"Checkmate" -- Tom Welling as Clark Kent in SMALLVILLE, on The CW Network. Photo: Michael Courtney/The CW
When Smallville’s episode titled “Checkmate” opened, I found the stop / slow motion panels to be interesting. I think they were well used up front in the teaser and thankfully, we weren’t treated to them throughout the episode. We were dealt more stop-motion / comic panels later on near the end of “Checkmate” and again, I think well used, and not over-used.
As ar as the story goes, Tess Mercer (Cassidy Freemen) plays bait to lure the Green Arrow into Checkmate’s clutches, because for some reason, Checkmate finds it necessary to drug and abduct new recruits more compelling than actually asking them.
Yet Green Arrow escapes and later, Oliver (Justin Hartley) informs Clark and Chloe (Allison Mack) what went down.
In the background of this Smallville episode, John Jones aka Martain Manhunter (Phil Morris) is also working for a mysterious other background player in this game, though he won’t tell anyone who. And it seems to be a good cause. I say that because I believe Jones to be a good guy at at the end, he erases Waller’s mind of the info she gleaned from tonight.
"Checkmate" -- Tom Welling as Clark Kent, Pam Grier as Amanda Waller in SMALLVILLE, on The CW Network. Photo: Michael Courtney/The CW
Checkmate, agent Waller (Pam Grier) ends up kidnapping Chloe and Clark tries to jump to the rescue. I don’t think he wouldn’t have been able to pull it off if Oliver hadn’t intervened and taken out Checkmate’s building power.
It was here when Clark saves Chloe that we were treated to more stop-motion action freeze-frame story from Smallville. It was fun to see, the images used were perfect stills that one would find in your favorite comic book.
One of my few gripes about the episode was that every agent of Checkmate always had a chess piece near them. Sure, I loved the symbolism up-front, but it got old, verging on rediculous. Otherwise, the moral of the story was that Clark learned he needs to keep focused on his team and quit speeding off on his own.
Meanwhile, Tess begs Oliver for help because she’s thinking of going AWOL from Checkmate. But everyone knows there’s “only one way you leave Checkmate.”
BTW: Through an oddball turn of conversation, she’s learned Oliver is the Green “I Don’t wear tights!” Arrow. (If you’ve seen the ep, you know what that is. It was the humor point in the episode and I liked it.)
Justin Hartley as Green Arrow in SMALLVILLE on The CW. Photo: Jack Rowand/The CW
Back on point: Oliver turns away from her plea for help and rightfully so. All she’s ever done is lie through her teeth to achieve her own personal goals and never thought about what her actions would do, as they’ve added up through time. I mean, heck, who does when they’re in the middle of cutting people down!? Serves her right. Like they say, “sleep in the bed you’ve made.” And it’s usually at the worse times when you find that out for yourself! Like Tess found out last night.
It was poetry, though for some reason I felt she meant it but Bummer, too late and ya shoulda thought of that sooner lady-pants!
If she’s going AWOL and Checkmate “offs” her, would that be a clue that Tess is the character dying? Or just a distraction from the real event coming up? They’ve put a hair in my brain now with this story devlopment.
Overall:
This was a good connector episode that took parts of the season and moved them forward though we didn’t see hide nor hair of Zod (Callum Blue). But that was fine. His story has been pushed along quite nicely and the change-up was good.
And that’s my quick take on the Smallville episode titled “Checkmate.” Thank god that was the terse version!
What did you guys think?
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{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
Great review, great episode. It’s amazing how strong this season has been since just about every character from previous seasons is now gone (The Kent’s, the Luthor’s, Lana, etc).
Soy ecuatoriana y me encanta la serie especialmente eso dos muñecos divinosss.
I LOVE YOU
Carme Liz Villavicencio,
A pesar de reconocer que me estoy engañando y utilizando un traductor, yo sólo quería decir gracias por venir! Espero que disfruten el sitio.