This season of Smallville was better than the last few – and yet the last few episodes were starting to force me to extend my patience bubble farther out than normal. Stilletto? It felt like it was trying to fall apart for me to some degree, yet I suppose what can you expect from a fantasy show that has inexplicable superpowered aliens?
This reflection on the Smallville season finale will have spoilers…
The Smallville season finale brought closure to some story lines, had some oddball hanging logic at spots, fulfilled some past tidbits on who was going to die and set us up for the next season.
Though I’m not sure what they intend to do with next season or if after this episode, they’ll have viewers coming back. I’ve already seen some comments about this finale and they haven’t been pretty.
Clark, You Are Going To Die
The episode starts out with Clark learning from Cosmic Boy that he’s going to die tomorrow. Cosmis Boy also gives Clark another time travel ring, asking Clark that he send Doomsday to their time where they are prepared to deal with him.
Meanwhile, back at the super large mansion, Tess Mercer loses her Kandor Orb. Here’s the issue with the Orb… if Doomsday dies, something worse is released from the Orb.
Clark’s big plan is to bury Doomsday but the Justice League double crosses Clark and dupes him into a trap where Green Arrow plugs Clark with a green arrow… really… a kyrptonite laced arrow. It really was green.
The Justice League Thinks They Can Take Doomsday
Then the Justice League of mortals (Note the fragility of that word?) goes off to do kill the invincible Doomsday. They walk away leaving Clark to lie in the street, subdued. Nice, real nice, and real odd.
The Justice League actually captures Davis but as they prepare to off him, Chloe gets in the way AGAIN and thrusts the black kryptonite at Davis, splitting him and Doomsday apart. It’s amazing how stupid this girl acts, and I mean it with the best intentions.
At one point Lois is snooping around Mercer’s mansion. How the hell do people keep getting in this place? Later on Mercer confronts Lois at the Daily Planet and accuses Lois of stealing her Orb.
They get into a cat fight. (This was probably the best part of the episode folks.) Finally Lois clocks Tess out cold. As this scuffle comes to an end, Clark’s time travel ring that he left on his desk, falls off his desk and as Lois picks it up, she vanishes in a flash. Obviously to the future.
The near iconic character of Jimmie Olsen finds Clark and pulls the arrow from his back. Suddenly it all begins to make sense as he pulls the arrow out of his back and watches Clark heal. Jimmie is cool with Clark’s secret.
Clark locates the Justice League battered and bruised by what was Doomsday, which really, they seemed less worse for wear considering they just went up against an unbridled, pissed off Kryptonian killing machine that had no human control.
It’s back to the original plan and Clark engages Doomsday.
As they come together, Doomsday clocks Clark, sending him flying through several buildings. As Doomsday comes after him, Clark does a leaping tackle where they land at the refinery where Clark had left the Justice League. As they land there, it would seem that Clark packed Doomsday in one of the tunnels that he had first planned to put him in, where then Black Canary would set off this multitude of explosions to bury Doomsday. There are big explosions but in no way were we shown that they were set off by Canary.
The next morning, Jimmy and Chloe have taken the humanity known as Davis to this loft Jimmy bought as a wedding present way back when. As Jimmy and Chloe start to make amends, the jealous Davis stabs Jimmy with a pipe. As Davis goes after Chloe in a jealous angry rage, Jimmy uses his last bit of energy to shove Davis into more pipes, killing him. Jimmy dies. JIMMY OLSEN DIES (what?). So the monster was Davis. Great.
After the funeral Clark and Chloe talk. Clark doesn’t know how he survived the explosion or seemingly what happened to Doomsday. Clark is mad at himself for not seeing that Oliver was right about killing Doomsday.
Clark said he tries to forget he’s an alien and yet, it’s his human side that makes poor decisions based on emotion. He decides that he is no longer going to be Clark Kent and declares that Clark Kent is dead and walks away.
Meanwhile, back at the mansion the Kandor Orb shows up and hatches a man on the front lawn, carving out a big Z in the grass. Zod, has returned.
Where Do I Begin?
This episode had so many oddball illogical scenes that happenstance seemed more like logic than the situations that took place here.
Leaving a time travel ring on your desk at work. Fine. Clark has a lot on his mind.
A batch of humans with some powers, looking to take on Doomsday. Fine. They have to. Right?
The fight between Clark and Doomsday was incredibly short and lame. Two hits. Three at the most? This should have been the payoff for this whole season of waiting. And it was two hits. Gimme a break folks.
