Among the conventions of long-run television series are episodes featuring evil twins, period pieces, alternate realities, "very specials", etc... Could Smallville survive a musical episode??

I read somewhere that Allison Mack is an accomplished singer and dancer, and her musical-sounding voice had me imagining her delivering Chloe expositions in Song. :D Or I could see her fending off the threat of Lionel in a circling Dance around the tantalizing mystery that is BDA Clark Kent.

I know Annette O'Toole has serious musical gifts. I read she and her husband are writing a big-screen musical feature right now. I wonder what she would devise for Martha if tapped to write a musical scene for herself on Smallville.

A torch song involving Lionel, perhaps? Her secret dissatisfaction with life on the farm, with her asshat of an adopted alien son, the disappointing way Jonathan's charm and healthy work-ethic have become fossilized as bigoted platitude-spouting?

Or maybe just something funny about a plain-faced country girl being arrested for sluttishness...

It'd be twisted funny for Chloe to discover her talent and outshine Lana for once then decide that journalism kinda sucks because nobody loves you but everybody loves a song-and-dance.

In the future, Chloe's face then could be on Metropolis billboards as headliner of a traveling Broadway musical while Lana is scrubbing the floor of her latest beau's motor home. Clark can look out his office window at the billboard and sigh . . . a lot.

Yeahh...I like it, Mobius. :D The love angle as motivation makes a lot of sense, plus being way funny.

Torchy!Martha would be great, too, DE.... Hee, I bet she could make Lionel howl like a Tex Avery wolf...

Could they sing unoriginal songs? Cuz I'm picturing Lex (with a wig) or Lionel dancing around, singing Hair.

I had an idea just last night. Now all through the series, Jor-El has been made to appear as a massive dick. Every episode except Relic which seems contradictory to everything else we have seen of him. When you couple that with the identity the actor who has done Jor-El's voice, I believe that M&G are trying to tell us something. My theory isthe voice which we have been made to believe to belong to Jor-El is really Zod

You don't need to put speculations in spoiler tags. :)

The forumites have tossed that idea around, and I used to think it was the most logical explanation too. But now I just think Jor-El, much like Clark, started out as a nice guy and became a judgemental, domineering asshat as time went on. And picked up an English accent from watching BBC transmissions from earth.

I just had the thought. Maybe the "Warrior Princess" (what was her name again?) that Peeperella seems to be channeling actually IS Lana herself... I mean, with the magic mystical tattoo appearing out of nowhere, and the physical resemblance between the drawing and our own Lang-Fu expert Pink Ranger, is it too far fetched to hope that Lana might get sucked through a portal that will take her back in time, where she will be elected Warrior Pwintheth (you know, being the martial arts pro she's supposed to be?).

And then she'll be stuck there. Till she dies. And she will never be taking up any more precious screentime from characters that we actually give a damn about.... Maybe this warrior princess thing isn't so bad after all. It might just be what will free us from the pink plague! Wow, it's really hot in Cairo this time of day.

Thinking back on Dune, maybe Clark is some type of Kryptonian Kwisatz Haderach. Kryptonians and Earthlings mated through out the centuries, to produce the end product, Clark. but someone is afraid that Clark will be some asshat so they try to destroy Kal-el, but destroy Krypton itself, and Clark gets away.

So I hope that Al Miles doesn't try to crib from Dune.

Ten to one this new Kryptonian tatoo on Lana's back is going to be the Kryptonian word for "annoying whore". Ten to one this tatoo is going to get so much play this season and possably season four that I'm going to rip my eyes out so I don't have to see it anymore. I mean has anyone else cringed yet at the thought of how Clark is going to see this tatoo?
I'm betting we're going to have a very special momment where Lana and her new piece of wood, boyfriend, are at the beach and she's in a bikini and bamo "where did you get that tatoo from Lana it's uh...intresting". Somone just go ahead and put me out of my misery so I can avoid getting old and seeing this show go into free fall.

