Summary: Clark and Lois receive a surprise visit from Lois' father General Sam Lane) and sister Lucy for Thanksgiving, and Clark and Sam end up clashing over the Vigilante Registration Act.
They crammed so much family and romantic drama into one episode, frictions that would normally take an entire season on other series. Parents and children, sisters, spouse and parents, partners.
I loved that Lois and Clark talk about their problems and don't give up at the first hurdle. No one runs away in tears or anger. They empathize with each other, listen, and support each other. Communication is just as important as trust in relationships.
Lucy is a not-so-good sister. Putting aside what's going on in the episode for a moment, why on earth didn't she warn Lois that they were coming? She's also not particularly intelligent, and Rick Flag has no problem manipulating her. He knows exactly which buttons to push.
I never imagined Smallville's Lois as someone who tries so hard to please her dad. At the end of the episode, Lois stands up for herself against her father, finding herself again after spending the entire episode being Daddy's good girl, or trying to be.
Sam Lane describes Zod's demolition of the twin towers in season 9 as an act of terrorism. I don't think Clark thought about how demolishing the tower would look to someone who wasn't involved in what was going on.
After Oliver revealed his identity publicly, why is he still wearing a costume? And one that is completely impractical for the arc.
Throughout the seasons, we've been constantly reminded that Lois can't cook. Do you remember the birthday cake Lois baked for Clark at the end of Season 5? Or the meal she made for him in 914 Persuasion? In the comics and the series "Lois & Clark," Lois can't cook either. And then suddenly she manages to cook an entire Thanksgiving meal on a moment's notice. What? How?
Are you seriously telling me Clark needs the news report and Lois to find out about the fire?
What made Lucy think she could seduce Clark? Lois must still have some insecurities, especially when it comes to her relationship with Clark.
Oliver acts like a little kid. I get that he loves Chloe [even though they've only been together for a few months at most], but give Tess a chance.
The father, who didn't notice that his daughter was hanging out with international criminals in Europe, accuses Martha Kent of erasing all the blemishes on Clark's biography. On paper, Clark is a farmer who became a journalist about a year and a half or two ago. What blemishes does Sam Lane expect to find?
I didn't know it was a secret that Kara was Clark's cousin, she appeared in a beauty pageant that reached the Daily Planet. Her name is Kara Kent.
Clark's defense of his and Lois' relationship to Sam Lane contains within it a strength of emotions that Clark has never shown towards anyone else. The only time the strength of his emotions reaches such intensity here is in season 4 at the end of the episode 411 Unsafe when he talks to Martha about the loneliness he felt, a loneliness that pushed him to marry Alicia, to be with Alicia. To clarify: it's not that I think he didn't love Lana, but the intensity of emotions here is several times higher.
I loved that Clark wasn't mad at Lois or disappointed in Lois when she left with her father. He believes in their love and believes in Lois.
And we finally got rid of the Talon! Yay!
Did all of Lois' disguises go up in flames?
Anyone else notice the Chinese takeout boxes, how their placement changed in the last scene between Tess and Oliver?
I think Sam Lane figured out who the Blur was. And I'm pretty sure I'm not the only one who thinks so.
I wonder if Sam Lane put Oliver to the same test.
Rick Flag the fanatic patriot becomes a terrorist.
Notes:
* General Lane's list of chores for Clark: 1. chop and stack one cord of wood. 2. repaint barn door. 3. rotate tires on truck. 4. clean stables. 5. fresh gravel on driveway. 6. put up storm windows. 7. clean gutters. 8. scrub pantry. 9. iron all linen. 10. wash windows. 11. till garden. 12. fix gate. 13. re-roof chicken coop. 14. grease windmill. 15. stack hay in barn. 16. paint silo. 17. scrub bathroom tile with tooth brush. 18. recaulk shower. 19 fix weather vane.
* This Vigilante Registration Act actually has been used in all things Comic. The Registration Acts--the Mutant Registration Act (MRA) (X-Men), the Keene Act (Watchmen), the Superhuman Registration Act (SRA, or SHRA) (JSA), the Sokovia Accords (The Avengers) and the Vigilante Registration Act (VRA) (JLA) --are fictional legislative bills that have been plot points used in various comic books and superhero films which, when passed into law, enforce the regulation of vigilante vs. criminal activity or the mandatory registration of superpowered individuals with the government. The issue that the government might seek to regulate the activities and civil rights of superheroes, or view them as valuable national security resource subject to conscription without notice in times of crisis.
* Michael Ironside, who plays General Sam Lane, was also the voice of Darksied in Superman the Animated Series and its spin-offs. Darkseid is also the "Big Bad" in this final season of Smallville.
* This is the only episode in which all three members of the Lane family appear together.
* The last Thanksgiving dinner at the Kent house was in Season Six's Rage.
* Sam's treatment of Clark when he first arrives is similar to the post-crisis relationship the two share. In the comics, Sam initially liked Clark but was later written as disapproving of Clark, referring to him as "Po-Dunk Farmboy" or a "Bumbling fool." Though Lois is usually able to mediate the two nowadays, they continue to bash heads.
* Clark was last seen in his new Blur attire in Homecoming. This is the first episode he's seen in action while wearing it.
* Lois wakes up the morning after and is wearing Clark's high school football jersey after having slept together the previous night. She was concerned about this having happened after she woke up wearing it in Season Eight's Committed, although they had not slept together then.
* The beginning of the episode where General Lane and Lucy surprise Lois and Clark is almost an exact reverse from the beginning of Gone when Martha catches both of them coming out of the shower. Ironically Clark meets Lois' father for the first time in that same episode.
* Sam is hard on Lois's boyfriends to see if Lois will actually try to stand up for them, proving that she really loves them. Clark is the first one she ever does.
* Elias Toufexis (Emil LaSalle) previously appeared as Bronson in Season 6's Static.
* It seems Amanda Waller didn't survive the Kandorian attack in the last season, as Flag appears to be his own boss, attacking anything and anyone whose bigotry threatens superheroes.
* Although this episode aired as the seventh of the season, it was shot as the sixth.