My New Blog Setup!

I just want to let you all know that, because I had to make a website for my electronic publishing class and have decided to try using it at my rogermarket.com domain, with my blog as a supplement instead of the sole content, I have changed the way everything works at the domain. You’ll still have access to all the same blog content, but it will be hosted on a different server, alongside my website. You won’t notice much of a visual difference, except for the most obvious change: you’ll go through the website to get to the blog. You can still access everything by going to rogermarket.com.

That said, you will still be able to access my original WordPress by going to rogermarket.wordpress.com, but for the time being, it will remain static. Stagnant. Unchanged. Everything that was there will still be there, but it will also be on my “new” blog on my new server. I just won’t be mapping my WordPress blog to the domain anymore; that’s the big difference.

With the new format, whenever you go to rogermarket.com, you’ll get my new website (which is still very much a work in progress), and one of the many links goes to my “new” blog. Like I said, all the content of the blog is the same; everything is still there, but it will look different, and any future posts will appear there but not on the old WordPress.com blog. My WordPress blog (which you can now refer to as a WordPress.org blog, since the .org version is the customizable, self-hosted one) is now being hosted on my very own website server instead of a blog-only, simplified WordPress.com server. This means I have more control, in some ways, than I had before.

This seems so redundant, but at the same time, I feel like each new way of explaining it is important. Anyway, I apologize for that, but I hope there isn’t any confusion. See you on the new site!

P.S. This is important: if you happened to subscribe to my blog before through rogermarket.com/feeds, you should switch to my Feedburner feed at feeds.feedburner.com/RogerWilliamMarket. That way, if/when I change in the future, you won’t have to do anything; you’ll still get my subscription feed in your RSS reader.

REB #22: “When baking, follow directions. When cooking, go by your own taste.”

– Laiko Bahrs

Well, I guess I didn’t follow Bahrs’ directions for baking, which are to…er…follow directions.

I was flipping through my copy of my grandma’s cookbook the other day and decided to try to make Chocolate Bittersweets. I think this recipe was actually my great grandmother’s, passed down to my grandmother at some point (and that’s not to say it was an original recipe of hers either, as many of the recipes in the book came from other family members, and a couple were even taken from the sides of boxes). I’ll preface this by saying these things are far from bitter, so the name doesn’t really reflect what they are. I’m also not sure what category they belong in. Cookie? Minicake? Something else entirely? Here they are.

In any case, I noticed that I had all of the ingredients to make the cookie/cake part and most of the ingredients for the icing, but I didn’t have the coconut or cream cheese for the filling. I’m not even sure how that works, by the way: how do you put filling and icing in/on a cookie or cake? Well, the problem was solved when I decided to go ahead and make them with just the icing. But I had to improvise on the icing because I didn’t have chocolate chips to make it. So I used…

And it worked wonderfully.

Does anyone else like to cook or bake? I’m certainly no expert, but I do enjoy it, especially when it’s a recipe from my grandma’s book. What problems do you run into? Do you like to improvise? Because I feel like I do it all the time, sometimes because I don’t like what’s included in the recipe (like the nuts in Chocolate Bittersweets) so I leave that particular item out, other times because I feel like I’d like the recipe better with something else added. In this case, I took a risk using Nutella instead of chocolate chips, because while Nutella is fantastic, it is very different from actual chocolate in terms of taste, and in this case, it is also a completely different consistency (a spread) than chocolate chips (which are hard). Luckily, the chocolate had to be melted anyway, so it worked out. In short: Nutella can be used to make a really great icing, if you’re a Nutella fan. You just have to be okay with a hazelnut taste in your chocolate.

*NOTE: This blog entry is syndicated from a blog I had to start for my Electronic Publishing class at U.B. this semester. I may or may not delete the extraneous blog when the class is over, but I thought I would at least give my readers the opportunity to read the contents of that blog indefinitely.

TwitTV: Smallville 10×03, “Supergirl”

I’ll start this off by admitting that I am a big fan of flashbacks and flashforwards, when they’re done correctly. That said, “Supergirl,” the third episode of Smallville‘s final season, begins with a fantastic reintroduction to Darkseid, the one we first see at the end of the tenth season premier. It’s a very simple “three weeks earlier” kind of flashback, and what really makes it simple is that it is so quick. All we see is Darkseid’s essence revealing itself, just like in the premier, and then its takeover of the radio D.J. Gordon Godfrey. At this point, I start to wonder if Godrey had been anti-hero before now or if it is only since Darkseid came to Earth. If that’s the case, he sure wrote that book fast, didn’t he? I guess you can get away with that when you’re an alien, bodiless menace.

In this episode, Godfrey/Darkseid is holding a rally against the heroes, at which he unveils a billboard designed for his cause. And of course, the billboard breaks and threatens to tumble down into the shocked and, frankly, deserving crowd of haters (okay, kidding), but at the last second, when Clark is trying to figure out how to save everyone, Kara makes her triumphant return. Actually, let’s make that Supergirl, because she’s fully dressed in her own iconic red, yellow, and blue. 🙂 What really makes this moment for me is that Lois immediately recognizes Kara and says, “Isn’t that your cousin, Clark?” More on Lois later.

