NEXT ON SMALLVILLE 8x01 Odyssey- Sep 19, 2008 8/7c THE JUSTICE LEAGUE RETURNS TO FIND CLARK AFTER THE COLLAPSE OF THE FORTRESS; THE NEW CEO OF LUTHORCORP COMES TO TOWN — The Justice League, lead by the Green Arrow (Justin Hartley), hits the Artic in search of Clark (Tom Welling), who disappeared after the fortress collapsed. The team immediately has a confrontation with the new CEO of Luthorcorp, Tess Mercer (Cassidy Freeman). Meanwhile, Chloe (Allison Mack) is being held prisoner by a suspicious group who has discovered she has a new power, and Clark has been stripped of his powers by Jor-El. Erica Durance and Aaron Ashmore also star. Kevin Fair directed the episode with the story by Brian Peterson & Kelly Souders and teleplay by Todd Slavkin & Darren Swimmer QUICK LINKS DI on MySpace: / ZodCast on MySpace: / Fans Around the World / Lois Lane's Daily Journal / Redboots / The Clois Fanfic Archive / Christopher Reeve Foundation / Guestbook FEATURED CLIP TOP AFFILIATES { All Affiliates } BANTER LOG Lois: I'm glad to see we've moved beyond the "clothing optional" stage of our relationship. I'm surprised you even remember who I am. Clark: Chloe's cousin. Nicorette addiction, can't stand uncomfortable silences. { All Quotes } SEARCH FOR SMALLVILLE @ Amazon.com @ eBay.com @ AllPosters.com SITE STATS Clois fans online You are visitor # Since 11/27/04 CONTACT US For any news and information or to contact HappyEnding.Org Staff, you can e-mail one of the following: Webmaster: Jerilee Co-Webmasters Nautica7mk, ZodCast and Arwen DISCLAIMER We are in no way affiliated with Tom Welling, Erica Durance, Smallville or The WB. This site is strictly a fansite and nothing monetary is gained. SUPERMAN and all related elements are the property of DC Comics.

Reviews

6:04 Arrow

by Zoomway

Arrow opened at a swanky soiree thrown by Lionel to promote Senator Kent. Apparently he believes she should make a bid for the U.S. Senate. If Lionel has reverted back to his evil ways, then having a senator in Washington is more advantageous than having one in Topeka.

Martha put her hand on a large diamond necklace she was sporting as if to reassure herself it was still there.

"Thank you," she said to Lionel. "It's beautiful, but I feel self-conscious even borrowing it."

"It shouldn't stay hidden in the LuthorCorp safe. It needs to be worn for the very first time on the neck of a beautiful woman. It's perfect, Martha," he said and reminded her it was time to meet the money bags of Metropolis because she'd need them for her U.S. Senate bid.

Enter Lois Lane and Oliver Queen. It's unclear who invited whom to the party. Lois, as Martha's chief of staff, would have been there anyway, but Ollie as a 'money bag' would have likely been invited as well. Though that's a hard call because he and Lionel don't get along, but after Martha met him in the previous episode, she may have been the one who invited him.

Oliver helped Lois off with her jacket. "Now remember, this is a party," he said.

"I know. I know," Lois replied flatly as if she'd been coached repeatedly. "Stay away from religion, politics and bad dye jobs."

"Ollie!" a silver-haired man called out. "It's been too long. Come over here."

A woman about half the age of the man who had summoned Oliver assessed Mr. Queen with all the subtlety of a hungry hound assessing a pork chop. "Hi Oliver," she said in a manner that denoted familiarity. Perhaps even intimate familiarity.

Oliver kept his balance. "Mr. Westcott and his wife Candice," he said as Mrs. Westcott continued to size him up. "I'd like to introduce you to Lois Lane."

Lois thrust her hand out with all the delicacy of a truck driver. "Hey."

Westcott kissed her hand. "Simon Westcott," he purred. "It's a pleasure."

"Likewise," Lois said and unfortunately felt compelled to make conversation. "I wanted to tell you that I thought you were so eloquent at the Congressional indictment hearings."

Even Viagra couldn't have resurrected the old man's smile.

Realizing she had dug a hole, Lois unintentionally dug it deeper. "Sorry about your oil tanker," she said and continued to flounder. "I'd sure hate to be a pelican in that harbor, huh?"

"We're gonna go," Oliver finally interrupted and ushered Lois away, but seemed to find the whole thing amusing. "I should have added public humiliation to the list of cocktail party don'ts."

After they'd moved to the opposite side of the room, Oliver said he was going to get them drinks and for Lois to wait there. Then he smiled and leaned forward. "Don't talk to anybody," he whispered and disappeared into the crowd.