At Jimmy’s funeral, we find out that his middle name is Jimmy. Jimmy is not his real name. Chloe gives “Jimmies” camera to his younger brother. Head slap. So Jimmy Olsen did not die. Just a guy whose middle name was Jimmy.
Clark saying that Clark Kent is dead – Is this what the showrunners meant when they tried to tease the viewers into any sort of anticipation about character deaths and the season finale? You’ve lost your credibility with this critic because that was a hollow lie. On both counts. If it’s not really Jimmy, then you’ve lied to us all along. Clark “dies” by a decision. I’m so over this it’s not even funny.
Zod is back. Cool. Sure. Why not bring Darkseid in the action as some sort of midget horticulturist while you’re at it.
Did I forget something? I’m sure I did. Are you as agitated as I am? As a show goes and if you’ve put on a thick skin of anti-logic, the episode was fine but the convenient scenarios and situations that led to some of the story closures felt contrived. Did someone quit and you had to get a fill-in writer?
I liked the premise that Jimmy found out Clark’s secret. Learning that information made a lot of things make sense to Jimmy and why he could start to forgive Chloe. In fact, the forgiving had started and bam! OK, you had me there. Watching someone in a passionate make up kiss and hearing the shthunk sound of pipe going through their torso sucked.
Smallville Season 9 Spoilers
Erica Durance will be back for Season 9. Sam Witwer may be continuing with the show as he might be playing Zod. It’s noted that Faora did say that Davis Bloome resembled his father.
Your Turn
Ok folks. It’s your turn. You can either back me up and show me more moments of “huh?” or tell me why you thought this was OK in your book. I’m totally open to any thoughts.
Now gang, I’ve asked for opinions on both sides, so this is my fault if you see things you don’t like. Don’t take it out on each other. This is a safe place to express your thoughts.
Images and Season 9 Info Source: Krypton Site
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Question to ARSALAN: The ERadicator is good, right? I thought he might be the Eradicator or Hank Henshaw, but then thought it might be too far fetched……but maybe your right. He could be the Eradicator there to fix things and get rid of doomsday all together. And when the JL find Clarks body and help revive him, the energy can pass through the Eradicator like it did in the comics and give Clark his powers back and be stronger than before…….I actually like that storyline better…..I do have to say that to have Bruce Wayne there would be cool, but I don’t think it will happen…….
I gave up on this Season after like the first 5 episodes… I could find something better to do for an hour. Although I am loving supernatural Hey Vic do a supernatural Thread. Smallville is not the same as it started, key people left and now we are getting scraps. Guess I will stick with true blood and Supernatural…ahhh and Tudors
you missed that that wasn’t Clark at the end. At least not the same or the real Clark. The writers and the wardrobe folks couldn’t have screamed it any louder. Who knows where the writers will take this? Maybe Clark and Lex have been fused into one. Cool. Maybe it’s the Eradicator. Still Cool.
I wholeheartedly agree the episode lacked emotional build up, but I don’t think this was the DD vs Superman finale either. I’m hoping we get no “Lana returns” filler episodes next season. Although her Kryptonite skin makes for a tempting Zod foe. One I hope the writers resist.
in a way i think the writers did exactly what you’d expect them to. i mean there wasn’t a single person wacthing the finale that wasn’t shocked when jimmy died and everything else that happened. No one saw any of it coming, and to me that’s what made it successful
and like i said about all the holes; that’s what season 9 is for people
and did doomsday still have the black kryptonite in his hand when he punched clark. because if so i like scottgia3′s idead of the good and bad clark. it worked for lex in season 4
and i’m re-watching the finale now… Davis is telling chloe, while they’re laying on the car, the story about whoever (not sure of spelling or even what it is)and he says about whoever living underground
and isn’t that where doomsday presumably is now? i sense that we have not seen the last of doomsday.
that also might explain the short fight seen… that wasn’t the real one
haha. also, the geothermic facility or whatever is totally “Aquatica” off “Deep Blue Sea”
Hell I was wanting Doomsday and Clark to kill eachother off. The death of superman had to be one of the biggest events in comic book history. So they decided to completely screw that over for some reason. Oh well…this series is pretty much dead to me anyways.
