I wonder if Chloe will revisit in her mind the Masked Marauder story. Wasn't she on the case that summer? Is there an online collection of those Verizon Wireless shorts?

An invulnerable, superstrong, superfast criminal who can make cars explode just by looking at them. Meanwhile -- Clark Kent, farmboy, living the high life in an improbable luxury apartment. "How could you Afford all this?" She should be able to hazzard a pretty strong guess now, in hindsight. (Aside from the reigning Rentboy theory.)

And how does That make her feel about Clark? She was already a little wary of him when she thought he was just human, what with his Jekyll / Hyde routines and pronounced Crack habit. I figure there could well be several more misunderstandings before Clark finally explains it all -- Red K, Jor-El, Transferrence Rocks, Asshattery, etc.

Heh, when Chloe asked Clark if he was going to go tear a vault open at the car dealership, I was of a mind to think Chloe was making a reference to Kal's break-in at LuthorCorp during his summer of sins.

Good questions, Trev. One of the things I've wondered since Recruit is: Why exactly does Chloe think Clark is destined for greater things? I mean, she knows he's done heroic things, true. But she also knows he's done some shady things, too. And if she connects the dots to the "Masked Marauder" summer of crime, will she still assume Clark is meant for good?

Why exactly does Chloe think Clark is destined for greater things?

Reasons why people in SV do the things they do and say the things they say:

(1) it's inappropriate foreshadowing
(2) because the script says so (I Am A Plot Device!)

Most times during season four when Clark (or someone else) is being stupid I can't even blame him directly because I'm too busy praying for a skyful of meteors to rain down on the writers' heads.

I'm really curious as to how the show will transition from a high school setting (even though Clark and friends hardly seem like high schoolers now) to a post high school one.

However it happens, I hope the show introduces some new characters -- Clark's new college friends -- next season; as well as getting rid of some current stale characters. This a chance for the show to make some needed changes.


I don't think it would necessarily be bad if the show were to shift to Metropolis. If Clark stays in Smallville in a local college or just slacking off on the farm, it would be more of the same of what the show is now (which isn't that good anymore). At this point in the series, it might be good to have Clark deal with the rough-and-tumble world of Metropolis rather than the teenage world of Smallville.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer did a good job of transitioning from high school to post high school. However, I don't know if Smallville will be able to pull it off as well.

Where does wanking end and speculation begin? If you combine them, is it spanking? Or wankulation?

Wankulation 1: Lionel and Genevieve (AKA Gertrude's "ancestor") are working together. Lionel sent Lana to China because he figures, she's the witch and she'll have better luck finding the stone than anyone else. And if not, she'll probably end up dead. Win win situation there. However, it turns out Jason is a free agent. He's not working with/for Lionel or his mom, and he isn't helping Lana, either. He wants Isabelle back full time because, frankly, she's more interesting than his girlfriend. Or maybe he thinks she can lead him to the other stones if he gives her this one. Who cares?

Wankulation 2: Jason gave Lana a fake stone. He gave the real one to either Geneveive or Lionel, or he's keeping it for himself. Because he wants the ancient storehouse of alien cookie recipes for himself.

Wankulation 3: Jason actually is stupid enough to give the real stone to an evil witch because he thinks Lana is so pure and perfect that she'll triumph in the end.

Wankulation 4: Everyone is double crossing everyone, everyone has at least two agendas, and they're all going to end up shooting themselves in the ass.

Finally. Something to do with Lana that I'm very, very slightly interested in. I'm much more interested in how Chloe chooses her clothes for the day, or what kind of cereal Lex eats, but by Lana standards, this is pretty interesting.

I'm talking about her hiding that stone in the drain pipe.

This is what I hope is going on: Lana (not Isabelle) has decided she wants that power and knowledge for herself. She's like Smeagol only I guess for her it's more like... Smeacret. So Smeacret wants the stones for herself and hid the one Jason gave her, then staged the break-in so that he'd think someone had really stolen it. She's out for herself and screw anyone who gets between her and the Preciousss.

