As we rejoin the story where it left off last season, Clark is mostly dead on the streets of Metropolis. He chats with Jor-El in a cornfield about fate and fighting evil and whatnot, then Lois pulls the blue Kryptonite dagger out of his body and he's pulled back into the land of the living. He doesn't see her do this, though, so the rest of their interactions this episode consist of Lois making hints and Clark not getting them. Meanwhile, Chloe is trying to figure out who abducted Oliver and instead of enlisting Clark's aid, she puts on Dr. Fate's helmet. She sees that Oliver will be fine (despite being tortured in the nude for a while) but also sees that one of Lex's old projects, Cadmus Labs, is on fire.
Cadmus Labs turns out to be where Lex was growing a bunch of clones of himself to harvest for healthy body parts. Most of the clones went horribly, horribly wrong, as Tess Mercer finds out when she suddenly wakes up there with her face healed by the miracle of clone parts. She rescues an adorable little carrot-top clone named Alexander when one of the "bad" Lex clones escapes and sets everything on fire. This new Lex is sort of old and sick, but also pretty damn crazy and, bestowed with the real Lex's memories, abducts Lois and strings her up like a scarecrow in the cornfield of Clark's youth. Chloe directs Clark to the cornfield where he very nearly kills sick old Lex with his bare hands. Lex has set it up so that Clark has to choose between saving Lois and stopping an explosion in Metropolis. Clark, of course, saves everyone and goes so far as to brag to Jor-El about it. Jor-El's like, "You're a prideful, violent jerkass! Go away now! Also, a darker evil is coming! Again!"
Clark has some sort of hallucination/reverie and talks with the late, great Papa Kent, who spouts some familiar old platitudes at him and agrees with Jor-El about the impending new darkness. We get a glimpse of who/what it is, but nothing more. At the end, it turns out Oliver is safe because Chloe gives herself to Oliver's abductors in exchange for the Green Arrow's life. Lois, for some damn reason, decides to take Perry White up on that African job offer. Clark's future Super-suit sits waiting for him in the Fortress, for a time when Jor-El's not so annoyed with him.
Discuss this episode in our forums, then see what other superbeings have crossed Clark in our guide to the Heroes and Villains of Smallville! And see what our vlogger thinks about the show, below.
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Previously on Smallville: Clark started wearing the "S" on his shirts to remind himself of his destiny; he choked Tess, who seemed more reverent than mad; Clark played God and Papa Kent died; Dr. Fate told Clark that he would triumph over Lex, because he's also Dr. "Who Cares About Suspense?"; Lex kaploded; Dr. Fate told Chloe they walk the same path; Chloe and Oliver fell in love (I don't think Dr. Fate was on that path); Perry White offered Lois a job in Africa and Clark encouraged her to go; Zod melted half of Tess's face; Hawkman gave Clark a pep talk about his awesomeness; Clark got a super-suit from his mom; he kissed Lois as the Blur but she figured out who it really was; Oliver was attacked by mysterious foes; Clark fought Zod, took a blue-Kryptonite dagger to the gut, and fell backwards off a 50-story building while Zod got zapped to some alien world. Tom Welling's voice says, "And now... the final season of Smallville." I could be imagining it, but he sounds pretty relieved.
In the present day, Clark is still falling through the rain toward the streets of Metropolis. Lois comes running and finds him lying on the ground, looking none too worse for the wear except for maybe being mildly dead. At least he's not in a million hamburger-like globs, as one would except from such a fall. Lois drops to her knees beside him and cries in disbelief. She takes his face in her hands and begs him to come back. It's sort of distracting how tightly his eyes and lips are pressed together. You'd think the fall would have at least broken the watertight seal on his various orifices. There's a flash of light and Clark wakes up in a sunny field, his wound suddenly healed. He clambers to his feet and looks around. Looks like a normal cornfield, except for the weird streaming lights where the sky should be.
