Season 7 Recap Review

Season 7 (2007-2008)

Recap Review

Season Cast:

Tom Welling (Clark Kent)

Michael Rosenbaum (Lex Luthor)

Kristin Kreuk (Lana Lang)

Erica Durance (Lois Lane)

Allison Mack (Chloe Sullivan)

Aaron Ashmore (Jimmy Olsen)

Laura Vandervoort (Kara Kent/Zor-El)

John Glover (Lionel Luthor)

Oh boy.....It hurts when one of your favorite series growing up reaches a point where it feels like it's becoming clearly creatively vacant and seemingly jumps the proverbial shark because they've written themselves into a wall but keep trying to move through that wall as if it can progress. -_-  It renders itself not only stupid and irrationality contradicting, but seems more than self aware that the series isn't really going anywhere in terms of story, especially when it comes to its protagonist! That's this season in a nutshell and after Season 6 proved to be a needed step up from a very dire and depressing detour 5th season, Season 7 feels like a laughable as well as obvious dead end for the show.  Clark's story has become literally stagnant, with characters around him getting far better focus and character progression than he ever could.  In fact, Season 7 feels like an immense regression for Clark actually. He makes the worst decisions he's ever made, constantly making things worse and having to resolve problems.  He makes every effort to NOT be proactive and save anyone other than his loved ones by living contently on the farm with Lana (Of course!).  He even makes general statements of how much smarter other characters are from him and even literally walks away from his destiny visually and metaphorically when he is given a red cape in Action.  It's really a shame as the season seemed to start with the show finally going somewhere with Clark in Bizarro, an excellent premiere overall that sees Clark not only teaming up with Martian Man to defeat his evil clone with the stone face but realizing it maybe time to move on from the farm considering his alien lineage keeps knocking on his door.  In the following episode, he even tells Lois he is heading up North aka to start his training but when Clark actually goes to Jor-El at the end of the episode to start training, he rather warn Clark about Kara and babysit his potentially evil teenaged cousin instead of actually teaching him anything Superman related! Grrrrghhhh!!! -_-

But from there, the writers write Clark about as inept as he's EVER been on this show. From hiding Kara's crystal and releases a dangerous clone of his evil uncle just to see his mother....who is also just a clone so his clone can be with (Blue).  Honestly, the entirety of Blue is one of the worst displays of writing from this show, not just for Clark but multiple characters but we'll get to that.  Clark decides to spend his life blissfully on the farm with Lana and literally walks away from his destiny aka that red cape (Action).  Has to be trapped in the Fortress by Jor-El because of his mistake causing Kara to disappear, not to mention put the world in jeopardy! Lana, who's suppose to be the love of his life, sleeps with a demented evil version of him for OVER A MONTH and didn't even realize it wasn't him.  Sure, Clark is finally upset enough to question Lana and who she is....but by the end of Siren....."I don't want this to end"........MOTHER OF......!!!! O_O *Earthquakes fueled by pure rage*  But then, that isn't enough, the Veritas storyline rears its ugly head and Clark is not only completely uninterested in stopping Lex from controlling him but rather nurse Lana when she is rendered incapacitated by Brainiac.  He literally says he doesn't care about Lex and that Lana is the only thing that matters to him at the moment at the beginning of Sleeper.  At this point, how is Clark even considered a hero anymore?!!! This season was the worst of the character and it was clear the showrunners ran out of any inspiration to push Clark forward in his journey, so by season's end, his utter stupidity causes Lex to finally find out the truth about him and destroy the Fortress! WOW!!! There's nothing more to say as this was so reductive of the young superhero in training we've been following for 6 years now as he uses every excuse NOT to save the world, especially Lana being the only thing more important to him.  It's just sad and beyond laughable at this point.  Even the writers seemed self aware in certain scenes of dialogue that they knew Clark is an absolute lost cause because of his unrelenting fascination for this girl that can literally do no wrong.  Sigh.....speaking of her.....-_-

