The ten year arc of the WB’s Smallville came to an end on Friday. This show started out to tell the story of a teenage Clark Kent as he developed his abilities. Because the show unexpectedly lasted ten seasons. It swore from the beginning that you would not see Clark in tights or fly and that did hold true until this last episode.
About this Episode: (Spoiler Alert for those that have not seen the final episode)
This episode starts starts off seven years in the future with Chloe reading a comic book to a young boy. The comic is an issues of “Smallville” comics. Chloe is reading the finale episode story to the child.
Season 10 has been hyping the big bad Darkseid. According to the season so far, Darkseid has been easily conquering different realms and planets. He infects the people with a darkness causing them to serve this evil “savior”.
There were many loose ends from the season other than just Darkseid that were not wrapped up before the finale such as Lois and Clark’s wedding, the other universe Lionel Luthor (Lex’s Dead father), and the anticipated return of Lex. How could a two hour episode wrap up all of this?
The first hour of this episode is wasted, as was most of the season, by focusing on Lois’ sudden cold feet about the wedding. Clark blathers on about not wanting to be guided by either Jonathan or Jor-El. The first hour end with Oliver (Green Arrow) possessed by the darkness and attempting to give Clark a ring of Gold kryptonite to zap his abilities. Clark is able to talk Oliver out of it and Oliver cries out the darkness (not joking). As this occurs, the planet Apokolips (a Hell/Hades planet where Darkseid lives and tortures followers) shows up in the sky causing all that the darkness has infected to come to the forefront. This stops the wedding.
Clark rushes home where he talks to his imaginative and still dead adopted father while his mother is talking to him. Both are telling him that he needs Jor-El’s help.
Lionel goes out and kidnaps his own daughter, Tess. He found a clone of Lex that needs a new heart and he believes that Tess would make a perfect donor. He is about to kill her after revealing his plan (classic monologuing) but she is able to escape. She stabs Lionel and it appears to be fatal. Right after she gets away, the darkness spirit breaks into Lionel’s hideaway below the burnt down Luthor Mansion. The Darkness/ spirit of Darkseid agrees to save Lex if Lionel becomes his body. To fulfill the agreement, Darkseid rips out Lionel’s heart for Lex while Lionel takes on somewhat the look of Darkseid.
Clark searches for Tess instead of going to the fortress. He finds that she has been taken. In the process of looking for Tess, he runs into Lex. Lex is back with the full set of memories. It reminded me how good the chemistry between Lex and Clark used to be and how it made the show watchable in the day. Lex delivers a fun monologue of his own.
Oliver dons the Green Arrow outfit and goes out to do his part. He finds Darkseid goons Desaad, Glorious Godfrey and GrannyGoodness. These three are extremely powerful in the comic books. Any of them would be a tough match for Superman. In the Smallville world, Oliver can take the three out with a regular arrow.
Clark end up at the family barn (always in the barn- what is up with that?). The possessed Lionel shows up with the power of Darkseid. For one moment you see the image of Darkseid from the comics (would have been much cooler with Darkseid showing up for real). Lionel/Darkseid picks up Clark and throws him through a wall. Clark does not fall to the ground but hangs in mid air. He finally is able to fly. He turns around and flys right through Darkseid ending his “greatest trial ever”.
Clark flies to Fortress of Solitude and brings back alive the crystals that hold the voice of his dead real father, Jor-El. Jor-El talks to Clark like he respects him, for the first time ever. Jor-El gives him the tights and Clark become Superman for the first time.
Clark flies off and rescues Air Force One which had Lois on board. Then Clark flies into space and forces the planet Apokolips away from the Earth.
Tess shows up in Lex’s new office. Lex divulges that he knew that she was his sister all along. He stabs her to death while telling her that he is doing it for her best interest so she will not end up like him. She was able to expose him to a mysterious powder that causes him to forget everything. He will no longer remember Clark never less his secret identity.
Then we flash seven years into the future again. The classic scene of a bumbling Clark, Lois being a super reporter, Perry White yelling from his office and Jimmy Olson (brother to the dead Jimmy). Clark and Lois are preparing for the wedding that they did not get to finish seven years earlier. We see Lex on TV as the President Elect (nice touch and consistent with the comics). Clark hears a bomb threat races to the roof to transform into Superman. We flash back to Chloe and her child finishing the comic to end the series.
What I liked about this Episode:
To be honest, very little.
I liked the use of the comic book to tell the story. Using a book as a method to tell a story is a common devise. It was well down with Chloe.
I did enjoy the last few minutes where we actually see how these character became the characters we know and love. It was very Christopher Reeves like. Even though I really disliked this episode, seeing the cast as the characters that we know felt pretty good.
I did like the return of Lex but how they made him forget. Love the fact they made him the President Elect in the future.
What I did not Like:
This season, like many others (Season 8 with Doomsday comes to mind) had a ton of potential but was poor on delivery. You have a great villain in Darkseid but we only see his image for a few moments. Then he was killed off in one flying hit from Clark. In the Comics, Darkseid can stand toe to toe with Superman and he has other powers that were not shown such as the Omega Rays. I expected a toe to toe fisticuffs for an hour plus but instead a lame defeat of a great villain.
The death of Desaad, Glorious Godfrey and Granny Goodness were equally as bad as Darkseid’s death. As I mentioned earlier, any of the three would be a difficult for Superman but they puffed away when hit with a arrow. LAME!
The wedding or not so wedding has been done and redone on this show- see Clark’s previous wedding in Vegas and numerous weddings by Lex. The gold kryptonite was the best part. And it wasted time that should have been spend with Clark fighting Darkseid.
Clark can’t even fly one minute and the next he has the ability to fly to another planet and push it away? Really? I know that certain incarnations of Superman have been able to move planets in the past but it is as ridiculous as Supes picking up an island of kryptonite and super Ventriloquism (an ability of Supeman in the 50s- Really!). Even if you had the strength (which would be impossible), where do you push on a planet to move the whole planet instead of just moving things on the planet?
Magic powder to fix the problem of Lex knowing about Clark. Why not make it a side effect of the cloning process that he eventually loses all his memory?
The nice Jor-El bothered me. Honestly I have always hated that this series protrays Jor-El as a controlling jerk but that is the character they developed. All of a sudden, the magic voice of the Fortress becomes a loving and encouraging father.
No Kristen Kruek as Lana Lang. That was not super at all. Also missing was Sam Jones as Pete Ross. They also should have brought back the rest of the Justice League and the Justice Society.
There was not enough time with Clark in the suit. He should have been given the suit at the beginning of the episode (or earlier in the season) for his fight with Darkseid.
My Review:
There was so much potential that still remains untapped with this serie. It appears the writers didn’t desire to write any awesome ending. There were a few good moments in this last episode but not many. It saddens me to see this series end this way.
My Grade: D
