What I'm Watching: Smallville (200th Episode)

Smallville: Season 10, Episode 4 “Homecoming” (C+)

This milestone installment is about as monumental and revolutionary as this show has ever been capable of being, and I don't really mean that as a compliment. This show has always relied on imagined realities and time travel as handicaps to actually moving the plot forward, which is the reason that Clark told Lana, Chloe, and Lois about his secret an infinite number of times and it never amounted to anything because they were always under the influence of some type of mind-altering parasite or got their memory erased due to a correction of the time continuum. Now, characters from past seasons arrive for one long metaphor rather than a celebratory two-hundredth episode that actually changes things in a major way. The return of James Marsters shouldn't be seen as a bad thing, but can't anything happen in the present without some assistance from the future? Clark being able to see what it would be like to be a public hero is fun, but isn't it about time that he's able to do that in the present? Enough going to the future – it's time to be there already! After ten seasons, Clark needs to become Superman. Watching him save that plane was incredibly exciting, and it would be nice if Clark did that on a regular basis. I was hoping the episode would end with him bursting through the roof of his barn and giving Lois the ride of her life. Instead, all we get is a romantic moment of them hovering just above the ground mid-dance. Oh well, maybe by the finale this show can finally realize its potential.