Lionel tapped on a glass to get everyone's attention and thanked them for coming. "I hope you're having a splendid time and that you've had a chance to reconnect with old friends. Right now, though, I'd like to introduce you to someone I hope will be a new friend," he said and introduced Martha.

She had barely thanked the crowd when an arrow zinged through the room and hit the circuit box knocking out the power. A hooded figure ran through the crowd, grabbed the necklace and darted out.

Lois took off after him grabbling a serving tray on her way out. She chased him up the corridor with the tray above her head, but he turned and knocked it aside and pulled Lois next to him.

"Give me the necklace," she said breathlessly.

"You forgot to say please," he replied and fired a crossbow bolt up the elevator shaft. As the line attached began to lift him upward, Lois grabbed his necklace -- a chain looped through a ring.

I'll add that Oliver's voice, as the Green Arrow, was lowered in post-production and I think all the lines of dialogue that referred to Martha making a bid for the U.S. Senate were looped in later as if they hadn't been part of the original script.

Later that evening the head of SafeTex, though it sounded as though they were saying SafeTec, which was the name given in the spoilers, was grilling Lois at Oliver's clock tower penthouse.

"You told Mr. Luthor that you almost caught the guy, yet you expect me to believe you didn't see anything?"

"Look, Lionel Luthor pays SafeTex what, a gazillion dollars for personal security?" Lois snapped back. "So don't blame me if you let a boy scout with an archery badge crash his party."

The CEO began to reply but Oliver, who'd been standing in the background reading a book, closed it loudly. "Okay, I think Ms. Lane has made her point, wouldn't you say?"

The CEO made no response, but he and Lois exchanged challenging looks.

"She'll call you if she remembers anything," Oliver said in a 'here's your hat what's your hurry' tone. "Evening."

After he left Oliver turned back to Lois. "So what aren't you telling him?"

Lois smiled and rose from the sofa. "I just nabbed the story of my life," she said and held up the ring. "William Tell's not the only one who walked away with a serious party favor."

Oliver eyed the ring, but turned around when a servant called his name. Clark entered the top of the landing and looked down at Lois. "My mom told me you were here."

"Smallville," she said. "It's almost midnight."

"Smallville?" Oliver repeated, but looked perplexed. "You're Clark Kent?"

"You must be Oliver Queen," Clark said and they shook hands. In the background was a crest with three arrows and three leaping deer.

Queen laughed. "It's funny, the way Lois talked about you, I thought you were going to be a little bit more of a ..."

"I could use some water," Lois blurted.

"A little more of a what?" Clark asked.

Oliver shrugged, "Well ..."

"A geek?" Clark suggested.

"Well, you're not exactly jumping the velvet ropes at nightclubs," Lois said.

"It's really nice to know that Lois has found someone who can overlook her personality," Clark replied.

"Ah, don't worry about it, Clark," Oliver said. "If I lived under the same roof with such a beautiful woman, I'd probably mask my feelings with sarcasm, too."

Oliver smacked Clark in the arm with the book and walked back up the stairs.

"Feelings?" Lois said.

"Feelings?" Clark said.

Lois glanced up at Oliver. "A little advice, Freud Jr., stick with your day job."

"The only reason I'm here is to get that necklace back," Clark insisted. "The last thing I want is for my mom to be indebted to Lionel Luthor."

"Yeah, well, she should have thought of that before she accepted his help with her fundraising," Oliver said. "And if you're really championing the cause of pick-pocketed billionaires you might want to add a few more to the list."

"What are you saying?" Clark asked. "That Lionel Luthor's not the only victim?"

"Over a dozen of Metropolis' Who's Whos have been hit recently."

"Good, then there's some leads."

"Not if they're all as uncooperative as Lionel Luthor," Oliver countered. "Find it interesting that he never called the police?"

"Okay," Lois said, interrupting the stare-down going on between Oliver and Clark. "If you boys are done marking your territory, which for clarification is not me, I have a front page article that's missing a few key details."

Lois picked up her coat. "Good night, boys. Now play nice."

One thing that struck me about this scene is that Oliver and Lois seemed like adults and then it was jarring when Clark came in wearing the outfit he's worn since high school. I also wonder if "geek" is what Lois actually said of Clark. In a true sense the word doesn't fit him and I can see Lois trying to change the conversation if she'd said something nice of him, rather than something unflattering. When Clark leaped to the conclusion that she had said geek, Lois went along, but it might be more interesting if she'd said something so flattering that Clark, in his high school garb, didn't fit the compliment in Ollie's view.

The next morning at stately Luthor manor, Lana entered the study giggling.

"What was with that sprint up the last hill?" Lex asked breathlessly.

"I always suspected you couldn't handle me."