While the Supergirl photoshoot is amusing and yields such lines as “you’re the woman of tomorrow today” (photographer) and “you didn’t come to Earth to be the first super-powered pinup girl” (Clark), I’m not really sure why it’s here. I know Kara is trying to get her image and status as a superhero out there, but would this really happen? In any case, Kara tells Clark that his father has let him go and Clark is “no longer his son,” and this conversation is probably what Clark needs to jumpstart his superhero…ness. That should be a word. Anyway, Kara reveals that she has a mission to protect Earth and Clark is no longer involved. Clearly, this hurts Clark and, of course, makes him want to be a hero all the more. So he convinces Kara to teach him how to fly, which actually works for a few seconds. There are some beautiful closeups of a butterfly, and then Clark. But then Clark loses it and falls back to Earth. Maybe I was too optimistic to think that Clark would actually learn to fly, for real, in this episode, but at least he’s on his way. This episode is kind of huge, in that regard. Clark actually flies on purpose in this episode, and not as “evil” Kal-El, even if it’s only for a few seconds. Later, though, the awesomeness momentum is dropped a little when we get another one of those ridiculous computer scenes where something impossible happens to serve a plot point: Kara (who is suddenly a computer guru, it seems) sharpens a picture in about half a second and sees that the car driver is Lois. This is never going to happen, with today’s technology, not like that anyway. But that’s okay; Smallville isn’t exactly a show focused on computers, so I’ll allow a little misstep if it makes the episode work. Besides, they make up for it by having Clark realize, just by hearing the phrase “three weeks ago,” how Darkseid got to Earth and, later, who it most likely inhabited. This is the kind of logical thinking that will make Clark a great Superman.

Back to Lois, isn’t her return adorable and sweet? Clark’s smile as he turns around to hug her at the rally, and her smile for him, makes my heart melt. Erica Durance and Tom Welling sure do have chemistry (and I think we’ll really see that next week, but more on that at the end of this blog entry). When danger rears its ugly head, though, the tone changes, and we are launched into the meat of the episode, which has Lois pretending to be Godfrey’s/Darkseid’s driver, as well as a bondage-clad stripper/prostitute (?), in order to help take him down. When Darkseid realizes that it’s Lois, who has taken pictures in order to discredit Godrey/Darkseid and end his crusade against heroes, he tries to inhabit her but figures out that she is pure of heart, so he can’t. And of course she is pure of heart! She’s Lois! The reason she is here now, in fact, is that she believes the heroes are a force of intrinsic good that will keep the world safe, and what’s so wrong with that? But now she knows Clark’s secret, so she is also doing this to help the man she loves keep his cover and stay safe while also saving the world. While she’s doing it for herself, on some level, to keep her boyfriend safe, she is also doing it for the world because she believes in the heroes. In this sense, maybe Lois herself is a kind of hero, a non-caped crusader for justice and peace.

When Clark and Kara realize what’s going on, they come to save Lois and take out Darkseid. This will go down as one of the most important moments for Clark’s journey to becoming Superman, as his face-off with an empathic villain is particularly enlightening. The fears and hopes Clark has come bubbling to the surface, and perhaps now he understands Jor-El’s reasoning for sending Kara to Earth. Clark is not yet ready to be the world’s protector because he has some growing up to do, quickly. For him to be who his father wants him to be, he has to stop this cycle of trying and yet failing to live up to expectations. He has to stop complaining that he doesn’t know how to be a hero and just figure out a way to be a hero on his own terms. As Yoda would say, “there is no try.” Clark must do.

The final few moments of the episode revolve around Clark, Kara, Lois, and Oliver, and I for one am riveted at this point. Lois’ trying to figure out a name for Kara (“…Ubergirl. Powergirl? Megagirl!”) is hilarious, and then we shift gears a little when she tells Clark, “The Blur is different. He’s my hero.” Before this season, this would have seemed cheesy and trite because Lois would have been blissfully unaware of Clark’s status. Now, it is still cheesy and trite, but because Lois knows the truth and is obviously having a bit of fun with Clark, it is sweet. We know they are in love, but what we’ve seen since Lois figured out the truth has been something deeper. Lois not only loves Clark but also admires him, fully adores him with every fiber of her being, because of who he is as a person and who he will be to the world when he is ready. She loves him as Clark and The Blur/Superman – together now, not separately.

This scene comes just after Kara has a heart-to-heart with Lois, in which Kara admits that “even heroes need someone to come home to.” While Kara is too distant from real life (with no real friends to call her own, no lover, etc.), Clark is too attached to it. It is obvious that, somewhere between these two extremes, there is a happy medium for both Clark and Kara to find. I think this is when Lois realizes that it is okay for her to be with Clark because, even though he is a hero to the world, he is also the love of her life, and why shouldn’t they both get to be happy? A power couple.

