Season 5, Episode 21: Oracle

"Oracle"

Episode 21

Air Date: May 4th, 2006

Well, after the worst run of episodes the series has EVER had...well at least so far (Season 7 warning! -_-), we finally get some serious plot movement....and of course it comes right at the tail end of the season aka the penultimate episode.  Not gonna lie, Oracle isn't great at any means.  Because the writers spent most, if not all of the second half of the season, focused on gratuitous, nonsensical filler while the much more interesting Fine/spaceship stuff was pushed so far behind it was more of a footnote than an actual plot, the episode drones its viewers and fans with so much, TOO MUCH, exposition and explanation when the previous 5 episodes could have fleshed out everything that's thrown at us all at once during this episode.  Sheesh! The stuff with Fine and Lex teaming up to collect a multitude of virus to create the ultimate vaccine is beyond awesome but its so too little, too late even tho seeing James Masters back in full on villain mode was a treat as always.  I especially loved when he force his metallic blade on him as once again being mistaken for a Kryptonian.  But then it makes you wonder what exactly Fine is planning since he's double cross comes out of nowhere.  I seems he wanted Lex to be protected by the lethal virus that Fine is about to unleash on the world (Which comes out of nowhere as some diabolical master plan pulled out of then air! -_-)  as he injects him with the vaccine and destroys the rest of the vaccines.  Ok.....but what exactly is Fine's endgame here??? It apparently has to do with Zod and it goes unanswered even with the haunting ending of Lex's finger healing from a cut and Clark now understanding the kryptonian language again as Chloe has deciphered that Lionel's endless writing is a warning that "Zod is Coming!"

Yes, so it's finally explained what Lionel's deal is and it seems as Jor-El's vessel, he is receiving an onslaught of kryptonian messages left for Clark.  But why didn't Lionel tell Clark about this sooner and why want to contact him now when you've known about this weapon Fine and Lex have been working on for awhile???  A bit inexcusable, especially when he has been writing these messages since the last meteor shower aka a year ago! -_-  But it is cool seeing Lionel given a much more rewarding role again, not only is he a Luthorcorp business antagonist for Lex but now is Clark's oracle to warnings/messages about the impending doom that he must stop.  But why doesn't Clark go to Jor-El??? Why hasn't Jor-El contacted him directly like before and is using Lionel to send all of this cryptic messages to him??? I'm just saying an explanation would be helpful because even Tom saying clear of the Fortress makes no sense! We haven't even seen that set since Reckoning!!! Such an amazing, pivotal set and location in Clark's journey and it's already being terribly wasted because Clark is all about the farm and NOT his destiny.  Ewwwwwwww!!!

Also, while it was great to see John Schneider again, it's a shame he was used just to be fakeout to manipulate Martha and especially Clark again.  Seriously, how does Fine know so much about what's been going on in Clark's life??? Has he been spying on him since he was defeated the first time??? How does he know Lionel is Jor-El's oracle??? His connection to Jor-El??? Not to mention, why was Clark so quick to believe that was really his father when he could just use his x-ray vision to see throw Fine's guise to make sure he was legit??? -_- He just assumes that is his father because of his vision in Void in the afterlife. Sure that would kinda make sense....until Jonathan asks him to kill Lionel! No matter how much of a temper Jonathan had, he would NEVER kill anyone.  I though Clark and Martha would know him better but I guess their grief over losing him has seriously impaired their common sense and judgement.  The Kents just seem a bit to easy to fool when it comes to manipulation because of the whole humanity angle villains like Fine use against them but considering what they've been through the last 5 years they'd be more skeptical and not just go with ghost Jonathan's plight for murder. I mean my god, it takes Lionel having to convince Clark that his father would never ask him to kill when Fine is shouting as Jonathan to kill him right there! O_O  I mean........huh??? 

But whatever! I guess I should be glad this episode achieved something since I started by saying some good things about it??? That scene with Lionel confessing to Martha about seeing Jonathan the night he died was very telling and Lois giving Clark advice about Lana as well as love is one again a heartwarming foreshadowing of their eventual romance/destiny together...sigh.....  But anyway, the stage has been set for the finale even tho I'm not as excited about it as the last 4 seasons.  At least the last 4 finales had a MUCH better set up and build throughout the season, but Oracle feels a bit too lightswitch by throwing all this plot at you without giving you a time to really enjoy it.  A handful of scenes and the ambition behind Fine's final plan are great but unfortunately, there is still so much that needs to be answered that I feel the finale will rush through the answers just to give us a climatic ending.  We'll see.....

Final Kryptonite: B-