Smallville10x21&22 "Finale" Discuss/Grade

[Gaith]

It would have made far more sense for Lex to look at Clark and say, "You've been lying to me since day one; when you saved me on that bridge I thought for the first time in my life I had met someone who could have been a real friend. I would've done everything I could to protect you from your enemies, from my father, and from the world itself, Clark. But you chose to remain in the shadows and hide yourself from me, and because of that there's nothing I can trust about you. Your friends, your family, they're all safe from me, Clark. But whenever you put on that suit you represent everything between us and I will make it my life's goal to bring you down to my level and give-in to weakness and the darkness that is inside all of us."

^ As ridiculous as I find that quote/line of motivation, I agree that it's a thousand times better than the wipe.



Anyhow, let's review, shall we?

- No Welling in the suit.

- All of Lex, totally wiped.

- No reveal of Superman to the world. Does anyone even say "Superman"? And how is that not a better title than "Finale"?!

- Zombie Jor-El can teleport people across dimensions at will. Hey asshole, how about giving your son's adoptive mother her husband back?!

- No wedding... even after seven years.

- Crap writing throughout.

- The Williams theme, awesome! ... Except we already heard it in "Rosetta", so no extra points.


I'm sorry, how is this not an "Endgame"-level calamity?!

 

[Trekker4747]

And what ages are the characters supposed to be at the end? Are they still in high school? They all look like they're 30 years old. They probably are...

The show has been on for 10 years and time has chronologically passed for them as it pretty much as for all of us, infact there was an episode either this season or last featuring the characters going to their five-year reunion at Smallville High.

Clark and Chloe should be around 24/25; Lex and Ollie should all be a 2-3 years older than that (Lex was out of school and in the business world when the series began, Ollie is the same age as Lex) and Lois was shown to be out of highschool but missing some credits so had to attend SVH for a few episodes so she's probably less than a year older than Clark.

The actors are all in the early 30s.

 

[Captain Mike]

It would have made far more sense for Lex to look at Clark and say, "You've been lying to me since day one; when you saved me on that bridge I thought for the first time in my life I had met someone who could have been a real friend. I would've done everything I could to protect you from your enemies, from my father, and from the world itself, Clark. But you chose to remain in the shadows and hide yourself from me, and because of that there's nothing I can trust about you. Your friends, your family, they're all safe from me, Clark. But whenever you put on that suit you represent everything between us and I will make it my life's goal to bring you down to my level and give-in to weakness and the darkness that is inside all of us."

^ As ridiculous as I find that quote/line of motivation, I agree that it's a thousand times better than the wipe.



Anyhow, let's review, shall we?

- No Welling in the suit.

- All of Lex, totally wiped.

- No reveal of Superman to the world. Does anyone even say "Superman"? And how is that not a better title than "Finale"?!

- Zombie Jor-El can teleport people across dimensions at will. Hey asshole, how about giving your son's adoptive mother her husband back?!

- No wedding... even after seven years.

- Crap writing throughout.

- The Williams theme, awesome! ... Except we already heard it in "Rosetta", so no extra points.


I'm sorry, how is this not an "Endgame"-level calamity?!

So, when is he gonna fly?..When is he going to put on the "suit"?...When are they going to follow the "mythos" as I like and know it?
your last revew speaks VOLUMES.
THIS was another creator (and then turned into creator(S) interpretation of "Superman".
How was this like "Endgame"?

 

[DarthPipes]

It would have made far more sense for Lex to look at Clark and say, "You've been lying to me since day one; when you saved me on that bridge I thought for the first time in my life I had met someone who could have been a real friend. I would've done everything I could to protect you from your enemies, from my father, and from the world itself, Clark. But you chose to remain in the shadows and hide yourself from me, and because of that there's nothing I can trust about you. Your friends, your family, they're all safe from me, Clark. But whenever you put on that suit you represent everything between us and I will make it my life's goal to bring you down to my level and give-in to weakness and the darkness that is inside all of us."

^ As ridiculous as I find that quote/line of motivation, I agree that it's a thousand times better than the wipe.



Anyhow, let's review, shall we?

- No Welling in the suit.

- All of Lex, totally wiped.

- No reveal of Superman to the world. Does anyone even say "Superman"? And how is that not a better title than "Finale"?!

- Zombie Jor-El can teleport people across dimensions at will. Hey asshole, how about giving your son's adoptive mother her husband back?!

- No wedding... even after seven years.

- Crap writing throughout.

- The Williams theme, awesome! ... Except we already heard it in "Rosetta", so no extra points.


I'm sorry, how is this not an "Endgame"-level calamity?!

I don't agree with you on much, Gaith, but you're spot on here. The lack of a public reveal or naming is very glaring, for as far as we know he's still referred to as The Blur after the events of "Finale." Finale was fitting because he sure as hell wasn't Superman in this episode. I'd also like to add one more...

-Clark doesn't wear glasses during his wedding, which makes his eventual public "outing" all the more ridiculous because his guests are so stupid, they can't tell the difference.

The Williams music is always awesome but I felt the show didn't earn it here.

