10.14, Masquerade (spoilers)

Wait for the final shot of the teaser. Cool!!

Well tonight we had the 14th episode of the final season of Smallville. It was titled Masquerade and was written by bryan Q millar, and directed by Tim Scanlan. We finally have the VRA over with and the heroes are now able to operate more opening. Also we had the episode playing with the themes of identity. An we finally have the darkseid storyline kicking up.

First up with the writing, BQM wrote a great script. I am glad he was picked to write this episode. As i said above we are finally over with the vra and now the heroes can operate more openly. Which is nice. I cant wait to see how they have clark and the gang being heroes and getting into the public trust and all that.

The opening with clark going global was very cool. Same with the whole lois and clark wedding planning, and the whole clark needed a new disguise. The hoodie/glasses scene was classic.

The plot with the fbi going after desaad and learning about the omega mark was nice. Glad to see that is not just within the jl and its a more world wide presence. Desaad storyline of killing folks for fun who he can turn was done very nicely.

The chloe/ollie stuff was nicely played out too. With them trying to be a normal couple and getting caught up into the fbi thing. Sure folks say it was ripping on date night, which it was a bit. But smallville story was very different. Ollie/chloe fight scene with the fbi agents was pretty good.

Desaad was wicked creepy and one sick sob. The mass murder scene in the church was interesting. Also loved how he has certain powers and was trying to mentally play into chloe's emotions and all that. Same with clark which i am glad he was able to break free of desaad's control.

The last lois and clark scene with him talking to lois about the blur is who he has always been, and clark kent can be the disguse was pretty good. REally curious to see how the whole kent identity is going to play out. I do hope with the remaining episodes we will get a few scenes per episode with clark at the planet or working with the glasses on.

And boy or boy the last scene with chloe and ollie was interesting. I liked that they played with the whole thing with chloe's life been a revovling door of many identities and all that. Which paralleled with clark's identity issues too. I so didnt see the ending there, with ollie ended up getting branded with the mark of the omega. Now i am curious to see what the writers do with that.

Directing, Scanlan did pretty good. I think he only has done a few episodes before hand. I dont recall right now. But he did pretty good tonight. The lighting was cool, great camera placement and movement. He got solid work out of the cast. He pulled out a good episode tonight.

Acting all around was on the ball. Tom did pretty good as always. He is really showing a stronger leadership role and the whole being the blur and clark stuff is playing out nicely. loved the blumbing stuff and clark being all sassy(though i hope they dont have clark be a total klutz i dont want that). Tom is always improving.

Erica was also pretty good tonight. She is struggling with lois being there for clark, reporting, and the whole wedding stuff. I think erica is a delight and plays lois very well.

Allison was good as chloe, i didnt have any issues with her tonight at all. Sad to see she only has one more episode left to go in her return(if she isnt in the finale). I like where they are going with chloe being unsure about herself and how her life has gotten so out of hand. Cant wait to see what happens with chloe.

Justin was pretty good as ollie tonight. Glad he isnt depressed or moping around now. He was his charming and quirky self. i dont have much else to say about him. But i hope if they are going to have him be evil for a bit will be good. Cant wait to see what they do there.

Steve byers was great tonight as desaad. Glad he got to have a big focus episode, since only having cameo back in abandoned. He was one creepy sob dude. Loved how the actor played him.

All in all a great episode all around, solid acting, writing, and direction. Enjoyed it all. I loved the sfx and the microvison/glasses and all the fun stuff. Promo for next week looks to be pretty funny. Cant wait to see all the zany stuff that is going to happen.

Really dug it. Seems the showrunners are leaning towards the Pre-Crisis characterization of Superman being the real character and Clark the disguise. In and of itself, I'm okay with that. It's just that (A) we've seen that done to death in live action and (B) it's a contradiction of what Al Gough said in various interviews throughout his run on the show, when he said that Clark would be the character and Superman the disguise. No big deal in the big scheme of things but I don't think Petersouders can quite claim they're sticking to Goughlar's model like superglue anymore.

I dug how the glasses thing came about. Really, it's a miracle something like this didn't happen sooner. Stands to reason that it would though.

Overall, an easy 5/5. Dug it.

ya it does seem like that is take they are going with. which does sorta work for sv. for me personally i kinda have liked the other way around where clark is who he is, and superman is what he can do take on the dual identity. maybe it will end up being a mixture of the two. only thing i dont want is to be to bumbling fool type of thing. i just dont see that aspect working much these days.

"only thing i dont want is to be to bumbling fool type of thing. i just dont see that aspect working much these days."

