Speaking of Tess and Ollie... Anyone think we're going to get even more about Lex and Ollie's past? I think Ollie and Tess will be interacting a lot, and if so, it seems the perfect time to bring in some dark past that goes beyond what we saw in "Reunion" (It'll probably be a retcon, but I think it's a possibility).

Bob, you speak for me as well. He's not bumbling and dimwitted, or endearing. He's an idiot and I hope he stops being one, but I'm not holding my breath.

I don't think Jimmy is more hate-able than Lana for me (though he very easily can surpass her), but Lois definitely is. I'm not sure when it happened but it was solidified in Arctic. With Lana I might try to avoid her or end our friendship/relationship peacefully but Lois I'd just end up screaming "Leave me the fuck alone!" and I've never done that. Jimmy, I dislike him, but I always thought that he "means" to do good, he's just an idiot at/doesn't know the proper way to go about it. There's something in AA's performance that just makes me say "Oh, he's just a dope." But Lois, OTOH, just always comes across as a selfish bitch to me.

I hope not Eurybiia. Going more into Lex's past without Lex will just highlight his absence even more. If X-Files couldn't pull off Missing Mulder, I doubt this show can pull off Missing Lex.

Well I hope they develop Lois more. She literally needs to stay out of anyone's bed but her own this year just to prove she can. I'm sure they can have UST with DMT, angst w/ Ollie, or anvils with Clark -- but give an actual relationship a rest. It's a sign of maturity if you can start to wait for something special. Lois has always been a go-getter but she should be more reflective of her decisions in the guy department or really, Grant will look like a notch on the bedpost. Grant was a mistake. They had fun, they had attraction, he could have (but didn't) mentor her like My Girl Friday. That was such a missed opportunity! When he left she could have been a better reporter. But. Water. Bridge. Moving on.

I'd like to see Lois get a good story that she develops on her own with actual investigation. No ambush interviews, no tabloid techniques. Just research, running around digging up clues. I'd like Jimmy to be her partner on this and Clark to get her out of life-threatening trouble when he finds out she's in over her head. I'd like her to come to Chloe and talk over what she's doing and Chloe to give her advice. Yes, I'd rather they cooperate than compete. Lois is actually quite insecure and covers it with brass. I'd like her to increase her competency so she can have something to back up what she says rather than intuitive leaps based on good guesses. I'd like the story to be about Luthorcorp but NOT Lex (because I don't want to play "where's Lex" either). Really, Lois can be developed. If they just stop with the offensiveness of her character we could root for her more. I don't want to see Clark in the bullpen without any rationale and him supporting her that way. She should not lead him. I don't want to see her treating him like crap because she thinks she's better than him. This is not that show and it would change the SV feel way too much if it shifted gears like that. Lois is not superior to Clark in anyway on this SV and the fact that we know it and she doesn't does not make it funny, it makes it pathetic. Lois needs to raise her game so she is at least acceptable as competent reporter. Then she'd be on more equal footing with Clark in a post SV world. Further, a mature Lois and Clark works in other venues because Clark is his own reporter and is a competent Superman. He needs that accomplished first before a clueless Lois starts hassling him.

Keeping Lois at 13 episodes allows her IMO to develop in the background as a reporter without driving Clois down our throats. 22 episodes would have forced her storyline to the fore -- she's not ready. Stop using her character as comic relief and T&A. THAT is the number one reason she is not taken seriously on the show by me. She has potential, they waste it to increase the boob factor. Knock it off.

That might be a way that they could get Lex without having Michael back. That would be kind of cool... although, I think the High School Musical kid is a little busy these days, so that might mean they'd need another Young Lex.

See, that was my thought.

I'm of two minds about it. I'd really like to think that Oliver's deep and abiding hatred for Lex has something more concrete behind it than, "I tormented him for years, he snapped, and I watched him beat someone up." Like bringing back the school election storyline from S1, and showing what really happened. It's my fanwank that the opponant he used dirty tricks against was Oliver, and that would be a way of exploring Lex's "dark past" that we never really saw (I mean dark past in a dark way, not a sad, self-sacrificing or mental breakdown way). As it is, Oliver's all, "You don't know Lex like I do! I saw him beat up his friend at the age of sixteen, and may have never seen him since! He is clearly EVOL!" And I go, "Really? That's why you know Lex is evil? Really?"