Let's just say when it comes to other characters, I'd say Lana after Clark, was the most idiotic, annoying character this season! But honestly, it's because of Clark and how EVERYONE makes her accountable for her actions except for Clark.  After her very dark journey becoming Lex's wife and being changed forever by his world, This season for Lana was about her paying the consequences for being so scorned and hurt by being with Lex by taking on a darker persona by spying on him, kidnapping Lionel to hold him hostage and not to mention, lying and hiding this all from Clark for her own personal vendetta against the Luthors.  And yet, when Clark finally finds out the truth about all of this after Lana has taken some of his powers, he handles it like its only a minor issue that can be looked over, not to mention, tries to take the blame for the person she has become.  WHAT!???  If that wasn't bad enough, Lana literally doesn't even recognize when Clark is really Bizarro while everyone else sees something is clearly wrong with him but she brushes it off like THEY don't know them as well as she does.  Mainly Chloe! Who eve says she's known Clark as a friend longer than her! -_- After Clark returns from being imprisoned in the Fortress and finds out Lana cheated on him, and yes, she cheated on him and openly said to his face, "I was happier" with the evil clone but she faces no consequences of it and Clark immediately takes her back.  Even her argument for doing so is heartless and so transparent.  When she's attacked by Brainiac and put under by him for the remainder of the season was the BEST decision for the character.  Then in the finale, she just breaks up with Clark and leaves.....SHE has to break up with Clark when it's Clark who has every right at this point to break up with her! Jesus Christ! Thank God this was the last season fro Kreuk as Lana but unfortunately, she returns next season for a handful of episodes to really wrap up her story on the show but.....Man, talk about over staying your welcome. O_o

Next I'll talk about the cousins! Chloe finally comes to terms with her meteor power this season when confronts the possibility of having it removed from her thanks to miracle work of surgeon Curtis Know (Cure).  Tho I found a bit transparent for Chloe to be so horrified of being a meteor freak because of Jimmy's reaction to meteor freaks because of HER, especially when her best friend is an alien and she sees him as this great hero no matter what, but nope! " I rather break up with Jimmy than tell him my secret!"  Haven't these characters realized by now that protecting other people aka hiding their secrets only make things worse.  Not to mention, Jimmy handles the truth perfectly fine during Gemini and the two remain perfectly fine.....well until Chloe is arrested by domestic security during the finale! O_O  Yikes!  Also, its the last season to see Chloe doing her reporter thing at the Daily Planet, which is a shame as her character kind has to find her place again in the world outside of her dream career but more on that next season and beyond.  As for our soon to be iconic reporter, Lois has a rouge season in terms of character, mostly because of the disturbing and forced romance of her and new editor Grant Gabriel.  Not only was their chemistry a non thing mostly, the fact that it was the catalyst for her getting her start at the Daily Planet was kind of insulting. O_o  Yeah, Grant mentions it was her work and him being attracted to her was just an unforeseen bonus, it still stems bad for her progression in becoming the Lois Lane of the comics we know.  Even Chloe has to remind her how said it is and even tho she doesn't care in the long run, it will hurt her reputation eventually.  Sigh....I'm not gonna talk about Grant until I get to Lex so......

Onto Aaron Ashmore's Jimmy Olsen, who becomes a full on member of the cast this season.  Jimmy is fair all around, even if the writers seemed to always put him in a position to look like a jerk and break Chloe's heart or once again not being able to handle Chloe's relationship with Clark.  Ewwwww, the whole putting him with Kara thing to make Chloe jealous and caused conflict in their relationship just makes you realize.....she's suppose to be 16 and he's 20 so......O_o  The best use of his character is when the writers just let Jimmy be Jimmy Olsen by teaming up with Lois during various story sub-plots like in Veritas and Descent when they are investigating both Lionel as well as Lex.  Speaking of Lionel, it's also John Glover's final year as a full cast member and Lionel's final arc on the show....sigh.....isn't exactly the best despite Glover giving it his natural all as a brilliant performer.  The whole secret society known as Veritas just brought up so many questions that don't make sense about how Lionel previously acted, especially not meeting Dr. Swan until Season 3 instead of this season establishing they had known each other for years cause of Veritas.  Also, Lionel was so determined to unravel the mystery of Clark, but NEVER mentioned anything about Veritas then.  It was because of his rare liver disease and him looking for a cure, NOT because he was secretly trying to find the identity of an alien savior sent to Earth that his secret society use to talk about protecting. GAH! -_-   Honestly, Lionel's importance this season was how it set up Lex's final transition into the world completely evil.   Let's be honest, Season 7 was Lex's season just as much as Season 3 was.  If there was one thing this season did right was making sure Lex's journey ended on a high note and came full circle.   I admit, I was worried about what the writers were going to do with him as the beginning of the season saw Lex going through some redemption/I've been saved phase because of Kara saving his life as well as forcing Lana to fake her death and find refuge in Shanghai.  But by Gemini, it's very clear that Lex is still heading down that dark road as he still can't escape his need for security and control by cloning his dead brother Julian aka Grant Gabriel! GASP! Honestly, Grant only serves the purpose to finally push Lex more over the edge in his journey as his tragic murder is just a way of covering up his inner turmoil of having some loving foundation in his life.  Once the Veritas storyline gets going, no matter how contrived or convoluted, Lex's part in it is certainly worth the watch; especially leading to the ultimate event to solidify his unwavering commitment to being the greatest of villains by killing Lionel to further track down the whereabouts of the Traveler.

