SMALLVILLE Minicaps / Season 2, Eps. 21-23 and Season Two Highlights

Smallville season two minicaps are ending, and still no invite to Lex’s wedding? Okay. Fine. See if I care.

Stewart here, and be warned of spoilers within…

Let’s look at the season so far: Clark has discovered he’s an alien, he’s getting closer to Lana, which is really upsetting Chloe, and Lex is getting married. With all that and Martha’s pregnancy, everything looks good. Except, lest we forget, we’re near the end of this season of Smallville, so something bad has to happen. So let’s find out what that bad is…

“Accelerate”

Lana has lost a lot of people in her life, but one of them comes back in this episode: her childhood friend Emily. That actually isn’t good news, since Emily drowned years ago, so why does she keep appearing to Lana? Well, the short answer is she’s not dead, and the long version is, well, a bit more complicated, but it has to do with clones. Oh, and that kryptonite Lionel’s been moving most of the season around has something to do with it too.

–How damn creepy is that final scene with Lionel and that Emily? The mind wanders with what’s going to happen to her.

Lionel Luthor: the creepiest and unlikeliest person your little girl wants at her tea party.

–At least Chloe’s talking to Clark now. And she’s still jealous of him being with Lana. That they’re really getting together I’m sure won’t help matters when Chloe finds out.

–At least we finally get an answer to what Lionel’s been up to in Smallville with the kryptonite. And also that he’s taken over conservatorship of the caves from Lex.

–Emily’s response to seeing the older Lana: “You got big.”

–Lionel’s cake advice for Lex’s wedding: “Could I have some water? The liqueur seems to be overpowering the butter.”

“Calling”

Dr. Walden comes out of his coma from “Rosetta” with some weird warnings, some energy powers, and a need to kill Clark. As big a s a problem that is, he’s getting some second thoughts from Lana as to their relationship. Also, Lex is getting married to Helen, and some suspicion comes up before the proceedings with Clark’s blood sample being stolen from her lab. Oh, and “the day is coming when the last son will take over the planet”, whatever that means. OHHHH. That’s not good.

That Kent barn is lucky to still be standing after everything this season.

–That cold open might as well have said with its positive end about Clark and Lana: “So how bad will this get screwed up?” Well, that gets answered with that final barn scene where Chloe sees Clark and Lana kiss. Oopsie.

–That Pete reaction to that Clark/Lana/Chloe scene was really good. He’s the odd man out in this mess, and still playing if everything’s normal.

–Lionel’s really turning up the evil-meter this episode with his talk with Helen, his later talk with Clark, and asking Chloe to thoroughly investigate Clark to get her a Daily Planet column. And I’m sure Walden’s rant about Clark being “the last son” and having to kill him which the doctor had in front of Lex can’t have anything good come out of it.

–By the way, Lex stole the vial of Clark’s blood from Helen’s office. Good thing its not labeled “property of Clark Kent”or anything.

–I actually love how on the DVD commentary for “Rosetta” the actors and producers joke about bringing Walden back, even though he gets turned into extra crispy barbeque by accident. At least Lionel will be getting that unburned hand of his.

–And yes, that is the voice of Terence Stamp (General Zod from Superman I & II) as Jor-El, Clark’s real father. That must have been a surprise to see his name in the closing credits when it first aired.

–“Kal-el, it is time.”

–“I have ashes to sweep and wicked stepsisters to undermine.”

“Exodus”

Clark’s spaceship came to life, speaking as his father Jor-el, and told him he had to leave Smallville to fulfill his destiny. He’s given a day to prepare himself, but he clearly doesn’t want to go, what with that whole “the last son will take over the planet” prophecy thing and all. So he goes against all this destiny talk from the ship, and bad things happen, like Martha losing the baby. So he deals with it in a way most kids deal with being unintentionally responsible for such a tragedy: by putting on a red kryptonite ring and driving out of Smallville, leaving everyone behind. So um, see you next season?

Probably for the best we were spared a scene where Clark puts aloe vera over his chest marking.

–The whole Lex/Helen wedding hits a brief hitch with him revealing to her he stole the vial of Clark blood, but she still goes through with it. And its all good for them ending the season…until the plane they’re supposed to be on for their honeymoon trip seems to be crashing into the ocean, with Lex on it and no one else. Probably for the best Jonathan gave Lex that compass for a wedding present…if he survives…

–Yeah, be honest with Chloe about hooking up with Lana, Clark. That’ll go over well, I’m sure…AND she already knew and she’s upset about it. More the “not telling her about him and Lana” part than anything else. Sure, Chloe. Sure. And that probably led to her taking Lionel’s offer to work for him.

–I always wondered why Chloe held on to one of those red kryptonite class rings. Was she trying to get a refund on it because of the “cheap” rocks used?

–Lionel has a great “No!” scream in this episode.

–“I kind of met my biological father last night.”

“Let’s enjoy this moment, son, because its not like you’ll do something stupid that endangers my wife’s unborn child, right?”

So before we leave season two of the Smallville minicaps, let’s take a look at the best and worst that we’ve seen this season:

BEST EPISODES: “Rosetta”, “Heat”, “Red”, “Rush”, “Lineage”

WORST EPISODES: “Nocturne”, “Witness”, “Prodigal”

BEST METEOR FREAK THIS SEASON: Tough call, even with return winner from last season, Tina, making her final appearance on this list, but she narrowly wins this round. At least she won’t be making a three-peat.

WHO GETS HOSPITALIZED MORE IN SMALLVILLE: Pete, with Martha just one trip behind.

LESSONS CLARK LEARNS THIS SEASON: He’s an alien from Krypton named Kal-el, he can set things on fire by staring at it, and red meteor rocks turn him into a complete creep.

WHY YOU SHOULD HATE LANA LANG: She’s living with her best friend now and actually found her real dad to be alive, among the other things she has accomplished in the last year.

WHAT HAPPENS FREQUENTLY IN SMALLVILLE: Clark having to explain why he did really bad thing sin front of Lana, and by the next episode, seems to have kind of gotten over it.

WHO SHOULD CLARK HOOK UP WITH: I would have said Chloe, but she does not take rejection very well (she made a deal with Lionel Luthor over this, people), so Lana takes the default win.

HOPES FOR SEASON THREE: Someone lets Clark know he’s not responsible for Martha miscarrying (even though, he kind of is) and brings him home.

SEASON TWO ANALYSIS: Really, the second season I think improved on a lot of the issues I had with the first season, like the overabundance of meteor-freaks being the adversaries in every episode. With the introduction of the caves, we finally got some answers to some of Clark’s lineage and some slight rejiggering of his origins that add a bit of tension to Clark’s true purpose. Lana’s little less a creepy morbid girl, Chloe finally does more than be some info gatherer, and Pete is linked to Clark now that he knows his secret. On the Luthor end, things got interesting with the addition of Lionel as a regular and all the romance Lex had with the lovely doctor Helen.

And one thing the season really improved on was making a cliffhanger finale that had a bit more emotional punch than just the terror of a tornado plowing through the town. Clark is broken by the actions he took avoiding the control of the ship, and where he ends up, we won’t have to wait long to see here, because…

And we end this season with Clark driving off to be the newest member of SAMCRO.

And we end this season with Clark driving off to be the newest member of the Kansas chapter of SAMCRO.

NEXT TIME: Season three of the Smallvile minicaps starts with Clark’s friends trying to find him in “Exile”, Clark dealing with some unfinished business from Metropolis in “Phoenix”, an assassin is killing people affected by the meteors in “Extinction”, and Clark is asked for help by someone in a coma in “Slumber”.