Finale (Smallville)
Clark Kent embraces his destiny as Superman.
The two-part Smallville finale, airing May 13, 2011, concluded the series with episodes 216 and 217. Written by Al Septien, Turi Meyer, Kelly Souders, and Brian Peterson, it featured Clark Kent finally embracing his destiny to stop Darkseid. The episodes included a flashforward to Superman and the return of several former cast members.
Quick Facts
- Series
- Smallville
- Season
- 10
- Episode
- 21 and 22
- Air date
- 13 May 2011
- Production
- 3X6020 (Part 1), 3X6022 (Part 2)
- Writer
- Al Septien
- Turi Meyer (Part 1), Kelly Souders
- Brian Peterson (Part 2)
- Director
- Kevin G. Fair (Part 1), Greg Beeman (Part 2)
- Length
- 84 minutes
Facts from the source article.
Plot
Seven years ahead, Chloe reads a comic book about Superman's origin to her son. Back in the present, Lois and Clark clash over their wedding; Lois wants to cancel it, convinced she blocks Clark's path. Chloe hands Lois Clark's written vows to sway her. Clark talks with his mother Martha about moving on from the past. He finds Lois at their apartment, where she confirms the wedding after reading his vows and swaps them for her own. At the ruined Luthor Mansion, Granny Goodness confronts Tess Mercer, offering her a last chance to join Darkseid or die. Tess refuses, saying her Luthor birth doesn't seal her fate. At Watchtower, Tess finds satellite footage showing Apokolips heading for Earth. Before she can alert the team, armed men capture her. Granny Goodness, Desaad, and Gordon Godfrey meet in their lair. Oliver, under Darkseid's control, is told to use a gold kryptonite wedding ring to strip Clark's powers. At the ceremony, Chloe spots the ring as kryptonite and stops Oliver. Clark helps Oliver break free from Darkseid's hold as Apokolips enters Earth's atmosphere.
Production
After the seventh season finale "Arctic", showrunners Alfred Gough and Miles Millar left the series, unable to write the series finale. Millar later noted that in their minds the last moment would have been Clark putting on the suit and flying off into his future. Executive producer Kelly Souders stated that she and fellow executive producer Brian Peterson kept Gough and Millar's original ending in mind, as those scenes represented "real wish fulfillments for fans". The script changed along the way, with Souders calling it "a smorgasbord of what everybody wanted". The first part was written by Al Septien and Turi Meyer; the second half by Peterson and Souders. They began working on the script before Christmas in the fall of 2010, after the writers had a general idea for the first part of the tenth season. The script was finalized when former series regular Michael Rosenbaum agreed to return as Lex Luthor, forcing the writers to redo parts of the episode. Souders said the work was so stressful that she experienced heart palpitations due to exhaustion, excitement, and emotion.
Broadcast
The two-part finale of Smallville scored a Nielsen rating of 1.8, with a 3 share among viewers aged 18 to 49. This means 1.8 percent of all Americans in that age bracket watched it, and 3 percent of those watching TV at the time tuned in. An estimated 3.35 million viewers saw it, placing it second in its time slot. During the first 90 minutes, viewership averaged about 2.9 million, but the final half hour drew 3.39 million. This represented a 63 percent jump from the prior episode, "Prophecy." Jeff Jensen of Entertainment Weekly's PopWatch praised the finale for completing a story arc that began a decade earlier. He criticized the first half for its pre-wedding tension between Clark and Lois but felt the last ten minutes redeemed it, calling the episode "radically cornball and goosebumpingly geektastic." Chris Carabott of IGN gave it a 9.5 out of 10, calling it "amazing" and noting it delivered the moments fans wanted, successfully turning Clark Kent into Superman. Nick McHatton of TV Fanatic awarded five out of five stars, describing the resolution as "breath taking." He especially liked the seven-years-later ending, saying the final shot was exactly what he always imagined the series would conclude with.
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