Smallville

[Tornado]

Sounds awesome. They must have really gotten through to Welling about his lack of interest in wearing the Super duds.

[MasterChief117]

Yeah, that sounds great. That January episode sounds like something out of a dream. I can't wait!

[FVD]

Thought the Crossfire episode was very good. Agreed the Talk Show aspect was a good laugh. And yes that moment we've all been waiting for put a smile to my face. Can't wait for more...

So Speedy is a chick huh? I ain't complaining. It's good that Oliver has something to work towards. It will be bad if something intimate comes between the two I suppose...

[Neverending]

Okay. Tornado. What's going on? I missed last week's episode. And tonight I intended to watch, but when I arrived home I took a nap and overslept. Luckily I fell asleep with the TV on, so when I awoke, Smallville, was on. So, what's going on with this Jor-El thing? I'm extremely confused. Give me a recap. Thank you.

[MasterChief117]

Tonights episode was okay. I was kinda disapointed at times, it got a bit better but not the episode I was looking for after Lois and Clark kissed. IDK, I wish it was a better episode. Maybe middle of the episodes of this year.

[Darth Maul]

Wonderful epiode tonight, I thought there were a lot of great moments and some things are now set in motion. Can't wait to see where they go from here, if I were to say the cash money moment, then it would be towards the end where clark has his moment with his padre.

[Tornado]

Originally Posted by Neverending

Okay. Tornado. What's going on? I missed last week's episode. And tonight I intended to watch, but when I arrived home I took a nap and overslept. Luckily I fell asleep with the TV on, so when I awoke, Smallville, was on. So, what's going on with this Jor-El thing? I'm extremely confused. Give me a recap. Thank you.

No problem bud.

It was revealed that, as some on here suspected/guessed at, the Kandorians on Earth are clones of their true selves who died on Krypton. Immediately before a battle set 20 years before the extinction of the planet, blood samples were taken of all of the Kandorians who later turned up on Earth. Jor-El later took those samples, one from Zod, and one from himself (which he was forced into doing by the same Council seen in Superman: The Movie - excellent reference) and put them in the Orb. He also used blue Kryptonite to remove the powers from the Kandorians' blood in the Orb, so that when they showed up on Earth they would remain powerless despite being under a yellow sun. The original bodies went on to live their lives and die on Krypton.

Jor-El made his way to Smallville to apparently check out some green-ish ring (which the importance of was not revealed during the episode), and found out from Chloe he had a son on the planet. Tess had her men storm the farm and capture Jor-El, who she then forced to wear the 'Blur' shirt to try and convince Zod that Jor-El is the Blur to take away suspicion from his son. Zod and his men captured Jor-El, beat him, and apparently inflicted some fatal wound that ultimately killed him in Clark's arms.

[Tornado]

KANDOR

Pros:

• Julian Sands as Jor-El; wasn't wild about the casting initially as he doesn't look a thing like Tom (and we know the two are supposed to greatly resemble each other as show in Season 3's Relic, but I thought he did a magnificent job
• Everything on Krypton was fantastic - Kandor's destruction, the Council and their judgment of Jor-El (awesome call-back to the film franchise), and Jor-El and Zod as the Orb was created - all great
• Callum Blue was once again given enough to show his acting chops; I couldn't imagine a better actor for Zod on the show over him
• Chloe and Tess actually factored into the story line!
• Loved the ending with Zod realizing who Clark is - anxious to see how/if it plays out in the next couple of weeks
• Really beautiful cinematography and FX this week, but that honestly isn't really a big change from weeks in the past; this season in general has been a big turn-around in my opinion in terms of those topics (I especially loved seeing the field adjacent to the Kent farm again)

Cons:

• Very Clark-lite, even though what we got was tremendous I would have liked to have seen more interaction between him and Jor-El
• No Lois - no real spot for her in the story, but I always miss her when she's gone

Overall I'd say it's definitely one of the better episodes of the season. I always end up eating these words so I hope the show proves me wrong this year, but Season 9 is in my opinion on pace to be the best of the bunch.

