What I’m Watching: Smallville

Smallville: Season 10, Episode 13 “Beacon” (F)

It’s as if this show functions only based on when former cast members are conveniently available for a return appearance. Lionel popping in to Tess’ office at the start of the episode feels pretty horribly timed given the fact that he escaped from a parallel dimension more than a couple of weeks ago. Tess’ exclamation of “I didn’t approve any of these stories!” was one of the most forced moments of the episodes, though there are plenty of poorly reasoned-out pieces of knowledge and inconsistencies regarding Lionel’s existence in this world and the way in which he reclaimed his glory and status. Clark’s unwillingness to kill any of his nemeses is at this point becoming beyond frustrating, because he’s simply leaving the door open for them to return and wreak havoc on his life and the lives of those he loves. Also unexplained is why Clark didn’t run like lightning to save his mother, since Alexander’s entire theory was that Clark would run in front of the bullet and be pierced by deathly Kryptonite! Alexander is another character who seems to only pop up when it’s convenient, and Tess’ latest action should theoretically take him out of the picture for good. Scrambled episodes like this don’t give me much confidence that this show can perform well in its last two months on air, as we’re now plummeting towards the end of this series with only eight episodes to go. An awesome finale, which is very possible, isn’t going to make up for something close to eight poor seasons.