Disc 1
Bizarro
Synopsis: Clark and Bizarro-Clark are still fighting and they break the dam in the process. This nearly drowns Lois, Chloe, Lionel and Lex but all are saved one way or another. Only Chloe is declared dead in the hospital but mysteriously rises from the dead. With Bizarro, everything is in reverse mode: Kryptonite is his power source but the yellow sun is his weakness.
My Opinion: Clark defeated him a bit too easy for my taste, especially since Bizarro was just juiced up with a huge amount of Kryptonite and also because one didn’t see what the Martian Manhunter did with him. But at least there are a lot of puzzles left to be resolved, e.g. the new female arrival, Chloe’s abilities, Lex’s newfound enlightenment and Lionel’s disappearance.
Kara
Synopsis: She’s been in stasis for 18 years. Her ship lay on the bottom of the reservoir lake until it was emptied due to the battle. She is Kara, Kal-El’s cousin and also a member of the house of El. And now she has to learn that her home planet is destroyed and that Kal-El is no small child anymore. And the military has her ship and if they manage to open it, it will self-destruct with the force of a nuclear bomb.
My Opinion: Now he’s not alone anymore. I’ve only seen a few episodes of this season and I have no idea how it will turn out, but I am aware of the fact that Kara will become Supergirl in the Superman mythology.
But I hated to see how they stomped over Chloe just to push Lois. That seemed unfair.
Fierce
Synopsis: Lana’s back in town – and not so dead as she was presumed to be. Clark is more than happy to see her, but his life has also changed. He has to teach Kara how to “blend in” with the Humans and she does this by entering the “Miss Sweet Corn” beauty pageant.
My Opinion: This was a funny episode to watch. I loved the character “Kara” from the start. She’s such a good counterpart to Clark. He needs to see that there are other ways than his own (a lesson Green Arrow also tried to teach him).
But I am still missing the “theme of the season”. Since the fourth season it has always been clear from the start what the season would be about. Isobel, Zod, the Zoners. I don’t believe that it will be a “Kara season” but I have yet to see anything else coming up.
Cure
Synopsis: A FotW who should be in Belle Reve reappears in Smallville and claims to be healed. Unfortunately she can’t remember anything since the time she became infected. Chloe doesn’t see that as a story but as a means to “cure” her, too. But the doctor isn’t who he appears to be.
My Opinion: Great appearance of Dean Cain who was Clark Kent/Superman in Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman, a show that I also watched until it was cancelled.
What I didn’t like was the fact that the Martian Manhunter has become Clark’s “waste disposal”. The writers have found an easy way out of any kind of plot without needing to think about it.
Disc 2
Action
Synopsis: The “Warrior Angel” movie is being made in Smallville. But someone seems to have a grudge against the lead actress and tries to kill her. Why? Because “if you’re destined to save the world, you’re destined to be alone”. But when Clark saves her (again) he’s being watched and now Lana becomes the target for that very reason.
My Opinion: I really liked the talk about the world of Hollywood and the world of comics and how they differ regarding happy ends. But Smallville and other shows like Buffy have shown that happy ends are no automatism anymore. And sometimes I wished for more happy ends again.
Lara
Synopsis: Kara is looking for the crystal that was in her spaceship and she nearly collides with a plane over Washington. But she gets caught by a government agent who knows her weakness because he analyzed the ship prior to its self-destruction. Now she’s forced to relive some forgotten memories about her father and her aunt Lara – Kal-El’s biological mother.
My Opinion: Now it gets soap-y. Zor-El (Kal-El’s uncle and father of Kara) loves Lara and makes his daughter forget about it… And how fast she’s learned to break into high security government computers. Impressive. Not.
Wrath
Synopsis: A “lightning accident” gives Lana Clark’s powers without taking his. Now she can experience what he is able to do. And she uses it to “procure” incriminating evidence against Lex and she brings it directly to the “Daily Planet”. When they deny to print the story, she tries to finish Lex off once and for all but – surprise! – is stopped by Clark.
My Opinion: Lana is slipping over to the dark side of the force. 🙁 But I really don’t think that Clark is the one to blame. Sure, he lied to her over a long time, but he never betrayed her and he never did anything to hurt her (although sometimes he managed to do it anyway). These dark traits have either been there forever or she has picked them up during her time with Lex. But I liked to see that Chloe is watching out for him and that she gave Lana an upfront warning about it.
Blue
Synopsis: After she’s called out to him, Clark uses Kara’s crystal to create a copy of his mother. But he also unknowingly creates a copy of Zor-El. Zor-El wants to create a new Krypton and for that he has to purge mankind from the face of the Earth. And he tricks Clark into accepting blue Kryptonite and suddenly he is mortal again.
My Opinion: I still think that Zor-El is way to cliché. But it’s good to see that Clark still can convince people to the right thing instead of what’s easy.
This was the last episode that I’ve seen before. From now on, everything is “new”.
Disc 3
Gemini
Synopsis: Clark is back from the Fortress where his father held him since the struggle against Zor-El. He joins forces with Lana to bring Lex to justice. Meanwhile someone threatens to blow up Chloe if Lois doesn’t write an article about a man who is somehow connected to both Lex and the “Daily Planet”‘s editor.
