Down, down... and away!

“Collateral”

While I’m up on my soap box, I would like to take this time to shake my finger (at the very least) at The CW. It was bad enough we had to wait nearly a month and a half for new Smallville, but then you run re-runs of The Vampire Diaries last week and push the mid-season premiere back another week. I realize that big market cities had major events last week, but they can do like my local station does when these things come up: show it later in the evening. Well, I feel better. Now, let’s get onto this week’s episode.

This week, Smallville meets The Matrix. Clark and the gang were captured by the VRA folks at Carter Hall’s funeral, and locked away for studying. We open with Lois at the farm, on hold with the VRA, trying to locate Clark. Unfortunately, they claim that they have no idea where he is. After she threatens the person that finally answers her, Clark walks through the front door, with no recollection of what transpired over the last three weeks and no clue why they let him go. All he knows is that he and Dinah were finally released, and somehow, they took their powers away from them. And for some reason, they are having flashes of being tested on – by Chloe.

Soon word comes that Oliver has been released, but he’s in a psych ward. Clark visits him, and both are bothered by these visions of Chloe. Clark leaves, promising that he’ll find out what’s going on. But soon, Oliver sees the impossible, as none other than Chloe walks through the wall into his room. She explains that she is actually there to help them, and that they are all still being held captive, wired into a mainframe to study them and their abilities. She has created an avatar to release them all. The problem is simply that no one trusts her anymore. And the only way to get out of the virtual world? Well, you have to jump off of the roof of the Daily Planet. She gets Clark and Oliver up there, but Clark decides not to jump, as Ollie and Chloe jump to reality. Once he’s awake, he’s greeted by Chloe – and by Rick Flag and Deadshot. Both are now answering to Chloe, and helping her get our heroes back.

Clark is having a very hard time dealing with all of this. He wants to trust Chloe, but can’t get over the fact that she left without any explanation. And on top of this, Dinah and Lois are fighting over whether or not she’s working with the VRA. Dinah confronts Chloe, and after a brief Matrix-style fight, realizes that Chloe’s right, and takes the leap. In the real world, the group is fighting the clock. VRA troops are on the way, and they only have about 20 minutes to get Lois and Clark out, or they may never get them.

Lois is trying to get Clark to realize that Chloe’s need for them to trust her is similar to the way he needed everyone to trust him for so many years, never telling anyone his secret for fear of them getting hurt. Clark looks past the pain he feels about her leaving, and they decide to take the jump. But Chloe’s avatar has been hijacked by VRA goons, and she is trying to stop Lois and Clark from jumping. Lois realizes what’s going on, and knocks Chloe out. They get to the roof, but they are surrounded by multiple Chloes, all trying to put doubt in Clark’s mind. But Lois tells him that she has faith in him. Clark grabs her, and leaps into the sky, flying around the Daily Planet globe a few times before they fly down into the portal into the real world.

Our super friends take out the VRA goons, and are safe for another week. Chloe and Clark have a good talk at the farm, and Lois asks her to be her maid-of-honor. And then Chloe and Oliver have a nice reunion at Watchtower. But one can’t get the thought out of one's head that there’s more than meets the eye to Chloe. Is she really on the level, or is there more going on? We’ll find out in the next few weeks, I’m sure. And there was a nice afterword with Lois and Clark, with Clark admitting that it was Lois’ faith in him that got him to fly, even if it was in the virtual world. She tells him that she always believed he could do the impossible. Let’s hope we see some more of that flying soon.

Was it worth the extra wait? Yes, definitely. It was nice to see Chloe back, and it’s always great when the heroes come together for some ass whooping. And the scene of Lois and Clark flying around the Planet was really sweet. Only a few months left, but it looks like it’s shaping up to go out with a bang.

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