 

[CorporalClegg]

So why does he end up having it out for Superman after he knows nothing about him?

He mind defaults it self to the basic reason.

"This man/alien has more power than me. I want!"

New Lex just saw a red and blue being push a planet away. That should be enough to intrigue him

But as I said up-thread, this goes against the main premise of the show-- that nurture (not nature) makes the man--and therefore completely fails as a plot device.

 

[Gaith]

How was this like "Endgame"?

You're right; that was totally unfair of me. For its crap writing, wretched violations of character and massively underwhelming climax, "Endgame" had several strong performances, a story that made sense within the bounds of the episode itself (though not in the larger context of things), it gave the fans the conclusion they wanted (albeit in hideously botched fashion), and it had first-rate sets and special effects deployed in an involving and tense final battle. And while Admiral Janeway's temporal incursion was totally unacceptable on any moral or strategic level, realizing that requires more brain-effort than "Finale" ever asks of its audience.

Indeed, there's no comparison.

 

[Mitty]

Also, the montage of Clarks "trials" was a bit painful.

 

[Brent]

There is one valid reason to do a Lex memory wipe. Otherwise, he'd put two and two together that Superman is Clark Kent and would never hesitate to tell the world.

He already knew who he was.

 

[Dream]

There is one valid reason to do a Lex memory wipe. Otherwise, he'd put two and two together that Superman is Clark Kent and would never hesitate to tell the world.

He already knew who he was.

Yeah, looks like someone wasn't paying any attention.

Lex called Clark by his Kryptonian name, Kal-El during their talk in the finale.

 

[Guy Gardener]

And?

Outting Superman is big.

Outting the blur is soso.

(Lex was dead by the time the Blurr turned up?)

Outting an Alien is tacky.

Besides, information is power.

There's no benefit or glory in revealing Clark... YET.

Which is why most bad guys sit on the good guys secrets.

Batman teasing the Riddler that he was special only for as long that he and only he knew that Bruce Wayne was Batman, and that as soon as Nigma gave up that secret, he would just be another loser in a green suit.

Karen Page sold Daredevil's identity for a dime bag of heroin.

Price and cost is relative.

 

[Checkmate]

Not that it matters since the Toy Man, and likely the rest of the we're-not-supposed-to-be-smart-enough-to-realize-it's-the-Legion-of-Doom know his secret, making Lex's memory wipe even more pointless.

 

[Guy Gardener]

Vegetable to President in just 7 years.

Golly.

Lex beat Bush's record.

 

[Warped9]

I just watched this (living in Canada) and it encapsulated why I could never really stick with Smallville. So much angst and it drags and drags and drags.

Erica Durance makes a good Lois Lane. I like Cloe's new haircut.

But what we finally get to see of Superman is...is... You gotta be kidding me. After waiting ten years that's all we get???

The '78 Superman theme was a nice touch.

But when all was said and done this was a huge shrug.

 

[Broccoli]

- No reveal of Superman to the world. Does anyone even say "Superman"? And how is that not a better title than "Finale"?!

Yes. Chloe says it.

 

[Guy Gardener]

Seven years after his début.

 

[Brent]

Woulda been cool if someone pointed up to the sky when Clark was flying toward Apokolips: "Look! Up in the sky! It's a bird! No it's a plane! Is that a man? No It looks like a Superman!

 

[Obiwanshinobi]

Coulda shoulda woulda BUT didn't. Pretty much a running theme through out the show.

 

[Mach5]

No offense, people, but y'all amuse me.

By Smallville's standards, this episode was nearly superb. I mean, the entire Season 10 sucked. All of it. The entire Darkseid arc was laughable, and frankly, so was Callum Blue's Zod.

To me, Smallville was never REALLY Superman anyway. Jor-El, an invisible god from an ice cave? Clark Kent and Lex Luthor best buddies? Lois Lane living on the Kent farm? Killing off Jimmy Olsen before Clarke became Supes? Come on! Smallville was never meant to be a Superman prequel or anything...

It was a decent closure of a bad TV show for teenage kids.

P.S. Erica Durance was a good Lois. Far better than Kate fucking Bosworth.

 

[Checkmate]

I'm just glad the damn show is over and done with.

Maybe in a few more years someone else will give it a shot, and make it something worthy as a Superman serial. If and when they do, they can always look back at Smallville as an example of what not to do. So I guess it serves some kind of purpose.

 

[Guy Gardener]

^ Is that comment necessary? Lana was written out of the show two seasons ago when Kristen Kruek left.

To be clear, did she left because she was written out or was she written out, because she left the show?

God knows why she she left as a principle, but then she came back for a three episode story arc the following season after Clark and Lois started inching toward each other, which made nearly absolutely no sense as she was stealing super powers from a mad clone of Lex Luthor. We thought, "hey cool, now Clark can't dent her pelvis" but her powers quickly became Kryptonite based and her presence was completely toxic to him now literally rather than just figuratively.

Oddly she sat out on Zod's occupation. Even after we saw a year into the future where the Kryptonians won and held the earth where the only thing that stood against them was Green Arrow and Chloe.