"Bulletproof" Review!
Written by C.M. Houghton ("Triplet")

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NOTE: Be aware that important plot points lie within. Do NOT read even a single sentence if you wish to stay spoiler free.

RANT: Okay, I've written how much I like having iTunes putting out nice, clean, and The-CW-bug free copy of the episode on my computer. ('Bug' is TV-speak for the little logo in the corner of the screen, also sometimes called a spider.) The iTunes copies are awesome in fact, especially since now that the Mobile, AL/Pensacola, FL affiliate has recently decided to start airing the show in full frame instead of in letterbox.

My personal finances being what they are, I cannot yet afford a Hi-Def TV, so the letterbox is still key. It's the only way I can see the picture as it was intended. So, I was peeved with the change on the affiliate, all of a sudden the sides of the screen are cut off and I'm seeing more background than faces in some shots, other shots have the faces cut in half, but I was somewhat mollified because I could still view the episode the way it was shot by buying the iTunes copy.

Well, this past week, for some unknown reason, Bulletproof wasn't initially available on iTunes. I tried to watch it on The CW's site and (per usual) their crappy video player locked up my computer. Watching my TiVo copy completely stinks not only because it's now full frame, instead of letterboxed, but also because it is harder to find a particular scene. Rewinding and fast-forwarding TiVo works, but it's far slower than doing it on the computer.

They did finally put the episode up on iTunes, but it took more than a week. Color me annoyed with both The CW and with Apple.

As for the full frame thing: I really hope that change isn't permanent. It's annoying as hell.

REVIEW:

Scribe Bryan Q. Miller previously wrote for Smallville what looked to be his professional writing debut in an outstanding effort in Committed. This, perhaps, isn't quite as strong an outing in some ways, but is better in others. Given that most of Smallville's freelancers write one episode and are never heard from again, I hope this is a promising start to Bryan's professional career.

This episode started out well right from the tease, with John Jones (Martian Manhunter, J'onn J'onz), joining in a car chase for a murder suspect. The chase was brief and free from the gratuitous explosions and spectacular crashes that would have been included in earlier seasons. The reported budget cuts no doubt are the blame, but despite its economy it was still handled well.

I LOVED the toy green Martian in the little spaceship hanging from John's rear-view mirror. I wonder if that was in Bryan's script or whether that was Production Designer James Philpott's or even Phil Morris' contribution. Whoever's idea it was, it was a terrific one. It was whimsical and very in character for the Martian. I can imagine John finding some humor in that... It was a very nice touch.

John getting shot by a cop with a sniper rifle and getting left for dead was unexpected. I would almost have expected the tease to end on that, instead of taking us to Metropolis General to show Clark's shock at John's injuries and human doctors trying to help him.

I did like that they explained how John, a Martian, could get adequate care in Metropolis General Hospital. Ollie's explanation was simple, to the point and actually made sense, unlike a lot of their expository dialogue.

I think the strongest part of the episode was that the same ideas ran through all the storylines. Unlike Bryan's freshman Smallville writing effort with Commitment, where the Tess/Oliver story didn't seem to sync at all with the other storylines, this episode's plots all had to do with loyalty and love. It was a more complicated sort of theme to try and carry through and the message was a bit clumsily delivered at times, but overall I thought the different storylines meshed better than they had with Commitment. It seemed more like a cohesive whole instead of getting a completely unrelated Oliver/Tess storyline shoe-horned into the episode.

Clark was fighting against the blind loyalty that corrupted cops even as he had to learn that sometimes even he needs help and support from his loyal friends. Danny Turpin learned that he shouldn't compromise his morals and ethics out of fidelity to brotherhood of the badge. Tess also had to face the fact that her devotion, trust and love for Lex was misplaced and wasn't reciprocated like she thought.

