The last shot of Superman opening his shirt to reveal the suit reminded me a lot of Phoebe Cates busting 'em out in Fast Times at Ridgemont High.

Beyond that, the episode was meh.  The first hour was so ridiculously sappy that it drove me insane.  The second half wasn't nearly as action-packed as I thought it should've been.  The return of Lex was cool.  I hate how they treated Mercy Graves, but whatever.  She wasn't even really Mercy Graves.

Chloe marries Green Arrow? Red Arrow is their son? I mean, WTF?

lois n clark > smallville. 

period. I'm so glad this 90210 trash is off of the air bastardizing one of the most iconic superheroes like ever. 

I've been a watcher of Smallville from the beginning. I imagine truthfully because there has really not been many other live action comic tv shows out there lately. And I've seen the good and the bad. Hell, I've watched Spiderman, The Incredible Hulk, Wonder Woman, even the Bionic Man and Woman, etc.... Although, Smallville had many flaws. For the most part I thought it was entertaining. There were many things I didn't like about the show personally... To name a few, I didn't like that they kept Superman grounded all these years. Everyone knows he's been able to fly since he was a boy really. I also didn't like the fact that they didn't reveal him in the suit until the last few minutes of the finale. (However, very predictable)

    Most of the characters where ok and their portrail...I thought "Bo Duke" John Schneider was an excellent choice to play Jonathan Kent.  I despised the character of Chloe Sullivan though. I don't know what it was about her? But, something didn't fly right with me. And when I think about it... I'm amazed that they picked the Green Arrow to be one of his closest allies. You would think it would be someone like Hal Jordan or Bruce Wayne.  The show lasted 10 seasons though and that saying something in it's self. Good luck to all the actors not being type casted into other roles. And I hope they come up with something that will last just as long.

    My last thought at the end of watching it was... "how much did they have to pay Warner Bros. for the music by John Williams?";)

Smallville was and is one of my favorite shows. It's depressing that it's done now, but I'm also really happy with the way it ended. Ten years I've been following the show, and I have so many fond memories of staying up late in the night in summer watching disc after disc of the show. 

@Om1kron said:

lois n clark > smallville. 

period. I'm so glad this 90210 trash is off of the air bastardizing one of the most iconic superheroes like ever. 

100% agree. I liked the first 5 seasons or so, when they were still keeping to the original idea of the show. But after that, when the logical idea would have been to have Clark leave Smallville and either explore the world or become Superman, they decided to drag it out with appearances from every hero and villain he would ever meet.  Sure, some of the Cameo episodes were cool, but all in all the last 4 seasons were just the CW milking their cash cow dry. Making Clark like the 8th hero to put on a costume? Having him save the world 20 different ways from big bads like Braniac and Doomsday before he even put on the costume?  The show basically nerfed the hell out of some of DC's greatest heroes and villains so that they could get the teen drama crowd. And as always, my biggest peeve is that if any of the millions of viewers decided they want more Superman, they cant go to the comics without getting incredibly confused about some of the key points of the Superman mythos.  i only watched it to see it end. But unlike most shows that try to wow and excite you to end it, Smallville just cleaned up some of the mess they made and gave a meager thank for watching for the last 10 years by showing you a few seconds of Tom's chest.

@Om1kron said:

lois n clark > smallville. 

Also, Smallville as a show was way better then Lois n' Clark. 

Honestly, I'm relieved it's finally over.  I kind of got sick of the show the season Lex got shot in the head and a couple episodes later carved up with a knife and was no worse for wear.  But enough complaining, I kept with the show and enjoyed the finale.  Like others I wish their had been more suit action but 10 minutes of the suit and the Superman theme were enough to give me the geek giggles. 

Oh, and can someone explain why Chloe had a Smallville comic book but Clark was still playing the part of mild manner reporter?

It was a bit messy, it was too much filed with "soap"/drama moments and could have been cut shorter by half of its time...but in the end, it shined in some places which we were all looking for.

What am I talking about? Both the finale and the whole series.


On another hand: I feel so cheated of both Black Manta and Captain Cold :(

next up, gotham day and gotham knights! the story of how a billionaire became a bat and did some real ass kicking.

There were some extremely good moments and a few disappointments for me, but overall it was really very good.  I always thought John Schneider was excellent and he knocked his scenes out of the park in the finale.  The almost-wedding faceoff was great.  The goodbyes to each of the cast members were pretty strong for the most part.  I was actually more excited to see Michael Rosenbaum as Lex again (my favorite Smallville character) than to see Tom Welling in the full suit.  Their faceoff was short but very effective.  As tragic as Tess's end was, that whole scene was pretty dark and fitting.  By far my favorite single scene was the confrontation with Lionel/Darkseid in the barn, specifically Jor-El allowing Clark to "graduate" and unlocking his flight.  That was amazingly well done.  Another great scene was Clark receiving the suit in the Fortress.  The last portion where Clark saves AFO and pushes Apokolips away was a pretty cool Superman sequence, though we only got glimpses of him.  The epilogue was really well done, with all of the classic elements present and accounted for.  Great last shot.

