The framing device for the episode is Chloe, some seven years in the future, reading a comic book to a boy who seems to be her child with Oliver. It's the story of Superman, although I don't recall the moniker being mentioned outright. As she tells him the story, we move back seven years, which for us is the day after the previous episode. Lois is still determined not to marry Clark because he should be out there saving people instead. Clark cheerfully persists in believing the wedding will happen. Then, thanks to conversations with Chloe and Martha respectively, they sort of switch positions. They eventually read each other's wedding vows, get on the same page and head for the chapel... where we get to hear them read their wedding vows in their entirety for a second time. Things grind to a halt when Oliver presents the bride and groom with the wedding bands. Unfortunately, they're made of gold kryptonite. Fortunately, Chloe notices in time to keep Clark from losing his powers. Finally everyone realizes that Oliver's been taken over by "the darkness," but then Clark gives him a little pep talk and Oliver cries out Darkseid's ooze and all is well.
Well, except for the gigantic planet that is now hurtling towards Earth. Darkseid's planet Apokolips has been heading for the little blue marble because all the Omega symbols are drawing it... or something. Nobody notice this huge flaming rock ball in the sky because Oliver apparently disconnected the satellites. Also because people are just plain dumb. Tess tries to warn them all, but she gets abducted by Lionel so that he can give her heart to the Lex clone that's been patched together out of a bunch of other Lex clones. Naturally, Tess fights back and fatally shoots Lionel. Before he completely dies, he makes a bargain with Darkseid to save Lex. Darkseid does so by ripping out Lionel's heart and giving it to Patches.
Meanwhile, Clark is having talks with Martha (she's pissed he's selling the farm) and the very dead Jonathan Kent. There are admonishments and pep talks about the meaning of home and heroism and destiny. Clark is filled with doubt, but at some point everyone realizes Tess is in trouble so he goes looking for her. He winds up at the Luthor mansion where he runs into Lex. They have a weird talk about villains and friendship and Lex ends up giving Clark a sort of pep talk, too. It's an evil pep talk, but it seems to have a positive effect on Clark. It's like he's powered by words as much as by the yellow sun. Clark is confronted by Darkseid, who has set up residence in Lionel's corpse, and more talking ensues. Clark remembers something Jonathan told him about Jor-El and suddenly his mind or what passes for it is in the Fortress. Jor-El shows him flashes from when the show was better. Clark is inspired to finally (finally!) fly and flies right through Darkseid. This seems to get rid of him... somehow.
At some point, Lois has realized that the President has decided to nuke Apokolips. She sneaks her way onto Air Force One, gives everyone a pep talk about the heroes and persuades them not to push the button. Having retried his Super Suit from the Fortress, Clark gets gussied up and flies up into space to push Apokolips away. The people of Earth are so impressed that their Omega symbols vanish. In the end, Tess and Lex get to have a little chat that results in him killing her. Before she dies, though, she somehow gives him some toxin that's supposed to wipe away all his memories. Why? Who knows? Seven years in the future, Lex has just been elected president even though 2018 isn't an election year. Maybe everyone in America got amnesia, too. For some reason, Clark and Lois act like they barely know each other at work, although they're actually finally going to get married. Their plans are interrupted when he has to fly off for a save and we're treated to the sight of him ripping open his shirt to expose his suit. Stay tuned for the full recap.
Want more? The full recap starts right below!
Previously on Smallville:
Jonathan and Martha Kent raised a cute little boy who came from outer space in a firestorm of meteors. That boy grew up to be Clark Kent, who was even mopier than the average teen. It was one day as he was moping on a bridge that sexy bald Lex Luthor hit him with his sporty Porsche. Lana Lang asked a befuddled young Clark "So what are you, man or Superman?" in one of the show's very first cheese bludgeonings. Clark inadvertently floated over his bed one morning, then spent the next ten years not flying. A computer version of his birth father told him he was the Last Son of Krypton (except for all the other Kryptonian dudes we met over the years). Jonathan Kent died. Six years ago, Clark met a Lois Lane who oddly looked ten years older than she does in the present day. Clark got a job at the Daily Planet during their "hire a nobody off the street and let them be a journalist" career fair. Clark's friend Chloe called him a superhero. Lex proclaimed himself the villain of the story. Lex made a bunch of mostly icky clones of himself just before he died in a fiery explosion. Lionel Luthor came from a parallel universe and taunted his daughter Tess Mercer and wreaked general havoc. Clark sent Zod and the Kandorians through a portal to another world and inadvertently allowed a gaseous Darkseid passage to Earth. Darkseid infected a bunch of people with "darkness" that mostly didn't change them in any perceptible way. Oliver was one of those infected but he only started acting hinky last week, thanks to Granny Goodness's control. Oliver "hypothetically" asked Clark what he would do if one of the team were infected and Clark did not respond in a particularly reassuring way. Under Granny's command, Oliver dug up some gold kryptonite that would remove Clark's powers permanently. Clark's various fathers gave him advice. Clark got tired of this and deactivated Jor-El.
Now forget almost everything you ever knew about this show because very little of it is going to make any difference at the end.
And now, the series finale of Smallville:
The episode opens with Chloe reading a bedtime story to a little blond boy. It's not Goodnight, Moon or The Velveteen Rabbit but a Smallville comic book. On the cover is an illustration of young Clark standing on the bridge, moping into the water below him, moments before he meets Lex Luthor for the first time. "This is the story of an amazing boy who grew up in the fields of Kansas in a little town called Smallville," she reads. The boy snuggles against her and gives her a big smile. His room is decorated with a solar system mobile and a bow and arrows. Chloe reads on. Clark (although he's not named in the comic as such) turned his back on his past so that he could embrace his destiny. He was such an idiot that he didn't see the darkness that was coming. (The comic book is nicer than that, but it's true.) There's an illustration of Lana and Chloe in high school, both of them more shapely than they were in real life, as well as Clark and Pete, all palling around by their lockers. It's all very cute, but wouldn't the writer, artist and publisher have to know Clark's whole story to put this together? How can he have a secret identity when anyone he went to school with is going to know it's him? How many other plaid-wearing, Lana-loving, gigantic supermodels went to Smallville High? "He was about to face his greatest challenge," Chloe reads. The boy glances up at the solar system dangling above his bed.
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