Speaker 1: Hi, my name is Tom Welling. I played Clark Kent
Speaker 1: on Smallville. And this is Michael Rosenbaum Lex Luthor. I'm
Speaker 1: John Glover. I was Lionel Luthor on Smallville.
Speaker 2: Hey, guys, this is Laura Vandervoord.
Speaker 3: I played Kara Kent slash Supergirl on Smallville.
Speaker 4: Hey.
Speaker 1: This is samwit Where I played Davis Bloom aka Doomsday
Speaker 1: on Smallville.
Speaker 5: Hey, this is Alisander Giuliani doctor Emil Hamilton on Smallville.
Speaker 6: Hi.
Speaker 7: I'm Jeff John's writer of Legion, Absolute Justice and the
Speaker 7: Booster Gold episodes of Smallville.
Speaker 8: And you're listening to all.
Speaker 9: Welcome to Always Hold On to Smallville. In this podcast,
Speaker 9: we talk about each and every episode of the Young
Speaker 9: Superman show that ran from two thousand and one to
Speaker 9: twenty eleven on the WB and a CW. I'm your host,
Speaker 9: Zach Moore, and this is a continuation of our series
Speaker 9: finale coverage. I'm Future Zach, continuing on from my hosting
Speaker 9: duties you heard in the beginning of the last episode.
Speaker 9: And this is a special episode finale intermission. I'm calling
Speaker 9: an intermission because I'm releasing it in between Finale Part
Speaker 9: one and Finale Part two. And it consists entirely of
Speaker 9: voice messages from previous guest hosts about their thoughts on
Speaker 9: Smallville and spec the small Liville series finale. This idea
Speaker 9: came about for me wanting to include as many previous
Speaker 9: guest hosts as I could into this series finale podcast,
Speaker 9: and initially I thought, oh, it's perfect. I'll play all
Speaker 9: these when we get to the part of the episode
Speaker 9: where Clark is reliving his trials right through the Fortress
Speaker 9: crystals and the reflections of the flashbacks and clips from
Speaker 9: previous episodes, and I thought that's a inappropriate, clever medalian.
Speaker 9: But the response was so good from y'all that it
Speaker 9: necessitated being its own thing, because if I edded this
Speaker 9: into the finale part two podcasts, that podcast would be
Speaker 9: no joke five hours long. So I really do appreciate
Speaker 9: all the previous guest hosts who have sin in their
Speaker 9: thoughts on this series finale. It's great to hear all
Speaker 9: the different perspectives. If you've listened to our finale Part
Speaker 9: one podcast, you kind of know the general consensus of
Speaker 9: where we're coming from in the series finale, but there
Speaker 9: is a wide range of opinions and thoughts and experiences
Speaker 9: here where. If you're not exactly connecting with our take
Speaker 9: on the series finale so far, you're definitely gonna find
Speaker 9: some takes here you can latch onto and agree with. So,
Speaker 9: without further ado, let's seize our destiny and revisit many
Speaker 9: of our previous guest hosts here on Always Well I'm
Speaker 9: a Smallville as they share their thoughts on the series finale.
Speaker 10: Hey guys, this is Nick Ryan Magdoza. I am back
Speaker 10: for a fresh new episode of The Mailbag. Oh wait,
Speaker 10: this isn't the mail Bag. We're talking about the last
Speaker 10: episode A Smallphone.
Speaker 11: Oh.
Speaker 10: I actually haven't watched that yet either, so maybe we
Speaker 10: should just cut to somebody who has.
Speaker 12: Hey, all, it's cross. I happen to see the finale
Speaker 12: when it aired after having out watched the show for
Speaker 12: three or four years. Didn't know what was going on,
Speaker 12: and I still enjoyed it. Totally understand the no flights,
Speaker 12: no tights rule kind of being still enforced at the
Speaker 12: very end with not a full view of the suit
Speaker 12: and more CGI stuff, but a little disappointed in that
Speaker 12: even though I knew it was coming. But overall I
Speaker 12: loved it. I loved the John Williams score. I loved
Speaker 12: that Jonathan Kent was the one that gave him the suit.
Speaker 12: Kind of wish it was a little bit more inclusive
Speaker 12: of the Justice League, and maybe they could have brought
Speaker 12: back everyone, like you know, good old Pete or Lana.
Speaker 12: But overall, I thought it was just fitting end to
Speaker 12: the series. It was a good representation of the character
Speaker 12: and I enjoyed it. I'm going to miss that show,
Speaker 12: and I'm bye.
Speaker 13: Hi Zach might lay them here. I'm just here to
Speaker 13: give you a few thoughts on the finale of Smallville.
Speaker 13: Congratulations and getting that part. And I'm not going to
Speaker 13: do add too long or ramble on for too much
Speaker 13: because I'm pretty sure the panel is going to be
Speaker 13: talking about a lot of stuff they're going to be
Speaker 13: touched upon. But in terms of my kind of thoughts
Speaker 13: and feelings about it, I am pretty much vocal in
Speaker 13: terms that I really do not like the finale, to
Speaker 13: the point where I think it's one of the weakest
Speaker 13: finales I think I've ever watched, which I feel is
Speaker 13: a bit of a downer to end the series. Aren't
Speaker 13: as well as perhaps on the podcast, but there is
Speaker 13: so much in this that I could mutter on for
Speaker 13: hoes and as I'm not going to actually, but yeah,
Speaker 13: there's a few things about it that just annoys me.
Speaker 13: The main part of it is just the what was
Speaker 13: the point of a lot of it? Because the finale
Speaker 13: does so much to make you wonder what was the
Speaker 13: point of a lot of stuff leading up to it?
Speaker 13: For example, why would you spend so much time building
Speaker 13: up towards a wedding between Lois and Clark that doesn't happen.
Speaker 13: You spend half the finale leading up to this wedding
Speaker 13: and it just doesn't happen because of reasons, because of
Speaker 13: reasons that we just don't know, and it is a
Speaker 13: bit annoy Then there's the whole kind of thing about
Speaker 13: the costume, which I'm not going to go on to
Speaker 13: because I'm pretty sure everyone's going to talk about the costume.
Speaker 13: Everyone's going to mention about the fact that you just
Speaker 13: build up to it. It keeps being shown, and I
Speaker 13: am looking forward to the talk of an episode where
Speaker 13: Tom william talks about this, But yeah, that's hard gettle fish.
Speaker 13: I don't go then towards the only the only kind
Speaker 13: of part of the finale that I quite like. The
Speaker 13: parts of that Michael Rosen are involved in. For the
Speaker 13: most part, the best scene out the whole finale is
Speaker 13: the Lex and Clark scene, and Lex pretty much goes
Speaker 13: on to a slighter ramble about he thought that men
Speaker 13: were right, men were defined by family, then friends, but
Speaker 13: eventually enemies, which I think is like a really good
Speaker 13: line that kind of adds a nice kind of encapsulation
Speaker 13: of Lexi's developments to the point to that point and
Speaker 13: kind of maps and contextualizes a lot of his art
Speaker 13: throughout the show and kind of is a nice payoff
Speaker 13: and that he's developed, that he's remembered, that he kind
Speaker 13: of remembers everything that's built up to that moment, and
Speaker 13: it just works really well until they decide to wipe
Speaker 13: his memory, and by all, well, from what I can imagine,
Speaker 13: then you just automatically go all the way back to
Speaker 13: god knows how long. I mean, if it erases all
Speaker 13: of the ten years that he's had to that point,
Speaker 13: and then technically it just be the kind of immature
Speaker 13: playboy that we saw in the pilot and technically not evil.
Speaker 13: So yeah, so I don't see what the point of
Speaker 13: the whole that was. And it's again, what was the
Speaker 13: whole point. The whole point just doesn't make sense. And
Speaker 13: he jumped forward seven years and basically a lot of
Speaker 13: the reck Conners just seemed to be placed just to
Speaker 13: go to that seven year stuff. And it just it
Speaker 13: just doesn't feel like it pays off anything. And ten
Speaker 13: years of following the show, and okay, there's conversations about
Speaker 13: whether about Tom willing willing to put on the suits
Speaker 13: and stuff, but you've just been building up to it,
Speaker 13: and it just doesn't.
Speaker 1: It just it just doesn't.
Speaker 13: And I don't know, I just I just I mean
Speaker 13: I remember rewatching the finale and just thinking like, yeah,
Speaker 13: it's it's still as bad as I thought it would be,
Speaker 13: which I think is a shame just for ten years
Speaker 13: worth of entertainment and storylines and character development to be that.
Speaker 14: And I.
Speaker 13: Yeah, and I just I just along forlorn sigh and
Speaker 13: I just what could have been? It just flows through
Speaker 13: the head and I'm just left a bit but if
Speaker 13: a damps quib really, But yeah, I'm hoping some of them.
Speaker 13: I'm helping other people who have got a lot of
Speaker 13: more positive things to say about the FINALI or to
Speaker 13: or can find things to thatch upon. But yeah, we
Speaker 13: don On ten years, ten seasons, nine years, ten years,
Speaker 13: I can't remember, but always hold on to always some Smallville.
Speaker 13: So goodbye people.
Speaker 15: Hey everybody, this is Tyler from the Crypton Report and
Speaker 15: thinking about the Small Bill finale. I remember when I
Speaker 15: first saw I was in my apartment. My wife and
Speaker 15: I had just got married, and it was weird because
Speaker 15: I was watching it and I was reflecting on just
Speaker 15: how much of my life that show at all the
Speaker 15: events that had happened in my life up to that point.
Speaker 15: But I had yet to get like, we didn't have
Speaker 15: TV hooked up or anything or streaming what it wasn't
Speaker 15: what it was, so I had to watch it on
Speaker 15: the old CW app where I just watching it on
Speaker 15: my computer, and I remember watching it and thinking, Okay,
Speaker 15: it wasn't what I wanted. I had hoped that there
Speaker 15: would have been a bigger battle and bigger you know
Speaker 15: imagery conclusion. As far as Clark becoming Superman, I wanted
Speaker 15: to see him in an actual suit. I love, you know,
Speaker 15: the shirt Rip was cool at the end, you know,
Speaker 15: but him having the you know, Superman return symbol just
Speaker 15: didn't didn't really do it for me. And I remember
Speaker 15: the way it starts with Chloe kind of reading the story.
Speaker 15: I know that's kind of an ode to Superman the movie,
Speaker 15: but I didn't really like it that much because it
Speaker 15: just didn't feel like it was a continue on from
Speaker 15: where we had left our characters in the previous episode.
Speaker 15: But you know, time has passed. I mean, I did
Speaker 15: like the idea of like the light versus Dark.
Speaker 16: I like the.
Speaker 15: Jonathan Kidd always hold on the small villain, gives him
Speaker 15: the costume and he flies up.
Speaker 16: But I.
Speaker 15: But over time, I've come to like it more. And
Speaker 15: I just remember feeling like it was over ten years.
Speaker 15: I didn't feel like we got the big, like last
Speaker 15: hurrah that I had hoped for out of the finale,
Speaker 15: But over time and distance, I've come to appreciate it. It
Speaker 15: was more in the vein of what Smallville should have been.
Speaker 15: I you know, had hope for maybe something along the
Speaker 15: lines of like a big battle conclusion with Superman taking
Speaker 15: charge and we had our other heroes. But in the end,
Speaker 15: it is the finale, and I like it, and I
Speaker 15: hope everyone else enjoys it for what it is, not
Speaker 15: for what we wanted to be, and watching it now,
Speaker 15: it's fine, But I think it could have. It could
Speaker 15: have ended a little different, giving Tom more his own
Speaker 15: send off than kind of placing him in a Superman movie,
Speaker 15: And it could have ended with him getting the costume,
Speaker 15: we're putting it on for the first time and going out,
Speaker 15: so that we're not left feeling, okay, we didn't see
Speaker 15: him in the costume. The way he flew was kind
Speaker 15: of quick, so it was kind of like, oh, okay,
Speaker 15: why can't we actually see him fly in the costume
Speaker 15: and give us that big closing Superman moment.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 15: It's kind of like with Gotham. You know, the finale
Speaker 15: of Gotham is kind of like a reverse pilot where
Speaker 15: it's like a pilot for a new show and the
Speaker 15: final shot is them looking up and there's Batman and
Speaker 15: it cuts off, so kind of like something similar like
Speaker 15: with this where he's running he does the shirt rip. Well,
Speaker 15: that have been great if we hadn't had the earlier
Speaker 15: scene of him supposedly in the costume pushing a planet,
Speaker 15: which was pretty crazy out of orbit. I think it
Speaker 15: could have been something a little bit different for the
Speaker 15: symbolism of just you know, pushing the darkness away, But
Speaker 15: it is what it is. And I'll always hold on
Speaker 15: a small Ville and thank you Zach for this podcast.
Speaker 17: Hello Zach, Hello, always hold on to small Ville. This
Speaker 17: is Daniel Bree. We used to podcast together back in
Speaker 17: our Star Trek days. I don't have any podcasts to
Speaker 17: plug or anything like that. Find me on the internet
Speaker 17: anywhere at one of Dan and we can chat small View,
Speaker 17: Star Trek or anything. Okay, my thoughts on finale, Well,
Speaker 17: first off, this is only my second time ever watching
Speaker 17: the episode, and I.
Speaker 14: Thought it is good.
Speaker 5: It's good.
Speaker 17: It's not perfect, certainly, and there are some good things
Speaker 17: and some bad things. Let's start with the things. I
Speaker 17: really like the Lois and Clark of it all. Of course,
Speaker 17: big fan of that relationship, and of course we get
Speaker 17: to see them get married, which is you know, it
Speaker 17: feels a little bit young in the timeline, but it's fine.
Speaker 17: It made me happy to see that. And of course
Speaker 17: Lois gets to become her famous award winning journalist self
Speaker 17: in the episode, which is fantastic. I love that. And
Speaker 17: then of course their sweet moment that was one of
Speaker 17: my favorite scenes with them doing their vows. I thought
Speaker 17: that was great. Next up in the good category for me,
Speaker 17: it is great to see if Lex of course, I know,
Speaker 17: you know, we haven't seen him in a few years.
Speaker 17: Although I don't let love everything that happens with Lex,
Speaker 17: the Tessa stuff, the memory wipe, I don't love, and
Speaker 17: even having him there, like I like the scene of
Speaker 17: course with him Clark in the mansion, the burned out mansion.
Speaker 17: That was fantastic, but it was a little sloppy, and
Speaker 17: I mean I just felt a little rushed, and I understand,
Speaker 17: you know, with everything going on with Michael, but it
Speaker 17: was great to see him. And of course he gets
Speaker 17: to be president at the end too, so setting up
Speaker 17: for future stuff that we don't get to see but
Speaker 17: we can imagine, which is sometimes just as fun. And
Speaker 17: speaking of the Luthers, of course we see what happens
Speaker 17: with Lionel, which is you know, I don't know. Again,
Speaker 17: that's one of those misses for me. Like I get
Speaker 17: that they have to get rid of him, it's the
Speaker 17: end of this series. But having him sort of voice
Speaker 17: dark Side and be the body of dark Side.
Speaker 14: Is I get it.
Speaker 17: As TeV we only have so much budget, but it's
Speaker 17: not exactly how I would have wanted to see it.
Speaker 11: But that's okay. It was it was fine.
Speaker 17: Of course, we have the big controversy with the suit
Speaker 17: and you know, Tom not wanting to be in it,
Speaker 17: and then of course us not really getting to see
Speaker 17: it that much, which is still disappointing even to this day.
Speaker 17: But you know, again, that's okay. Again, this is after
Speaker 17: ten years of watching the show, and it can't wrap
Speaker 17: every single little thing up, so the things sometimes in
Speaker 17: the glosses over, I'm.
Speaker 11: Okay with it.
Speaker 17: Of Course, we get to see Chloe at the book ends,
Speaker 17: which was which was sweet as well. I kind of
Speaker 17: forgot about that, And and Green Arrow's little parts are
Speaker 17: are great as well. I really like the whole thing.
Speaker 17: One thing about the story that I really enjoyed too
Speaker 17: is basically that it's you know, it's a story about
Speaker 17: hope and with the whole the apocalypse and Clark becoming
Speaker 17: a hero unlocking all of the darkness from these people
Speaker 17: and all that sort of stuff. I really like that,
Speaker 17: even if it's a little hokey. But I'm you know,
Speaker 17: Supermaran is kind of sometimes and so that's.
Speaker 11: Okay with me.
Speaker 17: And seeing John Snyder back again is as Papa Kent
Speaker 17: was heartwarming. It was great just to see him and
Speaker 17: then of course this has scenes with Martha our heart heartbreaking,
Speaker 17: but it was it was good to see all of
Speaker 17: them back together again. And of course Clark finally accepting
Speaker 17: his destiny and becoming Superman. Obviously, they hit that nail
Speaker 17: pretty hard a couple of times in the episode, but
Speaker 17: I thought it was I thought it was a good
Speaker 17: a good message, so a good way to go out
Speaker 17: for sure. And then of course everything culminates with a
Speaker 17: new power, a new power, the last new power of course,
Speaker 17: that we get the new power that we've seen I
Speaker 17: don't know fifty times, the new power that has been
Speaker 17: teased and shown and every other character can do it.
Speaker 17: But of course we finally get to see the flying,
Speaker 17: very exciting stuff, very exciting. You know, I love new powers.
Speaker 17: So we wish this Clark in this lowest all the
Speaker 17: best in the future, whether you you know, take what's
Speaker 17: seen on screen elsewhere or not. We hope for the
Speaker 17: best for them. And of course I just want to
Speaker 17: say thank you Zach for giving me the opportunity to
Speaker 17: come on the show several times. I had great blast
Speaker 17: revisiting Smallville, and you know what, I might just do
Speaker 17: another rewatch now. So that's pretty much all I have
Speaker 17: for the finale, but remember Always hold.
Speaker 11: On to Smallville.
Speaker 18: Hey, this is Ian. I guess starred on Always hold
Speaker 18: On to Smallville episodes Nocturn and Crisis. Smallville was a
Speaker 18: show that I watched with my mom, and so it
Speaker 18: was something special that we got to share together. And also,
Speaker 18: aside from the Superpowers, I feel like my life, in
Speaker 18: a lot of ways parallel lived Clark's life, so I
Speaker 18: really related to his journey and as he was taking
Speaker 18: his steps to becoming Superman, showing himself to the world,
Speaker 18: showing his true colors, at the same time was moving
Speaker 18: out of my house, you know, leaving the nest, and
Speaker 18: also being more true to myself and sharing that with
Speaker 18: the world. So just that these kind of both happened
Speaker 18: around the same time with the finale, and that was
Speaker 18: pretty special. And while I don't remember a lot about
Speaker 18: the finale, I haven't watched it in quite a while,
Speaker 18: I do remember being pretty happy with what they did
Speaker 18: now the final season and the fact that we knew
Speaker 18: it was the final season from the beginning. I feel
Speaker 18: like it allowed them to push the boundaries of what
Speaker 18: they had done before and also just to give a
Speaker 18: really satisfying conclusion, And I have two things that really
Speaker 18: stand out about the finale for myself. One of them
Speaker 18: is I'll go with the negative verse because they want
Speaker 18: to end on a positive. But the negative thing for
Speaker 18: me was, I remember the episode was so much about
Speaker 18: that Clark's journey and his memories, you know, all the
Speaker 18: connections that he had made to find who he was.
Speaker 18: You know, that's something that they really pushed for the episode.
Speaker 18: And yet at the same time, Lex's memories are taken
Speaker 18: from him, and yet he's supposed to be a villain.
Speaker 18: You know, we'd gone through this journey with Lex as
Speaker 18: well of building him up, as you know, it wasn't
Speaker 18: just a switch that happened that he became a villain,
Speaker 18: you know. It was the same with Clark. It was
Speaker 18: a process, and I feel we were kind of robbed
Speaker 18: of that. I feel his character was robbed of that
Speaker 18: in the end, that it just removes that idea for him.
