What I’m Watching: Sons of Anarchy

Sons of Anarchy: Season 4, Episode 2 “Booster” (B+)

If I hadn’t been paying close attention during the guest star credits, I might have missed the fact that this episode featured two more members of the cast of FX’s excellent “The Shield,” following Jay Karnes’ season one arc as Agent Kohn and Kenny Johnson’s recurring role as Kozik. Now we have David Rees Snell as Agent Nicholas and Benito Martinez as Luis, the right-hand man to this episode’s other highly notable new addition, Danny Trejo, who plays the evidently fiercely loyal Romeo. Clay bringing the Sons into the drug business, with the cartel no less, is something that clearly isn’t sitting well with his comrades, particularly Bobby, whose objection seems to be spotlighted as he realizes that maybe Clay doesn’t have the club’s best interests in mind anymore. Jax is equally disappointed but seems more concerned with leveraging his support as a way for him to make an exit from this life, something which Clay might grant but the rest of the club might not support as strongly. The notion of Opie being in charge makes some sense, though his sentiments about his new wife’s caretaking abilities suggest that he likely wouldn’t want that. This episode turned violent quickly, both out in the field with Jax and Opie and back on the home front as Roosevelt made his show of power. Romeo saving the day means that they’re going to be bonded quite closely going forward. Gemma talking openly to Unser about Maureen and John is somewhat foreboding since she seems hell bent on stopping his posthumous influence. It was somewhat disarming to see Tara of all people lighten the mood by announcing her engagement to Jax, and we can only hope that they’ll all make it unscathed to their joyous wedding day.

What I’m Watching: Smallville

Smallville: Season 10, Episode 18 “Booster” (B-)

You’d think that a show airing one of its final five episodes wouldn’t need any help from a hero from the twenty-fifth century to establish its own hero as the man he was destined to be. I won’t argue too loudly, however, since the presence of Booster Gold definitely served to amp up the energy level, and I suppose it is all in service of putting the Blur, soon to be known as Superman, on a pedestal and transforming him into some version of the classic character we know from the comic books and movies. Clark training to be clumsy is, just as he says, a regression to his Lana-inspired pratfalls of season one, and it’s generally pretty amusing to see him fake a fall and move around differently so that he’ll both be less memorable and impressive. His made-up excuse about needing to find a bathroom because he had a milkshake on the way was particularly entertaining. I’m glad to see a bit of Cat in the role that Lois has never quite occupied, as the doe-eyed reporter looking for a big story but not too full of herself to prevent her from being wowed by something truly miraculous, like the Blur coming in and saving her from certain doom and decapitation. Only Clark and Lois were on duty in terms of regular players in this episode, and I’m hopeful that we’ll have fitting goodbyes for some of our other more (relatively) recent additions like Oliver and Tess before this show signs off for good.