Smallville 8.22 “Doomsday” recap

Smallville episode 8.22 "Doomsday"
Airdate: May 14, 2009

Now I remember why I hate watching Smallville’s season enders. They are so tragic!

OK before I say anything else, you really must watch the finale, before reading on, since we’re going to talk spoilers here. We’d love to read your comments too, especially since something very unexpected happens in this final episode of season 8.

So… ready? Let’s talk about what (and who) went down.

First it was cool to see cameos from both Legionnaire and League, but they aren’t here for a party.

Cosmic Boy Rokk Krinn travels from the future to warn Clark that saving Chloe’s life changed the future completely. My guess is he’s living an alternate reality now that Chloe is alive when she should have died with Brainiac. Saving Chloe made things worse for the future – Doomsday is even more invulnerable, and Clark is dead. Or will die in the immediate future, like, uhm… tomorrow. Thanks for the warning, dude!

Maybe the Legionnaires believe Clark can still change the future, even though Cosmic Boy himself said “there is nothing now that will stop Doomsday from killing Clark”… else why warn the guy that he’s about to get axed, and was long dead as far as the Legionnaires are concerned. Rokk gives Clark another time-travel ring to send Doomsday to the future where Legionnaires can defeat him. But of course, Clark wants to take care of it himself.

So the next day at the Daily Planet, a melancholic Clark Kent writes his farewell note to the world. In walks Lois demanding why Clark is not looking for Chloe! She gets curious about what Clark’s doing so she sneaks to peek at the monitor and then yaks about Clark shutting himself away in his fortress. She really knows how to get under his skin, doesn’t she? I guess that’s part of the chemistry/tension between Clark and Lois. Clark swooshes away and as The Red-Blue Blur, calls Lois to appease her. He asks her to publish his farewell letter if anything happens to him. Lois asks that she must see him, and for him to meet her in a phone booth downtown. In that classic moment, Lois broke through the “impenetrable fortress” and she didn’t even realize it.

Meanwhile, Chloe and Davis are having their own nostalgic moment star-gazing in Edge City. As long as Chloe stays with Davis every second, they can probably afford to relax a little. Well, only a little, because Tess’ team has them on GPS.

At the Kent farm, Clark has called Dinah Lance (Black Canary) and Bart Allen (Impulse) to ask them for their help in trapping Doomsday miles under the Luthor. Oliver arrives and challenges Clark if he was willing to put more people in danger in case his plan fails. As Bart and Dinah are totally clueless about the tension between Clark and Oliver, Clark lets on that Oliver killed Lex Luthor and kicks him off their team! Wow, when did their roles reverse? Isn’t Green Arrow the headman here? I wonder if Smallville is painting a background for the animated Justice League about why Green Arrow has never warmed up the JLA. To say that this version of Clark and Oliver don’t see eye-to-eye is putting it mildly!

So, Green Arrow goes on his own and asks Jimmy to sneak into Tess Mercer’s computers. The photog goes to the Planet and of course, finds Lois already poking around. Tess’ encrypted files show where Chloe and Davis are hiding so Jimmy goes after them but a video then opens to reveal what Tess’ real plans are for “The Traveler” and Doomsday, and Lois saw it all.

Now at Tess Mercer’s office, someone with super-strength steals her Orb and she suspects it’s the nosy Miss Lane. Girl fight commences with some butt-kicking moves from both girls! I just wonder why Smallville does this only with their female characters… it’s always a lame match with the boys. The match “Lana vs. Tess” still wins hands down, but “Lois vs. Tess” isn’t so bad either, because bad-girl Tess gets knocked out! Oh, but a strange ring rolls out of Clark’s desk in the middle of the scuffle. And when Lois touched it, she vanished! Teleported! Time-traveled to some unknown time and place!

So where are we? Oh, Chloe and Davis get ambushed in Edge City and Clark gets there too late, to find Impulse and Canary behind it. Unfortunately, it’s Clark’s own ambush too. Oliver downs Clark with a kryptonite dart, and Canary apologizes that they can’t afford to lose Clark so they’re doing away with Davis before be turns into Doomsday. Finally, Jimmy gets to Edge City too, and finds a very weak Clark who asks his friend to pull the dart out. And then it all made sense in Jimmy’s eyes when Clark instantly heals and gets stronger! Wide-eyed, Jimmy finally meets the Red-Blue-Blur.

Chloe and an unconscious Davis are taken at a warehouse, where Oliver plan to kill Doomsday’s alter-ego. Davis was still unconscious when Chloe wakes up to plead for his life. Well, they should have killed Davis while he was knocked out! Because when he did, there was very little time except for Davis to agree with their plan since Doomsday is really beyond his, or Chloe’s soothing, control. Before Oliver can shoot him dead, Chloe gets hold of the black Kryptonite and separates Davis from the beast! And that was a very stupid thing to do, without Clark around! Now the monster is unleashed and wreaking havoc everywhere. Clark can barely do anything except be a ragdoll around Doomsday, but he musters all his foot power and flies/jumps with Doomsday into the Luthorcorp Geo Plant. BOOM!

On previous instructions from Clark, Jimmy brings Chloe and Davis to recover at this renovated tower, which turns out to be Jimmy’s wedding gift to Chloe! AWWW. It’s an old tower that overlooks that city, and that can be seen anywhere in Metropolis. This way, Chloe will always know he’s watching over her. Another awwww… Now that Jimmy confesses he knows Clark’s secret and he understands everything that Chloe did, the couple forgive each other and kiss. And then tragedy strikes again. Davis stabs Jimmy with a pipe, over-jealous with rage that Chloe lied to him all this time! She wasn’t in love with him after all, but only wanted to protect Clark. The “monster” is still alive after all. Davis is just about to kill Chloe when Jimmy rams Davis into a protruding metal. Jimmy Olsen dies in Chloe’s arms.

And we really need to pause here. Take a deep breath. And be stunned.

Jimmy Olsen died?! Smallville is messing with us, right? Jimmy Olsen can not die! He’s mythos…. Well, this Jimmy sure ain’t.

At Jimmy’s funeral, a widowed Chloe meets his father and younger brother for the first time. Oliver sheds a single tear. Lois and Clark are still missing. Chloe hands over Jimmy’s camera to the young kid and tells him she believes Jimmy would want him to have that…. So now it makes sense. Older Jimmy is Henry James Olsen. The younger brother, with his bowtie, must be the real Jimmy Olsen, and grow up to be known as the Jimmy Olsen who will work with an older Clark Kent.

A distraught Clark goes to Chloe’s new house and tells her to get rid of it. He blames himself for Jimmy’s death. Actually he blames his humanity for being so attached to humans that it cost him a friend’s life. He had forgotten that he is an alien after all. Chloe tells Clark it’s his humanity that makes him a hero, but that doesn’t move Clark. He vows that Clark Kent is dead, walks out of the room and vanishes into thin air.

But that’s not the end yet…

Tess is back at her mansion, and she wakes up to the Orb calling out to her. She rushes to where the light is coming from and sees a man! A letter “Z” is etched on the ground.

Zod.

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