Masquerade featured the theme of identity and the struggle with which our main characters contend. Clark, after the many lost years of dragged-out dreck on this show, is finally coming to terms with his identity as the Blur. He and Lois spend some time at the beginning of the episode trying to come up with a suitable disguise for him because up till now there has been little difference between Clark Kent and the Blur. Clark acts heroic, and Lois is concerned that people might make the connection to his super hero secret. This point is hammered home when Clark, as a not-so-mild-mannered reporter investigates a crime scene while the police are cleaning up. They're practically on a first-name basis with him, and one little guy, let's call him Colin Creavey, has a case of the hero-worships for Clark and muses about whether Clark might actually be the Blur.
The other little nerdy guy that Lois is bossing around also seems to have the hero-worships for Clark at the office and treats him with a great deal of respect. This is transformed, quite well, I thought, at the end of the show when Clark realizes that the Blur is the real him, while Clark is actually the mask and he puts on the iconic glasses with which they have teased us in previous episodes. And of course they realize that the glasses aren't enough. Clark Kent doesn't hide behind a pair of glasses at all. He hides by acting so clutsy and average that no one pays much attention to him in the first place. The little nerdy guy that Lois has been bossing around bumps into Clark (after he's wearing his "disguise") at the end and not only does he not recognize Clark, he treats Clark as a subordinate. Mission accomplished.
The other thread of the identity theme is Chloe, who has been struggling with her place in the world after erasing herself from it. She's struggling with her relationship with Oliver, and doesn't quite know how to think of them together. It was fitting that they should be mistaken for a couple of undercover FBI agents. The lead-in to this plot was a bit of a stretch in the coincidence department, but it turned out well, aside from the Mr. and Mrs. Smith-style fight scene with the two of them.
Desaad kidnaps Chloe and tempts her by running her through the seven deadly sins. Chloe is resistant, though pride does seem to give her the most difficulty. Oliver, however, gives right in to the sin of wrath. What's in the box, indeed. In this case it is a nice little Omega brand revealed to us at the very end of the episode, as we see that Oliver has indeed been corrupted. I don't know where they're going with this interpretation of Darkseid, but at this point it seems a little Supernatural, though that may not necessarily be a bad thing. The Darkseid mythos in the Superman comics could be extremely dark, and so far I feel like they've done a good job with capturing that, as the episodes featuring Darkseid's minions have felt more like horror than anything else. And now that they have one the League on their side, I'm looking forward to what happens. Hopefully it won't just be another "find the right shiny thing to point at the bad guy and send him away" like they've used in previous seasons.
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