Smallville – "Justice"

Director: Steven S. DeKnight
Writer: Steven S. DeKnight

After a two-year break, Kyle Gallner has returned to Smallville to reprise his role as everyone's favorite speedster, Bart Allen. Also returning is Steven S. DeKnight, who wrote the episode Bart debuted in, "Run." That unfamiliar face in the photo above is Smallville's version of Victor Stone, but we'll get to that later.

Our episode begins with Chloe Sullivan working late at the Daily Planet. She's suddenly confronted by a doctor she's been investigating, who has been transferring prisoners who exhibit strange abilities out of Belle Reve. Chloe asks the doctor if this has anything to do with Lex Luthor and a mysterious project called 33.1. As soon as she says that, the doctor pulls a gun on her, even though they're inside a newspaper office with plenty of other people nearby. But before he pulls the trigger, a red blur zooms by, knocking the doctor down.

Clark Kent suddenly appears and Chloe thanks him for saving her in the nick of time. But Clark says he didn't knock down the doctor. He looks up and sees a red-hooded figure, which he follows out onto the streets. The figure finally stops running by a pick-up basketball game, says, "Still too slow, Stretch," and pulls up his hood to reveal Bart Allen.

The next day, Clark tells Chloe that the person who saved her life last night got away from him, which surprises her, since she always thought Clark was the fastest man alive. She also tells Clark that the doctor was released from prison just minutes after being arrested, courtesy of a Luthor Corp. lawyer. Bart suddenly shows up and reintroduces himself to Chloe, who naturally doesn't remember him since she only talked to him for like five minutes two years ago. Bart kisses Chloe's hand and tries to impress her with some basic Spanish, but she promptly excuses herself.

Clark asks Bart what's with the Spanish, and Bart says he just went down there for lunch. Clark then recaps their previous meeting two years ago, and asks Bart why he's returned to Smallville. Bart says that Clark truly did convince him to give up a life of crime and now he's working as a courier. He just happened to delivering a package when he saw Chloe was in danger, but Clark doesn't believe him. Offended, Bart prepares to leave, but Clark offers to take Bart to lunch in Mexico.

Later, Lex Luthor and his dad, Lionel, are discussing a rash of break-ins at Luthor Corp. facilities all connected to 33.1. Lex shows his dad a single frame image from a security camera showing a red blur. Noting the perpetrator can move faster than a speeding bullet, Lex vows to protect their resources. As soon as the Luthors leave the room, Bart sneaks in and downloads a bunch of files from Lex's laptop to a flash drive, which he then takes to Oliver Queen, aka Green Arrow.

Clark then visits Lionel to ask him how that Bell Reve doctor got out of jail so quickly, but Lionel says he's not involved with that prison anymore. He hastily changes the subject, showing him the picture Lex gave him of the red blur at one of his processing plants in Mexico. Clark says it isn't him, but he refuses to tell Lionel who he thinks it is.

The next day, Bart is treated to an enormous amount of food by Martha Kent, and to show his appreciation, he even cleans the kitchen at super speed. Martha thanks him and says he should stick around longer this time. As soon as she leaves, Clark confronts Bart about the Luthor Corp. break-in. Clark's upset that Bart lied about turning over a new leaf, but Bart insists he really has changed. However, he can't explain why he's stealing from Luthor Corp. right now, simply saying it's complicated. Clark continues pressing the issue, so Bart finally leaves, tearfully lamenting the fact that Clark can't understand that he needs to keep some things secret.

So Clark heads over to Chloe's and tells her that Bart has super speed and was the one who saved her life the other day. He says he thinks Bart's in trouble, so he asks her to hack into his cellphone history, which reveals that Bart has been working with Oliver, who Clark knows is Green Arrow. Meanwhile, Bart sneaks into another Luthor Corp. facility, but as soon as he places his flash drive in a computer, it electrocutes him and knocks him out. Lex and a squad of armed security guards immediately enter the room, and Lex mockingly says, "Not so fast now, are you?"

The next day, Clark visits Oliver and demands to know where Bart is. Oliver reluctantly admits that he and Bart are working together to take down 33.1, which he believes Lex is using to create an army of "super freaks." Oliver says Bart infiltrated a facility last night, but he hasn't heard from him since. Oliver went to the facility this morning, but found it completely empty, indicating the whole thing was a setup to capture Bart. Clark offers to help him find Bart, and Oliver introduces him to rest of his team — Victor Stone and Arthur Curry.

Bart wakes up in a cell with glass walls and Lex begins to interrogate him. Lex eventually remembers his previous encounter with Bart and notes that the data he was trying to steal does not fit his low-life criminal profile. Lex demands to know who Bart is working for, so Bart says the guy's name is "Mr. Kiss-My-Butt." Seeing that Bart's not going to talk, Lex activates the floor of his prison — a pressured system that tracks movement and will electrocute Bart if he stops moving for even a millisecond. So Lex leaves, forcing Bart to constantly run around in circles.

