departs, leaving a frightened Cat left behind.
The problem with Cat is starting to crystallize by this point: we simply don’t know enough about her, and haven’t got a sense of who she truly is as a character to care emotionally about her situation. Oftentimes an episodic drama is able to beautifully make us forget the fact that we don’t know a guest star very well, but such is not the case with Pratt. Again, it just doesn’t feel real. If she’s returning, this kind of story might have been better served then.
CAIRO
Lois and Carter talk relationships. Carter gives Lois a book his wife loved about star-crossed lovers, which, it becomes quickly apparent, is actually about Carter and his love, Shayera. Lost in the tale he’s telling, he leans in to kiss Lois, which results in his getting slapped across the face by her.
The parallels between Carter and Shayera and Lois and Clark continue to build in this sequence, which largely serves the purposes of at least starting to get things rolling for Lois to go back to Clark. The kiss is a little out of left field, but you’ve got to love Lois’ response to it – Durance shines in the moment.
TESS’ OFFICE
Tess’ people discovered that the bullet that blew up Cat’s car was actually intended for Clark himself, not Cat. They realize that Deadshot is using Cat as a means of luring Clark onto the “field” and forcing him to become her shield.
ACT IV
BUS DEPORT:
Cat, wearing a black wig, makes her way through a bus depot when she’s confronted by Deadshot. She pleads for mercy, particularly so that she doesn’t leave her son behind, but he torments her with the statement that within a few years he won’t even remember her. “Everyone’s replaceable,” he says cruelly. She runs off and he starts pursuing her – Cat is running while he walks slowly, yet he catches up to her with no problem. We learn that his rifle is set to a timer, its scope now locked on Cat. Clark shows up, delivers a beautiful uppercut that sends Deadshot flipping through the air, then catches the bullet fired automatically, and inserts it into Cat’s bullet proof vest so she doesn’t suspect that he saved her. She praises him, pointing out that they don’t need heroes who hide in the dark, but people who stand out in the open; the public, she says, need an American hero in red, white and blue – or, in looking at Clark’s outfit of red t-shirt and blue jacket, red and blue. As she walks away, we notice that Clark’s jacket has been marked with what seems to be Deadshot’s insignia of a skull; a similar image that is briefly viewed in Carter Hall’s tent in Cairo.
The stalking of Cat in the bus depot is certainly serviceable, but there’s no real sense of tension there, even with smoke that seems to appear out of nowhere. Nice superheroic moment when Clark punches Deadshot out, and Welling does a nice job of conveying that Cat’s words about heroes are actually getting through to him.
UNDISCLOSED LOCATION
Oliver returns to the area he was tortured in during the season premiere, “Lazarus.” There he confronts his tormentor, Rick Flag (Ted Wittal), who is another one emphasizing that people are growing fearful of vigilantes and suggests that Oliver should join up with his team – the members of which are “already dead” as far as the rest of the world is concerned. He shoots at Oliver, the bullet hitting his vest and causing it to glow slightly with the skull image for an instant. As Oliver starts to beat the crap out of him, demanding information about Chloe, he’s told that she was a trade for him and that rather than break, she swallowed cyanide. As a result, she’s dead.
Apparently getting the location from Cat’s stolen phone – though it’s never really explained how she has this information to begin with, especially considering the hooded secrecy of the exchange of Chloe for Oliver in the previous episode – it’s nice to see Oliver give a bit of comeuppance for the beating he took last week. And the whole issue of this guy’s “team” is intriguing, though at this point we still don’t know what it’s all about. There is, of course, the whole skull thing which raises the question of whether or not this is strictly a Deadshot thing or a part of something much bigger. With Clark, Carter and Oliver all getting “tagged,” as it were, the question is whether or not this has something to do with Darkseid.
ACT V
WATCHTOWER
Clark shows up to find a despondent Oliver, who reveals that Chloe is dead, but that from a bottle he found at Chloe’s apartment he’s learned she had a cyanide antitode, which means that she faked her own death. They get into a debate with each other, Oliver accusing them of failing the people they love because they refuse to go out in the open and choose, instead, to live in secret from the world. “Something’s got to change,” says Oliver.
Perhaps one of the strongest scenes in the episode, it’s a game-changing moment for both Clark and Oliver with the two of them recognizing that the next step in their evolution needs to take place. As always, Welling and Justin Hartley play off each other nicely here, even in their moments of confrontation.
JAIL
Flag and the returning Plastique (Jessica Parker Kennedy) free Deadshot from prison, Plastique noting that the targets have all been tagged and now they’ll be able to follow them wherever they go. Flag refers to their team as the Suicide Squad.
Interesting to see Plastique back, though it’s kind of tough to get a handle on the Suicide Squad from what we’ve seen so far. They torture Oliver, then ask him to join; they are more or less responsible for Chloe’s “death” (as temporary as it would seem to be), they have the power to unlock Deadshot’s jail cell and casually stroll out of there, and we have no sense of where they will fall this season in what will likely be a struggle between the heroes and Darkseid. No doubt this was meant to be intriguing, but somehow it’s not having the power for me that it was intended to have.
CAIRO
Lois finds a letter from Shayara to Carter in the book Carter gave her, and realizes that the tome is an autobiography, that the tales of the star-crossed lovers is actually based on the two of them. Carter reveals that the time is nearly upon them for him to join Shayara in a new life. It’s time for him to meet his destiny, and for Lois to meet hers: Clark can’t do it without her. He gives her the final nudge to go back to him.
It’s all about embracing destiny, which this final season of Smallville is supposed to be themed on anyway, so this sequence fits in effectively. Lois will no doubt be heading back to Metropolis and one will imagine that since Carter is ready to depart this particular life, he will be giving his life in the battle against Darkseid.
DAILY PLANET ROOFTOP:
Clark, adorned in a new red leather jacket, the “S” emblazoned across its chest, stands on the rooftop, American flags blowing behind him, he steps into the light for the first time as earth’s hero.
The IDEA is very cool and the fact that Clark is evolving his uniform is very exciting and paves the way for his eventually wearing the Superman uniform. That being said, the concept of a solid red leather jacket with the “S” on it just doesn’t work. There’s a need for some blue to be in there somewhere; something that suggests his final colors. As it stands, the look is too retro, reminding one of Michael Jackson in his Thriller days rather than the Man of Steel.
Overall, “Shield” serves its purpose of making Clark realize what he has to do in his next step to become a hero, but doesn’t end up as engaging as it should be, the story bouncing locales perhaps a little too frequently. Some of the individual sequences are quite strong, but as a whole it fails to come together as solidly as it should.