Speaker 18: And while I think the comic book that followed really
Speaker 18: dealt with that in a nice way, I just felt
Speaker 18: that for the finale of the show, you know, setting up,
Speaker 18: I feel like they were trying to stick too close
Speaker 18: to what the mythos is that Lex doesn't know who
Speaker 18: Superman is. I feel like they could have done something
Speaker 18: else because obviously they didn't go that way with Lois
Speaker 18: and Clark, you know. So that was something that really
Speaker 18: bothered me at the time. And also I really loved
Speaker 18: the character of Tests, so what would happen? What happened
Speaker 18: with her I was not very happy about. But then
Speaker 18: on a good note, you know. Again, I can't remember
Speaker 18: a lot of the episode, but the thing that just
Speaker 18: really sticks with me is the wedding scene with Clark
Speaker 18: and Lewis and she doesn't have her father there to
Speaker 18: walk her down the aisle, and she gets to the
Speaker 18: head of the aisle and she sees that Clark isn't there,
Speaker 18: and then he takes her hand and they walk down
Speaker 18: the aisle together, and I just thought that was such
Speaker 18: a wonderful moment and just a wonderful portrayal of what
Speaker 18: their relationship was. That it was two people on equal
Speaker 18: footing working together, and that moment just made me cry.
Speaker 18: So that was my favorite moment, and that's what I
Speaker 18: take with me whenever I think about that finel. Thank
Speaker 18: you to Zach for letting me be a small part
Speaker 18: of his wonderful show. That he's dedicated such a great
Speaker 18: amount of his life too. Obviously a wonderful passion project,
Speaker 18: and I admire that dedication. Always hold on to Smallville.
Speaker 5: Zach, Hi, Zach and crew. This is Billy from the
Speaker 5: See You Next Summer podcast. Although when I recorded with
Speaker 5: Zach back in twenty seventeen for the early days of Smallville,
Speaker 5: I did two episodes, I did not have a podcast,
Speaker 5: and I was literally just a Smallville fan on Twitter
Speaker 5: and Zach just reached out to me. So I am
Speaker 5: always grateful for that opportunity, Zach. I No, I wasn't
Speaker 5: exactly the greatest guest or anything like that, but I
Speaker 5: appreciate that you had me on.
Speaker 19: Anyway.
Speaker 5: So series finale of Smallville, we finally got here. I
Speaker 5: have seen the series three times now, all the way through,
Speaker 5: and I have to say, on a rewatch, yeah, this
Speaker 5: finale still holds up. I mean, it's the wedding of
Speaker 5: Lois and Clark. You have the amazing scene of Clark
Speaker 5: and Lex and the return of Michael Rosenbaum, which is
Speaker 5: never a bad thing, even though he is wearing a
Speaker 5: bald cap and you see they put a lot of
Speaker 5: makeup to give him the megamind Head, but it doesn't
Speaker 5: matter because Michael's chemistry with Tom is and always will
Speaker 5: be the heart of this show. I think they rushed
Speaker 5: dark Side just in general in season ten, so I'm
Speaker 5: not a big fan of basically making him a big
Speaker 5: smoky cloud, like it's the smoke Monster from Lost or
Speaker 5: something like that. But I do like that it ends
Speaker 5: with the iconic shirt rip and you guys chose the
Speaker 5: perfect name for the podcast, because Always hold on to
Speaker 5: Smallville basically sums up the entire show for us. I'm
Speaker 5: really happy that you guys got all the way through
Speaker 5: and yeah, Always hold on to Smallville.
Speaker 20: Hey, listeners, and Zach, this is your cousin, Corey Corey Moore.
Speaker 1: I don't always.
Speaker 20: Calling the podcasts, but when I do is to give
Speaker 20: my thoughts on the Smallville episode titled Finale. I wonder
Speaker 20: what that's about. H Those those of you who have
Speaker 20: listened or watched Talk Bill will get that reference. So
Speaker 20: first off, I apologize for all.
Speaker 11: This animal noises.
Speaker 20: The when the animals see me, they know they're gonna
Speaker 20: get food. They think of me as the real life
Speaker 20: Jonathan Kent. But when I first watched this finale episode
Speaker 20: back in the day. It was recorded on a DVR,
Speaker 20: and normally we'd watch with my wife, but that evening
Speaker 20: I was too excited, couldn't wait for her, so I
Speaker 20: watched it while she was asleep and then watch it
Speaker 20: again next day with her. With that first watching was
Speaker 20: pretty exciting, I remember having a lot of conflicting feelings.
Speaker 20: There was the excitement of it being new episode, It's
Speaker 20: gonna wrap up the end of small Bill, But then
Speaker 20: there was a lot of feelings of sadness. I was like, oh, man,
Speaker 20: this is the last episode of Smallville. What am I
Speaker 20: gonna do now? Man? What am I going to watch?
Speaker 20: But when I watched it, man, I mean overall, I
Speaker 20: really really enjoyed it, and still do to this day.
Speaker 20: But I'll get onto some dislikes about the episode. There
Speaker 20: wasn't a whole lot. I mean a few few, but
Speaker 20: I mean it one that stood out was it seemed
Speaker 20: too easy for slow arrow to kill Dark Sides minions,
Speaker 20: you know, Granny and Gacade and whatever that other guy's
Speaker 20: name was, I don't know. I don't remember if his
Speaker 20: arrow was his arrows were some type of special magic
Speaker 20: or what. But the minions died too quick, even though
Speaker 20: it was a slow arrow and I also thought dark
Speaker 20: Side Lionel was kind of lame. He he his voice too,
Speaker 20: He's like, all right, will annihilate you? That was that
Speaker 20: was garbage. And you know, once Clark became Superman, you know,
Speaker 20: he got on that fake suit and flew up and
Speaker 20: saved the airplane, which was kind of cool. But then
Speaker 20: he pushed the apocalypse planet out of the way. That
Speaker 20: was seemed a little unrealistic. Unrealistic.
Speaker 4: He seemed a little gonna be a little too too
Speaker 4: much weight to push get out of get out of
Speaker 4: our out of our solar system.
Speaker 20: But and then another dislike was probably no real Superman
Speaker 20: costume for our Clark or Tom Willing.
Speaker 4: That was not cool.
Speaker 20: But onto some of the things I liked. I did
Speaker 20: like the Small Bill opening recap.
Speaker 11: I thought that was cool.
Speaker 20: They did a good job of kind of going through
Speaker 20: pilot all the way up till now, kind of showing
Speaker 20: a little bit of the some of the you know,
Speaker 20: you know, some of the talking points in the just
Speaker 20: kind of stuff that happened throughout the series. I liked that.
Speaker 20: Another cool thing was when Martha came back to the
Speaker 20: farm and she you know, talked to Clark about she
Speaker 20: gave him, gave him the not to sell the house,
Speaker 20: but to start a life there.
Speaker 21: I like that.
Speaker 20: And another thing that was cool was Chloe talking to
Speaker 20: Lois convincing her that Mary and Clark was the right
Speaker 20: thing for both of them, that you know, Clark needs
Speaker 20: her and she needs him.
Speaker 11: That was that.
Speaker 20: Was that was pretty cool. I did like ghost Jonathan.
Speaker 20: He's is been in the comic books in the past,
Speaker 20: and when he pops up. I do like Ghosts Jonathan.
Speaker 20: There has been some people who have talked about not
Speaker 20: liking it, but in this episode I.
Speaker 11: Felt like it worked.
Speaker 20: There was a part where Clark couldn't see Jonathan, and
Speaker 20: then after Martha talked to him about talk to Clark
Speaker 20: about you know, looking deeper, and he eventually did get
Speaker 20: to where he could see.
Speaker 11: He goes Jonathan and talk to him. I thought that
Speaker 11: was I did like that a lot.
Speaker 20: And another thing that I really liked was, you know,
Speaker 20: Tests ended up killing Earth two Lionel and then Darkseide
Speaker 20: took his heart and gave it to the Frankenstein Lex,
Speaker 20: and so that is pretty exciting to think about because
Speaker 20: this evil heart is now in this Lex and it
Speaker 20: would explain how the future Lex is just despicable and
Speaker 20: terrible and all that is pretty exciting to think about.
Speaker 11: Was as a viewer you.
Speaker 20: Can kind of fill in those points and think about
Speaker 20: the future Les how well the evil stuff he's gonna do.
Speaker 20: And the return of Michael Rosenbaum was a must. Even
Speaker 20: though he was wearing a big, giant bald cap to
Speaker 20: cover up his head, it was great to have him by.
Speaker 20: I did like also Clark's midair montage in the air
Speaker 20: just frozen, going over all of his greatest hits, finally
Speaker 20: realizing he can fly was pretty exciting, and then he
Speaker 20: just blasts through dark Side Slash Linyl And of course
Speaker 20: one of the best parts of this episode is Ghost
Speaker 20: Jonathan handing the costume to Clark and saying our favorite
Speaker 20: word always.
Speaker 11: Hold on to Smallville.
Speaker 20: That was one of my favorite parts, especially now after
Speaker 20: Zach reviewing ten years of Smallville. That is pretty special.
Speaker 20: That that is, uh, this is pretty special kind of
Speaker 20: to wrap things up. I did like the end where
Speaker 20: Clark did the shirt rip ran towards the camera in
Speaker 20: slow motion with the music in the background. Overall, the
Speaker 20: music in this episode was was pretty good. They had
Speaker 20: you know, some some good music throughout this episode. My
Speaker 20: original grade for this episode, I believe, was an A,
Speaker 20: and I feel like that's a little too generous. After
Speaker 20: watching the episode multiple times over the years and then
Speaker 20: listening to, you know, just a lot of thoughts from
Speaker 20: everybody and watching it the it probably is more like
Speaker 20: a B plus episode. And so that's kind of where
Speaker 20: I stand now. I do I do get excited when
Speaker 20: it does come up on my rewatch. It's something that
Speaker 20: I and episode that I can watch. And it's not
Speaker 20: as good as the Spell episode. Am I right?
Speaker 21: Zach?
Speaker 20: Check it out season four Spell episode I was a
Speaker 20: guest host. But thanks for this, Zach, and always hold
Speaker 20: on the small Bill later, guys.
Speaker 16: Bye, Hi everyone. This is Lauren knakau Win. If my
Speaker 16: voice sounds familiar, I used to be a pretty frequent
Speaker 16: contributor to you Always hold on a Smallville. I took
Speaker 16: a hard exit from DC a couple of years ago
Speaker 16: following the release of Zack Steiner's Testice League. But nothing
Speaker 16: you Love is ever lost, and I think that's pretty
Speaker 16: applicable to smallvill I rewatched the finale for the first
Speaker 16: time in nine or ten years this evening, and in
Speaker 16: a post Araverse and Marvel Netflix World. A lot of
Speaker 16: it doesn't hold up in my opinion, but most of
Speaker 16: these things are things I think we're less gracefully done
Speaker 16: to begin with. It was never a perfect finale, from
Speaker 16: having the huge responsibility of having to wrap a ten
Speaker 16: your show and close many plot points like erasing Lex's
Speaker 16: memory and finally breaking the no flights, no tights rule,
Speaker 16: and of course shooting around Tom's unwillingness.
Speaker 1: To wear the suit.
Speaker 16: But the heart of the show persists, and what does
Speaker 16: hold up are the characters. They spent ten years developing,
Speaker 16: characters who will always be loved. I think Smavels legacy
Speaker 16: after all these years is the feat of being the
Speaker 16: longest running superhero show and just how well they did
Speaker 16: Lois and Clark in regardless of some of the less
Speaker 16: rewarding writing, the final scene is perfect and we'll always
Speaker 16: have that.
Speaker 8: This is Chris Klou and I just wanted to briefly
Speaker 8: thank Zach Moore and the entire always hold on to
Speaker 8: Smallville team for being so kind to me over the
Speaker 8: years in bringing me on as a guest here and there.
Speaker 8: It was always a lot of fun. I'm eternally grateful
Speaker 8: to be a part of this whole impressive tapestry, and Zach,
Speaker 8: well done, my friend. This is an incredible achievement, and
Speaker 8: I know it's probably bittersweet, but this is the domination
Speaker 8: of a really impressive effort on your part, and I
Speaker 8: really appreciate being a part of it. So thank you
Speaker 8: very much. Now, As probably the only person in my
Speaker 8: own social circle that meets at the intersection of being
Speaker 8: a student of narrative fiction, a TV enthusiast, a big
Speaker 8: time comic book fan, and as the biggest Superman fan,
Speaker 8: I know, the Smallville series finale made for an unusual
Speaker 8: watching experience for me. For ten years, we've been watching
Speaker 8: a show that, at different times offered substantive nods and
Speaker 8: homages to what we know Clark's ultimate destiny to be,
Speaker 8: alongside some occasionally ham fisted attempts at winks and nods
Speaker 8: that likely made even the most aweshuck Superman fan roll
Speaker 8: their eyes a little bit. We saw world class television
Speaker 8: performances easily overlooked in award shows performance categories, as well
Speaker 8: as the occasional double take from spoken lines being mystifyingly bad.
Speaker 8: But the whole experience of watching the finale was akin
Speaker 8: to an out of body experience for me. Truncating year's
Speaker 8: worth of stories and trials into one two hour stretch
Speaker 8: that forcibly crammed Jack Kirby's Fourth World mythology onto the
Speaker 8: top of a foundation laid by no Tights. No Flights
Speaker 8: made for an odd experience, especially as a Superman comics fan.
Speaker 8: While the return of Michael Rosenbaum as Lex Luthor was
Speaker 8: generally executed well, the way the finale resolves, which I'm
Speaker 8: using with heavy air quotes, by the way, the knowledge
Speaker 8: he has of Clark's identity was one of the most
Speaker 8: overly simplistic developments I've probably ever seen in a prequel
Speaker 8: style superhero story.
Speaker 11: And yet, years.
Speaker 8: Before the finale aired, maybe around the end of season five,
Speaker 8: I remember envisioning the shirt rip as the final moment
Speaker 8: of the series. It just seemed like such a clear
Speaker 8: way to go out on a satisfying note. For a
Speaker 8: brief stretch of time, we got to see what this
Speaker 8: show could have been by throwing all the pretense in mythology,
Speaker 8: minimizing pressure out the wind, by embracing the legend of
Speaker 8: Superman fully despite the maneuvering of the visuals that never
Speaker 8: actually gave us a real, fully framed look at the
Speaker 8: Man of Steel himself. Despite Qualm's I and others may
Speaker 8: have about its execution, the sentiment of embracing the Big
Speaker 8: Guy himself, albeit briefly, was appreciated Jimmy voiceover Perry and All.
Speaker 8: I wish that the entire final season would have embraced
Speaker 8: the Superman legend as fully as the finale did. With
Speaker 8: more time to line up and stick the landing, the
Speaker 8: finale could have been a truly satisfying conclusion to a
Speaker 8: substantive addition to the Superman mythology, as opposed to a
Speaker 8: footnote in the broader discussion of the series. Still, I'm
Speaker 8: extremely grateful to Smallville.
Speaker 11: If ever, there.
Speaker 8: Was an encapsulation of a belief in the importance of
Speaker 8: the journey as opposed to the destination.
Speaker 22: It's Smallville.
Speaker 8: It introduced a whole new generation to Superman storytelling, despite
Speaker 8: choosing to be a half measure more often than I
Speaker 8: have preferred. But it attracted terrific talent who have defined
Speaker 8: corners of Superman's share of the DC universe on both
Speaker 8: sides of the camera, and the show connected me with
Speaker 8: friends including Zach and Lance that have led to great
Speaker 8: discussions about the episodes and the series implications for the
Speaker 8: world's greatest hero. It was a weird feeling coming back
Speaker 8: the next fall realizing there was no more Smallville, but
Speaker 8: the journey itself was a hell of a ride, and
Speaker 8: the show did an effective job keeping Superman alive during
Speaker 8: a time when his cultural relevance was being challenged, despite
Speaker 8: the presence of a movie a few years into the
Speaker 8: show's life. But it's also because of the friends made
Speaker 8: along the way that I feel such appreciation for the show,
Speaker 8: something crystallized even more just prior to his impending return
Speaker 8: to movie theaters in just over a month's time. As
Speaker 8: I record this, believing in something like Superman. Storytelling can
Speaker 8: often be measured in the emotional highs and lows that
Speaker 8: come from.
Speaker 11: Moment to moment.
Speaker 8: Smallville gave us many of those, and more, rivaling the
Speaker 8: best of Superman's story, retelling in some cases, despite the
Speaker 8: annoyance people like me may have about its tepid embracing
Speaker 8: of parts of his mythology. But again, the journey was singular,
Speaker 8: and I'm grateful that I got to grow up with
Speaker 8: the show as a relative contemporary of Clark's. While it
Speaker 8: was on, it offered a unique insight into one of
Speaker 8: my absolutely favorite characters in fiction and gave me great
Speaker 8: friends along the way that, in my mind, makes for
Speaker 8: a pretty good legacy.
Speaker 23: Hey all, John Curcio here, I had the privilege of
Speaker 23: joining Zach on a pair of episodes over the course
Speaker 23: of his journey, and it's been an honor and a
Speaker 23: pleasure getting to know him and a little bit of
Speaker 23: all your personalities as well. It's been great being able
Speaker 23: to feel as though I'm a part of a big
Speaker 23: conversation that I'm simply listening to as I make my
Speaker 23: way to work or home for them a long evening.
Speaker 23: As for my feelings on the finale, to be quite honest,
Speaker 23: I love it orts and all. This may sound backhanded
Speaker 23: or faint praise, but once I got to the tenth season,
Speaker 23: my experience with small Ville sort of involved a kind
Speaker 23: of baked in disappointment. Despite having a superpse even season nine,
Speaker 23: even it was subject to some of the lesser quality
Speaker 23: of the series writing that usually includes dropping storylines, swerving
Speaker 23: into unwanted directions forgetting important characters. That's prime suspect of
Speaker 23: that being Lucas Luther and sometimes a general misunderstanding of
Speaker 23: their own product, but it just sort of became the
Speaker 23: norm for me. So going into the finale, I pretty
Speaker 23: much set a small tight list of things that I
Speaker 23: wanted to see, and I'd likely give it a break
Speaker 23: for all the you know, not so great stuff looking
Speaker 23: at you mind wipe.
Speaker 14: And you know what.
Speaker 23: From way back when in two thousand and one, I
Speaker 23: had always assumed that the last shot was probably going
Speaker 23: to be him ripping the shirt open to reveal the
Speaker 23: sh shield, and because of that, I was fifty to
Speaker 23: fifty on whether he'd wear the suit. So the whole
Speaker 23: cutting around tom it was humorous to me, but admittedly
Speaker 23: the last shot of Clark or Superman looking through the
Speaker 23: window of the plane and smiling and nodding to Lois,
Speaker 23: I thought it was really sweet and that kind of
Speaker 23: saved the whole bit for me. Darkseide felt like an afterthought,
Speaker 23: zombie Lionel was a choice, and the dispatching of the
Speaker 23: minions felt like they totally forgot that they had to
Speaker 23: do something with them and they just called everyone in
Speaker 23: last minute to wrap things up. And of course, being
Speaker 23: a massive Flex Luthor fan, rest In peace, Gene Heckman.
Speaker 23: Michael's return was essentially the weight and measure of the
Speaker 23: episode for me, whilst his last scene could have been
Speaker 23: handled a little bit better, maybe with Test getting back
Speaker 23: at Lex in a cleaner way, maybe only erasing a
Speaker 23: few years of his life instead of the whole continuity
Speaker 23: of the series. Regardless, Michael and Cassidy felt as though
Speaker 23: they had been doing these scenes together for years, like
Speaker 23: such perfect chemistry and comfort with one another.
Speaker 24: Would have really had loved to have seen more of that.
Speaker 23: And I employed the work that they did with the
Speaker 23: bald cap. I know it's obvious and still photographs, but
Speaker 23: with the way they cut around it, I think that
Speaker 23: they actually did a pretty good job. And less we
Speaker 23: forget the scene between Clark and Lex, which feels like
Speaker 23: the most perfect bookend to all those conversations of fate
Speaker 23: and destiny that they had back in the earlier seasons,
Speaker 23: both men now acknowledging who they are and what's to come.