He follows a path in the corn and finds the cross where he once was strung up like a messianic scarecrow. There's a flash of light from above, and a bunch of crows scatter. Another flash of light delivers a small tombstone right behind Clark. He turns and gawks at it, seeing only the name "Kent" because some corn leaves are covering up the first name. Jor-El's disembodied voice calls to him. "Am I dead?" Clark asks. "You're teetering on the abyss between life and death," his space papa tells him, "which is why I'm still able to reach you." Clark walks over to the tombstone, assuming it's his father's, but pulling away the corn reveals it's his own. Jor-El tells him that once he dies, the stone will be all that's left of him in the world. Wrap it up in a black trench coat and you won't know the difference. Clark protests that he died to save the world. "EEE-VILL never ends," Jor-El says with a melodramatic flair. By sacrificing himself, Clark has left the humans vulnerable. Clark reminds his space papa that there are other heroes, but Jor-El insists Clark is supposed to be Earth's greatest protector. "Now, they're about to face the greatest EEE-VILL without you." Clark wants to be sent back. Clark says he knows he's meant to be a symbol of hope. "I told you to rule them with strength," Jor-El says. "But you chose the martyr's path." Dude, he thought it would make a cool slo-mo shot. Give your kid a break! Jor-El thinks maybe Clark doesn't deserve a second chance, but Clark's like Enrique Iglesias on steroids, punching the tombstone and shouting "I can be their hero!" There's a flash of light and Jor-El goes silent. Clark calls out, "Let me go back and fight this evil like I always have!" With shoddy planning and wavering motivation? He shouts some more, but then he notices someone in a white suit running through the cornstalks around him. A bald man steps into a clearing in front of Clark, his face shadowed by the sun behind him. "Lex," Clark says.
He flashes back into his body still lying on the streets of Metropolis, where Lois is pulling the blue K dagger out of his torso. She tosses it aside. The sun starts to peek out through the storm clouds and Clark stirs. Assured that he's coming to, Lois skedaddles and hides sort of right in front of him, but he's too busy being alive to notice. He stands up, drinks in the sunlight for a moment as his wound instantly heals, and then super-zips away. Lois is nearly giddy with relief. Somebody save the dedicated viewers who spent nine years watching this show!
Watchtower is jutting just as proudly erect as ever, but Chloe's looking none too pleased. She's retrieved Oliver's sunglasses and camera from the satellite station. She whooshes the footage to one of her fancy monitors with a flick of her hand and replays Oliver's last few moments. The vent ceiling peels away above him as he hurriedly tells her the intruders aren't Kandorian. "I love you," he says, just as the patriotically decorated butt end of a rifle smashes him in the face. Chloe winces, not wanting to look, but another man's face comes into the camera shot. He's middle-aged with a vaguely military air about him. "We're coming for all of you," he says. The screen flips to static. Chloe's eyes fill with tears and her jaw clenches in fury. She marches over to a file cabinet and digs out an old-fashioned key. She looks at it for a long time, worried, then makes up her mind about something and pockets the key.
As she heads toward the door, Clark zips into the room and takes her by the shoulders. She's shocked he survived. His shirt is ruined, though. Poor shirt. Clark tells her what happened with Zod on the rooftop, then stammers out, "I... guess I kind of died." He wants to know if the others are okay. Chloe, for some reason, tells him everyone's fine. Then, with valuable Oliver-nabbing time wasting, she presses Clark for information about his dying. "It was more of a near-death experience," the big drama queen admits. He tells her Jor-El spoke to him. "He told me a greater evil was coming." No, he told you a greater EEE-VILL was coming. Clark says he was sent back to fight it. Chloe shouts, "Screw this shit! I'm busy fighting some damn evil on my own!" Actually, she asks for the evil's name. Clark doesn't know, but he did see Lex before he was sent back. "Dr. Fate said he would be my ultimate opponent," Clark says. Chloe heads to one of her computers and starts trying to figure out where an undead Lex might be holed up. Girl, you have got more pressing matters. Go save your super-hot boyfriend before someone messes up his pretty face! Instead, she checks through all of Lex's old labs and assorted facilities, but nothing noteworthy turns up. They wonder if Lex revived something from the olden days, back before there were digital records. She tells Clark to check the Daily Planet archives, because what's more fun than watching characters run around from place to place? Clark zips away.