The next time we see Kara, she is running into Clark on the Metropolis streets, in disguise (yes!), explaining that she still has work to do on Earth. The Darkness (A.K.A. Darkseid) is still lingering, and it is her job to catch it. Does this mean that Kara will be back before the show is over? Personally, I hope so, because I’ve always loved the character, and I like what Laura Vandervoort does with her on Smallville.

Finally, we end the episode on an exciting note, as Oliver comes out of the hero closet, a group of reporters surrounding him in his office: “There’s only one way for me to set the record straight. I am Green Arrow.” What does this mean for the future of heroes on Smallville? Will Supergirl eventually be able to discard the dark wig and glasses she now wears as “Linda” (or the Smallville equivalent name)? What will it mean for Clark? Will the age-old question of why hasn’t Clark been wearing glasses finally be answered? Will Smallville‘s version of Clark/Superman be unique in that Clark will be fully out to the public as Superman by the series’ end? Only time will tell. While that seems like a preposterous notion, I wouldn’t put it past the show’s crew to figure out some way to make it work.

Now for next week, it’s the momentous two hundredth episode on October 15th! Lois convinces Clark to go to back to Smallville High for homecoming and his five-year reunion, at which he meets up with Braniac 5 (that’s right: James Marsters returns to Smallville again) and begins a journey through time. We’ll see flashbacks to Lana and Chloe, to high school, but we’ll also see hints at the future. This may very well be the most important episode of the series, beyond the series premier and finale, so don’t miss it! As you’ll see in the TV Guide exclusive trailer below, the episode looks amazing, and Lois and Clark fans will be happy to see the chemistry explode when the couple finally says the three/four little words we’ve been waiting for (at least I don’t think they’ve said it yet).

TwitTV: Smallville, 10×02, “Shield”

In an effort to reduce the amount of time and editing that it takes to write these TwitTV reviews, I’m going to limit them somehow, starting with the second episode, “Shield.” I don’t know what to exclude, and maybe it will vary from episode to episode, but I expect it may just be a matter of not describing every little thing from opening shot to closing shot. 😉 For this one, I’m going to focus on certain areas like structure, particular characters/concepts, etc., rather than describing the episode in detail (because we’ve all seen it).

First of all, I really admire the structure of “Shield.” It’s very unSmallvilley, and I like that; it’s refreshing, for a change. By this, I mean that it is not necessarily one of the freak-of-the-week episodes we are accustomed to, in which Clark catches the bad guy by the fifty-minute mark and we are treated to five or ten minutes of denouement for the final act. In this episode, Clark does catch the bad guy (Deadshot, who is awesome, but more on that soon) very close to the fifty-minute mark, maybe a little past it, but it turns out that said bad guy is a member of the Suicide Squad, which comes to break him out of jail (or Belle Reeve or whatever that was). In short, they will be back.

Another thing about the structure that I really like is how the opening scene mirrors the closing scene. First, Clark is shopping online for a plane ticket to Egypt, so he can see Lois. Then, after catching Deadshot and realizing a thing or two for himself, he stands alone on the top of the Planet, wearing an awesome red jacket, and drops the ticket to the ground. Behind him, the U.S. flag waves, and it looks like very much like a cape. For a second, I actually think he is going to fly, that he is going to figure out how to use his flight power to go to Africa to see Lois. And then it dawns on me that Clark has realized he can’t go see her – that’s why he let go of the ticket – and just has to wait for her to come back to him. Maybe that’s the intention of the scene, and if so, it works perfectly. If not, well, it still works to that effect. What adds to this scene, though, is the text message Carter gets earlier in the episode, when he is with Lois in Africa: Clark has instructed Carter to watch out for Lois. And of course he has! That’s such a Clark thing to do. Always looking out for the ones he loves when he can’t be there.

Next, there are a lot of really great closeups in this episode, especially the ones with Oliver and Tess when they’re reading Chloe’s letter. I enjoyed Tess’ line “the only one who could erase Chloe is Chloe” – and then later, when she says, “Our kitten reporter is on the move,” referring to Cat Grant (more on her soon). Anyway, Oliver is piecing together what happened to Chloe, bit by bit, and it seems Tess knows more than she is letting on. She helped Chloe disappear. There are some great performances for these two in this scene, and I look forward to more interactions in future episodes. Oliver and Tess don’t get a lot of screen time together, but when they do, there’s always an interesting chemistry on set. And speaking of Chloe…hot picture! Sometimes, I don’t think I take her relationship with Oliver seriously because it came out of the blue, and don’t get me wrong, it’s nice, but she wasn’t very serious about it in the beginning. That’s why it’s so weird to think that she and Oliver are actually in love now. I can’t wait for her to come back to him now, especially knowing now that she faked her death for a few reasons: to free Green Arrow, to get some distance from the Green Arrow life, and, ironically, heartbreakingly, to save her beloved Oliver.

