Smallville: Masquerade

Posted by: Andrew Burns  •  February 20, 2011 @ 2:09am

Filed under: Recaps & Reviews

What's the easiest way to hide your identity from the public when you are a 6' 3", 200lbs kryptonian? Well for starters don't let people see your face when you wear a jacket with a big 'S' on the front. That and maybe a trip to LensCrafters. It has been 9 years in the making but Clark finally embraces the bumbling four eyes alter ego disguise and officially starts his dual identity.

After constant pressure from Lois and a few too many close calls Clark decides being both Clark Kent the reporter and the Blur won't work without some kind of cover. In this week's episode, "Masquerade", Tom Welling works his up to wearing the iconic Clark Kent glasses, while the darkness returns to Metropolis. Meanwhile, caught in the middle Chloe and Oliver find themselves crossing paths with the newest of Darkside's disciples, Desaad. For the most part "Masquerade" is an average filler episode but with its fair share of humorous moments.

It seems like most of this episode was used for setting up the next or future episodes. Meaning not a lot went on. The main focus was on the so-called 'darkness' story arc returning again, and I'll admit I was extremely sceptical about this episode. So far every terrible episode this season has been linked one way or another to this 'darkness' Clark was warned about, but for some reason it didn't ruin this episode. The introduction of the Dasaad character makes for the most practical villain out of the three Darkside minions (if that makes any sense). Practical as in Dasaad can assume control of anyone who is weak enough to saccumb to any of the seven deadly sins. Meaning the hate spewing Godfrey and the Granny Goodness characters have been poorly represented as formidable villains because their supposed threats of smack talk and memory wipes aren't very intimidating.

Most of what held back this episode was Alison Mack and Justine Hartley getting to have their Mr. & Mrs. Smith moments. The two have a scene where they talk out a small team of armed FBI agents as a loving couple. Although both actors are good looking enough to pull off a younger version of an on screen Brangelina, it just seemed to be too far of a leap for both characters to suddenly act that way. During the fight sequence with the FBI agents Hartley held his own, but unfortunately Mack's timing and coordination was off by too much making her stunt work look almost laughable. On a side note props should be given to Hartley for his wall climbing stunt later in the episode. He jumps and swings himself up the side of a building and into it's window without a stunt double. So props to you Mr. Hartley

When it came to the episode's funnier/lighter moments "Masquerade" had a couple of surprises in store for audiences. One has to be the additions Lois makes to Clark's Superman jacket when she becomes increasingly nervous about him accidently exposing his identity to the world. Lois decides to give Clark's leather jacket the Green Arrow treatment by adding a red hood and some shades; which only last all of 5 seconds. But the funniest moment came out of the introduction of a new ability for Clark. Seemingly out of nowhere the show reveals that Clark has -- and has had for a while apparently – a new super ability being 'micro-vision'. As lame as the name sounds Clark amusingly explains to Lois saying "Its my power, I can call it whatever I want".

The whole point of this episode was to have Clark begin to wear the glasses to be his version of a mask to hide in plain sight. Hence the title, "Masquerade". However, yet again they only tease audiences as Welling doesn't wear the glasses until the final five minutes of the episode. But as soon as Welling puts on those glasses and has his first clumsy moment you can start to see an all new character. The first time Welling changes his mannerisms and bumps into one of his co-workers, knocking papers everywhere, you can see a glimpse of Christopher Reeves in him. In that moment all the doubts I may have had about the Clark Kent glasses persona not being able to be believable after all this time were put to rest as Welling's performance almost mimicked Reeves' to a 'T'. It only makes it even more impressive on Welling's part as he has said that he has never watched any of the Reeves' four Superman films or even read a single comic book to compare himself to either Superman or Clark Kent.

Tags: Smallville, Tom Welling, Erica Durance, Justin Hartley, Allison Mack, Chirstopher Reeve, Superman

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Andrew Burns loves film and comics, and can be found writing about when those worlds converge. You can follow him on Twitter at @myAndrewBurns.

Original Comments Posted (1)

kristy says...

I've watch Smallville :Masquerade s10e14, which was awesome, contain Darkseid Love and the microvision storyline. It seems pretty dead on with Morrison's take in Final Crisis. Whatever now i am waiting to watch smallville season 10 episode 15. I am sure, it will be also awesome as it is pushes the Darseid storyline.

Feb 21, 2011 3:26am

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