Smallville "Finale" Series Finale Talkback (Spoilers)

[Bat-Fan Beyond]

Bat-Fan, I think the villains getting their files last week was the show's way of closing up their end of "Smallville" and letting you know how they first came into conflict with their respective heroes. Granted, there IS that moment of "Wonder why he assigned Aquaman to Black Manta?" but I think it stands to reason that those two would've crossed paths anyway.

Yeah, that's obvious to me now, but the way that episode ended with that cliffhanger, it seemed to be something that was leading directly into the next episode, which was the series finale.

I think what they should have done was instead of showing the supervillain team sitting around the table with their "mysterious associate" shrouded in shadows as the cliffhanger ending of the "Prophecy" episode, they should have used it as an epilogue to the series finale and revealed that Lex was the "mysterious associate." It would have made for a great cliffhanger for the entire series and set up for the expanded DC Universe we know as fans would continue on.

And it would have been a much better ending than the majorly flawed Chloe and her kid reading a comic book scene.

So anyway who was the "mysterious associate" in "Prophecy"? Maybe Lionel Luthor? It couldn't have been Lex, since he was still in need of a heart at that time and was lying on a table in a lab somewhere.

 

[Dogbert]

A lot that needed to be said about this already has, but here are some of the issues I had beyond it simply being boring:

The biggest sticking point for me: POOR TESS! We've had her as part of the cast for three years. What do they do with one of the few characters who has shown real growth (not to mention being interesting)? They kill her off in a scene with someone she never had a scene with before. With a lame rationale for the murder too (to keep you from becoming me!?). And then, to add insult to injury no one recognizes her death. She just disappeared without another mention. Even the worst Smallville deaths and those of hated characters got better than this.

Lex's appearance was worthless. He spoke to Clark briefly, then killed Tess. That's it. A complete waste. I do not blame Rosenbaum for this; I blame the writers!

Either Clark couldn't fly because he wasn't ready/psychologically trained, or because Jor-El had that ability locked. Until this episode, everything (e.g., Red-K Clark flying, Clark dream-flying, etc.) pointed to the former explanation. Now Jor-El says his trials are over and he can fly now. No, no, no!

The story-telling wrap-arounds would have been great, if not for two things: 1) Pairing them with other scenes in the future. Either tell us a story, or do the seven years later thing. Doing both cheapens the whole thing. Which leads me to point 2) Don't make the scenes contradict each other. In the story-telling scenes, Clark's story is a published comic book. In the other future scenes, it's clearly still a secret. And why the hell is Clark calling his seven-plus-year fiancee "Ms. Lane"?

Overall, the writers and producers were too busy writing a series finale that they forgot to write a season finale and an episode with it. All happily-ever-after (except poor Tess) and no focus on the struggle to get there.

Oh, and we never did find out what happened to the Kent farm.

 

[CantThinkOfaName]

It was cheaper to make series back then than it is now. You'll also notice that while those series usually had higher ratings than Smallville, they were cancelled a lot sooner than Smallville was. It was partially because the cost of the suits was so high.

Lois & Clark was not cancelled over budget issues. It was cancelled because the ratings dropped. For the first three seasons it was the #1 show on Sunday's at 8pm with an average of 10-15 million viewers. In season 4, it dropped to 4th place, was moved to Saturday nights, and died there.

Superboy was cancelled because Warner Bros bought back the rights from the Salkinds and wanted to make room for the Lois & Clark series.

Adventures of Superman was briefly cancelled, but they intended to bring it back before George Reeve's untimley death.

 

[Antiyonder]

Oh, and we never did find out what happened to the Kent farm.

Someone commenting on the finale brings up that in Homecoming, Lois is telling Clark to look at the farm for the Legion Ring. So I think based on that, they still live there.

 

[Wounded_Dragon]

The biggest sticking point for me: POOR TESS! We've had her as part of the cast for three years. What do they do with one of the few characters who has shown real growth (not to mention being interesting)? They kill her off in a scene with someone she never had a scene with before. With a lame rationale for the murder too (to keep you from becoming me!?). And then, to add insult to injury no one recognizes her death. She just disappeared without another mention. Even the worst Smallville deaths and those of hated characters got better than this.

