A Second Look at Smallville's 100th Episode

I know I said in my last entry that I wasn't going to do much commentary for a while, But I actually wrote this a while ago and am just getting around to putting it up now, so this doesn't count. It's just that the 100th episode, "Reckoning," was rerun last Thursday making it a good time to say something about it. And I wanted to get it out of the way before new episodes started to air this Thursday.

Anyway, my initial response to "Reckoning" and Clark's actions in the episode have softened quite a bit. I've often said that Reckoning is the type of episode that seems really well done on the surface, but when you look closely, it's really a piece of crap.

I do think that Clark believed that he could keep anyone from dying, but not a lot of that is represented in the episode itself. (Apparently there was a deleted scene where Clark brought Jonathan's body to the Fortress of Solitude in an attempt to get Jor-El to save him. The inclusion of this scene would have at least made it seem like Clark is made an effort.) But I also believe that Clark just didn't think. It just seems like he should be too far along to still be jumping into things without thinking, especially in his dealings with Jor-El who may often be vague but can never be accused of not following through on his threats.

It's really the whole premise of the episode that's the problem. Time travel, reversing death, trading a life for a life. It was all just too big and unnecessary. And honestly, Jonathan Kent's death was completely unnecessary.

What pisses me off, is that Clark's resurrection in "Hidden" should have been the perfect time for him to reevaluate everything in his life. Had he not been brought back, with his powers, then the whole town would have been destroyed and thousands of innocent people would have been killed, including his loved ones. They could have easily had him realize that at the end of the episode and realize just how important he is and his powers are. He could have, and should have started to embrace his superheroing future right then and there. There still would have been plenty of angst on the Clark/Lana front and Clark would still have had to deal with the fact that he rather enjoyed being normal.

Instead, they had to go with the whole life exchange BS so that all he could focus on was that and not the fact that the world is actually better for having him in it. And quite frankly, given how many lives Clark saved in that episode alone, the exchange of one life for his, whomever that life ended up being, was well worth it.

"Reckoning" was about TPTB having a main character die purely for the sake of having a main character die in the 100th episode. I just can't get behind that as a good thing, no matter how well the episode itself was executed.