8.12 Bulletproof Clark Kent and Green Arrow shine while Lana goes Mulana on Tess

Bulletproof- Official OSCK Recap and Review
by Kate Blake Admin OSCK

Note- I did not watch the entire big Lana/Tess showdowns- just couldn’t do it. I did watch the initial bit with Clark and Lana and at the end. Recap covers the pertainent info.

This episode had two parts- Lana pursuing poor Tess, harassing her, beating her up and showing her what evil things Lex has been up to. Blah blah blah. This is the second episode by new Smallville scribe Brian Q. Miller. He also wrote fan favorite Committed. Tonight instead of touching on the future of Clark Kent and Lois Lane we are treated to a glimpse of Clark and his growing maturity when it comes to his role as a crimefighter and superhero. We also see the return of Clark and Lana. Poor Brian had to watch a lot of episodes to get them right but he does.

The title of the episode was Bulletproof and it refers to cops who think they are untouchable. John Jones is shot after tracking down a suspect who is taken into police custody.

Clark is at the hospital looking at coroners reports- Lana comes to meet him and hands him a coffee- she quips that this wasn’t what she had in mind when she suggested they have coffee after work but she like seeing him in his new element- finally the man she always knew he could become ( GAG!) She comments he must be turning heads in his suit and tie- horny ho- throwing out innuendo as usual. She was always pulling this crap in the first seasons- “Oh Clark- I rejected you- but now you look good/ are interested in someone else…blah blah and I better let you know in my sexy way that I want you and am available to you.” The funny thing is Clark is so caught up in his work her come on goes pretty

Allesandro Juliani as Emile treats a Martian

much over his head. HA HA!

Lana leaves him to his work as an ambulance pulls up- John is being brought in and is in critical condition. Oliver is close behind- Clark is worried about a doctor examining John- hello he is a Martian! Oliver tells him not to worry- he has a special doc on staff they can trust. Who is it? It is Alessandro Juliani aka Felix Gaeta from BSG! Go Gaeta!

Oliver and Clark decide to work their own angles to figure out who shot John since Ollie comments that they don’t seem to play well together. Well no Ollie- if you had listened to Clark and not gone after that hard drive in Cuba you wouldn’t have found Blahna and brought her back- bad hero!

Clark catches up with Chloe while she is in town picking up a few things- she has been helping Clark hack into John’s files at the police department and they discover there is missing evidence and conclude this may be an inside job. Before she leaves Chloe asks Clark what it is like having Lana back- he answers it is like she never left. The dopey look that goes with that is back too. Chloe asks him “What about Lois?” He looks dumb- huh? Uh..”It is pretty obvious Clark”. Chloe gets a big hug from this fan for telling him that she understands closure but he better not let her cousin get stuck in the door. He looks confused and Chloe has a set to her jaw as she walks out. Hmmm….that was unexpected. Have she and Jimmy been talking while she has been at his bedside? This will make the return of Lois that much more interesting when it finally happens.

Chloe leaves and we get to see Clark going undercover as Joe Fordman- police officer transfer from Coast City. Tom overwhelms the police cruiser filling the entire front seat. He gets to know his new partner Danny Turpin ( played by David Paetkau) and the other officers they ride with. Clark saves Dan from a bullet on their first call and is immediately brought into their group.

Clark is invited to Dan’s for a barbeque where Dan’s kid comes out in cape with a mask- this is the “I’m the red blue blurr” bit we have seen in the promos. Clark asks the guys about John getting shot and how blood on the badge is never good. The other guys are uncomfortable and mention that Jones was a lone wolf and that is never good – you need the security of the pack. Ah….men as dogs. Not always the best analogy guys! Dog may be man’s best friend but packs of dogs roaming the streets are dangerous unchecked.

The guys all get a call and everyone including Clark leaves. They head to an dark warehouse where a man is being held. We find out this is the guy who shot and killed Dan’s last partner and he has been released on a technicality. The killer is scared- these cops are out for blood. In the midst of giving him a beating Dan pulls back when the other guys taunt him to finish the guy off, at that moment Green Arrow shows up and takes them all down with special stunner arrows- Clark catches his and tells Ollie to get out. Dan sees Clark talking to Ollie.

Back at the farm Clark is looking beyond yummy in the tight grey t-shirt over the long sleeved white t-shirt- there is no wonder why Lana is coming on to him- he looks great…. but that is not what is on Ollie’s mind as he comes in pissed as heck. They guys snark over what is really happening- Oliver thinks they are all bad apples- Clark thinks some have just lost their way. I loved Oliver telling Clark to go ahead and play detective and then storms out.

Meanwhile Dan tells the rest of the crew that Joe is not who he says he is and narcs on Clark. Clark heads to check out the two guys who he suspects may have shot John, gets to one guys house and finds a gun under the hood of his car. He pops the hood , pulls out the gun and then is swarmed as cops come to “arrest Clark Kent for shooting John Jones”.

Next the rogue cops stage another beat down- this time using the guy who Clark stopped from shooting Dan. They want Dan to complete his initiation by killing the Green Arrow. Ollie shows up and tells Dan when Dan pulls a gun on him that Clark believes in him. Love the Kent guilt working by proxy! Dan pulls Green Arrow aside when his sniper friend gets anxious and decides to take them both out- but not before calling the cops and saying that the Green Arrow has an officer down.

Wrong move! Clark has broken out of his cuffs, escaped police custody as the call comes in and is on the rooftop to stop the shooter who gets a bullet that bounces off of Clark. Clark cleverly covers by implying he is wearing a vest.

After the excitement is over Clark and Oliver head to the hospital- John is up and around but realizes he should have called for help sooner but his pride got in the way. Clark and Ollie realize having a brotherhood with the same goal for backup and working as a team gives them more strength than just going it alone.

