I'd hate to see the show go on without Lex, but I think it could (for one more season... no more than that). I think it could easily go on without Lana, or Chloe either, for that matter (though AM isn't exactly a hot commodity in Hollywood, so I don't think there's much danger of her being gone much beyond the last few eps of S7, and her absence there could be pretty easily explained, especially since most of those eps haven't even been written yet at this point). Clark is already on board, as is Lionel, and I'm sure Kara and Jimmy, at least, would stick around (and I'm not hearing anything about Erica Durance being gone, so I'm guessing Lois would be on board as well). In a way, that would be in keeping with the flow of the series up to this point... i.e., gradually eliminating "Superboy" era characters (Pete Ross, the Kents, now conceivably Lana, and so on) and "phasing in" Superman era ones (Lois, Jimmy, Kara, et al). Maybe they'd recast Perry White and bring him on board as a regular! (Which I know would suck, because recasts always do, but come on... it was one episode. If they pick the right guy to carry the torch, we'll learn to live with it).

Worst case scenario... we get stuck with Clark, Lionel, Lois, Jimmy, and Kara (and maybe Lex part time) during Season 8. I don't think that would be the end of the world.

The world might not end, but all of my interest in the show would. I can't imagine enjoying the show when Clark only has minor secondary characters to support him.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=grMPS071ij0

Extended trailer of the one we've been seeing.

New Stuff: Chloe's line is said to Lana, in what it looks like the place Clark's being locked up

Jimmy VO: The World Needs a Hero Now more then ever

Hummer driving inside the barn

Lionel reads a note: Heed Our Warning, The Child of Krypton belongs to Versitas

Clark has the final line: "I hope I can live up to everyone's expectations."

It looks like Clark is falling off from the barn loft. Brainic is also in the barn.

The hands holding the gun looks like a woman's.

Cool, thanks for pointing that out joecr. Looks great.

So in that recent interview, Gough said that we'd never see Jor-El and that we should just imagine Terrence Stamp. That's pretty ridiculous... But I just had a thought. Maybe he was hinting that the AI really was damaged by some sort of Zod virus or something? (I'm totally grasping at this tiny, breaking straw for any sort of hint that Hal 2.0 isn't the real thing.)

I totally agree with this, if all 3 out of the 4 main characters leave Smallville, it just won't be the same anymore....

I think Al was just joking. We've seen Jor-El in Relic and even if they've forgotten about that, because S3 seems to slip their minds a lot, we had Lara in Blue mistake Clark initially for Jor-El, so it's canon that they look almost identical.

I agree. Unless he's actually really clever, and was trying to hint to those of us who think AI Jor-El is evil. Completely unlikely, I know. But like I said... Straws. Grasping. Hehe.

I don't think he's evil, he just has very little regard for the human element in his equations. He's all about the greater good, whereas Clark is all about saying to hell with the greater good and looking after his friends and family members. I think he has to find a midpoint between those two philosophies in order to make a satisfactory Superman.

I just want to know what his idea of the "greater good" is. He's all "Rule them with stregnth, Kal-El," and has seemed to want his son to be the alien overlord of Earth. But then at the same time, he kind of freaks when Zod or Zor-El want to do that same thing. Lionel, as Jor-El's oracle, says to Zor-El that Clark can make his own destiny, but Hal 2.0 seems to indicate the complete opposite. Jor-El was a pacifist (as we have been told over and over by Zod, Raya, Lara, etc) but AI Jor-El seems uber militant, with the kind of ideology of "greater good" and "acceptable loss" that a military man might have. AI Jor-El seems to have very little care for human life, but he does seem to want his son to handle certain threats to Earth. There's a really contradictory bent to the AI, and I think that it needs to be explained, whether or not the AI turns out to be infected/need reprogramming/whatever.

ITA

After rewatching Blue last night I picked up on something. Clark asks JorEl to help with Kara and JorEl refuses. Clark says that JorEl didn't alway used to be this way (implying he was different based on what his mother told him) and "what happened?". JorEl said that "that is not my mission", implying that he was programmed to get Clark trained into KalEL with a specific 'mission".

