SMALLVILLE Minicaps / Season 3, Eps. 21-22 and Season Three Highlights

Smallville season three minicaps is over, and is going to find some anti-depressants after this is done.

Stewart here, and be careful, for there are spoilers within…

So we’re at the end of the season and things are moving in some rather interesting directions. Clark and Lex learned a little bit more about their past rather unwillingly, Lana’s about to take off to Paris, and Lionel and Lex’s private war is getting messy for everyone in their path, especially since Lionel is facing a terminal diagnosis. Considering all the darkness so far, do we get to leave this season on an up note? The short answer is: NO. The long answer, we’re about to get to…

“Forsaken”

Lana’s prepping to go to Paris, but gets one last visitor before that happens: a slightly older version of Emily from “Accelerate” appears just as Clark decides he should come clean with Lana about his secret. Seeing as how the last run-in with Emily ended with Lana almost drowning, this reunion goes just as well, with Emily imprisoning Lana as an unwilling playpal. And believe it or not, she may have it easy in comparison to everyone else this episode. Pete plans on going to Wichita with his mom to help keep Clark’s secret, Lex gets help from Chloe in arresting Lionel, and Clark decides to not tell Lana the truth.

–So much for Lionel wiping that recording of his confession in “Truth”. I’m sure Chloe will be just fine now that Lionel’s been arrested. (whispering) I don’t think she’ll be okay.

–Smart handling of Emily with destroying the water silo to stop her. I do wonder what will happen to her now that Lionel snatched her up…again.

Emily learned a lot about making giant glass cages since last we saw her.

–Boy, Emily must have been really busy making that large glass prison for Lana in that barn.

–This is the last we’ll see of Pete for awhile on the show. I’m a bit sad about this, but after the beating he takes this episode from the crooked FBI guy, not sure I blame him for leaving.

–“Don’t forget: Judas hanged himself with his own rope.”

“Covenant”

A lot of things come to roost in this season ender, but the big one is a mysterious girl named Kara who claims to be kryptonian. Oh, and she wants Clark to join him and help repopulate the krytponian race, which also reveals what Jonathan’s deal was with Jor-El in the beginning of the season: to give up Clark to Jor-El. With Lana and Pete leaving, Clark starts taking Kara’s offer seriously once he finds out about Lex’s secret room about the Kents. But “Lara” is just a ruse from Jor-El to bring Clark to him to accept his destiny, which Clark reluctantly does to save Jonathan’s life. You can read below for all the other effed up details of this episode, but man, Smallville ends in a really bleak place this season.

“Dude, knock before watching me sleep in a field of energy. Have some politeness, will you?”

–Looks like Lana’s got it easier than anyone else by the end of the season, now that she’s going to Paris. I’m sure next season will go well for her (hint: I’ve seen next season. I just lied.)

–Adrienne Palicki, who plays Kara, also appears in the Aquaman pilot that never went to series and the Wonder Woman pilot that luckily never went to series either. And of course, she was another high schooler years later on Friday Night Lights.

Here’s a fun fact: Adrienne Palicki here played Sam Winchester doomed girlfriend on the pilot of Supernatural, which happens to star someone who will pop up here regularly next season.

–Lionel gets his hair shaved off (for some reason), all to that creepy final montage of everything going to crap for everyone. Chloe gets blown up in a house! Lex gets poisoned! Jonathan is left in a coma! Someone leaves kryptonian fire marks on the Kent farm! Death, poisoning, comas, and vandalism! How dare you, Smallville!

–Probably for the best Pete left when he did. With all this escalation, I was worried if he hanged around for this episode, he’d meet a really messed up fate, like that FBI guy who got vaporized by “Lara”.

–I feel confident enough to say this after some thorough analysis: Jor-El’s a dick.

–“Thank you.”

Getting your head shaved isn’t the worst kind of prison hazing by any stretch, Lionel.

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

BEST EPISODES: “Memoria”, “Delete”, “Exile”, “Asylum”, “Obsession”

WORST EPISODES: “Velocity”, “Relic”, “Whisper”

BEST METEOR FREAK THIS SEASON: Alicia from “Obsession” wins this round, and considering our nominees were paltry this season with only a few hold-overs from season past, that’s not much of a surprise.

WHO GETS HOSPITALIZED MORE IN SMALLVILLE: Pretty much anyone who fights Clark this season. There’s a LOT of comatose people in that category this season.

LESSONS CLARK LEARNS THIS SEASON: His real dad is kind of a douchebag, the sun powers him, and Lex is hard to have a chummy relationship with.

WHY YOU SHOULD HATE LANA LANG: She trusts a guy who turns out to be Lionel’s mole, then leaves town without completely thinking over who will run the Talon.

WHAT HAPPENS FREQUENTLY IN SMALLVILLE: People trust Lionel FOR NO REASON.

WHO SHOULD CLARK HOOK UP WITH: Somehow crazy girl Alicia wins this round. Lana’s either too into herself or Chloe is way too busy making up for her silly deal with Lionel. Sure Alicia has, um, issues regarding space and lead walls, but at this rate, the pool ain’t getting better (yet).

HOPES FOR SEASON FOUR: Some lightheartedness. Man, this was a dark season.

SEASON THREE ANALYSIS: As much as it seems I’ve been down on this season not being as fun as the last two, I thought it was great. For one thing, we had less meteor freaks to worry about for bad guys (save the ones who were stuck in Belle Reve), and the main characters being put through some really tumultuous stuff. With the whole conflict between Lex and Lionel this season, there wasn’t too much time for the levity of seasons one and two. And with all the big reveals in the show’s mythology, the show developed beyond its “X-Files with Superboy” motif of the past and got into some rich territory for the future.

Yes, this was a dark year for the show in terms of stories and those paid off in some dramatic ways by the season finale, but its for the best the show’s creators decided to pull back on the gloom and doom for season four. And how they managed to do that was to bring in a very pivotal and familiar character from the Superman mythos into the mix.

We should all be thankful, baring how dark this season was, that painting was made with paint, if you catch my drift.

NEXT TIME: Season four of the Smallville minicaps starts up with Chloe’s cousin, Lois Lane, arriving in town as Clark returns not quite himself in “Crusade”, Lionel sends a hitman to stop Clark and Lois’s search for Chloe in “Gone”, a kryptonite treatment turns people beautiful and deadly in “Façade”, and kryptonite power drinks bring out the weirdness in “Devoted”.