Smallville Minicaps / Season 10, Eps. 1-4

The Smallville season 10 minicaps wishes it could kick back and relax for its final season, but hey, it’s got a lot of work to do.

Stewart here…

Last season, Clark Kent went through a lot of changes. He’s embracing his role as a hero in Metropolis, he’s embracing a relationship with Lois, and he’s embracing being a mentor to a bunch of kryptonians like him that have arrived on Earth. Mucking up things for Mr. Kent was Zod, whose twisted need to dominate humanity was barely stopped as the Kandorians were taken to a new home. The downside was by season’s end, Tess was left burnt and possibly dead, Oliver swarmed by some unknown force, and Clark was stabbed with a blue kryptonite dagger (which also prevented him from being sent on the Kandorians travel bus like Zod and company). Well, let’s get into the final season of Smallville, shall we, people?

Finally out of his goth superhero phase…

“Lazarus”

So, Lois happens to stumble upon Clark on the streets, and gets rid of that pesky blue kryptonite dagger stuck in his chest, which helps him heal up (albeit while Lois is watching this from a distance without him knowing it). During his near-death experience, Clark hears Jor-El warning him of a greater threat to Earth, along with a vision of Lex. Well, that vision turns out to be kind of accurate when a clone of Lex kidnaps Lois and sets her up in a familiar setting. Also, Chloe hunts down Oliver from his captors (his secret government captors) using Dr. Fate’s helmet and look, Tess is alive and way less grilled over than last we saw her. Everything seems fine again, except Lois goes to Africa, Tess is taking care of a young Lex clone, and Chloe has vanished after saving Oliver in an exchange. Oh, and something dark is coming, so fun times ahead, huh?

“My boyfriend got hazed like this? Country folk are weird!”

–So, Cadmus Labs had been growing Lex clones and helped Tess look less like burnt chicken. But who’s been running the place if Lex is gone and Tess hasn’t been?

–Fun callback to the first episode of the show with the scarecrow setup in Lawson’s Field, only now with Lois being the unfortunate scarecrow thanks to the dying Lex clone’s twisted plot.

–So Jor-El’s back to the passive-aggressive handling of Clark of old. Sigh. Well, go prove the disembodied jerkwad wrong, Clark.

–If it wasn’t spoiled in that guest star listing, my reaction to Clark’s vision of Jonathan Kent would really have been emotional.

–“For a second…I felt I was flying.”

Sniff. Sorry, I got something in my eye.

“Shield”

So while Lois is in Africa (working near Carter Hall/Hawkman), Clark has a crisis to handle in his new deskmate, the gooey if overambitious hero-hating Cat Grant. After both Clark and Cat survive a failed bombing, Clark discovers the assassin Deadshot’s target isn’t her, but him. Plus, Lois has an earnest talk with Carter (helped with alcohol) about what she can really do to help Clark. Well staying in Africa isn’t helping much, soooooo…

–So we get a decent explanation why “Cat Grant” sounds so much like but isn’t the Cat Grant set up seasons earlier. Also, she has a lot of self defense stuff on her.

–It seems Chloe allowed herself to disappear and not be found, although Tess helped her do that part, and then faked her own death. Little comfort for Oliver, who’s tired of all this losing people.

–Someone is tagging Clark, Carter, and Oliver to keep track of them. And speaking of those bunch consisting of Flagg and Deadshot, Plastique from season 8 is part of this Suicide Squad.

–Clark gets a sporty new red jacket for his superhero getup.

–Hawkman may be about to meet his end soon, if that vision is accurate. And um, the tomb of Isis? Say, is that related to what’s coming up in the next round of Smallville minicaps? Well, yes.

“Supergirl”

Kara’s back (well, so is Lois, but more below) and has made herself known to the world as a superhero. This comes at a rather awkward time as a anti-vigilante radio host is pushing to clamp down on superheroes. Oh, and said radio host is possessed by a great darkness, said darkness Kara has been tasked by Jor-El to fight instead of Clark. And Oliver publicly outs himself as Green Arrow, because, he’s depressed…again.

“Say, future me, am I able to fly?” “Yes.” “Will Lana ever come back–” “No!” “Oh…okay…”

–Clark flew for a few seconds (or at least for the first time he was aware of) until, uh oh, doubt kicked in. It’s hard not to see Kara’s point in Clark not being ready to fight the darkness.

–On the matter of Kara, she really knows how to rock a brunette wig and glasses for a secret identity. Take notes, Clark.

–Radio host Godfrey’s pervy hangout is called Club Desaad. Hint, hint, people.

–Jeez, Lois goes to all that trouble to protect Oliver’s secret by infiltrating Club Desaad to steal that info from Godfrey, only to have Oliver reveal he’s Green Arrow to the press! And for a guy who had an alien burn his tag onto his chest weeks earlier, Oliver seems little to not scarred.

–“Maybe someone knows where she flew off to. I can’t believe I just said that out loud.”

“Homecoming”

It’s the five year reunion of Clark’s class at Smallville High, and he and Lois go to reminisce. While there, Clark gets another surprise in the visit of Brainiac, only a good version from the Legion of the 31st century. Brainiac 5 is there to help Clark with his doubts of being a hero, which involve a trip to the past and a unplanned trip to the future. It’s a fun episode (200th episode, to be accurate) that turns out to a wonderful trip through the show’s past and hints at what’s to come.

Awwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww, that’s…gonna be difficult to explain to Lois later, Clark.

–Surprising callback to the show’s second episode, “Metamorphosis”, with Greg the bug boy returning to offer thanks to Clark, who surprisingly, isn’t still in prison after killing his mom. Weird penal code in Smallville, I guess.

–Lois is really surprised the high school graduates don’t recognize a student that was there for about a week?

–Obviously we get some footage of the first few seasons peppered in as Clark wanders the halls of Smallville High. Man, 10 years really does change people.

–The Torch has gone to the web, and the in hiding Chloe seems to be a big fan.

–Clark meets his future self and is surprised at how uptight and nerdy future Clark is. Hey, at least he can fly, present Clark.

NEXT TIME: Lois becomes a mystical goddess in “Isis”, Clark and Lois become trapped by a cult in “Harvest”, Thanksgiving gets interesting as the Lane clan visits in “Ambush”, and unknown things about the past are revealed to our heroes in “Abandoned”.