A More Adult Clark Makes New Friends and Enemies in Smallville's Sixth Season

Three years ago, my brother Nathan got me hooked on Smallville, the CW show that re-imagines the adolescence and young adulthood of all-American superhero Clark Kent. Within one year, we'd watched the first five seasons, but we only just finished season six now, which leaves us two seasons behind and despairing of ever catching up before the series concludes. Whether or not we manage it, we'll certainly be sticking it out to the end on DVD.

Every season of Smallville finds Clark and company with different preoccupations. This time around, Clark (Tom Welling) has a doozy of a problem on his hands when he accidentally releases several of the most heinous criminals in the universe from the Phantom Zone where he was trapped by Zod, the evil entity whose possession of Lex Luthor (Michael Rosenbaum) set up the season five cliff-hanger. Rounding up the rogue Zoners becomes his top priority, though he also has his eye on Lex, who is secretly experimenting on meteor freaks while getting uncomfortably cozy with Lana Lang (Kristin Kreuk), who, much as he hates to admit it, is still the girl of Clark's dreams.

For the most part, Lex's devotion to Lana seems to be the only thing keeping him from fully succumbing to his devilish destiny, though there are still flickers of decency that come across elsewhere, particularly in a powerful late-season moment with Clark. Their interaction is limited, however, and generally bristling with animosity. It's clear that Lex hasn't far to go to become Clark's nemesis, just one indication that the series must be nearing its end. I get the sense that if Lana had embraced Lex's advances a season or two earlier, it might have been enough to curtail his villainy; by this point, he's just in too deep.

Another indication that the series is moving into its endgame is the relocation of much of the action to Metropolis and the addition of both the Justice League and bumbling photographer Jimmy Olsen (Aaron Ashmore). As a long-time fan of Jimmy, I was tickled to see him join the cast of characters, though I had mixed feelings about the manner in which he was introduced as an old flame of Chloe Sullivan (Allison Mack), since he turned up just when it was beginning to look like Clark might actually return Chloe's long-unrequited affections. Since we know that Clark has to end up with Lois Lane (Erica Durance), though, I guess there's not much point in throwing him and Chloe together now and risking the strength of their friendship. In that light, adorable Jimmy is most welcome as a sincere suitor and a consistent source of comic relief.

The season drops occasional hints at the future Lois and Clark romance, especially in Crimson, the Valentine's Day episode in which Lois applies some aphrodisiac lipstick with disastrous (but largely hilarious) results. But Clark is still mooning over Lana throughout the season, while Lois spends half the season getting acquainted with charming billionaire Oliver Queen (Justin Hartley), a prep school rival of Lex who turns out to have as many secrets up his sleeves as Clark does. Their sassy repartee reveals a couple well suited to each other, but like most of the romances on this show, their blossoming love is threatened by the things they conceal from each other.

Even Martha Kent (Annette O'Toole) has a romantic prospect on the horizon, though in this first full season since the death of the Kent patriarch, her grief is too fresh for her to consider anything beyond friendship with the ever-enigmatic Lionel Luthor (John Glover). He is a powerful ally for her as she strives to serve honorably in the senatorial seat Jonathan won at such high personal cost. At this stage of the game, Lionel may be the most fascinating character for me simply because he's such a wild card. Chloe is the only other major player without an established destiny in Superman mythology, but it's a pretty safe bet that Clark's best friend isn't suddenly going to turn evil. Lionel, on the other hand, started out pretty rotten, and some of his actions in this season still seem reprehensible. But he also appears to be fighting for the side of good at times, and if nothing else, his affection for Martha is genuine. While his redemption would be ironic in the face of Lex's ultimate villainy, it would lessen the sting of that terrible transformation. Like Michael Emerson, who portrays the inscrutable Ben Linus on LOST, Glover constantly keeps us guessing with his complex performance.

In some ways, this is a very dark season. Lex's plans grow more and more grandiose and grotesque, and we learn in a flashback of a disturbing chapter in his youth. The Zoners wreak major havoc on some unsuspecting humans - not to mention the fact that there are still troublesome meteor freaks to contend with. The hustle and bustle of urban Metropolis can't match the comfort of bucolic Smallville, and an intrusive, oppressive score often ensures a skin-crawling sensation, especially in any scene involving Lex. On the other hand, new situations and characters inject freshness into the series. Many of the scenes with Lois and Oliver and Jimmy and Chloe are just plain fun, and it's a kick to see how the writers find ways of paying homage to these characters' forebears. Noir, an episode late in the season in which Jimmy dreams his way into a film noir version of his life, plays like a love letter to The Adventures of Superman. Clark has his own alternate experience with reality in Labyrinth, a much less aesthetically pleasing episode that finds him cooped up in a mental institution; reminiscent of LOST's Dave, in which an old friend of Hurley's turns up to inform him that the Island is all in his head, it allows us to see these familiar characters from an unusual perspective.

While I started getting tired of Lana's drama queen ways back in season two and always faulted Clark just a bit for overlooking the intrepid Chloe in favor of whispery, whiny Lana, giving her such intimate access to Lex puts her in an interesting position this year. Though she shows an alarming capacity for duplicity and vice, she also reveals the depth of her feelings for Clark, taking the character in refreshingly tender directions as she comes closer to figuring out just what he's been hiding all these years. Having Lois follow in Chloe's footsteps by writing for a tabloid is a fun way of bringing her closer to her journalistic future, and Chloe's bond with Clark is as solid as it's ever been, with one late-season development giving her role as his most reliable wingman even more creative possibilities.

Smallville grows more complex every season, sacrificing some of the innocence of previous seasons but creating a more intriguing web of plots and characters so that each episode is an important piece of the puzzle rather than being just a showcase for the meteor freak of the week. Will Clark ever don the famous suit and take to the skies? I can't wait to find out!

Pilot
Season One
Season Two
Season Three
Season Four
Season Five