Either Clark couldn't fly because he wasn't ready/psychologically trained, or because Jor-El had that ability locked. Until this episode, everything (e.g., Red-K Clark flying, Clark dream-flying, etc.) pointed to the former explanation. Now Jor-El says his trials are over and he can fly now. No, no, no!

I think Tess' death adds enough dramatic cost that Lex's convenient memory loss doesn't come across as too cheap. There's a certain symmetry with a Smallville original character cleaning up the continuity mess that Smallville created; however, her death would have been unnecessary if Lex hadn't returned in the finale. There's enough leeway in returning from the dead that Lex's memory could have been lost there. I guess I should call it a draw.

Upon review of the Epiphany Scene before he starts flying, the only message I can draw from the "highlight reel" is that "you already have so much power, what's one more?" I mean, really, you couldn't craft something a little more personal? You had Pa Kent's ghost handing Clark his uniform, I know you have it in you writers.

I don't care if the show is on a television budget, you couldn't spend 10 seconds more of CGI showing Clark pushing Apokolips away? 5 seconds? Please? More time was spent on the airplane homage than on Apokolips. It comes off a bit Monty Python:

"Now see here Apokolips, I am the Light! See, I even got a spiffy new uniform!"
"Oh no, run away, run away!"

 

[Dogbert]

Someone commenting on the finale brings up that in Homecoming, Lois is telling Clark to look at the farm for the Legion Ring. So I think based on that, they still live there.

Clark said in this episode, though, that they "already accepted an offer" and are about to close escrow. Martha was not please and said that Clark misunderstood why she sent him the deed. Sounded like they were pretty far along in the process of selling the farm to me. Even if a potential future reality did have them still owning it, that apparently is very likely no longer the case.

 

[Katsumara]

Well, just because you find a deal, doesn't mean you have to follow through. I'm sure following this whole 'world saving' mess, they went back and took back the deal so they could keep the farm. They seemed to make an effort of keeping that particular Future line in tact and everything.

That or the writers just..borked up, lol. Wouldn't be the first time.

 

[Vanitas]

The biggest sticking point for me: POOR TESS! We've had her as part of the cast for three years. What do they do with one of the few characters who has shown real growth (not to mention being interesting)? They kill her off in a scene with someone she never had a scene with before. With a lame rationale for the murder too (to keep you from becoming me!?). And then, to add insult to injury no one recognizes her death. She just disappeared without another mention. Even the worst Smallville deaths and those of hated characters got better than this.

I agree; she would have been better off living. And no-one mentioning her after her death was incredibly stupid; especially in regards to Lois, who had a sort of bond with her for a while now.

 

[Chaos Yoshi Mage]

That was unrealistic. I can believe a man can fly, but really, you expect me to believe comics will go for $2.99 seven years from now?

Lol, that's exactly what was running through my mind when it's revealed that that scene is 7 years in the future.

 

[Christopher Glennon]

Ha, nice post buddy! I do agree about Smallville's milestones and all that, but it doesn't really mean it will be remembered as all good. Usually, something I consider good is something where I can remember a lot of the episodes, and for Smallville.. I really only remember a few standout episodes. (This season alone, obviously the finale, "Homecoming", etc)

It may not be remembered as "good" or "classic", but I doubt the show will be easily forgotten. Heck, it's possible in five years or so, you'll find more Smallville references on any given message board than Superman Returns.

As for Milestones, now I'm not sure if they finally ended the show because they were feeling burnt out or ratings were declining, but they at least did get to wrap things up. Yeah, I'm a bit miffed that Kenneth Johnson couldn't do his 2 hour finale to The Incredible Hulk. But that's for a PM or other thread.

Wait, what's the story behind that?

 

[ABrown]

I didn't see anyone mention this. What was up with Lex's hand? Was there something that I missed?

 

[KYO'NYUU IMOUTO]

I didn't see anyone mention this. What was up with Lex's hand? Was there something that I missed?

It wasn't fully heal, as I remember, so he probably placed a glove on it to keep others from noticing how messed up it looked.