Very super moment for all three.

Next we see Clark heading to talk to Dan who is glad he had the chance to make things right- he hopes to keep his job but is glad his family is ok. He asks Clark if he has anyone to make things right for him and share with at home. Clark says nothing then smiles.

What happened with Tess and Lana- Lana harassed Tess, hacked the computers in the mansion and then gave Tess a beat down before telling her that Lex implanted a nano-transmittor on Tess’ optic nerve that has been keeping Lex apprised of Tess’s every move ever since because he never really trusted her. Tess is horrifed and angered. And has to be thinking- ew! He saw my most intimate moments including having sex? With Oliver? EW!

Tess is standing in front of a mirror and is also appearing on the video screen of her laptop. She tells Lex she loved him but he used her and she will now destroy everything he left her- she will empty his bank accounts and destroy his organization. She loved him and now she hates him. She touches a button in a locket around her neck and the video screen goes blank with a notice that signal is jammed.

In walks Oliver- he asks what the raging fire is for- she says- we are going out to dinner and we are talking mergers. He asks what kind? She says any kind you want. She sashays out the door and Ollie gladly follows. We see a copy of the paper that is going to print and the headline reads “LEx Luthor declared dead.” Wahoo! Hell hath no fury as the saying goes. It goes without saying Ollie was going to get some angry sex and wake up very sated in the morning. It is interesting that in Committed Oliver pursued her and he came to her when he saw Lois and Clark together and they managed to take care of each other’s needs- this time it is Tess who is calling the shots and inviting him in when she needs some payback. These two have issues but they aren’t huring anyone else.

Final scene – Clark goes to the Talon. Lana is making a late night coffee. “If I squint it is like we are 14 again” Clark is feeling all mushy thanks to seeing Dan with his family. He asks Lana why she hasn’t left yet- she says she is finding it hard to leave. He tells her whether it is tomorrow or ten years from now we have this moment and he leans in for a big smooch. When they are done- he pulls away and has an odd look on his face. Hmmm….maybe this is not what he remembered or what? Whose face was he seeing when they kissed?

The Clana is back- and this time it is like seasons 2 and 3. She pulls away- he gets on with things. The assertive Clark gets Lana’s attention- she makes herself available to him- he is drawn in, she lets him get close- then one of them pulls away. YAWN! You aren’t 14 anymore and other than the 14 year olds watching the show- nobody else wants to see this!

The whole vigilante cops thing was great- reminded me of the second Dirty Harry movie Magnum Force with Robert Urich, David Soul and Tim Matheson as young motorcycle cops who are part of a secret brotherhood within the police department who are acting as vigilantes. They initially think Harry is one of them then turn on him when he won’t co-operate just as the crew did on Clark. Dirty Harry of course doesn’t get any of them to do the right thing and they all die. Clark’s faith in the goodness he sees in Dan is what brings Dan around. Superman is a symbol for hope and justice while Dirty Harry is always a symbol for something darker.

I do like that this season is really building on the whole Metropolis is getting more and more dangerous theme. I just rewatched Identity and Lois talks about the city as having a “no vacancy” sign on the county jail. The cops tell Clark when he is undercover that a policeman getting shot is not a headline in Metropolis but an everyday occurence. For any of you who don’t live in a big city or haven’t lived in one- this is pretty much true. I personally don’t watch the evening news all that often because most of the local news here in Phoenix consists of the nightly body count. How many drug dealers/ human smugglers/ illegal aliens/ whacked out and stressed out people committed horrible acts today. The worst one we had recently was a case of two little boys being beaten to death with a baseball bat in a park near their home- for no discernable reason at all. When your world includes worrying about which way to drive so you can avoid an area with a lot of stray bullets- you tend to think that maybe the vigilantes aren’t all wrong. But that isn’t the way to deter crime. You don’t make people feel safe. In the real world- this week we all saw a miracle when a jet crash landed in the Hudson river in New York and every single passenger and crew member made it off that plane alive. This week saw a first for the United States. Only 40 years after the voting rights acts of the 1960s and the civil rights movement- our country elected a black president. Whether you voted for him or not- the symbollic act of his being inaugurated resonated across the globe as a cry for hope and peace. We all know that miracles don’t happen over night. But nothing happens without hope.

On Smallville, we escape the nightly body reports and watch to see our young hero don the mantle that will have him step into that iconic role as a symbol for hope and justice and what is morally right. Here on OSCK we bitch about Lana and the writer’s uneven handling of Clark’s character. Tonight we had some excellent moments tempered by Lana and her deceitful ways and the incredibly toxic relationship she and Clark share. It is past time for it to be over with so that Clark can do what he told John Jones back in Odyssey what he wants to do – to let the past go. You aren’t 14 anymore Clark and you can never go back- you can go forward and do something that will make you happy and protect the world you live in. There were about 12 minutes with Lana tonight- over a quarter of the episode. Next week Power is all about Lana and what is up with Lex. I really don’t care.

I want more of Clark’s journey. There are a lot of episodes focused on all of the assorted back up characters- is it too much to ask for one big episode per season that is nothing but Clark? I think one of the reasons I like a lot of the big episodes from seasons 1-4 is that there are a lot of all about Clark episodes. It is time for the shadow of Lex Luthor to fade in significance, it is time for Lana to leave, and it is time for the characters who are left to quit worrying about the past and focus on the here and now and the future. I was very proud of Chloe tonight in her brief appearance. She managed to help Clark, stand up for her cousin and skedaddle back to her husband’s side. She is getting her priorities straight- I look forward to seeing how things actually transpire for her over the next months.

Overall? Clark and Ollie get a 4/5- both for the super action and the bromance moments, but the episode only gets a 3 due to too much screen time spent on the anticlimatic Tess Lana showdown.

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