Starkville’s House of El Podcast

Get ready guys, I’ve got an advanced review of the Smallville season nine premiere “Savior” that airs this Friday. You won’t want to miss this one!

Please do not repost this as your own, reference www.smallvillepodcast.com Thanks!

Let’s make this very clear from the word go:

These are the two weirdest episodes of Smallville I’ve ever seen.
You know why? This isn’t Smallville anymore. It’s Superman

And it’s not because of the new suit, or Zod, or the defeat of Doomsday last season, or anything like that.

It’s the writing, it’s the heart, and it’s the adventure. Clark Kent is no longer the boy running from his training and his Kryptonian destiny, he’s the hero that the world needs.

I’m going to keep this very un-spoilery, just putting that out there now. I’ll also be saving my advanced review of “Metallo” for early next week.

This is an all new show this season, it’s the characters we know and love but the dynamic has shifted into something that doesn’t get wrapped up in a nice little bow from week to week.

That’s one complaint I always have with season premieres of Smallville…it feels like that huge cliffhanger we were left with several months earlier can be explained, justified, and fixed in 42 minutes.

Not this time.

If anything, every scene of the season premiere is a new and exciting cliffhanger in itself.

Clark has begun his training with Jor-El, a workshop he’s been skipping out on since season two. And even when the Fortress was formed in 5×01 and he got downloaded for all of 15 seconds, he still had to exit early to save Chloe’s life, who had been transported to the Arctic with him. Clark finally realized he needed to join Jor-El in the Fortress to continue his training midway through season 6, but not until he had righted the wrong of releasing the prisoners from the Phantom Zone. Once that task was complete, Martha had moved away, and he believed Lana was dead, Clark once again returned to fulfill his destiny and continue his training with Jor-El. The training didn’t begin quite like Clark (or we) thought it would, as his father explained that the appearance of Kara was a mystery, and that he must find the reasons she was on Earth before he could continue.

While that storyline progressed, others occurred. With the Veritas plot, Clark had to battle for his own answers, and have a final confrontation with Lex Luthor in the Fortress, which was destroyed in the process. As season 8 began, Clark and Lex were missing with the Justice League in pursuit. Once again, Clark is found in the premiere and most of the loose ends were tied up…but a new danger arose in that of Braniac and Davis Bloome (aka Doomsday). Once Clark was ready to begin training again, Braniac took control of the Fortress and damaged it, using it as a cocoon for Doomsday to emerge. Clark was able to rebuild the Fortress in an effort to split Davis from his Kryptonian monster side and send him to the Phantom Zone. When he was unsuccessful, he did all he could to destroy Doomsday and save Davis. Ultimately though, Davis was as terrible as the creature within him, and he killed Jimmy Olsen before dying himself.

Clark, riddled with guilt about trying to protect Davis and not defeat him and Doomsday in the process, decided that humanity was his weakness after all, and to be the hero he needed to be, he had to give up all that he’d known as Clark Kent and follow Jor-El’s instructions to become something more. Clark’s decision, however haste, came after the events of the eighth season finale, the falling out between him and Chloe, and the absence of Lois Lane.

Season nine begins three weeks later (on September 25th no less) and a lot has changed in the state of Kansas. Chloe now resides in the Watchtower, actively seeking her cousin after her mysterious disappearance. With the help of the ever loyal Dr. Emil Hamilton, she begins her own journey this season.

While I love Chloe she has remained pretty much the same since the end of season four, even taking into consideration “Chloiac”.  But this is a new Chloe. She’s not the innocent sidekick anymore, but not the loyal friend either. She’s been hurt, betrayed, and left behind. She wants answers and doesn’t want to wait around on her heroes anymore to find them. I really like the scenes between her and Hamilton (who I hope is seen a lot more this season) but at times I can’t tell if he’s flirting or just meant to be a little awkward.

Lois returns from her most excellent adventure, only to be pursued by something that followed her back. As she searches for answers, dreams begin to haunt her. We’ve all seen the flashes of Clark-Lois sex since the scenes were released at Comic Con…but those dreams are only the tip of the iceberg to the fallout of an overall season arc, and one that will not be concluded in the final seconds of “Savior”.

Clark and Chloe reconnect, but it’s not a Clark and Chloe we’ve ever seen before. He’s a hero, she’s been scorned. They are on very different sides of the table this season, and the resentment that’s been left behind makes for some very uncomfortable glares and silences that we’re not used to from the pair of best friends we’ve known all these years.

We get to see the introduction of John Corben, played by Brian Austin Green, who really shines in the second episode of the season, but we’ll get to that. John shares his two scenes with Erica’s Lois Lane and the two work really well off of each other. It makes you very sad to know what’s to come for the iconic Superman villain.
Oliver is in there as well, though his short scenes (which have now been released on the Internet) don’t offer much more than a look into his downward spiral over the guilt of Jimmy’s death. I’m very interested to see where his storyline goes this year.

Callum Blue. What can I say?

Callum Blue is Zod.

I’ll wait while you kneel.

Done kneeling yet?

Good. This guy is INSANE! I’ve never seen anything with him in it before, so I did not know what to expect. His arrogance is impeccable, and the way Blue delivers his lines is like he was made for the role. And he was. The mystery behind Zod’s appearance is another storyline that’s not easily answered in the course of the premiere. And like everything else that happens in this one, I love it.

An overall season arc like this has not been seen before in nine years. Sure we’ve seen a phantom appear at the end of an episode, or a body appearing from underneath a ship…but this is different. It’s fresh, and the twists and turns make for what I guarantee you will be one of the best thrillrides Smallville has ever offered as the season progresses.

Outstanding performance of the premiere? Cassidy Freeman. It’s rare you feel sorry for Tess Mercer, but her loyalty to a glowing orb at the end of last year was based on her trying to be the good guy. The wrong thing for the right reasons rarely ever work out well, and Tess learns that early on in this episode. Her scenes with Major Zod are the stuff of legend, and will only get better as time goes on.

So what’s the stuff people have been dying to know about? The suit.
Clark dons his family crest well, and wears it proudly as he protects the streets of Metropolis. I’ve seen a lot of people refer to this persona as a more Batman type of chivalry, but I disagree. The way Clark watches over the streets reminds me of something out of an Alex Ross painting, or the way Brandon Routh hovered in space, listening, waiting, helping. The red and blue may be missing, but the Blur is still out there, leaving his Zorro-like mark on surroundings of those he saved.

I cannot tell you how much it excites me to see the \S/ around town and on Clark’s chest. It’s the first major push in a long time to a destiny he’s been running from for far too long. Though Clark only shares his scenes with Chloe and Jor-El, he knows what he’s doing is right, and will stop at nothing to do the thing he knows is right.

Jor-El wants him to turn his back on everything, but Lois returning makes that very hard to do. And Lois’ dreams when only further complicate Clark’s destiny with Jor-El and with the Blur as the weeks continue.

I can’t wait to watch it again on Friday night with finished music and affects. One thing that was great to see at the end of this was the names of the remaining two showrunners Brian Peterson and Kelly Sounders. They’ve definitely taken fans to a new place this year, and the season premiere does not disappoint. The show is in good hands yet again and will only continue to thrive as Clark and Zod’s cross paths, with our other characters mingled in the mix.

Get ready, Smallville season nine premieres this Friday, September 25th on The CW.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 23rd, 2009 at 12:33 pm and is filed under News, Reviews. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.