 

[ABrown]

So I wanted to watch this one more time before I delete it from my DVR. There's a couple of things that I didn't like when I first watched this episode, and they still bothered me when I watched the episode again.

1. Was it really necessary for Lex to have to lose his memory? I really kinda liked the idea that Lex knew that Clark was The Blur (and I don't use the term Superman, but I'll get to that in my second point). Clark and Lex just the had the whole conversation about how Lex felt he would be considered a great man because of Clark as his enemy. So the conversation gave me the impression that since Lex viewed his enemy as being essential to his greatness, I felt that he would never make Clark's secret known to the world. I really think it would've been cool to have Lex know who Superman really is. The whole memory loss just seemed completely unnecessary to me.

2. Clark never really became Superman. To me he just became SuperBlur. For how many years now has it been stated during the show that Clark was going to become a symbol to the public. I honestly don't think that he became that symbol. Not only did the public not really get a real glimpse of Clark, WE THE VIEWERS DIDN'T! Would it have been so tough to get some good shots of Clark as Superman? I mean I waited ten years see Tom Welling become Superman. I didn't watch all these seasons just to see him become SuperBlur.

 

[mgr91686]

1. Was it really necessary for Lex to have to lose his memory? I really kinda liked the idea that Lex knew that Clark was The Blur (and I don't use the term Superman, but I'll get to that in my second point). Clark and Lex just the had the whole conversation about how Lex felt he would be considered a great man because of Clark as his enemy. So the conversation gave me the impression that since Lex viewed his enemy as being essential to his greatness, I felt that he would never make Clark's secret known to the world. I really think it would've been cool to have Lex know who Superman really is. The whole memory loss just seemed completely unnecessary to me.

I agree, I was thinking that the Lex knowing would have been cool. But another problem I have is with how they made him lose his memory. I mean honestly how the heck does a toxin selectively erase just certain parts of a person's memory? Honestly I would have preferred if they hadn't even bothered with Lex if they were going to undo the entire freaking series.

2. Clark never really became Superman. To me he just became SuperBlur. For how many years now has it been stated during the show that Clark was going to become a symbol to the public. I honestly don't think that he became that symbol. Not only did the public not really get a real glimpse of Clark, WE THE VIEWERS DIDN'T! Would it have been so tough to get some good shots of Clark as Superman? I mean I waited ten years see Tom Welling become Superman. I didn't watch all these seasons just to see him become SuperBlur.

Bingo! In my opinion they should have used season 9 to wrap up all the lose ends and used the last as the homecoming. By which I mean The Blur is already beginning to inspire the public, Darkseid already has his attack plan in full swing, Lois and Clark are already together, Chloe is off somewhere gathering the data necessary to formulate a counter attack, and for Clark has actually grown enough as a character that he doesn't repeat his season 3 stupidity by trying to abandon his past! I could go on, but I will say that I was extremely ticked off that Clark's revelation was seemingly that he should just push everything and everyone out of his way.

 

[DisneyBoy]

So I’m VERY late to this game. I only watched the finale about a week ago…but the distance did me some good. I was actually happy just to see Chloe, Oliver and the gang one last time. If I’d watched it with the rest of you, I’d probably have had all the messy loose threads at the forefront of my thoughts.

I’ll start with a positive comment – Apokolips looked pretty good. The special effects budget there was put to good use. Okay. Can I move on to the negatives now? Great.

All the Lois wedding angst of part one was utterly annoying, especially given how much time they’d already spent these last two seasons trying to show how comfortable Lois was with all things Clark and how natural it was for them to marry. I also didn’t see any reason for all those scenes with Jonathan. If he’d appeared briefly at the wedding and in the reflection of the photo Martha was looking at, it would have been far more poignant and simple. Again, they were trying to kill time and wanted to get their money’s worth out of their big guest star.

Jonathan appearing at the Fortress made no sense (was Clark hallucinating his father??!), but then, neither did Jor-El suddenly being on-board with the Kent family. I can’t quite even figure out how Clark ended up there anyway. The whole pre-Darkseid punch montage is a hard thing to rationalize. There was a lot of that kind of show-boating in this finale.

