Melodrama: a dramatic form that does not observe the laws of cause and effect and that exaggerates emotion and emphasizes plot or action at the expense of characterization.

First, I'm going to skip the "previously on Smallville" because it ran an outrageous minute and a half. What does that tell channel surfers? It tells them that the episode that's about to air has so much back story they haven't seen and so many characters they don't associate with Superman, that they'll never understand what's going on and so surf elsewhere.

Seriously, just leave the recap off. Let the surfer jump in cold and he'll either be interested by the first scene, or he won't, but at least you won't scare him off with a recap that lasts as long as a freaking movie trailer! But if you must have a recap, here's a tip, put in characters that a newbie might at least associate with Superman, not a ton of non-canon characters. Even the Lana arc lied repeatedly by putting Lois Lane in the recap of episodes she wasn't even in. Of course after a while viewers realized they were being suckered and stopped watching, but it worked for a while.

Now on to Doomsday, more aptly named than anyone could possibly imagine.

The episode opened with a man flying over Metropolis. We know it's not Superman because, for one, that identity doesn't exist yet on Smallville and two, Clark can't fly yet. Eight years of Clark Kent and he still can't fly. It's apparently being saved for a ratings grabber to enthrall a rapidly diminishing viewer base. One can only hope the two million or so viewers left when it happens will be thrilled.

The flyboy who landed on the roof of the Daily Planet turned out to be Rokk, who first appeared in the episode Legion. How could anyone forget Saturn Girl's fangasm over meeting Lana Lang, who will be so important in the future. Right. There'll be a waxworks figure of her in a museum wedged between the Sony Betamax and a bottle of New Coke.

Rokk extended his hand to Clark, who was also on the roof. "Thanks for meeting me."

Clark smiled. "I'm not the one who had to travel a thousand years to get here."

Okay, this was obviously a prearranged meeting. How the heck did Clark get the message to meet Rokk? Was there a carrier pigeon who arrived first wearing a Legion leg band?

Rokk said he hoped he wasn't too late.

"For what?"

"The future," he said and then went into a dissertation about how time travel risks disrupting fate. "And to be honest with you, Kal, after coming back here and trying to change the future, I might not have one to go back to."

Clark said he didn't understand. No wild surprise there. "You said the future would be safe if we got rid of Brainiac."

"Yes, everything is safe. Brainiac is gone ... but so are you. When you saved Chloe's life, you saved her connection to Doomsday." Check. "She stopped you from sending him to the Phantom Zone." Check. "She made him invulnerable by trying to kill him with kryptonite." Check. "And now, because of Chloe, you cannot defeat him." Checkmate.

Clark said he'd never take back his choice to save Chloe. Rokk held up a Legion ring and said he believed Clark's ring had gotten a little scorched. "Use the ring to send Doomsday to the future. The Legion is there and we are ready to fight him."

Clark decided to take a the guilt offramp. "The Legion didn't unleash Doomsday, I did."

Rokk knocked on Clark's head. "Hello, McFlyless! You don't have the power to stop Doomsday now." Okay, those weren't his exact words, but that was his sentiment. "There is no power on this earth that will stop him from killing you."

"My father always told me I was sent here to save mankind." Well, first of all Jor-El is a nincompoop who couldn't save his own doomed planet and second, maybe, just maybe, sending Doomsday to the future to be defeated by the Legion is how you could save mankind. Did you ever think of that? "Maybe this is my true destiny." Obviously not. "How much time do I have?"

"Tomorrow is the day you die."

Clear enough for you, great son of Nincompoop?

After the opening credits, we were whisked away to Edge City where the edgy couple of Davis and Chloe reclined on a car hood contemplating the significance of constellations. Davis explained the myth of Demeter and her daughter Persephone, who had been taken to the Underworld by Hades. Now there's a romantic tale of coercion and kidnapping.

"Demeter enlisted the gods' help to find her daughter, but when Hades offered Persephone her chance at freedom, to everyone's surprise, Persephone chose to live underground with the dark prince." He left out the part about Persephone returning to her mother two-thirds of the year and being forced to return to the Underworld due to the fact she'd eaten a pomegranate, the food of the dead. No matter, Davis quickly changed the subject. "We're actually going to pull this off, aren't we?" That's usually a question asked by a con artist. "Find some place to slow down, build a life together."

Chloe rolled over and faced him. "As long as we can keep the gods from chasing us."

That reminds me, Doomsday killed Neutron in the last episode. What was Davis doing prowling around as Doomsday? Where was Chloe?

At Mercer Manor, Tess, who was dressed rather formally in black, asked a lackey if he had a lock on Davis and Chloe's location.

"We traced the radiation left on Bloome after he attacked Neutron." See? Where was Chloe? And Does Tess realize she's as dumb as Chloe launching powerful mutants against Davis and making him immune to each attack strategy? "But we've got another problem," the lackey said and nodded his head in the direction of her bedroom. There's a dirty joke lurking there, but I'll leave it alone.

"Oh, my God," she said as she looked at the gaping hole in her vault door. The vault Oliver broke into in the previous episode using her fingerprint scan.

"We heard an explosion. Then the security cameras and the power pulsed. We thought a transformer had blown outside." See the Transformers sequel this summer. Bring a friend ... and an oil filter.

Tess picked up a battered case. "The orb -- someone stole the orb."

"No one could've broken in here without ..."

Tess dropped the case like a Disney villainess. "You just said that the system went down!" she shrieked.

"Only for a few seconds," he assured her. "But Miss Mercer you should know that our security believes the door was blown off from the inside."

"You have no idea how many lives are at stake. Find that orb."

The man left pondering how he'd word the ad in the Penny Pincher Lost and Found section.