I was slightly disappointed by not seeing the full suit except from a distance, like many others.  I liked what they showed of it, but that one full-on shot was noticeably missing.  I guess Welling really, really didn't want to wear that suit?  My other major complaint was Lex apparently losing all of his Smallville memories.  Maybe I misunderstood, but it seemed like everything from the last ten years was just gone.  That seems like doing the character a major disservice and taking away Lex's whole motivation to be evil; if he forgets the last ten years, then he's back to being a fairly decent guy, right?  Sure, he has problems with his father, but his whole descent into darkness is erased.  I just didn't understand the point of that.  Other problems I had were pretty minor and nitpicky, like pushing Apokolips away (yes, I know he's Superman, but that seemed to be even beyond his power level).  Lionel as Darkseid was goofy and could have been done better, I'm thinking more along the lines of Boss Dark Side from Final Crisis.  I did like the Chloe prologue/epilogue and obviously they were paying homage to the comic book scene from Superman: The Movie, but how does that comic book even exist?  I assumed Chloe ended up in some alternate timeline, but apparently not.  It was also too bad we didn't get to see how he was named Superman.

But!  It was enjoyable and a very good episode in the end, and a fitting finale.

As for the people trying to explain Smallville as being "non-canon" and in an "alternate universe", I just have to laugh.  There have been so many incarnations of Superman of the years in comics, television, and movies, written by hundreds of different people.  They are ALL alternate versions of the same character.  Smallville is no less valid than any other.  And it was the best live action television presentation of Superman we've had yet.

Here's an example of what I mean by lousy writing.

Its finally gone, now what am I going to watch now!!

 goodbye smallville 

really hate that the thumbnail to this article is so spoilery, some people havent watched it yet and are wondering if they will see exactly that shot.

Hate to say it, I wasn't impressed by the final episode...Darkseid was a joke, the monologuing was painful, and it was a waste of two hours just to see mostly a generated image of him in the suit, and then him doing the shirt busting open scene, I missed going to the movies to see Thor for this and I have to say I was completely disappointed.

And what the HELL was with him talking to his dead father the whole damn time?!

They could have made this final Smallville HUGE, instead they do what they always do...CHOKE...goodbye Smallville and good riddance...my time will be taken watching SuperNatural now...

The best part is that the budget is so low for this episode they can't even put hair gel on Clark's hair to make him look different.

Overall Smallville is the blueprint for any comic based tv show. There were a few cheesey parts that they should never have used or fleshed it out.  The Red Arrow kid was lame. Darkseid and the whole build up to a battle should have been definitely been fleshed out. It would have been better to see Clark in costume and not computer generated.

I will give props to tying the series finale up with showing Luthor becoming President, which they did in season one, and showing his trials from the past seasons. The faithful who have been watching for 10 seasons were able to see Superman in the end a payoff for the everyone who had been watching the last 10 years. I was glad to see this last season that everyone that had been part of the decade spanning story was able to make a brief cameo here and there. Kristen Kreuk aka Lana never appeared. The other disappoinments were all the "Justice Leaguers" never appeared on screen and The Hawkman Hawkgirl story never came to pass. There was actress who signed to play Hawkgirl at the beginning of the season. There was an article posted here on comicvine.

Overall very good. Began strong, stayed strong, and ended strong. The heroes and villians stayed true to therer comic book counterparts and did not get too far off comic book reservation status.

What I would have done different.

2 episodes ago for no good reason, Clark and Ollie went to the Phantom Zone to deal with Zod.

 It wasn't necessary. His story was done.

Instead

This is the episode where we deal with the whole Wedding and Father issues. It ends with the revelation of the Gold Krytonite and Apocalypse blocking the Sun.

The episode before the finale begins with the Ollie and Clark fight, and has a call to arms, as you find the Omega affect has the ability to transform ordinary people into para demons bent on doing Darkseids bidding.  The Justice League forms , but with the lack of leadership they begin to fall to superior numbers and a return of Darkseids major desciples and return villains from past Smallville episodes ( Who wouldn't want to see Amy Adams eating people again ).