~Jez~

P.S. Oh in season five Pete comes back for a two ep guest spot as a Kryptonite rapper. His rhymes are so fresh and so green.

No need for that! Just do what I do: tequila on an IV. Makes the show so much better! Or come join us for a pint at the Deep Bitterness bar!

[whisper]You don't need to sign your posts around here...[/whisper] Welcome to the TWoP boards!

This is pure speculation; I had a dream last week about the assiness of Clark.

The dream was of AlMiles saying that Clark behaving like a twat was all part of the plan and it would be part of the reason for Lex to turn to the drak side. I actually woke up feeling better about the show as I thought I'd read it as actual spoilers.

I hardly ever remember my dreams so this is quite cool.

Yes, but that still won't solve the problem of how to get the viewers to see Lex as a villian. Right now, any actions that Lex takes in response to Clark's acting like a dingleberry are totally jusified, in my book. Clark is going to have to undergo a major 'tude adjustment in order to become likeable again, nevermind more likeable than Lex!

Could Swann possibly be Zod and Margot Kidder, Ursa? It was one of my first thoughts when Swann was introduced, but then I forgot about it. It didn't resurface until Kidder appeared. Whaddaya think?

I love you, TVjunky. :D

This show is all over the place. I don't even know how anyone can speculate. (Also, it occurred to me that the only thing missing from the last episode was the key.)

I think the writers get pieces of paper and write words on them: Key, Mionel, Platitudes, FOTW, etc... They put the papers into a lottery barrel and every week pull out a few. Whatever is on the papers, that's what goes into the episodes.

Aww. I love you too, Capn, my Capn!

sevenless, it does seem like a lottery! Sadly, I have a feeling that the best way of speculating is simply to write down what we WANT to see happening on the show, then figure that the exact opposite of what we want is what will happen. Pessimist, me? Never!

Christopher Reeve has gone to the great big Fortress of Solitude in the sky.

Rest in Peace Dr. Swann

We'll miss Christopher Reeves. Now what will be interesting to see is how the storyline plays out with Margot Kidder as Dr. Swann's rep.

I'm sure Dr. Swann will be 'at a meeting' for the next five years.

If they were smart, they'd go the Highlander route and work his death into a new plotline. Like Darius and the Watchers, SV could have a new unknown enemy that kills Swann and blows up his foundation, stealing all the secrets.

Nit, is that why they killed off Darius - because the actor died? If so, I didn't know that.

I'll admit that one of my first thoughts, upon reading the headlines of CR's untimely demise, was 'wow, it's a good thing they introduced Margot Kidder's character, so she can stand in for this plot line' -- although not as well as CR's excellent Dr. Swann character.

Werner Stocker died in May 1993, near the end of Highlander's first season. I didn't know that at the time. I was upset with Highlander about Darius' death and Tessa's but ultimately, the producers were not at fault. Stocker died and Alexandra Vandernoot quit the show on her own.

Still, the producers managed to make the show stronger after that, adding the Watchers and romantic interests for Duncan. My hopes for Smallville doing the same are pretty low.

When it finally comes out that Lana is dating the assistant coach, will she experience any fallout? Either from the relationship or from lying to people about it? Or will Lana be once again exonerated and get to play the wronged party? If Lana's really a changed person, then I'd like to see something like this:

Clark: You're dating the coach?!
Lana: We fell in love before he became the coach.
Clark: Yeah but now that he IS the coach, it's just... wrong!
Lana: You know what? I don't care. I'm crazy about him and I want to be with him no matter what the consequences are.
Clark: You lied to me. After all these years of complaining about MY lying.
Lana: Sometimes people need to keep secrets.
Clark: I never realized you were such a hypocrite.

