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Smallville: Toxic
Ok, I confess that for the first twenty minutes or so I was not at all engaged and thought this episode was going to suck. But a lot of things redeemed it for me.
Things I loved
--There can never, never, never be too much barechested Oliver Queen in the world. For serious. That is one pretty man.
--Lois/Ollie may well be my OTP on this show. Even now that they're over, they have more chemistry than any other SV couple, ever, and despite the fact that I am enjoying the Clark/Lois vibe this season, if they wanted to go back to Lois/Ollie? I'd be there in a heartbeat. God, Lois nursing a dying Oliver was just completely, completely breaking my heart. That speech she made, about how she let him go and so he was supposed to save the world, not die? I was *weeping.* And then that wonderful rant to Davis about how he had to reach into his little tackle box and pull out a miracle? Yeah, I just loved that whole entire scene.
But I also loved her whole sense of humor at herself. Best line of the season so far: "I may have played nurse with Oliver but it never progressed to doctor."
-- TESS IS MERCY!!!!!!!!!!! Holy, holy crap. Suddenly I am forgiving them everything, because if anyone can swoop in and literally take over for Lex, it's Mercy.
And while in the first part of the episode, I was thinking "Oh, geez, do we really need lame backstory on the origin of Green Arrow on this completely and obviously fake island, with ridiculous antics like Ollie comically stalking that pig-thing on his hands and knees, and oh gosh, now here is Tess to create backstory and comically use leeches to cure him--by the end of the episode I was actually completely sold on the Olliver/Tess thing. (I am guessing we're supposed to assume that after he rescued her they had a relationship that ended really badly?)
I liked it first of all because it sets up so many interesting parallels--it makes Tess's desire to set Lois after Ollie's story much more complicated and backstabby, for one thing. And Tess/Ollie sets up an interesting parallel to Lex/Clark; friends (lovers) who have each saved the other's life, and there's bitterness between them but also enough friendship that Tess can drop bombs like "Lionel killed Oliver's parents" in a way that looks like she's looking out for Oliver's best interests when in fact she's deliberately sabotaging his relationship with Clark. Damn. That was quite Machiavellian--one might even say Lexian--of her.
And I also loved how kickass she was to her kidnapper, first putting up a very decent physical fight, then deliberately getting him released from jail so she could poison him with the flower. YES!!!!
(Oh, and the femslash side of Tess continues, with her relationship with her "best friend" whose bracelet she still wears. )
Things that made me go hmmm
So are they really setting up Chloe to be taken over by Brainiac? (Don't spoil me if you actually know one way or another, please). It certainly looks that way, with both Clark AND Davis freaking out about her sudden knowledge base, and with Chloe sticking her fingers in her ears and saying *Lalalalala I'm ignoring you now*
Hey, how long do I need to wait to use an icon from this episode? I made a new Oliver icon to celebrate his chest of barenekkidness, and I almost used it on this post (it is the first comment below) and I want to know when I can use it on an entry without spoiling people. One week? Two weeks? What do you think?
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Or possibly it's just the naked Justin Hartley.
*uses obligatory shirtless Justin icon*
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Out of interest, did this show retcon the bit in "Veritas" where Lex remembers lil!Oliver running around with a bow and arrow?
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i agree with you that lois and ollie had fabulous chemistry. JH just radiates charm. he probably gives off pheromones like whoa. ;)
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And Mercy! So exciting.
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What I particularly liked about this was that if Lois had not done that, then Clark would have been too late to save Oliver with the antidote. The only reason Oliver was still alive enough for the antidote to work was because Lois insisted that Davis do something to buy him more time when even Davis was about to give up.
-- TESS IS MERCY!!!!!!!!!!! Holy, holy crap. Suddenly I am forgiving them everything, because if anyone can swoop in and literally take over for Lex, it's Mercy.
That's exactly how I felt and it goes a long way to explaining why they seemed to model her so much on Lex to begin with: if she's actually Mercy Graves, then it makes sense that Lex showed her everything he knows and she's carrying that banner loud and proud now that he's gone.
On Superman: The Animated Series -- where the character of Mercy Graves was initially introduced before being imported to the comics -- Mercy's backstory is that she was a smart, crafty street kid whole stole Lex's briefcase from him and tried to hold its contents for ransom. He was so impressed with her moxie -- stealing from Lex LuthorOMG! -- that he offered her a job, essentially rescuing her from a likely life on the streets and bringing her up in his image. Her intense loyalty to him comes from a place of deep gratefulness. On Justice League Animated, Mercy actually ran Lex Corp. for a while after Lex spent some time in jail (and did a pretty good job of it). So. To bring it all around to SV, I suspect that SV!Mercy's loyalty to Lex comes from some sort of similar dynamic -- he saw something in her worth nurturing (by values of "nurturing" which really mean "indoctrinating in the Luthorian way of handling your business") and pulled her out of some kind of tailspin she hated. Certainly, the show seemed to be suggesting that her younger self was socially conscious and kind of bleeding heart (saving marine life, protesting and all that) and the implication is that her life experiences since being on that island have somehow corrupted those impulses to the point that she mocks them when Lois displays them.
