Clark Kent Gets a Diploma

So, it’s been a couple of weeks since I have posted on Smallville, and the season finale is now over a week old as well. I was hoping to get full recaps of both episodes done, but in the interest of time and having a life during the Memorial Day weekend, I decided I am going to do a little bit of consolidation. The only really important episode was the last episode, and I have to say that I was pleasantly surprised with the outcome. For me, Smallville has had some of the best cliffhangers of any series on television, and after all the random twists this season has thrown at us, it was nice to finish off with a strong episode that left us with some anticipation for what is to come.So anyway, about the episode from last week. It featured yet another high school kid with super powers. This time, it was the school photographer who didn’t get into a good school and wanted to live his glory days of high school forever. Therefore, he used his ability to freeze people alive to convince his dad to build a replica of the school which he used to keep some of the senior superlative winners cooped up for eternity. Unfortunately for him, he trapped Chloe and Lana, meaning Clark would be on the scene to save the day. Clark did save the day, and the kid died, leaving everybody to graduate. Well, everybody except the girl who was smashed into a few thousand pieces while she was frozen. Some people just never get a lucky break. Ha ha, I kill me.

The real news from last week was with Genevieve and Jason. Genevieve captured Lionel and Lex and took them out to some cabin in the middle of the woods. She was positive that Lionel was hiding information from her, so she threatened torture on Lex to get him to talk. What was the information she wanted? Well, a little location of an artifact or two would have helped. Lionel sat mum while Lex was jabbed with a hot poker a couple of times, but finally talked when Jason was about to stab Lex in the eye. The artifact from China was left with Lana.

While Genevieve and Jason discussed their nefarious plans, the Luthors escaped. As they left the cabin, Jason saw them, and a chase through the woods ensued. In all of the mayhem that followed Jason ended up being shot by the side of a gorge and falling a few hundred feet into the river below.

So, now that we got that out of the way, the finale started with Genevieve visiting Lana. She goes right out and says that she wants the third stone. Lana tries to play coy, but Genevieve has a gun. Lana is able to knock it away, and a cat fight takes place. I am sad to say that this cat fight really did nothing for me, but I can’t tell if it’s because I am more mature or just not that thrilled to see Jane Seymour in a cat fight. It looks like Lana is about to bite it, but she is once again possessed by the spirit of the Countess Thoreau, which gives her some magic, but more importantly it gives her witch strength. You would be surprised at how well you learn to defend yourself when entire villages are threatening to burn you at the stake.

With her newfound ability, Lana overpowers Genevieve and uses the Chinese artifact to stab her to death. This breaks some sort of spell, and Lana’s tattoo vanishes, and the spirit of her ancestor leaves her. Just as she is doing the obligatory “oh there’s blood on my hands! what have I done?!” type thing, Lex walks in. He offers to look after Lana for her own safety. Once at the mansion, he convinces her not to go to the police, and says that he has hired one of the premier defense attorneys to represent her.

Lana has legal troubles, but Clark has some problems of his own, namely that he has dreamed that some catastrophe is about to hit Smallville. That event is a meteor shower (although on television, it started out a little like a strange aurora borealis), and he wakes everybody up in the house when he continually shouts “it’s coming!” over and over again in his sleep. His parents wake him up, and tell him it is a bad dream, but he can’t help but think there is some sort of impending doom about to befall the town, and of course he blames himself.

But before we can deal with the potential end of the world, we have to get through some of the more mundane events in our lives, like graduation. Smallville graduation was like any other sort of graduation, but I was left wondering where in the hell of the people were. The population of Smallville is supposed to be about 45,000 people, which would leave at least one good-sized high school, but it looked like there were about 50 graduates and perhaps even fewer people watching. So maybe they couldn’t have pulled it off with thousands of people in attendance, but if they were able to fill the football stands, they should have been able to get people to sit in on graduation.

Graduation was running smoothly, but then Chloe and Clark noticed that Lana wasn’t there, and they figured something must be wrong, and just when Clark was getting his diploma, the National Guard rolled into town, saying that a meteor shower was headed for Smallville, and there were only a few hours left to evacuate. Everybody likes to end their high school careers with something memorable, but usually people think along the lines of having sex in the principal’s office or the middle of the football field and not annihilation of the town. For some reason, Chloe is very excited about the whole thing, and observes that two meteor showers in 16 years is not a coincidence and there must be some sort of alien presence in Smallville that keeps attracting all of the strange events. Wow Chloe, it only took you four years of high school to figure that out? With that kind of attention to detail, you are well on your way to a cushy job in local government.