But if she hasn't changed (except her new wardrobe colors) then I see it going like this:

Clark: You're dating the coach?!
Lana: We fell in love before he became the coach.
Clark: Yeah but now that he IS the coach, it's just... wrong!
Lana: You're just like everyone else in this town, Clark. Judging everything I do, expecting me to be perfect. You see why I had to keep it a secret, if my own FRIEND is passing judgement on me.
Clark: I apologize. Here, would you like to have a portion of my spine along with my balls?

I'd like to see her accept responsibility for her own actions instead of passing it off onto other people. I don't even particularly care to see her apologize because I'd kind of like to see Lana become more openly selfish, contradictory, and manipulative and for people to not think she's so perfect.

From S1's Reaper:



Hm. Could this have been the work of a jealous Kryptonian? Did Jor-El return to Earth briefly to experience the Disco era, as part of his mid-life crisis? Was Joyce from a branch of the Lang family? ;)

Or maybe it was witchcraft.

I hope that the next big Clex fight goes down like this:

Clark finds the mangled remains of Lex's jet (from the S4 premier) somewhere, perhaps in a hangar on the mansion grounds we've never seen. He angrily confronts Lex:

"You said the investigation was over!"

"Clark, it is. I promise."

"Then why do you have that jet?"

"Clark, are you admitting to being the one who broke in and stole from me at 20,000 feet?"

Lex gives him a steely look. Clark returns it with a confused "oh shit I just ate the last piece of pie and Mom told me to save it for dad!" look.

Lex then quietly orders Clark to get the hell out. "I trust you know your way out, Clark."

i actually heard a pretty good theory from rivka the other day. She suggested that in the end of this season, there probably will be some fantastic Chlark going on. And Clark will be in love and finaly give Chloe what is due. Maybe he'll have found his "right person" for him.

And then something happens to her. Either she dies or wakes up and decides she doesn't want to be with him--and he's crushed. This would explain why--in the movies, Lois and Clark are not exactly on speaking terms. How awkward would it be to know how much Clark loves Chloe--and how much Chloe loved Clark--and now Clark's right there on her doorstep, Chloe-free (for whatever reason).

edited because I am an html whore

Okay, I had a thought. You know how we've heard that something big is gonna happen with Chloe? And we've heard rumors that Clark will lose his virginity? I'm thinking maybe Chloe will *think* she's pregnant. That's when we'll find out that she actually did get alien-probed that night in the loft.

I doubt Clark and Chloe did it in the loft that night... otherwise Clark wouldn't have acted that way with her later. He's not that much of an asshat. But maybe the Chlark will happen later... and it better be on both sides.

Don't be too sure about that.

Here's a thought to make your blood run cold. You think AlMiles might be watching the success of Veronica Mars and Desperate Housewives and thinking "I know what we need. Give Lana voiceovers throughout the show."

Good one, nit... I laughed at the absurdity of it, and then I felt a chill of dread...

When I listened to KK speak on the backstage special, I thought of her voice and manner as a cross between that of a child and an old woman. I felt like I could already picture her as she'll be in her 70s, telling stories to the grandkids about her journeys and inexplicable rise to worldwide fame and acclaim, begun when two DOMOS caught sight of her.

Meanwhile -- Damn, a Chloe-narrated episode would Truly Rock...

I just can't picture Lana having much to say.

" It started on the day I wore my new sweater to school, I knew something was wrong when, I said 'Hi' to Clark and he just said 'Hi' back, not a word about how pretty I look or anything, I mean really... Then Chloe came running up and said something I didn't understand about meteor rocks and mutations and she wasn't even looking at me and I look so good in this new sweater, not even looking at me! then that geeky guy from chem class came out in the hallway and started yelling some complicated speach about how he felt invisible and noone ever pays attention to him and stuff like that, and I could relate because there have been a couple times when people have not payed attention to me and it was really upsetting, I mean I was there and people were not paying attention to me.

