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Episode 715 Smallville- Veritas Viewing Preparation
Spoilers for episode 715 Veritas have indicated we will be getting a heavy mythos look at things tying in threads of stories that have run through Smallville from season 1 on. We will be seeing some flashbacks with the Luthors, the Teagues and the Swanns.
This blog will cover in brief the assorted episodes from previous seasons where the Kryptonian mythos regarding Clark and his destiny was examined in depth over the course of the history of this telling of the Superman myth in Smallville. I suggest that these episodes be your review list for watching Veritas. This is not meant to be a fully comprehensive list as the caves were heavily integrated into seasons 2 and 3 both. I am touching on the most critical episodes here.
The teaser that the Queens are also involved has not been explained, however, the pilot episode of Smallville had Lionel reading the newspaper that had the headline of the Queens’ death on the front page while he and Lex were flying into Smallville on the fateful day of the meteor shower.
Season 2 opened the door on Clark and his destiny. He learned of his origins in season 1 from his parents the Kents. His powers began to emerge with X-ray vision joining his speed and superior strength during his first year of high school. As Clark became a sophomore his heat vision kicked in. At this time his curiosity about his origins began to surface. Mid-way through season 2 we were introduced to the Kawatche caves when Clark fell through a hole and landed in them.
These caves and the symbols on their walls caught the attention of a number of people including Lionel and Lex Luthor as well as reclusive billionaire Virgil Swann. Swann entered the series with the episode Rosetta where Christopher Reeve played the brilliant entrepeneur who had turned his search for knowledge to the heavens. When Clark met Dr. Swann he was given a message which scared Clark to his core- he was told he was sent to earth to rule. As a teenager who only wanted a normal life this was too much for him to accept at the time.
When Clark learned more from his spaceship and heard his father Jor-El’s voice for the first time, he made a rash decision to destroy the ship in an attempt to flee his destiny.
This backfired on him with dire consequences when his mother was hurt in the aftermath of the explosion and lost the child she was carrying.
Clark ran away from his actions and responsibilities and left Smallville, but could not leave his past behind.
At this time Lionel and Lex had both been studying the caves and when Lex was declared dead after his unfortunate time on the island, Lionel’s pursuit of the knowledge of the caves and the mystery of Clark Kent deepened. We learned that Lionel had helped the Kents fake Clark’s adoption papers in season 2 in the episode Lineage. At this time Chloe had begun looking into Clark’s past- something she continued at the end of season 2 at the behest of Lionel Luthor. Lionel gave Chloe a job at the Daily Planet which she then lost when she would not do anything to harm Clark.
The episode Relic in season 3 had Clark finding a small medallion in the caves which held memories of Jor-El from his time on earth in the 1960s. This was the first time it was revealed that Kryptonians had been coming to earth before Clark’s arrival and that the Kents were chosen to be Clark’s guardians.
Legacy shows the return of Dr. Swann and he meets with Lionel Luthor to discuss Clark. There is a hidden agenda here that Clark is not privy to and he does not know how to respond.
The next episode in season 3 with some mythos references of note is Talisman. It explores that Naman the great warrior of Kawatche legend is to have a great enemy Sageeth and that he is to be revealed when he grabs a magic blade. Lionel and Lex grab the blade at once so that we do not know precisely which man is the greater threat.
Season 3 closes with Lionel going to prison for killing his parents while in cahoots with his childhood friend now dead gangster Morgan Edge.
Clark finds Lex’s room of horrors where he keeps all of his information on his pursuit of the truth about Clark thus destroying Clark’s faith in Lex, and Lana leaves to go to Paris to find herself. Clark at this time feeling alone in the world decides to take the first step in embracing his Kryptonian heritage and allows his biological father Jor-El to take him for his first step in his path to embracing his destiny- he does this to save Jonathan who had made a deal with Jor-El to get Clark to come home in the season opener Exile.
Clark is sucked into the cave wall to be reborn fully Kryptonian. At the time Clark does this the Kryptonian symbol for crusade is burned into the Kent field.
Season 4 opens with Clark being returned to Smallville naked in a cornfield to a startled Lois Lane in a flash of lightning in a cornfield.
Clark has no memory of who he is or how he got there, he is naked and alone and confused. Lois wraps him in a red blanket and takes him to the hospital where Martha Kent sees him and takes him home. This is key to the mythos of Smallville and the legends in the caves- Naman in the Kawatche myths is supposed to fall from the heavens and be delivered to his one true love. Lois finding Clark after he had fallen to earth was the big fat mythos anvil in this episode.
