I've asked Omar G. to contribute the last words of this last recap. I felt it only fitting that the man who recapped the first episode be there at the end. He survived freaks of the week, Lana's witch year and the "tuna and chocolate" that was Lois and Clark's early relationship. Goodbye, show. You were often fun, sometimes funny, occasionally very good and all too frequently frustrating and terrible. But, even knowing what I know now, I'd still want to recap you. Take it away, Omar:

Thanks, Tippi, for letting me come visit Smallville one last time.

I said my goodbyes to you, the readers, and to the show two years ago when I stopped recapping, so I won't rehash all that again.

Instead, I wanted to return briefly to take a quick look back at the 10 years we spent following the character we all knew would one day take flight and become Superman. I wanted to talk about the tremendous change that our main man Clark Kent went through to get here and to become that hero.

So.

Right.

Uh... I'm kind of drawing a blank here. I skipped a few episodes, honestly. Did I miss that part? Who was the beefy, turgid executive producer in the last episode who couldn't shut up about leaving the past behind, only he could never shut up about leaving the fucking past behind even when he was saying out loud that he was RIGHT NOW AT HIS MOMENT LEAVING IT BEHIND, SEE LOOK WHAT I'M DOING HERE, I'M LEAVING THE PAST BEHIND, THIS IS ALL VERY META.

Who was that guy? Superman? Seriously? Wow. I should have quit sooner.

But OK, perhaps I'm being unfair. For quite a long time, the show was really not bad. It was even pretty good. Just when you were ready to quit it, they'd pull out a "Shattered" or a "Transference" to keep you from completely giving up hope.

If Smallville was, for all of us long-suffering close-watchers, the story of missed opportunities and not-quite-theres, it was also at times a place where expectations were so low that small pleasures (John Glover's purr; Allison Mack's sunshine grin, Cassidy Freeman's class) broke through like rainbows in the proverbial Dio dark.

What I'll miss most was the heady mix of cheesy earnestness and patent absurdity (and, of course, the Gay that was unintentional until it clearly wasn't) that made recapping the first few seasons so much fun. The platitudes, the cows, the sweet, coppery-tasting anvils.