Smallville “Finale” 

“And that was the day the boy became Superman.”

After ten years of watching the adventures of Clark Kent, Friday brought us the series finale of Smallville. I’m not going to recap the episode because I’m 99.9% sure if you’re reading this you’ve already watched it and if by some chance you haven’t…WHAT ARE YOU DOING READING THIS?! GO WATCH IT!!! I’ve been reading a lot of different message boards and hearing a lot of different comments on the finale since Friday night. I was tempted to immediately write my thoughts up right after the episode ended, but instead I wanted to sleep on it and really give myself a chance to absorb what I saw. Three days later I still have only word to describe the series finale of Smallville: Perfect.

I have decided that the woman I marry must have NEVER watched Smallville, because I intend to steal Clark’s vows word for word and pawn them off as my own. I was worried that we would waste so much time on the Lois and Clark will they/won’t they wedding aspect that it wouldn’t leave time for anything else, but when Lois read Clark’s vows…wow. I can’t believe that Erica Durance’s reaction was anything but genuine because the words were so moving. And the scene with Clark and Lois at the door of the apartment was perfect. It really cemented the fact that Clark may be god like, he needs Lois’ humanity and love just as much. That’s what makes him who he is.

Oliver didn’t have as much to do in the finale as everyone else, but this was already put out there by the executive producers before hand which is why he had big roles in both “Dominion” and “Prophecy”. His moment with Clark in the church was a smidgen cheesy, but it gave a very satisfying resolution to the darkness inside of him. I’m glad it was Clark who was able to push it out of him. It was also cool to see him return to his Green Arrow garb and go kick some Darkseid minion ass. I wonder though, he said he had some friends in high places who gave him those special arrows…Chloe? Martian Manhunter? No idea…but it’s a moot point. I’m assuming with Chloe’s bookends (which I LOVED) that he ended up marrying Chloe and that’s his kid. Not quite comic book continuity, but then again, Chloe didn’t even enter comic book continuity until after Smallville became a hit, so who knows? Maybe they would have got married in the comics if she had been around…

And of course the return everyone is talking about…Mr. Lex Luthor himself. Even though he was only in the second hour, his presence was majorly felt and he made more of an impact than I thought. When they said that they only had him for one day I figured it would be one scene and done, but man…that must have been a long day for him! His scene with Clark was amazing and it was like he had never left. The chemistry between them was still there and I loved his Joker-esque line about them being each other’s destiny and Clark saying he’d always be there to stop him. It was also great to finally see him do a scene with Cassidy Freeman, who was by far the MVP of this season. Her death was just absolutely heartbreaking to me, and Lex’s justification that he was saving her from becoming like him made it even more heart wrenching. You could tell even though he had killed her, she still loved her brother. All Tess ever wanted in this show was love and the tragic arch of her character was so poetic. Sure the memory wipe thing was a little sloppy joe (I don’t remember there ever being a mention of a memory wiping neurotoxin before…am I wrong?) but it didn’t matter. The scene was executed brilliantly and one of my favorite visual moments of the entire episode was seeing the lightning hit the Luthorcorp logo and foreshadowed the eventual Lexcorp name change.

Lionel also had some great moments with Tess (including a very subtle but funny nod to Superman Returns…”WRONG!”) and the scene where Darkseid ripped his heart out was beyond intense. I don’t think I’ve seen anything like that on Smallville before. Some people complained that Lionel was the embodiment of Darkseid for his final fight with Clark and was destroyed just easily. Relax people…he wasn’t ACTUALLY Darkseid. I assure you Darkseid is far more powerful than that. He was merely a vessel and in the imaginary future of the Smallville continuity Darkseid and Superman will lock horns again.

But really, there were only two things on most of our minds during the finale…tights and flights. Would the rule be broken? It sure was, way more than I thought it would actually. How great was it to see that everything Clark had been through up until that point WAS his trials…the montage was just a great little reminder of every adventure we’ve gone on with Clark. Who didn’t stand up and cheer when Clark finally started hovering and realized he knew how to fly? And Jonathon finally handing him the suit with the great line “never forget Smallville” which I felt was directed just as much to us fans as it was to Clark was so beautiful and I wouldn’t have wanted it any other way. I was actually shocked we got to see SUPERMAN, not Clark push the planet Apokolips away and see him hovering in space. Stop bitching about the CGI folks…do you know how expensive/hard it would have been to have Tom in the full suit in outer space? It was beautiful, it was perfect, and it was WAY more than I was expecting. And how great was the scene at the end? Aaron Ashmore returning as little Jimmy Olsen!! What a perfect surprise! It was just such a great ending, and the final shot of Clark ripping off his shirt with the Superman logo exposed and the John Williams score overtaking my entire living room…it was exactly what I wanted and it was perfect.

Smallville was a curious little show that lasted longer than anyone thought and was better than it ever deserved to be. For me personally I will never forget the summer I was injured and couldn’t walk for three months and I decided to just kill the time by watching this Superman show my friend had told me about that I had never seen. By the end of that summer I had watched the first 6 seasons and was starving for more. I can honestly say Smallville kept me sane that summer on the couch. But in all reality, it’s not a Superman show at all. It’s an amazing story of a boy who is different that grows up to be a man who embraces his destiny. Thank you to all of the cast and crew of Smallville for giving us ten wonderful seasons. I know I won’t be alone in revisiting this series again for years to come.