This was like a flashback to fourth season where Lana and Jason were running up to the Talon apartment after a jog and she was all giggly. Jason accused her of cheating by offering him a kiss before the last stretch.

Anyway, a dour man in glasses entered the room.

"Dr. Grohl," Lex said. "Did we have a meeting?"

"No, I just need a few words with you," he said and adjusted his glasses. "In private."

"You can say anything in front of Ms. Lang."

"It's about the device," he said and opened a case that contained the broken remnant of that gizmo Zod had put on the computer to signal the spaceship.

Lana recognized it right away. "Where'd you get that?"

Lex smiled. "I found it and I asked Dr. Grohl to figure out what it was."

"It's some kind of power source," Grohl said. "Beyond anything developed on Earth." Yeah, yeah, everything cool is.

Lana suggested something that powerful should be turned over to the government, but Lex said the doctor wouldn't get a Nobel Prize if he did that. "Isn't that right, Dr. Grohl?"

"What do you want me to do?"

"Every breakthrough has its challenges," Lex said. "Keep working."

Ironically Lana is the only one of the three who knows what it is, but she's not talking ... yet.

Then nothing else seemed to happen during the rest of the day because the next scene had Lois showing up late that night at the Planet when all the extras had gone home and weren't needed to mill about in the background.

"Hey," Lois said as she greeted her cousin who seemed to be moving big boxes around.

"Let me guess," Chloe said, "you need help researching your next article."

"Yeah, the Inquisitor's search engine consists of a highlighter and the yellow pages."

Chloe walked towards her desk. "Does Mrs. Kent know that you're still moonlighting on her?"

"Are you kidding me? I've got this double identity thing down," Lois replied. "Besides, I told her all about it this morning."

Chloe took a seat. "All right, so what's the big story worth bringing out the Alter-Lois?"

"Actually, since we're both in the same biz," Lois said, "I probably shouldn't be leaking my story."

"I can't believe you don't trust me."

"It's not all of you I don't trust," Lois corrected. "It's just one little side of you."

"Lois, I'm not going to scoop your story, but watching you bumble through our data base is like watching Clark try and dance." Two insults for the price of one.

I've read posts after this episode where some thought that Lois went to the Planet to have Chloe do the research for her, which clearly wasn't the case. Lois went to the Planet to use the data base, though that could get Chloe in trouble. Okay, admittedly Chloe would be more likely to get in trouble with the FBI for her chronic hacking activity, but that's beside the point. Though I will say Lois's instinct not to trust that side of Chloe turned out to be right.

"Come on," Chloe said in a cajoling tone. "Lois, tell me what you got."

Lois relented. "Okay," she said and handed the ring to Chloe. "I scooped this off the scumbag before he ran away. "There's some writing on the inside, but it's too faded to make out."

"Yeah, this could take a while," Chloe said and snapped some digital pictures of the inscription. A moment later an arrow zinged into the room and emitted a green gas and knocked out Chloe and Lois. A gloved hand picked up the ring and the scene switched to the clock tower penthouse where Oliver, in costume, set the ring down and looked at a photo of his parents.

The next day at LuthorCorp Lionel breezed into his office and noticed Lana waiting for him.

"I haven't seen you since the world was falling down around us," he said and made straight for the booze table. "And I hear you have gotten yourself a new landlord."

"I assume Lex told you that we were together."

"Mm-hmm."

"Mr. Luthor, if you called me here to discuss my relationship with Lex ..."

"That would be wildly inappropriate, wouldn't it? Unless, of course, you consider the last time you and I spoke we were discussing which one of us was going to kill Lex," Lionel said and handed the drink, which was apparently just ice water, to Lana.

"He wasn't himself," she said, wishing she had a buck for every time that line or one like it was spoken on the show.

"But you were completely yourself," he corrected and then reminded Lana of Lex being obsessed with a dangerous piece of alien technology. I guess he meant the gizmo, but he was also obsessed with the spaceship.

"Mr. Luthor, this is all behind us now," Lana assured him.

"Ah, it's obvious any trust you have for me only works in times of crisis, but we both know, Ms. Lang, that the crisis is far from over. Lex salvaged that piece of technology."

"Why do you think I moved into the mansion?" she asked sweetly.

"Please tell me."

"Mr. Luthor, I care about Lex, but part of being with him is protecting Lex from himself. I'm not naive, I know that comes with the territory."

"Apparently Lex has found his equal, but watching over him? That is not enough. Ms. Lang, Lex is using every resource available to him to unlock the mystery of that Pandora's Box that he somehow managed to get hold of," he said solemnly. "Once he opens it and unleashes whatever is in it to the world ... well, we may not be lucky enough to close it in time."

"What do you think we should do?"