Speaker 23: Well for the moment anyway, I mean, at this point
Speaker 23: the series was coming to an end, and much like
Speaker 23: the journey that we've all taken together on this podcast,
Speaker 23: I mean I just couldn't hate it. The scene where
Speaker 23: Clark is given his suit by Jorell and Jonathan I
Speaker 23: thought was very touching and it also gave this podcast
Speaker 23: its namesake. Was the finale a mess? Yeah, but at
Speaker 23: ten seasons, I wouldn't want to leave small without a
Speaker 23: few things kind of sucking in the episode itself. The
Speaker 23: series is that's it had that charm. Episodes good, bad
Speaker 23: or otherwise. You know, we never really want to leave,
Speaker 23: and the same thing here. Even though the podcast has
Speaker 23: reached its end, all of our hearts will remain in Smallville.
Speaker 23: So again, a big thank you to Zach and everybody
Speaker 23: involved with Always hold on to Smallville, and I look
Speaker 23: forward to seeing whatever the next adventure may be.
Speaker 25: See you all there, Hello, Always hold on to Smallville.
Speaker 25: This is Matthew Rocca, frequent guests on the show. I
Speaker 25: am trying not to get too emotional right now, knowing
Speaker 25: that this is the grand finale.
Speaker 14: It has been just an.
Speaker 25: Absolute joy to connect with fans who loved this show
Speaker 25: as much as I always have growing up. Just an incredible,
Speaker 25: incredible opportunity that Zach has given us all.
Speaker 26: To.
Speaker 25: Really just had this wonderful walk down memory lane and
Speaker 25: wax nostalgic about all our favorite moments and characters, so
Speaker 25: thank you, Zach, really appreciate it. Thoughts on a finale, Wow,
Speaker 25: this is I'm going to try to truncate this because
Speaker 25: I have way too many and probably.
Speaker 14: Could go on for hours and hours. I mean, we
Speaker 14: know I could.
Speaker 25: I just want to say a few highlights and a
Speaker 25: few aspects of it that, all these years later really
Speaker 25: stand out to me and make it a finale that
Speaker 25: I still love despite what you may think, Zach and
Speaker 25: a few others may think. For me personally, I thought
Speaker 25: it was one of the best finales that I have
Speaker 25: seen for a series in that it gave me almost
Speaker 25: all of the emotional beats and character beats that I wanted.
Speaker 25: And unlike some finales of TV shows, which go for
Speaker 25: a very subversive approach, which can be amazing and I
Speaker 25: love that I'm looking at you, Sopranos, this finale instead
Speaker 25: just gave us the goods. That's how I felt. It
Speaker 25: gave us what we wanted. It was exciting, it was fun.
Speaker 25: It was really just this amazing kind of love letter
Speaker 25: to the fans and the mythos and just reminding us
Speaker 25: all what the heart and soul of the show always
Speaker 25: has been and was reconnecting us with those moments like
Speaker 25: the Kents when we see you know, the ghost of Jonathan,
Speaker 25: how that's played that kind of pivotal role in the
Speaker 25: in this final season, and we see that moment in
Speaker 25: the barn where Clark is about to go off and
Speaker 25: uh and have this you know, this this epic this
Speaker 25: epic fight, and we have that that really beautiful shot
Speaker 25: where it's him and his father's ghosts and Martha in
Speaker 25: the barn together and it just kind of reminded me
Speaker 25: of you know, in season three when he comes back
Speaker 25: having had bread kryptonite in his system and you know,
Speaker 25: and he's watching his parents from afar. Just that kind
Speaker 25: of reminder of the Kents really are why Clark is Superman,
Speaker 25: and they are the heart and soul of not only
Speaker 25: in the show, but the character.
Speaker 14: Love that moment so much. I love the just the lowest.
Speaker 25: Moments, the whole aspect of that that shot as the
Speaker 25: camera is circulating around them when they're trying not when
Speaker 25: he's trying not to look at her. Before the wedding,
Speaker 25: I was on a wedding video shoot recently and was
Speaker 25: actually telling the bride about that moment and She's like, oh,
Speaker 25: that's so cute. Just again, you know, the heart and
Speaker 25: soul of the show. It's interesting because it's like we
Speaker 25: had the heart and shoal of the original.
Speaker 14: Seasons was Lana, but you know, for.
Speaker 25: Better or worse, the way that that story are concluded
Speaker 25: where we're at now is like, this is now the
Speaker 25: forging of the Lois and Clark that we know and love,
Speaker 25: and it's just wonderful. That's one of the things I
Speaker 25: love about Season ten in general is how much it
Speaker 25: focused on that relationship. And then, of course, me being me,
Speaker 25: this would not be a review of the finale without
Speaker 25: me mentioning.
Speaker 14: The Luthers.
Speaker 25: First of all, Lex Luthor returning, Michael Rosenbaum returning. I
Speaker 25: remember when the news of this came out, and I
Speaker 25: was so excited. We'd all been hoping this for so
Speaker 25: long as fans, and I think a couple.
Speaker 14: Of weeks before or a few weeks.
Speaker 25: Before the finale, I think there was like some sort
Speaker 25: of statement that he was not coming back, and everyone
Speaker 25: just felt this collective disappointment, and then it was like, no, whoops,
Speaker 25: actually he is, and everyone had this great sigh of
Speaker 25: relief in this jubilation and that moment with Lex and
Speaker 25: Clark talk about your iconic superhero supervillain moment. That was
Speaker 25: to me, that's up there with Joker and Batman interrogation
Speaker 25: room scene in Dark Knight, Like that is just top
Speaker 25: tier iconic comic book superhero super villain. It's it's a
Speaker 25: moment where it's all the more exciting and magical because
Speaker 25: we're so used to those characters being who they are
Speaker 25: in that scene in terms of the comics and in terms
Speaker 25: of all the other movies, but because we've been on
Speaker 25: this ten yere journey with them, it's like, wow, now
Speaker 25: we're here and we saw all of that build to
Speaker 25: this moment. I love Lex's line about every villain is
Speaker 25: only as great as his hero. It's it's it's a
Speaker 25: perfect way to sort of take that that common saying
Speaker 25: about every hero is only good as his villain and
Speaker 25: turn that on its head. And and the fact that
Speaker 25: Lex is embracing the fact that he is a villain
Speaker 25: now it really felt like a sort of mister Glass
Speaker 25: they called me mister Glass moment, you know, where he's
Speaker 25: he's realized his role in the story. He is the
Speaker 25: archetypal villain, but He's there to challenge Clark, and the
Speaker 25: two of them are meant to always be on this
Speaker 25: epic battle, you know, destined to do this forever. So
Speaker 25: I just adore that more moment, the way it shot,
Speaker 25: the way it's lit. There's a line that Lex says
Speaker 25: that me and my family always so cooked to this
Speaker 25: day with you still say it the same way, astonishment
Speaker 25: mixed with a hint of dread, yet with a hopeful finish.
Speaker 25: It's just like, Wow, that moment just gets me every time,
Speaker 25: just like, Wow, Michael is back, and Michael and Tom
Speaker 25: are my only regret.
Speaker 14: With the whole Lex Luthor thing.
Speaker 25: And I'm sure, and we've talked about this before, is
Speaker 25: the memory wiping thing, and it really it really I
Speaker 25: really didn't like it when it first happened the first
Speaker 25: time I watched the I mean when I first watched
Speaker 25: the episode, I really didn't like that moment when his
Speaker 25: minds get when his mind gets erased, when all these
Speaker 25: memories of his time in Smallville at the moment, I
Speaker 25: felt very disappointed because I, as a fan, as a
Speaker 25: lot of fans, felt like, wow, well what does that mean?
Speaker 14: Right, Like, there's that a waste?
Speaker 25: Then his whole journey. Was that a waste that he
Speaker 25: doesn't remember it all? So, like, did why did we
Speaker 25: see it right? If it doesn't mean anything? Or how
Speaker 25: is he still Lex Luthor then without those memories that
Speaker 25: shaped him? But upon subsequent viewings, I did, you know,
Speaker 25: I did kind of notice in terms of the way
Speaker 25: that that was put together that there was that line
Speaker 25: of dialogue he says earlier about that's the thing about memories.
Speaker 25: You can't forget them. And despite that moment where his
Speaker 25: memories are erased, we see the Luther Corpse sign turn
Speaker 25: into Lex Corp obvious foreshadowing there, and then when we
Speaker 25: skip ahead seven years and he's President Lex, his destiny
Speaker 25: being fulfilled. So then my head canon was, Okay, well, yes,
Speaker 25: he doesn't remember why he feels this way about Superman.
Speaker 25: He doesn't remember the specifics of you know, his childhood
Speaker 25: and Lionel and this and.
Speaker 14: That, but.
Speaker 25: Those memories, those experiences still shaped him, right, So like
Speaker 25: he's still the same person that he was when we,
Speaker 25: you know, left off with his character. It's just that
Speaker 25: he doesn't know why he's that person, right, And knowing
Speaker 25: Lex the way we know him, he will go to
Speaker 25: great lengths to figure out why. And the season eleven
Speaker 25: comic really expounded on that a lot too, so, and
Speaker 25: you know.
Speaker 14: That's that is true to actual psychology.
Speaker 25: There are examples of people with post traumatic stress who
Speaker 25: don't remember their trauma, but they are still experiencing trauma.
Speaker 25: They just don't know they can't trace it, right like
Speaker 25: to those repressed memories.
Speaker 14: There are examples of people, you know.
Speaker 25: Like psychopaths, having specific hatreds of certain kinds of people
Speaker 25: or whatever it might be, and they don't know why, right.
Speaker 14: So I do think that it is.
Speaker 25: It makes sense and it is true to psychology if
Speaker 25: you kind of look at it in that kind of
Speaker 25: in that perspective. But it did take me a little
Speaker 25: while to kind of appreciate that. I think that was
Speaker 25: one misstep in an otherwise nearly perfect finale. Another misstep,
Speaker 25: of course, was the Superman costume itself on Clark.
Speaker 14: But you know what, we will get back.
Speaker 25: To that, because I need to first just wrap up
Speaker 25: the Luther element by saying Lionel was fantastic in this episode.
Speaker 14: It's so cool to see him.
Speaker 25: As just such a creepy Charles Manson esque psycho with
Speaker 25: this long, nasty hair and beard and his nails and stuff,
Speaker 25: his whole mad scientist moment, willing to sacrifice his own
Speaker 25: daughter's heart for Lex.
Speaker 14: It's just so cool and so evil and.
Speaker 25: So so perfectly Linel, but in this really demented you know,
Speaker 25: Earth two Linel specific way. I just loved it, and
Speaker 25: it was it was such a great device, you know,
Speaker 25: like to have Linel be sort of the catalysts for
Speaker 25: how our og Lex comes back, for how Michael comes back.
Speaker 25: That's my other only regret is I would have in
Speaker 25: terms of the Luther thing, I would have loved to
Speaker 25: have seen a final scene with the two of them.
Speaker 25: I get what, they probably couldn't schedule thing and blah
Speaker 25: blah blah, but it would have been amazing. But anyway,
Speaker 25: what a brilliant sendoff for the magnificent Bastard.
Speaker 27: So great.
Speaker 14: Yeah, So getting back to.
Speaker 25: The Superman costume, Yeah, it's a little yeah, it's a
Speaker 25: little cheesy that.
Speaker 14: We don't get to see Tom in the costume. I
Speaker 14: get it, I get it.
Speaker 25: I get everyone's disappointment, But you know what, it really
Speaker 25: didn't bother me that much when I first watched it,
Speaker 25: and it doesn't bother me that much.
Speaker 14: All these years later, Like, I.
Speaker 25: Get the frustration, but I guess because I was always
Speaker 25: watching the show for the journey up to that moment,
Speaker 25: I never even really thought we would get that moment,
Speaker 25: if that makes sense. I kind of thought we might
Speaker 25: end with like the shirt rip and the s and
Speaker 25: boom that's it.
Speaker 14: Like, so we got a little.
Speaker 25: Bit more than you know, I kind of honestly bargained for,
Speaker 25: and so to me, I was like, Okay, you know,
Speaker 25: could have been executed.
Speaker 14: A little better there, but.
Speaker 25: We got a little more suit action than I really
Speaker 25: thought we would get. So for that reason, it didn't
Speaker 25: really bother me. I get Tom has his creative reasons
Speaker 25: for not wanting to do it or whatever. It would
Speaker 25: have been awesome. You never know, there could still be
Speaker 25: a Smallville movie, but no, I think because the build
Speaker 25: up to it was so epic to me too, It's
Speaker 25: like everything we saw in the Fortress, Clark remembering all
Speaker 25: those memories in the crystals, the voice of Jorel combined
Speaker 25: with Jonathan, and the fact that it's the two of
Speaker 25: them finally as these two opposite fathers finally connected now,
Speaker 25: and Jonathan handing the suit off to Clark getting chills
Speaker 25: thinking about it. Yeah, and we do get that really
Speaker 25: cool short rip moment at the very end, and the
Speaker 25: John Williams theme playing, and the fact that it turns
Speaker 25: into the S at the end and it's no longer
Speaker 25: S for Small though now it's S for Superman, just
Speaker 25: like perfect segue into the iconic movie Superman.
Speaker 14: So yeah, I could go on and on.
Speaker 25: I really would love to do so, but I'm just
Speaker 25: gonna leave it at that and just say it's been
Speaker 25: a journey. It's been a ride, not only being a
Speaker 25: fan of the show, but being a guest on the podcast.
Speaker 25: I've just loved every moment of it, and the friendships
Speaker 25: that I've made through this podcast as well with everybody
Speaker 25: else who have I've gotten the chance to speak about
Speaker 25: the show together with has been amazing.
Speaker 14: Again. I am Matthew Roca.
Speaker 25: That's Rocca, and you can find me on Instagram. I
Speaker 25: am a filmmaker. You can follow my work. Right now,
Speaker 25: I'm working on editing a feature that we just shot
Speaker 25: called Morte m o RTE. Can find the little temporary
Speaker 25: poster on IMDb if you look up Matthew Roca Rocca
Speaker 25: and then the title Morte And yeah, stay tuned for
Speaker 25: more filmmaking stuff from me.
Speaker 14: I think the next one might be a superhero movie.
Speaker 14: So here we go.
Speaker 28: Hey everyone, my name is Darren Kirsht and if you
Speaker 28: are not familiar with me or my work, I got
Speaker 28: my start podcasting about five years ago with Zach on
Speaker 28: the Level thirty three point one Roundtable episodes above the
Speaker 28: Patreon had a lot of blast. I was actually lucky
Speaker 28: enough to be featured on the season six episode five
Speaker 28: reunion episode proper of the podcast, and that was Zach
Speaker 28: and Lance and that was a blast. It was a
Speaker 28: ton of fun. Yeah, it was awesome. And then I'm
Speaker 28: also the host of Round two, the film sequel podcast,
Speaker 28: where Zach has been on a couple of different times,
Speaker 28: and that's been a lot of fun as well.
Speaker 11: And Zach Lance as well, i should say. And then
Speaker 11: I also wrote.
Speaker 28: A book called The Snyder Verse Saga, which covers the
Speaker 28: DCEU but mainly the Zach Snyder DC movies. There is
Speaker 28: actually a Snyder Cut special that Zach did where we
Speaker 28: talked a lot about the book with the making of
Speaker 28: the book, kind of the content of the book.
Speaker 11: It was a lot of fun. I recommend you check
Speaker 11: it out.
Speaker 28: As for my thoughts on Smallville the entire series itself.
Speaker 28: I personally prefer the first half of the series because
Speaker 28: to me, it feels like more of the original PROMI
Speaker 28: of its conception, and personally I can relate to it more.
Speaker 28: You know, I grew up in a rural, small tone
Speaker 28: hobby farm, so I could just definitely relate to the
Speaker 28: Superman mythology as a whole as a writer and a
Speaker 28: journalist per se two. So to me, I just I
Speaker 28: always resonated with the first half of the series more
Speaker 28: than the second half. But there are great episodes and
Speaker 28: moments throughout the entire series. I always tell people and Zach,
Speaker 28: I'm sure I always finds this really bizarre that one
Speaker 28: of my favorite episodes is season three, episode four, called Slumber.
Speaker 11: I don't know why.
Speaker 28: It's just something that it's always been that way for me,
Speaker 28: and I just really loved that episode. So it's not
Speaker 28: the best episode, I should add, it's just one of
Speaker 28: my personal favorites. But you know, I think the content
Speaker 28: in the later seasons of the show, and to an extent,
Speaker 28: like the show in general, hasn't aged amazingly.
Speaker 11: Might be kind of.
Speaker 28: Sacrilegious to say in a way but to me, it
Speaker 28: just it becomes too fantastical and a little bit too
Speaker 28: comic bookie. For me, it kind of feels like the
Speaker 28: tone shifts when they go to Metropolis in the later seasons.
Speaker 28: But you know, in fun story in the moment, which
Speaker 28: for me was like twenty twelve, twenty thirteen, when the
Speaker 28: was when this for the series finale, I was actually
Speaker 28: initially skeptical of this New Man of Steel movie because
Speaker 28: I was such a big fan of Smallville and always
Speaker 28: champion Tom Welling as like our generation Superman at that time.
Speaker 28: And it's really funny now to look back on that
Speaker 28: over a decade later and to see kind of like
Speaker 28: how things have really changed, not only with that opinion,
Speaker 28: but like with our landscape as being Superman fans as
Speaker 28: a whole. But I just I owe so much to
Speaker 28: Tom Welling and his portrayal of Clark Kent for me
Speaker 28: in my formative years. It's just something that it's kind
Speaker 28: of been like a light to guide the way for
Speaker 28: me and something that I'll always be grateful for. But
Speaker 28: as for my thoughts on the series finale, there are
Speaker 28: moments that are really well done, and I think there
Speaker 28: are moments that just really don't work for me, like
Speaker 28: at all. So I guess overall it is a little
Speaker 28: underwhelming in terms of, like how you're going to wrap
Speaker 28: up this show of him becoming Superman, Like that's the
Speaker 28: whole purpose of the show, is Clark Kent on the
Speaker 28: journey to becoming Superman, the hero's journey, right, And I
Speaker 28: just think, you know, and then there might be numerous
Speaker 28: reasons why it didn't, you know, end up being the
Speaker 28: level of quality that I feel like it very well
Speaker 28: could have been and should have been. But you know,
Speaker 28: it is what it is, and there's still some good
Speaker 28: stuff in there too, some stand up moments. I love
Speaker 28: everything with Clark and Lewis. The night before the wedding
Speaker 28: and they're talking to each side of the door, I
Speaker 28: thought was worked really well. The wedding itself, if I thought,
Speaker 28: was done really well. The song Breathe Again by Sarah Morellis,
Speaker 28: I thought that just fit perfectly. And then the line
Speaker 28: also like everything all right, Smallville, and then like he
Speaker 28: responds with you know perfect I think it's cool how
Speaker 28: that ties back to the pilot with this conversation with
Speaker 28: Lana and then and the quote from Clark's vow was
Speaker 28: I actually used in my wedding as well, because it's
Speaker 28: just I just thought it was perfect and loved it
Speaker 28: so much. So I guess another moment for me that
Speaker 28: I really liked from the finale, the Trials moment, you know,
Speaker 28: with Jonathan handing in the suit saying the famous quote
Speaker 28: you know always Alana Smallville and just and just seeing
Speaker 28: the flashbacks is kind of like a cool way of showing,
Speaker 28: you know, where we've come from, how far we've come,
Speaker 28: hal far Clark has has gone on his journey, everything
Speaker 28: was a trial, and it's kind of active of our
Speaker 28: lives too, you know, in the trials we go through
Speaker 28: to become the people that we want to be. We're
Speaker 28: all Superman fans because of I feel like we try
Speaker 28: to strive to be, you know, the best version of
Speaker 28: ourselves and try to live up to you know, our
Speaker 28: love and fandom for this character. And I feel like
Speaker 28: it's kind of reflective of that in our lives too,
Speaker 28: and how we look back in that similar way, especially
Speaker 28: when we're tested the most. So yeah, so I really
Speaker 28: liked that the Trials moment, not really what comes before
Speaker 28: or after with you know, you know, Got Dark Side,
Speaker 28: Lionel and Uh, it's just yeah, anyway, well I'll come
Speaker 28: back to that later. But the conversation in the barn
Speaker 28: with Jonathan and Martha, it's always a treat to see
Speaker 28: Anet O'Toole and John Schneider together as Jonathan and Martha Kent,
Speaker 28: and it's just it was really great to kind of
Speaker 28: bring it back because that was when the beginning of
Speaker 28: the show, Like that was part of what made the
Speaker 28: show is so great, was that family dynamic and seeing them,
Speaker 28: you know, all back together like that, you know, even
Speaker 28: though like see one of the characters isn't really wasn't
Speaker 28: really there physically speaking, but it goes for him. But yeah,
Speaker 28: I thought that was a great scene. Obviously, the Clark
Speaker 28: and Lex scene is probably the most famous. I would
Speaker 28: say having Michael Rosenbaum come back so awesome that he did.