But I fear there'll end up being some Good and Pure motive behind it. Either she doesn't want the stone coming between her and Jason, so she decided to pretend it was stolen, or she feels like she can't trust Jason with it because he's descended from Gertude, so she decided to pretend it was stolen. I feel these are more likely than my first speculation, but that's the one I prefer.

Should we start taking bets? What do you think the odds are of the following things happening before season's end?

• Chloe will have an onscreen reaction to (or realization of) Lionel's freedom.
• Chloe and Lex will speak to each other even once.
• An explanation will be given as to why Jerelle is a changed (dead) man.
• We'll find out what's been going on at level 33.1 in the Luthorcorp bldg.
• Clark will run away from home in some way.
• Lana will be declared supreme ruler of the universe.

My bets:

Chloe will say something in passing that makes it obvious she's known all along about Lionel being a free man and allude to being scared or freaking out entirely offscreen. Example: "Graduation scares me more than finding out Lionel Luthor got out of jail." Chloe and Lex will not speak this season, at all, or if they do it won't be about the things that happened last year. No explanation will be given as to why Jerelle is suddenly Mr. Nice. We'll find out about level 33.1 much like we found out about the CoCK last season, meaning it'll be nearly forgotten and then sprung on us at the last moment with little or no build up. Clark has run away from home in the past 2 season finales (and once to get married this season) so I think odds are good he'll do it again.

I think the last one is a given.

A given? It already started in season 2!!!!!!

Well, the worshipping started back then. But an official declaration hasn't been made yet. I'm picturing the Talon being bulldozed and replaced with temple, people putting on black and pink robes, and dubbing themselves Lanites. That kind of thing.

*sigh* I could have a fine laugh over such things, if they weren't so damn close to becoming the truth.

Oh my god, I was thinking...you know what might happen? At some point Chloe will get killed, and as she's dying she'll reveal Clark's secret to Lois, and she'll ask Lois to take care of Clark.

It would be an easy way for the writers to wrap up some loose ends, plus explain what makes Clark driven to become Superman.

Oh, I so hope this doesn't happen.

That would be horrible! And yet...wouldn't shock me at all.

Chloe: Lois... you have to take care... of Clark... and his secret. And as my last... bit of advice... I'll tell you... Start coming up with excuses for broken doors now.

I've always believed that they would kill Chloe at the end of the show..I only wish that the would have let the CHlex play out a bit.. That could have been a catalyst for the break up of the friendship between Clex...

I've read in interviews that Clark can only fly as Kal-el or when he gets mad(at some point they were suppossed to get into this), and I always thought that a cool way to end the show would be to have Chloe or his father die, and the anger allows him the ability to fly for the first time as Clark, in some massive air battle with a CAVE-INDUCED powerful Lex, and it was all courtesy of one Jor-El

One can dream!!!

It would be one helluva way to end the show, since they can't show him in the costume,would have been nice to see him on top of the Daily Planet, looking at the camera winking and then taking off ala the Superman movies with the theme playing...Damn think I smoked a bit too much today...

Speculation for the season finale...

Clark and Isabelle face off... on the football field!

It'll combine the two major stories of the season: Sports and supernatural tattoos! Isabelle can throw pink glowing magical footballs at Clark. In turn, he can hurl her through the goal posts!

Great post Cyb..LMAO for about 5 minutes..Classic!!!

Just think of it. Football combined with wire-fu! Isabelle can do her patented "Satin Tornado" twirl as part of her touchdown dance. They can even each have special uniforms. Clark in red and blue, of course, and Isabelle in something black and backless. She can chant sporty spells in Latin.

Now I'm just setting myself up for disappointment.