Luckily Lionel never runs out of suggestions. "Destroy it."

Meanwhile, at Lois's apartment, Oliver was reading Lois's latest article. "The Green Arrow Bandit. Doesn't exactly roll off the tongue," he grumbled. "This guy steals your boss' necklace and then gasses you and your cousin all within a 24 hour period. I'd say he's got a thing for you."

Lois pinned up a police artist sketch of the Green Arrow, which looked a lot like the Unabomber police sketch. "Well, when you're my editor, I'll remember to care what you think."

"You know that whole sugar and spice thing? It never really took with you, did it?"

Lois smiled. "Look, Green Arrow, Green Eggs and Ham, it doesn't really matter what I call this guy. I'm going to have his face plastered all over the front page soon enough."

Oliver then pointed out that without the ring Lois wasn't as close to identifying the guy as she claimed to be in her article.

"Yeah, well, I might have stretched the truth just a little."

Oliver found that amusing. "Well, you know it's a good thing the Inquisitor doesn't pride itself on integrity," he said, but became serious. "Listen, I don't like the idea of you dangling yourself as bait in front of this guy. I mean anyone after the Green Arrow is going to come after you."

"Anyone after the Green Arrow is a friend of mine and I will be sitting front and center with them when they lock this guy up," she said and started typing at her laptop.

"Wouldn't want you on my jury."

"Meaning?"

"I thought we did away with the 'shoot first ask questions later' mentality with covered wagons," he said defensively.

"Oh, come on, don't tell me you're some kind of bleeding heart pacifist."

"And that's worse than a knee-jerk fascist?"

It's hard to believe, just looking at the dialogue, that this conversation didn't come across as mean-spirited or angry, but it didn't. The characters were kept lowkey and smiling with a hint of mutual admiration underlying the conversation rather than animosity.

"All right," Oliver said and knelt in front of Lois's chair. "Forget about this guy for the weekend. I can have you in Cancun in time for the sunset tonight sipping margaritas. What do you say?"

"Mmm," Lois purred. "Well, as much as I'd love to be your beach bimbo, the only person I'm going to be spending the weekend with is into leather and has a perverted fetish for archery."

Lois turned back to her laptop and the crestfallen archer looked at the police sketch of his alter-ego.

This scene was very Lois Lane, especially 'stretching the truth' in her article to use herself as bait to lure the 'bad guy' out into the open. It's that kind of thing that will keep Clark Kent on the edge of apoplexy in the future. Also very Lois was putting a fun weekend in Cancun on hold because she's on the trail of a costumed character. Reminds me of Lois's answering machine, "Leave a message at the tone, but don't expect a call back unless it's about Superman."

Clark hunted down Lionel at a construction project. He said that his mother was really shaken up by the events of the party. That turned out to be Martha's only scene, by the way.

"I know, but in spite of the impromptu entertainment, your mother made a terrific impression on some very influential people."

Clark began walking with Lionel. "She wasn't the only one."

"My security team is making a very thorough investigation."

"Unlike the police," Clark said. "Why wouldn't you report something that valuable if it was stolen?"

"I'd rather not let the entire city know that I'm a sitting duck for some acrobatic archer. It's not wise to advertise our vulnerabilities, is it Clark?"

Clark handed Lionel pages of printouts of the other stolen items. "We're talking about some very expensive vulnerabilities."

Lionel scanned through the items and then handed the papers back to Clark. "Here's something that might interest you. There's only one name on the SafeTex client list that hasn't been hit already."

Clark looked at the photo of an Egyptian necklace. The client was Simon Westcott, the guy Lois poleaxed at the party. Speaking of ...

Green Arrow stood atop a roof opposite Mr. Westcott's building. The sunglasses Green Arrow wears have night vision capability and a zoom feature. That's one of the advantages of being a wealthy hero who has to compensate for having no super powers. Green Arrow and Batman can buy some pretty snazzy gadgets.

In fact I get the feeling this was written and musically scored for Batman back third season when the producers thought they were going to be able to build the season around a young Bruce Wayne until Warner Bros. nixed the deal because of Batman Begins.

Uh, anyway Green Arrow shot an arrow at the flagpole finial of Westcott's building and then glided across the line and landed on the rooftop. Then I'm not sure what he did when he entered the private room that had the necklace. The green glass arrowhead seemed to refract the laser light beams away from the necklace so he could just walk up and nab it easily, which he did. However, when he turned around, there was Clark.

"Who are you?"

"Haven't you read? I'm the Green Arrow."

Clark smiled faintly. "Well, I hope you enjoyed your cult status while it lasted."

Green Arrow approached him. "I think you're taking the whole Neighborhood Watch thing too seriously," he said and tried to walk past Clark, but Clark blocked him.