Speaker 28: I couldn't imagine what it would be like if he
Speaker 28: wasn't back, and just seeing the two of them together
Speaker 28: also brings it right back to how the show kind
Speaker 28: of started and what was so great about it early on.
Speaker 11: And then I also really liked how it ended on a.
Speaker 28: Flash forward because it kind of mirrors the pilot opening
Speaker 28: with a flashback, so I thought that was a really
Speaker 28: fun twist that ties it back to the pilot as well.
Speaker 28: And it's kind of interesting because the Harry Potter movie
Speaker 28: franchise literally and the books I guess too literally did
Speaker 28: the same thing at that same point in time with
Speaker 28: Deathie Hollow's Part two.
Speaker 11: So just kind of a fun coincidence everything.
Speaker 28: So when it comes to what doesn't work with the finale,
Speaker 28: to me, pretty much everything involving dark Side, and a
Speaker 28: lot of that I believe is due to the writing
Speaker 28: and just like the the conceptual idea of it for
Speaker 28: the not just the episode, but the end for the
Speaker 28: whole season. Like there's some large scale issues like that
Speaker 28: season planning, but there's also like on a smaller scale,
Speaker 28: a lot of the dialogue just does not.
Speaker 11: Sit well with me. I guess it could have been
Speaker 11: a lot stronger. It felt like maybe it was rushed,
Speaker 11: And I get it, like it's probably hectic and trying to.
Speaker 28: Come up with a finale, and I'm sure it's not
Speaker 28: an easy thing, and not saying I would be any
Speaker 28: better at it than they are, but I felt like
Speaker 28: when you look at the earlier seasons of the show,
Speaker 28: not even just with like you know, Miles and Miller, but.
Speaker 11: I'll go on Miles more. But yeah, I don't know.
Speaker 28: I just it wasn't quite as strong as it usually
Speaker 28: was for me, test erasing Lex's memory. That also, to
Speaker 28: me was unfortunate that that whole scene was kind of unfortunate. Also,
Speaker 28: why the long time jump to do the wedding again?
Speaker 28: Why not just do it a week later?
Speaker 2: You know?
Speaker 28: So I always thought that was kind of a strange choice,
Speaker 28: creative story choice. I know a lot of people are
Speaker 28: kind of frustrated with the whole cgi Superman, you know,
Speaker 28: like we don't actually see him physically in the suit right,
Speaker 28: which it is a bummer, But I totally understand the
Speaker 28: why of it, you know, when you when you hear
Speaker 28: Brian Peterson talk about why they chose not to because
Speaker 28: they felt like it's every other Superman media does it,
Speaker 28: and for their show, the short rip was like their
Speaker 28: way of just giving you what you just just the
Speaker 28: amount of what you need to understand it.
Speaker 11: And I and I liked how it ended on that
Speaker 11: as well. I think that was really great.
Speaker 28: You know, it's kind of sort of how Zack Sander's
Speaker 28: Justice League ended as well.
Speaker 11: But we'll we'll we'll we'll not talk about that.
Speaker 28: Uh, you know, to wrap up, uh, Smavel is my
Speaker 28: favorite show ever, and that's solely based on nostalgia and
Speaker 28: it will likely remain that way.
Speaker 5: You know.
Speaker 28: It added so much to the mythology, and it contained
Speaker 28: some of my favorite aspects of the entire Superman mythos,
Speaker 28: including certain casting choices like Michael Rosenbaum, John Glover, John Schneider.
Speaker 28: I think about some, you know, like the the way
Speaker 28: the show started with the on the Kryptonite.
Speaker 11: Falling and how it kind of and obviously with Lex
Speaker 11: how that loses his hair. And I really love the
Speaker 11: the Kent.
Speaker 28: Farm in general, but the barn itself, the loft, I
Speaker 28: think it was one of my favorite set pieces in
Speaker 28: all Superman media. So so much great stuff came from Smallville,
Speaker 28: and I just want to thank Zach Lance and all
Speaker 28: y'all small villains for keeping the flame of this.
Speaker 11: Amazing show alive and well.
Speaker 28: And no matter what good seasons are bad, good episodes
Speaker 28: are bad, I will always hold on to Smallville.
Speaker 29: Hey, always hold on to Smallville. Chris Fuchs here from
Speaker 29: always hold on to Star Wars with my thoughts on
Speaker 29: the Smallville season ten series finale. This show was one
Speaker 29: of the first shows that I watched religiously start to finish.
Speaker 29: It was appointment television for the first seven or eight years,
Speaker 29: and then as I got older and had a job
Speaker 29: and a little bit more of a life, it was
Speaker 29: catch up on the DVR. But I made sure I
Speaker 29: was there for the series finale, and I got to say,
Speaker 29: when I first watched it, I walked away happy. I
Speaker 29: walked away satisfied with the way that the show ended.
Speaker 29: I know it's changed over the years with rewatches and
Speaker 29: seeing how other superhero shows have done it since then,
Speaker 29: but watching the first time through, I was definitely good
Speaker 29: with the ending and all the way after that shirt
Speaker 29: rip had me giddy and just happy to see our
Speaker 29: Clark Kent become Superman.
Speaker 14: Some of the things I really liked about the finale.
Speaker 29: One of the biggest things for me was having them
Speaker 29: incorporate a Lois Lane airplane save. I think that was
Speaker 29: huge to have, and it's in almost every Superman story,
Speaker 29: so to have something like that was cool to see,
Speaker 29: and it's a nice moment to see Lois have Lois
Speaker 29: see her Clark become Superman, and we get to experience
Speaker 29: that as well, and that's what a lot of what
Speaker 29: the show is is her inspiring and pushing him. Some
Speaker 29: of my least favorite parts of the series finale, I
Speaker 29: think it was definitely slow starting and then rushed finish,
Speaker 29: so I think they could have done a little bit
Speaker 29: better in that regard. Having Oliver disperse dark sides cronies
Speaker 29: with one shot three arrows was a bit much for me.
Speaker 29: And I also really didn't like that comic book story
Speaker 29: intro where Chloe's reading the story of Clark in Smallville
Speaker 29: to her son. I thought that was a bit that
Speaker 29: and I just took me out of it a bit
Speaker 29: for there, So it wasn't a fit of that. Looking
Speaker 29: back now so many years later, definitely I see the
Speaker 29: issues a little bit more. I see the areas that
Speaker 29: I would have I wish they did that differently, or
Speaker 29: that wasn't as satisfying. But coming out of it in
Speaker 29: the beginning when I first watched it, I was definitely
Speaker 29: happy and felt good about the ending. I think back
Speaker 29: then I probably would have rated it around maybe like
Speaker 29: a B plus a minus range, and thinking back now,
Speaker 29: it's probably much lower, probably like a BB minus range
Speaker 29: in terms of what they gave us but ending on
Speaker 29: that shirt rip that was everything to me. So but
Speaker 29: it's definitely been a fun ride rewatching the series, re
Speaker 29: listening and meeting this group of people. Always hold on
Speaker 29: to Smallville, that my favorite show is as much as
Speaker 29: I do. So just like that journey came to the end,
Speaker 29: now this one is coming to an end. Can't wait
Speaker 29: to hear what you have to say about it, Zech
Speaker 29: and your guests. Looking forward to that finale coverage and
Speaker 29: always holding on to Smallville.
Speaker 27: This is Casey Cochrane. You can find me on Twitter
Speaker 27: or x as it's called nowadays at Casey Cochran fifty three.
Speaker 27: I'm now also the livestream producer for Faith UCC and Dunnine, Florida.
Speaker 11: I've got a.
Speaker 27: Unique memory about when I watched the Smallville finale. I
Speaker 27: was working at McDonald's at the time and I had
Speaker 27: to work the night at the finale. I also had
Speaker 27: a coworker who was a small Old fan and we
Speaker 27: were both working that night, so I invited him to
Speaker 27: my house after work to watch the finale. Well, after
Speaker 27: work was about five am, not the time most people
Speaker 27: watched it, and I don't remember how I felt at
Speaker 27: the time when I watched the finale, but having rewatched
Speaker 27: it again, it still gives me goosebumps. Another anecdote that
Speaker 27: I'd like to share is that I recently met my
Speaker 27: biological father in person for the first time. Shortly after that,
Speaker 27: he got married to a lovely woman, and I have
Speaker 27: visited them several times since they both love Smallville. They
Speaker 27: also have a thing for the number thirteen. He proposed
Speaker 27: to her on April thirteenth of last year, twenty twenty four,
Speaker 27: and then they got married a month later on May thirteenth,
Speaker 27: which was coincidentally the thirteenth anniversary of the Smallville finale.
Speaker 27: They didn't realize it at the time, but I pointed
Speaker 27: it out to them on their one year anniversary this year.
Speaker 30: Hello, always hold on to Smallville, Luke Bug the Geek
Speaker 30: of Steel here and you condy asked me to share
Speaker 30: a few thoughts on the finale of Smallville, and I
Speaker 30: hope you have a spare five to ten hours for
Speaker 30: my rantings and ravings.
Speaker 31: That show continues to be a huge part of my life.
Speaker 31: After season one ended many many years ago, I wanted
Speaker 31: to learn more about these characters, To learn more about
Speaker 31: Superman and Clark and Lois and Lex and Smallville. From
Speaker 31: that first encounter of that show, my love for Superman
Speaker 31: grew and grew and grew to one day, I became
Speaker 31: the Geek of Steel, and for many years I have
Speaker 31: loved sharing everything about Superman. And when that show ended,
Speaker 31: I was scared to watch that finally. I didn't want
Speaker 31: it to end. I didn't want to say goodbye to
Speaker 31: these characters and those stories and that town. But sadly
Speaker 31: we had to because the time had come for Smallville
Speaker 31: to end.
Speaker 18: I was was.
Speaker 31: Emotional, to say the least, when those final credits rolled.
Speaker 31: But I'm grateful for that show. I'm grateful for the
Speaker 31: characters and the memories and the way that that show
Speaker 31: has helped create where we are now in the world
Speaker 31: of pop culture and television. Just like without action comics,
Speaker 31: we wouldn't have movies and TV shows like we have
Speaker 31: now because of Smallville. We wouldn't have had Arrow, we
Speaker 31: wouldn't have shows like Gotham, we wouldn't have so many
Speaker 31: more TV shows about superheroes. So we must always hold
Speaker 31: on to Smallville and the memories of that show, and
Speaker 31: especially that finale. Smallville and Superman mean so much to
Speaker 31: me and to thousands of people around the world, and
Speaker 31: even though that show has sadly ended, it will continue
Speaker 31: to live on in our memories and in our hats
Speaker 31: and be a huge part of why we are fans
Speaker 31: of Superman.
Speaker 32: Hey there, this is Anthony Politic from the grun podcast.
Speaker 32: We finally made it to the Smallville series finale, and
Speaker 32: I guess the always hold on the Smallville series finale
Speaker 32: as well been hell of a ride. But for the finale,
Speaker 32: the finale of this Tom Welding led series, I actually
Speaker 32: tuned in. I was not a regular viewer of Smallville
Speaker 32: at this point, and I'm sure a lot of people
Speaker 32: also weren't a regular viewer of Smallville compared to the
Speaker 32: earlier years. But it was impossible to not be a
Speaker 32: compbook fan around this time period, whether it was because
Speaker 32: of the movies or whatever, and not be aware that Smallville,
Speaker 32: this giant Superman show, was reaching its finale. So I
Speaker 32: did what any good Samaritan would do, and I tuned in.
Speaker 32: I watched the show. I had no context for half
Speaker 32: the stuff that was going on. I just knew that
Speaker 32: I was watching a Superman show with all these wonderful characters,
Speaker 32: and you know, to say that it's bad, or say
Speaker 32: that it's awful, or say that it's this worst thing
Speaker 32: ever has been said before. So I won't be saying
Speaker 32: that here. I'll simply say that it ended. No, I
Speaker 32: didn't cut out. That's just all I have to say.
Speaker 27: It ended.
Speaker 32: So thank you so much, Zach for having me on
Speaker 32: the show the multiple times that you had me. Thanks
Speaker 32: for reaching out and having me record this little voice memo.
Speaker 32: Just like thousands, I don't know that. Maybe not thousands,
Speaker 32: that's not right. However, many people are here with me
Speaker 32: talking about the Smallville finale and how it happened.
Speaker 33: Great Hey, Zach Eddie here from New York, New York.
Speaker 33: It has been a pleasure to listen to you guys,
Speaker 33: and I can't believe we're at the final.
Speaker 11: Really, always hold on to Smallville.
Speaker 33: Man, I gotta tell you. I know the finale had
Speaker 33: its disappointing moments, but really I remember watching it and
Speaker 33: being so excited for it. Watching him fly, that was
Speaker 33: just a real epic moment. I have a different take
Speaker 33: on what it meant for our Clark Kent being the
Speaker 33: most powerful because he pushed away a planet. I believe
Speaker 33: that that was more about the collective group of people
Speaker 33: on planet Earth rejecting the dark side, combined with Clark
Speaker 33: slash Superman pushing the planet. The rejection of the darkness
Speaker 33: is what enabled the planet to be rejected from Earth.
Speaker 33: So it wasn't just about Clark being the most powerful.
Speaker 33: It was about the overall rejection of the darkness and
Speaker 33: the real theme of season ten with darkness. It's had
Speaker 33: its up and downs season ten, but at the end
Speaker 33: of the day, you know, we got Michael back for Lex,
Speaker 33: we got their confrontation. It wasn't perfect, but we certainly
Speaker 33: got a good enough ending. I give it an A.
Speaker 33: And you know, listening to this show has been special,
Speaker 33: being part of it, being on it, and it's really
Speaker 33: gonna be tough to you know, not have any new episodes.
Speaker 33: I gotta tell you, always hold on to Smallville. This
Speaker 33: podcast best one for the best show. Thank you guys,
Speaker 33: really appreciate it.
Speaker 12: Bye.
Speaker 34: Hi.
Speaker 35: This is Meredith Borders calling in from Bavaria, Germany. I've
Speaker 35: been lucky to join zacun Always hold on to Smallville
Speaker 35: three times in the final three seasons and each time
Speaker 35: has been a joy. Sex done such great work with
Speaker 35: us podcast, and I can't wait to hear the final episode.
Speaker 35: I love the series finale. I know that's not always
Speaker 35: a popular opinion, but knowing what we did about Tom
Speaker 35: Wellen's feelings about the suit, I think they came as
Speaker 35: close to that Superman in Metropolis magic as this high school,
Speaker 35: small town show was ever going to get. I remember
Speaker 35: spending months on the boards and TV gossip columns trying
Speaker 35: to learn if we'd see Rosie in the final app
Speaker 35: and I think, like in Lex's last scene.
Speaker 11: Is truly earned.
Speaker 35: I love Tessa's triumphant goodbye and Clark's final ascension revisiting
Speaker 35: all of his most important saves and taking to the
Speaker 35: skies gives me chills every time. I know the CGA
Speaker 35: suit bugs folks, and that's fair, but I'm too busy
Speaker 35: watching Erica durronson that scene, who gives the performance of
Speaker 35: a lifetime. And at long, long last, we've reached the
Speaker 35: origin story of this podcast's.
Speaker 36: Name for me, no notes, Hi, everyone, Alan Burke here
Speaker 36: from All Star Fan podcast. You know, I stock with
Speaker 36: smallvill for nearly seven full seasons, and those early years
Speaker 36: really meant a lot to me. There was something powerful
Speaker 36: about watching young Clark Kente come into his own not
Speaker 36: as Superman, but as a person learning to carry the
Speaker 36: weight of who he was meant to become. The relationships
Speaker 36: to heart, the emotional grounding, it all works so well,
Speaker 36: and even as my faded in the later seasons, I
Speaker 36: never stopped respecting what small Will set out to do,
Speaker 36: because honestly, Smallville mattered. It kept the Superman mit us
Speaker 36: alive during a time when no one else was touching it.
Speaker 36: It reintroduced core elements of the character to a new generation,
Speaker 36: and it laid the groundwork for the golden age of
Speaker 36: superhero television we see today. Without Smallville, there's no Arrowverse,
Speaker 36: no Superman and Lowest Maybe. Even though MCUTV in the form,
Speaker 36: we note the show helped redefine what long form superhero
Speaker 36: storytelling could look like, and that's a legacy to be
Speaker 36: very proud of. But when it comes to the finale,
Speaker 36: it's hard not to feel let down. After ten years
Speaker 36: of build up, we were promised the moment Clark would
Speaker 36: finally become Superman, and it just didn't deliver. The way
Speaker 36: the show handled Darkseide and the entire apocalypse plotline felt
Speaker 36: rushed and toothless. One of DC's biggest villains reduced to
Speaker 36: a puff of smoke and vague symbolism. It felt more
Speaker 36: like a technicality than a triumph. And the fact that
Speaker 36: we never really got to see Tom Welling wherre the
Speaker 36: k properly it still stings all these years later. I
Speaker 36: understand the behind the scenes reasons, but from a fan's perspective,
Speaker 36: it was a giant misstep. That was the payoff we
Speaker 36: waited for, not just the idea of Superman, but Clark
Speaker 36: becoming him. We were ready, the moment just never truly came.
Speaker 36: All that said, I'm incredibly grateful to Zach Moore from
Speaker 36: inviting me to be part of They Always went On
Speaker 36: to Small Bill Journey. It's been a real honor to
Speaker 36: revisit what the show got right, what its struggled with,
Speaker 36: and why he continues to mean so much to so
Speaker 36: many people. Zach, thank you for the invitation, and I
Speaker 36: wish you nothing but success in all your future projects.
Speaker 36: You've done something really special with this community, and I'm
Speaker 36: proud to have been a small part of it.
Speaker 31: Was along the way.
Speaker 7: Hey, Zach, this is Joey Deenberg from Always hold On
Speaker 7: to Star Wars. Just give you some of my thoughts
Speaker 7: on these Smallville finale. So back in twenty eleven, I
Speaker 7: was finishing up my junior year of high school, and
Speaker 7: I remember that the day the finale came out, I
Speaker 7: was actually away working at a boy Scout camp, and
Speaker 7: I was I remember being bummed that I did not
Speaker 7: get to see it live.
Speaker 27: But the good thing about.
Speaker 7: Twenty eleven was I did not have a smartphone, I
Speaker 7: didn't have social media in my fingertips, so I was
Speaker 7: able to make it out of camp and back home
Speaker 7: unscathed from any kind of spoilers.
Speaker 1: And I made it home and I went straight.
Speaker 14: For the DVR.
Speaker 7: Normally, after a long week of camp, I'm probably heading
Speaker 7: straight to bed, but this show had me ignoring, being
Speaker 7: you know, as tired as I was. I remember my
Speaker 7: parents giving me a hard time, trying to tease me
Speaker 7: and throw some spoilers out there, like oh, yeah, you
Speaker 7: get to see Tom Welling in the Superman costume, and
Speaker 7: thinking that that they had spoiled it there, and clearly
Speaker 7: they did not, and they did not actually watch it.
