Smallville 3.02 "Plastique" - review

Smallville episode 8.02 “Plastique“
Airdate: September 25, 2008

Really, tonight’s episode has a very simple plot. But the cool thing about it is this episode laid out what the rest of the season is all about.

It’s Clark Kent’s first day as a Daily  Planet reporter, and a bus explosion puts the hero into a 911 mode. Clark helps several people to safety, and one of them is Tess Mercer, unknown to Clark at that time until later in the day when she introduces herself as the new boss at the Planet. Another survivor from the explosion is Bette Souci (Jessica Parker Kennedy), who was helped by Chloe Sullivan and paramedic Davis Bloom (Sam Witwer). When Chloe learned that Bette was a street-kid, Chloe offered her apartment until the teenager could find a better place.

Suspicious that the explosion might be caused by another meteor-freak, Clark asked Bette if she had seen anything. The girl lied that it was a boy she knew, and she then killed him with her “high frequency blast” powers to hide the truth.

When the evidence didn’t connect properly to the boy, Clark finally realized it was Bette. At the same time, Chloe was finding out from Bette that the girl was a test subject at the Montana facility where she was held for three years. Bette had escaped a few weeks ago but on that morning of the bus accident, she had felt cornered. The girl did what she thought was necessary to protect herself. Unfortunately, Bette thought Chloe knew too much and was about to shoot her with her fiery eyes when Clark flew in to rescue Chloe. Clark gave Bette the pep talk that she’s OK, that there was good in the girl, and eventually she’ll learn to handle her powers. For a moment there, one who follows the DC comics wonders if Bette would turn out for good after all.

Alas, this is where Clark and Chloe get it wrong. They asked Bette to stay at Belle Reeve. Meteor-freaks like Bette don’t want to be locked up again. So, when Tess Mercer offered Bette a chance at being treated like the superpowered girl that she is, Bette reluctantly accepted. Luthor’s new protege is creating a “team” of people with special abilities and she’s recruiting Bette into that, to “make a hero out of” her yet. And that’s how Plastique became a supervillain.

That Tess Mercer is badass. She’s as devious as her predecessor was, and maybe even worse. She didn’t waste time scheming to create the same trouble and world domination as her missing boss, smiling innocently at the same time. The big question is why the loyalty? She seems to be doing exactly everything that Lex would had he been around, but why? Who is she and what does she want?

Lois and Clark team up to break the story that there was no device of any kind that triggered the explosion. Their first time working together, Lois took Clark under her wings as her cub reporter. “You have a long career ahead of you at the Daily Planet, Clark,” says Lois, and Superman fans all know what that means.

Clark also finds out that Chloe has been engaged for a week and yet she didn’t tell him. Clark admits that they are more than friends, but Chloe stops him to say things will change between them after she and Jimmy get married. And you know what Clark does, he assures her that all he wants is Chloe’s happiness and “it’s OK”. A very awkward congratulatory hug happens and somehow you wonder if this is where the roads of these two friends go separate ways.

Meanwhile, paramedic Davis Bloom struck a friendship with Chloe that makes one think if this new connection will lead to something else. Davis seems a genuinely good person, despite the harsh childhood that he had. And yet, at the end of the episode, there was an unconscious Davis lying in an alley, in the last stages of a transformation to human from something that was totally sinister.

At the start of this review, I said there was nothing extraordinary about the plot of this episode. What is very interesting, and well-thought of, is the development of certain characters. Tess Mercer for one. Actress Cassidy Freeman has this Lex-girl all figured out. Michael Rosenbaum as Lex Luthor is still larger than life, but I don’t think it’s going to be hard to replace his effect now that someone with the same caliber of malevolence has come. Cassidy Freeman is very convincing in her role as the new bad girl of Smallville. Paramedic Davis Bloome still has to make his mark, but because we know where he’s going to end, we’re tuning in to every hint of a miscue in his personality. Chloe and Clark are at an awkward time in their friendship, but there is anticipation of where Lois and Clark are heading with their combo as Daily Planet reporters.

Next week, “Smallville” continues with “Toxic“, and we discover a connection between Oliver Queen and Tess Mercer.  Get scoops for all “Smallville” season 8 episodes here.