At the Planet (busy night), Clark looked at the Legion ring. After a moment he put the ring in a box and then into his desk drawer. He turned back to his computer and began typing.

On his screen was a letter titled "To the Citizens of Metropolis." It's actually a very thoughtful letter where he, as the Red-Blue Blur, thanks the people of the city for welcoming him. He talks about how he has seen ordinary people do extraordinary things and that everyone is capable of being a hero. It's similar to Superman's farewell speech in the NK arc on L&C when he quoted Emerson's line about self trust being the essence of heroism.

"Chloe is missing with some beastie boy," Lois said as she entered. "And you're doing what exactly?"

"No one wants to find Chloe more than I do."

"Except maybe me," she replied and said she hadn't slept in days. "And I am dangerously close to a caffeine O.D."

"I hadn't noticed," he observed dryly, but the words "if I die" and "goodbye" stood out to him on his screen.

"Okay," Lois said, changing tactics. "Do you want to at least tell me about this little novella you're working on?"

Before Lois could round the corner of his desk, he closed the letter. "No," he said softly.

"Great. Another ricochet off the impenetrable force field," she said with a tone of resignation. "Forget it."

I feel like I was dropped into the middle of something here. Lois delivered the line as if it were Clark's habit to shut her out, but we really haven't seen that. It's like there was no setup to account for the dialogue.

Anyway, she walked behind him and started fumbling with the coffee cups. An instant later the phone rang. When it rang a second time without Clark picking it up, she turned around and saw that he was gone, but it was her phone, not Clark's, that was ringing.

"Hello?"

"Miss Lane?" the mechanically altered voice said as Clark entered one of the Planet's phone booths.

Lois smiled. "It's you."

"I've been searching for your cousin Chloe." He moved to the side of the booth so he could see Lois through the blinds in the newsroom. "I am going to find her."

Lois asked how he even knew she was missing.

"I've been keeping an eye on you," he said.

"To be honest, I ... was ... kind of hoping for that," she confessed. "But I ... I didn't know how to call you and then now, all of a sudden here you are out of nowhere to save the day and I just ..." Lois closed her eyes and took a breath. "I'm rambling again. You just make me so, um ... I don't know how I'll ever be able to repay you for this."

He told her she could do him a favor. "I need you to publish a letter for me."

"What letter?" she asked, and a whoosh later, an envelope was leaning against her computer screen. She looked around the newsroom. "You're here, aren't you?"

Lois grabbed the letter, but Clark told her she wasn't supposed to open it yet. Like that would stop Lois.

"Can I count on you publishing that letter if anything happens to me?"

She looked at the letter. "Goodbye? What do you mean by 'goodbye'?"

Clark shook his head. "Sometimes we can't outrun out destiny."

Lois looked confused. "But I thought you were invincible." I'm not sure how Lois would know or assume he was invincible. Fast and strong, yes, but invincible?

"So did I."

"I want to meet you," she said, sensing the urgency. "I have to see your face. I have to see you. I want you to show me what you can't show anyone else. You can trust me. Please."

"I'm sorry, that's not a good idea."

"Look, you can come through this. You have to," she insisted. "And when you do ... how do you feel about phone booths?"

This time Clark looked confused. "They're fine."

"Um, there's one on 4th and Main. Let's say midnight? I'll be there." Before Clark could answer, she added, "I hope you'll be there, too ... and thank you. If anyone can save Chloe, I know it's you."

And so ends one of few good scenes in the episode. It was also iconic. Lois's unconditional faith in 'Superman' and the sense that her feelings are evolving into affection was spot on. It would probably seem unbelievable that Lois wouldn't put two and two together and figure out it must be Clark. After all, he was working on something he wouldn't let Lois see and then the Red-Blue Blur called right after Clark left and he had a letter.

It would be easy to say "well, that's just how Lois Lane traditionally is" and that's true. She's notorious for not seeing the obvious clues when it comes to Clark's dual identity. However, in the case of Smallville, and for the first time, Lois started falling for Clark Kent first. But at the moment, at least from Lois's point of view, Clark is locking her out, and the Red-Blue Blur is letting her in. He said he was keeping an eye on her, like a personal guardian angel and he's looking for Chloe, whereas Clark seemed self absorbed. To Lois there's a complete disconnect between the two men.

Speaking of disconnects, the episode continued.

Clark looked out the window of the barn loft as Dinah (Black Canary) arrived. "What's the 911?"

He thanked her for coming. "I thought Bart was supposed to be ..."

-=whooooooosh=- "Present and accounted for."

Clark asked if he was able to get the schematics.

Bart whooshed over to the table and laid out some photos. "Geothermal facility care of Queen Industry and LuthorCorp. Okay, what's with the black hole?" That shows continuity back to Beast and Injustice.

"Rokk said nothing on the face of the Earth could destroy the beast," Clark explained. "So let's put him under it." Clark added that the geothermal facility created a mile of tunnels beneath the Earth's crust.

Bart looked at the diagram. "So it's the final resting place of the bony space invader."

Clark asked Dinah if she could manage the detonators in the shaft once he got Doomsday down the hole.

"I can override it," she said. "Are we really going to bury him alive?"

"Not all of him," Clark corrected. "There's still a side of Davis worth saving." Not really.

Clark handed Bart the box containing the black kryptonite. "Bart, this is for you."

Bart said it was just a rock, but when he held it close to Clark, he backed away and told him to be careful with it. "It's a very special meteor rock. It can split the Kryptonian from the human side of Davis." He doesn't have a human side, literally speaking.

"And what if that doesn't work?" Sourpuss Queen asked as he joined the Honeycomb Hideout. "What if you end up unleashing a monster that's unstoppable and doesn't have a conscience?" You shouldn't be pushing the conscience thing, Oliver.