For Clark, he also learned (thanks to Danny's example) that dedication to the cause doesn't mean your love life needs to be barren. Danny showed him that having someone specific to fight for, that having someone you love to go home to, isn't selfish and it's not asking too much. It gives you an extra reason to fight. Clark just needs to find the balance between his life as Clark Kent the reporter and his life as Clark Kent the hero. It was actually touching that Clark still needs the emotional support Lana can give him, and that Lana might need him, but we all know it won't last.

We know that because Lois is his future wife. Also, we know that because Lana is only back for two more episodes past this one since Kristin is done after this five episode arc for Lana's is over. Part of me is happy about that, to be honest.

I'm glad Clark and Lana are getting their closure that I had wished for last season, but I'm still not sure I like where this is going. The pedestal that Lana was on in the last episode wasn't really apparent in this one, but her holier-than-thou attitude was. I have a bad feeling about this storyline...

Another problem I had with this was that I'm not sure some of Clark's choices were the brightest he could have made. He didn't really hide his real motives very well, so of course they were going to try and get rid of him in some way.

Framing him for John's attempted murder probably wasn't the brightest thing ever that they'd done, especially since Clark is one of John's friends (what would his motive have been?). Yet, isn't Clark smart enough to know you don't ever pick up a suspected murder weapon?

That was pretty dumb and I thought Clark was supposed to be smart. I guess he doesn't always act intelligently in this show, but it'd be nice if he did. I wish the writers would have Clark consistently show the fairly adept problem solving ability he'd shown most recently in Legion.

I love it when they bring in characters from the comics. Danny Turpin, or Dan Turpin, is from the comics and made several appearances in the Superman Animated series too. He's usually played older, so I like that they took him younger. In the comics he was Detective Maggie Sawyer's partner, so it's nice they brought him in since she'd previously appeared on the show too.

I loved the more romantic parts of the episode. Danny Turpin's love life with his wife Susie is exactly what Clark wants. It added to his dilemma of creating a dual-identity. He wants what Danny has, but then again he's risking so much more. Thanks to Danny's example, he now knows it's not enough to save people, you have to have someone in your life to care about too. But Clark can't fight crime in the open until he figures out he needs a more definite alter-ego, but it looks like he wants to give it a try with Lana (although we all know that won't work out).

I'm not sure I liked the homo-erotic vibe between Tess and Lana. It gives Cassidy an interesting angle to play with Tess when dealing with Lana. However, was it really necessary to make the sub-text so heavy-handed its text?

But what a terrific fight scene the two women had! Lately most fights on Smallville have been comprised of only a shove or a kick, or maybe two, and then they're over. So it's good to get some good fight choreography back in the show. Although I'm not sure how realistic it was. I don't think someone as petite as Lana could realistically take on a taller and more muscular woman like Tess.

Who the heck is Lana working with? Why is she worried about Prometheus? What does Tess know about it? And what is it anyway? I hope we find out soon.

And wow...

What the heck is Lex doing putting in a spy cam onto Tess's optic nerve? How creepy is that? What are Lex's goals in looking at the world through Tess's eyes?

This maybe wasn't a perfect outing from the writer, but it was certainly pretty close. Bryan Miller has delivered another enjoyable episode. He answered some questions and posed tons more to keep things interesting.

Tom Welling was again terrific. One of the best scenes of his in this episode was the one between Clark and Chloe. He had a lot of different things Clark had to portray there. Clark talked about Lois and Lana and helped work out that the attempt on John's life must have been an inside job. Maybe not so dumb after all, his later BDA move picking up a murder weapon notwithstanding, Tom made Clark come off as very smart.

I also really liked his scenes with the guy who played Danny Turpin. In the car he portrayed Clark as uncomfortable playing a part, he's learned to not like lies I guess, but still held his ground and tried to find out what he could. The whole scene at the barbeque was terrific. The nice little moment he had with Danny's son was touching and, although Clark didn't say a word about it, I could almost tell what Clark was thinking when he watched Danny with his loving wife, his high-school sweetheart.