Now, as for Cat Grant, I’m so glad they got Keri Lynn Pratt to play her. The first time I ever saw her, it was as Martin’s aunt on 7th Heaven. The character was incredibly ridiculous, and I think that – coupled with the fact that most of the actors on 7th Heaven are pretty bad or just have bad material to work with – just made me think Pratt was a bad actor as well. But then I saw what she could do on Jack & Bobby and Veronica Mars, and I fell in love with her. As Cat Grant, she brings some of that ditzy blonde attitude that I know she can do, that I’ve seen in each of her characters (maybe that’s Pratt’s “thing”), but also manages to add a kind of dramatic quality that I haven’t seen in her until now. Her black wig is both hilarious and practical. I can tell she is scared of Deadshot, as well as the superheroes, and it’s interesting to see the Smallville Cat as a crusader against heroes because I know how much the Lois & Clark version admires Superman. What really sells me on Pratt as Cat Grant is the scene between her and Clark where Cat is talking about herself and Clark throws a curveball by saying, “Kind of like the vigilantes.” Pratt’s facial expression here is fantastic, as she has Cat come to terms with the fact that she is indeed very much like the vigilantes she despises. I do have a problem with Cat, though: she’s not actually Cat Grant! Yet again, the Smallville team provides us with a character from the Superman universe but chooses to make that person a phony. This time, we get Mary Louise Schroeder assuming the name Cat Grant, whereas before, Jimmy Olsen was the fake. This practice is sad, and I hope it’s the last time we see it. If I were to rate episodes in my reviews, I would certainly take points off for this.

Okay, back to Deadshot. I didn’t know who Deadshot was before this episode, but I love the way they introduce him. The gunslinger shot is absolutely beautiful, with the low angles and deep colors, and then there’s the shot itself and, later, Clark’s save (of Cat). That said, there are some wonderful effects in this episode, and I loved seeing Clark perform a classic Superman save. The skull effect on his shoulder is rather interesting, and since it comes so late in the episode, it makes me wonder how they can fit all this in before the end of the hour. I decide there’s no way they can, and I am right: this episode is merely setting up for something that will happen later. Considering it’s only the second episode of the season, I’m impressed. Usually, we get filler at this point, so I already love the structure that producers Souders and Peterson have set up for the season.

On that note, the scenes with Lois and Carter are filled with mythology and setup. He explains his romantic curse to Lois, gives her some advice about Clark, and sets up for the Isis episode all at the same time! Clark as Ra is a great metaphor, and I love that Lois is so enthusiastic about it. I also enjoy the part where Carter describes the “über mensch” and Lois gets to translate: “a super man.” As far as I know, Lana is the only one to say “super man/Superman” before this episode, when she asks Clark, “What are you, man or super man?” I’m not sure which episode this was; I wish I knew. But in any case, as Lois is uttering the iconic word/phrase, Clark is standing on top of the Planet, dropping his ticket, a “cape” waving behind him. I love this ending. And even though there are a few weak points in the episode (the Cat Grant fakery, the lack of screentime for Deadshot, e.g.), I quite enjoy it. Besides, I know both Cat and Deadshot will be back, even if Cat isn’t really Cat Grant.

REB #21: “We’ve heard that a million monkeys at a million keyboards could produce the complete works of Shakespeare; now, thanks to the Internet, we know that is not true.”

– Robert Wilensky

Okay, it isn’t exactly Shakespeare, but I think I’ve got about everything on my writer’s website that I wanted to have by the due date on Monday. Of course, I will add more in the future, but this is it for now. Here is a link to the temporary location (my free U.B. webspace); I’m going to work on transferring it to my rogermarket.com domain – and, thus, self-hosting my WordPress blog – at some point, but that’s not a priority right now. We’ll see it on class on Monday, briefly, but I wanted to post the link anyway, especially for those reading this who won’t be in class or aren’t students at U.B.

While searching for the quote for this title, I found a few more that I loved. Here they are:

“Information on the Internet is subject to the same rules and regulations as a conversation at a bar.”
– George Lundberg

“My favorite thing about the Internet is that you get to go into private world of real creeps without having to smell them.”
– Penn Jillet

“Hooked on Internet? Help is just a click away.”
– Author Unknown

“The Internet is the most powerful magnifier of slack ever invented.”
– Author Unknown

“You can’t take something off the Internet – it’s like taking pee out of a pool.”
– Author Unknown

*NOTE: This blog entry is syndicated from a blog I had to start for my Electronic Publishing class at U.B. this semester. I may or may not delete the extraneous blog when the class is over, but I thought I would at least give my readers the opportunity to read the contents of that blog indefinitely.

TwitTV: No Ordinary Family Blogs Delayed, Smallville Still Going Strong

I regret to inform you that, due to my busy schedule, I don’t have as much time for TV as I thought I would. As such, I’m going to have to hold off on watching No Ordinary Family. I saw the pilot (before they made some last-minute changes) and liked it; I can’t wait to see what they changed for the version that aired. But I’m going to have to wait, and if anyone out there actually reads these and was looking forward to TwitTV No Ordinary Family, I do apologize. I will watch the show by next summer, and I may still blog about it. FYI, I will continue to blog and tweet about Smallville, and I may sometimes, unofficially, blog and tweet about other shows.