Then the Green Arrow threw a punch, which Clark also blocked and then tossed him across the room, which set off the alarm.

"That was fun," Green Arrow moaned as he got back to his feet. "Looks like I'm not the only one with a secret. I hate to break it to you, tough guy, but you're on the wrong side."

"I'm not sure the police would agree."

"Look around you, Beav," he said and the Leave it to Beaver reference made me laugh. "The days of the good guys running the show are over." He fired his crossbow at Clark, but he caught the bolt.

Then one of SafeTex's security people hurried in and Green Arrow shot him with a bolt and Clark ran to his rescue and Green Arrow ... bolted.

The security guy was twitching and when Clark removed the bolt he noticed the tip was electrified.

Then there's this odd scene with Lana and Dr. Grohl in an elevator at LuthorCorp. She seems to be wearing the exact same outfit she'd worn to LuthorCorp when she chatted with Lionel. Also, the exterior establishing shot of LuthorCorp was a day shot even though the stuff with the Green Arrow was definitely at night.

Is it the next day and Lana fell asleep in LuthorCorp in the outfit? If it's the same night and they just screwed up by showing a day shot of LuthorCorp, then this becomes one of those endless nights Smallville suffers occasionally. Oh, well, I'll just assume Lana had been prowling around LuthorCorp for hours riding the elevators hoping to run into Dr. Grohl because when he entered the elevator he greeted her by saying, "Evening."

Lana closed her eyes as if stirring up her courage and then pushed the stop button.

"Ms. Lang, what are you doing?"

"Lionel Luthor knows about the black box and he is willing to do anything to get his hands on it."

"And you think I'm working with him?"

Then Lana showed faint traits of long lost Isobel. "Not yet," she said in a slightly sinister way. "But trust me, when he approaches you, and he will, Lionel is going to make you an offer that is hard to resist. No matter what the bribe, you will come to us before you breathe a word to Lionel Luthor."

Grohl seemed amused and adjusted his glasses. "With all due respect, I work for Lex and not his girlfriend."

Lana amped Isobel up a notch. "I'm not interested in your respect, Dr. Grohl. I'm much more interested in your 14 years of employment here. Your two girls that are now in prestigious prep schools. That new home that you just built on Sparling Lane. You have a pretty wonderful life."

"Are you threatening me?"

"It just came to my attention that if the government, or your colleagues were to find out that you were secretly testing alien weapons, this life that you have worked so hard for may take an unfortunate turn," she said with the air of a corrupt Girl Scout threatening blackmail over a disputed Thin Mints order, and then restarted the elevator.

Meanwhile, with a night shot of the Daily Planet, Clark told Chloe about his run-in with the Green Arrow.

"So how'd you let this guy slip through your fingers?"

"This Green Arrow bandit's got a lot of gadgets."

"Gadgets?" Chloe asked. "Against a man of steel?" If you're keeping count, I think that's the third time someone has used the "man of steel" phrase on the series.

Clark became defensive. "He's good, all right?"

"Fine, walking off," she said. "The Green Arrow Bandit. Is that really the name Lois came up with? If you ask me, I'd lose the 'bandit' but not my story," she said and actually sounded like she was suffering a bout of sour grapes. It's not like 'Angel of Vengeance' was sweeping the nation, but to be fair, Chloe's story didn't make it to print.

"You know with your competitive streak I'm surprised you forfeited this one to Lois," Clark said, though it didn't make sense to me since Lois is the one who was there when the Green Arrow committed the theft and she's the one who snatched the ring, not Chloe.

"Huh! Competition? Lois?" she said and rolled her eyes. "I'm chalking this one up to pro bono."

"Yeah, right."

"Okay, so idle hands aren't really my thing. I got the SafeTex report on the arrows," she said and handed it to Clark. "They are made from an advanced titanium alloy that is untraceable."

"What about the ring?"

"None of the shots I scanned onto my computer came out to have a clean image. However," she added, "I may have forgotten to mention to Lois that my computer is compiling them to render a new one."

I assume this is part of the "friendly rivalry" we heard of between Chloe and Lois, but it just makes Chloe seem petty. She's the one working at the respected paper. Lois is working at a tabloid. Maybe if Lois was working at the Metropolis Star so that both were working at respected and highly competitive newspapers it might feel different, but for now it doesn't make Chloe look good. Then again it's not completely out of character.

Back first season when Principal Kwan shut down the Torch because he believed Chloe was turning it into her own private tabloid (ironic), Chloe threw a five alarm fit. She said the Torch was her identity and the only thing she and Clark did together. So her jealousy was on two levels and might be again. I hope not, especially since she has Jimmy as her boyfriend, but you never know.

