The Pullbox

SMALLVILLE Season 8

Episode 8 – “Bloodline”

Written by: Caroline Dries
Directed by: Michael Rohl

Santa Cachucha! (That’s the Puerto Rican equivalent of “Holy Moly!”) … (Its okay, I’m Puerto Rican. I can say it.) What a crazy ass episode. Here I thought episode 8.07, “Identity” was as good as it could possibly get. I was dead wrong. The cast and crew of Smallville keep on surprising and holding no punches. After the jump, read my spoiler filled review…

- SPOILER ALERT -

The episode begins simple enough. Lois barges into the Kent house and announces to Clark that she’s moving in. She’d rather have a rooster wake her up every morning, than to listen to Chloe and Jimmy go at it like bunnies in the next room. She brings in a package that got delivered for Clark, and inside, the mysterious “X” has sent him the Crystal. The catch? Its been reprogrammed and is now a gateway to the Phantom Zone. Clark and Lois are now Zoners!

Tess continues to intrigue me. She fills the Luthor shoes very well. She’s dark and scary, but on the flip side, has such a vulnerable side no one ever gets to see. Her scene with Chloe in the Kent house was very interesting to see, and it reminded me of what scenes between Lex and Chloe were like.

It was pretty cool to see the Phantom Zone again. We haven’t seen it in over 2 seasons. There’s some mysterious red river, which I immediately assume is blood but who knows. They run into a Zoner who turns out to be Kara, aka Supergirl. My one problem with Lara Vandervoort as Kara-El is the way she says the name “Kal El.” There’s just something about the way she pronounces it that sounds like nails on a chalkboard to me. It should be “Kal El,” pronounced as two words. But when she says it, it sounds like “K’lell,” or something to that effect. Everytime. Drives me nuts.

However, its pretty exciting to have her back, even if its just for one episode. I’ll admit, like many other fans, it bothered me that there had been no mention of her, what-so-ever, this season. We’re eight episodes in, and this first scene with Clark is the first time we’ve even heard her name since the season 7 finale. Clark never even tried to look for her. She was gone and he just forgot all about her. I understand the writers didn’t really need her or have anything planned to do with her, but at least mention her in passing every now and then. Make it clear that Clark realizes she’s gone and is at least wondering where she went.

Now we’re going to get some closure to her storyline. She opens the portal and sends Lois through it, but it stays open just long enough for a phantom to get out too. This phantom then takes over Lois’ body. And this phantom was… none other than Zod’s Wife, Faora, back on Earth, in search of her long lost son.

The scene with Lois/Faora/Wife of Zod/Crazy-Krypto-Lady and Tess Mercer was pretty strange. Tess almost immediately recognized something was off about Lois, but instead of asking her if she was on drugs, or had gone loony tunes on her, Tess decides to play along and attempt to trick her into giving up/finding the Crystal, in exchange for information about the Son, which Tess knows nothing about. One interesting piece of factoid our Phantom Lois gave us, however, is that the “creation” she calls her son, was attached to the ship that brought Kal El to Earth. That’s a pretty bold choice by the writers. Smallville has always been a re-imagining to the Superman Origin story, but to tie in Doomsday (or Bloomsday, if you listen to SHoE) in with Kal El’s arrival is playing with fire a little bit. I don’t have a problem with it, but I can imagine many other fans would.

Tess did catch a glimpse of Lois running off at super-speeds. The close up of Tess’ face at that moment was PRICELESS. The widest, most “HOLY CRAP!” eyes you’ve ever seen on her, or anybody! That was one of my favorite moments. Although I’m curious as to what she makes of it. Does she assume Lois has been possessed by some outside force? Why would she assume something like that. Even with Lois acting like a whack-job, Tess is still a “show me the facts” kind of girl. An when Lois returns to work all back to normal, later in the episode, why didn’t she question it?

Davis has been looking into his family tree and history. He can’t find anything on the first 3 years of his life. There’s no record of his parents or anything else regarding his origin. He asks Chloe for help, but she’s pretty busy with her search for Clark and Lois. She asks Oliver Queen for help. He steals the contraption Tess uses to control the Crystal, and does so happily. He just loves screwing with Tess. It was awesome to see the Green Arrow back in action. We once again get confirmation that Green Arrow’s perfect aim isn’t limited to a bow. He gets her right in the boob (it looks like) with a tranquilizer he tossed at her with his bare hand. Well, not “bare” hand. He was wearing gloves. But that’s neither here nor there.

He delivers the generator to Chloe, who works it WITH HER MIND!!! (The Brainiac in her is taking over!) Her eyes go white and she tosses Ollie across the room with ONE HAND! It was a pretty exciting scene. I can’t wait for Brainy’s return, and I get the feeling its coming very soon. Meanwhile, in the Phantom Zone, a portal opens up, thanks to Chloe, and both Clark and Kara manage to escape the Zone.

Earlier, Faora/Lois got a look at the file Davis handed over to Chloe. His picture clearly lit a light bulb in her brain because she immediately hunted him down. Turns out Davis is the son Faora’s been looking for. Not literally a son, but the genetic creation of General Zod. Davis, of course, is pretty confused by it all. According to Faora, he’s meant to become Earth’s ultimate destroyer. (Doomsday’s coming.) She takes “spare the rod, spoil the child” to a whole new level when she literally drives a metal pole right through him. The line “what kills you only makes you stronger” was a curious one. Does Davis have to continue dying and resurrecting? each time his inner monster taking over a little more? That’s pretty bad ass. After he returns to perfect health, he attempts to stab himself in the heart with a knife, but the knife shatters into pieces at first contact with his skin. Woah.

The “fight” (if you can call it one) between Faora/Lois and Clark was a short one. Consisted merely of Faora punching Clark through a wall, and the Kara showing up with John Jones’ Crystal, which imprisoned Faora, and gave us back our favorite Daily Planet Reporter.

Lois gets a raise from Tess, (what the hell?) and changes her mind about living with Clark. She can afford her own place now. But the best scene came after that. Tess meets alone with Clark and we get the coolest, creepiest, most interesting Tess and Clark conversation scene, ever.

Tess is convinced Clark was up in the arctic with Lex when he disappeared. The weird line was “I can’t wait for the day when you realize you and I are on the same side.” That line captured my imagination in a serious way. Everything else she said was so serious and creepy in that “I’m the bad guy” sort of way, but that “same side” line was different. For a split second she dropped her guard and seem genuine and honest, and almost desperate. She wants him to give her a chance. She wants to surprise him when he tells her the truth. In what way, I’m not sure. But I’m anxious to find out.

Ollie expresses his concern with Chloe, and Kara decides to go off in search of the lost city of Kandor. Which was an awesome nod to the comics. Kandor is a Kryptonian City that survived the planet’s destruction. It was shrunk and placed in a bottled, from then on known as “The Bottle City of Kandor.” If she finds that city, and it makes an appearance on Smallville, I might just have a Geek-Out-Heart-Attack.

The A-Train’s “Bloodline” Rating: 4 out of 5 Psycho Kryptonian Women.