This episode was... so so. Kind of middle of the road, though the chopper scene at the end *was* exciting. There were a couple of things that bugged me. The train trestle location is overused at this point. They should find another location to shoot, but I suppose they have good reason now. Apparently, they chose not to use the original footage with all the explosions due to the stunt man being injured by the fall. Ah vell. But the woman getting hit by a car was pretty visceral, so it still worked.
Acting from the principals was top notch, though I think Welling could have chosen better reactions in a few scenes. Clark still has that SOS look on his face sometimes ("Stuck On Stupid" LOL). For example, when Jennings tells Clark that sooner or later you can't hide your super powers any more (or something along those lines - I only saw the episode once and need to rewatch it for proper quotes), I EXPECTED at *least* a raised eyebrow from Clark. But he just stared back, expressionless. Meh. C'mon Welling. I KNOW you can do better than that.
Acting from the guest bad guy (Mr. "Diplomatic Immunity" - nice homage to Donner's
Lethal Weapon 2, BTW) was good. All the other guests were poor, ESPECIALLY the dancers. Were *any* of them "real" actresses, I wonder? And honestly, I think Wopat has lost his spark. He seemed to be phoning in a few scenes, though I loved the introduction of his character in the iconic Charger. That was well done and put a smile on my face. "That the best ya got?" Hee!
The redeeming value to this episode I feel was in the subtext: Every hero has their flaws - and it's not easy being one. A nice metaphor was when Chloe put on the dancer's angel wings and said they're heavier than they look, and then promptly took them off. Jennings points out that heroes are envied, but people are constantly looking for them to fail. It's wincing commentary on how people relate better to heroes with flaws. When a hero makes a mistake it knocks them off their pedestal (pulpit?) and makes them more like everybody else.
In that context the most interesting revelation by far was Lex's point about David. Clark says they conveniently leave off the
non hero parts of David's tale, something that SV as a show about Superman - the greatest hero of all time - never does. In fact, they revel in it.
PS: I can't WAIT till next week's episode, Splinter. Now THAT is gonna be phenomenal, I'm sure.