And...and...IT'S HAPPENING AGAIN! You see, just then geeky-guys face turned like all weird and crumpled up and stuff and he's not even pretty and he starts throwing stuff around and making holes in the walls, AND EVERYBODYS LOOKING AT HIM, they're turned around, they are not looking at me! WHY? WHY? I'm pretty dammit!! No meteor freak ever looked nearly as good in pink angora as I do! Why won't they look at me? Just cause prima-donna meteor freek guy just exploded all over the walls and left green goo everywhere.. (Now everything in the hallway is green and clashes with my new sweater, ick, why did this have to happen on the day I wore my new sweater? This was the worst day ever, for the next week all anyone could talk about was what happened to meteor guy and not about me at all. The last time I was so unhappy at high school was when we had something about world war two in history class about how millions and millions of people had died and I kind of understood that because my parents died and I was thinking about how lucky all those people were, because when they died it got put in the history books so people are still talking about them..."


Getting inside the pink mindset was easier than I expected, scary.

Hee, that was some mighty fine channeling, xinfinity. :D

And spooky, indeed. Adds to the ambience of the season, it does.

Ok this is how I speculate things may play out:

Lionel, having seen Clark the well-dressed misty angel in prison at the moment of his healing will come to think Clark is good. Perhaps even holy. He may try to protect Clark from his bad, bad son, even while trying to rebuild his relationship with Lex. Lex is all out of second chances, though. He was ready to accept his father's love, but then Lionel turned on him and attacked him in the prison. That door, to paraphrase Martha, is closed.

I speculate that Clark, remembering how awful prison was, will start to feel bad about Lionel being in there. Even though he was convicted of murder. Somehow, the Kents will be on Lionel's side and this will push Lex over the edge. It would also push ME over the edge.

Here's how I would want it to go if I were suddenly taking over for AlMiles:

Lionel sees himself as being touched by a higher power, and healed, true enough. But it leads him to an ever more magnificent bastardliness. That sense of "someone up there likes me" can be quite a rush. He's powerful! He's immortal! He can do anything!

I would also have him remember Clark's powers. I would have him be a huge and constant danger to the Kents. I would have Lex and Clark get really close as friends again before Lex, in an effort to protect the Kents, must kill Lionel. Clark can't condone murder no matter how dangerous someone is (because he's forgotten about all the people he's killed) and so turns his back on Lex. At the same time, Lex finds all the research Lionel's been hording on Clark and realizes what a danger Clark really is.

This will push Lex over the edge. He killed his father when all along his father was right about Clark. He killed his father for nothing. He vows to take up his father's fight against the dangerous alien! At any cost! It will look Evil to people who expect Lex to be evil by series end,and it will look (darkly) heroic to those of us who think Lex is the one who's been displaying heroism traits all these years.

WORD!! Thats probably WAY beter than how the writers are going to do it. They'll probably have Lana come between them to end their friendship or something completely gay like that.

But pearly no... gay would be good.
If Lana was the reason for "the rift" (southside-remix) that would be totally hetero. Nooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!

Cyb, wonderful idea. And sadly, angrily, I can just imagine Clark judging Lex for "judging" Lionel, even though Lionel killed his own parents and tried to kill Lex several times. It would be the Kent thing to do. Lex will be made the bad guy in all of this. I am all but certain there will eventually be a line from Clark to Lex along the lines of "Don't you think you're being too hard on him. Everyone deserves a second chance."

Only the Lana-wedge could be worse. And I'm thinking that's where AlMiles will actually go.

And it would be my exit from the fandom too.

I'd love for this to happen but I really doubt it would:

Clark finds out that Lex didn't get Jason fired after all. In fact, Jason, Lex, Lana and Clark are all in the same room when he finds out.

Clark: "Lex, you should apologize to Jason for getting him fired."

Jason: "Actually I told Quigley Down Under that I didn't get you to take a drug test after all. He went to Reynolds and I got fired."

Lana: "But why was everyone talking about you and me?"

Jason: "Probably because we were making out in the auditorium during orientation. On stage. In a spotlight."

