What I’m Watching: Smallville

Smallville: Season 9, Episode 16 “Checkmate” (F)

This is a direct continuation of an episode that aired all the way back in February, and even with the aid of the extensive “previously on” sequence to introduce the show, it’s still hard to recall exactly what’s going on here. It’s also as if last week’s episode didn’t even happen, and I have a sneaking suspicion that these episodes are being aired out of order. It may be a good thing that there isn’t any more ridiculous coupling happening on this show, but it’s still annoying not to have any continuity. I’m not sure why there is so much slow motion featured in this episode, since it really doesn’t enhance the action in any way and seems much more like it’s compensating for the lack of coherent storytelling. This episode was drowning in chess metaphors in the way that this show so often features horrendously obnoxious dialogue, usually from just Chloe, but from all the characters this time. I rolled my eyes and laughed when Clark spouted, “kidnapping is illegal, even for the government,” and most of the lines weren’t much better than that. Tess and Oliver discovering the secret identities of the other was cool for a second, but then the obnoxious awkward romance music had to kick in and ruin the moment. Oliver’s badass stance towards Tess at the end was interesting, but he definitely won’t be able to keep that up for a while. Hey, what are those Kandorians up to? Agent Waller is preparing for an invasion, but shouldn’t some time be devoted to the supposed invaders?