However, like CTUN, I don't think they can pull it off. IA with the X-Files comparison, and that was a vastly superior show. Also, I know deep in my heart that instead of giving us a believable, emotional, good storyline, they'd pull something ridiculous out and wave it around as proof of Oliver's obvious heroism and Lex's inherent drakness (which would NOT fly with what we've seen of Lex as a boy). It would be a retcon instead of working in something actually believable, because they always do that.

So I think a really good story arc could be achieved. But they won't do it. So thus I would rather have no Lex, but I think they're going to do at least one more flashback. I just hope they cast someone as good as the other young Lexes, since IA with Craig, Lucas Grabeel is probably too busy.

Only speaking for myself, I have no real interest in exploring Lex's past with Oliver. Oliver's past is already superfluous and irrelevant enough to this show. I don't think they need to compound it by exploring his past with Lex, which they've already handled badly. The Oliver/Lex relationship isn't supposed to be that freaking important. The Clark/Lex relationship is supposed to be whats important. Its bad enough that they are probably already in the writers room deciding how they can siphon off storylines and give them to Oliver, I don't think giving him and Lex a deeper background story is going to help.

I'd like to see them keep Lex relevant to the story in the here and now, not in flashbacks. I think they can achieve that best by using the character of Tess, and possibly alluding to Lex's hand being involved in other unexplained happenings. That way, if they can talk MR back for an appearance (or, God willing, a few), he can slide right back into the story. Delving into his background with Oliver just seems to me, IMO, like an excuse to zoom in for a brooding close-up of JH.

I always hated that they gave Lex and Oliver "a past". Knowing each other in boarding school? Great. But going beyond that to create a rivalry/animosity just seemed like yet another thing that they should've been unique to Clark, and was handed off to another character. I have no doubt that shit will go on all season long with Oliver. JMHO

Yeah, I'm pretty sure that they don't care that Clark is the main character. I still don't understand why Oliver has to be in more than like two episodes; adding him to the cast is dumb (should have just given him a GA/BC show!). ITA with you, BadToad: he's superfluous and irrevalent. I add to that that he's a dick, but that's JMO.

Clark's been written so badly for so long now that I welcome the GA distraction. I have no interest in watching him achieve new levels of Mope, or his dealings with two characters, Tess and Doomtender/DMT/Bloomsday or whomever he is, that have no history or connection to any of the characters on the show. At least with GA, we know him, he's had interaction with almost every main character, and JH fits in easily and has charisma by the loads. SW I do like, but it's tough to say how his character will go over. Same with the Tess character.

Also, SV was always promoted as the story of Clark and Lex. Clark is only half of that equation. So it makes sense to me that even with MR gone, Lex can still sort of be around through flashbacks that will also allow for a tie-in with Oliver. For me, that's much more relevant to the story thus far than some random Lex groupie and a new bad guy.

If Clark had been written more compentently, or was allowed to actually enjoy himself for five minutes, or stopped being so nauseatingly self-deprecative and mopey, I'd be all for a final season that heavily focused on Clark and basically had every other character orbiting around his sun. But considering the history, the Clark that we've been shown is, I'm sorry to say, a great big ball of BORE. I wish it weren't so. And I know that it's not a popular opinion but that's really how I see it. Clearly, YMMV.

But you know what the answer to that problem is? Writing *better* for *Clark*, NOT providing distractions, IMO.