"This is the only option," Clark said.

Oliver asked about the option of getting rid of the serial killer before he has a chance to beast out. "You've never wanted to admit it," Oliver said in a lecturing tone. "But there is a darker side to humanity."

"I know there is," he conceded. "I'm looking at it right now."

Oliver ignored the dig. "Not everyone's worth saving. We need to take care of Davis Bloome."

"And by 'take care of,' you mean murder?"

Bart shook his head. "Okay, dudes, you got like some serious tension going on here."

"Ollie, what's he talking about?" Dinah asked. When Oliver refused to answer, she looked at Clark.

"Oliver crossed the line. He killed Lex Luthor."

How would he feel if he knew Chloe killed Sebastian? Would he treat her like Oliver, or just shrug it off like when he found out Lana had Lionel kidnapped and held prisoner?

"You're making a big mistake," Oliver threatened.

"You're not one of us anymore." Turn in your secret decoder badge.

"Is that right?" he asked, but turned and left the clubhouse.

At the Planet, Jimmy used a key gun to break into Tess' office. "I'm in," he said.

Oliver's voice came over his earpiece. "Do you have the decryption key?"

I suppose since Oliver was ousted by the League, he turned to his most recent employee. "Yeah," Jimmy said.

Oliver hoped Jimmy would have better luck than he did. "Call me when you have Chloe's location."

Jimmy removed the earpiece and put it in his pocket. He took a seat in Tess' chair, but when he scooted it forward, there was a crunching sound. "Ow!"

Thud. "Ow!" Jimmy groaned.

Lois crawled out from under the desk. "Jimmy, you stepped on my hand."

"Next time don't leave your hand on the floor under a desk in an office you're not even supposed to be in."

"I'm sorry," Lois said sarcastically. "Did I just get a lecture from Jimmy Olsen?" Maybe yes. Maybe no. "Who were you talking to?"

"No one," he lied. "Lois what are you doing here?"

She said she was looking for Chloe and Davis. "The head of Tess' security has been staked out at the Talon apartment. Creepy, but telling. The only problem is, her 8 gig mini-brain is encrypted."

Jimmy smiled and inserted a gizmo into a USB port. "Not anymore." He began typing and several files became visible. "Tess is definitely tracking Chloe and Davis. Most of this is from a couple of days ago, but if I can just get in ... bingo!"

A radar type of scanner appeared on the screen. He said it looked like Chloe and Davis were on the outskirts of Edge City. Jimmy started moving towards the door and instructed Lois to keep her eyes on the scanner and to let him know if they moved.

Lois sat in the chair, but not being one to take orders, she clicked on another file. It was a video file of Regan being beaten for information. Yes, Regan, the guy I though Tess kicked to death earlier this season. Oh, well, I guess he pulled through ... uh ... lucky for him.

Regan said that Lex had already tried to break down the technology of the orb. Then Tess' voice said that Lex knew the orb wasn't from Earth. "It called to me," she said. "There's life inside that can't be released until the Traveler kills the beast." Mercer Hears a Who.

"What you're unleashing," Regan said, blood dripping under his eye. "It could be the end of the world."

Then there was a weird scene that seemed to indicate that the script had veered from its original direction. In the newsroom a box popped up on Clark's screen informing him there was an audio message from Black Canary. But on closed caption it said Lois was speaking. "Clark, we've found them. I'm uploading their location." Then it showed the radar screen Lois and Jimmy had been looking at.

.........................

Normally I'd just shrug it off as a closed caption glitch, because they do happen, but why was it Black Canary suddenly? Where was Jimmy? He was heading straight to Chloe's location. Then there's the above pictures I stitched together. The one on the right is from this episode, but the one on the left is from Turbulence. Clark was looking at the headline about Tess surviving the jet crash, but they reused it in this episode.

Then they had Clark use his super hearing, probably also from another episode. He heard Chloe yelling "Wait! No, don't! Stop!" And Oliver shouting, "Chloe, look out!" Then they reused the footage from Turbulence where Clark grabbed his tie and whooshed out of the newsroom. They skipped the part where he changed in the phone booth into his red jacket. Then reused footage from Prey, I think, where he's whooshing around the city streets. Heck, it might even go as far back as Lexmas from three years ago.

Clark finally arrived at .... where? I have no idea. Edge City? Is it close to Metropolis? It's been mentioned in a few episodes, but I don't know how far away it is in relation to anything else on the show.

Clark found a smashed up greenish car. The one Davis and Chloe were on earlier? Clark saw Bart and Dinah in costume standing nearby. All the windows in the car had been blown out, which probably means Dinah did the Black Canary yell. One more thing used against Davis that won't work the next time.

Clark looked at Bart and Dinah suspiciously. "What's going on?"

"Sorry, Clark," Dinah said. "We couldn't risk losing you."

A kryptonite dart hit Clark on the back of his shoulder. He turned and saw Oliver decked out as Green Arrow. He stared at him a moment and then fell to the ground in pain. The three walked over and looked down at Clark. Oliver told Clark not to worry, the arrow wouldn't kill him. "It'll just get your ego out of the way so we can do what needs to be done."

"Don't do this," Clark begged, but they walked away, leaving him groaning and writhing on the ground. Nice super friends ya got there, Clark.

Lois walked purposefully towards her desk, but was interrupted.

"I kind of miss the maid costume," Tess said as she stood on the steps leading into the newsroom. She loves standing on things she has to walk down from.

Lois turned around and put her hands in her pocket. "I've stopped cleaning up after you."

"You could've fooled me," she sniped and added that she expected better reconnaissance from her reporters. "Then again, the bar's been a little bit lower for you, hasn't it?"