1. Rabid - A
2. Savior - A
3. Kandor - A
4. Metallo - A-
5. Crossfire - B+
6. Echo - B-
7. Roulette - C

[Spirited Away]

Agree with everything Tornado said, but would like to add:

- liked Clark and Oliver working together
- liked how it answered many questions, but also set up the rest of the season
- though I found the pace a bit too quick, ideally could have done with another episode with Jor-El
- found the bit where Clark pushes Tess a bit awkward, especially after this whole Rihanna/Chris Brown thing in the press

Hats off to the producers for introducing the green key; it makes perfect sense. The grey one enables teleportation, the green one enables time-travel.

[Tornado]

I'm curious to see what the function of the green key actually is.

[Spirited Away]

I genuinely think it's time-travel, and how Lois and Alia travelled back to 2009 in 'Saviour'.

And Smallville's ratings increased last night to 2.76M viewers, now making it the CW's third biggest series, and bigger than One Tree Hill, Gossip Girl, Supernatural, 90210 and Melrose Place. Despite being on a Friday.

Their plan obviously worked. Smallville is a bona fide hit. Season 10 is in the bag.

[Tornado]

Was anybody else a little annoyed with how much of the continuity was changed last night? I forgot to talk about it in my pros/cons list, but there were a lot of changes:

• Jor-El looked like he was in his 50's despite being on Earth five years beforehand (1966 here, 1961 in Season 3's Relic) and looking like Tom Welling, at most Jor-El should have been in his 30's
• The Stones of Power were apparently created in 1966 even though it was mentioned in Season 4 that people on Earth had been looking for them for centuries; the idea that Season 4 presented was that whoever made the drawings in the Kawatche caves also brought the Stones and hid them - not so according to Kandor
• Season 7's Quest made hints that the Orb had been around since World War II at least, even though we now know it was made in 1966
• If Kandor was destroyed exactly 20 years before the destruction of Krypton itself, then Clark would actually be 23 right now - not the 22 we have assumed him to be (his birthday is in May - in Season 7's Apocalypse, Lois took him out for a drink citing, "We're legal now," - he turned 21 right around that time) as that would have put his birth in 1986, or possibly before (instead of the 1987 we assumed it to be)

Part of me is a little frustrated with they've chosen to practically ignore all of the Native American/Kawatche stuff they chose to run with in the first half of the series, but their changes have been more in line with the Superman canon so I guess I'm not that irritated with it.

[MasterChief117]

Yeah, last night's episode was kinda annoying to me. I wasn't a big fan of it at all. I mean it was entertaining but not really the episode I was looking for after the Lois and Clark kiss. I did absolutely love Kandor's Mushroom cloud. That was epic as hell.

[Tornado]

Well, I still loved the episode but I just wish they'd pick a continuity and stick with it. This isn't the first time they've chosen to re-write several of the key aspects of the show.

[RingWraith2k4]

I am really enjoying this season so far. Tornado I agree with you that they should stick with a continuity more.
Personally though, I never did liked the "Kawatche Cave" stuff during the first half of the series. So it really doesn't bother me too much that they practically ignored it.

[Darth Maul]

Things are looking bright for the season so far..

[Neverending]

Originally Posted by Tornado

The original bodies went on to live their lives and die on Krypton.

Except for Zod whose in the Phantom Zone.

Jor-El made his way to Smallville

The clone, right?

Originally Posted by Spirited Away

making it the CW's third biggest series

We discussed ratings at the beginning of the season. Smallville used to be CW's #1 show. Now it's #3 under Vampire Diaries and Supernatural. So, the move to Friday was a downgrade.

[Tornado]

Originally Posted by Neverending

Except for Zod whose in the Phantom Zone.

Correct.

The clone, right?

Correct.

Originally Posted by RingWraith2k4

I am really enjoying this season so far. Tornado I agree with you that they should stick with a continuity more.
Personally though, I never did liked the "Kawatche Cave" stuff during the first half of the series. So it really doesn't bother me too much that they practically ignored it.

Oh, absolutely. The idea of a Native American story tying in with Superman always bothered me too, no doubt about it. But continuity changes, especially ones as big as those, always kind of bug me. For the record, I much prefer what they are doing now with the continuity over what they did though.