Uhm… if you haven’t noticed, Clark ISN’T Superman yet. And with that he shouldn’t be going through stuff that happened to Superman yet
Good point, that Clark isn’t superman….but I kind of thought the writers might still follow the death of superman because Doomsday made an appearance earlier than in the comics in Smallville. But i agree that their battles aren’t over. I still wonder what the writers meant when they said that the season finale sets up the storyling of what happens in the comics (said on Kryptonsite.com)….becuase everyone thought that meant Clark/red-blue blue would die…..
all in all 1 word: DISAPPOINTING
I ve watched this since i was a teen:) every season i hoped that he would learn to fly… and when i saw the hex preview i was soooo excited… BUT NOOOO they had to put it on hold:( NOW THATS A HUGE TURNOFF….
For this season… its more disappointing then the previous… IMO this show is crap without lex… it started brilliantly showing alot of potential… but things spiral downwards after the lana-imba powers-kryptonite absorption arc…. huge huge disappointment:(
As for the season finale… i mean wow the fight i ve been waiting for the whole time ended before it even started… someone mentioned this before…. they spent 8 mins to kill fake jimmy (no offense i dont really care bout his death… they could have left it as a cliffhanger) BUT SOMEONE DECIDED to cut short the doomsday fight… EVEN THE BIZZARO/CLARK fight was WAYYYY more interesting to watch IMO….
But as a fan of this series i really hope the writers will wake up and try to make a better season:) sorry for the ranting….
I did not notice the black kryptonite in Doomsday’s hand. I watched the scene a few more times and could not really tell if that was just his fist or if he had something in it. That would make total sense, it could mean the Kryptonian side (Kal El) was who talked with Chloe. Also, it could also be why he “flew” with Doomsday (that was no jump). Clark cannot control flight, but Kal El can (Season 4).
Clark does not wear red and blue as much this season (in Clark mode), as that is reserved for “the red blue blur,” so I did not think of the suit that much at the end (he has been wearing that a good portion of the season).
I did wonder why he vanished in the doorway when he was talking with Chloe, and why she said the JL disappeared, when they were at Jimmy’s funeral- that did not make sense to me, but it does leave Chloe totally alone- perhaps in another reality?
Yes, the fight was short, but they had ALOT crammed into this episode- looking forward to Season 9 to clear up some holes!
Started watching this show after word of Doomsday being on it reached my ears. Now I know why I haven’t watched if before. Every episode has 5 minutes of great stuff and the rest is all filler. This show could be great, but they need to get rid of Chloe! Seriously, what good is she, other than the filler. Had great hopes for this show, but ended up disappointed. Just like the very beginning of each show which says ” Previously on “, had scenes that never even existed…….. Unless I’m missing something, I’m not wasting any more time on this… unless they quit treating the viewers like we are sooo stupid, and give us what we want to see!
EVERYTHING it said was on previously was in previous episodes. Did you watch all of them?
I really need to get this off my chest.
The opening sceen was awfull, its like they just realised they still needed the ring so they scripted it in. Clark destroyed one becuase he dint want it, so why not give it him did he not give it back???? Why did Rokk not stay and help???
What was Green Arrow planing to do with his bow and arrow when davis changed to domsday??? it would not have even scrached him.
The “fight” was rubbish, and Clark jumps that far with doomsday (luckely in the right directon) you might as well say he flew there.
If Doomsdays is so bad why dint he kill Chloe, Davis and the justice league, instead he went for a walk.
In the tower at the end Chloe said that the Justice league were missing even though she just saw them at the funeral and Clark said he dint have time to save anyone. Were they ghosts at the funeral?
And then Clark fades away??????
For years we have seen Lex’s(now Tess’s)people tack down missing people in other countries, find the fourtress, and alien space ships. And yet Tess ordered her people to find the orb, but they dint think to look right outside the window of the room the orb was kept????
Really bad last few episodes.
If they are in fact following the comic (as in they didn’t deviate as much as we thought they did) then ‘Clark Kent’ and Doomsday is not dead, yet. Clark Kent was supposed to die as ‘Superman’ during the battle with Doomsday right, also, in the arms of ‘Lois Lane’? I don’t think they’ll be able to afford losing a scene of Superman dying in Lois Lane’s arms in Smallville… But then, it’s Smallville. Smallville is supposed to be the story of Clark Kent, before he became Superman.
This idea would’ve been perfect if it wasn’t because Rokk told ‘Clark Kent’ “Tomorrow is the day you die.” and this is where I’m confused as it does not seem to fit in the story.
