Smallville - 2006.05.11 Season Ender (Spoliers Wecome)

[Hand of Evil]

-My reaction-

Nuff said..

is that a yawn or a yell?

 

[hafrogman]

is that a yawn or a yell?

I thought it was an add promoting the benefits of good dental hygeine.

Damn, I wish my teeth looked that good.

 

[Digital M@]

I had given up ont eh show a few seasons ago and caught a few episodes this year to be very pleasantly surprised, and this episode was no different. My only beef is those space prisons, don't seem to work very well. Superman gets himself caught and freed, so does Clark, and all of the baddies. They need to find a new prison.

 

[Tarrasque Wrangler]

Okay, my DVR cut out right as Lana and Lex were kissing on top of the Luthercorp building. What happened next?

 

[Crothian]

I believe the camera went up showing the world slowly going black as the virus spread taking out everything.

Why did Fine fly the airplane? With the virus taking out the ground areas, that plane was going to have severe problems landing anyway.

 

[Darthjaye]

Notice Jor-El said "we destroyed his body so he could not escape the Phantom Zone" and then pointed out he would need a host to do so. Clark should be able to get out easier than Zod by far. I did like most of it and you can see after his conversation with Lana how he doesn't end up with her in the end. She's a 100% right. He chose not to trust her and this is what he gets. Now he learns that trying to "protect" people too much can cost him just as well. I agree with most assesments here about the season and episode, he has really shown gullability and bad decision making in excess. Maybe next season is where he grows up. I sure hope they don't take Chole out of the show anytime soon.

 

[Morrus]

I also thought it was fan-frickin-tastic. Hand of Evil, what exactly are you looking for?

I don't know that Clark took "the high road," though. If a man is going to kill thousands of people unless I kill him first, and I have plenty of reason to believe it, all I see is weakness in letting him go on. I recognize that the general concept of killing X in order to save Y is a very nebulous, gray moral area, but I don't see any high road in refusing to kill one guy and therefore allowing the death of many, many others. Makes no sense to me at all.

Integrity is not its own virtue. I can swear to kill every baby I see and as long as I live up to my word and actually kill every single one, I'm acting with great integrity. I'm also wrong. Clark's "I will not kill" pledge does not make him a better person if he's positioned to save the lives of countless others. It is high time he re-examined how his ethics and the reality of his responsibility intersect. I know that Superman is well known for not being a killer (with a noted exception or two), but that's always been a bit of fantasy that spoils his character for me. There is such a thing as the greater good, and though it's a very dangerous and slippery slope to claim that you are acting in defense of it, that doesn't mean you're not.

You're watching a show about a guy who is stronger than a locomotive and faster than a speeding bullet. Extend it to the comics and movies, you're talking about a guy who can fly.

This sort of story is rooted in black and white morals. In this universe, there ISN'T a "greater good". In the four colour superhero universe, people who kill are bad guys. It's that simple.

If you're after stories about deep sociological and ethical issues, I'd suggest that comic books, and TV shows derived from them, are not your thing. They present a fictional universe of their own, with flying, laser-beam shooting people and absolute moral rules. You can't really agree with one and not the other.

I had given up ont eh show a few seasons ago and caught a few episodes this year to be very pleasantly surprised, and this episode was no different. My only beef is those space prisons, don't seem to work very well. Superman gets himself caught and freed, so does Clark, and all of the baddies. They need to find a new prison.

Heh. Is this now the third season in a row which has ended with Clark disappearing off somewhere? Once as a red-Kryptonite enabled rebel, once in some sort of white Jor-El induced cyberspace, and now in the Phantom Zone.

It's not a good cliifhanger. We all know he'll be out of the Phanton Zone first episode back. The only ludicrous thing is how mere earthlings like Chloe, Lana and Martha are going to do it. Some prison...

 

[Fast Learner]

You're watching a show about a guy who is stronger than a locomotive and faster than a speeding bullet. Extend it to the comics and movies, you're talking about a guy who can fly.

This sort of story is rooted in black and white morals. In this universe, there ISN'T a "greater good". In the four colour superhero universe, people who kill are bad guys. It's that simple.

If you're after stories about deep sociological and ethical issues, I'd suggest that comic books, and TV shows derived from them, are not your thing. They present a fictional universe of their own, with flying, laser-beam shooting people and absolute moral rules. You can't really agree with one and not the other.

No, that's simply not true.

First, the four color superhero universe is much more varied than that. 50 years ago? Sure. Even up through the paper fist rule of the Comics Code here in the US? Mostly. But today comics regularly take on topics like the greater good, and Marvel's been exploring the very grayness of morality for a solid 40 years.

But let's just look at Superman:

• 1985, Crisis on Infinite Earths, he kills Zod.
• 1986, Superman: Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow?, he kills Mxyzptlk.
• 1988, Superman #22, he kills three Kryptonians, Phantom Zone villains. Kills.
• 1991, Superman #75, he kills Doomsday.
• 2002, Justice League season 2 episode 37, Superman kills President Lex Luthor.
• 2003, Superman/Batman #14-#18, he kills Wonder Woman and others

On top of that, plenty of superheroes have killed people in the last couple of decades, and not just in alternate timelines (which those Superman #22 killing were not, btw). That pristine universe of black and white morality has been mercifully eroded and its super-simplistic viewpoint just isn't the default anymore. More common than not, certainly, but by no means "just the way things are."

Much more importantly, though, is that Smallville isn't in the four color superhero universe. Its angsty teen tales and its massive departures from canon are a different story. It's 2006, and examining the terrible failures of black and white morality has been hip for decades. This Clark Kent can absolutely struggle with the very real grayness of life, and act maturely.

Will the writers go there? Probably not. But that doesn't mean it has to go that way, that it's simply the way things are in a show based on a comic book character.

 

[Lord Pendragon]

I recognize that the general concept of killing X in order to save Y is a very nebulous, gray moral area, but I don't see any high road in refusing to kill one guy and therefore allowing the death of many, many others. Makes no sense to me at all.

If I can save a thousand people by cutting up one guy and distributing his body parts, it makes no sense to let that guy live, right?

Superman has always been about black and white morality. Superman is the big blue boy scout. He's the guy you can count on to make the right decision, rather than the pragmatic one. It's the reason he's the leader of the Justice League, and not Batman.

The examples you gave of Superman killing sadden me. I haven't read the stories you mention, and am thankful for that. Having Superman kill completely destroys the essence of the character, IMO.

Have you read the Kingdom Come graphic novel? It's an interesting commentary on the modern trend in comics of grittier heroes willing to cross further into questionable morality.

 

[Staffan]

Why did Fine fly the airplane? With the virus taking out the ground areas, that plane was going to have severe problems landing anyway.

Before they passed out, Lois mentioned that they should have landed by now, and hey, that's not the East Coast. Fine clearly has plans that require bringing them somewhere.

Also, my thought when Jor-El said to Clark that he had to use the krypto-knife to destroy "the vessel" was "Oh, you mean Fine's spaceship?"