Oh, thank god, it's finally over. Smallville has been an absolute rollercoaster of quality since the very start, going from "let them cook" (Seasons 1-2) to "let's fucking go" (Seasons 3-5A) to "it's so over" (Seasons 5B-7) to "we're so back" (Season 8) to "it's so over again" (Season 9). But I've gone too far to stop now, so will Season 10 manage to stick the landing?
The cool thing about seasons that know they're going to be the final season going in is that they're usually able to pull out all the stops, and Season 10 of Smallville has so much going on, maybe even too much. This season brings in so many DC characters, from the Suicide Squad to Apokalips, and it even promotes the JSA to reoccurring side characters. Even Supergirl is back, and she's pretty great too in her few appearances. Where Season 9 focused too much on a single storyline, I'd argue Season 10 is so overstuffed that not everything is able to be properly developed. However, the stuff that worked this season really worked. Lois learns about Clark's identity early on in one of my favorite moments in the series, and seeing them form a truly loving and healthy relationship just makes my day, it was absolutely adorable. Chloe being sidelined was a bit of a shame, but in exchange, we got Tess becoming the Watchtower for the season and it was great. The storyline in the first half of the season about the vigilante ban was also a fun plot that involved pretty much the entire cast of superheroes, and felt like a strong payoff to all the metahuman discrimination plotlines across the series. Even The Suicide Squad was surprisingly fun too, especially the show's charmingly western take on Deadshot. As a whole, Season 10 had a much lighter and more fun tone. We even got some fun and experimental one-offs like Homecoming and Fortune, and they easily stood out as some of the best episodes in the season, if not the entire series.
That being said, Season 10 did have its underwhelming bits as well. Nothing unforgivably bad, but not quite as good as they could've been. In particular, this season has a villain issue. Season 10 has so many villains that the show struggles to fully develop or utilize it all, leaving it feeling like it doesn't really have a proper one. Darkseid could be argued to be the main threat, but he feels wasted since he's basicaly just a mist that could possess people rather than an actual threat. The implication that he's responsible for all of humanity's worst moments including both the vigilante ban and real life tragedies like the Holocaust also just sucks. One of my least favorite tropes is when a show reveals all of human's failings are because of some mythical threat. Like no, sometimes people just suck, I'm sorry. For as much as I loved the vigilante ban arc, I also thought Slade Wilson was a real waste of the name even if on his own merits, he's a decent threat. And then there's the Luthors. I don't envy the writers for having to find a way to bring Lex back to keep the show in line with Superman mythos, but it means that the result is this convoluted storyline of clones, alternate universes, and the return of a very hammy Lionel that would be enjoyable if it didn't feel so aggressively CW. And yet, despite all of these issues, none of this really frustrated me all that much aside from maybe Darkseid. The concept shuffling of villains did keep Season 10 feeling propulsive and well-paced, with each episode bringing something new to the table. I don't think most of these ideas are inherently bad, just a bit underdeveloped.
Highlights:
Homecoming: This is up there with Reckoning as one of the most beloved episodes, and it works really well as a 200th episode in how it pays respect to the high school era of the series. There's been so much crazy superhero drama that I almost forget how humble the first few seasons were. Clark's "christmas carol"-esque plotline is the best use of Braniac in years and does so much to right his character after the events of Season 9, elevating his relationship with Lois so much. The subplot about Oliver coming out as the Green Arrow is quite compelling too.
Icarus: I've already voiced my praise for the VRA arc and Icarus is probably that storyline at its best, with the whole heroic cast being forced into hiding. Befitting a midseason finale, this episode has quite a lot of strong plot swerves like Clark finally making his proposal, Carter's tragic death, and Slade being banished to the Phantom Zone.
Fortune: Easily the best one-off in the entire series, Fortune is a hilarious riff on The Hangover that manages to squeeze in all-timer comedic moments like Clark running into a wall, Oliver dressing in drag, Emil doing his best Elvis impression, and just the pure joy of seeing the whole cast get sloshed together, Tess included. I criticized Season 9 for feeling fairly lacking in terms of cast, but Fortune really hit home how much Season 10 fixed this. Also, Chloe's farewell was quite well executed too.
Finale: It's very easy to want to be hyperbolic with series finales. Besides, they're one of the most important parts of a show. A perfect ending can elevate a show, and a bad ending can possibly tank it. But sometimes, a series finale is just fine. It does its job. There are things I would change about it, but it still leaves me generally satisfied. Smallville's finale is one of those. I'm not huge about how it treated the Luthors, between Tess's unsatisfying death and Lex losing his memories, and of course, I'm still not huge on Darkseid as a whole. But on the other hand, Clark finally learning to fly, the ending timeskip, and Clark and Lex having one last proper meeting were all great moments. I know some were annoyed we didn't see Clark fully in the suit, but that final shot is still quite iconic in its own right.
Season 10 of Smallville may not be as lovably angsty as Season 3, nor as much of a rollercoaster as Season 5, nor as tightly-written as Season 8, but it was easily the most fun season of Smallville. Even if not all of its ideas were the most developed, there was never a moment when I was bored, apathetic, uninterested, or frustrated. It brings together all the characters, plot points, concepts, iconography of all previous nine seasons into what feels like the ultimate farewell for this behemoth of a show. So yeah, I'd say, against all odds, Smallville really does stick the landing.
4/5 Stars
Well, now that the show's over, here's my ranking of the seasons:
- Season 3
- Season 10
- Season 5
- Season 8
- Season 4
- Season 2
- Season 6
- Season 7
- Season 1
- Season 9
And here's my ranking of Smallville's season finales:
- Commencement (Season 4)
- Phantom (Season 6)
- Salvation (Season 9)
- Tempest (Season 1)
- Covenant (Season 3)
- Exodus (Season 2)
- Doomsday (Season 8)
- Finale (Season 10)
- Vessel (Season 5)
- Arctic (Season 7)
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