So then, Clark died, but apparently, he did not. Or maybe like what the rest has said, the Clark Kent we saw in the finale (after Jimmy’s funeral ceremony) was in fact, bizzaro, or one of the four clones of Superman after his death. Again, I don’t think Clark Kent has died and the idea of his clones (or bizarro) appearing does not seem probable… He’s not even in his red underwear yet.
LOL
Season 9, let’s see the writers working hard on that. The finale could probably be… you know? Not what we think it is. Maybe the finale happened because of what Lois did in the future i.e. she altered something? Who knows. Let’s see what they are up to. Good luck to the writers though. Playing with the concept of time-travel isn’t as easy as introducing new villains and heroes to the series. When is the season 9 premiere again? I need a date.
LOL
@Ian – Clark did not fade away IMO. It’s just… you know? Movies? A transition from one scene to another? The scene where he fades away simply means he has walked away ‘from Chloe’ (and probably from his past). It’s not like he literally vanished or something. Why would anyone get the idea he did? IF he literally vanished Chloe’s jaws would drop to the ground, and stay there forever. LOL.
(==)
And Rokk did not stay because err… maybe you should re-watch it? He said something like he’s taking a very big risk to travel back in time to warn Clark as in he could alter the future. If he even stayed and helped… What would happen?
And I think Green Arrow did it because… it was the only way he could defend himself?
For everything else you said I agree more or less but I have the feeling that Clark really flew. It’s telekinesis or something. He probably learned it without knowing in desperation. I don’t understand why Doomsday did not kill them (JL) either but he defintely did not go for a walk. He was rampaging the streets of metropolis…? Another unbelievable scene when Doomsday was rampaging the streets was when he/she/whatever has that little girl choking with his hands. Shouldn’t doomsday be so strong the little girl would die almost immediately?
Season 9!
OK. Here we go. I always thought the casting of Jimmy was too old so when they killed the character and Chloe gave Jimmy’s camera to his younger brother that explained a lot. “Maybe you’ll follow in your brothers footsteps…” Yes the fight was too short but I thought the destruction and the crying child was a good touch. Foreshadowing of future Superman battles to come. Bringing back Zod was a good touch. Zod will be the villain that this show needs to finish out the next one or two seasons left. My big question at this point is why isn’t Clark wearing the glasses yet? You would think that every one will recognize him as Superman in the future, he is an adult at this point. My theory is the Martian Manhunter will mind wipe every one after Clark puts on the glasses when he becomes Superman. I still enjoy the series and hope they can keep up the myth for the next few seasons.
“Maybe the finale happened because of what Lois did in the future i.e. she altered something?”
First time I’ve heard of altering the past by doing something in the future… it’s not a perfect science though
I wonder if this episode was written as the series finale, before signing on for season 9, then they added a lame cliff hanger (ie, Lois time traveling and Clark’s “death”). Take out the Legion showing up, the Zob orb, and Clark’s lame speech at the end, and you’re left with the Jimmy Olsen and Doomsday buried ready to be found to kill an adult Supes.
Zod’s orb? I thought the orb was made by Jor-El in case his son misuses his power? That’s the part of the story where im not impressed with. how can somethin jor-el needed to suppress his son’s power lead to the summoning of general zod…?
“maybe the finale happened because of wt lois did in the future” had me thinking…
and not to be on anyone’s side but we don’t really know a lot about time and how it works. so anything is probable. though it might sound abstract… and then you have all these dimensions proposed by string theory (and logic) and all… who knows… until everything has been proven otherwise no one can really say we cant alter the past by doing something in the future
right now we are simply making assumptions that we cannot change the past. what is the past? what is the future? does anyone really know?
ooppss offtopic ^^
BRING BACK DOOMSDAY!
The Clark Kent/Superman glasses/no glasses thing will NEVER work in the universe they’ve established on the show.
Vic
ok first everyone needs to stop say lois went to the future and changed a event ok you can’t change the past by going to the future!!
Season 8 started out with such promise. The guys who replaced Gough and Millar weren’t afraid to make it more like Superman and it was about time. They hit a major snag when they lost half of their cast for a handful of episodes. Where the heck were Jimmy, Lois, and Davis all that time (I know where the characters were – duh- where were the actors)? They were so desperate they brought back Lana (Lame) and possibly the real Michael Rosenbaum’s eyeball (not good enough).