But isn't that exactly what Clark did when he bumped into that guy at the end while wearing his glasses? At least sort of. It kinda reminded me of Reeve & how he acted in those situations. And didn't Clark FLY across the ocean?! How are they gonna explain that?!

non i just meant i dont want to see clark 24/7 at the planet being a bumbling, klutzy fool. The ocassional gag here and there is ok. I just think full on bumbling fool is to dated. As for the from london to metropolis scene, i seen folks think he was flying, but come on we all know it wasnt. if he was flying it would have been a big deal moment like crusade/collateral. my guess is he probably just super speed across the ocean, or super speed in conjuction to a few super leaps.

Masquerade ratings:

#Smallville "Masquerade" Ratings: 2.2 million viewers, 1.0 demo.

Man its not bad, but still wish we were going up. Come on folks would love to have higher numbers again.

Yes, I dug it too. Another worthy episode.

As for "goofy" Clark, probably a nod to Reeve, I'd imagine. Welling does Reeve's "glasses pushing up movement" to a tee, and Reeve was really the only live action "comic" Clark, wasn't he?

The folk at the Planet, and just about everyone in Smallville are going to wonder what happened to that nice Clark Kent.

All of a sudden his eyes went bad on him and he started behaving like Jerry Lewis!!

Father Finian wrote:Yes, I dug it too. Another worthy episode.

As for "goofy" Clark, probably a nod to Reeve, I'd imagine. Welling does Reeve's "glasses pushing up movement" to a tee, and Reeve was really the only live action "comic" Clark, wasn't he?

Not really. Dean Cain's Clark was pretty much what Clark was like in the comics of the time. He takes a lot of shit for that but, really, L&C really was a pretty decent adaptation of the Byrne Age comics from the late 80's and early 90's.

What I'll say is that the small bit we got from Welling was pretty consistent with the Pre-Crisis Clark. For some reason, Reeve played Clark as Inspector Clouseau. But that's not really what Clark was in the comics of that time. He was just a polite, quiet, mild-mannered nice guy. That's what Welling's bit with Jeff reminded me of. Whether Reeve invented the clod characterization of Clark or if it's something Donner and Mankeywhatsis came up with, the depiction of Clark as a bumbling, socially incompetent fucktard was more or less invented for STM.

In fact, if you go over STM with enough of a fine tooth comb, what you kind of have to conclude is that, contrary to revisionist history and prevailing fanboy opinion, the resonance STM has with the comics comes from Mario Puzo (thanks to his numerous meetings and story conferences with Elliot Maggin and Cary Bates) and the Salkinds (mostly Ilya). Donner, Mankeywhatsis and Reeve invented and added a bunch of shit to the film that NEVER existed in continuity up to that point. That doesn't make STM bad, mind you, but it's certainly not the love letter to the mythos people think it is. Had STM come out six years ago, the movie would've broken the Internet in half.

Ummm....."comic" as in funny, as in performance wise. I thought the Jerry Lewis reference would've made it clear.

But, yeah, that's what I thought.

thecolorsblend wrote:That doesn't make STM bad, mind you, but it's certainly not the love letter to the mythos people think it is. Had STM come out six years ago, the movie would've broken the Internet in half.

Why? A good movie is a good movie......Of course it doesn't make STM "bad". That's still the bar we need to aim to when it comes to live action Superman. By your standards your beloved Burton Batman would've broken the net too for making the Joker responsible for killing the Waynes. Welling's playing Clark in a comic fashion like Reeve? Good, let's see how he does, "comic Clark" is the hardest interpretation to pull off, Reeve had the acting chops to do it, Ruth not so much......Donner & the much missed "Mank" probably introduced comic relief Clark because they knew Reeve could pull it off, and they were trying to make an entertaining movie. Not a comic book.

I don't know why people still struggle with the concept of films BASED on comic book characters. The Donnerverse exists in it's own continuity, as does Burton Batman, Smallville and the rest of them.

This is what gets me with comic book geeks, you can have a million different interpretations of a comic book character in a thousand different titles concurrently, but boy oh boy do they get all hot under their collar-"Superboy on the net in the basement style" when live action does it's own thing.

I just don't get ANOTHER obvious movie rip-off in Smallville.

'Date Night'? Really?

Yeah, and with everything else they've got lined up, like still more DC heroes, I hope they leave space for the Clark becoming Superman bit!

ya i seen alot of folks online between shh/ksite and some other boards complain about movie rip offs. personally i didnt have an issue with it in this episode, or in past ones. As long as it works within the story sv is trying to tell. Another thing some seem to think oh this is a new thing when sv did it many yrs ago too. So like i said not really an issue for me as long as it works in the end.

Personally, I don't mind a knowing wink style to the "homages" but the one that really bothered me was "I am Iron Man, I mean Green Arrow"

Sheesh. And then doing The Matrix in 2011 is a bit old hat by now......

Again, forget all the guff now and concentrate on Superman. We must only have about 8 or 9 episodes left.