Smallville “Reckoning” 100th Episode

Or…I reckon this one was 50% good.

Do not read further if you don’t want to be spoiled by moi, ok.

First off, I want to say that this has been the best season of Smallville so far. I’ve always watched this series off and on through the years, but usually only found the season premieres, season finales, and a handful of episodes in-between to be anything special. This season, we have seen Clark and his friends head off to college, battle Brainiac, and Lex show his true colors.

Oh yeah, and Clark got laid.

But, alas, all good things must come to an end. This 100th episode (that I was actually looking forward to) greatly disappointed me.

Sniff, sniff. Not just because I’m sorry to see Jonathan Kent die. But, I must endure more of the Lana/Clark/Lex triangle. Grr, Argh. Make it stop!

I was nearly blown away during the first half hour (get it?…”I reckon it was 50% good”). We had Lana learning the truth (Finally! How dense is she anyway?), Clark proposing (Unexpected – well except one of the commercials showed it, but it led me to believe they might actually have the hazelnuts to kill her off.), and then Lana’s death (booyah!). This blew me away…I thought, “Wow, they actually went against canon. They completely surprised everyone. Did Joss Whedon write this episode?” Then I thought, “Wow, until this moment I didn’t realize how perfect it would be if Lana died. Clark would never want to tell his secret to someone else he cared about. No more Clark angst about Lana, someone who is starting to look really stupid for not figuring this secret out yet. And now a perfect reason for Clark to hate Lex and a tragedy that would drive Lex completely to the darkside.”

Ah, but who knew that the writers would pull a page from Star Trek or Witchblade. Clark whines to Jor-El about how unfair it is that Lana is dead (this is when I started to get worried). I thought, “No, don’t you dare.” Then Jor-El does the whole, “gee there is this crystal that can turn back time” thing. You see, he has been saving it for a special occasion. Saving his people from his homeworld BLOWING UP didn’t really count, but I guess saving Clark’s girlfriend would be the right time. Frak! What can’t Jor-El (aka Mr. Deus Ex Machina) not do? He can take Clark’s power away. He can give Clark’s powers back. He can give powers to other people. Oh, and he can turn back time…I don’t buy it.

So, then time reboots. Lana is saved, but breaks up with Clark because he won’t tell her his secret. Clark’s dad dies from that pesky heart damage. The only way, this episode’s Tru Calling moment could have worked was if Lana died in the end anyway. Man, that would have been shocking and would have made this episode the best of the whole series. Instead, I feel that Jonathan’s death is trivialized because of the time restart gimmick.

So, on one hand the writers made me care enough about this season that I truly got angry by this episode (kudos), but if they don’t shape up and either get rid of Lana or have her learn the secret, I don’t think I will stick with the series next season. Hey, why don’t they hook Clark up with the mermaid chick that was his college sweetheart in the comics? I’m just so tired of this Lana/Clark mess. Could you tell?