Rebecca’s “Prophecy” Review
May 13th, 2011 by Rebecca | No Comments
One episode left. As I write this review, just a little over twenty-four hours until it is all over. The end of the journey, the end of the beginning. What a long, strange trip it has been, indeed. But before we say good-bye to Smallville (and I’ve been told we must), there is still “Prophecy” to deal with.
The episode was but a mish-mash of ideas, a farewell, and a few remarkable scenes. “Prophecy” likely won’t go down as one of the best episodes of Season 10, but it was full amazing moments. The episode set up parallel stories.
What to say about “Dominion”? It was Justin Hartley’s (Oliver Queen) directorial debut, it was a Smallville spin on movies like 300, and it featured the return of the previously exiled Zod (Callum Blue). The plot for this episode, the nineteenth of the season, was rather simple. The episode wasn’t really about the action, though there was plenty of it, instead it was a testament to how Clark influences and affects those around him.
The concept behind “Booster,” the eighteenth episode of Smallville’s final scene (written DC Comics’ star Geoff Johns) wasn’t exactly complicated. A mixture of the old adage “be yourself” and “it’s the man that makes the hero, not the suit he wears” combined for an entertaining, if a slightly heavy handed heroic hour.
I’ll be the first to say, when ‘Booster’ was announced, I wasn’t really looking forward to it. Booster Gold has never been one of my favorite characters in the DC Universe, and I thought Geoff Johns might have been bringing something bigger to his final episode of “Smallville”; personally I thought Mon-El would have been a great episode this season for Johns, and for Welling to direct. When it was announced that ‘Booster’ would be one of the final episodes, I got even more worried. Johns’ episodes have a way of standing out, almost being like one-shots in Smallville, and not larger, continuity type episodes to overall season arcs. So, I was concerned that staring down the barrel of the final four episodes, we’d have something that, while awesome (as GJ’s episodes usually are), would not capture the true spirit of the culminating final steps to Superman.
Redemption. One word, so clearly weighted with expectation, very clearly was the theme of “Kent,” the seventeenth episode of Smallville’s final season. Not only did the episode offer redemption for the alternate universe’s Jonathan Kent, and the opportunity to choose redemption for Clark Luthor, but the episode itself was, in some ways, redemption for the season’s most divisive episode, “Luthor.” Many loved “Luthor.” It was dark, it was gothic, it tickled the fancy of some comic book readers by claiming Clark Luthor was his universe’s Ultraman, the evil answer to Superman.
A lot of words can be used to describe the fifteenth episode of Smallville’s tenth season. I can take the serious angle and say that “Fortune” was a filler episode, a waste of time that didn’t really offer much with regards to the season’s main arc or towards Clark becoming Superman. I can disparage it for the first scene of the last act, which was problematic at best. But, where is the fun in that? “Fortune” was a genuinely fun episode, and for this reviewer focusing on anything but the fun seems hardly appropriate.
Why is a hero a hero? That was, under many layers of plotlines, the heart of the thirteenth episode of Smallville’s tenth (and, alas, final) season. In the episode titled “Beacon,” viewers saw the return of Clark’s mother, Martha Kent, and Lex Luthor’s father, Lionel Luthor. The episode probably had one too many plotlines and two too many random, revisionist and slightly pandering scenes (I won’t get it into it here, but let’s just say these two scenes both occurred in the first act after the opening credits). But, all of that aside, the heart of the episode went straight to the heart of our main hero—why is he a hero?
There is something to be said for a truly unexpected surprise. On Smallville those surprises are usually few and far between. Be it because we know that the fates of most of the characters are set in stone due to their existence in the DC Universe, or the fact that a lot of surprises are spoiled in various ways in varying degrees, surprises just aren’t that prevalent on Smallville. And that’s generally OK, so long as the story is engaging and the characters are serviced properly. Surprises, shocking moments and cliffhangers aren’t necessarily necessary; they aren’t and shouldn’t be perceived as a sign of quality. But done well they can be a lot of fun.
“Patriot” wasn’t the best episode of this season by any stretch. “Homecoming” was nearly perfect and “Ambush” had a far stronger narrative thread. But what “Patriot,” directed by star Tom Welling, did have was a furious pace, a cohesive story (if not a few unexplained plot holes) and a fantastically rewarding final act. All those factors combined to make “Patriot” an extremely entertaining hour of Smallville.
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