Chloe was being quite obvious, but she was correct, and after Clark’s vision, he is positive that he has something to do with the meteor shower. He decides to go to the caves and see if it gives him any clues. Once there, he once again talks with his father, Jor-el, who confirms the worst. Clark is the cause of the meteor storm because he denied his legacy. He was supposed to bring the three stones together, because man was never supposed to know of the infinite wisdom they held. By not bringing the stones together, he let one of them be stained (in this case, with the blood of Genevieve Teague). And if that wasn’t enough to weigh on Clark’s mind, Jor-El said that he must unite the stones, or mankind is finished. But no, it didn’t stop there. This was not any normal meteor shower – it had the power to destroy Clark as well. Of course you can’t forget that he also had to find some way to save Lana as well.

Now that he knows that Smallville’s problems are all his, he has to tell his parents. They still want to believe that this whole thing is some sort of coincidence, and they tell Clark that he must start packing only essential items so they can get out of there quickly. Now it may be just me, but how in the hell do people go back to their homes in order to pack? Quite obviously, there are items that you want to keep, and there are items that are irreplaceable, but at what cost? What if the scientist who gave you the 3 hour warning was off by a little bit? As long as you didn’t stuff your money in some mattress, you get your ass out of Dodge as quickly as possible, if for nothing else than to beat the rush.

I think they were kind of expecting it, but when Clark told them that he wasn’t going to be able to leave because he had to save the world, they were stunned. Jor-el hasn’t always given Clark the best advice, and since he had no clue where the last two stones were, there was very little chance he would be able to do anything. Martha knew that if this meteor shower had kryptonite, Clark may be as good as dead. At the same time, both of them knew that Clark was the only one who could do what has been asked. He made life and death decisions all of his life, and this was just one more that he was going to have to make.

Clark received some luck on his search for the stones. When he went to check the barn, he saw Lana. She was short on details, but gave him the stone from China. He sees it is covered with blood, and is kind of searching for an explanation. Lana says that there were many times that Clark asked her to trust him without giving an explanation, and this time, she was going to ask the same of him. For four years, there has always been a sense of destiny about these two getting together, and this was one of the strongest obstacles yet challenging that notion. They tell each other “I love you,” share a kiss, and leave, hoping that they will still get a chance to see each other after all of the craziness is done.

Clark heads to the cave, and his parents are finally getting their asses out of town. They are just about to turn onto the road when another car gets in front of them. Jonathan slams on the brakes to see what kind of idiot is trying to keep him from getting out of town. That idiot turns out to be Jason. That Jason. The one we thought was shot and dead, was apparently only shot and kind of beat up. He looked like shit, as if he had just come out of a scene from Deliverance (although slightly better than those people in that movie High Tension – check the sidebar for a link to some clips), and like I said before, had somehow found a shotgun between his little dip in the river and his way to the Kent’s. He’s looking for Lana, and he thinks that Clark is going to have some answers.

If Jason is looking for Lana, he should have been looking for Lex. Now considering Lionel tried to kill him, you could understand why Jason would be apprehensive about the Luthor mansion, but thats where Lana was. Lex promised to protect her, and he was even kind enough not to take the artifact away from her when he helped her after she killed Genevieve. Lana felt very lucky that nothing happened, and decided that she must give it to somebody who she knows would keep it safe, hence the reason she gave it to Clark. That ended up being a smart move, as Lionel decided he was going to blackmail Lex to get to Lana and the stone.

Lex has always had a weakness with Lana and always wants to protect her. He hired a lawyer to keep Genevieve’s death out of the news, but Lionel got to the scene of the crime and threatened to deliver Genevieve’s body (with plenty of Lana DNA on it) to the sheriff. He desperately tries to get Lana to give him the artifact, but there isn’t much time to be too demanding, because the meteor shower is coming, and the helicopter to take them to Metropolis is going to be leaving soon. Earlier, Lex offered safe passage out of Smallville to the Kents on his plane, and I had thought that strange. The last thing you want to do during a meteor shower is have to dodge projectiles in the air. At least on the ground, you can find a bomb shelter or something. If you are 30,000 feet in the air and something happens, you are kind of screwed. I would take my chances in the Luthor mansion.

Before he can evacuate Lana, Lex is called away to talk to his father. Lionel once again demands the stone, and I have to wonder where exactly he placed Genevieve’s body. With the meteors about to do some serious damage, there is going to be a lot less evidence on which to convict Lana should she go to trial. In other words, his leverage is rapidly diminishing. I would also like to know where her body is because if Lionel thinks that it is so safe that he is going to keep her body as blackmail, that is probably a safe enough place to make it through a natural disaster.

Clark has made it to the cave and although there isn’t much time to find the third stone, nothing can be hurt by placing the second stone in his place. He does exactly that, and it sort of lights up. When Clark was first learning about the stones at the beginning of the season, he was drawn to each piece by a high-pitched noise. The same thing happens, as if the two pieces that are now together are calling for the third piece to come home, like some kind of anthropological Homeward Bound.