I think a few of us picked up on this in the Blue episode thread, too. It's definitely interesting and to me, indicates that yes, AlMiles know exactly what they're doing with the AI. Clark basically saying he knows the man Jor-El was not like the AI and the AI basically agreeing is a fairly big thing, imo, as far as the motivations of the AI goes. Now, what those motivations are and what AlMiles are ultimately trying to get at by having the AI be this way, I don't know, but I do expect we're going to get some measure of resolution out of it at some point.

I think the AI is programmed with Jor-El's memories, as well as a laundry list of things that Jor-El wanted Clark to accomplish (and probably some guidelines for how to go about preparing Clark for those tasks), but I suspect that a lot of his actual personality didn't really make the transfer.

That's an excellent summary of the many contradictions we've had with AI Jor-El. And yes, "Blue" did seem to explore the issue very briefly with that exchange between Clark and the AI. I hope we get some resolution, onscreen, at some point. But I'm not necessarily holding my breath. Time will tell.

The CW site finally put up the "Hero" preview that is really for Hero/Traveler/Veritas. It's listed as "Hero" and it says "Will Clark finally become the Hero everyone sees in him". Which means:

- the promo people don't really know what SV is about and just write crap that matches the title and buzz about the show
- this is the theme --- that Veritas sees him as a Hero
- someone in the promo department has wishful thinking


Which leads me to the following speculation regarding Hero -- under the double entendre tradition of titles I am presuming Pete looks like a Hero but realizes after all those years of Clark-envy that he doesn't want power while Clark (who is a closet hero) realizes that he needs to be more of a real hero because others are getting hurt when he doesn't step up. Just a thought.

That sounds pretty cool...wich means that it won't happen.

Someone mentioned a Stride/comic book promotion? What is that about?

Looks like some online thingy where viewers have the chance to do some sort of content for an SV comic. If details were given, I didn't catch them.

Craig, do you know what this 'contest' is all about?

New commercial for Stride/DC Comics/Comic Con and Hero is up.

http://svfan.com/content/view/856/28/

Pete does a wowza, arm stretch and gets another scene at the end holding a rose :) awww...

I see a comic version of Clark, Chloe, Kara, Jimmy, Pete and Lex? None of which (well Clark and Lex) look like the person playing them. Pete's streching looks funny.

Thank you for sharing.

I guess you make a story using them only? I guess we will find out next week.

Yeah, its more of an ad announcing a future ad lol. Personally I don't care about the contest, I'm happy about the new Pete clips.

From the spoilers thread...



I think that putting Lana in a coma is the best way to get rid of her for a few episodes. The whole "going to see Aunt Nell" thing is getting tired. It's possible that she might be able to return for a couple of episodes this season and that could be when she wakes up. From there, TPTB can set the table for whatever they want to do with her for next season. They could break Clana up or keep it going into season 8 until KK leaves the show, or should I say, if KK leaves the show.

I want her gone. Like, really gone. You just know if LanaInAComa happened that the last five episodes would revolve around that. Clark would be in the hospital every episode, all of the conversations would be about LanaInAComa, the show would be renamed LanaInAComa...

So, no coma for me. :) Just ship her off to Botswana or something.

A coma might be cliche, but it would work well enough. We don't know what is planned for the rest of the season, beyond a possible/probable return of Brainiac, so Lana in a coma might work really well. If Lana wakes up from a coma to find things have changed (however they are bound to change by the end of the season), I can see why she'd want to take a "time out" from SV too, thus paving the way for her partial absense next season, as her new contract info states.

Why, thank you, Freddy. :) They did seem to explore it briefly in "Blue" and I really hope that points toward further explanation. I'm not holding my breath either.

While I agree, I think that lack of personality does not make up for the extreme dichotomy between "conquer the world" and "save the world." JMO.

BTW, if Lana does get hit by a meteor I still have dibs on being the one that called it. Just saying... LOL

Hehe, I don't think any of us can forget that. So great, FreddyO.

LanaInAComaVille. That is hilarious to me for some reason!

I agree with Scry if Lana was in a coma, she would become the focus of the show as everyone would have to figure out how to help her. The only way to prevent her from being the center of all attention would be to ship her off someplace.

