Smallville 5.12: Best Smallville Episode Ever.

The 100th episode of Smallville delivers on every level.

This week's episode of Smallville is the 100th episode in the series and all the promotion behind it paid off. It was clearly this season's best episode in both plot and substance, but was amazingly shot as snow season in Smallville meant beautifully shot scenes up the yin-yang. The main point to the entire episode is to have someone close to Clark finally die, told to Clark by Jar-El for the price of bringing back Clark from the dead. In this episode, we got lucky and two main characters bit the dust. The start of the episode begins quite powerfully as Clark takes Lana to his Fortress of Solitude and reveals his true identity. If that wasn't an entire episode by itself, he then proposes to her. The lucky bastard actually made the diamond out of a piece of coal by squeezing it with his hand on the spot and welded it to a ring. We are sent to the title shot and commercials on that memory.

After the break, we see Clark back at the Kent Farm as his parents pull up. He bumps into them and tells them that he told Lana his secret. Martha is happy for Clark, while Jonathan is unsure, but accepts the fact that Clark can make his own decisions now. Clark heads over to The Daily Planet to talk to Chloe about the events. While they talk, a woman receives flowers, a man gets fired, and Chloe receives a call from a wrong number, very important details. I thought the writers were quite obscene in the amount of tiny details they were adding to this scene. I was wrong. Back at the farm, Lana drops by to tell Clark that she will indeed marry him. They are next scene at the election campaign party at The Talon. Lois announces the news that Jonathan Kent will be the next state senator for Kansas. At the same time Lana gets a call from Lex Luthor, obviously he heard the news about his loss and wants someone to talk to.

Lana reaches the Lex mansion where she finds a quite drunk Lex. Lex sees Lana's ring and wonders aloud how she could say yes despite the secrets. Lana stares blankly and Lex knows Clark has told her his secret. Lex grows enraged and demands to know what Clark’s secret is, but Lana runs out before he can do anything. While driving back to the party, Lana calls Clark to tell him of Lex's knowledge, when Lex comes roaring behind her in his sport's car and pulls up beside her. Lana in a panic gets hit by a bus. Got you, didn't I? Clark hears the scream and comes out of nowhere, right in front of Lex's eyes. Clark sees Lana lying on the street bloodied and dead. A few seconds later, Jonathan pulls up in his car (what the hell, does the car have super speed also?) and pulls his son away from Lana's dead body. The End, of Part One of the episode.

Part Two begins with Clark in the Fortress of Solitude, asking why her and so forth. Jar-El tells him of a way to undo the actions by going back in time, but that a balance will be made. Clark chooses to go back in time anyways and grabs a crystal. We get zapped back to the first scene of the episode as Clark awaits Lana to arrive to tell her of his secret and propose marriage. She arrives and Clark shrugs off the date in Clark-like form, badly. Lana breaks up with Clark because of all of the secrets, he's trying to save you woman! Once again, Clark heads to The Daily Planet to talk to gal-pal Chloe. He tells her he's been in the future and knows what's going to happen. In another classic reference the Superman movies, Chloe laughing asks if he spun the world in reverse. Clark tells her everything that's going to happen in the office to win her belief, the flowers for the woman, the man being fired (both of which can be based on his x-ray vision and super hearing), and finally the wrong number call, which couldn't be known by any of Clark's powers. This is the reason I love time travel movies. It isn't necessarily the time travel part, but rather when a person from the future tries to win over another person by telling/explaining to them what's going to happen. It's always the best dialogue in the world and the best surprise/disbelief reaction you'll ever see. Chloe is now a true believer and says she will stick to Lana like white on rice to keep her safe.

At the campaign party, all the normal events play out, but Lois doesn't announce the results? Clark runs up to her room and finds her unconscious, since Clark never tells Lana his secret, Lana never goes to Lois for advice where she saves Lois from falling off a stool. Clark gets Lois into an ambulance, but Lana is gone now. Jonathan gets a call from Lionel Luthor where we finally know why he was so close to the accident in the other timeline. Lana, as before, heads to the Lex mansion. But in this alternate timeline; Lana explains about her "last" fight with Clark and Lex makes his move on the girl on the rebound. They kiss, but Lana pulls away and leaves. The same events play out, as Lex chases after Lana to talk about what happened, but this time Clark knows when and where. He grabs the bus to slow it down and it narrowly misses Lana. Lana stops and talks to Lex as Clark watches like a stalker. Jonathan drives by on his way to the family farm to have a meeting with Lionel.

At the meeting, Lionel shows a picture to Jonathan that would make him his puppet, but Jonathan instead punches Lionel and throws him over a table. The picture must be about Clark, but it is never shown to the viewer. As Jonathan leaves the barn, he obviously has trouble breathing and walks awkwardly. Martha and Clark show up just in time to see Jonathan keel over. I guess if Lana crashes, Jonathan stops at the accident and never has his meeting with Lionel. The commercial break comes and goes. We see the remaining Kents, Martha and Clark, prepare for a funeral. Clark blames himself, but (I guess he told mom about the deal with the devil he made) Martha says that he can't blame himself and that he wouldn't be able to choose between Lana and Jonathan. The final scene is the funeral. The winter funeral is the most beautiful scene in Smallville history as the clash of the white snow and the black funeral attire reminds me of something out of the movie Hero. Clark drops a handful of dirt onto the coffin and the credits roll.

The 100th episode of Smallville delivers completely on the promises of the promos. Every minute mannered and every scene mannered. The final scene was artistically masterful as it sends off a key cast member in style. Most importantly of all, this episode makes a push into a more traditional Superman storyline. His father did die while Clark was young and he doesn't wind up with Lana Lang, but a Lois Lane. The freelance style of Smallville, don't get me wrong I enjoy a certain level of creative differences in traditional and new Superman storylines, has been hurting the overall concept, but this episode put the key original concepts back into play. Next week's episode will be about a girl who uses Clark's anger for her own agenda. Next week is a semi-filler episode that will transition this episode with the remaining storyline of the season.