If I find time.

In related news, No Ordinary Family debuted to a respectable, but far from great, 10.54 million viewers and a 3.1/9 rating in the adults 18-49 category. Final numbers were 10.69 million viewers and a 3.2/9 adult 18-49 rating. The second week (this past Tuesday), overnight numbers dropped to 8.93 million viewers and a 2.6/8. Finals have not yet been announced, as of this writing. While this 16.5% viewer drop-off (1.76 million viewers) and 19% demographics loss (0.6 down in rating, 1 down in share) is troubling for a show that didn’t exactly dominate in the first place, it is completely normal. But if the show is going to survive, it can’t really lose more than 10% in either category for its third week (so it should get about 8.04 million viewers and a minimum of a 2.3/7 adult 18-49). And it has to stabilize in week four. No drops. Frankly, given the state of the TV market, I’m not sure I see that happening, but we’ll see.

As for Smallville, well, this is the last season, so who cares what the ratings are? The show already has a 22-episode order, as far as I know, just like it always has (except for the 21-episode first season, which the show remedied by having 23 episodes in the second season, and the 20-episode seventh season, shortened by the writer’s strike in 2007). Still, that’s 7 seasons of 22 episodes, 1 of 20, 1 of 21, and 1 of 23. For a show in it’s tenth year, Smallville is remarkably strong, as far as I’m concerned. I’m more excited about this season than any before it. Oh, and I’ll be sure to get caught up on TwitTV Smallville in the next few days.

REB #20: “As for your fears that I will lose myself in these unknowne large waters, or be swallowed up in some stormie gust: abandon those childish fears, for worse then is past cannot happen, and there is as much danger to returne, as to proceed forward.”

– Captain John Smith (yes, that John Smith)

The Waterfront Promenade was voted Best Place to Run in Baltimore. I had to double-check to make sure I was thinking of the right place, but I was (and maybe the whole of the harbor is considered Waterfront Promenade, but I’m unclear on that). This is the famous Inner Harbor area, where I do, in fact, see a lot of runners. And just last week, I was one of them. I had planned on going to U.B.’s kickboxing class on Saturday but didn’t make it, so I decided to go for a brisk walk/run around the harbor instead.

I had no idea how big the harbor is. The Waterfront Promenade is, apparently, 7 miles long. I don’t know what that includes (is that from the start of the Promenade, at Pratt and Light Streets, all the way around Tide Point Marina and Canton, and back to Pratt and Light?), but anyway, it’s bigger than I had expected. Actually, I didn’t know what to expect.

But when I went for my walk/run, I went up past The Rusty Scupper and into a really nice subdivision area. I don’t know if it’s apartments or condos or what, but they look really nice. I wound up passing the Domino Sugar factory, ending at Tide Point Marina, right by the Baltimore headquarters of world-famous Under Armour. From this marina, there’s an excellent view of the harbor that I can’t even convey with one picture (because it’s so big), but I’ll post one as a teaser.

I wish you could see the whole thing.

*NOTE: This blog entry is syndicated from a blog I had to start for my Electronic Publishing class at U.B. this semester. I may or may not delete the extraneous blog when the class is over, but I thought I would at least give my readers the opportunity to read the contents of that blog indefinitely.

REB #19: “I thank God I was raised Catholic, so sex will always be dirty.”

– John Waters

Okay, when bulk trash pick-up is voted Baltimore’s 3rd Best City Service – well, I think we need some new services.

Because how boring and gross is that? We might as well call Baltimore itself the world’s biggest trash can because I think that’s what “bulk trash” says to me: big trash, butt load of trash, Crap City. The world’s dump. It’s no wonder you see couches, tires, etc., on the streets of Baltimore every month.

Just below the #1 Charm City Circulator (which is great, don’t get me wrong, but it has its drawbacks), we have single-stream recycling. Okay, in an increasingly greener world, that’s pretty cool. But #3 needs to be something special to counteract all that boring…ness. How about a Metro subway with more than one line? Granted, the Red Line is all but official, but it won’t be here and ready to use until at least 2016, and even then, it’s only one new line. What do we do in the meantime? Apparently, we throw out our appliances and furniture.

I’m just glad rat eradication didn’t make it into the top 3.

P.S. Why is it that, when I do a Google Image Search for “bulk trash Baltimore,” John Waters appears on the first page?

*NOTE: This blog entry is syndicated from a blog I had to start for my Electronic Publishing class at U.B. this semester. I may or may not delete the extraneous blog when the class is over, but I thought I would at least give my readers the opportunity to read the contents of that blog indefinitely.

