- The Green Arrow returns. On this week’s episode of Smallville, Justin Hartley is back as the green-clad archer of the night and his presence brings plenty of danger into the lives of several characters. First, his involvement with Chloe on a project to nab files from Lex Luthor’s newest project lands both Oliver Queen/Green Arrow and Chloe in trouble with a leather-clad, dressed-in-black vigilante attacks Chloe and steals the disc containing the files. When Green Arrow tries to use his archery skills to take down the mystery woman, she uses some sort of sonic force field emitted from her mouth to disintegrate the arrows. She makes off with the disc and leaves Chloe with a nasty gash on her face. Clark is alarmed at the sight of the gash the next day and when he learns about Chloe’s involvement with Oliver’s work, he steps in to demand that it end. He also dubs the new vigilante the Black Canary, but she’s actually a local radio personality with a reputation for being tough on crime. Of course, that doesn’t stop her from taking money from Lex Luthor in exchange for handing over the files she retrieved and accepting his offer for an even bigger payout if she delivers the Green Arrow to Lex. Clark has his own worries, namely his rocky relationship with Lana. He goes to her for help identifying the Black Canary but she can’t help. Nor does she want to help Lionel Luthor in his quest to prove that Lex was behind the killing of Grant Gabriel/Julian Luthor, the editor of the Daily Planet who was really a clone of Lex’s brother who died as an infant. Lana declines, saying she’s tired of living the obsessed, out-for-payback life and that she wants to turn over a new leaf, get back to the old Lana and become someone Clark can trust again. Of course, to do that she needs to mend fences with Clark, who’s still miffed that she felt so close to and comfortable with the Bizarro Clark who took his place while he was held captive at the Fortress of Solitude. They work on their relationship and as Lana is about to leave the farm to spend a few days with Chloe to alleviate some of the tension, Clark’s emotional speech about reconciling causes her to reconsider. Also making an emotional speech was Lois Lane, who decided that she could no longer be in a relationship with Oliver Queen once she knew he was also Green Arrow. Lois breaks things off, digs into a pint of Rocky Road ice cream and surprisingly pours out her heart in a weepy monologue to Clark. He then passes along his support to Oliver when the two of them are summoned to a rooftop meeting with the Black Canary. She’s since come over to their side in the dispute with Lex after Clark intercepted her on her way to a meeting with Lex and encouraged her to research why Oliver and the Justice League have really been setting off bombs at Lex’s plants around the world. Black Canary agrees to join Green Arrow, Aquaman, the Flash and Cyborg in the League, but not before a showdown with Lex in which he tries to shoot her but is attacked at the Luthor mansion by Green Arrow. A fight breaks out and at the last second, who shows up but Clark Kent. The Man of Steel uses his super speed to knock arrows, Chinese stars and bullets out of the air, but is left with a predicament when a bullet is about to hit Black Canary at the same time a knife thrown by the Canary is about to hit Lex. Knowing he can’t stop both, Clark opts for stopping the bullet and allowing Lex to take a hit. Lex survives but is left to look at an empty room and wonder what just happened. All told, it was good to have Green Arrow back, as Justin Hartley has been a great add to the cast this season. A great episode as well, but BRAINIAC was AWOL this week, mentioned only in name. So until next week, as the new episodes of Smallville wind down and the writers’ strike rages on…..
- Danger has come to the island on Lost - well, there’s always been danger for the survivors of Oceanic flight 815, but last week a new layer of danger came with the arrival of the rescue team/alleged rescue team that arrived via helicopter after taking off from a freighter near the island. When last week’s show ended, one of the rescue team members had parachuted into the jungle and was met by Kate and Jack. This week, we learned back stories for all four of the rescue team members and also of Naomi, who John Locke killed by planting a knife in her back. Aside from being disorienting and breaking up the flow of the show, these flashbacks told us that one of the four team members, Daniel Fairaday, was a scientist of some sort who became an emotional basket case when he learned about the discovery of the wreckage from Flight 815 on the ocean floor, a discovery that makes no sense since the plane as we know it crashed on the island. But joining him on the team is Miles, a psychic/medium/ghost whisperer of some sort with a snarky attitude and very few scruples. The pilot for the team, Frank, was supposed to be the pilot on Flight 815 but fatefully ended up not flying that day. Rounding out the team, the living members anyhow, is Charlotte, an archeologist from England who once discovered a Dharma Initiative-tagged polar bear in a Tunisian desert. Together they were chosen for a mission, to be headed up by Naomi, to come to the island and find Benjamin Linus, the leader of the Others. The same creepy bald black dude who visited Hurley at the mental hospital in last week’s flash forward spelled out the mission to Naomi in one of this week’s other flashbacks. He said each person on the team had been chosen for a reason but didn’t elaborate. Throughout the episode, members of the team are found by the crash survivors. Daniel is first, followed by Miles, who pulls a gun on Jack and demands to see Naomi’s body. When he gets to it, he uses his mystic powers to determine how she died and when satisfied that Jack and Kate didn’t kill her, he uses his satellite phone to locate Charlotte, who has crashed elsewhere on the island after ejecting from the helicopter. Charlotte is hanging upside down off the edge of a cliff, but manages to break free from her parachute harness and drop into a lake below. There, she’s located, but not by members of her team or by Jack and Kate. The group led by John Locke finds her first