I don’t watch TV much, but I had the TV on a Smallville was on… What the heck is going on? Okay, there’s probably way too much to spoiler, so can someone just answer a few questions so I can at least follow the show a little bit:
Is Lionel a good guy now, or is he just pretending to be a good guy? The episode I saw, he seemed to be at least trying to be a good guy.
Who all knows about Clark’s powers?
When did Kara show up? And how did they figure out she’s Clark’s cousin?
They are deiberately vague on this, but he may have something important for Clark yet. On the otherhand, he also had Clark kidnapped and placed in a kryptonite cage some time ago.
He can do everything but fly as far as I know. There may be minor super powers that I’m not aware of.
Kara showed up in this seasons opener. She has been pretty common this season. They knew pretty quickly because she knew Jorel. Also her fathers avatar (or whatever you want to call it) has caused some trouble.
Chloe, several times now (guess who is a meteor freak.). Actually, I don’t have a real answer because I don’t think anyone has died recently. I assume you know Clarks dad is dead.
#2 is who knows about Clark’s powers. I figured that Chloe knows because they had some sort of conversation while they were talking about her new powers. Does Lana know?
Does Kara have the same avatar? And is Jor-El officially a good guy or a bad guy? In season’s past they kept it more ambiguous (at least the Kent family thought he was more a bad guy than a good guy). Was that clarified when Zod showed up?
For some odd reason, I keep watching this show. I blame meteor rocks…
Lionel’s affiliations varies. He’s “better” now than in the earlier seasons, still fundamentally a Luther, but trying to improve. He got infused with some of Jor-El’s knowlege (I can’t remember the details, I’m guessing a brain-beam in the cave), becoming the “Emissary”. But he’s also (told to us this season) involved with “Veritas”, a cabal of wealthy individuals who are looking for the “Traveler” (i.e. Clark) from another planet. The other people in Veritas were Dr. Swann (Christopher Reeve’s character, although he obviously hasn’t had any camera time this season), the parents of Oliver Queen (Green Arrow), and…someone else. Lionel seems to be trying to balance his responsibilities to Clark with his old club buddies coming out of the woodwork.
Let’s see. In chronological order, I think the people who are still alive who know Clark’s secret is:
Clark’s mom.
Pete Ross (has been gone for a while, but showed up for one episode this season).
Braniac (showed up in season 3 or 4)
Chloe.
The “Justice League”: Green Arrow, Aquaman, Cyborg, the “Flash” (although the character uses a different name due to real-world legal issues) and the Martian Manhunter.
Lionel (due to his mind-meld with Jor-El)
Kara
Lana
I might be missing some, but that should be a mostly complete list of regulars / guest stars.
Kara showed up “for real” this season. There was a fake Kara back at the end of season 2 (she showed up at the Kent farm naked, if that helps jog your memory), but she turned out to be just a regular human girl who had been caught in the first meteor swarm and brainwashed by Jor-El. The real Kara was sent to Earth at the same time as baby Clark, but crashed in the middle of a bunch of kryptonite, so has been stuck in suspended animation for the past 20-ish years. Her father (who showed up as some sort of clone) is Jor-El’s brother, so that explained how they’re cousins.
By “avatar” do you mean the S symbol? Yes, she does (on a bracelet, IIRC), since she’s also a member of the “House of El”.
Let’s see. Of the main characters, there’s Clark’s dad (already mentioned) who died of a heart attack. Mom is still working her political mojo (but hasn’t been seen for a while). Lois and Chloe both died, but came back (Chloe has a meteor power to heal people, but tends to put herself out if it’s major damage). Dr. Swann is dead (although they’ve had low and/or fuzzy shots of a man in wheelchair in flashbacks). A few characters have been introduced and killed (the clone of Lex’s kid brother Julian, Bizzaro Clark, Victim-of-the-week, etc).
Jor-El is…iffy. He isn’t presented as quite the bent-on-conquest type from the first few seasons. Clark does have the Fortress of Solitude up in the arctic, with a Jor-El computer-thing that let’s him talk to dad. Lately, things seem to be Clark wants to just be left alone, Jor-El talks about training or destiny, Clark storms off, but comes back when he needs information or technology from the fortress.
Edited to add: You can catch up on the recaps at TV Without Pity: http://www.televisionwithoutpity.com/show/smallville/recaps.php
or wikipedia (less in depth): Smallville - Wikipedia
So Kara was older when she got sent to Earth and has actual meories of Jor-El (well, the amnesia thing notwithstanding right now). And Jor-El is probably a good guy who just wants Clark to be Superman, but Clark is being all emo about it. Luther is fundamentally a bad guy, but his good guy potential may have been tweaked by Jor-El.