Clark: "Lex, why did you let me think you'd gotten Jason fired?!"

Lex: "It's been so long since you've done any thinking at all, I thought your brain could use the exercise."

A Simple Dread: Jason and Chloe get bumped off, setting the stage for Lois and Lana to become the "Super-Rivals," constantly warring over Clark and competing for the wide-ranging attention their vanities require. Total embarrassing farce.

Oh Please NOOOOOOOO!!!!!!

Trev, I've been having that dread myself. And worse, I see Chloe and Jason both sacrificing themselves to protect Clark and Lana respectively. Lana and Lois can flirt with Clark at their funerals.

Actually, I don't see Chloe dying. I see her being locked away like her mom, so that she can still be a plot point whenever the writers need her.

Half-joking speculation on possible future episode titles and plots (no spoilers):

Revision
The all-flashback episode. Chloe is shown being still hung up on Clark so that the end of Facade doesn't come out of nowhere. Lex is being a manipulator who forces women to sleep with him, so that we see why Clark thinks he's so evil in Bound. Floor 33.1 is shown to be a storehouse for freaks and male models so that we're not left asking "wtf?" at the end of Jinx. Jason and Genvieve are shown scheming over how to screw over Lana so that Jason doesn't seem like such a pathetic tool. Clark is shown reading books without pictures so that his Princeton recruitment in Spell doesn't seem like the biggest joke of the series.

And in a flashback to the day the meteors hit, Lil'Lex regains consciousness and helps his father plot to force Bo to convince the Rosses to just give Lionel their factory and not make any money (thereby making it thef) to show why Lex should be considered evil by Bo from the beginning of the series.

I think I would throw a brick through my tv if that ever happened.

Personally, with all the Chloe/Clark spoilers coming through, I'm worried that TPTB will take the storyline from the comics where Clark tells Lana his secret and takes her flying on their prom night and use it with Chloe in place of Lana. I have this dread that Clark will have half-hearted romantic feelings for Chloe again, ask her to the damn prom, only to dump her for a summer in the Fortress of Solitude.

I have no worries. I KNOW it all can't go well for Chloe, and she's going to wind up getting screwed, AGAIN , by Clark, Lana, and her cousin, and not in a good way. But I won't be watching.

If Clark goes to Met U, will things change much for the show?

Will they have more scenes in "Metropolis", or will it still mostly be in Smallville, with Clark always just having returned from his Asshattery 101 class? In other words, will his college classes be just as offscreen as his highschool classes have been?

If they do shift more of the story to Metropolis (which I think would be a mistake but they don't ask my opinion), will the shift move away from FOTWs to more "normal" villains? Instead of mutants, will there be muggers and thugs? If so, what will the mutants back in Smallville do in Clark's absence? Go on vacation like they did in the summers of 2003 and 2004? Will Lex suddenly realize that having his main office be in Smallville makes it kind of hard to run his Metropolitan company and move?

Heh, we were wondering recently whether Lex has any legitimate reason to still live in Smallville or not.

Maybe while we weren't looking, he developed agoraphobia and can't leave the house. Or maybe he figures if he never leaves the house, it'll narrow down down the number of people who're trying to kill him. Maybe he's under house arrest for being Public Sex Enemy #1.

I seem to remember hearing a few comments to the effect that the characters would be split up. Clark would stay in Smallville with the farm, and some of the others would go to Metropolis. Smallville probably has some kind of junior college he can attend.

And since he still has no strongly developed interest in Journalism, I guess he can cruise another season or two, just getting his basic class requirements out of the way without focusing on a major.

Works for me. Clark can stay in Smallville and work on the farm. Lana and Jason can do...who the hell cares what. And Chloe, Lex, and maybe Lionel can move Metropolis (Chloe for school, Lex to take more control of LutherCorp and/or restart LexCorp). It'll make it easier to know when to fast-forward.

Speaking of which, I should probably take 15 minutes and watch Unsafe at some point.