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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There was a chemistry between Kristen’s Lana and wellings’ Clark that does not exist with Lois or at least not to that degree. With Lana gone the primary reason why I got hooked to the series is gone. Another reason was the magnetic villain Lex and his complex relationship with Clark which is gone as well. with so many disappointments, I had reduced myself to waiting for the confrontation with doomsday, but it seems they ran out of budget after the first punch was thrown…… nothing left I suppose.
when they end this show they should get Clark and Lana together because the chemistry is just too strong to follow the comic books version. lets hope there is a happy ending to this fictional tale. After all we watch TV to get what is rarely found in real life.
Chloe’s healing power was dissolved when Brainiac got her at the end of season 7. She says about how she doesn’t have that ability anymore in season 8 episode 1 (when she tries to heal Clark after Oliver shot him)
Has anybody even watched the show before?
Foopher…
we are watching the show….
Chloe power didn’t work on Clark, it worked on human only….
Shabs…
Clark didn’t have powers. He was human (well pretty much)
Chloe actually says aloud “it’s not working” and she’s all shocked
I think the biggest problem with the episode was how ambiguous they left a lot of the scenes… for instance after CK does the flying tackle and the two of them land in a big explosion. They didn’t leave us any clues as to wether we’re to take it at face value or if something more happenned that we didn’t see.
Also at the end as Clark is walking away and he “fades out”… I understand the point that it could merely be an artistic choice, a “symbolic fading” if you will, but because this series has never ever used symbolism or artsy shots like that before then how were we to recognize it? Surely they didn’t intend for us to just be confused at that. I, for one, thought that when he faded out suddenly Chloe realised she had been talking to a ghost, or somethink along those lines. (Never read many Superman comics, so I’m unfamiliar with the 4 Clones or the Eradicator, but after reading some comments above I think it’s a sound theory.)
And more confusion- as mentioned before, Chlose says the League has been missing, yet they were clearly at the funeral, weren’t they? The way the episode was directed again made that bit seem like an unintentional mistake rather than foreshadowing things to come in S9.
During the first few seasons I thought Smallville was going great and living up to it’s potential, but I think it’s starting to fall apart now that they’re getting close to the point where Clark has to don the tights and cape. Yes, the glasses-as-clark and the kiss-curl-as-supes isn’t gonna work in this universe they’ve created, and neither, I think, is the suit. Compound that with the fact that most of the characters are either aggrivating or “emo” (They seem to have passed Batsie’s dark-and-brooding mantle to Ollie Queen, and Dinah seems more brattish than feisty) and it’s just not holding together very well anymore.
And besides the occasional pop into Clark’s barn, the show doesn’t seem to spend much time anymore in it’s titular town!
Still gonna watch Season 9, though. I do love me that Erica Durance. And I find Sam Witwer completely fascinating, so here’s hoping he returns as Zod!
I am not the least bit excited about the new season, and will probably use Wikipedia just to find out what happens. Why? I am completely annoyed with the “Smallville Maneuver”. This is an action most fans should be familiar with: the plot finally advances and something mildly exciting/entertaining happens only to be undone by another time traveling act! How many times will this happen? If Krypton had the ability to make time travel possible, why not save your stupid planet? Go back in time thirty years, play “Armageddon”, win.
Clark’s character has been overdeveloped to the point he’s almost robotic. Tom Welling has nothing new to work with. Chloe needs to be hit by a truck again because seeing her in agony was one of the only driving parts of the season. Don’t worry, Sam Witwer will be back,thankfully (he rocked the “Force Unleashed”) and Jimmy Olsen(Aaron Ashmore is another good catch) will too as they are brought back to life to repeat a cycle of changes which has not progressed since season two.
i didn’t LOVE the season finale but i didn’t hate it…i enjoyed some things but others weren’t written well. I’ll watch season 9 because i want to know what happens and also because it’s THEIR version of how superman came to be so it’s obviously going to be different then the comics.
@matthew
people told me that these deaths were going to stick…so i don’t think aaron ashmore will becoming back…only sam witwer (maybe) because he will play zod
I have been watching Smallville since beginnning and I have to say that at this point I just watch show because I need to watch it end out; otherwise the last 8 years of watching this show would have been a waste of my time and my life (which realistically speaken they have been at least as far as this show goes.
Now, I am not your typical comic book geek. i really do not know anything about the comics aside from a few chracters and some of the major plots but I have to say this show has gone beyond the boundaries of stupidity and will forever remain this way.
Doomsday can have his human and alien self seperated? What? That makes less than any sense.
How did these writers not pick up on the fact that misleading teh audience to believe that the character on the show was teh actual Jimmy Olsen for teh past sereval seasons would not bother anyone? Obviously these writers have the intellectual capacity of small farm animals and will have NO credibility when the show ends which is why they are continually dragging it on and on.