Speaker 7: So I was able to sit down with my parents
Speaker 7: and watch it. It wasn't never a family show in
Speaker 7: our house, but they.
Speaker 14: Always knew what was going on. And for this one,
Speaker 14: I remember them tuning in with me to watch. I
Speaker 14: loved it in the moment when it came out.
Speaker 7: I remember being obsessed with it after the fact, rewatching
Speaker 7: it on the DVR. I remember buying the individual episodes
Speaker 7: on my iPod and rewatching them over and over on
Speaker 7: bus rides to track meets over the next year, and
Speaker 7: just always going back to it. For me, it's still
Speaker 7: held up. It was a huge part of my Superman fandom, just.
Speaker 14: You know the age I was.
Speaker 7: I was too young when Lois and Clark came out,
Speaker 7: and we're still a few were years away from Man
Speaker 7: of Steel, so this kind of was it for me.
Speaker 7: I mean, there was Superman Returns, but Smallville obviously was
Speaker 7: just a much more key piece to my fandom. So
Speaker 7: I really enjoyed the finale in the moment when it
Speaker 7: came out. It's still I still enjoy looking back at it,
Speaker 7: but I now appreciate Smallville for more of what the
Speaker 7: journey it was, and I can find myself, you know,
Speaker 7: rewatching you know, all of season one or some of
Speaker 7: those earlier episodes before I go back to the finale.
Speaker 7: So it's not always my favorite part, but it's still
Speaker 7: hold a special place in my heart. I'm really looking
Speaker 7: forward to hearing your thoughts on the finale throughout this
Speaker 7: journey of listening to you rewatch the show over over years.
Speaker 7: Really excited to hear about your guys' discussion about it,
Speaker 7: and also just want to say thank you again for
Speaker 7: the community that you've created.
Speaker 26: This is.
Speaker 7: This podcast has really meant a lot to me. It's
Speaker 7: always there whether you have a good day at work
Speaker 7: and you just need to pass the time, or you
Speaker 7: have a bad day and you need to escape this.
Speaker 7: You know, your show, not so much Smallville, but your
Speaker 7: show has really created a community and a place for
Speaker 7: people like me to come enjoy. And you know, even
Speaker 7: before our first thirty three point one roundtable that I
Speaker 7: got to actually talk to you felt like I knew
Speaker 7: you and Lance and Kevin, Chris and you know you
Speaker 7: all felt like friends just listening to you, and I
Speaker 7: can really tell you guys just are yourselves here on
Speaker 7: this podcast. So just appreciated you guys sharing this experience
Speaker 7: with us. And again I'm looking forward to it and
Speaker 7: because of your show, I know I will always hold
Speaker 7: on to Smallville.
Speaker 21: Hey, Zach Anthony Desiotto here from digging for Kryptonite. I
Speaker 21: don't know that I've ever been as excited for a
Speaker 21: television viewing event as I was to watch the series
Speaker 21: finale of Smallville back in twenty eleven, and it ultimately
Speaker 21: ended up being a pretty bittersweet affair. There were moments
Speaker 21: I absolutely loved, clark reuniting with his parents in the
Speaker 21: barn Lois and Clark's walk down the aisle, Lex and
Speaker 21: Clark's first seen together in years, and of course Clark's
Speaker 21: seeing all of his trials laid out before him. These
Speaker 21: are some of my favorite moments of the series. Fantastic. Yet,
Speaker 21: of course, on the other hand, we have things like
Speaker 21: Lex's mind wipe, an unforgivable offense that undermines the entire
Speaker 21: journey he's been on over the course of the series,
Speaker 21: and of course the lack of a proper costume. And
Speaker 21: I don't know that I can adequately capture the dissonance
Speaker 21: I felt as I was watching this live back in
Speaker 21: the day, the slow realization that not only is it cgi,
Speaker 21: but that's all we're ever going to get to see.
Speaker 21: For that reason, there's always going to be a bit
Speaker 21: of an asterisk next to the Smallville series finale in
Speaker 21: my book. However, I have made a fair measure of
Speaker 21: peace with it over the years, and I think one
Speaker 21: of the main things I've come to is that I
Speaker 21: think the finale is a microcosm of the series as
Speaker 21: a whole, moments of greatness and moments that frustrate as well.
Speaker 21: Yet despite it all, we love it. So thank you
Speaker 21: for this opportunity, Congress that's on concluding your series coverage,
Speaker 21: and of course I will always hold on to Smallville.
Speaker 37: Good a Zach, buddy, it's your mate, Ryan Yuniican from
Speaker 37: across the ocean, out the side of the world. Even
Speaker 37: first and foremost, just want to send huge congratulations on
Speaker 37: finishing up the show. Extraordinary effort, ungodly effort. To be honest,
Speaker 37: you know, I'm sure you had plenty of people in
Speaker 37: your life to you that you were mad at the
Speaker 37: beginning of this journey, and here you are, all these
Speaker 37: years later about to wrap it up. So congratulations. You
Speaker 37: know how I feel about the podcast, my favorite of
Speaker 37: all time. I was stoked to come on board and
Speaker 37: talk to you about one of my favorite episodes, But
Speaker 37: to be fair, I probably could have chosen the finale
Speaker 37: to come on and talk about as well, because I
Speaker 37: love the finale. I felt like Welling was really up
Speaker 37: to the task, really staked a claim as a definitive
Speaker 37: Superman for a lot of people. And you know, I
Speaker 37: felt like it really delivered on the promise of setting
Speaker 37: the stage for what was to come in the comic
Speaker 37: book pages or whatever you personally side to be the
Speaker 37: continuity after the ending of the show. You know, I
Speaker 37: felt like it really set the stage for you to
Speaker 37: kind of pick where Soups went from there, whether it
Speaker 37: was into comics, whether it was into another form of media.
Speaker 37: I felt like it delivered on that initial premise and thematically,
Speaker 37: I thought it was a really beautiful ending. Like I said,
Speaker 37: I thought Tom was fantastic, It was great to see
Speaker 37: Rosie back. All the supporting casts were fantastic, as they
Speaker 37: always were, a real highlight of the show.
Speaker 11: And obviously Erica Durance.
Speaker 37: You know, what, can you say, the entire playing sequence
Speaker 37: is absolutely extraordinary, And yeah, I just thought it was
Speaker 37: a really beautiful, fantastic, strong.
Speaker 1: Ending to the show. I felt felt definitive to me.
Speaker 37: It felt like, you know, we're putting Clark in the
Speaker 37: rear view and this is this is you know, the
Speaker 37: trials and tribulations are done, destiny fulfilled, and we know
Speaker 37: where he goes from here.
Speaker 1: And I've had a lot of arguments over.
Speaker 37: The years about whether that's a an accurate raid on
Speaker 37: it or not, but that's my stance and and that
Speaker 37: was my raid on it. And I really really loved
Speaker 37: that that was my raid on it. And yeah, fantastic,
Speaker 37: Always hold on the small Ville man. Congratulations, I'm super
Speaker 37: super super styched for you.
Speaker 14: Hi, guys.
Speaker 38: Rob O'Connor here from the All Stars super Fan podcast
Speaker 38: to give my thoughts on the Smallville finale. The finale
Speaker 38: brings up a lot of memories for me. I remember
Speaker 38: when it came out. I had recently started dating my
Speaker 38: now fiance, and I remember watching it on my tiny
Speaker 38: little netbook laptop on the bus on the way back
Speaker 38: from my internship, which was on the other side of Ireland.
Speaker 38: At the time, I was feverishly anticipating this finale, and
Speaker 38: I think at the time I was mostly okay with it,
Speaker 38: with a couple of caveats. I thought the first the
Speaker 38: first forty minutes or so dragged a bit setting up
Speaker 38: the wedding that was not to be. The back end
Speaker 38: was was really the meat of the whole thing, though,
Speaker 38: we see Legs come back, we see Clark, you know,
Speaker 38: finally face down the darkness in the form of Lionel
Speaker 38: finally learns how to fly, and then he flies to
Speaker 38: the fortress and we see him finally become Superman in
Speaker 38: a manner of speaking. I think at the time, I
Speaker 38: was obviously frustrated by the lack of Tom Welling actually
Speaker 38: clearly visibly wearing the Superman costume. I do admire the
Speaker 38: lengths the director and the editor and the producers went
Speaker 38: to working around the problem that Tom Welling wouldn't wear
Speaker 38: the suit. I have a lot of respect for how
Speaker 38: they handled it. It is still sloppy and shaky and
Speaker 38: messy and weird to look at when they do these
Speaker 38: tight shots of his face. It's just very, very odd,
Speaker 38: and I am always just frustrated, like why when the
Speaker 38: Internet was so a washed with images of him wearing
Speaker 38: the costume in photo shots and stuff like, how would
Speaker 38: it have made any difference for him to actually wear
Speaker 38: the costume for five minutes of a TV episode. It
Speaker 38: will never make sense to me. I'm sorry, but everyone
Speaker 38: who had to work around that problem, I have a
Speaker 38: lot of respect for what they did. What I don't respect, however,
Speaker 38: is the baffling decision to wipe Lex's memories. It didn't
Speaker 38: make sense then, it doesn't make sense now. I guess
Speaker 38: maybe they just wanted to clean up the status quo
Speaker 38: and have it be your standard Superman comic book situation
Speaker 38: where he doesn't know the clerk is Superman. I guess
Speaker 38: that's what it was. Maybe it was a DC comic
Speaker 38: thing that they were told they had to end the
Speaker 38: series that way, and there was no wiggle room for
Speaker 38: Lex to know. I think they could have. They could
Speaker 38: have come up with a scenario or lexis, don't worry, Clark,
Speaker 38: I won't reveal your secret yet, or something just end
Speaker 38: the show on a cliff anger like that. That would
Speaker 38: have been interesting.
Speaker 15: But this is what we got.
Speaker 38: Is it the finale? I would have I would have
Speaker 38: liked to have seen kind of I think what we've
Speaker 38: and subsequent years that the plans Alan Miles had where
Speaker 38: it was going to be Clark Kent the journalist interviewing
Speaker 38: lexlot at the president with kind of flashbacks to a
Speaker 38: finale situation that would have been really, really cool, And
Speaker 38: I kind of wish we'd gotten that but this does
Speaker 38: a respectable, if messy job. It's a mixed bag, and
Speaker 38: you know what, most of small vill is a mixed bag.
Speaker 38: I think they leave the characters in a good place.
Speaker 38: Lex Aside, they leave the characters in a pretty good place.
Speaker 38: We see Lewis and Clark, you know, happily engaged at
Speaker 38: the Daily Planet. We see Jimmy two point zero. We
Speaker 38: hear Perry's voice. It's a recognizable Superman status quo. And
Speaker 38: while it was clumsy getting there, you know it'll do.
Speaker 38: And I think my favorite thing about the finale now
Speaker 38: is because we have it and we can look back
Speaker 38: at it. We can debate about whether it's good or not.
Speaker 38: That's one thing. But for me watching Smallville growing up,
Speaker 38: it was all about the destination. How is he going
Speaker 38: to become Superman? How is that going to happen? When
Speaker 38: is that going to happen? Why can't we get to
Speaker 38: that point now? It's just constant frustration, And I think
Speaker 38: that's why I left it for a number of years
Speaker 38: and then came back to it when the endgame was
Speaker 38: finally in sight. But now because we know how it ends,
Speaker 38: it's way easier to go back and just truly enjoy
Speaker 38: the journey, and there is a lot to enjoy the
Speaker 38: in that ten years, you know, so I'm very grateful
Speaker 38: to be able to do that now. And I want
Speaker 38: to thank you again, Zach for doing such a great
Speaker 38: rewatch show all these years, and you've set the standard
Speaker 38: for other Superman rewatch podcasts, and I tip my fedora
Speaker 38: to you.
Speaker 26: God bless.
Speaker 39: Hey there, Michael Bailey. Here of it all comes back
Speaker 39: to Superman chining in with my thoughts on the Smallville
Speaker 39: series finale, which I did watch the night it aired,
Speaker 39: not as it aired, because I had to work that night. Normally,
Speaker 39: this wouldn't be a problem because you've been back in
Speaker 39: twenty eleven. We lived in a day and age that
Speaker 39: you had DVRs hooked into your TV, usually through your
Speaker 39: cable system. But ours wasn't working so much like a neanderthought.
Speaker 39: I had to take out a VHS tape and actually
Speaker 39: physically I had to set the VCR in anything. I
Speaker 39: was rocking it like it was nineteen ninety two. And
Speaker 39: when I got home, I watched it, and then my
Speaker 39: feelings were I enjoyed this. I didn't understand certain things
Speaker 39: because I hadn't been following the show since season five,
Speaker 39: but I felt, in terms of seeing Clark finally become
Speaker 39: Superman and take that next big step literally that it
Speaker 39: worked really well. I especially liked the scene where he's
Speaker 39: in the fortress and all the images of everything that's
Speaker 39: happened to him or swirling around him with that great
Speaker 39: piece of music, because I think for finales like this,
Speaker 39: especially a show that runs ten years, I always love
Speaker 39: those moments in the finales where you get to watch
Speaker 39: like scenes from earlier that makes you feel like you've
Speaker 39: really been on a journey. I appreciate it the fact
Speaker 39: that they tried a shirt rip. I do not appreciate
Speaker 39: the fact that, like you guys have banged on about
Speaker 39: on numerous occasions, that it feels like they just took
Speaker 39: out their CD to Superman the Movie and just played
Speaker 39: the first track. All these years later, I still feel
Speaker 39: like the finale works.
Speaker 11: I enjoy it.
Speaker 39: When I finally did watch all of season ten, I
Speaker 39: felt like it was a good payoff to the plot
Speaker 39: lines that have been running through that season. But more
Speaker 39: than anything, what the finale did for me then and
Speaker 39: now is just make me appreciate what position Smallville occupies
Speaker 39: in the history of Superman. This is a version of
Speaker 39: Superman that brought in a whole new generation of people.
Speaker 39: He is the It is the Christopher Ye of Superman films.
Speaker 39: It is the Dan Kin, Lewis and Clark's. It is
Speaker 39: the Henry Cavill Superman, and hopefully the David corn Sweat Superman.
Speaker 39: It is that moment that existed beyond just a single
Speaker 39: thing and created a new status quo for a certain
Speaker 39: number of people who had just discovered the character. Anyways,
Speaker 39: congratulations on getting to the finale and I'm out.
Speaker 3: This is Nicole from the Wall of Weird on YouTube.
Speaker 3: Thank you Zach for having me back on to share
Speaker 3: my thoughts on the Smallville finale. I Binge watched the
Speaker 3: entire series in two weeks during the COVID shutdowns. It
Speaker 3: was a perfect escape from the dystopian reality we were
Speaker 3: all living through. Helped me regain a sense of normalcy, sanity.
Speaker 3: The heart of the show is what drew me in
Speaker 3: the most. As a mother, I deeply connected with the
Speaker 3: Kent family. I also loved the Clark and Laana relationship
Speaker 3: and later Clark and Lois. However, Clark and lexteynamic truly
Speaker 3: hoped me. It gave the show maturity beyond a typical
Speaker 3: teen drama in the early seasons. Season nine remains my favorite,
Speaker 3: but the series finale is my top episode. The more
Speaker 3: I rewatch it, the more I love it. The Clark
Speaker 3: and Lowe's moments, the Clark and Jonathan scenes, and the
Speaker 3: Clark and Lex confrontation were perfect. The finale tied up
Speaker 3: the storylines beautifully, delivering a classic good versus evil story
Speaker 3: with compelling theological undertones, and ended perfectly with Clark's soaring
Speaker 3: into the skies in the suit. Despite my love for
Speaker 3: the finale has a few blows. My biggest disappointment was
Speaker 3: the scene where Clark pushes the planet away. It felt
Speaker 3: underwhelming in both execution and drama, almost too easy. The
Speaker 3: action sequence seemed low budget, especially since didn't get a
Speaker 3: close up with Clark in the suit just a cgi
Speaker 3: Avatar was also disappointed that the ten years later flash
Speaker 3: forward show Clark and Lowis still not married. A town
Speaker 3: hall wedding doesn't take that long. Come on, Choosing a
Speaker 3: favorite scene is really tough, but I picked the Clark
Speaker 3: and Lowis wedding scene for the win. It's been an
Speaker 3: incredible journey and I'll always hold on to Smallville. Get
Speaker 3: you all later.
Speaker 1: Hey, Zach, Hey the always Malville crew.
Speaker 40: This is JJ from the Spider Man Book Club and
Speaker 40: four comic junkies here to talk about the Smallville series finale.
Speaker 40: You know, I'll be perfectly honest with you. I freaking
Speaker 40: loved it when it first came out. I was just
Speaker 40: over the moon. I don't know, and even to day,
Speaker 40: you know, what is it now, fourteen years later?
Speaker 11: Jeez? I still love it.
Speaker 41: You know.
Speaker 40: It's it's cheesy as heck, and you know, we don't
Speaker 40: get to see Tom in the suit, and that's a bummer.
Speaker 1: But I honestly think that the positives, the the the
Speaker 1: always hold onto small little bit, you.
Speaker 40: Know, ironically, uh lex coming back, the flash forward scene,
Speaker 40: you know, all all that stuff. It just it makes
Speaker 40: up for kind of some of the not so great stuff.
Speaker 40: But in all honesty, I don't want to focus on that.
Speaker 26: You know.
Speaker 40: I love where the where the story went and and
Speaker 40: kind of how it tied together a little bit, you know,
Speaker 40: with you know, these are my trials, and then you
Speaker 40: know when he finally flies at the end, you know,
Speaker 40: when he fights dark Side.
Speaker 1: You know, it just it did it for me. You know,
Speaker 1: and I think that that feeling of like wow, this
Speaker 1: is great.
Speaker 40: That I had all those years ago just just never
Speaker 40: really went away, you know, like the show.
Speaker 1: It may have disappointed me from time to time, but
Speaker 1: I never gave up on it.
Speaker 40: You know, always hold on too, Smallville, right, guys, you know,
Speaker 40: thanks again, this has been an amazing journey and wow,
Speaker 40: this it's the end.
Speaker 1: Now it's crazy. Look forward to see what you all
Speaker 1: do next.
Speaker 42: Hello, this is Luke deckerd from Mean Streets the Film
Speaker 42: Noir Podcast.
Speaker 36: Zach.
Speaker 42: Thank you so much for the opportunity to come on
Speaker 42: and share some final thoughts about the Smallville finale and
Speaker 42: be a part of this epic conclusion. Like so many others,
Speaker 42: Smallville was a show that I grew up with. It
Speaker 42: instantly resonated with me, not just because I lived in
Speaker 42: a similarly small town, but because Clark's very human struggles
Speaker 42: mirrored a lot of things that I went through as
Speaker 42: a teenager. I think this was the first time that
Speaker 42: I felt a real connection with Superman as a character
Speaker 42: other than just sort of enjoying the films and the
Speaker 42: cartoons and stuff like that. This really was the first
Speaker 42: time I felt like, Ah, I get this guy in
Speaker 42: a way that I just hadn't before. You Know, though
Speaker 42: my love of the show waned a little bit around
Speaker 42: season eight, I still remained loyal to the show. You know,
Speaker 42: I had left, I'd moved countries around season eight, and
Speaker 42: so going back and continuing to watch Smallville felt like,
Speaker 42: you know, holding onto a piece of home. I was
Speaker 42: always holding on too Smallville in a way. But you know,
Speaker 42: by the time you know, the show aired, I was
Speaker 42: finished university, Clark was about to step into his role
Speaker 42: as Superman, and I was about to go out into.
Speaker 11: The real world. And I a sort of always felt
Speaker 11: that I.
