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SMALLVILLE |Season 9 Episode 17 | Checkmate

How Was "Checkmate"?

  • Total voters
    27
  • Poll closed .
^ The chess piece looked like a Red Queen on the board I don't think Waller mentioned it by its name just that there was another player on the board and I didn't catch what she said afterward. I wish we got J'onn phasing through the blood sample chamber thingy too. I've had no problems with Cassidy Freeman's acting I think she portrays Tess the best she can...the writers don't really seem to know what they are doing with their character. She started out on the series as Lex Luthor's protege and now is running from Checkmate. Tess has been all over the place more than any other character I can think of in the show. It will be interesting to see where Gil Bellows Maxwell Lord plays into things when we see him in a couple weeks.

I agree this is up there with Absolute Justice and Metallo, and how sad is it that there have been so few good episodes this season? I'm struggling to think of others.
 
Average.

I'm starting to really wish they'd just write Oliver out of this show. He's a liability. All he seems to do is get captured. At least he's not being led around by his dick with Tess anymore.
 
Superman.

I REALLY liked this episode, though as usual it made me dislike Clark and Oliver even more than i already did. Clark basically threatened to MURDER Tess and Oliver was his usual prickish arrogant self. Would love nothing more than have Tess really screw both of em over good.
 
DarthPipes said:
Of course, Checkmate has the Green Arrow knocked out and in custody but stupidly don't unmask him. At the very least, you could blackmail him.
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Actually not that unusual to think only certain people would be allowed that info given what their goal is and how they operate.
 
^ It is a standard military practice actually. When you don't need to know who someone is they see it as you don't need to know and it can be considered treason.
 
Othello...Clark threatened Tess to get information from her...Batman does it all the time...he would never harm her nor was it his attention to.
 
Another reason this episode was so good was the lack of Lois. Usually, when Lois doesn't appear, SV is very, very good.
 
It was really good and intriguing. I also loved how they did the action sequences with Superman busting Chloe out. I can't wait to see where this story line is going and who the "new players" are.
 
Admiral_Young said:
Othello...Clark threatened Tess to get information from her...Batman does it all the time...he would never harm her nor was it his attention to.
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Batman is Batman and Superman is Superman. The Dark Knight vs. Truth, Justice and The American Way. Superman is supposed to be above that. That's not his way. Stuff like that is why Batman and Superman have a very tenous relationship.
 
Pam Greer was great, she's always great.

That said, Amanda Waller was over the top. The way she wailed on Tess when Ollie got away, threatening her with death was ridiculous. She even handled Icicle better than that.

Opening up on Clark by immediately threatening to kill Choe was just plain stupid. What you end up with is, you'd have to keep Chloe captive with a gun to her head 24/7, and Clark would forever hate you. Waller is supposed to be smarter than that. She should have used Chole as bait but made Clark a more believable offer.

The deal with Tess is even weirder. Tess was ready, willing and able to take out Lex when she found out how he was using her with the electronics in her eyes thing. She has huge resources, enough to build a Kryptionian solar tower, for god's sake, she would not fold like a cheap suit just because some goverment agency is on her butt. At first I thought they had hooked her in years and years earlier and were just calling her up, and there was more hidden backstory motivating her. But Waller apparently only approached Tess recently, it just doesn't make sense Tess would react that way. If nothing else, Tess would figure some way to maneuver Zod against Waller so they take each other out, or some other nefarious method. She wouldn't just fold.

The episode had some good acting with bad material. The show usually have good villians who can be totally menacing just by smiling and acting friendly. It didn't need Waller threatening to kill everyone in sight.
 
Yeah, she could have just, you know, ASKED Ollie and company to help. There's no reason to make someone an enemy right away when you don't have to.
 
I think that might have been one of the show's worst episodes. They just tried way too hard and instead ended up with one giant face-palm fest.
 
Maybe not worst episode, but I'm inclined to agree with you on why it wasn't anywhere near one of the best.
 
Othello said:
Superman.

I REALLY liked this episode, though as usual it made me dislike Clark and Oliver even more than i already did. Clark basically threatened to MURDER Tess and Oliver was his usual prickish arrogant self. Would love nothing more than have Tess really screw both of em over good.
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Clark knows how Tess operates. She's a bully. She enjoys threatening people too much, so turnaround is fair play.
 
^ Excatly. As we've pointed out several times as well Clark isn't Superman yet and hasn't displayed any of the tactics that we know Superman uses and is comfortable with so I don't think it far fetched or out of character for Smallville Clark to be aggressively questioning someone like he did Tess. Tess can't be trusted as has been pointed out in other threads...he knew that this was the only way that he could get the information from her without her bullshitting him. I don't have a problem with it. Superman has also been shown to be aggressive at times when provoked but to say that Clark nearly murdered Tess is a tad over dramatic in my opinion.
 
Finally got to watch this episode, sorry I wasn't here last night for the discussion I had other stuff going on.

Pretty good episode, I liked the flash-cut scene near the end with Clark rescuing Chloe.
 
DarthPipes...agreed and this is one of the points I have with regards to how Tess has been written since Lana came back and revealed Lex's machinations with her last year. Evil cunning bitch Tess would have called Clark's bluff and then Clark would have been screwed. Or else Tess would have gained something in return for Tess revealing Checkmate's location.
 
Trekker4747 said:
Finally got to watch this episode, sorry I wasn't here last night for the discussion I had other stuff going on.

Pretty good episode, I liked the flash-cut scene near the end with Clark rescuing Chloe.
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I liked this episode, missed the live showing you guys all watch..when do you do this? EST?

Rob
 
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