The show never regained it’s momentum after that. Season 8 was simultaneously the best/worst season ever. It could have really been something… The ratings have been troublesome for the show this season. They were supposedly in danger of cancellation, so why then would they make all these glaring mistakes? Losing half your cast for a quarter of the season is inexcusable. If Rosenbaum didn’t want to shave his head, GET HIM A BALD CAP, and a raise while you’re at it; the man is brilliant! The finale was just the byproduct of how disorganized the show had become. If you’re afraid of cancellation, then make a finale that isn’t riddled with plot holes and delivers what the fans want.
If Clark had died like The Death Of Superman, that could have opened the door for four different Super-heroes to replace him in Season 9, only for Clark to triumphantly return midway through the season. Welling coulda played one of the fake Super-dudes in the interim; brilliant. Another reason for Warner Bros. failures is because they wanna make a spin-off before their Titanic Smallville sinks. Is it gonna be Flash, Green Arrow, Watchtower, Justice League? Who knows? Warner Bros. loves money, so why not a Batman; Dark Knight series? Not a teen crappy version, but a realistic, filmed in Chicago, with all the cool villains sorta Batman series. WB can call me, if they want any other genius ideas. If they want me to clean up Smallville, I’m gonna need $$$. Hire new writers, half comic book scribes and half TV drama writers. Change the name of the show to Metropolis, and start a new chapter.
PS. I am SO sick of Zod. Hasn’t he been taken care of in several incarnations already; boring.
i’ve been thinking it over for the past couple days and this is what i’ve come up with…
Smallville is not the story of Superman. It’s the story of what all happens before he is superman. so nothing is going to happen to him what happens in the comics because he’s not that character yet. the only actual thing that smallville needs to follow is that characters.
that clark doomsday fight was not an epic battle for a reason; it wasn’t supposed to be. Clark asks Oliver where doomsday went because they were just going to put him in the hole and blow him up. but he got away. so calrk went out to find him and bring him back to the geotheral facility, which is exactly what he did. he was not set out to battle doomsday. he just a little over his head when doomsday started punching the crap out of him. having enough of it (much like in the comics when superman asks doomsday if that was all he had), he grabs doomsday and jumps(possibly flies) him to the facility where they carry out their plan.
i also think the only reason they brought doomsday to smallville was because they didn’t think the show would go on to a ninth season, but it is. so i doubt we’ve seen the last of doomsday, or the fights between them.
and who says lois went to the future. it never shows it. if uyou ask me she’s probably sent back to a pivital point in smallville history… say, a certain mereor shower… or a certain bridge accident. think about that if she sees clark on the bridge and gets his attention, one of them could be like “oh no! a roll of stuff that fell off of a truck is on the road. i should move it before the bald guy in that porche wrecks”… or not.
also if one of the reasons micheal rosenbaum isn’t returning is because of his hair… i seem to recall that in the movies lex wore a wig… alot(until the end of the first one)
i read about a batman series up there… Smallville stared off as Batman. they wanted to do a show about young bruce wayne. but somehow it turned into young clark kent
Zod coming back after being defeated already… Zod hates Clark. He will stop at nothing to destroy the last kryptonian. so yeah, he’s gonna try everything in the book to try to kill clark
Changing the name of the show… The title “Smallville” (being a clever anem because that’s where clark spent all of his time) is not only for the name of his childhood town. If you notice the nickname that Lois refers to Clark as is “Smallville”. So to me the title isn’t just for the town, it’s for him (Clark). If they changed it to “metropolis” then people would throw a fit every time he’d go back to smallville
The JL disappearing… probably means that they’re lying low for a while on account of feeling bad that jimmy died because davis.
Davis is not human. The human side of Davis is nothing but human EMOTIONS in a body. Anyone who says that they thought it was lame that davis tried so hard not to be evil and turned out to be evil should look at his tactics for not becoming “the beast”. He KILLED people. That’s pretty bad. Not the monster, him.
my point in all this is, the show’s not over yet. Give time to get better. and give the writers a break. what if the original writers said “oh we’re moving on” and threw the franchise in your face and said good luck? It wouldn’t be a very easy thing to do.
yes, the finale could’ve been better, but it’s hard to write 22 episodes of something without the guys who started it.
and the way clark vanished… someone already brought it up, but it didn’t seem to click with some people. Clark’s fade out is what we call “symbolism” he didn’t actually fade away :p
there definitly has to be another full Justice League episode in season 9 though. no more of this just a few characters here and there stuff
I don’t know what happened…the orb, the fight, the jimmy death, the ring, the ending! OMG! Enough.
I hope next season is the last season. I think that’s all I can take before I remove Smallville from my que!