Speaker 42: Shared a parallel journey with Clark, you know, or our
Speaker 42: lives sort of, you know, we're going in that same
Speaker 42: sort of you know, we were were dealing with it
Speaker 42: with similar things along the way, where it was high
Speaker 42: school stuff, while that was finishing up high school, not
Speaker 42: knowing what she wanted to do, and then it was
Speaker 42: going out into the real world. I just sort of
Speaker 42: always felt connected to the show from that perspective. Now,
Speaker 42: when it came time to watch the finale, to say
Speaker 42: I was disappointed would be an understatement. Expectations were so
Speaker 42: freaking high, you know, Michael was coming back, Clark was
Speaker 42: finally going to be Superman, and the season had teased
Speaker 42: that suit, that bloody, bloody suit, so hard, and I
Speaker 42: was ready. I was ready to see Superman actualized. Instead,
Speaker 42: we got a forty minute melodrama about whether Lows and
Speaker 42: Clerk would get married or not. You know, they bring
Speaker 42: back Lex to erase his entire memory and reset him,
Speaker 42: and then we only a microscopic cgi Superman who pushes
Speaker 42: a planet away, and that's somehow eradicates this big darkness. Okay,
Speaker 42: oh yeah, and dark Side is a cloud of ravens
Speaker 42: or something.
Speaker 11: I don't know. It was just all a bit silly, uh.
Speaker 42: I think the finale bit off far more than it
Speaker 42: could chew, and it really could have benefited from some restraint.
Speaker 42: But there were things I liked about the finale, one
Speaker 42: of those being Clark's journey. You know, I think we
Speaker 42: got to remember that Clark is only meant to be
Speaker 42: twenty five in this finale. He's he's always been a
Speaker 42: bit slow to learn and slow to come around, and
Speaker 42: I think from from or from the audience perspective, sometimes
Speaker 42: it was it was easy to forget that he he
Speaker 42: was he really is a kid most of the time.
Speaker 42: Uh and even in the finale, you know.
Speaker 11: He he is still very young.
Speaker 42: He's still very naive and immature and has growing up
Speaker 42: that he needs to do. And the finale needed to
Speaker 42: wrap up essentially ten years of Clark's apprehension about who
Speaker 42: he is, wrap up his ten year long or lifelong
Speaker 42: twenty five year long identity crisis, and I think for
Speaker 42: the most part it landed that. I love Clark's eventual
Speaker 42: realization that he needed to physically move on from Smallville,
Speaker 42: something that as an audience member I was waiting for
Speaker 42: since season four. But also his last lesson was, you know,
Speaker 42: to understand that there is value in accepting his past
Speaker 42: experiences that you know, you know, his time in Small Villain.
Speaker 42: Embracing that very human part of his life is important
Speaker 42: and you know, he should not be running away from it,
Speaker 42: and he should not be ignoring it. You know that
Speaker 42: that's a really important message. I think Martha makes very
Speaker 42: clear in that very first opening scene.
Speaker 10: And.
Speaker 42: I think it's quite important that he finally becomes whole
Speaker 42: when he finds his strength and balancing his human experience
Speaker 42: is his human life with his Kryptonian side, you know,
Speaker 42: Lana asks Clark in the pilot, what are you Clark
Speaker 42: Man or Superman? And I think, well, for him to
Speaker 42: become the Superman, he needs to be both man and
Speaker 42: super And you know, while I don't think we needed
Speaker 42: the long flashbacks of him just kind of floating in air,
Speaker 42: you know, and you know, I think his acceptance of
Speaker 42: who and what he is and what he can be
Speaker 42: was a very satisfying conclusion to Clark's ultimate journey on
Speaker 42: the show and the show's ultimate journey, and so I
Speaker 42: really appreciate the finale for accomplishing that. I think it
Speaker 42: landed Clark's ultimate ultimate journey in a way that you know,
Speaker 42: I thought was satisfying. There are other little elements that
Speaker 42: I enjoyed about the finale here and there. You know,
Speaker 42: there's obviously a wonderful chemist between Clark and Lois, and
Speaker 42: I'm always here for Tom and Erica's you know romance
Speaker 42: on screen.
Speaker 11: It's wonderful. And you know, hey, I.
Speaker 42: Can't not mention the Lex and Clark final scene. I
Speaker 42: thought that was fantastic. You know, that was the thing
Speaker 42: I'd been desperately waiting for since season seven, and I
Speaker 42: was I think that scene was absolute Golds. It was special,
Speaker 42: truly special to witness the chemistry between Tom and Michael
Speaker 42: one last time, and I you know, that one scene
Speaker 42: between those two highlights the spark that I think was
Speaker 42: missing from the you know, the rest of the show
Speaker 42: post season seven. Now onto things I maybe didn't like
Speaker 42: so much.
Speaker 11: Short or bugged me.
Speaker 42: I've tried to keep this as short as possible because
Speaker 42: I you know, I could go through this with a
Speaker 42: fine tooth comb, but I'm not going to do that.
Speaker 42: A couple of things that I think bothered me the
Speaker 42: most about the finale and maybe still sort of bugged
Speaker 42: me today is one big thing is the donnerifying of
Speaker 42: the finale. I think Chloe reading that small vill comic
Speaker 42: at the beginning was just a bit stupid. It made
Speaker 42: no sense for there to be a small Vial comic
Speaker 42: unless the whole world knows that Clark is Superman. And
Speaker 42: if they don't know, well, that comic book is going
Speaker 42: to make it very very clear who Clark is and
Speaker 42: who Superman is. You know, I know they were going
Speaker 42: for a meta thing, but it just landed like a
Speaker 42: wet far. It's clearly a reference to the comic book
Speaker 42: scene at the beginning of Superman seventy eight and it
Speaker 42: just really felt out of place. But I think kind
Speaker 42: of continuing with the donnerification of the finale, the ending
Speaker 42: leading up to the shirt rip, well, you know, the
Speaker 42: shirt rip is a great ending scene for the show,
Speaker 42: and it was you know, when I was a kid watching,
Speaker 42: I thought, the way they're going to end this show
Speaker 42: is the shirt rip. That's a perfect ending for this,
Speaker 42: you know, and actually thinking we don't need to see
Speaker 42: him in a full blown shirt Like I I was
Speaker 42: fine with him having some sort of finale and then
Speaker 42: that being the the final scene and just letting our
Speaker 42: imagination run, you know, but I said, obviously we got
Speaker 42: teased with CGI miniature microscopic CGI Superman. Anyway, the shirt
Speaker 42: leading up to the shirt rip stuff, the whole Clark
Speaker 42: and lowis Misslaye, there's a bomb, the YadA, YadA, YadA.
Speaker 42: It really demonstrated the identity crisis that the show had
Speaker 42: had been in for several years and was still facing
Speaker 42: right up to its final moments. And I think the finale,
Speaker 42: trying to marry the Donner film with Smallville, it just
Speaker 42: felt unnecessary. Small vill didn't need to be turned into
Speaker 42: a quasi Reeve esque prequel. It just needed to be
Speaker 42: its own thing, and it was almost like the show
Speaker 42: was afraid at the end of you know, concluding without
Speaker 42: putting all of these DC characters in their traditional places,
Speaker 42: despite it making zero sense given the show's history and
Speaker 42: what the show had been doing. I mean, Lois Lane
Speaker 42: had been there since his senior year of high school,
Speaker 42: like you know, the playbook has been thrown out already,
Speaker 42: So I don't know why they worked so hard to
Speaker 42: do this sort of yeah, this this weird reset of
Speaker 42: the of the pieces. In addition to that reset, the
Speaker 42: other thing that I just found inexcusable was Lex mindwipe.
Speaker 42: I have no doubt this will be a hot topic
Speaker 42: in the finale discussion, but I just remember being absolutely
Speaker 42: crushed that they brought Lex back only to wipe his
Speaker 42: memory to eradicate everything that was important about him becoming
Speaker 42: the Lex Luthor that we you know, love to hate.
Speaker 42: I think the hard reset was egregious and frank leave
Speaker 42: lazy on the show's part and on the writer's part,
Speaker 42: And I don't know why they felt they needed to
Speaker 42: do it. I don't know if there's some sort of
Speaker 42: mandate somewhere if someone out there has that, you know,
Speaker 42: I would love to know. But I absolutely hated it,
Speaker 42: and you know, it bummed me out because we had
Speaker 42: seen Lex go so far and you know, taking all
Speaker 42: of those experiences away from him just.
Speaker 4: It was.
Speaker 42: It did a massive disservice to the show and the character.
Speaker 42: And I liked the idea of Lex finally knowing the end,
Speaker 42: but also knowing and both Clark and Lex knowing that
Speaker 42: there's no way back to their friendships. It's done. They
Speaker 42: are now enemies, and you know, I think that was
Speaker 42: an interesting way to leave the characters and a missed opportunity.
Speaker 42: But you know, whatever the show felt it needed to
Speaker 42: do a very hard resets and that was just a
Speaker 42: little bit, a little bit disappointing. My overall thoughts though
Speaker 42: on the finale. You know, when I when I look
Speaker 42: back on it now, I think I generally accept it
Speaker 42: for what it is, you know, for what we got. Yes,
Speaker 42: it is absolutely a bomber. We didn't see Tom in
Speaker 42: the suit. I think the finale is quite flabby. You know,
Speaker 42: that first forty minutes of the will they Won't They
Speaker 42: stuff get married just felt superfluous. It's Clark and lowis
Speaker 42: they're going to get married at some point. It didn't
Speaker 42: need to be now, it didn't need to be the
Speaker 42: focus of the finale. It just didn't need to be.
Speaker 42: But at the same time, you know, it's not easy
Speaker 42: sticking the landing. I think the show probably thought that
Speaker 42: it needed some big bad for its ending, you know,
Speaker 42: in the way it used dark Side, but in the
Speaker 42: way that it was unable to use dark Side was
Speaker 42: should have been the tell that they shouldn't go that way,
Speaker 42: because really, you know, all Smallville really needed was something
Speaker 42: as simple as Clark stopping a bomb or catching a
Speaker 42: falling plane to reveal to the world that he is
Speaker 42: Superman and you know, become that that beacon of hope. However,
Speaker 42: for me, the most important part of the finale wasn't
Speaker 42: whether Clark and Lois got married, or you know, whether
Speaker 42: he defeated dark Side or any anything like that. But
Speaker 42: you know, you know, it was really about getting Clark
Speaker 42: to the point where he can fully become Superman and
Speaker 42: of course bring Lex back after all her Oliver uh
Speaker 42: murdered him. And I think the show achieved those you know,
Speaker 42: last two points with with success, and of course had
Speaker 42: Cannon tells me that Lex he just got his memories back,
Speaker 42: which I think happens in the Smallville season eleven comics.
Speaker 42: But you know, so for all my issues, you know,
Speaker 42: I I do think the show landed Clark's journey and
Speaker 42: and I appreciate it for that alone. You know, small
Speaker 42: But will always be a hugely important to show to me,
Speaker 42: and I appreciate, you know, I appreciate that the it's complicated,
Speaker 42: you know, I appresue the complicated, you know, nature of
Speaker 42: trying to end a show and trying to conclude this
Speaker 42: epic Superman journey in a way that was satisfying. And
Speaker 42: you know, who knows, I maybe had some corporate shenanigans
Speaker 42: and inputs and you know, we all know how producers
Speaker 42: can be. So yeah, anyway, Zach, thanks for having me
Speaker 42: on one last time. This was great fun.
Speaker 34: Hey everyone, this is Mary Kukowski from the Kowski Cast
Speaker 34: and Rob has a podcast. And I can't believe we've
Speaker 34: reached the end already. Series finales are almost impossible to
Speaker 34: master perfectly. We've all seen some really bad ones over
Speaker 34: the years, looking at you Game of Thrones, but where
Speaker 34: Smallville is concerned, I think there's a lot to like.
Speaker 34: Many of us would have loved the show to go
Speaker 34: on for another several years, get rebooted, or even spin
Speaker 34: off in some way, but what we did receive had
Speaker 34: a good amount of closure and fan service to those
Speaker 34: who had been watching since the beginning. I personally loved
Speaker 34: all of the cameos from characters who'd been off the
Speaker 34: show for a while. I know I definitely shed a
Speaker 34: few tears seeing John Schneider back as Jonathan Kent one
Speaker 34: last time. I'll admit Season ten isn't my favorite of
Speaker 34: the show, but it does give that nostalgic feeling to
Speaker 34: want to start at the beginning all over again, And
Speaker 34: isn't that really the best a great TV show can
Speaker 34: hope for. Thanks to Zach and everyone else who has
Speaker 34: contributed to the podcast over the years for keeping the
Speaker 34: fandom alive.
Speaker 43: Hey, this is Eric Folk from Smallville Papers. I really
Speaker 43: loved the show's early years.
Speaker 2: Then.
Speaker 43: It seemed to have some you know, decent highs and
Speaker 43: major lows, especially you know things like the Laanna pregnancy,
Speaker 43: but it had enough good moments sprinkled throughout to keep
Speaker 43: me going. I was eagerly waiting for Tom to become
Speaker 43: the Superman that I feel like we all wanted to see,
Speaker 43: so watching the tenth season, I thought we were going
Speaker 43: to get like a budget friendly Superman movie for the
Speaker 43: final episode, since that seemed to be what it was
Speaker 43: alluding to, and also since my friends and I had
Speaker 43: worn Superman T shirts every week that the show was
Speaker 43: on there the first four seasons, I thought it was
Speaker 43: only fitting that we would wear it one more time
Speaker 43: for the finale. I laugh now that I realized that
Speaker 43: we wore as much as the suit as Tom did,
Speaker 43: and still feel robbed about not really seeing him become Superman.
Speaker 43: I remember thinking, and still do, come on, Man, could
Speaker 43: you at least wear the suit? Bringing Lex back was
Speaker 43: a must, so I'm really glad that he came back.
Speaker 43: Seeing him back was fantastic. I thought that having him
Speaker 43: back and him also knowing Clark's secret was an excellent
Speaker 43: take on this version of Superman, but then they decided
Speaker 43: to get rid of his memories, so I thought that
Speaker 43: was pretty lame. I'm still a bit torn on the ending.
Speaker 43: I love the cast, I love the show, but I
Speaker 43: do think that this is something that was just almost good.
Speaker 43: But yeah, thanks again for doing this podcast.
Speaker 11: I love the show.
Speaker 43: Thanks again, Hey, Zach Getts.
Speaker 6: Forrest, congratulations on reaching the finale in your podcast. I
Speaker 6: know I speak for a ton of your listeners when
Speaker 6: I say how grateful we are that you've held the
Speaker 6: Smallville torch, so to speak, and just kept the love
Speaker 6: and the spark going for Smallville for so many years later.
Speaker 6: So thank you, thank you, and thanks for letting me
Speaker 6: share some thoughts on the finale. I'm going to tell you,
Speaker 6: having not heard your full thoughts yet, I like it
Speaker 6: a lot more than you do. I'm excited to hear
Speaker 6: what you like, and, of course, since like the pilot,
Speaker 6: to hear once again some of the things that don't
Speaker 6: work for you. But here my rambled list of things.
Speaker 6: I think the previously on is incredible, always good. As
Speaker 6: you've mentioned how incredible those are. I think that's a
Speaker 6: great previously on, maybe not the best one, but one
Speaker 6: of the top ones. I imagine that you and the
Speaker 6: folks talking about the finale are critiquing the comic book
Speaker 6: of it all and how that could possibly be real
Speaker 6: in a world of keeping Clark's identity. So my head
Speaker 6: canon is that obviously Chloe, in all of her previously journalistics,
Speaker 6: Gills just you know, made her son a comic, but
Speaker 6: that is certainly not sold on the streets of Metropolis.
Speaker 6: In general, I feel like it's such a good finale
Speaker 6: in terms of the people that come back. I know
Speaker 6: you have feelings about ghost Dad. I think it's not
Speaker 6: so much that Jonathan's there. I think that Clark is
Speaker 6: seeing his dad and having conversations, much like maybe anybody
Speaker 6: would if somebody died.
Speaker 36: So I go with it.
Speaker 6: I totally hear you on it, and I like to
Speaker 6: think that it's just Clark imagining many conversations with his dad.
Speaker 6: I know that doesn't totally hold up, but that's my
Speaker 6: head canon. But I think having Jonathan back, Martha back,
Speaker 6: Lionel back, and not just Lionel, but like the evil
Speaker 6: Lionel is obviously the one that we all came to
Speaker 6: know out of the gate, so I think that is
Speaker 6: actually really much preferred over the genuine, you know, reformed
Speaker 6: Lionel of later seasons.
Speaker 11: So I think that's a lot of fun.
Speaker 6: So yeah, great, great sort of bookends with with our
Speaker 6: beloved people coming back. I kind of wish that Lana
Speaker 6: was in it, but I understand why she isn't It
Speaker 6: makes sense in terms of moving on and fully focusing
Speaker 6: on Lois, but I felt her absence just a little bit.
Speaker 6: I think the moving on speech from Martha is a
Speaker 6: little inconsistent and uncharacteristic of her. She seems kind of
Speaker 6: angry when she's talking to Clark in the house, and
Speaker 6: I don't ever really know.
Speaker 1: What to do with that, but it feels odd.
Speaker 6: I think the vows and the scene of not just
Speaker 6: the wedding but Lois and Clark reading their different vows
Speaker 6: to each other is immaculate. I mean, how could you
Speaker 6: not be inspired to write your own vows from something
Speaker 6: like that? But Lois reading them in the Daily Planet
Speaker 6: when Chloe gives them to her, just that moment of
Speaker 6: realization on Lois's face that Clark needs her to do
Speaker 6: what he does instead of, you know what she felt
Speaker 6: from the previous episode of her weighing him down.
Speaker 11: I just think is incredible. And I do think that.
Speaker 6: Chloe paid plays a pretty soft role in the finale,
Speaker 6: which I think is a little difficult, but it also
Speaker 6: again makes sense because we're really trying to focus on,
Speaker 6: you know, Clark, Lois, and lex So I get it.
Speaker 6: Let's talk about the inconsistency of the wedding guests I'm
Speaker 6: sure you've already you all have already gone there, But yes,
Speaker 6: I don't know to be more upset about the people
Speaker 6: who aren't in the room or upset about the people
Speaker 6: who are in the room who we've never seen. And
Speaker 6: I'm sure you've covered already how many people in that
Speaker 6: room have seen Clark Kent without glasses, So I'm not
Speaker 6: gonna waste your time on that. I think the aisle
Speaker 6: scene in the wedding is probably a top tier scene
Speaker 6: of any wedding done on TV. The song and bringing
Speaker 6: the song back from when Lois was reading the vows
Speaker 6: before is great. Obviously, I've listened to that song a
Speaker 6: thousand times since then. The fact that Clark walked with her,
Speaker 6: I know, it's a little weird that her dad's around,
Speaker 6: although I think we can all write that off that
Speaker 6: he's busy with what's going on in the world. I
Speaker 6: think Clark walking her down is just was a masterful decision.
Speaker 11: Again, ghost Dad.
Speaker 1: I just think Clark is imagining his dad there.
Speaker 6: It does not bother me and Lois calling him Smallville
Speaker 6: in the you know, walking down the aisle, I think
Speaker 6: is a great final moment to hear that maybe she
Speaker 6: does it later, but I think it's great. Even at
Speaker 6: the wedding, she's still busting his chops. Last couple of things,
Speaker 6: Jonathan and Martha in the loft at the end of
Speaker 6: part one, I think is really great. I just like
Speaker 6: the visuals of it, and they both look older, and
Speaker 6: I just think it works. I think Lois on Air
Speaker 6: Force one is just the right amount of like a
Speaker 6: comic book bizarreness that we can suspend our disbelief and
Speaker 6: believe that she would get there. It seems like a
Speaker 6: very lowest thing. I think, while Clark is ascending to
Speaker 6: being Superman, finally, it makes sense that Lois is also
Speaker 6: ascending to be this known journalist. So it's goofy, but
Speaker 6: I do think it works. And we all know that
Speaker 6: this Lois especially would easily confront the president, so totally
Speaker 6: with her on that. Last things, Clark and Lex, you
Speaker 6: guys are probably covering it.
Speaker 11: I think it's excellent.
Speaker 6: You know, no notes, I know that Lex's bald you know,
Speaker 6: Michael's baldcap is a little distracting, but for if it
Speaker 6: meant we got him back, I'm sure nobody has any complaints.