I know a lot of people love to hate Lana, but I actually like her usually. I absolutely adore that in Smallville Clark really does love Lana and is true to that no matter what happens. I get that there are people who don't like her much, but I think that the balance of the final scene in this episode between them was perfectly handled. Tom showed Clark's tentative optimism about Lana staying, yet was still a bit cautious. It was a very nicely played scene.

Cassidy Freeman was awesome in this episode. She wasn't in this much, but I loved how ambiguous she had Tess being. Like I've already said, I wasn't sure I liked the lesbian undertones, but I did like how Cassidy handled it. She's had Tess all-but worshipping the ground that Lex walks on, so her lionizing him and admiring Lana and putting her up on a pedestal because of it makes sense for Tess. It's a bold choice to have that morph into some sort of sublimated attraction for Lana. I admire Cassidy for portraying that so well. I completely bought it.

I LOVED how Cassidy had Tess react when Lana 'opened' her eyes and showed her the feed from her implants. What a heartbreaking scene, Tess's world-view crumbled around her and Cassidy pulled that off admirably. Her heartbreak was carried through to the final scene with her in the mansion library as she talked to Lex in the mirror, her hurt betrayal mixed in with hate and resolve. What a fantastic episode from her. Cassidy is a wonderful actress and I enjoy it when she can really bite into an episode like she did with this one.

Allison Mack had only one scene, but she was wonderful in it. She had to get some time off to prepare for her directorial debut with Power, so Chloe barely being in this episode wasn't totally unexpected, but I'm glad what she lacked in screen time she more than made up for in quality. It was a very natural scene and I loved the way that she had Chloe be protective of Lois even while she gave Clark loving advice.

Justin Hartley was terrific. I love it when he gets his sarcasm on and he was charming and witty. He did what he does best and he was pure joy to watch. Probably my favorite scene of his was when Ollie was trying to talk Danny out of murdering him. He played Oliver as earnest and matter-of-fact, which was probably the perfect way to play that scene. Phil Morris is always a pleasure to have on the show. I had hoped that an episode that revolved around Martian Manhunter getting shot would have had him in it more. He was really only in two scenes, he was unconscious the other ones he was in, so that was a shame. I love Phil, he seems like genuinely nice guy and I love John Jones as a character, so I hope he comes back more this season.

Special Guest Star Kristin Kreuk was terrific. I'm not sure I like where Lana's story arc is going, but I loved what she was doing with it. She's not great at delivering some of the expository dialogue, Lana's scene with Tess in the Isis Foundation was at times very stiff, but otherwise I liked her in this episode.

The other guest stars were all terrific. David Paetkau was terrific as Danny Turpin. He had a straightforward way about him that fit the character perfectly. Jim Thorburn as Simmons was outstanding. His part was smaller than Turpin's, but it was a key one. He had that great monologue at the barbeque that I found fascinating. His face was intriguing to watch and the way he delivered the lines was so naturalistic, seemingly casual with a hint of menace. His advice to Clark to always wear his vest seemed like friendly advice, but the way Jim played that it came off as a threat. Subtle, yet the threat seemed to be there. Awesome. Ty Olsson, who played Talbert, also did a terrific job with a small, yet important, part, as did the woman who played Suzie, Sara Smyth.

It's wonderful when even the supporting cast adds to the episode. So often, the supporting cast is treated almost like throwaway parts and they're not always carefully chosen. I'm not sure who aside from the casting director selects the supporting cast, but kudos to whomever was responsible.

Morgan Beggs has spent several years with Smallville working as a 1st Assistant Director. This is his first turn directing for Smallville, but he's directed for other shows. Maybe most notably he'd previously directed episodes of The 4400 and Dark Angel.

He wasn't exactly perfect with this outing, but he sure came pretty close. He got terrific performances from his entire cast and I gotta think him being on set a lot probably helped that.

