This past Friday night, Smallville fans were on cloud nine. The long-running CW superhero drama turned in one of its finest efforts with the season finale titles "Salvation." Haven't seen it? Click the link and watch it on the CW's website. Want to read a review of it? Then this link will take you to my review of the episode.
Are you still itching for more Smallville ? Of course you are. The finale was fantastic, but the wait until September seems agonizing. We won't need to wait through the entire summer without news. Traditionally, casting news leaks in June while the show gives a trailer and some answers at San Diego Comic-Con.
Still, no one can help but dream of season ten and what they want to see. It's very so exciting to think of what the ever-improving Smallville has to offer. After nine seasons and interviews, there is enough precedent to piece together a rough idea of what may happen. I'm going to analyze the clues and try to put together what we may (and hope to) see come the fall.
WHAT HAPPENS POST-"SALVATION?"
Smallville loves to put Clark and friends in a life-endangering moment in the finales. More often than not, the following has been done: Clark's friends are alright, and he is powerless. I'm expecting that tradition to continue.
Chloe's safe (for once) as is Lois. Green Arrow was captured, but I imagine we'll see him safe with them taking one of two routes here (more on this later). Tess is dead with a visitor (more on this later as well) while Clark is falling from the sky with blue, power-stripping kryptonite jammed in his abdomen.
Instead, I imagine that Martian Manhunter will come to Clark's aid and get him to Metropolis General Hospital. Clark will think that his destiny has been served and be at peace with no powers. However, he will learn of some threat that puts him on the path of getting his powers back via Jor-El and the Fortress of Solitude.
THE SUIT
In the opener of "Salvation," Clark received a gift from his mother: The infamous red and yellow S was seen in his eyes. Everyone assumes it's the full-on Superman suit. I would advise people to slow down.
One of the most infamous quotes from interviews has to do with the idea that the show ends with Clark becoming Superman, and Smallville 's purpose is to show the journey to that iconic moment of him flying with the suit. On top of that, no superhero, Justice Society aside, has shown their traditional costume. Aside from those facts, I don't even want to see the budget-strapped Smallville attempt a costume.
What do I think will be the costume? Well, I think it's going to be a bit of a compromise of what we've seen so far. Early on, Clark wore a red jacket and blue shirt which then morphed into the black "S" shirt and Neo-esque jacket. I believe we'll see a traditional blue "S" shirt with a long red jacket. Fans may be ticked off, but this seems to be the next logical step in the costume's progression.
THE NEW ADVENTURES OF LOIS AND CLARK
During the course of the season finale, Lois finally figured out who The Blur was after a few seasons of super-speed and convenient concussions. Quite frankly, the moment was long overdue.
Fans wide and far have already cracked the joke that the writers will quickly find some way to take these memories away from Lois. Why wouldn't they? Time after time after time the viewing audience has seen someone learn Clark's secret only to be stripped of it through some kind of shenanigan. At this point, they should let Lois keep the knowledge of The Blur.
Fans gripe about every little change the show makes to the Superman mythos, but people should know by now that this is definitely its own continuity. One change that should happen is that Lois is in on Clark's secret. In any media, Lois was always too close not to know. It's a wonder why people joke that she was always fooled by some dinky glasses. Smallville shouldn't make this mistake. Let her in on the secret and save her poor, beautiful head from getting hit some more.
As far as their relationship goes, with Lois knowing the dual life of Clark Kent there needs to be some bumps in the road. I would love to see General Sam Lane come back to the show and stir things up. It would also be nice to see Perry White come to The Daily Planet to help stir up the work side of the show, but that's not entirely necessary.
APOKOLIPS NOW
Luthor, Brainiac, Doomsday, and Zod, the show's improvement almost ties in with their inception of one super-villain driving a season's actions. While there are clues pointing to Lex Luthor still being alive in the Smallville universe, I don't see Michael Rosenbaum coming back to the show.
As of now, the clues from the JSA episode and the finale, the old woman possibly being Granny Goodness and Ollie being captured by parademons, are pointing at the long-awaited arrival of Darkseid.
On one hand, I'm extremely stoked. Darkseid is a big-time threat. However, I remember Doomsday. I remember the cheap looking suit, the bad special effects, and the god-awful final battle. The show has a limited budget. Not only that, but the show works better when they avoid the special effects as we saw with the Zod battle. If the choice is Darkseid then what should happen?
Well, I imagine the parademons, Granny Goodness, Darkseid, and other Apokolipitans will have leatherized costumes. I actually don't mind this because recreating Darkseid exactly may come off real cheesy plus leather can keep the budget down especially for parademons.
Another alien invasion would be dull. Been there, done that many times over on Smallville, so let's avoid the takeover Earth angle. Instead, center the Darkseid storyline around him searching for the Anti-Life Equation. Now what about the visitor and Ollie storylines?
Granny Goodness was visiting the recently-dead Tess. If you want to keep Tess around then why not turn her into a Female Fury? Yeah, I went there. Not only do you have the resources of Luthorcorp, but you have Tess's knowledge of Clark's team giving Darkseid's army a huge advantage. It's all about giving the heroes as many obstacles to overcome as possible. Besides, Female Fury Tess (Lashina anyone?) would be great.
As for Ollie, either Clark can search for and rescue Oliver or Ollie can escape and serve as a messenger for the impending invasion. It's only logical that Oliver will be a big key in the not-yet Justice League discovering the new season's big bad.
WHAT ELSE NEEDS TO HAPPEN
What I've speculated will lay out the course for more DC heroes and villains to appear since we'll see citizens for Apokolips which naturally calls for more heroic support (Green Lantern anyone?). Fans go crazy for those moments. Not only are new characters called for, but the already introduced should make returns. It'd be nice to see some of the Justice Leaguers appear in a few episodes here and there since that will help with the next thing on my checklist.
Clark's personal lesson for the season should be his leadership skills. As much as he's grown into the hero we know he becomes, he has yet to really be the leader for this team. It's one of the last big steps he needs. Well, that and flight.
The power of flight needs to happen. Forget the "no tights, no flight" rule. As I said earlier, I'd love to see an early season episode where Clark gets this power. It's tradition that a new power equals its own episode so I expect that to continue when flight does happen.
Another Smallville tradition is an episode focused on kryptonite: blue, red, gemstone, black, and silver have all been the focus of episodes. I'm imagining that we'll see the producers create a new type of kryptonite or give an existing type (Gold? White?) a new meaning. Hopefully, we don't get another red kryptonite story.
Finally, figure out if season ten is the last season or not. I know a lot of the contracts are through this season, so if this is to be the end then end on the right note. It is important to know if there's only 22 chapters left in this story or if there will be one more season. If this is the end then go all out, but it is imperative that the writers know where this is going from the beginning of the season as opposed to finding out in March that the show's going to end a few months later.
What say you Viners? Did I nail it? Am I way off base? Did I miss anything? Sound off in the comments below about season 10 expectations and speculation.
Log in to comment