And as for Darkseid…he and his minions were all gasy birds? Smallville hit a new low there. Look Ma! One punch and they’re gone! I’m Superman!
Here’s a quick question – did Clark even know that Lionel was dead when he punched through him?

The real meat of this finale was with Lionel-2, Tess and Lex. Since Rosenbaum only gave producers a week’s notice that he would return, I think it’s a safe bet that Lionel was originally intended to try and resurrect Lex anyway, and that they’d have maybe used old footage of President Luthor for the final sequence. Having Rosenbaum back was nice, but the dialogue really rambled and went nowhere. I was surprised they gave him and Clark a tender moment there at the mansion, though.

It’s a real shame he and Cassidy Freeman had no more than ONE scene together. Lex had no real reason to murder her, though. I spent two years wondering what their relationship was actually like and this had to be the biggest disappointment in that regard. These two actors would have really played well off each other if the producers had given them three scenes, at least, in this finale. Ideally, they would have had several episodes…but you can’t have it all, right?

The biggest sticking point for me: POOR TESS! We've had her as part of the cast for three years. What do they do with one of the few characters who has shown real growth (not to mention being interesting)? They kill her off in a scene with someone she never had a scene with before. With a lame rationale for the murder too (to keep you from becoming me!?). And then, to add insult to injury no one recognizes her death. She just disappeared without another mention. Even the worst Smallville deaths and those of hated characters got better than this.

So glad I’m not the only one who was outraged that the most interesting character left was so thanklessly dispatched.

Oh, and we never did find out what happened to the Kent farm.

Yes, I noticed that too. Martha’s bizarre argument with Clark early in Part One reintroduced the whole thing as a plot point, but in the end, it didn’t really resolve itself either way. Plus, it made Martha look like a bit of wacko…chewing her son out on his wedding day.

I mean, really, you couldn't craft something a little more personal? You had Pa Kent's ghost handing Clark his uniform, I know you have it in you writers.

Fun fact – John S. was the one to suggest Pa Kent hand Clark the suit. It wasn’t in the original script at all, according to the director of the episode.

The CGI suit was terrible. Did the SR suit not fit Tom properly? What exactly was the problem there? I think a lot of the disappointment could have been avoided if the writers didn’t set up the big costume reveal moment to also be the moment where Clark has to push a huge burning planet away from Earth. The big climax could have easily been Superman saving the plane and landing it, if they hadn’t forced this weak Darkseid plot on the final season. Because let's face it - they KNEW there was no budget to show Clark pushing a burning planet into space, in full costume and have it look good. They set themselves up for failure with that one.

I guess I don’t even have to say this, but it made NO SENSE that Apokolips was able to go undetected – I don’t care HOW many satellites were disabled.

The Chloe bookends also didn’t offer much and didn’t even make sense within the structure of the story (the comic book in particular), but I did like that they tried to honor her as the key character in the series.

The best moments in the finale were Chloe slapping the ring out of Lois’ hand (satisfying and funny on many levels), and Tess fighting her way to freedom in the lab. The rest was so….boring.

At the very least, I’d expected Perry to be positioned as Chief before the series ended. And with all the Justice League appearances, having one big official “we’re a team now!” pow-wow moment was also expected.

I will say that I appreciated them trying to work-in the notion that Lois first meets the President when they’re both on a flight that Superman saves. That worked. But then, we had the hugely pointless fight between Ollie and Clark, summed up with a pep-talk nobody in their right mind bought or enjoyed.

Though how someone becomes a politician becomes president after losing his ENTIRE memory is truly a miracle. Maybe a serum restored most of it? I don't know. It was lame....

Don’t forget though – he’s also a CLONE of the original Lex, made up of dozens of sewn-together body parts, with the beating heart of Lionel from another dimension…on TOP of having amnesia. AND he'd been publicly vilified for years by this point, as well as considered dead. So no...it didn't make any sense at all for the writer to try and pretend this Lex somehow made it back on top.

Anyway…goodbye to this show, and good riddance. If they weren’t going to try to make any sense, they should have ended things back in Season Eight, when they were still interesting.

 

[iluvtgif]

Smallville's final broadcast on Network TV (The CW) is July 15.