Although, I'm not sure how detail oriented his is. There were a few lines of dialogue that came out of nowhere. The worst example of what I mean was when Clark and Chloe were talking about the bullet that nearly killed John:

"Which mysteriously vanished from the evidence. Clark, you said you returned that. Didn't you?"

"I did, Chloe."

What the...?

Clark had possession of the bullet at one point? When? Why didn't that come up any other time?

I'm guessing there's something missing there that might end up on the DVD deleted scenes... Editing should have taken care of that because that line made zero sense because we didn't see Clark handle the bullet in the aired version of the show. I don't know if that was an editing problem or a directing one, but I suspect the director has a lot of control over editing since the editing style seems to vary from episode to episode, so I'm going to lay the blame on Morgan. That was weird and it threw me out of the scene.

Director of Photography Barry Donlevy shot a grittier looking Metropolis for this episode than we'd previously seen. It fit with the episode, which showed that Metropolis has a dark side. The city was a dirty urban landscape, more like Gotham City than Metropolis. It's fitting to a pre-Superman Metropolis, it's dirty and crime-ridden and it needs Clark to come in and clean it up.

And just how tall is Tom Welling? Anyone know for sure? He towered over everyone in this episode. Even Allison and Kristin looked smaller next to him than normal. Maybe it was in part how the episode was shot, which is why I'm mentioning it here. I'm not sure I'll ever know for sure, but he looks taller than the 6'3" that's listed on his IMDB page... Maybe they need to stop hiring so many short people, not that I'm really complaining. I think Tom's size should work for him in portraying Clark. Superman should be taller and bigger than the other people around him, so I'm glad they seemed to have played that up in this episode.

Melanie Williams is usually spot on with the show's Costume Design, but I am not in love with how she's dressing Lana in all these satin dresses and tops. The dress she wore in Bride and in Legion wasn't too bad, although it was sort of boxy in shape, but at least it looked nice on Kristin.

However, I really hated that blousy sleeveless purple thing she wore in that first scene with Tess. It looked like a maternity top that was given a waist only because of the belt Kristin was wearing. That brown leather belt wasn't the best choice to go with that in any case, so I didn't like it at all.

I also didn't like Chloe's long peasant top underneath that short bolero sweater-vest. Is that a popular look or something? She seems to wear that kind of thing all the time. Maybe I'm not hip enough to like it, but I hate that look. According to my 13 year old (I'm not ashamed to admit that I asked her) the look is 'in,' but I am mystified as to why and so is she. I think it was sorta cute the first two or three times Chloe wore things like that, but I'm bored with it. She's just been wearing it too much.

Although, my daughter did say she would have liked that look better if the sweater vest had been darker, like maybe if it had matched Chloe's pants. (I got a smart girl who's far more stylish than I am.) I agree. The color was too close to the peasant blouse underneath it, a darker sweater would have helped that a lot.

That said, I must say that I loved the short trench coats both Lana and Tess wore in that scene in the Isis Foundation. Those looked awesome and those fit into the scene perfectly.

I also really liked the Visual Effects in the Isis Foundation monitors. Entity F/X did a terrific job with that. I liked the way each image had a slight delay to it as Tess turned her hand back and forth or when Lana looked back at the monitors.

However, I didn't like what they did with the image of Tess in the library. There was a shot in Tess' final library scene where the camera had a long shot of her looking into the mirror with the image Lex was apparently seeing on the laptop screen in the foreground, but in the two images her hair was parted on opposite sides. So when the focus changed to the long shot so her image in the mirror was in focus, I could see that her hair was parted on the opposite side from how it had just been shown on the laptop screen. Shouldn't they have been the same since what was being transmitted was exactly what Tess was seeing in the mirror? That looked weird and pulled me out of the scene at a time when I shouldn't have been.

Not quite perfect, but this episode was pretty darn good anyway. As much as I complained about some things, overall this episode was extremely entertaining. I give this 4.5 Metropolis Police Badges out of a possible 5.

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