Lois shook her head. "Look, I know family loyalty means nothing to you, but I would do anything to find Chloe, and if that means you need to fire me, pull the trigger," she said coolly and began walking to her desk again.

"Oh, I plan to, but this actually has very little to do with Chloe."

Lois sighed heavily. Her desk might as well have been a mile away.

"You saw it, didn't you?" Tess asked.

Lois turned back to face her. "Seriously, you have a significant deficiency of pronoun modifiers going on."

Tess asked Lois where the orb was and Lois asked "what orb?"

"The alien technology from my vault."

"Oh, that orb," Lois snarked in a tone that conveyed the image of circling her index finger around her temple. She continued to her desk and picked up her car keys, but when she turned around, Tess kicked her hand, sending the keys flying. Lois pushed herself away from the desk, where the momentum of the kick had sent her. "I guess asking for severance is out of the question."

"I didn't want this," Tess said.

Lois looked surprised and amused. "No, you just want to take over the world with some alien nation."

Tess became angry. "I am actually trying to save the world." Yup, the same thing Lex thought he was doing.

"What's wrong with Greenpeace?" Lois asked, and tried to push her way past Tess, but Tess grabbed her arm and the brawl was on.

Lois took a swing and a miss. Tess dragged her to the desktop and they began more of a wrestling match compared to the Street Fighter advertisement in Bulletproof. Each had a turn getting the upper hand, but when Lois dropped to the floor and Tess began to stand up on the desk, she made an easy target. Lois backhanded her, sending Tess flying from the desk to a hard impact on the floor and she was knocked out.

The desktop rumble knocked something else to the floor. A box fell open and the Legion ring rolled out. Lois reached out and picked up the ring. Unfortunately the tip of her finger was through the center and she vanished in a purple glow. So whither goeth Loeth ... uh Lois?

Rokk said "use the ring to send Doomsday to the future" and that the Legion would be ready to deal with him. Does that mean Clark was supposed to put the ring on Davis' finger? Was he supposed to put it on one of Doomsday's claws? Was Clark to put the ring on his own finger and grab Davis/Doomsday and then both would be propelled to the future? What I'm getting at is, was the ring pre-programmed to go to the thirty-first century, or was it like the last ring where the person had to think of a specific date?

At the geothermal facility, Chloe regained consciousness. She saw Oliver, Bart and Dinah all in costume and Davis on the floor with zip tie handcuffs. Seriously? Plastic handcuffs on Doomsday? Is LuthorCorp a bailout company? Did the president say no metal cuffs because plastic is cheaper? Is that why Cyborg and Aquaman are missing? Cutbacks?

Bart apologized to Chloe for tranquilizing her. "It, uh, kind of snuck up on you super fast."

"Where's Clark?" Chloe asked and then looked from Davis to Oliver. "You found a way to kill him, didn't you? And Clark wouldn't go along with it." Maybe they just guilted him out of doing something like you did.

"No," Dinah replied. "He wanted to play devil's advocate with the actual devil. Split the Kryptonian from the human." There is no human. Skip it.

"Black kryptonite," Chloe said and looked at a backpack, which was conveniently sitting on the table unzipped with the black rock exposed.

Oliver said the one glitch in Clark's plan was the beast part and he's right. Without the crystal to send Doomsday to the Phantom Zone, or the ring to send him to the future, the use of black kryptonite instantly puts everyone in harm's way the moment the two personas split.

"Last time we checked, he couldn't control his thornier alter ego," Bart said.

"But I can," Chloe piped up. "As long as I stay with him, he doesn't change. Please don't do this to him."

"They have to," Davis said flatly. He said Chloe's power, which was never explained, wasn't working anymore.

Chloe knelt next to him and told him to just focus on her. "We'll get through this together just like we always have."

"I'm sorry," Davis groaned. "It's too late." His eyes turned red and he stood up.

"We need to go now!" Oliver shouted and pulled Chloe back.

Bart and Dinah each grabbed one of Davis' arms, but he broke the plastic handcuffs, sending Bart and Dinah flying in opposite directions. Oliver got out his bow and lined up a shot hoping to hit him before he morphed into Doomsday, but Chloe ran into the line of fire with the black kryptonite. "Chloe, no!"

She touched the rock to Davis' chest and he screamed. After a moment he fell away from his Doomsday half, which snarled and got right in Davis' face.

Jimmy finally arrived at the scene of the green car. He shouted Chloe's name, but got no response. He heard moaning and when he walked around the car, he found Clark on the ground, the kryptonite dart still in his back. "Clark?"

"Jimmy ... the dart."

Jimmy pulled out the dart and noticed the green glow instantly stopped. "Whoa, check this out," he said and brought the dart close to Clark's face and the dart began to glow again and Clark groaned in pain. He pulled it away. The abrasion on Clark's face vanished. Jimmy was awestruck. "Your cut ... it's gone."

Clark felt his cheek. "Jimmy ..."

"No," he smiled. "No, I'm not buying it. That whole 'you're here one second and then you're not'? You took a bullet and the next day you were fine. I mean it's like you're some kind of super ... guy."

"Jimmy," Clark said, as if he was going to invent some excuse, but simply told him the truth. "I am the Red-Blue Blur. You were right -- about me, about Davis -- you were the only one to put it all together. I'm sorry that I lied to you."

Jimmy sighed with relief. "I knew it." He smiled. "I was so right!"

Clark told Jimmy he needed his help. "Do you still have that wedding gift? The one you got for Chloe, but said you never gave to her?"

"Yeah, I couldn't bring myself to get rid of it."

Clark said he needed Jimmy to give it to her now. "And whatever happens to me, you need to make sure that Chloe and Davis are safe."

Jimmy's smile faded. "Davis?"

"Jimmy, do you trust me?"

"Always, C.K."