Speaking of the sabotaged cousin, she was on the phone to someone at the Inquisitor. "You can tell the mail room to stop forwarding these bogus claims," she said and picked up a letter. "I highly doubt the Green Arrow is going to out himself on a Hello Kitty notepad."

Just as she closed the cell phone, she was grabbed by two thugs lurking in her apartment. She kicked one in the stomach and then in the chest and smashed a vase over the head of the other. Then she made the fatal 'oh, come now' mistake. She scrambled for her cell phone and called ... Chloe!

Chloe answered the phone and heard her screaming and Clark whooshed off and arrived seconds later at Lois's apartment.. How he missed the thugs departing, I don't know. He picked up the cell phone and a moment later there was a knock on the door and Oliver walked in calling Lois's name.

"Looks like someone took her," Clark said.

"Took her? What are you talking about, who would do that?"

"Isn't it obvious? The Green Arrow."

"What makes you think he'd have anything to do with this?"

Clark suggested it was because Lois had threatened to unmask him. "I guess he doesn't live by a code of honor."

Oliver's jaw tensed. "Because it's not the same as yours? Maybe if you were as interested in finding out about this guy as you are in catching him, you would have realized everything he's stolen so far was bought off the black market."

"You're saying Lionel's necklace is ..."

"Yeah, that's exactly what I'm saying. You've been on this hunt to return it to its original thief."

"You think Lionel took her?"

"I think there's a lot of people who would go to any lengths to catch the Green Arrow."

Then something Oliver was carrying beeped and Clark's cell phone rang. Oliver received a GPS tracking map that pointed to SafeTex Security. Why? I don't know. What was Lois wearing that was emitting a signal? Does her Ford Fusion have OnStar? "I gotta go," he said and left.

Clark answered the call from Chloe. "It's too late, there's no sign of her."

"I might have something that will help. The image of the ring finally rendered and I'm sending it to you right now."

The crest from Oliver Queen's apartment appeared on the cell phone. Chloe explained that "ye olde crest makers" weren't very creative and that there were thousands of similar looking crests. "It's gonna take me a little while to track this one down."

"I've seen this before," Clark said and whooshed away.

Clark entered Oliver's apartment, glanced around and then focused his attention on the large clock face. It seemed like they meant to have an x-ray vision effect here. Oh, well, Clark pulled open the doors and saw Oliver's arsenal of special bows and arrows. He then opened a drawer of newspaper clippings which mentioned various anonymous donations.

Suddenly a large GPS tracking screen activated and told us basically what the little version already had, that Lois had been taken to SafeTex Security.

Lois was dragged down a corridor into what seemed to be a basement area. One of the thugs removed her gag. "How much do you know about the Green Arrow?"

Lois was angry rather than cooperative. "I should have known he wouldn't have the stones to face me in person."

The thugs lifted her up and carried her to a trough of dirty water and dunked her head in and held her down. After a moment they pulled her out.

"You know who he is," the thug said and grabbed her face. "Give me a name! What did you see?"

You should never grab Lois Lane by the face in anger. She might say unkind things, or spit in your face, which she did. Unfortunately that won her another trip to the dunk tank.

The thug pulled her out. "Who's the Green Arrow?"

"Bandit," Lois corrected. "Green Arrow Bandit! And like you don't know. That Errol Flynn wannabe put you guys up to this."

Lois was in line for another dunking when a voice said, "That's enough." It was the CEO of SafeTex.

"This bandit," he said, "has made a joke of a firm I've worked my life to build. He's walked off with more than thirty million from my clients."

"Then why am I the one with bruises on my knees right now?" Lois asked.

"Because you splashed my humiliation across the front page of the paper and now you're going to help me rectify that."

"I don't know who he is," Lois insisted.

The CEO nodded at the thugs and they dunked Lois again, but this time she passed out.

"She doesn't know anything. Kill her."

If there was ever a cue for the hero, that's it.

One thug fired a bullet only to have it deflected by an arrow. That would have to be a seriously high velocity arrow.

Then an arrow hit the gunman and knocked him aside, I think. It was too dark for me to tell. Then the glide line arrow hit the wall and Green Arrow slid down and clobbered the other guy with his compound bow. Then when the CEO guy reached for a gun an arrow pinned him to the wall and released the green gas used at the Planet.

Then a lot of Batman-like music played. The Green Arrow pointed the crossbow at Lois, though I'm not sure why. Then he knelt down and stroked the hair from her forehead. Hero guys seem to love doing that to Lois's hair.

Green Arrow looped Lois's tied wrists over his head and then shot the crossbow up into the air as he had in the elevator shaft and he and Lois were drawn up through the hole in the ceiling.

Meanwhile at the mansion, Lana, still in the same outfit, walked down the hallway. Lex spotted her. "I didn't know blackmail was one of your talents."