Back at Oliver's headquarters, Clark asks how they convinced Bart to join a team. Oliver says he came across Bart while patrolling Star City, and he could tell he was a good kid that just needed some direction. Clark then coldly blames Oliver for Bart being kidnapped, but Oliver says he won't underestimate Lex again. Unfortunately, Oliver has no idea where to begin looking for Bart. So Clark visits Chloe at the Daily Planet, and she tells him about a Luthor Corp. facility just outside Metropolis that has recently been shipping in millions of dollars of lead shielding and equipment to track high velocities. Clark tells her to take all this information to Oliver, while he heads out to the facility on his own.

Clark gets inside pretty easily, but he stupidly walks right into a room full of kryptonite. Luckily, Oliver and his team aren't far behind. Armed with blueprints of the facility, Chloe stays behind to offer guidance to the team via their headsets, earning her the code name Watchtower. Victor (Cyborg) is able to shut down the security system by plugging a cable from a computer into his arm, and Arthur (Aquaman) takes advantage of the nearby body of water to swim into the facility because ... he can.

After beating up a few guards, Green Arrow rescues Clark, calling him Boy Scout. Clark objects to this code name, and Oliver says he didn't get to pick it since he wasn't around. He says Bart also didn't get to pick his code name — Impulse. Cyborg, Aquaman and Green Arrow then set about stealing as much information from the facility they can and planting some bombs, while Clark rescues Bart by dashing through the glass walls.

Green Arrow confronts Lex, telling him he has 10 minutes to evacuate everyone from the building. He then dramatically fires an arrow right past Lex's face, giving him a slight scratch on his cheek. Green Arrow meets up with Impulse and Clark, who is initially hesitant about blowing up the building. But once Chloe confirms everyone safely made it out, Clark agrees, and the whole team slowly walks away like "cool guys" as the entire facility goes up in flames.

The next day, Lionel berates Lex for letting Bart Allen go and the multimillion dollar facility be destroyed. Lex says the incident confirmed to him the great need for 33.1, saying that if Green Arrow is recruiting super-powered individuals, then he must fight fire with fire to preserve freedom and democracy. Lex also tells his dad that some security guards identified Clark Kent at the raid. But Lionel lies and says he was having dinner with Clark and Martha last night.

Our heroes, meanwhile, are in Clark's barn, lamenting the fact that the Luthor Corp. was once again able to cover its tracks and keep all the 33.1 information away from the public. But, they are glad they managed to rescue Bart, who boldly claims he had plenty of juice left. He then tries to flirt with Chloe again, to which Arthur says that's why they call him Impulse. Clark runs through all their code names and asks what their team name is. They don't have one yet, but Oliver is thinking of something with Justice in the name, saying they're going to bring Lex Luthor to justice. They all then head out to take down another 33.1 facility in Corto Maltese. They ask Clark to join them, but he says he has things to take care of in Smallville.




Two years later and this show still sucks. This episode especially ran against the greatest weakness of this show, namely that it's a show about superheroes without superheroes. They still can't let Clark be Superman, so it's really awkward when they want to start surrounding him with other heroes, but they can't really be heroes yet. They can't call them the Justice League, but they can almost reference it. They can give these heroes code names, but the style (or budget) prevents them from having real costumes. Green Arrow and Impulse had bright hoodies and sunglasses (even at night), Cyborg had a shiny jacket and Aquaman had an orange shirt. It all led to an underwhelming production, hampered by the usual weaknesses of a CW sitcom — tired, repeated sets and melodramatic romances (I spared you the subplot of Oliver's relationship with Lois Lane).

But it is worth noting that this was the first time a DC hero named Impulse appeared on TV. Unfortunately, he didn't really act all that impulsive. This show tried to tell us that he's impulsive, but they didn't show it at all. If anything, Bart was rather calm and calculating this episode. He resisted the urge to tell Clark about his superhero team, and he only got caught because Lex set a pretty good trap that fooled Green Arrow, too. I do wonder, however, why Bart didn't try to break through the glass of his torture chamber. I know he can't vibrate through objects and he doesn't have super strength, but it seems like he could have built up enough speed and smashed free, sustaining only a few cuts.

As weak as Smallville's attempt to dip their toe in the superhero world was, the show seemed to view this as an important milestone. They even produced a motion comic detailing further exploits of this "Justice" team against 33.1. I find it kind of hard to watch — poor pacing mixed with bland, receptive music and a story that isn't very compelling to begin with. But if you're interested, here it is: https://vimeo.com/27255139.

Next time, we'll take a very quick look at Shadowpact #10.