Clark nodded and then whooshed off. Jimmy, caught in Clark's wake, was pulled forward a few steps. "That is so cool."

Yeah, it actually was. This scene and the earlier one with Lois's conversation with the Red-Blue Blur are the most genuine scenes in the episode. The music was also very good in this scene. Although Clark asking Jimmy to keep Davis safe presupposes that Clark knew Davis and Doomsday had been separated already, when in fact he should believe the opposite.

It's all downhill from here, kids.

Clark arrived at the facility, but for some reason Doomsday didn't rip anyone to shreds. Aside from a bloody lip or cut here and there, the Justice League was fine and so were Davis and Chloe.

Clark asked Chloe what happened. "Exactly what you wanted, Clark. I split him. I unleashed the beast."

This was funny, she worded it like she was just carrying out orders and that she wasn't the one who changed his mind in the first place. Clark certainly didn't want to "unleash the beast." After Tess ruined "Plan A" by destroying the crystal, I suppose Clark's "Plan B" was to have Bart touch Davis with the black kryptonite, and because he's so fast, he'd have pulled Davis out of danger quickly and then Clark would take Doomsday down the shaft and hope that he could get out before the shaft explosives were detonated.

What's crystal clear is that Oliver did not have a contingency plan in case Davis awoke and beasted out before they could drop him down that shaft. It's also clear Davis was awake and listening long before he opened his eyes. I have a strong feeling that he was ready to take out the Justice League the moment they tried to put their plan in action. Chloe merely made it easier for him to do because he could put on his noble sacrifice hat like he did over the kryptonite shower and then take everyone by surprise.

Clark used his super hearing and heard screaming and then told the bloodied and chagrined Justice League that he would try and bring Doomsday back to the facility. "But I still need you to detonate the explosives."

Dinah nodded and Oliver told Clark if he gets Doomsday into the tunnel, they'll take care of the rest.

"Can I trust you?"

Oliver nodded. "Yes."

Clark whooshed to Metropolis and emerged on 4th and Main. How do I know? He looked at an empty phone booth and said, "Lois."

At that moment a car came bouncing at Clark courtesy of Doomsday. The creature was holding a woman and her daughter. The child was screaming for her mother, who Doomsday tossed through a plate glass window. Clark began running at super speed and took the child from Doomsday and set her on ... garbage bags. And while it was nice of Clark to take the time to tell the little girl everything would be okay, it was more than enough time for Doomsday to pick Clark up and turn him into a piñata.

Doomsday punched Clark in the gut a couple of times and then rared back and smacked him in the face, sending him crashing into a building a couple of streets away. Doomsday, capable of super leaps, was back at Clark in an instant. Clark planted his foot and launched himself at Doomsday in the same manner he had taken Davis to the Fortress of Solitude in Beast. He leaped high with Doomsday and came down at the geothermal facility. There was a huge explosion and ... nothing. The sun was rising over Metropolis.

At what appeared to be an abandoned church tower, Jimmy checked Davis' pulse and told Chloe he was okay.

"Thank you, Clark said you'd bring us somewhere safe." When did he have time to say that? Did he borrow Doomsday's cell phone? "What is this place?"

Jimmy said it was her wedding present. Come on. Jimmy would get that kind of place for her if he could afford it, but he worked at the Planet at the time he got married and even Lois didn't have the dough to afford her own place in Metropolis. It would've worked better if he'd said Oliver made it possible.

"Well it was," Jimmy corrected himself. "I was going to give it to you after the reception, but ..."

"My wedding present?"

He said it needed some work, "but so did we. I just saw us here, you know? Starting our life together. Taking something that the rest of the world had forgotten about and making it ours."

Chloe said nothing, but walked over to the huge stained glass window. "You can see all of Metropolis from here." Can you see the smoldering swatch of destruction left after you unleashed Doomsday?

Jimmy said the tower could be spotted from anywhere in the city. Well, okay, but that makes it like the Empire State Building, which, I might add, is over a thousand feet high and just over one hundred stories. How can anything that can be spotted anywhere in the city be forgotten and abandoned? Is it sitting atop an abandoned skyscraper? Of course if it is, that means there's no electricity, so it must've been fun carrying Davis up nearly two thousand stair steps.

Uh, anyway, Jimmy thought it would be nice that no matter where Chloe was in the city, she could look up and see their home. "You could see me watching over you."

Chloe said she didn't now how Jimmy did it, but he always managed to come through. He was always there doing the right thing and saying the right words. "Jimmy, there's so much I want to tell you."

Jimmy smiled. "I know about Clark."

"What? What exactly do you know?"

"The what," he replied. "I saw him and I saw what he can do, who he is ... and now I see all kinds of things. I see what you have sacrificed for him." Oh, dear, this has a very Lana tone to it. "For everyone, really." Yup, Lana accolades. There must be a jar of them in the writers' room and they just pluck them out and paste them into the scripts.

"That's the reason I went with Davis, to protect Clark." Ixnay on the confession, Chloe, Davis pretended to be unconscious before, remember? "That's the only reason."

"It all makes sense now," Jimmy said. You're the only one, pal. "But the way I see it, you are as much a hero as he's ever been." So first we have Lana as Clark's equal and now Chloe." What you have gone through. What you have risked."

"And what I've lost," she added, because being a hero isn't nearly enough. "I've lost so much. The only thing I really miss is you."

"Well, now you found me again," he said and pulled her into a kiss. It reminded me of a movie title. A Kiss Before ... something. Now what was it?

"I'm so sorry I left, Jimmy, but I promise I never left you." Uh...? They began to kiss again and then there was like a squish sound. Then Jimmy gurgled and blood was dripping from his mouth. Chloe looked down and there was a piece of pipe jammed into his chest. "Jimmy!" Oh, yeah, A Kiss Before Dying.

