SMALLVILLE Minicaps / Season 6, Eps. 1-4

Smallville season 6 minicaps can be reached via its P.O. Box in the Phantom Zone.

Smallville season 6 minicaps can be currently reached via its P.O. Box in the Phantom Zone.

Stewart here…

Welcome to the sixth season of Smallville minicaps! So, last season brought a lot of high and lows for recent high school graduate Clark Kent. Besides getting a shiny new kryptonian designed fortress in the arctic, Clark has gone off to college. But all that gets derailed by many cataclysmic events, like the death of his adopted father, Jonathan, and the end of his relationship with Lana, who ends up shacking up with Lex. Throughout this season has also been the threat of Zod, a kryptonian criminal returning from the Phantom Zone to conquer Earth. Well, Zod has needed a vessel to host him, and he finds a perfect one in Lex. Clark fails to keep Zod from possessing Lex, and from being banished to the Phantom Zone. With Metropolis in full chaos and Zod/Lex with no none to stop him, what happens now?

“Zod”

Clark pops up in the Phantom Zone, and meets a surprising ally in Raya, a former associate of Jor-El. As much as Clark would love to hear more about her and good ‘ol dad, he needs to get back to Earth, because things are going craptastcially bad. Lana just figured out Lex is possessed by Zod and wants her to start popping out Zod babies. That plane Martha and Lois were on just happens to crash-land near the Fortress, and Martha gets employed by Jor-El to finish the job Clark failed. And Chloe runs into that guy she shacked up with a few summers back, Jimmy Olsen (who just happens to be the twin brother of the actor who played Eric in season one’s “Leech”). It’s a really jam-packed season opener, with Clark facing off against Lex/Zod and banishing Zod back to the Phantom Zone. But, there is the slight problem though of Clark’s escape letting more than just him out of that prison…

–So just to clear up what happened, Lionel doesn’t seem to be linked to Jor-El anymore (even though his kryptonian writing skills haven’t faded), Lex still has a piece of Zod’s tech, and the fortress seems disabled. Plus, Lana’s still attached to Lex and Chloe looks to be reconnecting with Jimmy. Raya seems to be dead (or at least smarting from that knife to the back), but some “people” escaped from the Phantom Zone. On the other hand of news, it seems Fine was eradicated last season. Yeah, right.

“Hey Clark, like the getup? In a few seasons you’ll be wearing the same thing. Fear me!”

–A nice call back with Nam-Ek, Zod’s henchman from the season four opener, being part of the trouble for Clark while in the Phantom Zone. By the way, man, those CG monsters really don’t work for me.

–Did anyone notice during that whole purging of Zod from Lex that Terrence Stamp’s Zod appears? Of course you did.

–While Lana getting impaled through the hand isn’t the best scene of this episode, considering how she fouls up stabbing Lex with that kryptonian dagger later on, it’ll do. And on the matter of hands, that awkward moment with Clark holding hospitalized Lois’ hand? Ooooohhhhh…

–You just know Zod is evil when he refers to himself in the third person. That’s just classic “bad guy” identification 101 there.

“Sneeze”

Been a while since Clark has discovered new powers, and he does in this episode with a slight case of the super-powered sniffles. Meanwhile, Lex is kidnapped by someone who wants whatever gave him those superpowers a while ago and Lana starts piecing together that living with Lex has a lack of privacy. While all of this is going on, reclusive millionaire Oliver Queen shows up in Metropolis and he’s got a thing for bow and arrows. And in employment news, Lois has a job a freelance journalist…with gossip rags. We all gotta start somewhere, I guess.

I suppose if you read into this, this image is not just to show Clark’s new power but to have Lois running around in jogging wear. Well, you’re probably right on both ends. Happy?

–Dark Thursday? That’s what we’re going with for the name of the whole Zod/Lex trying to take over the Earth thing? Oh-kay…

–Wait, Lana is surprised Lex might be a bit overzealous with cameras all around his house? But at least she was able to get the camera out of her bedroom, so, progress? Putting blinders on to the obvious trouble of dating Lex?

–Really, Clark? You can blow away all those rain clouds, but you’re still unable to figure out how to fly?

–So yeah, Ollie set up that whole Lex kidnapping thing, but not the lead guy going rogue. And now he knows someone with powers is in town.

–“Funny, I don’t remember there being an ‘e’ in ‘tornado’.”

“Wither”

It looks like one of those escapees from the Phantom Zone has been starting up their own alien plant growing program, which needs men to feed them. And unfortunately for Clark and Jimmy, that means trouble when they’re next for being alien plant fertilizer. Good thing Clark manages to electrocute our alien plant girl out of existence. Also regarding boys and trouble, Oliver Queen gets to know our regulars, like Lois, and Lex gets to know Lana a bit more, if you know what I mean. No? Sigh. I mean they have sex, okay? And everyone seems to be having lovely times with other people, except for Clark. Poor guy.

“After being in the Phantom Zone, this isn’t so bad.”

–There’s also a small thing that has carried over from last episode regarding Metropolis University being closed down temporarily, which leaves Chloe bunking with Lois, and Lana with Lex.

–Oliver with the Robin Hood/kinda sorta old school Green Arrow costume was a nice touch you had to see coming a mile away.

–Lex is tired of Clark’s impromptu visits to his house. To be fair, I am too, even though Clark’s not wrong about Lex.

–When Lana waxes nostalgic about her old apartment after being away for so long, I was waiting for Chloe to utter, “You mean since you murdered some woman in some ghost possessed haze?”

–“Did you just paddle me?” In all fairness to Chloe using those shock pads on you, Jimmy, you probably had alien pods growing in you.

“Arrow”

Clark goes after some thief who has a bow, arrows, and a green hoodie, and…it’s Oliver Queen! Lois is on the trail of the identity of the mystery archer, and the security firm handling those rich clients losing their property to the “Green Arrow Bandit” want to know too, and kidnap Lois to find out what she knows. Thanks to all of this drama with Lois, Clark and Oliver figure out they both have the same interests, if different thanks to Oliver’s more proactive heroism. Lana’s busy too, being unknowingly tested by Lex to her loyalty, thanks to Lionel’s help. So good news, Lionel is still kind of evil. Hoo-ray?

–Considering she was tortured for information she actually didn’t have and just got rescued by Oliver, its not difficult to sympathize with Lois when she holds the Green Arrow at gunpoint to reveal who he is. Good thing Clark secretly helps him escape that awkward boyfriend/girlfriend exchange.

Green Arrow: he’ll be DJ’ing a set at your local rave soon.

–By the way, boss of big security company: not sure if it’s a sane business plan to make a personal appearance to someone (Lois) being tortured for information.

–Well, at least Lana sells being all evil with that doctor, even though she’s kind of torn about it.

–Justin Hartley, who plays this incarnation of Oliver Queen, has another connection to Smallville, in that he played Aquaman in the not picked up TV pilot that also co-starred Adrienne Palicki, who played Wonder Woman in another TV pilot not taken to series.

–Oliver’s response to Lois’ crack about his ‘little leather ass’: “Little? I’ve really been working on the glutes lately, too.”

NEXT TIME: Lex and Oliver’s shared past brings trouble in “Reunion”, Raya returns along with a threat from the Phantom Zone in “Fallout”, Oliver gets addicted to a super-serum in “Rage”, and a mysterious ally helps Clark fight another Zone escapee in “Static”.