Arctic

DVD, Smallville S7 (Arctic)

A new year, and the ending of an old season. If I'd realised this was to be the finale of Season 7 I'd have squeezed it in before the end of last year, while the ongoing events remained fresh in my mind, but I thought I had a few more episodes to go, at least two or three. So what happened, did they run out of budget? Was the series losing popularity and so they cut the episode count to twenty? Compared with the usual high production values of previous year-enders, this didn't appear to be in the same league, with no real set-pieces (and the usual suspects of reused sets, namely the Ace of Clubs and the ever-ready plane internal), unless you count the Fortress of Solitude collapsing, in all its half-baked CGI-ness. It wasn't that I felt let down by the story, I rarely build up enough steam with this series to let expectations begin to creep up, but even in a post-Christmas, not-seen-it-for-a-few-weeks-so-nice-to-be-back mood, the impact of Lex and Clark finally, inevitably reaching that much longed-for meeting in which Lex reveals that he knows Clark's secret, the linchpin that made the series so edge-of-the-seat in the early days, and even remained a last-ditch glimmer of something dramatic that would be built to subsequently, was minimal - a puff of air; a polite nothing. Maybe the drama had all been squeezed out over the years, but there was always that faint possibility that Lex still didn't know. I suppose now we'll never know if Fake Kara/Brainiac told him, or whether he did already know for certain. If so, then why not capture Clark?

That wasn't the only strange decision Lex made. He calls in Jimmy's favour from 'Sleeper' to get Lois off his back so he can… go to the arctic without her knowing? What? And then there's Jimmy, who I know is supposed to be a bit green, but would he really ever think it was one good turn and we're all done? This is Lex he was dealing with! Why didn't Lex just have Lois bumped off or removed? Maybe because she's main character, and one that was designed to stay around. I don't know, watching this I didn't long for the day when the facades of Lex were dropped - as I've noted in many reviews, the does he/doesn't he know merry-go-round was the writers' second favourite pastime after Lana and Clark's soap opera carryings-on, but I still believed that moment we all waited for would come to more than Lex dropping his bauble of Kryptonian doom on the Fortress' crystal control panel (built conveniently to hold it!), after a short, mechanical conversation between the nemeses with all the dramatic tension of Jimmy taking a photo at a high school prom. The only surprise is Lex not degenerating into a mouth-frothing Senator Palpatine-versus-Yoda figure, gnashing his teeth and cursing the farm boy for his deception. It appears there wasn't much surprise for Lex or the fulfilment of a long-guessed mystery - he's mildly apologetic for killing Clark in the name of humanity, his 'brother,' and then foolishly gets caught in the ensuing avalanche of CG crystals.

I liked that there was at least a reference to the old friendship between the two, brought up by Lois, and in Michael Rosenbaum's defence, I will point to his performance in this episode being much more mature, restrained and aloof, serious, as if he knew this was the last time he'd be playing the character, which I believe it was. If only he'd put that dignity into the man more often, but it was the writers that messed with the character, took him in circles (like most of the others, actually), and generally stripped him of the fascinating dynamic he possessed in Season 1 and 2. I am a little confused, knowing a few scanty details picked up over the years I kept expecting Lex clones to be coming out of the woodwork. I expected Lana to be revealed as a clone - indeed, I really expected the nurse to tell Clark she'd died, and I certainly feel that would have been a better ending to her character (whom I believe also bowed out with this season), than a hastily recorded video message (which she was able to quickly record onto DVD and pass on to a nurse!), declaring her selfless love, how she's holding Clark back from his destiny and is now going. What was the point of bringing her back this season at all, since she's basically done exactly what she did at the end of Season 6: vanished to live her life away from friends and enemies. Granted, she could return easily at any time, but I was convinced she was to be a clone and the real Lana had died previously.

Still, the future's set up, as it usually is in the cliffhanger ending. They'll need to sort out a role for Chloe who remains booted from the Daily Planet, and Clark's been given an offer from Lois (who was summarily promoted to Chloe's lowly position, and appears not to have told her cousin at any time in the episode), to join the paper. Now that Lex is gone I can see both of them working there under Lois, and of course we still have the unresolved lying of Jimmy to be worked through. But I really have no idea what to expect from Season 8, unlike the little half-knowledge I had of Season 7. Hopefully Kara will stay trapped in the Phantom Zone, the best place for her, though again, I'm confused, because it seemed that she was Kara, with Brainiac inside her in previous episodes, and I thought she'd somehow overcome the machine controlling her. When Kara goes to take Lex' weapon pod and can't pick it up, why didn't she/he rip the whole safe out of the wall if it was't possible to carry it, since Brainiac had enhanced strength too, didn't he/it? A shame that Brainiac's destruction means James Marsters excellent villainous turn is seemingly over. So it was really that easy to destroy Brainiac all along? Just course enough electricity through him and he'll explode? We can read Chloe's power as being the true culprit, weakening him enough to be vulnerable, but it was another anticlimax to add to the list.

Chloe's defence with her beautiful pink power of healing (I half expected love hearts to float out like some kind of Princess Peach move in 'Mario Kart'!), was one of the few unexpected twists in the story - makes sense as her mutation comes from Kryptonite so it would counteract a Kryptonian machine. At last, her mutant ability has more effect than bringing back a necessary character to life! Good to see Brainiac surprised at something simple not going to plan for him. Chloe going into a coma was completely irrelevant - she's out for a bit with the misty eyes a la Lana, then a few minutes later she's fine. The same could be said for Lana, except her message came across as something tacked on, as if they'd given Kristin Kreuk the boot a few episodes ago (and I never realised that scene with Clark at her side would be the last they'd share), and had her record this to stick in, in case anyone wondered what had happened to one of the main cast members and needed some kind of resolution! The biggest new danger I can see is Chloe having been arrested by the government (or the prospect of marriage to Jimmy), but, just as we've seen Clark visit someone in hospital so many, many times, we've also seen people locked up and then escaping. Even Robert Picardo, thrust briefly into the opening for Edward Teague to be killed off (wow, he didn't last long!), didn't do any favours to plot or sense. Either way, there should have been more oomph to the cliffhanger. If you know Lex isn't coming back, that negates that story, leaving loose ends, yes, but not terrifying, brink of disaster, write-yourself-out-of-that-one excitement.

Not that I've often loved the season opener's, rarely living up to the cliffhangers. On the whole I wouldn't say this was a bad season, as I've heard it described. It had it's patches of goodness, the Veritas saga, and other bits and pieces here and there that haven't lingered in the memory. It didn't have as good an arc as Season 6, but then it barely featured the best new character (Green Arrow), so what can you expect? Kara was neither revelation of awfulness, nor angel of brilliance, she was tossed around in the usual haphazard manner, even dispensed with for a while, but you come to expect that from these writers, who don't know the meaning of the word 'consistency.' In some ways they've gone back to the dawn of cinematic sci-fi storytelling, with nonsensical plots, serialised to keep viewers watching, think 'Flash Gordon'! Cheesy, bright, silly, undemanding (except for a reviewer trying to keep track of the ins and outs of each new plot device), I resigned myself to getting to the end of the series a good while ago, and with that resolution you find new enjoyment, realising it's just ephemeral, something to look forward to catching up with once a week. So that's how I feel at this stage after Season 7. Whether the series can find any of the Season 6 gravity or some of the mystery of the better episodes this season, I will wait to discover.

**