Of course. But then you have to believe that somewhere, in a small, locked safe, hidden beneath a copy of Writing for Dummies and Goughlar's memoirs of a very wrong kind of love, there are scripts featuring Alan Ball-calibur writing for Clark that the IIC choose to keep to themselves. That we're just being tortured with crappy writing for the hell of it. And I can't get on that train because I have come to the conclusion that the writers are not capable of giving us the kind of quality writing that the show deserves. Once in a while we're treated to some great stuff--but notice that it's almost always Lex or Lionel, or Chloe, that the good writing is saved for. It's really never for Clark. They have no idea how to write a competent, likeable protagonist because they seem to think that stalling him won't work if they do. Which is so ridiculous on so many levels.

So I agree that the writing should be better for Clark, but I don't think it's bad because there's some evol conspiracy against the character. It's just incompetence. However, other characters have been written well, so yes, I look forward to more of that because I find it a more realistic hope for S8.

I think both yes and no, Craig (admitting of course that I'm biased here). What I think they were intent to do was kill her dumb ass. Forces outside the show we watch onscreen from week to week are where I'm placing the blame at this point. If the show sets up the rules of the game in Action and then proceeds to reinforce the meta in every single episode she appears in, and then additionally provides her the evidence and the opportunity to get killed as we saw--she should've woke up dead before the finale, imo. YMMM, and you may interpret events differently, but I think they intended to turn her into worm meal. I never give a rat's hooty-pooty what Al may have stated, I think the show's narrative invariably tells a different story than what AlMiles have always shoveled out to an "eager to know" audience. I actually expect EDLois' storyline to vary to some some degree with the presence of yet another BF, but until I see onscreen evidence to the contrary, she's still dancing around out on the fringe searching for more info about Lex.

BadToad--this could still work to our advantage on some level, I think (if the writers develop a little brains and imagination.) The only way Oliver makes any sense to me BT is if Ollie's connection to Lex and investigating Lex's presumed death are what bring Ollie back to Smallville. In the wake of Lex's death, there should hopefully be enough for Oliver to use to retrace Lex's final activities and what he was working on at the time he disappeared. If that journey leads to knowledge of Veritas and Oliver's dad's involvement in it, then it has to lead to Lionel killing his parents along with discovering the Traveler. So, if Oliver's journey leads to him supporting Clark and ultimately learning the identity of the Traveler, it could still work, and it catches Oliver up to where we and the rest of the characters are at this point--nothing else makes sense to me. Oliver's Travels (trademark mine) are of absolutely no interest to me at all. He has no story to tell worth listening to that I haven't heard from him already, but if he takes a Lex-style journey that reveals the Traveler to him, then whatever, fine--he gets to have his personal journey, waste our time and discover what really happened to his parents and why. So, it could tie back to Clark in the end.

Eh, I totally agree that Oliver probably is going to learn about Clark's origins in S8. He probably will go on some Veritas spirit quest and learn the truth about the Traveler. I do think he should learn the truth about his parents' deaths. I fear more Veritas retcons, and I fear the rehash of one of the most compelling parts of S7 (Lex learning the truth) into something not as compelling. And I hate that Oliver would then take Lex's place in Clex, after he already (as BadToad said earlier) took Clark's place in it with the whole having a past thing.

I do hate the way all this Veritas stuff relates to Clark. He's not a character within it. This group of people are idolizing him, trying to kill him, or are killing for him, and we see so little of his actual point of view on it (beyond "I don't play God" stated in various ways) that Clark comes across as more of an object that anything else. It could be played for so much drama, but I doubt it will be.

I mean, Clark is their main character, right? How about seeing how he relates to things instead of how they all relate to him? Passivity is a bad thing. I'm frustrated with it, and I don't even like Clark.

Premiere title's up (thanks, Craig!). Anyone else think "Odyssey" refers to Clark trying to get home after the events of Arctic? Maybe he's been wandering around all summer, powerless or without memory (coz that's so new to this show, hehe).

Eurybia, actually I think it's an attempt to drive you personally insane. Just think of the classical allusions they will fail to make! Odysseus the original anti-hero, who vacillates about returning so he can shack up with divine floozies etc.

It seems the best basic interpretation, so yep. I do.

The first thing I really have to ask myself is if I can actually believe that PS3 have actually read The Odyssey. I can't seem to wrap my mind around that.