Lois is already there, reading through old online issues of the Smallville High Torch. They have a dinky high school newspaper online, but not records of Lex's mystery facility? Whatever, show. Lois reads about that time Lana got attacked at the pool with a sudden clarity about Clark's heroism, even though that particular article wasn't actually about Clark. Then she clicks to an article about Pete being kidnapped, but I don't remember that episode (or Pete, really) at all. She keeps clicking through articles, all written by Chloe, and realizes she's the last one to know the super-secret. For a second, I dread a scene where she accosts Clark because the show seems to think it's cute when she's rude and noisy, but for once she doesn't even seem miffed. Good move. Lois hears a telltale whoosh behind her and closes all the articles. Clark walks in, surprised she's there instead of in Africa. I'm surprised the newsroom is so quiet. Did no one in the entire city notice the big, otherworldly beam of light in the sky the night before? Lois throws her arms around his shoulders. "I postponed my trip," she says. "Maybe indefinitely." He notices some Blur-related research on the table and goes fishing: "This wouldn't have anything to do with the Blur, would it?" She teases him about how the Blur wrapped his "muscular arms" around her and gave her the most passionate kiss. She says the kiss was great, which makes Clark smile a little. He hides his smile and looks at her. "That was bold," he says. Lois wonders what other "twisted little fetishes" the Blur might have. Does celibacy count? Lois asks him why he's there. Comedic music plays, and it's so annoyingly clowny that I expect someone in a rainbow wig to ride by on a unicycle. How very little I've missed you, obvious soundtrack. He lies about working on a story. Lois pointedly drops her pen and crawls under the table. I would complain about her transparent ruse, but Clark's jeans are doing a whole caravan's worth of camel toes in this shot, and it's totally distracting me. She spends plenty of time under the table, allowing him the opportunity to whoosh over to the file cabinets with about as much subtlety and silence as a 747 on takeoff. "Lucky for me, it was right here on top of these files," Clark says. Lois, having retrieved her pen, smiles knowingly. He tries to leave, but she calls him back. "We need to talk," she says. They make a date to meet in the barn later.
On his way out of the Planet, he calls Chloe and tells her about a file he found on Cadmus Labs. He asks her to find an address for him. "Go look it up your own damn self," Chloe says in my mind. On my TV, she tells him she's not at Watchtower. The scene cuts to Chloe, who's at that Justice Society museum that anyone on the streets can just walk into even though it's full of dangerous crap. Some of the dangerous crap is, in fact, whispering to Chloe right now. "She's here," Nabu's now-familiar voice intones. "Foolish girl." Even Clark hears it now. He looks worried as the voice goes on to whisper about how dangerous love is. It's a battlefield, according to Pat Benatar. "Chloe, where are you?" Clark asks, panicked. Chloe apologizes, but says, "I knew you'd only try to stop me." Clark stares and frets. He stares some more. Chloe hangs up and very slowly unlocks the glass case that holds Dr. Fate's helmet. She spends about a thousand years looking at it, picking it up, and staring at it. Clark, despite being in the same city, has not yet whooshed into the scene. "Show me where Oliver is," Chloe says. "Would you sacrifice your sanity to save the Archer?" Nabu asks. I guess the answer is "yes," because the helmet glows and the metal morphs around Chloe's head. She has her visions during a commercial break, and then...
Clark finally puts two + Nabu together and comes up with the museum. By the time he arrives, Chloe's already passed out on the floor, the mask lying on the rug beside her. He cradles her head and whispers her name.