Not to mention the town lightning candles and letting roses at her door step while singing religious hymns for her health.
I'm pretty sure they rename her sleeping beauty (or Snow White as a token to her fans). So I too rather have her taking a post degree on art on Paris again. I mean Isabelle is dead already so there is no danger.
But again maybe with her damn eyes shuts people will realize she is not that great and abandon her on a storage room on the SV Medical Center.

From the spoilers thread...



You wouldn't be giving away the storyline, you would just be letting people know whether or not she is coming back this season. I mean, we found out months in advance that Brainiac was coming back. I don't see the big deal in saying anything about what actor/actress will be in what episode, unless there's a death and they don't want to spoil that.

Actually, I think this wouldn't happen at all. Do I think she'd still get mentioned? Sure, because she'd be coming back and we can't have the audience forgetting Lana still exists, but I don't really see how 5 or 4 or even one episode could be devoted to getting Lana out of a coma. It's not something that there's really much action to be taken against; it's a wait and see game and while they're waiting and seeing, Clark and Chloe and everyone else will have other things to deal with. That said, it's not my preferred option, but I do see how it could work given the soap opera nature of the show.

I don't think so because KK wouldn't be in any of these episodes. So Clark going to the hospital all of the time would be kind of ridiculous without showing Lana in the bed. I'm sure Lana would be talked about, but I don't see it being the focal point of any of the episodes. I believe that TPTB would need KK present in order to do that.

But isn't a Lana coma a non-issue? You know Chloe would just heal her.

So I can't see them going that route.

Unless Lana is expected to wake up from the coma on her own and it's just a matter of when. That might stop Chloe from using her power since there is a danger to Chloe everytime she uses it. Or, something else might get revealed about her power that would prohibit her from using it on Lana in some way. I know, I pulled all of that out of my ass but it sounded good to me while I was typing it.

Thanks for posting Jerseygrl! Wow, Yay Pete! I still soo excited that he's coming back!

Had to run the topic back to the spoiler thread because my spec was based on spoilers.... sorry.

I think it would be interesting if Chloe tries to save Lana, but Clark stops her, then Lana recovers on her own. That makes Lana mad (because Clark chooses Chloe over her) and she huffs off to Paris again.

Sounds good to me.

That would be too delicious to actually happen on this show.

We'll remember!

Why do I keep getting a vision of a pancaked Lana squeezing out from under a mountain-sized boulder, like Stride Stretchy GummyGirl, black smoke curling around her, hair the texture of scorched straw, face covered in soot, muttering "Where's the BDA when you need him?"

Speaking of Stride, I'll be d*amned if I didn't feel compelled to pick up a pack when I saw it at the supermarket checkout. Darned product placement.

Maybe Lana will decide she needs to open another branch of the Isis Foundation in another city or just go on an extended business trip for "research" or something.

Oh, that is really sappy. Perfect for Clana fans. Thanks DonnyMarie.

In response to atem's post. Supposedly Lana will write Clark a letter that ComicsLana wrote to ComicsClark. I don't know what the letter is about (maybe one of the comic book readers can help), but it's basically Lana telling Clark (via letter) that the world needs him more than she does. At the end of the letter ComicsLana writes "don't forget me" and ComicsClark replies "I won't." This was posted before KK's movie so it might not happen Who knows if the poster is reliable,. Supposedly that poster was, but you never know. So take with some salt.

I've heard nothing about a contest, so I really don't know anything beyond what's in this trailer...

Jumping back to Jor-El for a second... when was the last time we got any real solid indication that Jor-El actually wants Clark to take over the Earth? I know that's what the message inside the ship in "Rosetta" says, but I don't know if any of Jor-El's actual behavior (or even his direct statements) have ever backed that up. To me, it's always seemed as though Jor-El wants Clark to protect the people of Earth, mostly from various threats of Kryptonian origin (Zod, Brainiac, etc.), and that the ways he goes about trying to get Clark to do that are simply overbearing and unscrupulous, showing little regard for Clark's autonomy, or the lives of individual people, etc. Clark, on the other hand, feels obligated to try and clean up the messes of his fellow Kryptonians, and occasionally other superpowered individuals as well, but is mostly focused on

A) Trying to have a(s) normal (a) life (as possible), and

B) Protecting the people he personally cares about, as well as anyone who gets into a tight scrape while he happens to be standing nearby.