Descent, the only real episode worthy of being classified as essential viewing for the show this season, ties up all the story lines that have led Lex up to this moment as well as his beginning clashing with the future Man of Steel as Clark is positioned to stop him by any means necessary now.  But unfortunately, Clark absolutely sucks this season and Lex manages to not only find the orb to control the Traveler but finds out the truth about Clark that he's been looking for the past 7 years.  It ends with a bittersweet end to the twos' journey from frienship, even brotherhood to sworn enemies in the greatest battle of good vs evil.  I'm gonna honestly miss Lex moving forward during the later years of the show but Michael Rosenbaum has given this character so much depth and meaning the first 7 years of the show that it feels right to end things with him here.  Especially when Clark in some seriously need of a character rejuvenation, NOT just development!  Is there even a point in talking about newest character in Kara Zor-El this season as Laura Vandervoort was seriously shafted for a character so marketed at the focal point of the series' progression in Season 7.  Kara isn't really a character, she's just serves the plot when needed and tossed aside every few episodes because two superpowered Kryptonians is clearly too much for this show to handle at the same time. -_- There's the whole blue crystal plot point that quickly divulges into the House of El nutfest in the horrendously written Blue and completely destroys the potential of a fascinating exploration of the House of El set up in Lara.  -_-  She then becomes some amnesiac blank slate that Lex manipulates until the writers need Kara to save Clark in Traveler and then immediately disappears to go time traveling the Brainiac one episode later for a couple of episodes.  By the end of the season, Kara isn't around anymore with Brainiac not surprisingly posing as her.  Nope! She's just off to the Phantom Zone cause of Brainy! That's it! That's her story! Whatever the came up with and then just wrote her off the show for a quick cliffhanger for the finale.  As for the finale itself, Arctic is no better than your average episode and is worth watching just for that climatic confrontation between Lex and Clark we've been waiting 7 years for.  But that's it!  There's literally nothing else to say about Season 7 besides it's the worst season as I remember it being with so much potential being wasted for plotlines that don't make sense.  Thankfully, the showrunners left after this season because the show needed a serious overhaul and thanks to next season, we got that....for the most part. lol -_-

"Entering its 7 year of small town adventures that depict a young Clark Kent's path to Superman legend reaches a dead end for the series in terms of intrigue and quality writing for this adaption of the DC comics leading man. Clark is at an ultimate low of common sense and motivation all season as soon as Lana returns from the grave and would rather play farm husband than going off to make true difference in the world.  The arrival of Supergirl is completely superfluous to the season as a whole despite the potential greatness that could have been had with another Kryptonian powerhouse as a member of the show.  From the missing crystal irrelevance to the House of El family drama atrocity to dead brothers in gross relationships to the utter absurdity of the Veritas storyline trying to make Clark's arrival on Earth into some sacred cult preparing for the coming of the infamous Traveler and protecting the weapon that can control him, the show was in a tale spin of mediocrity and meandering non-sense.  The 2007-2008 writers' strike may have effect the episode count overall, but it's clear the show had reached a level of tiresome and all momentum grinding an embarrassing halt." :(

Final Season Verdict: D