Tom Welling, you CANNOT act which is the primary reason you will keep on signing on for additional seasons. DId anyone see the fog? Or how about Cheaper by the dozen, not to mention cheaper by the dozen 2. You are at best a D list actor…milk it as long as you can my friend, maybe directing will work out better for you.
The show went outh for me after the 100th episode “reckoning”. So Lana dies and Clark is heartbroken and you can milk the entire season off of this premise. Instead, the writers decide to introduce the ridiculously obsurd concept of time travel and Clark goes back in time and Lana is miracously saved and his father takes her place. THIS IS THE EPISODE THE SHOW WENT SOUTH.
Then a couple of writers left because they ran out of story…throw in a couple of new baddies, bad plot lines, supergirl, the absense of Lex and you are introduced to the season 8 finale which could not be more accurately titled “Doomsday” as is this is the culmination and obsolute doomsday of the franchise and everything it stood for.
End the show, it is unsalvigable at this point.
Come on Lana has super powers. Where is the hell is Lex, is he dead? Jimmy Olsen is god knos where. Who honestly cares about Cloe anymore? How many superheros (aquaman, oq, clark) is Lois going to hook up with? Teenage superheros from the future? Numerous time travel rings? Where is Clarks mom (iknow the actress signed off the show)? Where is Bizzaro, just hanging around somehwere? Did we not do this whole Zod thing already a couple of seasons ago? Who is her Lord Voldemort and has he left seven horcruxes out there for him to bring himself back everytime? How many different colors of of kryptonite do we have now? Is the actor that plays Davis Bloom going to play Zod too now? And how long is this fight going to be three fists and a shove?
GIMME a BREAK AND END THIS SHOW
to answer some of ur dump questions bizzaro is dead he got kill in season 7 everyone basicly knew Davis was going 2 play zod when his mother zods wife told him he looked just like his FATHER
Bizarro got the crap blow out of him with blue kryptonite in season 7. Nobody says you have to watch it; so stop complaining when it doesn’t go the way you wanted it to in your imagination.
We all know the season finale could’ve been better, but that’s what happens when the original writers leave along with key actors. I thought the season went much better than anyone would’ve expected with the shows creators and acotrs gone.
I have a feeling that Lana will be back to clear up her story. Other than that i’m happy she wasn’t in this season. With her on the show it wasn’t about Superman, it was “Clark’s Creek” (the broken bed in “Requiem”)
Anyway, pretty sure the writers have plans for season 9 and it’s not just gonna be “oh no, chloe’s alone, the JL’s gone forever, Where’s Lois? Boo-hoo”. No. They’ve got something up they’re sleeve. Let’s just hope it’s for the better.
Tasouli, you raise some legitimate complaints, heck I agree with a lot of them, but many of those issues have actually been resolved in past episodes, or are simply mirroring the comics:
These include:
1) No, Bizarro’s not just hanging around somewhere, like the others have said, he died in Season 7.
2) Where’s Lex? He got blown up by Oliver, I mean they’ve talked about it in half a dozen episodes (of course if they can talk Michael Rosenbaum into returning they’ll find some way to revive him). This also begs the question who the heck is Clark going to fight once he actually becomes Superman? I mean they’re killing off villains left and right (Brainiac, Bizarro, Lex) and he’s not even in the suit yet.
3) Teenage superheroes from the future? Yes, they’re called the Legion of Superheroes and they’re straight out of the comics. If you want to think they’re ridiculous, that’s fine, but the show’s just following the source material.
4) And yes, the members of this team possess superpowered rings. However, in the comics they only granted the ability to fly , they had a seperate device, called the Time Bubble, which they used to time travel. The writers of the show merely decided to combine the two.
5) Yes, the different colors of Kryptonite are also from the comics. I realize they seems somwhat gimicky and tend to redult in a lot of Deus-ex-Machina scenarios, but this is another instance where they’re merely following the source material (with a few slight alterations).
6) I don’t think it’s been officially announced, but I think it’s pretty clear from the finale that Sam Witwer will also be playing Zod. Personally I don’t think he’s all that amazing as an actor and I think it’s ridiculous that Davis would look JUST like his dad. However, the producers can’t please everyone and a lot of fans seem to be happy Witwer’s returning so I guess overall it was a good call on the showrunners’ part.
So hopefully that clears some things up. Like I said, you actually bring up a lot of good points that I agree with (for instance I think you’re spot on about Episode 100 being when the show really took a dive, and that even if Anette O’Toole is no longer a regular they should at least have her cameo now and again because it’s pretty unrealistic that Clark would have no contact at all with his mother). However, in a lot of these cases you really can’t fault the show too much since they’re either working with pre-exisiting source material or trying to work around the departure of a central actor/actress.
luke319, agree with it all. but if zod created davis then who’s to say that he didn’t create him in his own image.