Davis pulled the pipe out of Jimmy and he fell to the floor. Davis was crying. What else is new? "So, um, this whole time that you were with me, it was for Clark?" Yeah, so why kill Jimmy?

Chloe backed up. "Davis, just put that down." No tears for Jimmy, just self preservation.

"How could you do this?" he whimpered. "I loved you, Lana ...er ... Chloe. You're the only one who ever loved me. Why?" he asked in his goth whiner tone, but then shouted the word angrily. "Why!"

Chloe raised her hands. "I thought I did, okay?" she said, coated in Jimmy's blood. "But really, what I wanted to do was save you."

"Save me? There is nothing left to save!" he bellowed, spit spraying from his mouth. He raised the pipe over his head to brain Chloe, but Jimmy charged forward with what little life was left in him and pushed Davis forward. He became impaled on some kind of pointy wrought-iron thingie.

Oddly Davis was still alive looking around like 'well, here's another fine mess you've gotten me into' and then Jimmy fell backward.

Chloe held him in her arms stroking his face, telling him he'd be okay. Then Jimmy said, "I'm sorry." He's sorry? Shouldn't that have been her line? He said he loved her and then he carked it.

Continued in next post ...

Firefly: "Not that I care, but where's your husband?"
Teasdale: "My husband is dead."
Firefly: "I'll bet he's just using that as an excuse."
Teasdale: "I held him in my arms and kissed him."
Firefly: "Oh, I see. Then it was murder."

Of course it was time for Jimmy's funeral. Was it the next day? A couple of days later? Where's Davis? Is he really dead? There was no sign of Clark and Lois was still missing. However, Bart, Dinah and Oliver were there and a cast of 'who the heck are they' extras. Chloe stepped forward and put a bouquet of ... photo negatives on the casket.

Then the priest said, "May Henry James Olsen rest in peace," which meant nothing to 99.9% of the 3,000,000 who watched the finale because they don't know Jimmy Olsen's real name is traditionally James Bartholomew Olsen. As far as they know the iconic character's real name is Henry James Olsen, and that's assuming they even paid attention when his name was announced.

Dinah looked across at Oliver, who was wearing sunglasses, but a tear ran down his cheek. I guess the Beast episode and giving Jimmy a job was so that it made sense that Oliver truly mourned Jimmy's passing.

A tearful little boy took the hand of who I presume was his father and they began walking away. A woman put her arm around the man and the little boy stopped and looked back at the casket. Chloe went to him. "Hey, you must be Jimmy's little brother," she said and the boy nodded. "Well, I think this belongs to you." She put Jimmy's camera around his neck. "He would've wanted you to have it."

"Thanks."

"Who knows, maybe someday you'll follow in his footsteps." Yes, you too can be pierced through a vital organ by a nut.

This scene was for the .1% who do know Jimmy's real name is James Bartholomew Olsen and the scene was created for them to say 'what the hell?' and wonder if the little kid is the real Jimmy Olsen. In this case ignorance of Superman trivia is bliss, because the 99.9% aren't pissed off because they believe Lois, in whatever time line she's in, will do something that resurrects Jimmy Olsen, because they've believed he was the real Jimmy Olsen all along.

Dinah put her arm around Chloe and began to escort her from the funeral, but Chloe paused, like she heard something ... nay, more like she sensed something. This was like the couple of times the show made it seem as if Lana could sense Clark's presence. And, as with the old Lana psychic friends network moments, Clark was there, but Chloe didn't see him.

Clark was observing the funeral from several yards away. He looked at Oliver ... maybe, and then Oliver walked away.

Later, still dressed in his funeral togs, Clark walked into the ... church tower? And how did he get there? He walked in through double doors from the outside as if it were at street level. There was a giant orangish backdrop there. At first I thought it was like the sunset, but you can clearly see the plastic crinkled at the top and it drapes to the floor (balcony? Observation deck?) I guess next year they'll have some kind of translite backdrop or something depicting a Metropolis cityscape.

Anyway, Clark strolled in and walked right to the Jimmy ... uh Henry memorial blood stain still on the floor. If I had to guess, I'd say Chloe couldn't bear to go back there where her husband (ex-husband?) was killed, but I'd be wrong. Chloe ran to the rail of the upper landing and called Clark's name. "You're alive!"

She ran down the stairs and hugged him. "How did you survive the geothermal explosion?"

Clark sort of moved Chloe out of the hug. "Just before Dinah pushed the button ... I don't know. I got out before the blast, but not fast enough to save anyone else." Who were the "anyone else" he mentioned? The Justice League members were at the funeral. "Chloe, I've searched everywhere. There's no sign of Lois."

Chloe nodded. "I saw someone tacking her photo up on a missing person's report and I keep thinking that maybe ... you know, maybe I haven't ..."

"Lost everyone," Clark filled in the blanks.

This was sort of Lana-like too. Her tears weren't really for Lois, rather they were tears for herself because she'd have lost everyone. In the episode Visage Lana actually went down a checklist of those she'd lost. They were her recurring "abandonment issues" if you'll recall.

"You were there today, Clark, weren't you?"

He didn't answer.

"I really needed you. Why didn't you come to me?"

"I'm the reason Jimmy's dead." I'm starting to feel the Hulu effect. My brain is turning into a quivering blob of tapioca. "Oliver was right. I put humanity on a pedestal." Oh, come now. You know humanity can't fit on the pedestal with Lana hogging it. "It wasn't a Kryptonian beast that killed Jimmy. It was a human." He was never human. I'll just keep saying that.

"I was standing right here, Clark," Chloe said as she stood near the memorial blood stain. "I know full well who killed Jimmy." I expected her to hold up the script.