Oliver is in some dank, dark underground lair somewhere, wearing naught but a blindfold and the chains that bind him to a chair. Oliver's glistening nudity is a bit difficult to enjoy, though, seeing as how he's currently getting the snot punched out of him by the abductor we saw earlier. As is his wont, Oliver cracks wise in the face of unrelenting abuse: "I think this whole thing would be a lot more painful if I could see your ugly face." He suggests getting rid of the blindfold and going "full monty." His creepy captor's not down with that. (Forum posters have surmised this guy is Rick Flag of the Suicide Squad, but he's not given a name in this ep.) Creepy thinks it's only fair that Oliver remain blind, much like the rest of the world when "cryptic symbols" were carved into Earth's monuments. He's suspicious because all the world's satellites were shut down except Oliver's. He pokes Oliver right in the chest for emphasis. Oliver makes more jokes, but Creepy ignores him. Instead, he goes on about how the symbols were like the Blur's (except they really weren't) so now the Blur is a "person of interest." Clark being seen as a bad guy is potentially interesting, but I won't get my hopes up. Creepy wants to know what Oliver's connection to everything is. Oliver insists he's one of the good guys, just out to save the world. "I'd tell you what from, but you wouldn't believe me." But Creepy is open-minded and wants to hear more. Oliver cracks jokes about "little green guys from outer space" and gets punched some more. Creepy ups the ante with a little electro-torture. Let's see ya make jokes now, Greeny.
We cut to what must be the aforementioned Cadmus Labs, filled with racks of glass jars containing globular, gooey, and generally gross-looking specimens. Tess Mercer is lying on a table in the middle of the lab, her body covered from the bosom down with a rumpled sheet. Her eyes blink-blink and she sits up with a start. She turns toward the camera and we see her full face for the first time, the left half of which is covered with what looks like rubber vomit. She touches her cheek and rushes over to a glass case to look at her reflection. She starts peeling at her face like she's in Poltergeist. Beneath the rubber vomit she finds her usual peaches-and-cream complexion and not the burnt horror Zod left her with. She touches her face in disbelief, then catches sight of one of the jars in the case, its "Cadmus Labs" label obviously familiar to her. She puts on a lab coat and starts toward a door, pausing when she sees shadowy motion beyond. She runs out into a hallway where there's a row of glass and steel chambers. Liquid burbles inside. She wipes the condensation off one chamber. A deformed human face presses against the glass. She jumps back. The body inside has an umbilical cord and stunted limbs. The chamber is labeled "Lx4." She hears something shuffling across the room and follows the sound to a metal door. If it had been me, I would have gone running in the other direction, but Tess opens the door. A child hides in the shadows within. "I won't hurt you," she assures the child. "What's your name?" He moves slowly out of the shadows, his red hair glinting in the dim light, and says, "I'm Alexander." Dun, dun, DUN.
Tess leads the adorable little Alexander by the hand through the hall of horrors. He explains that they're all his brothers. He holds his hand up to one of the chambers and his misshapen sibling within mirrors the gesture. Tess realizes they're all Lex clones. "We were made to heal the Creator," little Alexander explains. "Just like we healed you." Tess touches her face. Alexander lifts up his pajama top and shows her a big bandage on his abdomen, beneath which a palm-sized square of flesh is missing. "Not all of us turned out okay," Alexander goes on to say. "Some of us came out sick. Some of us aged too fast." He turns back to the chamber and holds his hand up to his brother's again. The twin, a grown man, has wisps of red hair in an otherwise bald scalp, and terribly sad eyes. It's all so horrible and so beautiful. Why couldn't the whole episode be this? Tess hears insistent knocking coming from another cell and goes to open it. Alex calls out, "No, that's where they keep the bad one!" But the door's already open and a wiry arm snakes out to grab Tess around the throat. An older, Nosferatu sort of Lex emerges and shoves Tess up against one of the chambers. He recognizes her, calling her by name. He has all of Lex's memories, he says, and all his emotions, too. "I know how much you care about me," he whispers creepily in her ear. Blood drips from his nose. When he reaches up to wipe it off, Tess elbows him in the face and tells little Alexander to hide. Crazy old Lex grabs a gas tank and sets the lab on fire. "There can be only one Lex Luthor," he says. Tell that to Michael Rosenbaum.
Watchtower. Emil Hamilton examines an unconscious Chloe while Clark paces. He takes her hand and says softly that she's the strongest person he knows. He tells her to keep fighting. "Don't give up," he tells her. Those must be the magic words, because she twitches and starts whispering about fires burning everything. She sits up, panting for breath. "I've got to find him," she says. Finally she tells her super-powered best friend that Oliver was taken by someone who threatened to take all of them. She takes a long, shuddering breath. "That's why I put on Dr. Fate's helmet; I couldn't lose him." She calms down a bit, because she remembers seeing that Oliver would be fine. And that's not all she saw: "I saw you, Clark. You were the world's hero and you weren't in black." She goes over the visions in her head and remembers seeing Cadmus Labs on fire. She tells him to go. He zips away and her eyes tear up. "Bye, Clark," she whispers like it might be forever.
