Season 7, Episode 19: Quest

"Quest"

Episode 19

Air Date: May 8th, 2008

Sigh....The more the writers try to connect the dots with the cave walls, the 3 stones, Dr. Swan's mysterious death, etc to this massively unimaginative Veritas arc the more plotholes and annoying questions it makes you want to keep asking: So Jor-El sent this item to humanity in case Clark would turn evil and they would have to control him to stop him???  So Swan discovered these messages from Jor-El, especially about the whole controlling the Traveler thing??? Swan found this item and formed Veritas to protect it, but only told a select few about the clues to finding the weapon to control the Traveler....but the main priority of the group was protecting the Traveler???  Ummmmm....ok and now the writers bring up the Naman/Sageeth myth when Jimmy is trying to make sense out of Lex's harrowing attack that left his chest brutally wounded with kryptonian symbols craved into his chest.  I just love how Clark brushes it off when he knows the whole Naman/Sageeth stuff is true considering what he saw during Season 2 and 3, not to mention the cave having a place for the stones to be connected and being able to send him directly to the Fortress! -_- I just don't understand what the writers were trying to say or do with this arc??? It's constantly contradicting itself the further the story is embellished on.  Now you have Quest, the final piece of the larger than life puzzle that is the Traveler and the thing that can give someone the power to control him but it's treated like some DaVinci Code knock-off as Smallville's writers just can't help finding direct inspiration from Hollywood at the time.

So all of a sudden, Edward Teague is NOT dead and has been behind the cover up as Lex gets closer and closer to finding the weapon to control the Traveler.  Yes, he was the one who killed Gina (Whom Lex hasn't even mentioned since her death! -_-) and had someone attack him to leave a message for the Traveler on his chest.  The whole secret society angle of the Veritas storyline suddenly becomes this twisted cult as when Clark investigates a church in Montreal, Edward Teague turns out to be some batsh!t worshipper living in seclusion who had to sacrifice everything for his family and snaps when Clark is so reluctant to go after his destiny.  So what does he do??? Oh uses kryptonite out of nowhere (BECAUSE!) and performs some old Kryptonian ritual of sacrifice??? O_o  Ummmm did Jor-El tell Swan about that and he told the Veritas members???  It just doesn't make sense and where the hell did you get the kryptonite from???  Dude has a whole sanctuary of kryptonite holy water (At least that what it looks like!) and an alter for this stuff...BAH!!! -_-

Honestly, Lex is the only part of this story that is making sense or at least keeping me invested in this delusional crap about alien savior and the rich folk dying to make them their new religion.  At least there were aspects of the story that were engaging as well as intriguing from Lex murdering his attacker, the Veritas cryptographic piece that unravels the next piece of the puzzle to the actually clever revelation of Lex's mansion housing the weapon the whole time given his father shipped that mansion brick by brick to Smallville.  The end sequence does make for an awesome set up as the mysterious orb activates and reveals the location of Clark's Fortress.  Meh!!! Probably won't be that awesome if I remember correctly but this season has to end right???  Quest does its job well enough for a penultimate episode even for a story arc that is lazy and insufferably laughable at this point.  Mediocrity at its finest as usual for this show at this point. :(

Final Kryptonite: D+