Finally the creep factor set in for Clark. "Chloe, this place ... just get rid of it. Just walk away and don't look back."

Chloe told Clark he didn't get it. "Jimmy is here." Who's Jimmy? "He's watching over me. He knew me so well." Not really. "He knew this place would be perfect. Jimmy wanted to know that no matter where I was in this city, I could look up here and see this beacon ... the Watchtower." Isn't it nice Chloe can make lemonade out of the lemons of a double homicide occurring there?

Clark looked at her like she needed her fan belt tightened.

"And look, Dinah, Oliver and Bart all disappeared." They were at the funeral earlier. Maybe they're at a pub having a wake for Henry. "Maybe it's up to us to bring them back."

Bring them back from where, Chloe? Does "disappeared" mean they are off the grid, or you saw them vanish into thin air? If it means the grid, then a few hours after you last saw them is no cause to release the bloodhounds yet. If you really saw them vanish into thin air, then it sounds more like a job for Zatanna.

"Home," Clark asked? "I don't have a home." Oy.

Chloe said she didn't like the sound of that and so he took a hit of helium and said it in a much higher voice and added, "I've always tried to forget I was an alien ... or a creature." Can someone cue Lois to come back long enough to tell Clark to get over himself? "I've always tried to pretend I was human. I was raised to believe it was my Kryptonian part that was dangerous, Chloe, but I was wrong. It's my human side, it's the side that gets attached. The side that makes decisions based on emotions. That's my enemy, and Davis proved that to me."

Davis, who was created by two Kryptonians? Remember them, Faora and Zod? How about the Kryptonian duo who landed on Earth and started killing people looking for Kal-EL? How about Jor-El branding Clark for the sake of tough love? How about Kara's wacky father? How about taking a deep breath, Clark and realize there's rotters on both sides?

"So because of some psychopath, you're gonna cut the rest of us out of your life?" Yes, except for Lana if she comes back. "Clark, human emotion is what made you the hero that you are today."

Clark insisted his emotions were preventing him from becoming the hero he could be. "It's what the world needs now."

"What are you saying?" Weepy Chloe asked.

"Clark Kent is dead. Goodbye, Chloe." He walked out the double doors from whence he came and literally faded and vanished.

Chloe put her hands on her stomach realizing there was still one more scene left. Seriously, what are they trying to say? Is she pregnant? Please no.

At Mercer Manor, there was a whirring sound and a purple glow on everything. Tess ran down into the study and then into the corridor. She hurried down the hallway and went into a bedroom. I assume her bedroom, but who knows. She heard the whispering voices coming from the open window. She stepped closer and peered out.

The purple orb appeared and then sent a sharp beam of light to the ground. The shockwave of bright light and wind caused Tess to turn away momentarily, but she recovered quickly and continued watching. A man, who suspiciously seemed to have Davis' build, appeared. The emblem from the orb was imprinted on his back and he was holding a round crystal in his left hand. The symbol for Zod began to form around him as a voice chanted "Zod" slowly over and over again.

The End

Well, allegedly this episode had several scripts and the actors were getting page changes while the printer ink was still wet on them, and boy did it show. There was also supposed to be a "quintessential" Lois/Clark scene, which one of the writers of this episode described as "It's so good. They have such great chemistry." There was only one scene of Clark and Lois together in the whole episode and very little interaction. So whatever that scene was, it was either cut, or is being saved for next season. But I'll stick to what actually made it into the episode.

I'll start with what I liked, Lois's conversation with the Red-Blue Blur. It had the right tone, hitting the proper iconic notes, but the writers should not feel compelled to turn Clark and Lois against each other. Lois having conflicted feelings about both men works much better. I liked the Lois and Jimmy scene, but it's sad to think it might be the last. I liked Jimmy's revelation scene with Clark. It was well done and had a lot of charm. And ... that about sums up what I liked.

As for what I didn't like, that's pretty easy to figure out since it's everything not mentioned above. Though I do admit Davis murdering Jimmy didn't surprise me. He was going to murder Jimmy in Beast until Oliver reminded him that Chloe would never forgive him. Once the Chloe issue was off the table when she confessed her love to Jimmy and that she'd run off to protect Clark, Davis had no reason not to go through with killing Jimmy like he wanted to in Beast. It even put Chloe on the chopping block, as was the case in Infamous before Clark reset time with the Legion ring.

Now don't get me wrong, I didn't want Jimmy killed, I just didn't find it out of character for Davis to murder him. It was pretty well established that Davis would do exactly what he did. I never felt that separating Davis from Doomsday would mean Davis would be a good person. He's the one, after all, who came up with the plan of killing people so he wouldn't beast out. Even as a child he killed a parakeet for the hell of it because that was his genetic predisposition. The only difference with Davis is that it was all deliberate, whereas it was out of his control when he killed as Doomsday.

What I hated was the retcon of Jimmy into Henry. There was a Superboy comic book from 1968 where the people of Thraxx, who lived in another dimension, were basically watching a Superboy TV show courtesy of Jolax, the head of a movie studio who used a powerful interdimensional telescope to film Superboy's adventures on Earth. The inhabitants of Thraxx thought it was a show Jorax produced at his studio. They didn't know it was really Superboy's life.

Anyway, the show was a big hit, but the sponsors felt Superboy's parents were too old and should be replaced by younger actors. Jorax had no choice but to put a rejuvenation formula in the Kent water well. When Jonathan and Martha drank the water, they became younger. From that point forward the Kents were drawn more youthful in the Superboy comics.

Okay, so what does that silliness have to do with Jimmy on Smallville? Well, allegedly DC Comics didn't like that Jimmy was a few years older than traditional depictions of Jimmy Olsen and so Jimmy was killed off and retconned to a guy named Henry. It was then suggested the little brother at the funeral was the real Jimmy Olsen. However, even though the comics, as demonstrated with the Superboy story, can have ridiculous plot lines where this wouldn't seem out of the ordinary, I don't buy it.

