Smallville 6.11: "Justice"

Written by Steven DeKnight
Directed by Steven DeKnight

This episode has received a lot of hype, and as such, it’s important to set as much of that aside as possible. Hype can lead to unreasonable expectation, or to the opposite extreme, the desire to overlook or excuse flaws. This episode is likely to suffer from both symptoms. Some people will wish for more, while others will stridently assert that the episode set the perfect tone.

For me, this episode was following in the perilous footsteps of nearly every other “special appearance” by one of the DC icons. Too often, when another future hero visits Smallville, the writers tend to rely on the legend of the character instead of establishing that legend within the series’ context. The exceptions (Lois and Green Arrow) have been hit or miss, but they typically succeed on the merits of long-term character building.

Had this episode aired a year ago, before the advent of “Heroes”, the concept might have worked better. As it is, we now have an example of how a team can slowly but surely come together to face a threat. The writers of “Smallville” had the usual constraints of budget and scheduling to deal with, since they couldn’t have three more recurring guest stars all season long, so the situation is not quite the same. However, this episode could have benefited from slow but steady build-up in the background (Oliver referring to larger operations and talking to his team remotely, for example).

That could have helped the writers with the slow escalation of “33.1” as a threat. The team could have been ready to operate earlier in the episode, for example, and the operation against Lex might have been more complicated. As it was, the team didn’t really work together. Oliver kept Clark in the dark for most of the episode, even when Clark was in the midst of the action. In essence, the problem here is that Clark is still an outsider in the gang, so the whole idea of the “team action shot” is a bit misleading.

Oliver’s decision to leave at the end of the episode is also ill-considered. While it is driven largely by contractual obligations, the rationale doesn’t quite work. Ostensibly, Oliver is leading the team on a global attack against “33.1”. All well and good, but hasn’t he been doing that from Metropolis anyway? If he were to stay, he could continue to push Clark into seeing the big picture. And wouldn’t it make more sense for Clark to ask Oliver and the others to help him with the zoners, since Oliver has better resources for tracking activities worldwide?

All of these criticisms shouldn’t take away from the fact that there were positive aspects to the episode. Chloe’s role was perfect as the team coordinator and tech-head, and it would have been fun to see her work more closely with Clark and Oliver as a mini-team in Metropolis. This episode also gives a rather interesting explanation for Lex’s plans for “33.1”. I really like the idea of Lex framing the heroes as terrorists and his actions as “preserving freedom and democracy”. If they play that card correctly, it would give a reasonable justification for Lex and his motives.

All that said, this episode suffers from the fact that the story relies on what the audience brings to it: the general knowledge of the DC universe and the nostalgic pleasure of seeing a super-team on screen. They simply didn’t earn it on their own, even taking into account the subtle suggestions here and there throughout the season. The result is an average episode, instead of the true winner they had promised.

Writing: 1/2
Acting: 2/2
Direction: 2/2
Style: 2/4

Final Rating: 7/10