Cool. Thanks. How was Martian Manhunter portrayed? (Of what I saw last year of Braniac, Brainy seemed kind of weanie.)
The Manhunter’s still pretty vague. Actually, I don’t know if the character himself has given his name. Someone else referred to him as the “Martian Manhunter” (might’ve been Kara’s father, disparagingly). He introduced himself as “John Jones”, but that was in a mental illusion that Clark was trapped in by one of the Phantom Zone escapees. The illusion was trying to convince Clark that all of his “powers” were just a delusion and he actually lived in a mental asylum, and MM inserted himself in it as another patient.
He has always been shown as human (so no green skin), flies, his eyes glow red occasionally, and he’s been shown a couple times eating oreos. He worked on Krypton as kind of a cop, and knew Jor-El, Zod, Kara, and Kara’s father. Now that I think about it, he may not actually be involved in the “Justice League” (which is led by Green Arrow), but I think he did help out when they and Clark took down one of Lex’s “meteor freak” research labs.
Brainiac was a weenie at first but he’s gotten to be more of a bastard. What follows may not be exactly accurate but more or less is an overall of what has happened.
There was another Kryptonian that came to earth long before Clark landed. Turns out he was the guy who created Brainiac and when Brainiac went all evil he felt bad so he exiled himself to Earth to live a peaceful life. Eventually he put on a blue kryptonite wrist band to live as a normal human. Then he got married and had some puppies.
Well Brainiac is damaged for some reason and tricks Clark into finding the guy so he can get repaired. Clark finds him and they have this nice heart-to-heart talk about life and then Clark leaves. Brainiac shows up and tells the guy he needs to be repaired but the guy refuses and Brainiac tells him he just needs the information and sticks a finger in the guys head and downloads the info and killing the guy too. Now he is all better now.
Recently Brainiac took over Lana’s body and was making her hurt herself to get Kara to go somewhere with him. Clark tells her not to go but she decides to go and her and Brainiac fly up into space and then they zoom off away from Earth out into the darkness and once they are to far away to be seen there is a blue explosion and the episode ends. I think that is the last time we saw Kara or Brainiac.
Not to hijack this thread (at least not too much), but it seems to me that the Justice League from Smallville is ripe for being spun off into their own series. Has anyone heard any rumors about that happening?
Well, there was that “Aquaman” project that got kicked around a while back. I’d guess it depends hugely on how good Smallville’s ratings are when it ends, and the numbers have to be more than just comic-book fanboys, since there may be some concern about creating an expensive spin-off flop like Crusade was after Babylon V.
If a large part of Smallville’s audience is teenage girls and young women who’ve been following the Harlequinnish tragiromantic Clark/Lana stuff, how many are likely to migrate to an action show spin-off with a nearly all-male cast?
I had heard and hoped they were gonna do a Green Arrow series. That would rock. And then the big guy could show up on season enders.
Also? Tonight’s (4/17) episode was damn good. They needed to have it this good years ago. Lex is completely “You make me weak!” insane and evilnow, and it’s all falling into place.
And yes, I really think the Magnificent Bastard is really dead. I kept waiting for some cheat, but no dice.
Last nights episode was chock full of awesome. And screw the girls (yes please ) a Justice League spin-off would be great. I was tired of the Clark/Lana drama seasons ago although I like her now as her bad ass self. They should bring bad ass Lana into the Justice League spin-off then the show would totally kick ass.
See, I see Lionel as fundamentally a good guy actually. I think he is fully reformed, or close to it. I see the problem being that along with his new good intentions he has zero “good guy” tools at his disposal. All he knows is how to be a vicious, secretive, power-hungry megalomaniac. And this skill set makes it very hard for him to be seen as a good guy. As a hypothetical example, say you compared Chloe and Lionel in the following situation: A shadowy government type threatens to expose Clark’s secret. Chloe might break into the guys office, hack his computer, and destroy the evidence. Then she would inform the authorities of the horrible non-Clark stuff he was doing. And they would drag him off as he screamed “That kid IS an alien! I…had…proof…you have to believe me.” Whereas Lionel would have the guy’s car rigged with explosives and blow him up and then buy the company that made the man’s car as well as the explosive manufacturing company…and then blow them up.
So, really, two sides of the same coin. It is just both of them protecting Clark in the only way they know how.