TwitTV: Smallville, 10×01, “Lazarus” (10th/Final Season Premier)

*NOTE: I’ve been a bad blogger of late, not because I haven’t been posting but because I haven’t delivered on something I committed to in August. That said, I humbly apologize for the lateness of my first official TwitTV entry. It’s most definitely going to be too little too late, but I hope that future endeavors will be more in line with expectations. That said, I want to end this note by letting you know that my freshman show, at least for the fall, will be No Ordinary Family. If you haven’t guessed by the title of this blog entry, my veteran show will be Smallville. I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to blog about Smallville‘s final season. And with that…

We begin the 10th season of Smallville the same way we have every season before it – smack dab in the middle of chaos, with a “previously on Smallville” sequence to guide us. Except, this time, we know one more thing. We know this is the last season, so we somehow see and feel more in this “previously on” sequence; we see with new eyes. Memories refreshed, we immediately hear the words we’ve been dreading and yet anticipating for ten years: “And now, the final season of Smallville.” And it’s only fitting that Tom “Superman” Welling is the one to say them.

The title of this episode, “Lazarus,” becomes clear in the first frame of the episode, as Clark falls to his supposed death, a kryptonite dagger in his chest. I know he won’t die, but somehow, I am worried for him. When Lois comes barreling along, I know what to expect. She’s going to pull the dagger out, and Clark is going to come “back to life.” Lazarus indeed.

But Lois doesn’t pull the dagger out, not yet, anyway. She cries. She touches Clark, and she keeps crying.

Meanwhile, in dream land, Clark wakes up next to a grasshopper. This is a simple, beautiful shot, and although I know Clark is hallucinating or dreaming or something along those lines, I find that the grasshopper keeps me grounded in reality – and it’s an excellent directing decision. Clark is in the middle of the famous cornfield, the one where he was strung out as the freshman scarecrow in the series pilot. In fact, the wooden cross is there now, and perched on top are several crows. The sky is curtained in some kind of blue haze, which I can’t really judge or even understand because I’m having to watch a low-quality version on Megavideo. Anyway, add in Clark’s conversation with Jor-El, a Lex Luthor cameo, and a shot of Jonathan’s grave, and we already have a heavy dose of Smallville mythology, not even 5 minutes into the premier. “You were meant to be Earth’s greatest protector,” Jor-El says, and I can’t help but laugh. Didn’t Jor-El say, a long time ago, that he wanted Clark to rule over Earth? Not necessarily protect it? I wish he’d make up his mind.

Back in the real world, Lois keeps touching and crying over Clark until finally, when I’ve had just about enough, she notices the glowing blue dagger in Clark’s gut and pulls it out. She realizes it is hurting Clark more than any normal knife would and, so, throws it as hard as she can. And Clark starts to come to.

Erica Durance does some of her best work here, as Lois. Maybe part of my excitement comes from knowing that Lois just found out the truth in the season 9 finale, but nevertheless, I can’t shake the feeling of pure authenticity in this scene. Durance’s emotions are genuinely high, and when Clark doesn’t wake up right away, having just landed on the ground, I can feel her panic. Perhaps that is what makes the opening scenes so effective, what makes it seem so long before Lois finally pulls out the dagger.

Noticing that Clark is waking up, Lois runs and hides, and I am treated to the first truly iconic moment of the season. Clark stands up, the clouds part, and the yellow sun beams down onto his chest, healing his cut. Tom Welling is looking particularly buff here, breathing the sun in, breathing out the kryptonite-induced wound. This is one of those moments where I know, for sure, that Warner Bros. made the correct casting choice, based purely on looks and expression. Tom Welling is Clark Kent, and I can’t wait for him to become Superman.

That’s when the opening credits start up and I notice there are, as one TV.com reviewer pointed out, scenes that had been cut from the credits in previous seasons, only to be brought back now, for the final season. Clark as the scarecrow, for one. I won’t go into detail about the new opening credits, but I’ll say that, just like every new season, this one brings a refreshing energy that will propel us through to the finale. The series finale.

Okay, back to the show. Yay, it’s Chloe! And her…humongous computer. “The future is here. And it’s not an iPhone: it’s a big-ass table.” Bonus points if you know what I’m talking about. 😉

So, someone has kidnapped Oliver. But who is this guy? The answer will come soon enough.

Speaking of answers, Lois finally has hers, and as she points out, sitting on her computer at the Planet, she’s “the last one to know” about Clark. And then he strolls in. I love this scene, and it’s all to do with the way Durance portrays Lois. Well, not all, but close. That cute little knowing smile as she knocks the pen under the table and climbs down after it is fabulous. I know what she’s doing because I see Clark do it in almost every episode, and here, she turns it on its heels: she’s using a perfectly reasonable gesture/action to misdirect Clark’s attention from the fact that she knows his secret. She’s doing the equivalent of turning her head so he can do his superspeed thing and get that file. Any other season, Clark would have to misdirect her instead. The final pretty bow on this wonderful scene is the way Lois describes her kiss with The Blur, the way she smiles and he smiles, back turned. This blocking is great, even if it is a no-brainer.

