Arctic

'Arctic' does not represent the finest Smallville finale the show and its fans have ever seen, but it does enough to leave viewers intrigued as to how Season 8 will conclude what has been left in this episode.

Kara suspiciously persuades Lex to travel to the Arctic with the knowledge that the cube-like object created by Kryptonians will protect him. Clark discovers that BrainIAC was in fact personifying his cousin, and Kara is really trapped in the Phantom Zone, a place where he once occupied for a short while. Once BrainIAC sends his best friend Chloe into a comatose state, he makes a confrontation with perhaps his most difficult foe. However, a quickly-becoming greater foe in his former friend, Lex, discovers that the Traveler is in fact Clark.

Lex discovering that much of his father's love was diverted for Clark's sake, is an epic moment that comes at the end of the show. For the character's sake, it was good to see important elements come into play, story-wise: Lana's break up with him, once she has been freed from her comatose state; Lois' increased affections for him; and his willingness to step up for his friends who have been potentially ruined by one of his foe's actions.

The episode is full of special effects; it's obvious that the Smallville creative team saved much of their budget for this episode. However, it lacks the fire that all of the other Smallville finales have had, especially with the prior knowledge that Lex's portayer Michael Rosenbaum will not be around for the show's final season. That potentially causes some big problems, as far as the story resolution goes with regard to Clark and Lex's confrontation in the Fortress of Solitude.

It's been 7 seasons and I really think that the adult version of Clark Kent is even dumber than the teenager. Like most people, I respect that he doesn't want to kill anyone no matter how evil they are, but Clark just let things happen. Is he suicidal? Does he not care about his friends? Why does he keep waiting until the last possible moment to act on something?

This is by no means the best Smallville finale. In fact if I had to rank it, I'd say it's probably tied for the 2nd weakest finale with season 1, but still light years ahead of he awful season 8 finale. One real problem is that nothing truly exciting happens for 3/4 of the episode. A Smallville finale should be non stop excitement, with plenty of twists. There are virtually no twists in the entire episode, and as I already said, the excitement comes way too late in the episode to be satisfying.

There are some highlights here. Kara and Brainiac are used very effectively.. Also, while many people didn't like the way Lex was written out, I loved how his character developed up to this point, and the final scene between him and Clark was pleasantly subtle.

Unlike the season 8 finale, this episode I believe is partly excused for being a bit of a disappointment. For one, the writers strike did more than shorten the episode count from 22 to 20 this year. Nobody knew when it would end, so as a back up plan the producers had to plan on an early finale with "Veritas". By the time the writers strike had ended, they had already made some plans that had to be completely rearranged. I've already said before in my comments on "Veritas" that it feels like the finale would have been much better as one episode. If they had been able to plan a full season without any complications, and the scenes that made up in Veritas, Descent and Arctic were to have been combined, that would have made a fantastic finale. One also has to consider that this was the finale season for show creators Gough and Millar. It's clear they were either suffering from Smallville burnout or writers block, which can happen after 7 years on one project.

I don't want to make it seem like this was a terrible episode. As a mid season story, this would have worked very well. As a finale, it's hard to deny that it falls short.

By the time Smallville hit its seventh season on the WB/CW airwaves, it was clearly fatigued. All the characters had played out their arcs and were only marking time until an endgame, while even show creators Miles Miller & Al Gough were confirmed to be leaving upon season's end. Of course, Smallville was still an enormous hit so "the show would go on". All of this led to a season that radiated fatigue but also injected enough life here and there to remain watchable.

Like I said, the main issue with S7 is that every character arc is completely and utterly played out at this point...

Lana (Kristin Kreuk) has been ruined to irredeemable heights. Lois (Erica Durance) can't have a bigger role until Lana is fully out of the picture. Chloe (Allison Mack) has absolutely nothing going for her besides a meteor-freak angle and a soapy romance with Jimmy Olsen (Aaron Ashmore). Even Clark (Tom Welling) himself largely sits around and whines/mopes because everyone knows he should be wearing the "suit & S" by now but isn't because there is no series finale in sight.

Add all that up and you have characters that are utterly played out--not exactly ideal for TV drama. There are, however, three elements here that do liven up the proceedings from time to time:

First, the introduction of Kara Jor-El--Supergirl in layman's terms--(Laura Vandervoort). Equal parts beautiful and confident (in a way Clark is not, to be frank), this character is a welcome breath of fresh air. It also leads to some Kryptonian family backstory that doesn't really lead anywhere (like everything else in S7) but is fun.

Also, the episode "Descent" finally does turn Lex (Michael Rosenbaum) fully evil like his comics counterpart. This is truly a landmark episode and stands out even further in the midst of such otherwise average work. When Smallville is firing on all cylinders it requires strong Rosenbaum performances and that is certainly the case here.

Finally, the 2-3 episodes leading up to the finale--the Veritas angle--are fun in a Da Vinci Code mystery/chase sort of way. At very least, it gives the season a climax to build towards.

Sadly, the season finale "Arctic" once again is the paramount example of S7's laconic nature. After a decent lead-in, it takes that precious goodwill and instantly flushes it because it can't commit to an ending. This is easily the worst season finale for Smallville thus far for that exact reason.

All in all, Smallville's seventh season got caught in the middle of a great many events. It clearly needed to wrap up--but was never going to be cancelled by the network at such high ratings. It brings back some old favorites (like Sam Jones III as Pete Ross) and tries to advance the mythology--but again can't really capitalize on a farewell nature because the series would ultimately go three more seasons! Just as it was maybe finding some interesting angles--a writer's strike threw things off course for a bit.

I still hold that S7 is better than the out-and-out soap opera (5/10 star) sixth season--but not by much. Besides Supergirl, Veritas, and Lex's final turn, there are a lot of 3-6 star episodes present here. I consider this season to end the original vision of Smallville, and it's too bad it had to go out with such a whimper.

A lot of people say that season 7 of Smallville is the worst but I completely disagree. The season is definitely the best. It even beats season 3 on every level. The Bizzaro story arc was fantastic, Brainiac's return was done extremely well, Clark's cousin Kara was a great addition to the cast, Lex's defining and final journey to the Dark side was perfect and Clark starting to embrace his Kryptonian destiny was great to see. In terms of story, Season 7 had the most changing plots, least amount of filler and amazing character arcs. The season only had 2 filler episodes but otherwise, everything was fantastic. The entire show of Smallville was essentially buildup to Clark Kent and Lex Luthor's final confrontation and a moment when Lex looked into Clark's eyes and saw a hero that must be destroyed while Clark sees an enemy that will be willing to burn the world to get what he wants. The entire season of the show was great with so many spectacular and amazing episodes. Some great episodes include Episode 10 Defina (for concluding the Bizarro arc on an incredibly high note), Episode 12 Fracture (for showing the last bit of good left in Lex). Episode 14 Traveler (for bringing the amazing Veritas story arc), Episode 16 Descent (for concluding Lex's journey into darkness) and the season finale for being the best season finale the show had and will ever have. The season just had so much substance and story that it should've ended here. With Lex and Lionel leaving, the show will really take a hit. Lex is the bad guy of the story, that's just how it works. That's superman. At least for me this is where Smallville should have end. Smallville Season 7 has the most intense feel for bringing out the heavy artillery for the whole season building up to Clark and Lex's final confrontation. The season brings in Bizarro, terminates Brainiac, smashes Lana off the grid and ends the life of our beloved Lionel Luthor. Smallville Season 7 gets a 9.4/10.