Commencement

DVD, Smallville S4 (Commencement)

Where to start is the biggest challenge. As with all end of season cliffhangers in the series so much is crammed into the running time (with an extra five minutes in this case), that it's difficult to pick out individual moments to laud or bemoan. I have to come down on one or other side of the line and say that it is a good episode in the sense that it has big, cinematic moments, leaves you wanting to see what's going on, and uses all the characters. It doesn't use all the characters well, coherently and in a way that's true to them or their development, but nobody is left out. Visually it is a good episode, with plenty of boom per dollar, as they desperately try once again to evoke the danger and physicality of that first cliffhanger and the tornado. It must be said that generally the atmosphere doesn't come close, but it is a faster, engaging story than Season 2's end, but doesn't have the same surprises and dangling plot threads of the last moments of Season 3.

I must point out that all season I was expecting the Superman enemy Doomsday to appear thanks to the back of the DVD sporting the legend: 'Lois Lane. Football. The prom. Graduation. Doomsday.' All of those came true except for, obviously, a big grey superhuman-killing monster. I can see that they were actually referring to the devastating meteor shower which potentially has changed everyone's lives, but I couldn't help my disappointment. In my defence they must have realised that certain words have connotations when used with the Superman legend, and 'Doomsday' is one of them.

It was a surprise to see Jason Teague back, blood-stained, gun-toting, roaring red murder at the Kent's, but I doubt if he was a survivor of the meteor that blasts apart the Kent's house as I know he was in another sci-fi series around this time. Will that destruction be the cause of J. Kent's death? Is Clark permanently stranded in the snowy wastes? Did Lex see Clark in the white-out? What is the shield-shaped, black object that conveniently landed under Lana's nose? Will the series ever become what it once was? I can't answer these questions, and you can't watch a 'Smallville' season ender without expecting some compelling confusion and tantalising times.

I think it's obvious that the crystal/stone/whatever will become the Fortress of Solitude, seeing as it happens somewhat like that in the film. It really has been a poor arc through the season, rarely used well, rarely making sense except as a complete maguffin, almost enough to make me wonder if they even started with a plan and knew where they were going to end up, or if it was written as they went along. Few episodes have done justice to the little town of Smallville as a place, or the characters, on the whole, but somehow I still come away from the season grateful that it didn't become as depressing, darkly framed or unexciting as Season 3. It was brighter, it was happier, it had its moments of goodness, and the previous episode even attained some level of the emotional attachment to the group of friends as people that was so strong in the early episodes. But so much has been lost that I can't see being regained.

The scope is bigger, sometimes more than the budget can handle (the helicopter flying through the meteor storm didn't look quite right), but the leaps of logic (or lack thereof), the bizarre coincidences or motives, the discontinuity of character behaviours has been all over the shop. Lex we know has a great fondness for Lana, but is it that or the stones that draws him to her? Lionel has been far less in control (unless you count waiting around in Lana's apartment in the dark until Lex got there - these megalomaniac's love sitting in the dark!), and has alternated between controlling prison inmate, to changed benevolent, to pretty much his old self, without any rhyme or reason. The Kent's have been used intermittently, barely balking at having a permanent house guest in Lois Lane, and only towards the end getting some good scenes. Chloe has been the best used of all, mainly due to her inside knowledge on Clark, shutting up the Torch, or covering for Clark whenever she could and generally growing up in a positive way.

The catfight between Lana and Genevieve Teague made for a good opening, vicious as it was, but the story becomes a blur of people running here to do this, or there for something else. Lex loses his cool too often, the graduation ceremony doesn't have that many parents and friends for the number of students, in my eyes, and the principal may or may not be there. That's one of the biggest mistakes in the series as it stands: getting rid of recurring characters that live around the town. This would have been a much more momentous scene if we had seen a principal that we know, had been there throughout the season, now handing the scrolls out or reading the names. And did the Kent's need to pack a grandfather clock on the back of their truck? Not long before, Mr. Kent had emphasised the need to bring essentials to Clark! There were several moments of dialogue in other parts of the episode that suffered from this 'lack of concentration', as I would call it.

Nonetheless, all the flaws and all the positives swirl around in a kinetic story that is very 'comic book' in style, with the limitations and epic nature of that genre. Having already bought the fifth season I'll certainly be flying alongside to see what becomes of these people, no matter how outlandish and crazy things become. Will I be buying Season 6? For now, akin to the cliffhanger endings, I'll just have to leave that as a big question mark.

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