DJariya

By djariya at 2011-04-22

Synopsis:



Directed by Justin Hartley (Oliver)
Written by John Chisholm

Episode 19 of 22

1 more episode left after tonight, before the 2 hour finale (which counts as 2 episodes)

Preview with Producer Brian Peterson

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Timber

Not great but at least Tess returned and looked outstanding in the glasses.

Still seems like a lot of filler to me.

riley_dude

Oddly enough the Phantom Zone looked almost exactly like Thunderdome.
Episode was kinda blaw for me. Did we really need to see Zod again??

RocShemp

This episode was terrible. So Justin Hartley directs an episode and the best he can do is a Spartacus/300 ripoff?

So it's safe to assume that Darkseid gets defeated next week and the two-hour finale is devoted soley to the Clark/Lex/Lionel storyline?

Ranger

Not too good... the show can't end fast enough.

mikehunt

was this the first time they referred to the team as "the league"

anomynous

3 hours left to wrap up the story.



Like that will happen

Orbi-Wan Techno

Frank Miller's "Smallville"

MrX

I get the feeling the writers have absolutely no idea what to do with Darkseid so they just avoid the story as much as they can

SmithsGuy

Interesting off-hand reference to Orion of the New Gods ...

davidh777

Or Zack Snyder's.

Plus a little X-Files black oil.

I did like Lois in the flannel shirt, though.

raven56706

i have a feeling we wont see the fight between Clark and Darkseid... i bet they end it with him wearing the suit going to fight darkseid and fade to black..

wearetheborg

Tom Welling was looking good in this episode, He looked 24ish in the phantom zone scenes. Callum Blue was also looking good.

Other than that, the writers have no clue.

If zod could send people through, why did ne not come to earth himself?

anomynous

Don't ask questions

mikehunt

he wanted to get Clark to come to the zone where they'd be equal in strength but Zod would have the numbers advantage
Zod would be at a disadvantage on Earth even though he can fly and Clark can't due to so many of Clark's allies knowing about kryptonite

RocShemp

Also, it seems Clark is a total pussy without his powers. It shocked me how easily he let the much scrawnier Zod smack him around.

MikahC

Let's be fair here... Zod is basically criminally insane and trained in the arts of combat. Clark is a guy who hasn't needed to learn to fight amongst equals because he was never among them. And Clark was in handcuffs which tends to negate at least some size advantage.

Patman

Is Justin Hartley as tall as Tom Welling, or close to his height?

Kdogg

The show has three hours left, stop rocking the boat with your logic.

Kal-El

Yeah we didn't need this episode "just to bring Zod back". His story was done already. Should've been about something else.

Timber

Zod was the one "big bad" that had a good send off but they decide that wasn't good enough and bring him back? We know he's in the Phantom Zone, was this all down just for that final shot floating through space?

I think the return of you know who blew up their plans for this season or at least I'm hoping that's what happened because if it was original written this way then it's just sad.

DJariya

I thought this episode was a wasted opportunity.

Obviously Peterson and Souders have not handled this Darkseid arc very well. If this was an episode in the 1st half of the season, I would have had no issues with it, but just throwing this in so late in the season and bringing Callum Blue back just because they could made it disappointing. Now how the hell are you going to resolve the Darkseid arc with Oliver involved now and give it a satisfying conclusion with 3 hours left and with you know who also on the horizon as well? If anything it's going to feel really rushed.

I think they should have just retconned it and made this episode more about CK's development into Superman. Why save everything for the 2 hour finale?

It just seemed like they were ripping off 300 and Spartacus, especially with all the animated blood. Kind of a lame way for Hartley to make his directorial debut.

The only good in this episode was the last scene with Lois and Clark. A bad episode of Smallville for me is usually saved by at least 1 good scene between them.

DJariya

I think your right. They must have had an original plan that didn't include LL until he finally committed so late in their production schedule. It probably blew up their writing for the last 3 hours of the series.