Smallville: The Final "Salvation"

He flies!  Sort of.  He puts on the tights!  Kind of!  Perry White is the Editor in Chief of the Daily Planet!  In an off-screen sort of way.  The younger Jimmy Olsen works as a photographer!  Or, he will.  Lex Luthor's alive and running for president!  Somehow.  But wait, a plane is about to crash into the Daily Planet!

Look up in the sky!  Its' a bird!  It's a plane!  It's a...blurry...bluish...reflection under a CG plane...in the future.  In a dream.

Okay, so maybe Smallville's ninth season finale "Salvation" didn't exactly give us the Superman we've always wanted, but it's still the most explicit fan service the show's ever given, and all before the opening credits.  All of the key ingredients for Superman were there, if you're not bothered by the fact that a billionaire CEO the world believed dead for at least 2 years has a shot at the presidency. 

Although I wonder how many different ways we can cheat the "no flights, no tights" rule.  The fact that we didn't technically see Clark flying or the (presumed) costume his mother left him, rather only their reflections is pretty clever, but here's hoping the show-runners have the balls of steel to embrace the mythos full on in the tenth season.  I don't know if Smallville's ever ended a finale with "to be continued," in the past, but Clark's fall from the building definitely seems like a set-up for flight, particularly given his earlier line of embracing his destiny on Earth, which as I recall was the mental block he had against taking to the skies.

But that's how you know that a season finale delivers, when you've spent 267 words talking about the implications, without even scratching the plot.  A lot of fans find themselves left down by Smallville finales, as I recall the general outcry from Clark's all-too-brief fight with Doomsday and the cheap CGI.  "Salvation" definitely brings the epic scale "Doomsday" lacked, but those hoping for crazy superhero wars and computer generated spectacle will find themselves mostly disappointed.  Even the Justice League members reported to be returning only make brief cameos via video chat.  I particularly enjoyed their meaningful salutes to Clark for his decision to leave Earth, which were mostly invisible given their camera close-ups.

And even if Blue Kryptonite and the mysterious Book of Rao are mostly plot devices to take the Kandorians out of the equation and avoid using expensive super-powers, the final fight between Clark and Zod does deliver, as everyone knows the surefire way to raise the stakes is to include an arbitrary rainstorm.  The plot devices work within the context of the show, and the awesome sequences of Kandorians burning symbols into worldwide landmarks more than make up for the smaller-scale

On the other side of the drama, I've been hard on Tom Welling and Erica Durance in the past for their lack of chemistry as a couple.  "Salvation" was the first time I felt any real emotional connection between the two as they laid it all on the table in that ever-useful barn.  Or rather...I could see that Tom Welling was forcing the emotion a little too much, but you know what?  Close enough.  The reveal of his identity to Lois works very well too; no words, just shadows, a kiss, and a name.

But what of the future?  Tess didn't survive getting Two-Face'd (come on, you know you were thinking it), but who was that veiled old woman outside her room?  If indeed the rumors of season ten's trip to Apokolips are true, did we just glimpse Granny Goodness?  Could Ollie's attackers have been Para-Demons, if not Kandorians?  Are we going to the Darkseid?!

Fear not bitches, because SUPERMAN is here!!!

See?  He's that little blue thing, right there.  Riiiiiight there.