But assuming they did (maybe it was required reading when they were in school), the first thing that occured to me was Time Jump, since The Odyssey is about the journey home, and the many obstacles along the way, and also the nefarious goings on back home. Unless they are meaning to use the title as a harbinger of the entirety of S8.

Bottom line, these guys using any sort of comparison to classic literature just scares the bejeebes out of me. I think they should have "Keep It Simple Stupid" tatooed to the back of their hands, but thats JMHO

That was more or less what I was saying.


Yeah, it suggests to me that Clark won't be back in Smallville for a while. It makes sense if you think about it, usually there is a big bad that needs to be defeated, but Brainiac and Lex were offed in the finale.

And considering that Odysseus spent 7 years as the prisoner of Calypso,and then spent time with Circe on her island after she fell in love with him, I have to wonder if Clark's initial contacts won't be with Tess who inititally finds him, and keeps him from returning home.

Of course, I've actually read The Odyssey ;)

Oh I like that idea, because of course it fits in with the Lana meta.

Perhaps they watched the recent TV miniseries. But honestly, they make lots of classical allusions. Usually with Lex.

Hm, how about the FOS repairs itself, and his training is downloaded into him and voila, one odyessy into why his father was such a crackpot.

I don't want a time-jump. It works for shows like OTH, but for where people are currently, it doesn't work on this show.

That would fit usual SV MO, classical parallel or not. So I think it's actually likely. I mean, if Jimmy knew Lex was in the Arctic, I'd have to think Tess would, and given she appears to be the Lex stand-in, it makes sense that she'd be the one looking for him up there, only to find Clark instead.


They've done it before, though, and I think it would work perfectly here. There aren't any immediate threads to be picked up. Clark and Lex are missing. Chloe's in jail. Kara's in the PZ. Lana's skipped town. Lois and Jimmy are doing what they normally do. Those are all threads can be left at status quo for a few months, imo.

Maybe it will be sponsored by the Honda Odyssey.

And if not jumped over, the back home stuff can be handled in B Plot. Bad Toad, don't get too excited, but I think you might get to see your boy operate independantly. You know, for an episode or so before the reunion.

I think the complaint about the time jump is suddenly folks are supposed to be different characters. That would be years of time jump. But I doubt it will take Clark 20 years to come home, but maybe months. It could cover the "travel the world" requirement people get excited about.

I agree. There were time jumps between Vortex/Heat, Exodus/Exile and Covenant/Crusade. A 3 month one here could work as well, or maybe even a bit longer. The only situation that needs a resolution is Chloe in jail, but thats easily solveable with us finding out that Oliver has posted bail for her, and they are awaiting trial. That way Chloe can be officially exonerated, which I'm sure she will be, once Clark does return home.



Or maybe he'll discover that he enjoys using his own brain, and won't need a crutch. That would be lovely! :)

Or maybe he'll have to since his "brain" might still be detained by the DDS. (Why is it when I type that I think of the dentist?)

Or he'll come home and deal with the false suitors camping his kingdom. Yes, so many classical allusions that will go to waste.

I'm hoping he gets to poke a cyclops in the eye with a sharpened tree. That would be awesome.

Circe from "The Odyssey" was actually a recurring character in the Silver Age Supes comics. Maybe we'll see her on SV?

IA with all BadToad said above about Oliver.

But, hey! Maybe if they're saving up some "good writing," they're saving it not for Clark, but for LANA!! When she returns!! Remember back in S4 when they promised us a "New, Improved, More Spirited" Lana--and she lasted for all of one scene?!

And apparently she managed to convince herself she was someone else so she could get close to Wonder Woman. It could work with the amnesia thing. This just gets more and more silly. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Circe_%28comics%29
I'm really looking forward to Tess transforming folks into wild animals. Oh the fun we could have and probably never will.

No one forces Clark to bounce ideas off Chloe; and no one forces Clark to do as Chloe suggests either. I think talking to Chloe is the one thing Clark is getting right.

They probably saw the movie "O' Brother Where art Thou?' and thought "close enough" -- it had Clooney for Pete's sake -- isn't that artsy?

