Conspiracy (915)

[GateWorld]

SMALLVILLE SEASON NINE CONSPIRACY EPISODE NUMBER - 915 A Kandorian girl is abducted by an insane doctor intent on exposing the presence of aliens on Earth, throwing doubt on Clark's ability to protect them. Tess comes to Oliver with evidence that someone in the company is embezzling funds. VISIT THE EPISODE GUIDE >

[the fifth man]

Nice to see the actor who played Martouf on SG-1 in such a role. I didn't quite recognize him at first. Overall, I really enjoyed this one. Clark is going to seriously regret doing what he did, especially with that ending. What did you guys think?

[Replicator Todd]

I'm pretty shocked Zod got his powers and can fly now. Although I kinda expected him to get his powers back. It was still awesome though! I liked seeing J.R. Bourne again. After the destruction of the towers I thought Zod was finished, well I was wrong.

[Madwelshboy]

It was a decent episode, wasnt blown away by it though.

I'm pretty shocked Zod got his powers and can fly now. Although I kinda expected him to get his powers back.

As soon as i saw what Clark was going to do with his blood, i knew that's where they were going.

[LtColCarter]

It was a decent episode, wasnt blown away by it though.



As soon as i saw what Clark was going to do with his blood, i knew that's where they were going.

Yes...I agree...that was pretty obvious. It was an ok episode...nothing wowed me in it. But it was still solid.

[Replicator Todd]

It was a decent episode, wasnt blown away by it though.



As soon as i saw what Clark was going to do with his blood, i knew that's where they were going.

Indeed, I though that as well, but I didn't expect him to fly!

[LoneStar1836]

As soon as i saw what Clark was going to do with his blood, i knew that's where they were going.

Ditto.

With the towers gone this was the work around to him getting powers. Averting the future we saw was going to be pretty easy after Clark got a look at it, but tptb had to figure out some other way for Zod to be an adversary. So now I'm wondering if all Zod has to do is mix his blood with his followers (which would be too easy, imo, but seems logical) or will they still have to go straight to the source for the others to obtain theirs. Poor Clark though as this will come back to bite him, but it was the right thing to do.

Chloe stockpiling weapons...interesting to see how this will play out. Will this backfire? I haven't really liked some of the writing choices they have made for her this year (since I always enjoyed her and Clark's friendship), but in a way I can see where she's coming from as far as questioning Clark's judgment. At least Jimmy's death wasn't totally forgotten as far as an influence on her character's actions...or at least I'm assuming that what she was alluding to. (Even though I don't blame Clark for what happened to Jimmy. I blame the crappy writing for that and then Davis Bloom.)

Not quite sure I'd have recognized Martouf right off the bat, but I spotted his name in the credits.

I thought the ep was good...better than last week's, and shows continued movement on the Zod storyline which is where my interest in this season mostly lies. The impact of the destruction of the towers was short lived after this ep (other than Zod being no idiot as to who was responsible), but no need to drag the story out since Zod getting powers was pretty much assured one way or another. Sucks that there is no new ep until April 2.

[the fifth man]

The wait until April 2nd is going to be rough.

[Replicator Todd]

The wait until April 2nd is going to be rough.

Indeed.

[LtColCarter]

The wait until April 2nd is going to be rough.

Naw...we've waited much longer for some shows to return *cough* SGU *cough*

[Alan Wake]

When Zod tricked Clark at the very end... the only thing that ran through my mind... "Damn, what a *******"

I actually wish they would have joined forces for a few more episodes, then maybe split at the end.

When Clark used his blood on Zod, I kept wishing he would have used it on his father too.

[majorsal]

i liked the chloe/oliver ship.

[the fifth man]

i liked the chloe/oliver ship.

It will be interesting to see what they do with that.

[LtColCarter]

It will be interesting to see what they do with that.

ship shmip!

[entil2001]

This is another one of those episodes that doesn’t seem to be going anywhere, but manages to sneak in a major plot development in the final moments. In this case, it was a bit predictable. Who didn’t realize that Clark’s blood was going to transfer power to Zod? I have no idea if that was something established in the DC canon as a possibility, but it just seemed like the obvious consequence.

In fact, it could be said that this was a largely transitional episode designed to remind the audience of all the plot threads that are currently up in the air. The situation with the Kandorians is particularly complicated. Some of the Kandorians are eager to follow Clark’s lead, while others are devoted to Zod. Some of the Kandorians are acting without Zod’s permission, experimenting on humans, but somehow this is not to be taken as a lack of confidence in Zod’s leadership. There are enough factions and subsets within the Kandorian camp to allow the writers to do pretty much anything without contradicting themselves.

Unfortunately, it’s a tangle that the writers are going to have to unravel if they want the season to succeed. There are already plenty of fans complaining about the Kandorians, so making them obtuse and fractious is one hell of a risk. It’s already clear that Zod is manipulating Clark with half-truths and lies, so why not simply leave it to that?

Zod’s characterization is another issue. I still think it would have been more interesting to portray Zod in a more positive light, even if he was maintaining a certain degree of Kryptonian brutality. After all, the writers keep reminding the audience that Zod and Jor-El were friends and allies, even with the apparent betrayals that came towards the end. If the message is that Zod has a good and noble side, why do we only see the duplicitous part? It fits audience expectation, but it’s also predictable as a result.

The same complaint can be lodged against the current portrayal of Tess Mercer. In the eighth season, I thought the writers did a capable job of taking her from her Lex-clone origins to something a bit more substantial. Despite her actions and choices, she seemed to have a genuine desire to help Clark. The issue was less her design and more her method. Now, it’s hard to fathom what her goals are.

One bright spot was the revelation of Chloe’s secret plan to defend against powered Kandorians. While the visions of the future may no longer apply, the end of this episode strongly suggests that at least some of the Kandorians will be regaining their powers and making trouble for Clark. Chloe and Oliver now have the weapons to help in that fight. (Of course, as the future vision aptly demonstrated, this could be just as easily used against Clark.)

As far as the rest of the episode is concerned, it was nice to see Lois show off her fighting skills again. Her romance with Clark is coming along very well, even if it sometimes strays into overly sweet territory. The central villain wasn’t particularly interesting, and his methods seemed a bit more gruesome than has been the standard for “Smallville”. It felt like the writers were going for edgy, but settled on “shocking”.