So, do you suppose any missing characters will show up for the Graduation episode? Principal Reynolds? Aunt Nell? Grandfather Clark? The Cropduster? The Sniper? I wonder if they will even bother. That is, if they can even remember... :( AlMiles: "Who?"

Considering Lana was looking into filing for Emancipation to avoid moving to Metropolis, I guess it's not any more outlandish to wank that she wouldn't even invite the woman who raised her to attend her graduation. How about Henry Small? Probably not, he might take it as a signal and become all creepy-obsessive over her again.

Hee, using a swift Kick to score the Field Goal as time runs out. Lana tumbles end over end, straight down the center, and...

Clark: Woo-hoo! Game-Winnah!

Clark shouts in triumph and superspeeds away. Lana wakes up to confusion, barely able to move, her swollen buttocks ablaze with agony. Blinking back tears, she notices the scoreboard --

Aliens: 17
Spirits: 14

And so Lana reverts back to her normal pink, tattoo-free self, except for being unable to sit down for the next month. And Clark, naturally, remains his usual evasive self about what happened to her butt that day.

Lana: Well, I hope you get an A on that term-paper, Clark.
Clark: Thanks.

Clark turns and walks away before he can lose control and bust out laughing. A small snicker escapes and Lana scowls after him. She measures the bruise across her butt and finds that the shoe size matches Clark's.

She then decides to study forensics in college and become a CSI, because she can't stand when people keep secrets from her, even complete strangers who are dead.

Clark: Hey Lois, we need to --- wait a minute, I'm being paged. (Looks at pager and reads aloud.) It's a text message through Verizon, who "never stops working for you." Clark, Chloe's been killed. The funeral's tomorrow. Also, please pick me up some tampons on your way home from school today. Mom.

Clark: Ohmygod, no! First Alicia's killed, and now I have to be seen buying feminine products. Noooooo!

I'm a month late but, good one, Sevenless!

This is more wishful thinking than speculation.

For next season I'd like to see a more "proactive" Clark. Stop waiting for the freaks and baddies to find you, BDA. Go out and find them. How many other people are being turned into murderous meteor mutants out there? They can't be all just happening at his school, or at the nursing home where he just happens to be volunteering that week.

And it's not like the mutations are going to stop happening at SV high school just because Clark is in college. "You can't save everyone," yeah but I'd like to see him try and maybe go a little bit nutty because of it.

Since Chloe has her finger on the pulse of Smallville and Metropolis, she can be the one who helps him. She tells him about baddies she's heard about through her connections. She can do the research and help out, while getting the scoop on every story! If she's the one to write the stories, then she can carefully avoid revealing Clark's identity. "The suspects have no recollection of how they ended up being hurled through a third story window."

She would wrestle with her journalistic instincts about this, feeling it's not up to her to decide what news is printed but also feeling like she needs to protect Clark. She can help him come up with the idea of a secret identity as a result.

Lex needs to pursue his political ambitions. Run for mayor of Smallville or some kind of position in Metropolis. Maybe he can run on a platform of anti-vigilantism, where Clark (unknown to Lex) is the vigilante. We'd get a taste of their future relationship with that. They'd still be friends on one level, but fighting each other on another level.

And Lana and Lois can just go off and have their own spinoff or something.

I love that idea.

Smallville Girls Gone Wild.

Or they could be cops! Cagney and Busty!

Or Laverne and Shrilly!

Martha leaves Bo Kent for Bo Bice. It takes Clark five episodes to notice, and one episode to forget.

Argh 2 days between posts...Anyway.

In the finale last year, there was no way Chloe could have survived. She closed the door and the explosion was instant. And yet, she did survive. They just changed things and warped time itself to make the new explanation fit. Same thing with the season 2 finale. Superhealing ability or not, Lex could not have survived that crash.