[Spirited Away]

Originally Posted by Tornado

Part of me is a little frustrated with they've chosen to practically ignore all of the Native American/Kawatche stuff they chose to run with in the first half of the series, but their changes have been more in line with the Superman canon so I guess I'm not that irritated with it.

They haven't ignored it. I think this is where the green key comes into play.

Also, you've assumed a year on Krypton is the same as a year on Earth. That probably not be the case at all, and as we already know, Clark and Kara didn't age in their vessels when they came to Earth. So Kryptonians know how to manipulate ageing.

The destruction of Krypton could have happened hundreds of years ago.

[Tornado]

Originally Posted by Spirited Away

They haven't ignored it. I think this is where the green key comes into play.

You're treating your theory as fact. Right now, where the show is currently standing, they're definitely ignoring it.

Also, you've assumed a year on Krypton is the same as a year on Earth. That probably not be the case at all, and as we already know, Clark and Kara didn't age in their vessels when they came to Earth. So Kryptonians know how to manipulate aging.

Well, Kara's aging wouldn't have been as dramatic as she wasn't a new-born when she was sent off, but Clark?





...



Care to try again pal?

The destruction of Krypton could have happened hundreds of years ago.

They said the destruction of Kandor occurred in 1966, twenty years before the destruction of Krypton and Kal-El's departure. In the film series, if I'm not mistaken, it was a 3-year journey for Kal-El in his ship from Krypton to Earth. He showed up on Earth in 1989. The timelines match up, it's the fact that they mis-portrayed Clark's age in the show. I think you're stretching bud.

[insaneMoViEgoer]

If you're using the movie for figuring out the timelines, Jor-El says "I will have been dead many thousands of your years" when he first speaks to Clark. So it is conceivable that all those things could have still happened in between the destruction of Kandor to the destruction of Krypton. But then again it is Smallville so they probably just retconned their own mythology again.

[Tornado]

I'm only using the movies to fill in the gaps where we don't have information (i.e., the distance between Krypton and Earth).

And actually, I mis-spoke. I just checked the episode again, it only says 20 years before the destruction of Krypton (I was under the impression it also gave a date of 1966). But, look at it this way - we know chunks of Season 3's Relic took place in 1961. In that episode we saw a young Jor-El in Smallville. At the end of the episode, he returned to Krypton. In Kandor, we saw an inexplicably much older Jor-El (in this case, the age differences don't really matter) despite it being presumably only a few years later. Personally, I think it's fair to make the assumption that time works at least somewhat similar on both Earth and Krypton. We know Jor-El's initial trip to Smallville was a rite of passage, and that he resembled his age at the time. Because he did resemble his actual age (in the way the people of Earth resemble their own ages), one could assume that Kryptonians on Krypton age about the same way we do. Why they cast a much older man to play Jor-El is beyond me, but he did a good job so I won't complain too much.

My point is that if a young-looking Jor-El managed to come to Earth in 1961, and then go back, age, and die an older man prior to Krypton's destruction in 1986-ish (our time), I think it makes total sense that time elapses the same on both planets. And in that regard, there is no way Krypton was destroyed hundreds of years ago. It had to be right around the time I think it was - 1986 - which would give Kal-El three years to age in his ship before crashing/landing in Smallville in 1989.

[Tornado]

I just had a bad flashback to debating the fabrics of time with Jibbs in the Lost thread. I think I need to go to bed.

[Neverending]

Jonathan Kent was on Curb tonight...having threesomes and what not.

[DaRkKnIgHtDeTeCtIvE]

I was a couple of Episodes behind,but finally I'm all caught up. I gotta say, I'm glad Smallville made it through all of the criticism (I've done my fair share in the past) and decided to try to get more in line w/ Superman cannon,because the result is the best season ever and finally one worthy of being based on Superman.
It still has it's own unique spin but as Clark matures you can see he's becoming more like the hero we all know and love. I hope that TV guide rumor pans out. If the suit looks good in season 10, it makes a possible big screen leap for this cast much more plausible. If Welling has possibly softened his stance about the suit maybe he's more open to playing Big Blue on the Big screen too.