Smallville - Charade - Season 9 Episode 18 - CW

This picture is actually only a very small part of this show, but . . I couldn't resist. Actually, the big news this episode is that Maxwell Lord has entered the picture. And apparently he's the Black King of Checkmate. While Waller wants to gather as many meta-humans as possible, to brace against what she sees as the coming battle . . Lord wants to eliminate them all. 'I believe in the law. And anything extraordinary is . . unpredictable, and needs to be eliminated.' He claims that he having powers only serves to prove that statement. He tries to find out the Blur's identity this episode, but of course fails. He's then taken by what he thought was just a rumor . . the Red Queen. We see her in the back of a limo, but . . we don't see her face . . it's in the shadows. I have a feeling that this whole Checkmate storyline . . Waller, Lord, the Red King . . I think it's all being set up as next season's theme. While this was a big part of this episode, Clark also finds out that someone has been posing as the Blur and talking to Lois . . sending her out on missions. Since it's not him, he has a short list of suspects. Eventually Chloe nails it down to RAO industries. So obviously it's Zod. Anyways, this episode explores the soap-opera theme of this series as Lois and Clark wrestle with the effects these 'secrets' are having on their relationship. Clark considers telling her his, but . . Lois, inadvertantly, actually talks him out of it. Lois explains to him why she's trying to protect the Blur. And he realizes that she's right. If she knew his identity he'd never be able to protect her. He's starting to draw that line between the Blur and his Clark identity. And the first victim may be their relationship. I love this show. I'm not going to fluff it up by saying that it's my favorite. But . . I definitely think it's in my top 10. I'm a big humor guy. So sitcoms hold my top spots. But it always falls into my 'favorites' list.