Speaker 1: Tess's death.
Speaker 6: You know, I know You're not a season eleven comic
Speaker 6: book canon believer, but I do think that I'm okay
Speaker 6: with Test coming back, and I'm also okay with her
Speaker 6: sacrifice there. I think she has an incredible one of
Speaker 6: her final lines about how Lex is doing this to
Speaker 6: her because he wants to prevent her from becoming like him,
Speaker 6: and Tests responding Clark already did that. Brilliant, so good.
Speaker 6: And then the last thing is I just think it
Speaker 6: was a really smart move. The juxtaposition between Clark's flashbacks
Speaker 6: through ten seasons and all of his lessons that he learned,
Speaker 6: and then also getting Lex's seven seasons of memories wiped,
Speaker 6: I just think was a brilliant move in terms of
Speaker 6: honoring the fans who have been here all along to
Speaker 6: see both of them come to where they are. And also,
Speaker 6: you know, Clark's rising up and being you know, memories
Speaker 6: that fuel him, and Lex's you know, telling a story
Speaker 6: of downfall, even if he is forgetting. Yeah. So I'm
Speaker 6: a huge finale fan. Emotions all across the board, fist pumping, crying,
Speaker 6: everything in between, Super excited to hear what you all think.
Speaker 6: Much love to you and Lance and everybody over there,
Speaker 6: and congratulations, really really grateful for everything you've done and
Speaker 6: looking forward to seeing what's next.
Speaker 2: Hey, this is Leah from Minneapolis. Zach, Congratulations on finishing
Speaker 2: the podcast. This is an insane achievement. You have done
Speaker 2: such a service for the Smallville community. I think I
Speaker 2: tell you this when I recorded my episode last year,
Speaker 2: but none of my friends or family watched Smallville with
Speaker 2: me growing up. So when I found the podcast, I
Speaker 2: was delighted to listen to other people talk about a
Speaker 2: show who loved it as much as I did. I
Speaker 2: think at that point you were on season two or three,
Speaker 2: and I just binged your entire catalog for a couple
Speaker 2: weeks straight and have been caught up ever since. My
Speaker 2: thoughts on the finale. First of all, I think for
Speaker 2: all of the deserved critiques that we all have about
Speaker 2: it as fans, which I'm sure you've thoroughly discussed on
Speaker 2: the show, the finale does actually have one of my
Speaker 2: top five favorite Smallville scenes ever, which is that Kent
Speaker 2: family hug in the barn loft. I don't remember a
Speaker 2: lot about watching the finale live except for that scene.
Speaker 2: That scene in the barn, and I remember just suddenly
Speaker 2: being a wreck catching up and just being a wreck,
Speaker 2: a sobbing wreck, and the lighting and the score. It
Speaker 2: was so classically Smallville in a way that the series
Speaker 2: hadn't called back to in a long time, which makes
Speaker 2: sense in those Metropolis years. And I think seeing Clark
Speaker 2: being able to take comfort in his parents in that
Speaker 2: moment could have felt contrived or obligatory by the series,
Speaker 2: but it didn't at all, and it felt so well
Speaker 2: earned by the series and the journey that we've been
Speaker 2: on with Clark. It was just perfect ten out of ten,
Speaker 2: and I will leave it at that. Thank you so
Speaker 2: much for all the work you put into the pod
Speaker 2: and for inviting me on and building this network of
Speaker 2: fans on.
Speaker 37: Behalf of all of us.
Speaker 2: I'm so grateful.
Speaker 16: I can't wait to see what you work on next.
Speaker 2: And if anyone wants to interact with me out on
Speaker 2: the internet, I'm on Blue Sky and x as ha
Speaker 2: E l v V. Of course, I will always hold
Speaker 2: on to Smallville.
Speaker 18: Cheerious.
Speaker 22: It's Craig mcgenzie from Nie Befour blog slash Nail before Pod,
Speaker 22: I was on Always hold On at Smallville. For season
Speaker 22: nine's upgrade, where we had the return of Metallo red
Speaker 22: Crypt Tonight and all that good stuff. Congratulations on making
Speaker 22: it to the end of the small Ville journey. That
Speaker 22: is no main feat. You've recorded at least as many
Speaker 22: episodes as Smallville had. So well done for that. Well
Speaker 22: done for persevering right until the ends. He asked me
Speaker 22: to reach out and give you some thoughts on the finale,
Speaker 22: which is also called finale. My experience of viewing the
Speaker 22: finale for the first time is I actually had a
Speaker 22: viewing party where I had a few people over. We
Speaker 22: had pizza, snacks and watched the episode. I enjoyed it
Speaker 22: in the main There was a mixed reaction in the room,
Speaker 22: but I had a good time. I'm not ignorant to
Speaker 22: the flaws, of course, I think there are many, but
Speaker 22: broadly I think it delivers on what it sets out
Speaker 22: to do. I'll get the negative stuff out the way.
Speaker 22: Things like bringing back Lex and setting up a credible
Speaker 22: reason for him to know Clark's secret but never reveal
Speaker 22: it only to erase his memory was a bad choice.
Speaker 22: It was a waste of Michael Rosenbaum's return. Although it
Speaker 22: was great to see him one last time, it's just
Speaker 22: a shame that he didn't get to keep all of
Speaker 22: his character development. In the end, we're poor tests never
Speaker 22: sharing any screen time with the main cast that did
Speaker 22: her dirty. I think she has a scene with Lex
Speaker 22: she knows about the threat that's coming, but she never
Speaker 22: actually gets to say goodbye to any of the cast,
Speaker 22: and then she's somewhat unceremoniously killed off. That's a bit
Speaker 22: of a shame.
Speaker 11: The Big One.
Speaker 22: We never see Clark in the suit, even though I
Speaker 22: knew in my heart of hearts it had never happened.
Speaker 22: Tom Welling was very vocal about never wanting to do that,
Speaker 22: and I didn't expect that he would change his mind
Speaker 22: for the finale. It's still disappointing considering we saw almost
Speaker 22: every other DC superhero in a version of their costume
Speaker 22: when they appeared. Not getting to see the Big Guy
Speaker 22: himself in his iconic costume a missed opportunity. I think
Speaker 22: also dark Side, he was never done well, but the
Speaker 22: defeat was weak even by those standards. I do think
Speaker 22: there wasn't much else they could do considering what they'd
Speaker 22: set up for that version of the character, but still
Speaker 22: it's weak. It's probably something that should never have been
Speaker 22: attempted on something like Smallville. With its more limited resources.
Speaker 22: Like I said, despite my misgivings, at a good time.
Speaker 22: And here's some of my favorite moments. I love themtage
Speaker 22: of all the good Clark had done over the years,
Speaker 22: and let's face at a celebration of all the money
Speaker 22: they spent over the years making some pretty awesome looking visuals.
Speaker 22: I know the creator said that there was no real
Speaker 22: precedent for realizing Superman's powers in this way, in a
Speaker 22: modern way, so they set the standard. They were figuring
Speaker 22: it all out and they did a fantastic job. But
Speaker 22: it was great to see a montage of all of
Speaker 22: that in the final episode. Another standout moment is Clark
Speaker 22: finally flying. That actually got a round of applause in
Speaker 22: the room at my viewing party. Great to finally see it.
Speaker 22: Since it's the final episode, the no flight's rule is
Speaker 22: spent a bit, even though the no tights rule states
Speaker 22: firmly in place. And of course, how can we not
Speaker 22: mention John Glover's magnificent beard. It was delightfully out of
Speaker 22: control and it's just there for us all to see.
Speaker 22: Other great moments Lois saying I'm an idiot when she
Speaker 22: decides to go through with the wedding that was pitch perfect.
Speaker 22: Jonathan's ghost was a great inclusion, gave the finale much
Speaker 22: needed emotional theft. I think it was great to see
Speaker 22: John Schneider one last time and in the final episode
Speaker 22: also the final scene I'm perfectly to the music and
Speaker 22: closed the show on a high ending on the shirt rep.
Speaker 22: I'm pretty sure that would have been conceived as a
Speaker 22: final shot of the show even before it aired, and
Speaker 22: that gave me everything I wanted, and not ending with
Speaker 22: the John Williams music, the shirt rip just fantastic, Just
Speaker 22: a great way to close out the show. So overall
Speaker 22: mixed emotions, but generally I'm satisfied and look fondly back
Speaker 22: on it. In a way, it's the best possible finale
Speaker 22: after a very uneven season of television. I grew up
Speaker 22: with Smallville. I was in high school when it started,
Speaker 22: and I was not in high school when it ended
Speaker 22: ten years later. But I always loved the show and
Speaker 22: stuck with it till the end and always enjoyed it
Speaker 22: to some degree. Congratulations again on getting to the end.
Speaker 11: What will you do next?
Speaker 22: Thanks for having me.
Speaker 1: On, Isaac.
Speaker 44: This is Matthew Santiago, also known as Matteo just wanted
Speaker 44: to chime in for my thoughts on the Smallville series finale.
Speaker 44: So I remember the first time I saw this, I
Speaker 44: was very much pretty young at the time. I was like,
Speaker 44: I believe thirteen, I think, and I was young and impressionable.
Speaker 44: I remember really loving it, specifically just the montage of
Speaker 44: Clark saving all the people, him flying, finally, him finally
Speaker 44: putting on the suit. The closed wedding was great, the
Speaker 44: Lex reunion, and everything in between. I think that over time, though,
Speaker 44: my thoughts on it have seriously changed. Overall, I think
Speaker 44: that it's a solid series finale, but it's a bad
Speaker 44: season finale. I think that this season had way too
Speaker 44: much going on, as you've previous said in the past
Speaker 44: in the pod, this past.
Speaker 1: Year, and ultimately there's this season.
Speaker 44: This series finale just feels like everything that they wanted
Speaker 44: to do really could not meet the expectations that they
Speaker 44: set out for themselves. And what's even strange to me
Speaker 44: is that they spend half the finale on a will
Speaker 44: they won't then of Clark and Lois, and it just
Speaker 44: it doesn't make sense considering that we as super Superhman fans,
Speaker 44: we all know they're gonna end up together. So the
Speaker 44: idea that you spend half the finale on whether or
Speaker 44: not they're going to get married, and not spending enough
Speaker 44: time on the dark side storyline, it just really left
Speaker 44: a lot to be desired.
Speaker 1: I think that the highlights of the.
Speaker 14: Episode are obviously with the Lex.
Speaker 44: Return, we see the Kent's come back and ghost out aside,
Speaker 44: I actually really like the scenes with the three of
Speaker 44: them together, and I think the final scene with the
Speaker 44: Daily Planet staff, Clark and Lois assuming their roles in
Speaker 44: the Natural Superman Cannon, I think that it was a
Speaker 44: really good sign up. I think that that scene is
Speaker 44: that scene and the Clark and Lex scene, I think
Speaker 44: are all timer scenes. I think that this series left
Speaker 44: off exactly where it should, even though the episode that
Speaker 44: led up to it was a much complicated a much
Speaker 44: more complicated misstep.
Speaker 1: If you ask me.
Speaker 44: But overall, I think that this series is still going
Speaker 44: to be remembered very fondly even though this episode these
Speaker 44: episodes were not the highest ste praise. But one more
Speaker 44: thing I want to say before I log out is
Speaker 44: I want to say thanks to Zach and all the
Speaker 44: work that he's done over the last many years.
Speaker 14: I stopped counting a while back.
Speaker 44: Honestly, I think that he's done a great job in
Speaker 44: building a community that so many of us can chime
Speaker 44: in talking about Superman and all of other superhero fandom.
Speaker 44: Of course, it's kind of crazy because I remember sending
Speaker 44: a mail back estimating that he'd be done by twenty
Speaker 44: twenty three, and here we are in twenty twenty five.
Speaker 44: But yeah, it's crazy things how things play out. But yeah,
Speaker 44: I'm glad to have been a part of the journey,
Speaker 44: and yeah, I will always be holding on to small Bill.
Speaker 45: This is Mike Demante, author of Punk Rocket and Here
Speaker 45: FoST Rangers in Fiction, Hey, Suburbian other titles, and also
Speaker 45: a longtime friend of Zach and Lance. I've been a
Speaker 45: guest on some of the sub shows before. I just
Speaker 45: want to say, guys, congratulations on getting to the finale
Speaker 45: and all y'all's great work you guys done through the years.
Speaker 45: My vague childhood remembers the series finale is obviously that
Speaker 45: iconic shot at the end, you know, he's on the
Speaker 45: rooftop and he rips open a shirt and see the s.
Speaker 45: But outside of that, that was really cool. How dark
Speaker 45: side and this is kind of like this unseen force,
Speaker 45: almost like this gin like negative energy.
Speaker 26: Hello Zach and friends, this is Tom Elliott from the
Speaker 26: Twilight Zone podcast with a few words about the small
Speaker 26: Ville finale. Now, I'm probably the only person sends and
Speaker 26: an eclip to the show that hasn't actually seen this before.
Speaker 26: I was a small Villa watcher back in the day,
Speaker 26: and I didn't stop watching because I wasn't enjoying the show.
Speaker 26: But in the pre streaming days, it was appointment television
Speaker 26: over here and easy to lose track of which unfortunately
Speaker 26: I did so. I don't know what the general fan
Speaker 26: reaction is to this finale, and I thought it would
Speaker 26: be quite interesting to come to this cold, but unfortunately,
Speaker 26: I think cold is probably the theme of my review here.
Speaker 26: My first criticism is that I think there's so much
Speaker 26: going on and so many things competing for our time,
Speaker 26: that it was difficult to feel anything about any of this.
Speaker 26: Characters that I know had so much heart and soul
Speaker 26: in them in the past just felt like pieces being
Speaker 26: moved around a chessboard, and it felt like they were
Speaker 26: just doing what they needed to do to save us,
Speaker 26: what they were trying to do in the finale, rather
Speaker 26: than this being a good and natural conclusion for these characters.
Speaker 26: And it's a bit of a weird comparison, but I
Speaker 26: remember watching the finale of the sitcom Friends, and I
Speaker 26: felt that I wasn't really watching the characters anymore. I
Speaker 26: was watching the actors just going through a bunch of
Speaker 26: scenarios that were needed for what they thought was necessary
Speaker 26: for a finale, again, rather than if feeling like anything natural.
Speaker 26: And unfortunately, nothing in this felt natural to me. You know.
Speaker 26: All the stuff with Lois and Clark talking to each
Speaker 26: other through the door just felt like a conversation with
Speaker 26: no authenticity to it. Michael Rosenbaum coming back really felt
Speaker 26: like nothing at all, And they tried to pull on
Speaker 26: the heartstrings with the Jonathan Kent stuff, but I just
Speaker 26: didn't really care about that much either. I think I
Speaker 26: would rather have had a story that was smaller in
Speaker 26: scope without all of the dark side stuff, because that
Speaker 26: all felt very undercooked to me as well. I don't
Speaker 26: know whether it had been leading up to that all season.
Speaker 26: Maybe that's just me and I've missed all that, but
Speaker 26: it all felt very insubstantial, and I would rather have
Speaker 26: had more meaning to rosen Barn coming back, like more
Speaker 26: of a showdown between them, and yeah, I know we
Speaker 26: needed something big for Clark to kind of interact with
Speaker 26: as Superman, I guess, but I don't know. It just
Speaker 26: all felt very out of place, but also very undercooked.
Speaker 26: And then there's the end, and you know, what do
Speaker 26: you do with Clark and the Superseeds at the end.
Speaker 26: I think there are pros and cons as to whether
Speaker 26: to show them in it or not, and valid arguments
Speaker 26: on both sides. But for me, you either don't show
Speaker 26: them in it at all and just do the shaite
Speaker 26: open at the end, or you go all in, because
Speaker 26: if you're ever going to do it in this show,
Speaker 26: now is the time to do it. After ten years.
Speaker 26: I think my personal preference would have been to have
Speaker 26: a final show down with him fully realized as Superman
Speaker 26: in the suit. But what we get is this weird
Speaker 26: kind of half ars in it where we see this
Speaker 26: kind of special effect version or animated version or whatever
Speaker 26: that was in the distance, and I just thought it
Speaker 26: was the waste of all worlds do one thing or
Speaker 26: the other, but just down half Arson in this way.
Speaker 26: And I'm not sure Chloe reading the comic book of
Speaker 26: all this to her kid makes any sense either. But
Speaker 26: you know, that's the least of its problems. So you know,
Speaker 26: there's a lot more I can say. But I've been
Speaker 26: pretty negative about this. But what I'm not negative about
Speaker 26: is you reaching this milestone. It's been great to kind
Speaker 26: of see you become one of the foremost Superman commentators
Speaker 26: and certainly Smallville commentators on the web. And you have
Speaker 26: truly in that place, Zach. And I know you'll be
Speaker 26: going forward and doing other stuff on this. This isn't
Speaker 26: the end, but it is certainly a great achievement. And
Speaker 26: you know what, maybe one day I'll go back and
Speaker 26: watch Smallville all over again and listen along to the podcast.
Speaker 26: It would be quite a good thing to do. So congratulations, Zach,
Speaker 26: and I'm glad I'm one of the people who has
Speaker 26: become your friend as you've been doing this. Take care,
Speaker 26: I'll speak to you later.
Speaker 41: And everyone at the always Hold On a Smallville podcast family.
Speaker 41: This is be Ken Marion here, DC comics artist, and yeah,
Speaker 41: I'm just chimming in on the Smallville finale. Yeah, I
Speaker 41: remember watching this when I was right out of college.
Speaker 41: So I was right out of college, went like the
Speaker 41: all after graduated college and this show had been a
Speaker 41: constant in my life from the from eighth grade.
Speaker 11: All the way up through then.
Speaker 41: So yeah, I remember watching it. I watched with my
Speaker 41: dad every week, and we used to like when I was,
Speaker 41: you know, older, when we weren't living in the same I.
Speaker 1: Was saying more.
Speaker 41: I would call him on the phone afterwards every time
Speaker 41: an episode were there. And I think that's the thing
Speaker 41: I missed the most about Small Villain in general, is
Speaker 41: that kind of like thing that I do with my
Speaker 41: dad and my mom and like just watch walks of show.
Speaker 41: And it was a really good, good memories, good family
Speaker 41: times and yeah, and every episode me and my dad
Speaker 41: would have the discussion like when do you think he's
Speaker 41: gonna put the costume on? When's he gonna put the
Speaker 41: Superman suit on? So the last episode, while we didn't
Speaker 41: get a ton of him in the suit, we actually
Speaker 41: got more than I was anticipating. So we got into
Speaker 41: the Superman shirt rip and I consider that a huge win.
Speaker 41: So yeah, I remember, I really liked the episode, really
Speaker 41: liked the finale. That was a really good wrap up
Speaker 41: to the show, and it had me pumped for Superman
Speaker 41: in general. And the show in the whole way was
Speaker 41: like that for me. So yeah, a really fun show,
Speaker 41: really good finale. I know some people wanted him the
Speaker 41: suit more, but like, let's be realistic. I think we're
Speaker 41: happy with what we got. And yeah, and Zach, thank
Speaker 41: you so much for doing the show for so long.
Speaker 41: It's been really cool to get to know you and
Speaker 41: listening to the show and you know, and just hear
Speaker 41: all these fun, entertaining thoughts on Smallville, this show that
Speaker 41: I grew up with. So yeah, thanks again for having
Speaker 41: me and I'll always hold on Smallville.
Speaker 24: What's going on, everybody? This is David Kocher. I'm an
Speaker 24: actor and I am a producer, prominently known for Superman Reborn,
Speaker 24: a live action script reading performance of what would have
Speaker 24: been Christopher Eve's fifth Superman movie. I just want to
Speaker 24: give a special thanks to Zach Moore and always hold
Speaker 24: on a Smallville. Zach, thank you so much for taking
Speaker 24: a time to shine a light and raise awareness of
Speaker 24: our production. It's because of people like you that our
Speaker 24: production had a voice that could be heard, and I
Speaker 24: really do appreciate that and I don't ever forget stuff
Speaker 24: like that, So I'll always check in with you from
Speaker 24: time to time. And I have no doubt that you're
Speaker 24: going to move on to other successful ventures, and I
Speaker 24: wish you nothing but the best and as always, always
Speaker 24: hold on to Smallville.