As far as the audience is concerned, the real Jimmy Olsen was killed and because Jimmy Olsen exists in the future, they have no doubt he'll come back from the dead as Aaron Ashmore, not some child actor. My main reason for not buying the retcon is that Smallville has committed much greater canon sins than Jimmy Olsen being a few years older than usual, but those have never been retconned. We'll see what happens, but the current rationale makes no sense.

Moving on, what happened to Clark? Did he literally fade and vanish? Chloe said the Justice League vanished. Is Lois changing things in the past/future? Is it Zod? Was Clark even there? Was he at the funeral like a ghost, but didn't realize it? Is he still alive, but changed by events, or black kryptonite? There are certainly stories where Superman gets on his high horse and starts ruling the world because he thinks mankind is self destructive. However since Zod appeared at the end and he also likes ruling the world, they might have to play a cosmic game of rock, paper, scissors for ruling rights.

To be honest, the finale was symptomatic of what went wrong around the midpoint of the season. I suspect by November they knew they were getting renewed and unfortunately the new show-runners defaulted back to the old Gough/Millar tactic of retreating, regressing and stalling. Having Lana return, for example, wasn't a mistake necessarily, but having Clark accepting her ludicrous behavior and reverting to his old obsessive attitude was a mistake. And how the writers chose to end the relationship was terrible.

Instead of Clark realizing that he was more often unhappy than happy with Lana, the writers basically said, "hey, Lana is radioactive to Clark now and they can't be together so what's the difference?" That the writers didn't see that it makes Lois Lane, the true destined love interest of Superman, a woman he settles for because he can't have the one he really wants, is the sad reality. Trust me, I've seen the posts from Lana fans gloating that Lois will merely be "sloppy seconds" because he can't have Lana.

That bad choice understandably left a bad taste in the mouth of Superman fans, Lois Lane fans and fans of their epic romance. It's a shame on so many levels. Not just because so many people left, believing they'd been cheated out of a promise that seemed to exist in the first part of the season, but because Smallville's Lois is such a superior character. And by superior character, I mean exactly that.

For a character to excel and be superior, she must, ironically, have faults. She has to strive and fail, but get back up to try again. She can occasionally display bad behavior, like when Lois got drunk at Chloe's engagement party, but she must suffer the consequences of her bad choice, and Lois's hangover was perfectly rendered. We have to see ourselves in them. We have to empathize, even if we've never been drunk in our lives, we have to be able to relate it to something we've done where we've made a fool of ourselves and paid the price.

Most versions of Lois Lane are relatable on a very human level. Any woman in the audience who knows what it's like when a date shows up early, could identify with Lois on L&C, her hair in outrageous rollers, quietly unlocking the door and shouting "it's open!" so she can run back to the bedroom to finish getting ready for their date. L&C's Lois, like Smallville's Lois, was confused by her feelings for Clark. This may seem way off topic to the review, or what went wrong with Season 8, but the romance of Lois and Clark is so much a part of the myth, that when that is done wrong, or at least terribly compromised, it's no surprise when other things go badly astray.

Part of it has been the Smallville problem of mistaking obsession for love. They are not even remotely similar. Obsession merely becomes an excuse for feelings that the audience can't relate to or understand why a character has them. Clark was obsessed with Lana and now Oliver is obsessed with Tess. Since obsession is dark and unhealthy, everything else turns dark accordingly. The men will helplessly accept the worst possible actions like kidnapping and murder to be with the object of their obsession. They will also react with over the top violence or threats at violence if their obsession is tampered with. Obsessions belong to villains, not heroes.

Smallville is moving to Friday next year and no show is given a Friday slot because a network has faith in it. I really don't believe Smallville can win back the people who felt cheated by the second half of the season. It's not enough, for example, for Clark to just move on to Lois. There are people who now believe that Lana can and will come back at any moment and destroy everything yet again. The show will have to address this in a very definitive way. There's no reason to please a fan base that will no longer be watching the show.

This all relates to Clark Kent. He is the main character of the show and the myth and so logically should be the most important, but he's treated like a red-headed stepchild. He tried to be a decent hero, but got crap from Oliver who wants Clark to be the Terminator. Clark made a decision about Davis, but Chloe overruled it with tragic results. He started to show an attracted to Lois, but Lana returned and he regressed. All of this chipped away the audience and certainly ended the good press it had gotten earlier in the season.

Clark began the season with a lot of proactive promise and then it just went up in smoke starting at the midpoint of the season. The story line also became darker and darker. I think the Davis/Doomsday approach had some potential, but it just turned into yet another romantic triange that wasn't really a romance after all and ended in a bloodbath. When the smoke cleared at the end of the finale, only two characters, Chloe and Tess, were left standing and they don't exist in the Superman myth at all. The canon characters all disappeared and one canon character was totally retconned.

In my opinion Smallville should take a page from the Star Trek movie and realize that there is an audience for true heroes, camaraderie, humor, action and romance. Superman is not a dark hero and was never meant to be one and so they could do a lot worse than borrowing a bit of Abrams' successful template. Not to mention when unemployment is high and the dollar is short, people want something uplifting, not something dark and depressing. Most of all I wish they'd just say next year is the last year and advertise it that way. Go out on a high ... if that's possible.

Zoom (woo hoo, vacation time)

Wonderful review Zoom!

I agree about about them getting renewed and they start the regression stuff. It was obvious with the finale they were making stuff up as they went along

I also don't buy the excuses given for killing off Jimmy, not when this show had a black Pete Ross, and so many other things they should have put their foot down about