Actually, I'm kind of hoping it's a season long arc reference (like Crusade). There are great depths to plum and this IS the hero's journey so a good parallel can be made. But they don't need to seriously parallel everything. The Odyssey has enough things to touch on without a complete parallel. And we've still got Doomsday to contend with.


I was just thinking today: we should have titles by now. EP 2 should be out there too I would think.

Thankfully, the writers don't seem to want to pander to this train of thought. Or maybe they just don't think Clark is as stupid as everyone else does *shrugs*

They keep deepening the Chloe/Clark relationship, and having them investigate together as much as possible. You know, it's almost like it actually, really, for sure what the writers want Clark and Chloe to be doing on the show - working together, and supporting each other. It's like, what's the word, "important"...yeah, she's important to the show when they stick with her with Clark so much. Go figure those crazy writers ;)

It wouldn't be as much fun without Batman there to sing in order to save whoever's been transformed into a pig.

Maybe they could have Ollie do it.

Tennison, I have bad feeling that this joke will come to bite us in the ass.

Using classic literature in an episode title is very Lost-ian to me.

I like the idea of Clark taking 20 years to get home. Maybe he'll be grown up by then.

Good name for the last season's premier. I think there will be a timejump of 3 months as well.

Either Clark is bound/trapped in another dimension or Krytonian place of holding made for the Traveler should he become a threat for humanity and Clark has to go through trails/tests to get back to Earth, or he is powerless and alone as he travels around the world trying to find his way back to Smallville.

From Kryptonsite Spoilers:

[email="http://www.kryptonsite.com/smallvillespoilers.htm"]Tess and Doomtender[/email]



Ah! The first new Secret Word from PS3; "Mercer". I guess this is the Writers' way of letting us know that Tess is Lex Luthor's SMALLVILLE Mercy? She still could have originated from Lollipop Luthor! Why else would Lex hand-pick her to be Luthorcore's CEO? I hope we get to see Tess receiving a lot of mysterious phone calls. Clark would be too polite to eavesdrop in on her conversations to find out what she was really up to.

Hey, that would be a good way for Clark to discover his micro-vision; his attempting to read a text-message from a distance.

I really do prefer Doomtender as a paramedic. I think that opens his storyline up to more adventure than it would with him trapped behind a bar. Plus we've got to see Lois Lane making connections as an investigative reporter. Davis could introduce her to cops, doctors, lawyers, crack-heads.

Well and as a nice reversal to of Lex finding Chloe up there in Arrival.



I think that might be part of the point of the name, honestly. Part of it him being tempted by other women and using his brain to figure out how to get home, and then once he's there coming into and using it to save his family/rightful role in the story (which has been done by highlighting the waiting that his wife does the whole story). Of course if they are using it as the parallel her by having Chloe in jail and proposed to by Jimmy, then I do hope they address if she's still in jail why her General Uncle, Martha the Senator, and Oliver her semi-boss haven't helped her out and why. Assuming that she's still in jail and there is a time jump - I'm guessing there will be both.



Totally!

Sadly, I wasn't joking.

The title Odyssey hints at so much and could mean so little. Do we take it at only face value? Even just looking at the definitions of the word brings questions. Is this going to be a long series of wanderings or adventures, esp. when filled with notable experiences, hardships, etc or maybe An extended adventurous voyage or trip. or wll the journey be one for the mind like An intellectual or spiritual quest: an odyssey of discovery.?

If we take the title and try to dig up clues from the epic poem what do we get? The Odyssey is the tale of how Odysseus makes his way home to Penelope and his kingdom.

Is Clark Odysseus? Does that make Lana, Penelope, the long suffering and patient wife who is being besieged by rowdy suitors?

I wouldn't be surprised if they do go the Lana=Penelope route, but I can't help then wonder if we are supposed to think back to the Penelope character in Warrior Angle and I more associated her with Lois (as Penelope was the ultimate love of WA and LL is supposed to be the end all for Superman) So I wonder who Clark is trying to get home to? To add to the confusion, the only women in Clark's life who has any suitor or would need any saving right now is Chloe.