  That is when Clark, accepting his role as a hero, finally puts on the suit.  The episode ends in an Iconic shot of him against the globe

Finale : It begins with he and the Justice League in a fight with the three minions and the infected crowd.  They defeat them. Seeing this new hero emerge Darkseid sees him as a threat capable enough to destroy his plans. So he makes his appearance.

 Fighting and defeating the Justice League.  Clark as Superman speeds in, he too is knocked down and seemingly defeated, we see the flashbacks and he feels inspired by the words of Jonathan Kent and Jor - El.  We see him lift up into the air where he knocks a rising Darkseid  out of the sky.

 We then see im fly even higher and Apocalypse moves out of the way of the sun.

This inspires "the darkness" out of people as they see him descend from the sky, leaving he and the rest of the Justice League to defeat a now de powered Darkseid.

  A few words from all the supporting characters. A kiss from Lois

The episode ends with him flying in orbit with the Earth behind him. He banks to the left. Cue credits.

but that is just my fantasy ending. It would have been a hell of a lot more expensive

I'm suprised that nobody even said "Look up in the sky!". So many things they missed in the finale. This season lacked other heroes and had to many damn fillers.

I was hoping the Legion of Doom would be in this episode after their cameo in the episode before. I just thought seeing each hero from the JLA pitted against the Legion of Doom with some epic music in the back would just be awesome. Also, I thought it'd b cool if Darkseid and Clark were all fighting and Clark gets thrown into some building and its right then the Supes persona comes out and we see Superman rising from the dust as Remy Zero's Save Me plays. Sigh...

This series was awesome and epic, period :)

A bit of a letdown.  A big build up to him donning the suite and we got, what...maybe 15 seconds of him in it?

For me I wanted to at least see the Justice League with every member on there to show up for a big fight against Darksied's demons and have Clark lead the group as Superman but other than that it was good not the best but good

I enjoyed watching Smallville for 10 seasons. I could only say that it's a decent show even though it's not that great. Some were bad and some were good. The finale was sort of a letdown though. The battle between Clark and Darkseid was way too short. I mean way too short.

I'll admit that the scene when Clark was changing into the suit mid-air in the Fortress of Solitude is easily one of the most badass Superman scenes I've seen in quite a while.

Personally I felt that it was 95% Filler with only 5% of actually good stuff. Like it was mostly just Dicking around for 2 hours. and pulling plot closers out of there asses: Ie Lex forgetting about Clark Being Superman, Green Arrow only Doing one thing as Green Arrow, The Wedding. All this stuff was just rail roaded  to the final scene. They spent like an Hour going over the Will they Wont they marry thing like For gods sake that gets annoying after a while. Same with the constant montages for like almost every  major event in the last 10 Years. We get it  things have happened, but when you are reminding us of Better episodes that the one we are watching you really need to re-think your writing.

On its own, it was mediocre at best, but for all this buildup, it was pretty LAME.

Definitely not one of the best Smallville episodes or series finales in general.

i didn't like this tv serie so much, dude how on earth are you going to represent darkseid and doomsday in that way? that was so terrible if you ask me. but the heroes were a little bit ok.  

I liked it, I mean it was one of the best finales since Gough and Miller left the show. However, this was supposed to be the biggest, most amazing episode of the whole series -- and it wasn't. 

i just watched it and i thought it was great. it made the geekboy who spent ten years watching this show very happy.

never was a fan of the show, the only things I liked where Supergirl, Zatanna, and BOOSTER GOLD!

Goodbye =(

goodbye Smallville, you have been a faithful friend for the past 10 years. Loved the music in the ending scene, watched it again and again yelling "SUPERMAN!" at the top of my lungs. Annoyed my neighbors, but what the hell!

I got into the show late.  Green Arrow apearing is what got me to watch. over the years some great episodes and some crap. But all in all i enjoyed what Smallville did. The different take on things never bothered me.

disappointing.