I think that's what'll happen next season too. If over the summer AlMiles start thinking that Lex and Lionel should have switched bodies, we'll either get a flashback or some exposition to say that's what happened. Never mind that Lex called coma!Lionel "dad" without a hint of sarcasm. AlMiles could decide that Izzy is now possessing Lionel and that he has the water tattoo on his groin. They could decide that Lionel will awaken with the personality of a golden marmoset.

Any bets on the marmoset?

I'd forgotten about the speculation thread ... this is where the Brainiac theories should probably go.

I'm guessing this will be resolved with Clark or Jor El turning back time to stop the meteor shower. However the ship will still land and it will be the Eradicator or include Braniac.

Hm... maybe this should be renamed "Hopes and Fears." That's kinda how I feel about season 5.

I suspect you're right, Cyb. No matter what we think we saw, the PTB will rearrange it according to whim. And since it's the Luthors, it'll only be exposition. Unless, of course, they can work Lana into the flashback.


Even as the Magnificent Marmoset, I'd watch him. Though I fear the SV hairstylist.

I'm curious about how Clark will get back home. He's not supposed to be able to fly in this version, but isn't that how he normally left the FOS?

Just wondering, since i havent seen this episode bear with me as i might not make sence. Clark went to the snowy place right? There was a metor shower right? Lana found a pod right? big disstruction all round right? right?
It would make little sence if they started next season 3 months later as the disscovery of whats in Lanas pod will be best explaned the very second its opened. imo. The clear up of said meteor shower will too be intresting straight away, aka, seaon 1 finale season 2 opener. But that being said if Clark is only at the arctic for a short time it ill be less dramatic then if he shows up after a few months aka season 3 ending season 4 starting.
UNDERSTAND WHAT I MEAN

I totally agree. That said, though, I'm not counting on the premier to make sense. We could come back in September or October and find out Clark has been living inside a gutted polar bear, and Lana has been abducted by whatever was in the pod. Lionel has been in a coma all this time, Chloe and Lex are in suspended animation thanks to Jerelle, and Mama Kent has been supporting the farm as a stripper at the Wild Coyote.

I would guess they'd pick up S5 right at the moment where they left off after the meteor storm, and cut away periodically to Clark at the FOS - like the cutaways to Lex on the island at the beginning of S3. They could follow up on what's happening with most of the characters that way - the Kents at the farm, Chloe and Lex in the caves, Lana and the pod. The character least likely to appear in the season-opener in that instance would be the MB, but JG is usually only signed up for 13 episodes or so each season, so it wouldn't be surprising not to get an update on him in the first episode.

yes but it wont be too dramatic if Clark is only gone for a day or two, And it is unlikly for him to be at the fortress by himself for more the 1 episode

True. But they can always set the second or third episode a month or two later. Once they spend an episode resolving the initial situation of the meteor storm and the revelation of what's in the pod, they can skip ahead a bit. By the end of the second episode/beginning of the third, they can catch up time by a few months and bring Clark back to town. Where, undoubtedly, he'll attend his first day of college on time.

For some reason the ship plus the whole danger from space had me thinking of General Zod (which would be really cool).

Zod meets Lex...

Zod: Kneel before me!
Lex: Alright.
Zod: I meant facing me.

If it is ZOD, then they are definetly listening to the fans. Who've been hoping for that for quite some time.

truthfully, i kind of hope its not ZOD , as much as i love him, we know the ptb will turn him into somthing we will hate, they most likely ruin this chracter with the Lana love, Having him force her to be his queen, turn him into a sypathetic villan like they did with Lex, make him more passive then he should be, and give his storyline no depth or reason.

Maybe it'll be a ship carrying Jor-El and they'll finally reveal that the Voice behind the wall is Zod. He's been manipulating Clark with all that Conqueror crap in order to get himself freed from the Phantom Zone so he can rule the world once the Big Dumb Alien has done the work for him.