There's a loaded statement. Most of Lana's relationships had a blackmail element to them. With Clark it was 'tell me your secret or we're through' and with Jason she hid the stone and pretended it was stolen to test if he loved her or the stone more and considering the most recent episode, she pulls a similar stunt with Lex. So yes, blackmail is one of her many talents.

Lana turned and walked into the study. "Lex, I know I went behind your back, but I wanted to do this my way and if you're mad ..."

"Actually I'm impressed," he said and approached her. "I've never had anyone try to protect me like that."

"Lex, we have a serious problem. Your father. He isn't going to stop until he gets that black box away from you."

"Because he's afraid of what I'll do. What about you?" he asked. "Is there a part of you that wonders the same thing?"

"No, I believe in you," she said rather timidly. "But Lex, there is something I haven't been completely honest with you about."

Lex turned around looking as mystified as the audience wondering why Lana, of all people, wouldn't be completely honest.

"I knew the box was a weapon."

"If the box is that dangerous, you want me to shut the project down, don't you?"

Lana's eyes became large. "No. Lex, it might be the only thing to save us from them next time."

Lex looked pleased at his dark little companion.

On a rooftop somewhere in Metropolis, Lois began to regain consciousness. Green Arrow knelt down to her. "Are you okay?"

Lois punched him and grabbed his crossbow. "No thanks to you."

He smiled. "I saved you."

"Yeah, from goons who were trying to find you," she said angrily. "They're not the only ones with a V for vendetta on your little leather ass."

"Little?" he asked with mock disappointment. "I've really been working the glutes lately, too."

"Did the humor come with the costume?"

"Did the Tomb Raider routine come from wanting Daddy's attention?" Ouch. Zing!

Lois fired a bolt after that line and it hit the support beam of a nearby billboard. The Green Arrow stopped smiling.

"Oops, guess my aim's a little rusty," Lois said and reloaded. "Now, let's take off those glasses and unveil our Prince of Thieves, shall we?"

Lois moved cautiously forward, her hand outstretched reaching for the glasses and then ... a shower of sparks began to rain down on them.

Lois looked up at the billboard as each light exploded one after the other. Across the street was Clark, who was knocking them out with his heat vision set to photon torpedo. When she looked back, the Green Arrow was gone.

He was zipping down the street on a motorcycle, but Clark was blocking his path. "Oliver Queen," he said. "You owe me one."

Oliver removed his helmet. "That was you on the roof? Why'd you let me get away?"

Clark held up one of the crossbow bolts. "I'm not sure Lois would understand why her new boyfriend leads a double life."

Oliver took the bolt. "Or why one of her best friends does the same thing? I think we're even."

"We'll be even when you return what you stole from Lionel," Clark said and walked away.

The next morning Clark arrived at the Planet and asked Chloe, "What's all the buzz?"

"Seven stolen artifacts were anonymously returned to the Met, the Tate and the Louvre," Chloe chirped. "Looks like you've got some friendly competition in the knight in shining armor arena."

"A guy does a couple of good things and he goes from villain to hero overnight?"

"Clark, every time he strikes some corrupt tycoon, an anonymous donation to some charity mysteriously appears the next day."

"And you don't care how many laws are broken to get it there?"

Clark, she's a hacker. What a dumb question.

"I guess that's just the price of justice," she said. "I mean if you ask me, he's a modern day Robin Hood, but it still doesn't mean I'm not dying to find out who he is though."

Clark, he of the guilty askance glance, said nothing.

"Oh, hey, I never heard back from you on that crest."

"I kind of ran into a dead end," he lied.

Chloe looked at her file page and each brought up an error message. "That's funny, so did I. All my files on the ring are gone."

Clark started to exit slowly.

"Including backup files ... Clark!"

"Just don't look into them, Chloe."

"You know who he is, don't you?"

"As a favor to me, please don't."

"And he knows who you are," she said. "Well, I guess there's some sort of secret code of honor among superheroes." An anvil crushed a desk in the background.

Meanwhile at the Talon, Oliver perused Lois's latest headline in the Inquisitor: Kidnapped by the Green Arrow.

"What do we have here?"

Lois smiled. "Not bad for a rookie, huh?"

"It's really incredible. You've got every newspaper in the country calling this guy the Green Arrow. He's got a real following."

Lois lifted her coffee cup in a salute. "Yeah, well, so did Charles Manson."

Oliver set the paper down. "I know this is a rare moment for you, but maybe you're overreacting. It's not like this guy's a killer."

"Ollie, he's a threat to Metropolis," she said. "And I'm not going to stop until I find out who he is. Trust me, you don't know the Green Arrow like I do."