More fun comes from trying to figure out the possible adventures he could have on the way home. Like, what if the Sirens come into play? Does that mean that Lori Lemaris is on the horizon? Would Smallville actually spend any real time on Clarks journey back home and extend the action over multiple episodes?

Honestly, I don't think so. I think Odyssey is just TPTB way to say we are bringing Clark back home. Maybe they will throw in one hardship for him to overcome, but with our luck we will just get to be witness to his Lana hallucinations.

I think they might. Say 3 episodes tops. It could be a fast track to establishing Tess.

I want to make Lana = Calypso, a nymph that held Odysseus captive for seven years. I love the parallel.

I'm hoping that Odyssey is about Clark trying to find his way back home. However, I had the horrible thought that what if it's supposed to be about his journey of finding where Lana ran off to? I hope not...

By the way, I've recently been re-watching episodes from Season 3- Clark did so much of his own investigating and figuring out back then. He was computer savy and and could even out-sleuth Chloe sometimes. Sigh...If they kept Chloe in jail (or in hiding) for a little while, maybe Clark could start doing some investigating of his own again.

Also, if Tess randomly showed up in the Artic near the exploded FOS, I would hope that Clark would be suspicious since from everything we've seen so far, the FOS is a LONG way from civilization. Even the hospital that Clark took Chloe to "received their medicine by dog sled."

The writers could decide to show Clark investigating again whether Chloe is "in hiding"/"in jail"/at the DP/at home/at the farm. One doesn't preclude the other, imo.

Odyssey, basically means a Journey.

The problem is, unless Clark is powerless again, the journey from the FoS won't be all that exciting.

I wonder if Odyssey is meant to be taken in a meta aspect. Sort of like the reflection of the last 7 years to this moment, sort of like the final stretch of the journey.

Like a "How I got here" episode. To show this show will honor it's cannon...


However considering Clark and Chloe are the only S1 characters full time, I wouldn't doubt that the two of them gets the main focus in odyssey, like we see their journey up to now.

Well, if it were simply going to be Clark's journey home, then they'd probably have called the episode "Journey." So, I agree, there's some tie-in to The Odyssey there...but I think it may have more to do with Lex than Clark. In the poem, it takes Odysseus what, like a decade to get to Ithaca, where he's assumed dead? Maybe it's just a hint that the clock is starting on Lex's own journey home, which will be happening offscreen. Back in SV and Metropolis, though, everyone will be chomping at the bit to get at the Luthor fortune...and it will be up to those who come after Lex, like Tess, to keep control of the throne. Also, I'm thinking Tess Mercer/Telemachus...am I reaching on that? Or does this link actually exist in canon and I'm totally unaware?

Well they did set up the first half as the Iliad in Metamorphosis; now that Lex knows and the FOS is destroyed, perhaps Odyssey is meant to show in part it's the next chapter/book.



Just in time to bat away the pesky suitors that ate him out of house and home and get his family/birthright back. So I'm suspecting it will play off a bit like Zod where he's fighting to get back to the people he left.



Now that would be cool too (though he's lacking the annoying suitor issue, cause Tess is his chosen replacement) but harder for me to believe given that MR isn't returning. [I hope, hope, hope he will though.]



I can kind of see that, though it seems a more obvious Mercy/Tessmacher link. But it could be used doubly. That would definitely make Tess the Lexana Spawn though, wouldn't it?

Yes, sorry, I am going on the assumption that Tess Mercer=Tessmacher and wondering if in canon somewhere there's ever been a link between that character and the poem...probably not! Overanalyzation, for sure, on my part. I think there was some joking about Tess being the Lexana spawn or what have you, so I'll pretend that this is what I was going for all along.

I'm not anti-Chloe at all. I don't think she's a waste of screentime, etc... I just meant that if Chloe is unavailable to Clark, it would force him to do things on his own.

I am anti-helpless Clark. I guess that was my point. I want him to be more proactive.