What I’m Watching: Smallville

Smallville: Season 10, Episode 20 “Prophecy” (C-)

The series finale of this show better be pretty incredible. There’s no excuse for having such poor, unfocused, uninteresting episodes just before the big finish. Why Toyman of all villains needs to be brought back for the penultimate episode is beyond me, and it was rather obnoxious to have Clark and Lois stumble for half the hour before putting two and two together and realizing who the owner of Marionette Ventures might be. Jor-El’s test of Lois was particularly ill-timed, and I object when a trigger of love is used so blatantly to break a spell that, in the past, has not been able to be broken by such fateful declarations. Couldn’t we just have a normal episode where no one is possessed by anything? That would be an intriguing and frustrating project, one which I’d never have time or patience for, to determine how few episodes in this series’ run actually contain no traces of hypnotism or anyone acting in any way other than as themselves. I remember a great season one plotline, perhaps the only one without a “freak of the week,” with Roger Nixon trying to out Clark as a superhero, and I wish this show could have delivered more of those over the past ten years. While it’s nice to see Kara again, treasure hunting with Oliver in the bottom of a cave is hardly the best use of her time, and Oliver is now going to be positioned as a major foe for Clark in the finale. I really do hope that the two-hour mega-finale makes the past eight years of watching this show since its decline in quality somewhat worth it.