Season 4, Episode 21: Forever

"Forever"

Episode 21

Air Date: May 11th, 2005

Welp, it's not only the penulitmate episode of the fourth season but the second to last of the high school years.  Honestly, I can't believe I'm at this point in the series but these high school seasons were definitely the highlight of the show aka the strongest run that had to do with the premise of the show.  The next six seasons would see the show fall hard into an abyss of mediocrity and embarrassment before returning back to form by redirecting the series back to being about Clark's journey toward becoming Superman during the last few seasons.  Then again, the last season of high school wasn't as great as the following three but I'll talk more about that in my recap review.  "Forever" actually makes sense in terms of a final plot for the high school years of Clark and his band of clueless friends (except Chloe actually! :P) since we have a meteor freak trying so desperately to not move on from high school that he would trap the yearbook's most likely candidates in an exact replica of Smallville High.  The set up for this story I have to say is extremely chilling, seeing Chloe just acting like it's a normal day of school when things seem highly unusual and realize that she and other students are trapped in a fake duplicate of the school they are about to graduate from.  Brandon is actually pretty creepy and gives Steven Grayhm gives a more than convincing performance (and looks oddly wax-like himself in the face...sorry! O_O)  But it's the turning people to wax part that isn't as impressive.  It just reeks of House of Wax ripping off, especially when that Paris Hilton remake aired the same year as this episode.  I'm just saying, these writers are some shameless cash cows! O_O

You can really tell it was so hard for the writers to find convincing antagonist for Clark to face on a weekly basis and episodes like this shows.  Outside of poor Haley getting killed after Brandon shatters her waxed out skull, he is so easily dispatched by Clark considering his massive range of powers and turning Clark into wax not only falls but some how reverses onto Brandon and kills him instead???! Ok.....O_O Sounds like they couldn't find a resolution for said story that's all.  Even Lois' involvement feels tacked on and I usually love when Lois and Clark are paired up to investigate together.  Anyway, I'm just going to go into the last of this atrocious stone search storyline as Jason has gone full henchman for his mom as they both capture the Luthor men and torture them for the damn stones.  Oh Lana is the chosen one??? Oh Lionel is manipulating Jason with his love for Lana??? Oh Genieveve is gonna go after Lana and convinces Jason to let her go since she chose Clark over him???  Sigh....at least it's always good to see Glover and Rosenbaum acting against each other, especially during that escape chase as Jason counters both men but they end up saving each other. Tho I wonder what Jason was gonna say to Lex before Lionel shot him??? Seems he knows more about Clark than any of them but maybe he was just babbling??? O_o

A nice heartwarming story tho is once again the Kent family, with this time Jonathan angry at Clark for wanting to go to Central Kansas for college when his future could be elsewhere.  I'm surprised the Kents are so gung ho about Clark leaving Smallville with his abilities in a new location and area without their guidance a little longer but it does feels natural considering all that Clark has witnessed and sacrificed because of his true origins, so being away from home to pursue college would be the best for him.  John Schiender once again is captivating and his scenes with Tom always make my eyes swell up even a bit.  Jonathan's plight for Clark not to stay on the farm like his father made him do was really a great choice to cause this type of dilemma and I'm just as proud of Martha for supporting his choice by trying to make Jonathan understand that Clark is growing up so they should let him make his own choices. Definitely a moment I didn't think I needed but was welcomed with the show moving forward beyond the confines of adolescence and a teenage education.  I graduated a year after this episode and I can't help but identify with Clark, Lana and Chloe leaving high school behind for the overwhelming opportunities of college as well as the unexpected challenges of young adulthood.  Of course the writers have to find a way for Lana to stay and Chloe to remark about it having to do with Clark but the last scene does wrap up four years of the small town high school adventures portion of the season as the finale is one hell of a leap forward in story and scope for the show! :)

Final Kryptonite: C-