and gives her anything but a warm reception, especially when she starts asking questions about them and their life on the island. Locke is hardest on her - well, until Ben, still a prisoner and being led around with his hands bound, manages to steal Charlotte’s gun and shoot her in the chest. She’s fortunate to be wearing a bullet-proof vest and that saves her life, but Sawyer uses the occasion to continue an earlier beatdown he gave to Ben and is prepared to kill him when Locke volunteers to do the deed instead. Just as Locke orders Ben’s daughter Alex and anyone else not wanting to witness the execution to leave the area, Ben does what he always does; begins spouting off uncannily accurate, secretive information designed to rattle those opposing him and play mind games with them. He reveals that he knows almost every detail of the lives of Charlotte and her team and that the reason he has the information is because he has a man on their boat as a plant. The motives and objectives of the rescue team are further called into question when Miles is consistently hostile to Jack and Kate. Fortunately for Jack and Kate, Sayid and Juliette take some of the guns left at camp, go out into the woods and track Jack, Kate, Daniel and Miles and use their weapons to seize back control. The six-person entourage then sees a flare fired off by Frank, the fourth member of the rescue team and their helicopter pilot. Frank scales a cliff from where he landed and in the best comedic moment so far this season, is greeted by a cow, one of the cows from Mikhail’s (Russian-born villain from last season, wore an eye patch….) house and farm on the island. The cow is indifferent, giving a “moo” and wandering off. The group comes upon Frank shortly thereafter and he shows them to spot where he landed the helicopter. Sayid checks it to make sure it’s in good enough condition to fly, after which the group makes plans for flying back to the freighter. So what’s on tap for next week? Among other things, a new flash-forward will reveal another member of the “Oceanic Six,” a group that may actually include seven members if you believe a teaser hint dropped in a tvguide.com interview by Sayid (actor Naveen Andrews). I’m also hoping we’re going to find out soon where the Others went to after disappearing and having many of their men killed at the end of last season. So far, that topic hasn’t been touched this season. But this week was an awesome episode, I thought, mixing four more new characters into the mix and further thickening the plot. ‘Til next time……..
- Here’s a problem I’d like to have, a quirky story I’d love to be able to tell as my own - well, assuming this guy comes through alive. Japanese adventurer Michio Kanda, 58. vanished over the North Pacific Ocean late last week in the midst of a hot air balloon trip from his country to Oregon (presumably to smoke some weed with the hippies in Oregon ----- just kidding, Oregonians, I know you’re not all pot heads). A Coast Guard search has been launched to locate Kanda, but don’t feel too bad for him just yet. Dude travels well-equipped, because with him he has/had a podlike life raft and enough food to keep him alive for at least three weeks. So far, searchers have seen no sign of him, but hopefully they’ll find him, because this will be one heck of a story to tell for the rest of his life. Rich, thrill-seeking adventurer is definitely not a bad way to go through life. These people try insane stunts and can do things like raft, boat or fly a hot air balloon halfway around the world and actually have the finances to make it a reality. Here’s hoping you come out of this alive, Michio…..
- I think Irish low-cost airline Ryanair got its money worth. The company was sued by French President Nikolas Sarkozy and ultimately lost the suit to the tune of $89,000 after Ryanair ran an advertisement containing a photograph of Sarkozy and his new bride, former supermodel Carla Bruni. The airline apparently used the photo without permission and for that, they must pay up. However, I think the airline got exactly what they were looking for and that this will be worth every penny for them and then some. The attention and publicity they’ll get from this stunt will be worth a lot more than $89,000. Their name will be out there now in ways no ad could ever accomplish and it’s not like they did anything totally reprehensible, so there’s not going to be that much backlash. Smart business by Ryanair if you ask me, and does the president of a major world power really need an extra $89,000? You got taken to the cleaners on this one, Sarkozy, but of course a Frenchman won in something where not actual physical toughness or danger was involved. Heck, if Ryanair simply challenges Sarkozy to a fistfight, I’m sure he’ll follow his country’s M.O. and surrender the cash immediately….
- Oh man, this is an opportunity I’ve been waiting a long time for. There are a lot of crappy musical artists whose work I despise, including but not limited to: Britney Spears, Fergie, the Black Eyed Peas, Mary J. Blige, any current or former American Karaoke contestant, any country music artist, Jennifer Lopez, Madonna and Justin Timberlake. However, in a twist of fate, one such artist, cherubic rapper Missy “Misdemeanor” Elliot, is giving the public a chance to name her next album. Yes fans, you can decide the moniker for Elliot’s next crap-tacular, bubble-gum, mainstream rap album. Go to www.missy-elliotsucks.com…ok, technically it’s www.missy-elliot.com, but the sucks part should be in there….and you can suggest a name. Any mixture of the words garbage, trash, crap, sucks, blows, horrible, terrible, wretched, mind-numbingly bad and un-listenable would work, or break out your thesaurus and find creative synonyms for those words and you’ll be just fine. The winner gets credit on the album for the name and a $500 adidas gift card. Personally I’d be asking for an extra $500 on the gift card and no mention of me on the album or with anything else remotely associated with Elliot’s train wreck of a career, but that’s up to you if you enter. Ok, I will give you one suggestion for name, but only one…..Do yourself a favor and don’t buy this album…..
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