Smallville “Prophecy” 

Well…didn’t see that coming…

In the penultimate episode “Prophecy” Clark takes Lois to the fortress to get Jor-El’s approval of their marriage and he bestows Clark’s powers on her for a day. Meanwhile, Oliver and a returning Supergirl have to find the bow of Orion, the only known weapon that can destroy Darkseid.  Oh yeah, did I mention that the Toyman is back in town and he’s pissed off? Yep…it’s another busy week for our heroes.

Let’s get the big elephant in the room out of the way.  After Lois has had Clark’s powers for a day she realizes the pressure that it puts on him. In an amazing sequence, we see Lois try to use her newly acquired super hearing skills and we learn how Clark has to not only prioritize, but rationalize who he saves. It also provided one of my favorite little moments in an episode when Clark tells her to use the super hearing and she says “is that where you tilt your head and squint” and he just blankly looks at her and replies “apparently”.  Hilarious. At the end of the day Lois realizes that wanting to be with Clark is just too selfish and she BREAKS OFF THE WEDDING!  I was stunned. Most of the time I see these little twists coming from a mile away but I honestly had no idea this was coming. This kind of touches on what I said last week that Clark’s headstrong attitude kind of bothered me, well…maybe this is the wake up call he needs.  They’ve shown promos with Lois in her wedding dress so obviously this will be resolved, but still…it’s all about the journey right?

So let’s back track a little bit and talk about the return of Toyman. He has assembled his own legion of doom (including Metallo, who last I checked ended up being a good guy in the end…guess he changed his tune pretty quickly) and is set to destroy Clark using a mind-controlled Lois. The thing that drove me nuts about the final confrontation was that Lois was using her newfound powers to choke the living crap out of Clark and Tess just stands there counting down the seconds until it wears off. Um hello…she has Clark’s powers…USE KRYPTONITE ON HER!!!  Everyone acted like it was purely up to Lois’ iron will to not kill Clark…no it’s not! One little piece of kryptonite and it’s over! Oh well…Tess is hot. She can just stand there and look pretty. It was cool to see The Blur confront Toyman at the end and set up a rivalry that we know will continue once The Blur morphs into Superman.

The other cool thing about this episode was the side plot featuring Oliver and Kara looking for the bow of Orion. I didn’t realize until after the fact that they had never shared a scene together and they had great chemistry in this episode. It was fun to see them have a little Tomb Raider/Indiana Jones adventure to find the bow and I think it felt really fresh. Interesting to see Granny Goodness show up and brainwash Oliver into finding the gold kryptonite which will take away Clark’s powers. Something tells me we might be getting an Oliver/Clark thrown down in the finale.

Some nerdy side notes:

• Loved that they referenced the bow of Orion and him being Darkseid’s son.

• Loved the little nod to All Star Superman with Lois getting Superman’s powers for a day

• I could be wrong, but I remember an episode of Lois and Clark with Dean Cain and Teri Hatcher that had almost the exact same premise of Clark losing his powers and Lois getting them…but didn’t Teri Hatcher wear a dorky outfit?  I miss that show…

With the finale just days away I think it’s important we talk about expectations. I am willing to admit how nerdy I am looking at different Smallville sites and message boards and I think it’s important that the fans keep things in perspective. If you are expecting Clark to put on the suit within the first half hour and battle Darkseid in a $200 million dollar special effects extravaganza then I think you are setting yourself up to be severely disappointed. Smallville has always been about the journey Clark has taken to become Superman and while I don’t doubt we’ll get a quick glimpse of him in the suit, I don’t think we’ll see him in a full on battle as Superman and I’m not even sure if that would make sense. Look, I could be totally wrong here, but I just don’t want people expecting something and hating the episode because it didn’t live up to their crazy expectations.  This show has given us fans a lot over the past ten years and I’m excited to see how it all wraps up.

We’re going to have some cool Smallville-related articles this week to celebrate the finale so keep checking back.