I'll get to Lois's minority opinion later, but in the meantime, there was a confab between father and son at Luthor mansion.

"Not that I'd ever question your theatrical skills," Lex said. "But you really had Lana convinced. Thank you, Dad."

"Just following the script. The script you gave me, son," Lionel said and took a sip of booze. "But you know if you really want to have an honest relationship with Lana, you should stop testing her."

Lex nodded. "Oh, I had to be sure. Another important lesson you taught me, 'the greater the trust, the greater the betrayal'," he said and fixed Lionel with an accusatory gaze.

"All right, Lex, what do I have to do to prove I want to be part of your life?"

"Part of my life, or part of the project? I would never have told you about the box if you hadn't already known, but that's as close as you're ever going to get to it," he said and rose from his chair.

"All right, so what makes you think I won't tell Lana Lang about the obstacle course you set up for her if I'm so untrustworthy?"

Lex turned back. "Because you've put so much effort into fooling the Kents that you're a good man, you're starting to believe it yourself."

This last bit was staged so that Lex had the superior positioning. Not just because he was standing, but because Lionel was sitting on such a low object it almost put him in a groveling position. But I must say Lex is a dope.

Not because he mistrusts Lana since she has a history of not being the world's most loyal girlfriend, but because Lex knows Lana is well aware of the surveillance equipment and how to activate it.

Clark trudged up the steps to the loft. Oliver Queen was sitting behind his desk with a newspaper. The headline: Queen Industries CEO and wife Dead at Sea.

I'm not sure if that's the headline Lionel was reading in the Smallville pilot episode when Lex was still a boy, but it's similar. Anyway, Oliver looked over the top of the paper at Clark. "I didn't realize I was such a fascinating subject. You've been reading up on me. You and Lois ought to start a fan club."

Clark walked forward. "You gonna tell her?"

"I don't know, Clark. You seem to be doing a pretty good job skating by with this farm boy charade."

"You can't be with someone unless they know who you really are. Trust me, I've tried."

"You lost her to Lex," Oliver said and rose from the desk. "Is that why you hate me, Clark? Because I'm just another silver spoon fed rich boy, is that it, or is it that I'm not willing to play the martyr like you?"

"You can play this game as long as you want, but sooner or later you're going to hurt her," he said. "You know that."

"Well, you seem to have all the answers," Oliver replied, dodging the issue. "So I guess it's a good thing I decided to put this in safer hands."

He removed the necklace from his jacket and gave it to Clark. "For the record,

Lionel bought that off a notorious Bosnian warlord. Used it to launder LuthorCorp money."

"So why give it to me?"

"Well, you seem to have a crystal clear idea of what's right and what's wrong," he said defensively. "You decide who it belongs to."

"It's not as clear as it used to be. You really think it's right to steal as long as it goes to a good cause?"

"If the end justifies the means? Absolutely yes."

"I'll never feel that way," he said and glanced at the necklace. "You said you didn't owe me one, so why are you really here?"

"Clark, you have abilities I couldn't even dream of and I admire that you use them to save the people you're close to."

"But?"

"But there's a whole world of people out there, Clark. They need us. With your potential you can't wait for them to come to you," he said. "When you're ready to do something about that, you let me know."

Then there was a close-up of Clark and faux Superman music started gearing up. That was the end of the episode. We also got the second/modern version of the Green Arrow costume. I have a personal preference for the Robin Hood outfit simply because it has a romanticized flair.

I really liked Arrow. Part of it is the comic book geek in me and had staging that would have actually translated well to a comic book. Also I couldn't have asked for a more solid depiction of Lois Lane. She hit every single mark perfectly. I also liked Clark keeping Oliver's secret. After Aqua where Clark blabbed about Arthur's powers and even mentioned a "guy who ran too fast for his own good" referring to Bart, I thought he'd just blab about Oliver too. Not that it matters, they'll probably let Chloe in on all of it anyway because she generally has no plot function unless she's solving problems for Clark. With the episode Justice coming up, which brings in a lot of out of town heroes, she'll probably have to think for all of them.

Getting back to Lois's opinion of the Green Arrow, it's no doubt the minority opinion. In fact only Clark seems to share her point of view. Don't get me wrong, that should be Clark's point of view. Superman wouldn't see two wrongs making a right. It's the same opinion he has of Batman's crimefighting technique in the future. Yet he does come to respect both characters for what they're trying to do, if not their methods.

Also, Lois making a costumed character famous is a giant nod to the future. Oliver said all the papers around the country were using the name she created, which means some of her stuff is being picked up by other news services. So she's not only making a name for Green Arrow, she's making a name for herself and in a believable way.

And if you read all the way through this, you deserve a prize.

Zoom

Back