Speaker 19: Hi.
Speaker 46: This is Russ Demino. I write the Many Faces columns
Speaker 46: for krypton Site. Biggest issue I had with the finale
Speaker 46: actually wasn't not getting to see Tom Welling in the costume.
Speaker 46: It was that they erased LAX's memories, basically bringing Michael
Speaker 46: Rosenmam back just to undo a decade of character develop
Speaker 46: meant with the best Lex Luthor we'd ever had. I
Speaker 46: know the argument can be made that, oh, Lex can't
Speaker 46: know that Clark is Superman in this version.
Speaker 14: I think he absolutely could. It was very much earned.
Speaker 46: And also, think about it, if Lex saw Clark walking
Speaker 46: around wearing glasses, in a suit and tie and acting
Speaker 46: all clumsy, he would be like, dude, what the hell
Speaker 46: are you doing? Lex would not care about secret identity
Speaker 46: Clark Ken. He wouldn't give him the time of day.
Speaker 46: He would care about Superman because the Clark he grew
Speaker 46: up with was Superman, So I think the secret identity
Speaker 46: would actually be completely irrelevant to this Lex Luther. But seriously, folks,
Speaker 46: we got ten years of Superman stories, and yes, I
Speaker 46: say Superman stories, because even without the tights or the flights,
Speaker 46: Tom Welling absolutely embodied the qualities and characteristics of Superman
Speaker 46: for ten years. And the fact that Michael Rosenbaum did
Speaker 46: come back for the finale, John Schneider came back, a
Speaker 46: nett O'tool came back, John Glover came back, Aaron Ashmore
Speaker 46: came back. We got to see many familiar faces one
Speaker 46: more time to help send off one of the greatest
Speaker 46: runs that any superhero series ever had, And that is
Speaker 46: something that I'll always hold on to.
Speaker 47: There's Nike Mackenzie from Superman that I might a podcast.
Speaker 47: I just want to congratulate Zach on complaining Smallville ten sasons.
Speaker 47: My friend, I can't believe you finally mighte it. I
Speaker 47: was just thinking about when first listen to your podcast
Speaker 47: back in the back in the day. I can't believe
Speaker 47: you can say it now. Back in the day, I
Speaker 47: remember first listening to it. I think I was about
Speaker 47: midway through season one, I might have been season two,
Speaker 47: and you spoke about doing a mail bag episode, and
Speaker 47: I thought, oh, this would be a good opportunity to
Speaker 47: reach out. You know, a fellow Superman fan, and so
Speaker 47: I did, and it was just so great to listen,
Speaker 47: you know, listen to your read out everybody's email or
Speaker 47: you know review, especially taking the time to you know,
Speaker 47: do that, and you read out my letter or email
Speaker 47: that I sent you, and yeah, it was just I
Speaker 47: think that was our first interaction, so to speak, like
Speaker 47: obviously you didn't know me other than just reading words
Speaker 47: on a piece of paper. And then not long after that,
Speaker 47: you started doing up a Patreon and you know, I
Speaker 47: was really quick off the march to join and he
Speaker 47: started going into a thirty three point one. I thought, okay,
Speaker 47: this is this is interesting. And I know I wasn't
Speaker 47: the first, even though I was so grateful and lucky
Speaker 47: to be the first one that we actually you know recorded,
Speaker 47: but you know, being on there for the first day
Speaker 47: three point one episode with you. I think we did
Speaker 47: three episodes together. It was great to finally meet you,
Speaker 47: you know, doing the video recording. Yeah, it was just
Speaker 47: a shame I wasn't able to do a lot more
Speaker 47: episodes with you. Obviously with the time differences. Me being
Speaker 47: in Australia made it very difficult. But I'm just grateful
Speaker 47: for giving me the opportunity to join you on the podcast,
Speaker 47: which made so much fun over the years listening to
Speaker 47: and you know, just and also the yeah, the many
Speaker 47: friends that I've actually gained over the years from not
Speaker 47: just your podcast, but from other sick Men podcasts around
Speaker 47: the place. And you know, I'm just so grateful and
Speaker 47: thankful for what you've done and what do you continue
Speaker 47: to do. Leading into the finale of Smallville, you know,
Speaker 47: so many people have got so many different ideals on
Speaker 47: this episode. Obviously we're all upset with regards to the
Speaker 47: not really wearing the suit with Tom Welling, but I
Speaker 47: think it was a feeling finale, Like you know, season
Speaker 47: tens not everyone's cup of tea. It's not the best
Speaker 47: season of Smallville, you know a lot. I'm sure a
Speaker 47: lot of people have got their own different opinions, but
Speaker 47: you know, I think it finished on a good note.
Speaker 47: It finished with you know, some yeah, you know, some thought.
Speaker 47: I've seen seeing Tom in the suit, even if it
Speaker 47: is for a short time, even if it is cgi,
Speaker 47: but we get to see it and on this journey
Speaker 47: not just with Tom and the other characters throughout the shape,
Speaker 47: but also with yourself, Zach and the many guests. You know,
Speaker 47: Land's been the top there, you know, and so much more.
Speaker 47: Like I said, you've gained so many friends over the
Speaker 47: years that we've all listened to gone on to create
Speaker 47: out the podcast, and it can be now to continue
Speaker 47: this Superman legacy, which I'm so grateful for. So again, Zach, Congratulations,
Speaker 47: I'm completing ten years of Smallville. I can't wait to
Speaker 47: say what comes up next? For yourself and to all
Speaker 47: those other Superman fans out there, let's all put our
Speaker 47: hands together and congratulate Zach on ten years of Smallville.
Speaker 47: All right, well done, buddy, take care and I wish
Speaker 47: you all the best.
Speaker 48: All right, bye, Hello, Zach, this is Lex Ledger from
Speaker 48: thirty three point one Roundtable back in the day. Congratulations
Speaker 48: on finally making it to the end of this nine
Speaker 48: to ten year journey.
Speaker 11: Fantastic. So thoughts about the final.
Speaker 14: There are a lot of them.
Speaker 48: At the time when I was going into it, of course,
Speaker 48: super excited, just like everybody else, being like, We're finally
Speaker 48: going to see him in the suit.
Speaker 11: It's going to be like a little Superman movie. It's
Speaker 11: been building to this.
Speaker 48: I got halfway through the two parter, so the end
Speaker 48: of the first episode and I was like, Okay, that
Speaker 48: was a waste. Nothing happened, just the marriage back and forth,
Speaker 48: completely forced. Very disappointed in that, and yeah, that was
Speaker 48: not a good part. The second half I did quite
Speaker 48: enjoy as it was building up to Superman, and I
Speaker 48: didn't think we'd get a full episode of Superman, but
Speaker 48: I figured the last five ten minutes we would. I
Speaker 48: was still wrong with that. We had like maybe a
Speaker 48: minute of him in a CG Superman suit. But over
Speaker 48: the years I've softened a little bit on it because now,
Speaker 48: like in the Zack Snyder movies, his cape is CG.
Speaker 48: A lot better CG, mind you, but still CG. So
Speaker 48: maybe Smallville was just a little bit ahead of its
Speaker 48: time with the CG suit. At the end of the day,
Speaker 48: it's still him in what would what would he look.
Speaker 11: Like in that suit?
Speaker 48: So I've kind of softened on that a little bit.
Speaker 48: I still wish he wore the suit, of course, I
Speaker 48: still wish we had more time with him in the suit,
Speaker 48: but I've softened a little bit on it being in
Speaker 48: actual suit. Dark Side was a complete, complete fail. They'd
Speaker 48: stucked way too much into season ten, but they didn't
Speaker 48: execute any of it that well, so that was an
Speaker 48: unfortunate drop. Lois Lane was fantastic. I love her line
Speaker 48: in the finale where she's talking to the President and
Speaker 48: he's saying, this is not the time for your hero's
Speaker 48: miss and then she says, Lane, and this is exactly
Speaker 48: the time they will come. They will save us. That
Speaker 48: is very Lowis Lane is fantastic. Overall, I can still
Speaker 48: watch it. I don't think it's super satis as an ending,
Speaker 48: but I'm not as disappointed as I once was. But
Speaker 48: of course, over time you get used to it and
Speaker 48: expect to know what's coming because you've seen it before,
Speaker 48: so ups and downs with it. I think it should
Speaker 48: have been better.
Speaker 11: But it's not the worst.
Speaker 48: And I do not count crisis at all in continuity
Speaker 48: that completely did not happen. Finally, that mind wipe of
Speaker 48: Lex Luthor is atrocious. That will never be forgiven or
Speaker 48: forgotten by this les So that really could ruin the majority.
Speaker 48: That ruins, like the entire series almost with me, But overall,
Speaker 48: congratulations Again, I'm curious to hear your thoughts that you
Speaker 48: haven't already spoiled over the ten years of talking about
Speaker 48: the final But I'm curious to see everybody else's thoughts
Speaker 48: and how things go and who agrees with me and
Speaker 48: who doesn't. So congratulations again. Curious to see what you
Speaker 48: do next.
Speaker 11: Up up in a way.
Speaker 19: Hi, This is Craig Burn from Krypton site. Zach asked
Speaker 19: me to speak about my thoughts of the smavel the
Speaker 19: series finale, and now that it's been almost fifteen years,
Speaker 19: of course I view it differently than I did then.
Speaker 19: At least. The funny thing about that finale is the
Speaker 19: most emotional I got was not necessarily the ending, but
Speaker 19: rather there was a pre episode montage that the CW
Speaker 19: showed some press a couple days before the finale aired,
Speaker 19: and it was what we got in the episode, but
Speaker 19: it was like fifteen minutes long, and I'm just going
Speaker 19: through the entire journey all over again, and that was
Speaker 19: just so rewarding to see that we started one place
Speaker 19: ended there. It was a long journey and I think
Speaker 19: that was really cool. I'm gonna start with the elephant
Speaker 19: in the room. No, I'm not going to complain about
Speaker 19: Tom not wearing the costs him yet, but I just
Speaker 19: want to know if all it took to stop Dark
Speaker 19: Side was to inspire people, why did Oliver go all
Speaker 19: the way out into space or whatever to try to
Speaker 19: fix his mark of Oriyan or whatever it was? Also,
Speaker 19: where were Pete and Lana at the wedding unless you
Speaker 19: know they had a falling out or something. I mean,
Speaker 19: even if Sam and Kristen weren't available, surely you could
Speaker 19: have had the two people who looked like them in
Speaker 19: the audience. I still don't know who all those people are.
Speaker 19: And I also don't know why Clark failed to wear
Speaker 19: his glasses at the wedding. Obviously, it was so great
Speaker 19: to have Rosenbaum back. I was becoming convinced that it
Speaker 19: was definitely not going to happen, and then you know,
Speaker 19: about two months beforehand, as a Yellow revealed the good news,
Speaker 19: and you know, his scenes with Clark are great. I
Speaker 19: love that we got to see a scene between Lex
Speaker 19: and Tests. Tests was probably one of my favorite parts
Speaker 19: of the final scene, and they finally figured out what
Speaker 19: to do with her character and she was great. You know,
Speaker 19: I appreciate the cloest shippy stuff from this episode more
Speaker 19: as an adult than I did at the time. At
Speaker 19: the time, it seemed like it was just padded out
Speaker 19: to get to that second hour, especially since they didn't
Speaker 19: up getting married anyway, Smallville's dark side was really terrible,
Speaker 19: like the giant cloud Galactus or something like that. And
Speaker 19: also what they did to John Glover's hair in this
Speaker 19: episode may have a served Batman and Robin is the
Speaker 19: worst treatment he has gotten on a DC project. One
Speaker 19: of my favorite scenes in the episode, though, despite involving
Speaker 19: dark side, was the montage right before Clark could fly, which, again,
Speaker 19: you know, it's kind of like that montage I said
Speaker 19: in the beginning that I loved, just you know, it
Speaker 19: took a while to get here. We're here and we're
Speaker 19: moving to the future, and I think that's great. Jonathan
Speaker 19: handing Clark the cape and saying always hold on to
Speaker 19: Smallville may seem a bit silly, and I still don't
Speaker 19: totally understand the ghost thing from season ten, but you know,
Speaker 19: it would be kind of fitting if Jorrel made Clark
Speaker 19: feel as though that Jonathan was the one giving him
Speaker 19: the suit and it was a heartfelt moment, So I'm
Speaker 19: gonna give that one a pass. I do remember when
Speaker 19: I was watching when Lois was on Air Force one
Speaker 19: and she turns around to interview someone I did half
Speaker 19: expect to see full frontal Superman. I know, you know,
Speaker 19: I'm sure I was told beforehand that no, we're not
Speaker 19: getting it, but I just kind of held out hope.
Speaker 19: I was like, oh, we're gonna see her talk to
Speaker 19: an interview Superman. We didn't elas, but oh well. I
Speaker 19: was very disappointed and annoyed for a while that we
Speaker 19: didn't get Clark in the full costume at the end
Speaker 19: of the series, especially without characters like Booster Gold hyped
Speaker 19: up his arrival. I've softened on that now because hey,
Speaker 19: that's not the journey that we were invited to go on.
Speaker 19: And b if the final shot of the series had
Speaker 19: been Clark forming the Fortress way back in season four,
Speaker 19: we would have accepted it. I mean, it's weird that,
Speaker 19: you know, somebody like Booster Gold would be like, oh,
Speaker 19: the day you revealed to the world, and then we
Speaker 19: don't actually see it.
Speaker 11: But whatever.
Speaker 19: I know that some of my annoyance was aimed at
Speaker 19: Tom at the time, but that feeling has softened as well.
Speaker 19: I don't know if it's you know, spending time around
Speaker 19: Tom at different events or hearing him talk and talk
Speaker 19: Pill podcast, but I kind of get it, you know,
Speaker 19: he did ten seasons in two hundred and eighteen episodes.
Speaker 19: He should be the master of his own destiny of
Speaker 19: what he does or doesn't want to do. Plus, now
Speaker 19: we know, in this time period of revivals and reunions
Speaker 19: and stuff, that there's still time to get him in
Speaker 19: the tights, right Tom. I touched upon this before, but
Speaker 19: I you wish we had seen Lana, even if it
Speaker 19: was just her reacting to the arrival of Superman and
Speaker 19: watching TV or something like Kristen could have filmed it
Speaker 19: wherever she was. I do like the finale a lot
Speaker 19: more than I'm older. It's still definitely not perfect, but
Speaker 19: I've seen much worse. Hello Heroes are Born finale or
Speaker 19: the finale of The Flash where Cecil was the hero
Speaker 19: of the episode still doesn't make sense to me. After
Speaker 19: the finale aired, I admit I had such a feeling
Speaker 19: of relief. The day after May fourteenth was a friend's birthday,
Speaker 19: and we went to Six Flags, and I just felt
Speaker 19: like I had been able to finally take off in Fly,
Speaker 19: kind of like Clark.
Speaker 18: I guess you know.
Speaker 19: It was like no more ship or wars any of
Speaker 19: that kind of nonsense. And then a couple of years later,
Speaker 19: you know I had to deal with things like Elicity,
Speaker 19: which make them all seem tame. I do love that now,
Speaker 19: the different fan groups of the show seemed to mingle
Speaker 19: and appreciate the show for what it was. One thing
Speaker 19: I noticed at the Smallville Convention small vill Convention last
Speaker 19: year was when you ask people who they supported. There
Speaker 19: was cheering, but there was no like stink eye to
Speaker 19: each other or anything like that. It's like, we all
Speaker 19: loved this show, and I think that's great. Personally, I
Speaker 19: shipped Clark in his cape, so I was a little disappointed.
Speaker 19: I would I have wanted to see in Alan Miles
Speaker 19: version of the finale, absolutely, but you know, it is
Speaker 19: what it is, and it's also funny. I never expected
Speaker 19: to see these versions of the characters and live action again,
Speaker 19: imagine my surprise. You know, eight years later when Tom
Speaker 19: Erica showed up in Crisis, which is an ending that
Speaker 19: I have no problem with. I know that's kind of
Speaker 19: contentious and people are like, that's not the real Clark
Speaker 19: and Lois, but in my heart it is. The final
Speaker 19: episode of Smallville was the end of a fantastic journey,
Speaker 19: and that's a journey that I'm glad to revisit at
Speaker 19: any time. I'm also glad that new generations of yours
Speaker 19: are catching the show for the first time. Smallville definitely
Speaker 19: changed my life, and I'm grateful for it. Obviously, I
Speaker 19: had some great opportunities, and I also made some great friends.
Speaker 19: Hoping to see everyone at Slut's Smallville in September. I'm
Speaker 19: going to end not with always Held in a Smallville,
Speaker 19: but a quote from the final issue of Brian Q.
Speaker 19: Miller's Batgirl comic book run, It's only the end if
Speaker 19: you want it to be. As long as we keep
Speaker 19: the show in our hearts and talk about it and
Speaker 19: continue to enjoy it, the story will continue indefinitely. Thank you,
Speaker 19: Zach for all your years doing this podcast. I love
Speaker 19: that we're still talking about Smallville in New Year twenty
Speaker 19: twenty five.
Speaker 9: All right, we're back here in the far future of
Speaker 9: twenty eighteen. Lex Luthor has just been an elected president,
Speaker 9: and uh, I just want to say thank you again
Speaker 9: to all the many previous guests hosts so sit in
Speaker 9: their thoughts about the series finale. I hope you guys
Speaker 9: enjoyed that. You know, I really enjoyed it too. I
Speaker 9: know I'm pretty down on the series finale, but we're
Speaker 9: listening to a lot of these takes is kind of
Speaker 9: softened me on it, and I feel like I might
Speaker 9: be being too harsh on the series finale, especially listening
Speaker 9: back to our conversations in the finale Part one and
Speaker 9: Finale Part two podcasts here, because a lot of things
Speaker 9: really connected with people. Things I didn't like at all,
Speaker 9: people love. I mean, I think there's a lot of
Speaker 9: consensus about certain things like the lex Amesia and the
Speaker 9: interpretation of Dark Side. But that's the beautiful thing here.
Speaker 9: This is why I loved having rotating guest hosts on
Speaker 9: the podcast, so everyone could get different points of view.
Speaker 9: Because so many different people from so many backgrounds and
Speaker 9: so many walks of life and so many different demographics
Speaker 9: have this show and still love this show and experience
Speaker 9: this show in their own way. We could just talk
Speaker 9: about and compare our experiences and thoughts and theories and
Speaker 9: what connected with us and what spoke to us and
Speaker 9: what didn't and what worked and what didn't. It's really
Speaker 9: wide range, and it's so interesting to hear these passion
Speaker 9: takes about things that I completely disagree with on some
Speaker 9: and completely agree with on others, And you know, I've
Speaker 9: kind of changed my opinion about maybe a couple of
Speaker 9: things here listening back. I especially liked some of the
Speaker 9: theories about the darkness right, and how the people's belief
Speaker 9: and the rejection of the darkness is what helped Superman
Speaker 9: push away Apocalypse. I really love that theory. Shout out
Speaker 9: to Eddie Bissell for that, and a lot of people
Speaker 9: connected with the wedding stuff, which I you know, all
Speaker 9: of us really on finale part one, we were pretty
Speaker 9: we were pretty rough on the wedding, but you know,
Speaker 9: a lot of people really really worked for them. So
Speaker 9: I really am happy for those that the finale works
Speaker 9: so well for, and I wish.
Speaker 1: I was you.
Speaker 9: But stay tuned, y'all, because this write and over yet
Speaker 9: we have finale Part two coverage coming up next with me,
Speaker 9: Lance Laster, Matt Truix, and Cavante Chillis, So stay tuned
Speaker 9: and Always hold on to Smallville. Always hold on to
Speaker 9: Smallville is part of the Always Hold on To network
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Speaker 9: Once again, with one S, thanks for listening.