I JUST watched the last episode, DVRed it.  And I have to say, I was disappointed.
Spiolers below!
I was expecting at least one shot of Tom Welling in a Superman costume, and while I watched the show that got me thinking, since this is the last episode why not have him wearing the suit most of the ending (and not just one shot of him in costume about to fly) but we didn't get that.
We got extreme close ups of his face, and far shots of a CG Superman.  We didn't even get one shot of Welling in the costume.  The second half of the show seemed a little too all over the place for me.
They are about to get married, but then the big disaster interrupts them, so he leaves the wedding to go look for Tess, then he finds Lex Luther, and then goes and talks to his mother and goes and talks to Jor El, and his father's ghost.  We also get a scene of Lionel and Tess, just seemed a little all over the place.
One thing I did like was how they did sort of montages of various scenes from the series featuring Clark and another featuring Lex.  (Too bad Kristen Kruek didn't return, they could have had one with Lana.  Or they could have done one with Lois, or perhaps even Chloe.)  At times it felt a little slow, but those moments felt like the show was pausing for a second to think "Aw, its almost over."
I would have liked to see the last half of the second part feature more of Clark as Superman.  The reason he ends up getting into the costume was to inspire the masses who were going to be lost to Darkseid if they weren't full of hope, but that seemed jumbled too.  When he eventually puts on the suit the crowd sees him fly over, but barely, then the big planet is moved away, and they are saved (full of hope) but there isn't a moment where Superman flies into view and the crowd sees him and thinks its the "Blur" and he says no, its Superman (or something).  There wasn't a moment where he showed himself to the masses and told them he was here to save the day, so for the most part people still didn't know he existed.  Another small thing, but since Green Arrow was there as a best man, why not show Kid Flash, Cyborg, and Aquaman as well?  Maybe bring in the other heroes who have appeared and put them in the crowd at the wedding.
I would have done things differently, but it was an OK last episode.  But like the last episode of Steve Correll on the Office I would have made some changes.
What I would have loved to see is that the main villain in the last episode could have been Lex and also the coming of Darksied.  As Superman Clark could have stopped both, but not completely.  Lex could get away, and the audiance would know that he was going to be there causing trouble in the future, and Darksied could have been stopped from coming to Earth but not defeated so he would still be out there trying to come to Earth and destroy it (a line like Darksied will try again, but I will always be here to stop it.)

In a JLA story about the invasion of the white martians Superman gets on the TV, and is broadcast to the entire world, because he is a face they trust and inspires hope.  He tells the people of the world what to do.  That was sort of what I was hoping for.  I wanted Lois to use the camera to video broadcast the first images of Superman (Clark in costume) to the world, and maybe call him Superman.  Suddenly everyone around the world sees Superman save the plain, and stopping the giant planet, live on TV right in front of their eyes.
Now everyone knows he exists, they know he is here, good, and will save the day, and that his name is Superman.  That was what I was hoping for, and at least one shot of Welling actually in costume.

But again, overall the episode was good, and it nicely wrapped up things while letting the audience know that the story continues.

"  Hell yeah, I wanted to see Superman go up against Darkseid. Do we get the awesome knock-down drag out fight we could hope for? Not even close. " 

That "fight" with Darkseid was pathetic

@Croi, dude they HAD to wipe his mind one way or another because Lex knew CLARK KENT personally and that he was Superman.....Kal-El etc

From actually working on the show I've got to say to say that the season finale was overall impressive. Yes some fans were disappointed with the use of CGI outfit, but you have to
consider again the shows budget, and the possibility that their could of been restrictions placed on the show to not show  the full outfit.

Never watched the show and after reading this, seeing the exceptionally brief footage of a CGI Tom Welling as Superman I have to say I'm glad I never did. Ten years of build up and when they finally let Welling do what the fans have wanted forever and a day its far away and mostly computer generated. What a crock.

Finally caught up and finished the series... The finale was dissapointing, but from the rest of the season, somewhat expected I guess. Problems: Practically no fight scenes. Again a build up of the big bad, in this case Darkseid, and he doesn't even physically manifest or do anything. The wedding was tooooo much of the seasons story. Where are all the other league members? I know this is a story about clark, but everything just seemed like an excuse. Kara, you have to leave, go to the future. League members who had seating arrangements at the wedding never appeared. We never get to see Clark in uniform really.  Tess's role was very jumbled and not even considered at points. No one cared or realized (I am talking about the characters) she wasn't at the wedding? 
 
Things I did like:Johnathan Kent and Lex's return.  
 
 
I LOVED this show for many years, but a few things were huge problems for me. The show rarely delivered fight scenes. There is tons of hype; Zod, Doomsday, Darkseid, etc and they never really do anything. I think the "best" fight scene with the main guys was when Zod possessed Lex, and even then Clark never landed a hit on Zod and just got his butt kicked. There are many smaller/less powerful character fight scenes that are much better... this doesn't make any sense. The show had huge cast changes, I guess unavoidably since it was 10 years, but original long lasting members: Clark, Lana, Chloe, Pete, Lex, Lionel, Martha, Johnathan, and only Clark and somewhat Chloe were strong till the end? That is awful. When Lex and Lana left the show, and Lois joined... that is when everything started going very down hill. I think I might be in the minority on this, but Lois is the worst character on Smallville. I dont' know why, I like Lois for the most part in the comics and the animated stuff, but in Smallville.... she just drives me nuts. Everything she says just annoys me and I don't see how anyone can like her, especially Clark.