Smallville: Salvation (s9 ep21)

And so ends another series of Smallville here in the UK (the US are already watching Season 10, the final season). Again frustratingly, though somewhat comfortingly expected, this season ends on a cliffhanger.

With the Book of Rao (or Rau as the subtitles kept calling it) in hand, Clark decides that he'll use it to send all the Kryptonians, himself included, off to another world and a new home. This means it's time for an emotional goodbye with Lois, though Clark still can't tell her that he's the Blur. Everyone else around him knows - Oliver, Chloe, even Tess - but for some reason Clark thinks it wouldn't be a good idea to tell the most recent love of his life (kinda similar to when he was with Lana in the first few seasons). Anyway, eventually Lois figures it out when the Blur kisses her, which - let's face it - was a bit risky anyway. It wasn't so dark that Lois wouldn't see something of his features, even without the kiss.

Meanwhile, Zod and his cronies are going around blasting the Z-symbol into lots of well-known landmarks around the world. The reason for this - other than stamping their mark on the world - is to lure all the other Justice League / Justice Society superheroes away from Clark so they can't help him. Then Zod confronts Clark just as he's using the Book of Rao to open up the portal. And he's brandishing a dagger of blue kryptonite, which temporarily turns Zod and Clark human.

After a thrilling slow-mo battle on the Watchtower's rooftop, Zod stabs Clark and then Clark falls from the building. This takes the blue kryptonite away from Zod, and consequently he reverts back to being an alien and gets sucked up into the portal and away from the Earth. Clark falls to the ground... fade to black and cue "To Be Continued".

During all this Oliver is attacked by numerous unknown people who are apparently not Kryptonians (!?) and Tess is burnt and killed by Zod. However some strange old woman goes to visit Tess in hospital as she dies. Perhaps, to fit in with the villains to come in the next season, this is Granny Goodness?

Overall, a very good episode with some nice fight scenes and effects plus the shadowing of what is to come - and perhaps a very brief flash of Superman himself - in the initial couple of minutes. This season has improved on previous seasons, mainly due to the addition of various DC characters and lore. Zod, the main bad guy, was a little poor and the general storyline a bit muddled (as always) but, on the whole, still very enjoyable.

Now I just have to wait until next year for season 10 to appear on E4 when, hopefully, we'll finally see Clark stop moping around and become Superman. I won't hold my breath. ;)