Kent Farm. Lois is waiting in Clark's old loft, looking at a framed picture of the two of them that is not very flattering to his hairline. She sees the gift his mother left him and even though the box is clearly labeled for Clark, Lois decides to have a peek inside. Upon seeing the suit from Superman Returns she sighs happily and says, "So much better in technicolor." Eh. She hears steps behind her and quickly closes the box. "I was beginning to think you wouldn't make it," she says, then gets a baseball bat to the head. She slumps to the floor. Bad Lex stands over her and says, "Wouldn't have missed it for the world." time, try saying the witty comeback before your victim loses consciousness.
Cadmus Labs. It's not so much on fire as it is wrecked. Jillions of wires and tubes hang from the ceiling. The tube chambers are broken, their residents dead inside. Clark zips inside, looks at the damage, then follows the sound of rattling to the lab. Tess is handcuffed to a table. Clark is surprised to see her there, out of the hospital with her face looking purty again. Tess tells him she doesn't know what happened or how she got there. Clark moves like he's going to release her, then stops. "Everyone else in the building is dead," he says. "Who did this?" "It was Lex," she says. When he looks doubtful, she goes on: "It was one of his clones." She tells him there were dozens of clones being incubated, waiting to be used to heal Lex's body. He breaks the cuffs. He wants to know why Tess is still alive. "He wanted me to give you a message," she says. Bad Lex knew Clark would come to save her and then it would be time for them to face off. "He's in Lawson's field," she says. Clark moves his eyes around for a while.
Lawson's Field. Lois is strung up on Clark's old crucifix, her tank top emblazoned with a big red S. Bad Lex stands before her, quoting literature to her as Original Lex was once wont to do. He reminisces about finding Clark tied to the same post all those years ago, back when the show was better and more homoerotic. Lois is surprised to hear this bald stranger knows Clark. Bad Lex seethes about how Clark betrayed him, which makes Lois realize who she's dealing with. "What happened to you?" she asks with undisguised revulsion. "I've evolved," he says. Also, why is he bald? Original Lex's baldness wasn't a genetic trait that would be cloned. Why am I even wondering this? Lex calls Lois Clark's (and thus the Blur's) greatest weakness: "Your death will break him." He takes out a pocket lighter and sets the base of the cross on fire. Lois is left roasting through the commercial break.
Clark zips into the field, right up to Bad Lex, somehow missing the conflagration nearby. Clark and Bad Lex regard each other in silence for a while. "Where's the real Lex?" Clark asks. "The Creator died two years ago," Bad Lex says, then adds, pointedly, "A nasty truck explosion." He created the clones, but died before he could be healed by them. They talk about the time Clark saved Lex from the bridge. "Lex would have died if I hadn't pulled him from the car," Clark says. Bad Lex dings him for his pride, then touches the "self-righteous symbol" on Clark's chest. So that's what the "S" stands for! Bad Lex says they both have a darkness in their hearts. "Just like me, you are your own worst enemy." Clark pulls Bad Lex's hand away from his chest. "I'm nothing like you." Oy. This is another one of those talky scenes this show is so fond of, filled with back-and-forth closeups of people's faces. Bad Lex bitches about Clark some more while Clark's expression grows increasingly twitchy. "The only reason why anyone ever calls you 'hero' is because you clean up the disasters you unleash." Clark's twitch explodes into a full rage as he grabs Bad Lex by the throat and forces him to the ground. He chokes Bad Lex for a while then notices a trickle of blood coming from Bad Lex's nose. Clark freaks out and lets go. He backs away. Bad Lex admits he's dying: "But don't flatter yourself -- you didn't do it." Bad Lex says he's just sorry he won't live to see the world turn on the Blur. Clark gets back down in Bad Lex's face. "What did you do?" Lex tells him there's an explosion at the Daily Planet going on right now (how he timed it, no one will ever know) but Clark will have to choose between saving the people of Metropolis or Lois. "Even you aren't fast enough to save both," Bad Lex says. Clark shouts, "Where is she?" Bad Lex tells him it's where he first saved Clark. Just follow the overpowering smell of barbecue; you can't miss it. With that, Bad Lex lets out a little gasp and expires.
