Tim’s Take: The End of Smallville

Now, I know it’s been a while since the last Tim’s Take, but I thought I might just write a new one. Hopefully, this segment will be a little bit more regular than it has been. With the seventh season of Smallville wrapping up with its final three episodes and with one season to go, I thought now as good a time as many as to weigh my thoughts as to how the series will end.

READ ON!

NOTE: Longtime followers of my work might recognize some of my ideas as I devoted a podcasting episode to this very topic when I ran the Smallville Superfan podcast Throughout the web, people have thrown their theories on how the epic series of Smallville will end in its final episodes. On the Starkville’s House of El Podcast, Derek Russell, the host of said podcast, will always ask anyone involved how they think the series will end. I always like hearing other people’s thoughts about how this wonderful series will end. This topic alone has sparked so much debate and theories, it’s amazing.

First off, I do not want to see the Superman suit in the final episode. Some people want to, but I think it compromises the realism of Smallville. What makes Smallville truly unique from any other superhero show is that it is a superhero show without the normal trappings of a superhero show. For example, Clark is Clark Kent and not Superboy, as has been told in several other tellings of Superman’s formative years. However, I have appreciated the nods to that suit that have been dropped in the series’ seven-year run. But I do not want to see Tom Welling in the Superman suit in the final moments.

Another way I would love to see Smallville end is how it is written. I am a fan of the Harry Potter books, and I particularly loved how the seventh book in that series ended. If you’re not familiar, it ended with the series’ seven-year story end on a nice, happy note, with the series’ main conflict resolved in a wonderful manner. After that though, the book had an epilogue that featured a nineteen-year jump that showd you where the characters had come since that end that we saw. I would love to see Smallville do this. After the events of the series finale, I would like to see a ten or fifteen year jump showing us where these iconic characters have come. I think that would be the coolest thing ever. At the end of this article, I will tell you what I want to see in that final jump.

Now what I like most about Smallville is that it feels like a large, sweeping novella of a series. I have not been disappointed in when a plotline is supposedly drooped, because I have all the faith and confidence in the writers that they will wrap up every plotline. Now, in the past two seasons, they have done a great job in doing that. I have confidence that they will continue to do that in season 8 when it comes around (but that discussion is for a Smallville season 8 prehash to come out in the summer; Stay tuned.). But I expect that by the end of the series, every storyline that has been dropped will be picked up and resolved in a wonderful fashion.

Now, we are nearing the end of the seventh season, and many characters have come far in this past season and in all of the seasons now that I think of it. I would like to devote a portion of this article to the many characters that have been in Smallville and where these characters should go by the end of the series.

The first and foremost is, of course, the character of Clark Kent. He is after all the central character of this series. Now this character has really come far in the seven year-journey that we’ve seen this character undertake in the pilot. Where do I want to see him at the end? Well, Clark is Superman to me at this point. In powers and personality. I want to see him by the end of the season, ready to leave Smallville once and for all, to see how he can help people and travel the world as we know Clark Kent does. (This could be the arc for season 8, who knows?) It is something that has been touched on in other interpretations of Superman’s early years, (i.e. Lois and Clark and Superman: Birthright) and I would like to see Clark do that. Then, in the fifteen-year jump, he would just be getting off the elevator of the Daily Planet, in suit and trenchcoat. In fact, not too dissimilar to the way he makes his grand entrance in Superman: The Movie.

The next character that is worth noting is the character of Lex Luthor. Now, had I decided to write before I saw the Lex-centric episode, Descent, I would’ve told you where I want to see Lex go from Veritas. But the fact that that momentous episode happened and really concluded Lex’s character for the series, I really have nothing to say at this point. I think Lex could’ve made his exit in the series after Descent and I would’ve been fine with it. He is that villainous character that we love so much from the comics and movies and various Superman-related TV Shows. I would definitely like to see him not owning LuthorCorp, but having turned it into his own conglomerate LexCorp, that we all know from the comics.

Another character worth noting is the character of Lana Lang. Now, Lana, I feel, has run her course on this series. I would however like to see, before the end of the series, Lana and Clark have a proper breakup and still maintain their friendship that we know they have in the comics. She is another character I would like to see almost in passing in the finale.

A character that is risky business when talking about the end of the series is the character of Chloe Sullivan. I really don’t know where she fits in with this whole thing. I want to say that she needs to die, but I love her character too much to see her get killed. But, now that I think it, she doesn’t need to die. However, I wouldn’t be object to say that she runs the Isis Foundation at the end of the series, while keeping Clark’s exploits as Superman a total secret, and helping the Justice League’s exploits all over the world. That is where I want to see the character end up in the future. She just may die. I don’t know what the writers have planned for this character, but I will be interested to see what they do with Chloe. I just don’t want them to kill her. With her exit from the Planet, she doesn’t need to die for Clark and Lois to become reporters. The sky is the limit with Ms. Sullivan, really.

The other iconic character that I would love to see fully progress before the series ends is Lois Lane. In the past couple of seasons, we really have seen the character progress to the character that we know and love from the comics. I think one thing people would like is for Lois to realize that her feelings for Clark are not only friendly but romantically, But I think they have to save some things for the future, only to be alluded to. I think Clark and Lois’ relationship is one of those things. But, at the end, I would like to see a scene with Future Clark and Future Lois kind of having that banter that we’ve seen from Lois and Clark. Before the end, though, I would like to see Lois Lane develop more and more into the reporter that we know, and rise in the ranks at the Daily Planet. I don’t think it would be out of the realm of possibility to see her meet Perry White and give her a job above the basement. We’ve seen her make leaps and bounds this season, but there’s always room for more progression, I think.

A character that is quite underrated in Smallville that I would like to see reach his full development in the series before the end is the character of Jimmy Olsen. It’ll be interesting how they pull this off, as Jimmy is 20-ish while Lois and Clark are like 30-ish when they’re all at the Daily Planet. But, like I said, I have faith in the writers on this one. Like with Lois, I would like to see Jimmy kind of rise above the basement of the Daily Planet and be that cool photographer. Also, I would like to see her apart from Chloe, and also trying to make his way around some other women in the Daily Planet, not too unlike his character in Lois and Clark. Another thing I would love to see with him is more with Jimmy and Clark. In the finale, I would like to see him snapping a shot of a great picture outside the Daily Planet. This character is very underused.

The final character that I would like to see something done with is the character of Kara Zor-El (AKA Supergirl). I honestly couldn’t tell you what I can expect from Kara, without putting her in a Supergirl costume at the end. I would like to see her kind of in passing in the final moments of the episode. But again I really don’t know. It’ll be very interesting where they go with it.

So, my ideas for the last scene? My idea for the last scene of Smallville is like I said, featured in a time-jump not unlike the end of Harry Potter. We then are brought to the Daily Planet, where we see an elevator open and it is Clark Kent in his mild-mannered persona. He has some nice interaction with Perry White, who he thanks for giving him a job. He also has some interaction with Lois, who uses some nice witty banter with which the comics are so familiar. Then, Clark hears a plane in danger and then superspeeds away and all you see from that all you see is a red streak taking to the sky with Kara, Chloe, Lana, and even Ma Kent looking up and smiling. However, in that same token, I would like to see Lex looking out his window at then LexCorp and just scowling. Then, the series will end.

That’s how I want the series to end. I think that the series will end on that nice high note, with I would prefer rather than it dragging on for several seasons after season 7. It shall be an amazing final episode, indeed, when May of 2009 approaches.

This entry was posted on 30. April 2008 at 10:53 and is filed under Tim's Take. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site.

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