Maybe they're both Zod. Zod's AI in the cave and Zod's body in the ship! That's why "Jerelle" has been so vague all this time instead of just telling Clark what was coming and how to stop it. "Jerelle" first tells Clark to go rule the planet. It's his destiny! But then that doesn't work, so "Jerelle" kidnaps Clark and reprograms him to find the Krystals. It's his destiny!

But then that doesn't work, either, so "Jerelle" tries to appeal to Clark's "goodness". "If you don't collect the stones, then some really bad stuff will happen to earth. So, go do it! It's your destiny! Also, I'm good now so you can totally trust me!" Clark finally takes the bait and goes off to play Krystal Frisbee in the arctic waste. Little does he know, he's actually building Zod's temple.

At some point, the real Jor-El shows up and kicks Clark's ass for being such a BDA. How did he not notice that the voice in the cave had a completely different accent from the Jor-El he saw in 1961. "For Krypton's sake, son! The cave voice sounded English! Whereas you and I have a very slight New York accent that occasionally shows up!" I vote for Peter Gallagher to play real!Jor-El.

Even though the notion of Jor-El actually being alive makes me go all hivey (Last!Son!of!Krypton!, guys!!), Peter Gallagher would *rock*.

"I am Jor-El's rumpled and formerly almost skeevily handsome, now just ravaged enough to be likeable, mind."

Oh, no, no, I didn't mean Jor-El would be alive. Sorry for the hives! I don't like the idea of living Jor-El either. I meant in, like, another AI but this time of the real Jor-El. I've been wanting Peter G. to play some relative of Clark's for ages. The pouty lips! The dark hair! The finely crafted cheekbones! A Gallagher Jor-El could advise his son, "You see, Kal-El, this is how you style thick, wavy, lustrous dark hair."

There is just one thing and one thing only that NEEDS to happen next season. Forget all this Chosen One crap, we all know what everything in S4 has really been leading up to:

The Return of the Magnificent MANE!!

Hm. As you wish... :)

Clark's real education begins...

Jor-El: This year, we shall examine the various concepts of Style and their basis in actual fact. Please open your Mousse Workbook to Chapter One...

Haha, while looking up some Peter Gallagher pictures, I came across one that depicts young Jor-El with one of his powerful early influences. :D

Trev, I *heart* you like a FOTW obsessing over Lana Lang. Only not as scary. Because I don't have any kind of freaky powers.

Now that I see Peter-El with Clark side by side, I want it to happen more than ever!

However, AlMiles would probably get it all wrong and cast Harry Hamlin instead.

Harry Hamlin would beat Clark with a belt for being such an asshat. "And THAT'S for ignoring Chloe. And THAT'S for not being a good friend to Lex! And THAT'S for..."

Yeah, that would be nice. But he would also try to initiate a steamy affair with Lana and that worship train needs to stop. Then again, he might kill her in a fit of rage, so.. bring on Harry!

Topic...
Maybe this is just the bitterness talking, but I speculate a gigantic red "restart" button being hit at the beginning of next season. But I'm feeling generous so I'll predict it won't happen until ep 2.

Or "We've been rebuilding the town all Summer, now it's GRREAAT!"

After two meteor showers, genetic mutation, super tornados, rampant homicide and crime rates, people shouldn't rebuild at all. Any sane person should take the government aid check, then move away as far as possible to start a new life.

That would be a nice subtext, as businesses start to move away and close, farms shut down, and Smallville becomes very small indeed. The remaining people would be even more dependant upon the Luthor's generosity, making Luthor that much more powerful.

Course, that will never happen. But it would be nice to see some evidence of rational thought in the denizens of Smallville.

I thought that people should move away en masse, too. Who would stay there after being hit with 2 meteor showers in 16 years? I wonder if they ever thought about the implications of that when they decided to do the shower again. B/c if everyone leaves, then the Talon should go under, the value of the Kent farm should devalue drastically even after the government check comes in, the LuthorCorp plant should close b/c they can't keep a workforce, etc. It should reasonably be total devastation to the town, but I can't see them showing that.