Clark zips over to the cross where Lois is somehow not burned up like a Cajun catfish. Weirdly, he whooshes around, stamping out the fire and then pulls her down off the cross. He lays her down in a clearing, then zips off toward Metropolis. There's an explosion at the base of the Daily Planet's signature globe. Since people drive back and forth from Smallville to Metropolis all the time in a matter of minutes, it's no surprise that Clark is able to speedily reach the city. His trip is chronicled for us in slo-mo, first as he zooms through the crowded street and then as he unnecessarily uses a parked taxi as a springboard. He vaults into the air, catches the globe, and then rockets it back up to the roof. He poses there with the world on his shoulders like a moody Atlas, much to the cheering adoration of the crowd below.
Sometime later, he zips back to his old loft and starts to take the new suit out of its box. Before he can put it on, though, an octagonal shape begins to glow beneath the cover of a nearby book. (It's The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, for those keeping score at home.) The glow zaps both him and the suit to the Fortress of Solitude. Clark stands there, still in his regular Emo Blur getup, and calls out, "I defeated Lex!" He gets no reply, so he goes on, raising his voice: "I refused to let him win!" Clark says he pushed himself harder than he ever has before, which doesn't seem quite right. He smiles and says he thought he was flying. "I saved everyone," he says. "I don't know how, but I saved them all!" Dude, you ran really fast, and Bad Lex was too busy dying to come up with a better plan. It's not that big a deal. But Clark thinks it means he's finally the hero that Jor-El meant for him to be. Jor-El finally speaks: "Pride... vanity... You almost took a man's life, and you dare tell me you're following the path I set out for you?" Well... yeah? The real Jor-El seemed pretty peace-loving, but the AI Jor-El is sort of a hawkish, contradictory dick. Clark's pissed because Jor-El sent him back to fight evil, and that's what he did. The Fortress rumbles. "The EEE-VILL is you, Kal-El," says Jor-El. He goes on about how some new darkness is coming and how it will prey on "wavering souls" like Clark's. "Once this darkness consumes you, you will be Earth's greatest enemy." Clark is disturbed. "You cannot be a beacon of hope with darkness in your heart," Jor-El says, because "darkness" is the word of the day. Clark and his extremely white teeth demand to know why Jor-El sent him back if that's the case. Jor-El says it wasn't his decision. Instead of asking just whose decision it was, Clark pouts about how the rest of the world sees him as a hero, even if his space papa doesn't. Jor-El is disappointed now because he thinks Clark will never be Earth's savior. He's so disappointed, in fact, that he turns off all the lights and gives Clark the silent treatment.
We rejoin Oliver in his dank torture chamber. There's a very long, very slow pan up the side of his naked, bloody torso. Normally, I'd be happy for the guided tour of Mount Nipple, but this is sort of gross. He's still blindfolded. His head slumps forward. His creepy interrogator slaps his face a bit, waking him. A rivulet of blood drips from Oliver's mouth. "It's your lucky day, Shamrock," says Creepy. "I'm letting you go." "Aw, I was kind of hoping for a goodbye kiss from you," Oliver cracks. Then he grows serious. "We're not done," he says. "I will hunt you, and I will find you. You understand?" Creepy's not frightened, seeing as how Oliver doesn't even know who he is. He takes off Oliver's blindfold then punches him out before he can see anything. Why is he trying so hard to conceal his identity now when he showed his face on that recorded message earlier? Who knows?
Stately Luthor Mansion. Little Alexander sits on the floor in front of the fireplace, playing with some of Original Lex's soldier toys. Tess watches him from the doorway for a moment as "One More Day" by Vast plays. (Yes, it's the second time this song has been used on this show, but it's a good song.) Her expression is a mix of fear and hope. She walks slowly over to Alexander, who beams up at her. She hands him a glass of milk and sits on the floor with him. As the camera pans away from them, it focuses on the fireplace, where one of the toy soldiers is burning. It would be nice to think that means Alexander will get the loving upbringing the original didn't, forsaking battlefields and such, but I wouldn't bet on it.
