Lower Decks

With a title like “Crossfire” and the introduction of Green Arrow’s sidekick, Speedy, you’d think that the entire episode would be devoted to that.  Instead, the writers decide to cram that story in with a story about Tess vs. Zod and Chloe meeting her hacking equal.  Oh yeah…and the first-ever kiss between Lois and Clark, wrapped in a cheesy morning show storyline.  And in the end, it all just kind of comes out weak and jumbled.

I don’t know a lot about Speedy because I honestly don’t know a lot about Green Arrow.  I do know, however, that Speedy is to the Green Arrow as Robin is to Batman.  And even on Superman’s show, I’d imagine that the introduction of Robin would be given a bit more screen time.

And it would’ve been fine if they wanted to go Lois and Clark as the A-story with Speedy as the B-story.  But, honestly, I don’t even know if Speedy’s story was the B-story.  It seemed to have the same weight as the other three stories that were going on.

Don’t get me wrong – there was a lot of good stuff going on in here.  I thought the Zod storyline was pretty cool, and I liked the way that they were finally using Chloe in an interesting (and independent) way.

The problem is, I guess, that I would’ve preferred to see an entire episode devoted to these kind of storylines.  Instead, we get them crammed into this single episode.  The other problem is that I thought the A-story (and it was definitely the A-story) involving Lois and Clark was just way to cliched and cheesy, and I just didn’t like it.

The whole thing was to set up the kiss, right?  Outside of a cameo by Cat Grant, the whole point of the story was to end with the kiss in the Daily Planet, and that could’ve been done in other ways to give more time to Zod or Chloe or Speedy.  Heck, they even tied Lois into the Speedy storyline so there were ample opportunities to do end the “Lois-Oliver-Clark” love triangle.

Let’s break down the stories that happened.  I’ve already said that I didn’t like the Lois and Clark stuff.  I think it’s a believable story because print journalism is in trouble.  Lois and Clark are both attractive journalists, and I think they’d work on a morning show.  But the whole thing was just so much like a sitcom that I don’t think it worked.  They even did that generic “morning show” music that felt out of place.

The kiss itself?  It was spoiled in the promos, but it’s still a bit surprising that they’re going to the Lois-Clark relationship this soon.  I realize it was inevitable, and I do love the chemistry between Tom Welling and Erica Durance.  I’m interested in seeing how the relationship works on this show.

As far as the Speedy stuff goes, I thought it was solid, but like I’ve been saying, there just wasn’t enough time devoted to it.  The whole “prostitute with a heart of gold” stuff was a bit cliche, and the whole thing had the same kind of feel as “Run.”

But it was nice to see Oliver trying to help someone so soon because I think he’d want to immediately get out there and start helping people.  And I liked the connection to the fight club that we saw earlier in the season, in addition to some of the parallels in their stories.

Here’s the thing, though.  We didn’t learn much about Speedy, and I’m not even sure she learned much of a lesson by the end of the episode.  Even though Rick the Pimp was arrested, she was still out on the streets at the end of the episode, and it seems like we’ll need another episode to turn her from a hooker to a sidekick.

It just seemed odd to bring her in with such little screentime.  I hope she comes back so we can actually see what her character is supposed to be about.

The Zod stuff was really cool, I thought.  We haven’t seen much of Zod this season, but we saw a great battle between him and Tess.  Tess hasn’t been seen much either, but she stands up to the Kandorians, even (apparently) killing one that was sent to kill her.

And we got a nice insight into Zod’s plan to get his powers back with the solar power plant.  Zod is lending technology to Tess, and we have to think the whole solar aspect is supposed to play into unlocking the powers Kryptonians get from Earth’s yellow sun.

Hopefully, that story will continue to move along, but at this point, they’re playing Zod a more like they played Lex – a guy behind the scenes that should be feared.  It’s a lot better than I anticipated it being.

The really nice storyline was Chloe’s, though.  There wasn’t a whole lot there, and I still think Allison Mack deserves more screen time.  But I thought it was great that she told Clark to enjoy himself, letting her worry about the Kandorians.  And it’s nice that Clark trusts Chloe again, seeing her as a valuable member of his crime-fighting team.

I’m not sure who this Stuart guy is supposed to be, but I think he’s a pretty good match for Chloe.  It’s obvious that he’s a bit over his head working for Tess, but I agree with Chloe – he’d be a good fit with the Justice League.

And it’s just great that Chloe’s being allowed to be her own character, making her own decisions, and making a name for herself.  Hopefully that continues because I really like her character.

So that’s it.  So far, this season has been fairly strong, but they’re really failed to do a complete episode.  Each episode always seems to have a portion that is weak and/or forgettable, and they have to figure out how to put it all together if they want this season to be great.

But the show is very watchable again, and that’s a step in the right direction.  And looking back, this episode could be a huge stepping stone.