After a brief scene with Oliver and his kidnapper, in which he is still cracking jokes even while he’s being tortured, I watch Tess wake up and get my first introduction to Cadmus Labs. Or have I heard of it before? I really can’t recall. After 10 years of watching, I still can’t keep track of all the secret labs and projects, but maybe that’s not such a bad thing. It keeps me on my toes, and for the most part, if I don’t remember one of them, that means it’s not all that important. As for Cadmus Labs, it definitely is important for this season because it’s where we meet Alexander and the rest of the Lex clones.

When Tess peels the hideous blob off her face, I can’t help but feel like the Smallville crew is saving money by making her injuries temporary. It’s a miracle cure! Oh well. It actually works here, because it’s so organic to the story of Lex’s DNA research. Speaking of that, the little boy who plays Alexander does a great job; he and Cassidy Freeman (Tess) work well together. “What is this place, Alexander? Who are they?” Tess is referring to the deformed clones. “They’re my brothers,” he replies, and then Tess realizes what that means. “You’re him…” Yep. He’s Lex. I find the line “we were made to heal the creator” very interesting because of the terminology. Lex as the “creator.” Lex as God, essentially. This is so very Lex Luthor! I get chills. Later, as Tess accidentally frees the “bad” clone, Alexander screams at her and hides, terrified. This is a perfect tone setter because, in the next moment, a hand claws its way out of the room and grabs Tess. For all intents and purposes, (an) evil Lex is back. Although it isn’t Michael Rosenbaum playing him, Lex is finally back in the story, and I’m so glad. He has been gone for too long, and if they have to use another actor for now, that’s fine. It actually works really well for the clone story, and this guy does a fantastic job as “Lex.”

After using Dr. Fate’s helmet to find out where Oliver is, Chloe wakes up in a lab with Dr. Hamilton and Clark. She has, of course, had a vision of the future, having used the helmet, and what she says is one of my favorite lines in the episode: “Clark, I saw you too. You were the world’s hero, and you weren’t in black.” She tells him that she thinks Cadmus Labs is on fire, and then, as Clark rushes off to save it, she says her goodbye. Of course, he doesn’t hear it because he’s too fast. Or because she doesn’t really want/mean to say it to him. At this point, I know Chloe is probably up to something, and she thinks it’s going to end badly. This has me a little worried because I love Chloe. However, I know that Allison Mack will be leaving the show for a few episodes, so I know something has to be done. She’ll be back soon enough!

Clark arrives at Cadmus in time to free Tess from her clone-made shackles, finding that everyone else is dead, including the deformed clones. “Lex” has killed them all, and now Clark has to find him.

The next iconic Superman moment comes when Lois is waiting for Clark in the barn and finds the suit. Smiling, she delivers a line that is purely Lois Lane: “So much better in Technicolor.” Well, I’ll agree with that. Clark had better put on that suit before the end of the season!

The next thing I know, Lois has been kidnapped by “Lex” and put on the cross with an S on her chest. What a great throwback to the pilot! Even better is the Scarlet Letter reference from Lex. It’s so perfect, and it has me praising the Smallville writers for getting the character right. They certainly have not forgotten how to write Lex Luthor. One thing, though, that I’m not sure I like is his mention of The Blur. If this clone was in Cadmus Labs all this time – and locked up, at that – how does he know about The Blur? Is this a goof? Did I actually find a goof? As much as I love TV, I often find that I am incapable of catching goofs in the shows I watch, but maybe that’s because I watch too much TV. Of all the shows I watched at some point in the 2009-2010 TV season, no less than 10 of them were cancelled. No joke.

Anyway, Lex’s deviousness comes to fruition when he comes face-to-face with Clark and states the rules of his game. There is a bomb on the Daily Planet’s sign/rooftop statue – yeah, that thing, whatever it is – and then there’s poor, defenseless, love-of-Clark’s-life Lois, tied to a cross in the middle of a burning field. Where Lex first saved Clark that night in the pilot episode. “Even you aren’t fast enough to save both,” Lex boasts. “Today, the world will finally lose faith in its heretic hero…and it will destroy you.” All I’m thinking is Lex clearly underestimates Clark’s speed/powers! Of course he can save both.

And he does – leaving a rapidly decaying “Lex” to die.

And in doing so, he treats us to an excellent running sequence. What a fantastic special effect! And even the fire has something to offer, as it is most definitely in the form of the S shield, isn’t it? I love that Clark uses his speed in a different way than he has in the past: running in circles to create a wind that will blow out the fire. He then rushes off to save the passersby outside the Daily Planet. Is this a jump or a flight? It’s too difficult to tell, at this point, but every time we get one of these, the producers explain it as a really big jump, and they’ll likely do that again. Or will they?