The music continues as we silently follow Oliver's barefooted exit from a black SUV, his head hooded, his hands bound. Two men lead him along a dark stretch of road. Parked across from them is another car. Another hooded prisoner gets out of the second car. Both Oliver and the mystery prisoner aregiven a shove toward the opposite cars. The two walk towards each other, both still hooded, and brush shoulders as they pass. Only when the second prisoner is concealed within the car is the hood removed and we see that it's Chloe who has swapped herself for Oliver. Lordy, this is sad.
Meanwhile, Lois has gone to Africa for that job. She smiles at a picture of her with Clark. Then she starts to cry, possibly because she's on top of a sand dune in the middle of a huge desert. Seriously, the overhead shot shows nothing for miles around. It's visually very pretty, though.
Kent Farm. Clark stands by the mailbox, reading a letter from Lois about taking the job. Aw, he's wearing a plaid shirt. When was the last time he wore one of those? He lets the letter fall from his hands. When he looks up, he sees Jonathan Kent working on the fence. He just about bursts into tears. "Dad! Are you real?" No, you've suffered an alien aneurysm and you're hallucinating. Enjoy it while it lasts, though. Jonathan tells him he never stopped watching out for him. Clark thinks his dad must be disappointed. "I haven't grown into the man you raised me to be." I don't know, you're short-tempered and judgmental, aren't you? "No, you haven't," Pa Kent says. Clark looks sad for a second, then his dad explains: "You are so much more than that." Clark's glad that at least one father is proud of him. Pa Kent keeps working on the fence. Is this a sign of how much Clark's been neglecting the farm? Now even his dead father has to finish his chores. Clark helps Pa Kent with the fence and talks about how he took his anger out on people. "I destroyed an entire building!" Yeah, but nothing came of it. "I know now that I have it within me to kill." Hasn't he almost-killed a lot already? And maybe actually-killed? He's a slow learner. Jonathan calms him with a platitude: "We all face trials, son. The true measure of a man is how he chooses to react in the face of those trials." Clark thinks his dad never had that problem, then Jonathan reminds him of how his own bad temper made his heart explode. "Lionel," Clark remembers. "But you were just trying to protect me." Jonathan says they shouldn't make excuses. "I don't know how I even got to this place," Clark says desperately. Nine years of inconsistent characterization, that's how. Jonathan takes his son by the shoulders and talks about how sacrificing something makes people lose something of themselves. Clark's sacrificed more than anyone else, he says. Clark wishes Pa Kent was still with him, you know, for real, and not just in the delusional little part of his brain. Jonathan says Clark can be the world's greatest hero, but Clark pouts that Jor-El disagrees. "Then prove him wrong," Jonathan says. He gives his son a hug before telling him that Jor-El was right about one thing: "Something dark is coming. You're going to be tested. It's not going to be easy, but I have faith in you." Jonathan gives Clark a crinkly smile and then disappears before Clark can get an answer about just what's coming. Spirits and/or hallucinations are so vague.
Clark doesn't get to see what's coming, but we do. High atop the building where Zod and Clark's fight took place, where the Kryptonian crystal console is still sitting out in the open for any old person to find, a dark mist swirls along the ground. It condenses into a cheesy sort of gassy Darkseid. Let's hope this ends in a better fight than the whole Doomsday thing.
The closing shot is of the inside of the Fortress. Inside a crystalline closet, the red-and-blue suit waits for its rightful owner. Heroic music swells and... the end. Maybe it's the aftereffects of a long, relaxing summer talking here, but that was not a bad episode. Maybe I'm the one who's hallucinating.
Discuss this episode in our forums, then see what other superbeings have crossed Clark in our guide to the Heroes and Villains of Smallville! And see what our vlogger thinks about the show, below.
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Tippi Blevins is cautiously optimistic. Or hallucinating. You can reach her at b_tippi@yahoo.com or http://twitter.com/tippib.