Smallville: A great show with one of the most powerful series finales in recent television history

That journey ended earlier tonight on The CW in one of the most powerful series finales that I’ve seen in recent television history. In fact, I absolutely did not want to write a recap blog post talking about my thoughts on the Smallville season finale. However, the final episode of this show – and really the final half an hour or so – was so powerful that I felt compelled to jump on the blog and at least give a few brief kudos to the entire team at Warner Brothers as well as the team at The CW for producing such a masterpiece.

But, of course, you can’t put together a television masterpiece without the right cast and Smallville has always had the right cast for this show. For my money, Tom Welling has got to be the best Superman in the character’s television history. No offense to Dean Cain, George Reeves, or even the movie-Superman actors (Brandon Routh and Christopher Reeve), but Welling recreated and gave definition to the psychological base that Superman operates from as a superhero. Welling’s performance over the last ten years was absolutely amazing; though I guess if you have ten years to perfect a role, you’re probably going to get it right!

But Welling was only the leader of an ensemble cast that came together tonight to highlight the entire ten year history of the show. From the persistent presence of both Annette O’Toole and John Schneider throughout the final episode as they reprised their roles as Martha and Jonathan Kent to Cassidy Freeman‘s demise as the ill-fated Tess Mercer to the return of Superman’s greatest enemy – Michael Rosenbaum as Lex Luthor – tonight’s cast gave excellent performances.

And there are still so many more players in the game that made tonight’s final episode great. The freeing of Justin Hartley‘s Green Arrow from the grip of Darkseid, the emotional struggle of Erica Durance‘s Lois Lane, the quiet knowledge and knowing look of Allison Mack‘s Chloe Sullivan, the innately evil portrayal of Lionel Luthor by John Glover – it was all done to perfection. Even the scene where Clark Kent realizes that he has powers beyond his knowledge while watching a flashback of the show’s history was well done. On the topic of artfully performed flashbacks, I also liked the very well done scene where a dying Tess Mercer condemned her brother, Lex Luthor, to a future with no knowledge of his horribly troubled past. So much “happened” in the story of Superman during those two scenes and I think that the folks behind Smallville chose the right paths to bring those critical changes in each character’s history to the television audience.

I haven’t heard about or read any reports of a Smallville movie and, frankly, I can’t imagine that this absolutely brilliant series finale left room for a Smallville movie, per se. Sure, there is a seven year gap presented to the audience at the end of the show, but those seven years aren’t really focused on the story of Smallville. Instead, those are the seven years between the end of Clark Kent’s ascent to truly becoming Superman and his marriage to Lois Lane as well as Lex Luthor’s presidential victory. Is there a story to tell in that seven year period? Of course! Would Smallville fans eat up that movie? Yeah! But to revisit any portion of the Smallville universe (i.e. to go back and add additional information to any of the existing series canon) would do a disservice to the power in tonight’s finale.

Anyway, those are my quick thoughts. And a quick final thought on the Smallville series finale for my fellow long-time fans: how absolutely amazing was it to watch Tom Welling‘s Superman run in slow motion on the roof of The Daily Planet as he tore his Clark Kent outfit off and revealed the Superman suit… with the classic Superman theme playing?! It was awesome! That was an absolutely phenomenal payoff for this Smallville fan!

Well done, Smallville!

The storyline about Lana’s connection to the witch who was burned at the stake and how that witch was sentenced to death by Jason’s ancestors – really interesting stuff! Also, the interplay of how each of the main characters wants the stones of power is very well written. I’m not sure how I feel about the episode where Lex is split in two and thus turns his father back into his old, nasty self, but we’ll see how that plays out in Season 5.

I’m a big fan of Erica Durance and her Lois Lane character. Not just because she’s banging, but she does a good job of being a nuisance to Clark. I’m also a big fan of that crazy girl who transports showing Chloe Clark’s secrets and the episode where Clark loses his memory and Chloe protects him from the outside world. Is it just me or is Chloe getting progressively hotter as the seasons go on? Good for her!

As the rest of the Smallville freaks will tell you, it’s cool that the Flash was introduced to the storyline – there really is endless potential especially since his powers are not a result of the meteor shower. And speaking of meteor showers – what a great final episode, huh? As I said in the Season 3 Review, the Smallville writers have a way of ending each season by blowing up enough of the storyline to start fresh, yet keep some of the more important characters and stories going. Another good job.

I’m not sure I really enjoyed the whole feeling of Clark as a football player. I mean he’s Superman for Christ’s sake – I don’t know if he needed to be a football hero in the story, even if it was only a short-lived fling. I will also say kudos to the writers for handling Christopher Reeve’s death in a classy fashion and for bringing in one of the only guest stars that could have taken his place – Margot Kidder. For those of you that don’t know, Margot played Lois Lane opposite Reeve in the Superman movies.

Though I will say that I don’t think she had a big enough role on the series and I really don’t like how her character was killed off and how her death was only mentioned as a passing note in the Lionel vs. Genevieve dialogue. Oh – how sweet is it that Jane Seymour was brought in to play Genevieve? She’s an excellent actress and she did a hell of a job playing a really tough role.

Anyone else think that the episode where Lana, Lois, and Chloe get possessed by the medieval witches was REALLY hot? Those three are ridiculously gorgeous.

This season also had some stupid high school-ish drama with the weirdo who tried to recreate Smallville High and turned everyone into mannequins. I thought the China episode was good and really showed how great the series can be when it pulls away from these stupid high school storylines. There was also the obligatory tragic death this season with Alicia being killed off, which I guess had to happen since the only way her role in the story could progress is by her becoming more involved with Clark (which is a big no-no with Lana and Lois around).

Season 4 was sweet, but my only problem now is that we’re 7 months away from when Season 5 comes out on DVD…so what the “f” am I supposed to do now?! I can’t start watching the series on TV – they’re already into like the 12th or 13th episode! Maybe I can find a place to buy the episodes from Season 5 online somewhere. Any advice that you folks have is greatly appreciated!