Next comes an excellent monologue, and Welling does a great job with it, putting the right pauses in all the right places. “I defeated Lex. I refused to let him win, and I pushed myself harder than I ever have before. For a second, [he smiles] I thought I was flying. But I saved everyone; I don’t know how, but I saved them all. I’ve finally become the hero you sent me here to be.” Of course, Jor-El is ill-pleased, as usual, and ultimately informs Clark that “the evil is you, Kal-El…Once this darkness consumes you, you will be Earth’s greatest enemy.” Darkseid is coming! I think, anyway. I honestly don’t know anything about Darkseid. I wish I’d read all the Superman comics. Oh well; I’ll learn about him/her/it this season on Smallville.

Clark is quick to point out that Jor-El may not see him as a hero, but “the rest of the world does. And I decide my fate!” Jor-El has the last laugh: “I regret, as a father, my faith in you blinded me to the truth: you will never be Earth’s savior.” And then the fortress goes dark. Is Jor-El gone? Forever?

The next scene is so adorable, with Tess bringing a glass of milk into her study, where Alexander sits on the floor, playing. Obviously, she took him home with her when she escaped Cadmus. What’s going to come of this? I don’t know, but I can’t wait to find out!

As part of Smallville custom, the episode’s final scenes feature some beautiful singing (and I still need to look up the name of that song/band because I need to buy it), played over a montage of clips. The lyrics “I’d give anything for one more day with you” are perfect for the moment where Oliver walks, head in a sack to keep him from seeing anything, from one car to another and Chloe does the same in the other direction. Her hood comes off, and she looks at Oliver one last time and gets in the vehicle. She has made a trade with the kidnappers: her for Oliver. Next comes “I was wrong / I was wrong / Now I’ll never see your face anymore” as Lois looks at a picture of Clark, from a desert in Africa. She took Perry White’s offer from last season, knowing/thinking that she is only going to get in the way of Clark’s heroic duties. “I’d give anything for one more day with you” is the final lyric before the scene we’ve all been waiting for.

Clark, standing by the fence at the Kent farm, sees Jonathan, hard at work, and walks up to him. He can’t believe his eyes.

“Chores, Clark. Work keeps a man honest. You gotta protect the things you worked hard to build.” That’s so Jonathan Kent! Once again, the writers manage to bring to life a character they haven’t written for years. When Jonathan tells Clark he is always watching out for him, Clark is visibly frustrated. “Then you must be disappointed. I haven’t grown into the man you raised me to be.” But Jonathan surprises him: “No you haven’t. You are so much more than that, and I am so proud of you, Clark.” We’ve got a perfect father-son moment, and then Clark gets all bent out of shape again. “That’s one dad.” To which Jonathan replies, “Since when did you start listening to Jor-El?” What a great line – and so true! Clark rarely listens to Jor-El and is only doing so now because he feels guilty for having almost killed the Lex clone out of anger. Don’t worry, Clarkie; he died all on his own. It wasn’t your fault at all.

Anyway, there are so many Jonathan Kent aphorisms (and Clark Kent responses) here, I think I’ll just list them:

“We’re all confronted with trials, son. But the true measure of a man is how he chooses to react in the fact of those trials.”

“We can’t make excuses for the dark stains on our hearts, son.”

“We all make sacrifices, son, and every time we do, we lose a little something in the process.”

“I feel like everytime I do something right I do something wrong!” (Clark)

“You got that second chance, son. You could be the greatest hero the world has ever known.”

“Jor-El was right about one thing: something dark is coming. You’re gonna be tested. It’s not gonna be easy, son, but I have faith in you.”

Clark looks away. He stares off into the distance and asks Jonathan what dark force is coming for him now. But Jonathan, his dad, is gone again.

There is a musical shift – loud and tumultuous – and we cut away. Here comes Darkseid! The soundtrack then becomes heroic for the final shot of the final season premier ever of Smallville: the Superman suit, encased in glass/ice in the fortress. What an excellent closing shot! It promises a lot to the viewers. This is definitely the season where Clark becomes Superman, and I say that with much confidence after watching this episode. There are so many throwbacks not only to the pilot and to the first season but also to the Superman mythology in general. Smallville isn’t perfect, and I won’t pretend it is, but when it gets something right, it really gets it right. That said, the crew has done a phenomenal job setting up for the end of the show, and I can’t wait to see how it turns out.

REB #18: “Al Qaeda gives you their word.”

– Bekay Harrach, quoted in a CNN.com article

Let me ask you something: when “Al Qaeda gives you their word,” which (ironically) happens to be grammatically incorrect, do you believe it?

No sir/mam, you do not fucking believe it! Because it’s Al Qaeda. Look at everything it stands for and everything it’s done. No matter what happens, no matter what we and Europe do, how can we have any confidence that Al Qaeda wouldn’t renege on the deal? “Trust Al Qaeda” is my new favorite oxymoron, right up there with “Microsoft Works.”

That is all.

*NOTE: This blog entry is syndicated from a blog I had to start for my Electronic Publishing class at U.B. this semester. I may or may not delete the extraneous blog when the class is over, but I thought I would at least give my readers the opportunity to read the contents of that blog indefinitely.