Once reunited with his mother Clark has no memory of her, he is fully Kryptonian and has been reprogrammed by Jor-El to find the three stones that when reunited will go together to form the Fortress of Solitude which houses all of the knowledge of the universe. While Clark is muddling along on the farm, Lex is in Egypt finding one of these stones. When it falls out of a statue he has, it emits a sound which makes Clark’s ears ring but he knows what he must do. We got to see one of the best special effects in television history when Clark took his first flight in Crusade.
By the end of the episode Clark is back to being Clark with some help from Dr. Virgil Swann’a assistant Bridgitte Crosby- played by Margot Kidder and a special piece of black kryptonite. Clark subdues his alien self and returns to being 100% Clark Kent.
The season is full of the quest for the stones and how Lana’s ancestor the witch Isobel and the Teagues are involved as well as the Luthors.
The quest culminates with the final episode of the season Commencement. Lana skips her own high school graduation after killing Genevieve Teague with one of the stones - while she was possessed by Isobel- and allows Lex to cover up the murder for her. Lana then gives Clark the bloodied stone while a meteor shower descends upon Smallville again- this time as a result of Lana spilling human blood on the stone. Lionel having made a change of heart gets the final stone to Clark as well so that Clark can form the fortress.
Clark was starting his training at the fortress but it is cut short when he realizes Chloe followed him through the portal in the cave. He takes her to safety and then sees that Smallville is a mess in the wake of the meteor shower. Clark is pulled home but he promised Jor-El he would be back by sunset to complete his training. Clark saves everyone he needs to but cannot leave. He decides to stay with Lana instead and faces dire consequences. He loses his powers.
In the mean time Lionel has gone into a strange catatonic state and is hospitalized at Belle Reve. His room is covered with Kryptonian symbols he is drawing. His condition changes when 2 episodes later Clark dies and Lionel revives him by getting him to the fortress. Jor-El tells Clark that Lionel is his oracle and that Clark will pay a heavy price for disobeying him- his life will be traded for someone close to him.
Meanwhile the meteor shower has set all kinds of terrible things into motion. Brainiac has been released and he is determined to bring on Zod.
Lionel appears to be on Clark’s side and an ally. Jonathan dies when Clark begs Jor-El to save Lana after she died hours after learning Clark’s secret giving Clark a world of guilt to carry around. By the end of season 5 the true effects of the quest for the stones and the consequences of the release of the powers that started the meteor shower are in full swing. Zod comes to earth and Clark is sent to the Phantom Zone. His release from the zone along with an assortment of criminals and one friend, his father’s assistant Raya will keep Clark occupied through season 6 and keep him from his training.
By season 7 Clark has gone to the Fortress to begin his training but was distracted by the discovery of his cousin Kara. Jor-El tells him to keep an eye on Kara. Clark makes more huge Kryptonian mistakes by releasing her father who like Zod is bent on world domination and has a thing for Clark’s mother. Clark faces another big Kryptonian time out when Jor-El encases him in ice while the final Phantom aka Bizarro steps into his shoes, his life and his bed with Lana.
This brings the story up to date!
Lots of plot holes and glitches along the way- hopefully in Veritas we will see some of the disparate threads of this narrative be pulled together into a cohesive story.
If you did not catch this- last years’ Justice and Doom comic tie in for the show featured a special online diary that pulled a lot of these threads together showing the Luthor/Teague/Swann connection.
Diary Page 1, Diary Page 2, Diary Page 3, Diary Page 4, Diary Page 5, Diary Page 6, Diary Page 7, Diary Page 8, Diary Page 9
Episode review list for seeing Veritas:
Season 1 Pilot
Season 2 Skinwalker, Rosetta, Exodus
Season 3 Exile, Lineage, Talisman, Covenant
Season 4 Crusade, Commencement- other related episodes are Transference, Spell, Sacred and Forever.
I include Forever as it has Jason and his mother doing dastardly things in the quest for the stones which lead to their demise.
Season 5 Arrival, Hidden, Reckoning, Oracle, Vessell
Season 6 Zod, Fallout, Phantom
Season 7 Bizarro, Blue
Screencaps in this review courtesy of Screen Cap Paradise, SVFan.com and RedKryptonClark
Video clips are my clips, from StarPoints Smallville and LegendaryU2K
Filed under: Essays, Smallville, Spoilers | Tagged: clark kent, luthors, mythos, queens, Smallville, Superman, teagues, the stones, tom welling, veritas episode 715 preview
[...] Episode 715 Smallville- Veritas Viewing Preparation Part 2 February 21, 2008 See my previous post for more about the upcoming episode Veritas and how it relates to the ongoing Superman mythos in [...]
Awesome summary…thanks for the list of episodes to watch (like I don’t watch enough already…my wife is just gonna love the fact that I found this blog).
May I have your permission to use the diary pages to add plot summary to the Smallville Wiki? I will credit your blog, of course.
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