Season 10, Episode 1: Lazarus

"Lazarus"

Episode 1

Air Date: September 24th, 2010

Well....here we are the final season of Smalville! Hard to believe this show lasted a decade but then again, re-watching this show has reminded me why I fell in love with it the first place.  We have literally seen Clark grow up on this show from bumbling high school freshmen to a proto-Superman on the verge of finally attaining his destiny. :_)  I glad I could rediscover this show on Hulu and enjoy like I did literally 10 years when it aired its last episode. WOW.....:(  After such a stunning and wonderfully written finale that was Salvation, Lazarus picks up exactly where we left off as Clark has fallen to his death with that blue kryptonite knife still in him.  I'm guess since he's not human, that why he didn't go splat as soon as hit the ground??!! O_O  Anyway, I love the opening teaser with a grief stricken Lois running to Clark and trying to desperately wake him up while Clark awakes in a world between life and death. Jor-El comes out of nowhere as a tombstone for Clark appears in the middle of the corn field.  Jesus, Jor-El where have you been?!! Anyway, the AI is upset at Clark for letting him die to save the world when the greatest threat the world has ever seen is coming and it doesn't have it's savior.  Clark makes his argument dying to save the world and leaving a team of heroes behind to protect it. Jor-El isn't having it and is even willing to let Clark stay there and possibly die??? Jesus Jor-El, are pissed about the broken console and all those evil Kandorian clones coming in and out of the Fortress?! But besides Jor-El, Clark sees some crows as well as a blinding image of Lex.  Luckily, Lois is able to take the blue kryptonite out of him and gets out or the way to hide as Clark wakes up.  I just love this sequence of Lois watching Clark soaking up the yellow sun to heal and then speeding away.  Sooooooo epic and man does the show look amazing during this sequence. O_O

From there in typical Smallville premiere fashion, we catch up with the rest of the character after the cliffhangers they were stuck in as Chloe tracks down a mysterious group who has abducted Oliver while being at that satellite station. They happen to be the Suicide Squad led by Rick Flagg who seems to be a brutal character with a mission as he beats Oliver to a bloody mess. YIKES!!! Chloe trying to find his whereabouts uses the helmet of Nabu to find him (Jesus Chloe, you could have died! O_O.........good job! :)  Anyway, we get a fun bit with Lois, now knowing Clark's secret, helps him use his powers in secret by pretending to lose her pen.  The writers are already having fun with this dynamic and it works surprisingly well.  Makes you want Clark to know that she knows even more! Ewww!!! Meanwhile, Tess wakes up in Cadmus Labs (Nice! :), healed from her wounds and somehow still alive.  She soon discovers Cadmus is home to a collection of Lex clones reverse engineered to heal the real one.  Seriously, the Cadmus sequences are chilling, especially seeing the deformed clones in the glass tubes. She also runs into the littlest of the clones, a very young Alexander who is downright creepy! Not to mention, Tess accidentally lets out a much older clone of Lex that is purely psycho and burns the lab down.

Luckily, Chloe's near death experience with Nabu has shown her visions of the future; alerting Clark to Cadmus being burned down.  He arrives to see all the clones dead but finds Tess still alive. After explaining to him how she survived and ended up there, she delivers Lex's message to Clark while Lois is at the barn taking a look at the freakin' Superman suit! AHHHHHH!!! Just the sight of this alone is incredibly moving and emotional! It just looks so much better in technicolor Lois, I know! :_) Unfortunately, evil older Lex is there to knock her out (even in the last season! :P) and string her up like Clark was during the Pilot episode, painted S on her chest and all.  I have to say Mackenzie Gray does an uncanny job of mimicking Michael Rosenbaum's cadence and mannerisms as he truly feel like some older twisted version of Lex, especially during his scene where Clark meets up with him and pushes him over the edge that he nearly strangles him to death.  YIKES!!! From there, the premiere another Superman stylized sequence of Clark superspeeding to save both Lois from burned alive in the cornfield and the Daily Planet Globe falling off the building after an explosion set up by Lex.  There's nothing more awesome than this sequence right here and its definitely one of Clark's most heroic, Supermanly saves, especially as he catches the Daily Planet Globe and seemingly flies to the top of the building to put it back.  Everyone cheering and clapping just made it even more glorious.

But of course, things are too good to be true as Jor-El transports Clark and the suit to the Fortress.  Ehhhhh, Jor-El's A.I. really is the biggest head scratching plot device of the season.  Now Clark is overconfident and full of pride??? Darkness in his heart???  Did he just get so made he shook the Fortress!??? It's very out of nowhere but clearly Jor-El is testing Clark by giving up on him apparently and telling him he'll never be Earth's savior.  But one thing Smallville knows how to do just as well as bring Clark down, is bringing him up again as after a series of montages of Lois running to Africa in such pain of leaving Clark, Tess now adopting little Alexander apparently (That can't be good!) and Chloe trading herself for Oliver's freedom from the Suicide Squad, Clark confronts....his father Jonathan! Whether a delusional in Clark's mind to give him the strength to carry on or Jonathan's spirit visiting him to encourage his son, it's truly a phenomenally moving scene with John Schiender jumping back into the role seemingly better than ever! It's definitely one of the best scenes of the series and the dialogue between them is the best; reminding you appropriately of how the show start as a family dynamic that supported Clark's journey. But something dark is coming as Jonathan now point out and not just Jor-El, as we go back to the crow's nest where the console is to see a terrifying black mist forming into.....DARKSIED!??? O_O  And Martha's suit is in the Fortress, in cased in stone, saving it for Clark to earn by season's end to fulfill his destiny!!! Those showrunners just truly know how to set up a season and Lazarus is a strong contender for one of the best episodes of the series. The mixing of propelling the story forward AND bringing back old characters to remind of the show's roots for its final year is just plain heartwarming and remarkable no matter where the season goes from here. :)

Final Kryptonite: A