As I've said, I think his future development as Superman lies in trying to find a midpoint between those two extremes.

Actually, I think it is a lack of "reason" which prevents Clark from going further. Perhaps upcoming episodes will help.

From my perspective Clark not only refuses to be a conqueror but he's a bit afraid of being put in a position where he could be tricked or tempted to become a conqueror. He also (I think) shys away from being put into the position of "God" in terms of making life and death decisions. He can't be everywhere so by choosing to save one, he is choosing not to save another. He certainly doesn't mind helping random strangers but he's figured out that the power he has is mighty awesome and he's becoming more and more reluctant to use that power if he doesn't understand the consequences. In Fade, he helped out a guy who turned into a murderer. I think that sticks in his head. Still, he's not abandoned the notion of helping random strangers (ala Action) but he's not looking for trouble either. I think he's afraid of making the choices of who lives or dies so he just lets fate put them in his path and then he helps. Really, a person could go kind of nutty with the responsibility of "choosing' who to save. So... if Clark has no compelling reason that he should put himself in that position he probably is letting nature take it's course rather than be the one to choose.

All he's gotten from JorEl is "destiny" but not "why". Now if Clark had a good "why" he has to save the planet rather than let nature take it's course, I think he'd step up. Alien invasion -- Clark would be there. Why does JorEl think he has to save Earth? Is it because he thinks humans are too stupid to not kill themselves? Clark could probably argue that it's not for him to prevent humanity from being stupid. I'm hoping there is some better reason. I believe any suggestion that Clark has to do something that implies "because Kryptonians know better" or "Kryptonians are superior" will be an argument Clark rejects.

Which leads me to symbol. It's what Jonathon said after he died. Now if Clark wrapped his head around the notion that it is his (Clark's) job to set an example of truth, justice & the American Way, then I could see him possibly changing his stance on destiny. Not that his acts are just to save the world but by the good nature of his acts, he is influencing humanity to do better. It takes pressure off of "what" he is specifically doing and puts more emphasis on "how" he does something. He's still there for the big saves (alien invasion stuff) but it's less important if he can't save everyone but rather that he makes an effort to save many.

I don't know if this is the winning argument but JorEl needs a better one than "Do. Be.".

That would probably be Calling when the cave wall symbols changed to read "The day is coming when the last son will begin his quest to rule the third planet". I've often wondered if they didn't just drop that part of the storyline, because you're right; so far, the AI itself has indicated more of a desire to protect Earth, and as per Raya, Jor-El wanted Clark to help humans with no mention of doing so as a ruler of any kind.

It's possible it may come up later in the series, especially as we had almost the same words recently spoken by Zor-El in S7, in him wanting the four of them to "rule with strength" as a family. I think the AI explanation is still to come. They've dropped enough hints that the AI is behaving in a specific manner, and I believe we will eventually find out why.

I still think it would be somewhat possible to redeem the FoS AI and just blame most of the crazy sh## on the Ship AI and the Cave AI. They wouldn't have to be from the same source.

Unfortunately Clark getting frozen in Blue doesn't really work with this theory. That was so completely out of the blue and still makes no sense.

There is also the interaction between Clark and the fortress in Season 5:

AI: If you leave now, there will be consequences, but I won't tell you what they are.

Clark: Hmm. I seem to have lost my powers. And am now dead.

AI: Since I had to bring you back from the dead, someone close to you will die.

Clark: Hold on! I didn't ask to be brought back from the dead, you prick!

AI: Too bad. You should have thought of that before leaving with Chloe.

Me: WTF?

No matter whether the fortress wants Clark to rule the world or save it, it's a vindictive, abusive bastard. I just hope the show someday acknowledges that.

Maybe it's a Kryptonian translation problem. Maybe rule really means 'protect' and it's just awkwardly phrased/misinterpreted?