Although he denied it earlier, Lionel had the third piece. It was the transference piece that he had when he switched Clark. He always maintained that he wasn’t interested in the stones during his time out of jail, but in fact, he always kept one of the pieces as close to him as possible. That piece now started to flash. Lionel collapsed, apparently of a heart attack (those stones are not good for the myocardium – ask Jonathan Kent). Lex sees that his dad collapsed, and has him taken upstairs, almost sure that he is dead. We don’t know if Lionel can hear him, but Lex tells him “You created the son that you always wanted.” We can’t be sure what that means, but it’s probably no good. Lex finds the third stone and puts it in safe for – well, safe keeping.

Lionel takes his father upstairs and then escorts Lana to the helicopter. He once again pleads for her to give him the stone, but there is no time. The helicopter must leave, but Lionel stays behind. During the time Lionel was gone, Clark made it to the Luthor mansion. The third stone was still emitting that high-pitched sound. The stone was in the safe, but Clark tossed the door aside like it was nothing. Lex had not managed to bring together any of the stones, but he did manage to bring back the Kryptonite masks that were protecting each piece. Clark was able to grab a piece, but was so weakened by the kryptonite that he passed out.

It looked like Lex was going to find him in that condition, but Chloe came in at the last minute to drag him far enough away from the Kryptonite to let him regain his strength. Why was Chloe there? During her evacuation, she received a call from Lana saying she was OK. Chloe and Lois decided to head back and look for her at the mansion, which just happened to be right along the evacuation route. Lois helped her distract the guards (I love it when she is in those jeans – the pajamas don’t do anything for her), and Chloe made it to the mansion. Clark slipped away just as Lex made it into the room. Lex didn’t know what was going on, but his safe was a shambles, the stone was gone, and Chloe was the only one there. He wanted answers, and he had no clue what they were, but he knew that they had something to do with the caves.

It was about this time that shit started falling out of the sky. As with most meteor showers, it spared nothing. People, houses, cars, even children. Smallville usually avoids the over-dramatic and cheesy, but they just couldn’t help it this time. As the meteors fell, people got out of the cars and started running. I am not sure how they picked a direction, it wasn’t like running away from a lava flow or a flood – the meteors were falling all around them. Anyway, one small boy was running the opposite direction, and his father was chasing after him. This small boy was unaware of the danger, and just stared into the path of on oncoming meteor. For a minute, I thought Smallville had taken a turn for the grim, but Clark swooped in just in time to save the boy. It was a very nice cheesy homage to some of the many scenes we saw like that in the Superman movies.

During all this time, Jason was still fighting with the Kents. Jonathan and Martha were trying to talk some sense into him. They had manged to knock the gun out of his hands, but with Jonathan being tied up, they were unable to overpower Jason, even though it looked like he had lost about 50% of his blood. Just as he was about to lay some shells into their chests, a meteor hit the Kent farmhouse, and then they cut away. Lana spent this same time period in the helicopter, with the pilot trying to dodge a lot of stuff that was in the air. It was only a matter of time before something hit them, and when a piece did hit the helicopter, it went down, sending Lana and the pilot into a crash.

Clark made it to the cave, with Lex and Chloe right behind. Lex was still convinced Chloe was trying to hide something, and to her credit, she didn’t let it out that she knew what was going on. She knew Clark was involved, but beyond that she only knew that she had to do everything she can to prevent Lex from knowing the secret. He was just about to investigate what was going on behind the false wall in the cave when Chloe knocked him into the side, preventing him from the view, but giving her a nice little show.

When Clark placed the third and final stone into the space in the cave, it transformed into a crystal. When Clark touched it, he was transported out of there with a flash of light. He arrived somewhere in the Arctic. Instinct told him to throw the crystal in the air to see what happens, and that’s exactly what he did.

In Smallville, the meteor shower had ended, but the wreckage was severe. Lois climbed a hill to see the town (or was it her father’s base?) destroyed and in flames. More miraculously, Lana survived the crash, pulled herself out (with a severe leg injury), and looked into the crater of one of the meteors. In that crater was a spaceship, much larger than the one Clark came in (although she obviously had no way of knowing) and all black. As she is staring at it, we see a light across her face, indicating that somebody, or something opened the spaceship and was coming out.

So, I thought this was a very exciting finale. Some cheeseball moments, but it does set us up for a lot of interesting things to happen next year. At the start of the season, I thought the stones would be a nice plot device to take us through the season, but it really was only used every now and then to lead up to the finale. If the stones were the main theme of the season, they could have finished in six episodes. Still, we need to know what happened to Jason and the Kents, Chloe and Lex, Lionel, and the town in general. We kind of know what Clark needs to do in the Arctic, but that spaceship throws us for another little bit of a loop. I am going to be very interested in next season, something I couldn’t really say just a month ago.

That being said, Smallville has been moved to Thursdays at 8PM, meaning there is a huge logjam on the TVgasm Tivo. I guess I can tape it, or maybe I’ll get another Tivo. That way, people won’t come over and laugh if they see a season pass for those Matlock, Magnum PI, and Buffy reruns. Whatever I decide to do, I’ve got another four months to decide, as well as plenty of questions and anticipation.

What did you think of the finale?