And I also loved how kickass she was to her kidnapper, first putting up a very decent physical fight, then deliberately getting him released from jail so she could poison him with the flower. YES!!!!
That's also fitting since Tess is really Mercy. In the comics/animated shows, Mercy can hold her own with the likes of Harley Quinn and Superman himself.
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Yes. This is a great development.
To bring it all around to SV, I suspect that SV!Mercy's loyalty to Lex comes from some sort of similar dynamic -- he saw something in her worth nurturing (by values of "nurturing" which really mean "indoctrinating in the Luthorian way of handling your business") and pulled her out of some kind of tailspin she hated. Certainly, the show seemed to be suggesting that her younger self was socially conscious and kind of bleeding heart (saving marine life, protesting and all that) and the implication is that her life experiences since being on that island have somehow corrupted those impulses to the point that she mocks them when Lois displays them.
What was intriguing to me was the suggestion that the corruption of her impulses is due not only to her kidnapping and the murder of her friends, but also due to some unnamed betrayal by Oliver. I know in comics canon he's kind of a jerk and a womanizer, so I'm wondering if they're deliberately going down that road with him this season.
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I loved that speech for two reasons — first of all, because it was so affecting... I was all teary-eyed, too. But second, because it absolutely lays the groundwork for her making a different choice when it comes to Clark. It was an onscreen, textual moment where she changed her mind about being with someone she loved even if his destiny was "so much greater than mine." Brilliant.
-- TESS IS MERCY!!!!!!!!!!! Holy, holy crap. Suddenly I am forgiving them everything, because if anyone can swoop in and literally take over for Lex, it's Mercy.
Hee! Yes. You already know how I felt about this. :-)
Tess can drop bombs like "Lionel killed Oliver's parents" in a way that looks like she's looking out for Oliver's best interests when in fact she's deliberately sabotaging his relationship with Clark.
Yep. It's still a question, how much Tess knows about Clark — and so, how much she knows about how much Clark knows about Lionel (hee! try to parse that phrase!) — but I've gotta figure she was going for some collateral damage on that little maneuver.
with both Clark AND Davis freaking out about her sudden knowledge base, and with Chloe sticking her fingers in her ears and saying *Lalalalala I'm ignoring you now*
What I thought was interesting/annoying/full of potential about that whole thing was how Chloe confided in Davis that she was worried about it — with Clark, she blew off the concern, and Jimmy, she didn't tell at all. Why does Davis suddenly get this instant access, and what does that mean for her other relationships? I'm a bit bewildered by Chloe's choices thus far.
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Ah, yes, good point. I admire that on a character-level, though I confess that I'm still enough in a Lollie place that I don't want her new decision to apply to Clark, I want it to apply to Ollie. :-(
What I thought was interesting/annoying/full of potential about that whole thing was how Chloe confided in Davis that she was worried about it — with Clark, she blew off the concern, and Jimmy, she didn't tell at all. Why does Davis suddenly get this instant access, and what does that mean for her other relationships? I'm a bit bewildered by Chloe's choices thus far.
Well, I'm wondering where the hell Jimmy IS. Do we have a canonical explanation for his absence?
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::pets you:: Whereas I am a Clark/Lois girl all the way, and can hardly WAIT. :-) But yeah, the Lois/Ollie is nearly enough to turn my head... I'll let Lois and Ollie angst for a while, and leave Clark on his own (cues up special icon for the occasion)...
Well, I'm wondering where the hell Jimmy IS. Do we have a canonical explanation for his absence?
Nothing canonical that I can remember, only meta.
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(At times I think I really need another Clois icon, but this one kind of makes my point for me, I think!)
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According to IMDB, Aaron Ashmore allegedly has a role of some kind on the new CW show Privileged, so I wonder if he wasn't off filming that when these first few eps of SV were being filmed.
FWIW, Jimmy features fairly prominently -- just based on the official episode descriptions -- in the next two episodes.
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That was an amazing scene. I have a good bit of love for Lollie too. I think it's because I like the actor's chemistry a great deal.
I liked it first of all because it sets up so many interesting parallels--it makes Tess's desire to set Lois after Ollie's story much more complicated and backstabby, for one thing. And Tess/Ollie sets up an interesting parallel to Lex/Clark; friends (lovers) who have each saved the other's life, and there's bitterness between them but also enough friendship that Tess can drop bombs like "Lionel killed Oliver's parents" in a way that looks like she's looking out for Oliver's best interests when in fact she's deliberately sabotaging his relationship with Clark. Damn. That was quite Machiavellian--one might even say Lexian--of her.
Wow. I've been commenting on people's entries all over the place today saying how I don't get why they felt the need to create a wildly coincidental backstory for Tess and Ollie, but here you've actually given me some solid reasons. Good calls!
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I agree with you about ED and JH's chemistry. It puts Lollie right up there with Clana for me in terms of favorite doomed romances.