And to whoever was complaining about clark’s fade out being symbolism and the show never having symbolism in it before; i’ve been rewatching every episode from season 1 with my gf so that she understands what’s happening and i see lots of symbolism. The most recent one that i can think of is in season 5 “LEXMAS”. At the end the image of his mother is behind/beside him and then “fades away”. So yeah, definitely not anything new to the show, sorry.
And to answer the question; there are 5 types of kryptonite
Also just to clear it up;
It’s spelled: Chloe, Jimmy, Lois, Clark
I can’t count how many times i’ve seen Chloie and Jimmie and Louis and Chlark (just throwing that out there)
And i read someone question; why clark doesn’t go back in time and save krypton?
Because… on krypton clark would have no powers; it’s the yellow sun that gives him his abilities. And, i don’t see how anyone could stop a super nova from happening.
To the topic of creating a Bruce Wayne/Batman show, there really isn’t anything to tell about him in a show about his childhood that wasn’t already told in EVERY movie
Can you imagine the geek meter reading if during an episode, Oliver Queen has a business meeting with Bruce Wayne? LOL.
Ya’all know that WatchTower that Chloe started manning?
In the comics, Bruce Wayne funded that. I doubt we’ll ever see Bats in this show. Oliver Queen is their Batman / Bruce Wayne stand in.
B
Although i do think it would be cool if they mentioned him. As Andy S said, in a meeting with Oliver
bruce should be mentioned, but shouldn’t take up the batman mantle in the show
IF they mention Bats in this show, I bet the next week there is a 50% spike in viewership.
Speaking of Batman, how cool would it be to have another Batman TV series? “Tales of the Dark Knight” or something. Not campy like Adam West and Burt Ward, but kinda a cross between Smallville and Batman Begins….
Actually, believe it or not Gough and Millar originally wanted to make a young Bruce Wayne series instead. However, Warner Bros. shot the idea down because they were planning on rebooting the Batman film series so instead they agreed to make a young Clark Kent series.
I had heard that, Luke. I still think it would be something cool to do, though. I mean Smallville was on before Superman Returns, right?
Foopher, I agree with most everything you have said. Thanks for clearing up so many things. Seems like some are watching sporadically or not paying attention because they are not making any sense, or don’t know what they are talking about. Or watching a show they hate. Why? It’s like viewers either love it or love to hate it. Either way, it’s a huge success, lasting for 8+ years. Plenty of goosebump moments.
I’ve always thought of the Smallville version as “the rest of the story.” I don’t care about another retelling of the story of the Man of Steel- been there done that. I want the details of Clark’s life on the farm, his family, friends,loves, and his enemies. His journey to becoming the Super Hero and why he uses his powers for good instead of evil. Don’t care about the tights. But I am looking forward to seening him fly and patiently awaiting.
Andy, yeah I could never figure that out either. Why did the studio veto a Batman TV series but encourage one based on Superman when they were planning reboots of both films? And yet, that was supposedly their reasoning.
The story of superman’s beginings was something that isn’t familiar to many people. Batman’s childhood is well known. Everybody knows his parents were shot and that’s what makes him want to stop people like that (it’s shown in every movie pretty much). There’s no need for a batman show unless it would be while he is batman and there are plenty of those.
Tricia, thank you for agreeing with me. means alot that you’ve actually read what i’ve posted and it has actually sunk in.
Again (for everyone who it hasn’t sunk in yet), the scene with chloe and clark where she says that the JL are missing, takes place AFTER the funeral. Time has passed by between the funeral scene and the watchtower scene; enough for the JL to slip into hiding and not answer any of chloe’s calls or however she has been trying to get a hold of them.
Another thing… i honestly liked the episode RECKONING. To me it was the episode that showed clark no matter what he does or what he can do (even time traveling) he can’t save everyone and there are always consequences. The whole time traveling aspect is a big part of the DC mythology right; i mean he does it in “Superman: the movie”
And to all the people still ranting over the Doomsday fight; if you want to see a battle, buy the animated movie.
But just out of curiousity, Tricia, what don’t you agree with?
I do think that they should at least make a reference to bruce wayne though, and also wonder woman. They’re both big members of the JL after all. They also need to give martian manhunter his powers back and make him look all green and alienish
No matter what anyone says, the writers are most certainly “sticking to the comics”. They even had writers from the comics write episodes. So if you have a problem with it not going with the comics, complain to the guys who wrote the comics for not following the comics :p