My Opinion: Lex must be a really desperate man to pull a stunt like this. And once again he managed to alienate the person he cares about. But I loved to see Chloe and Jimmy back together, yet I am worried about the look in his eyes when he learned the truth about her being a meteor freak.
Persona
Synopsis: Clark has never returned from the Fortress but instead Bizarro has taken his place and he tries to find a means of protection from the yellow sun. For this he seeks out Brainiac who is still very weak but its mental capabilities are completely unaffected. He points him to a Kryptonian who’s been living on Earth for more than a hundred years and who might be able to help Bizarro. But when “Jor-El” learns of Bizarro’s return he releases his son.
My Opinion: I have to admit, I didn’t see that coming. Clark has had so many changes of heart that I didn’t see through it when he teamed up with Lana in the previous episode. And I think it was a great idea not to reveal in the previous episode that Clark wasn’t Clark. I also liked to see Brainiac again.
Now I am waiting for Gene Hackman to make a “Special Guest Star” appearance. I mean, everyone else has had a guest appearance, with Helen Slater (Kara/Supergirl in Supergirl) as Lara in two episodes of this season and now even Marc McClure as Dax-Ur, who played Jimmy Olsen in the Superman/Supergirl movies.
Siren
Synopsis: Oliver is back in town and Chloe helps him stealing data from Lex’s computers. But then they are stopped by a new female vigilante. This person believes to do the right thing and stealing even from the rich isn’t the right thing in her opinion.
My Opinion: It was totally funny to see how Lois tried to cover for Oliver by “distracting” Chloe and Clark from the not-so-secret-anymore chamber in Oliver’s apartment. But I was sad to see that it didn’t work out between them. That proves again the statement about the destiny of superheros.
Fracture
Synopsis: After Lois and Lex have found Kara (who has still no idea who she is), Lex gets a bullet directly into his head and nearly dies. The only way to find Lois and Kara is to get into Lex’s head and Clark goes on this “journey”.
My Opinion: It’s good to know that even in Lex is a part that tries to fight against his own destiny. Though the chances are practically non-existant that he will ever win this fight. And the sad irony of this episode was that Lionel told his son that he loves him, but I think Lex is way beyond the point where he cares about that anymore. In the earlier seasons this was the one thing he wished that his father would say.
Disc 4
Hero
Synopsis: Pete’s back! And he has meteor-enhanced abilities now. But he has no intention of hiding them. He doesn’t want to live like Clark. But publicity comes with a price and sometimes that price can be too high.
My Opinion: I honestly didn’t see that coming. I really loved this “special guest appearance” of Sam’s. And apparently not everything has changed. Pete has found himself in pretty much the same situation as he was in the episode where he’s left the show.
Traveler
Synopsis: Someone stuns Clark with tasers and Kryptonite and puts him in a cell surrounded by Kryptonite. In order to find and help him, Chloe and Lana consider bringing Kara to the Fortress, to have her memory restored. Meanwhile the daughter of Dr. Swann approaches Lionel and threatens him to reveal informations about a secret society called “Veritas” and proof that Lionel murdered the other members.
My Opinion: That didn’t quite add up. It sounds unlikely that Lionel has known about a “traveler” since before the first meteor shower. Granted, he always has shown an interest in Clark, but if he actually knew about an alien, it wouldn’t have taken him five years to figure it out, especially when it was he who engineered Clark’s adoption. Additionally the sudden secret connections between the Queens, the Swanns, the Teagues and the Luthors didn’t sound right, especially since meetings between Lionel and Virgil Swann have been onscreen.
Veritas
Synopsis: Brainiac tries to make Kara work with him, but she refuses and is supported by Clark. But he doesn’t take that refusal lightly. He attacks Lana and thus forcing Kara to accompany him. Meanwhile Lex is remembering long forgotten things, memories from before the day of the meteor shower.
My Opinion: I don’t really know what to think of it. It is actually thrilling but it also feels as if the writers suddenly recognized that they don’t really have a master story for the season and thus came up with this “Veritas” arc.
Descent
Synopsis: Lex throws his father out of the windows and kills him. Now he has both keys to the thing that is in a bank vault in Zurich, which allegedly allows him to control the “Traveler”. And Lex’s right hand has just found out who that traveler actually is. But Clark knows now of this threat to him but he tries only half-heartedly to prevent Lex from getting to it, since he’s just lost the third person who represented a father figure to him and Lana’s still not responding to anything.
My Opinion: I knew that woman signed her death warrant the minute she learned about Clark. I didn’t know who would kill her but I simply knew that she wasn’t one of the persons who would “forget”. And sadly I was right, the good Lex ultimately lost his fight and now Lex has finally arrived on the dark side, from which there’s no coming back. 🙁 It’s also sad to see yet another actor of the original cast being gone.
Disc 5
Sleeper
Synopsis: Chloe is a terrorist who infiltrates government computers for an unknown group. Olson, James Olson is a government agent and he has the assignment to find out, what she’s doing and who’s she working with. Meanwhile Clark tries to find out, where Kara and Brainiac have gone and how a new page could have appeared in Dr. Swann’s notebook, dated back to 1989.
My Opinion: This was another great episode which I enjoyed a lot, especially the cloak-and-dagger “game” by Chloe and Jimmy – including the inevitable Tango. And she really looked awesome again in that dress. During her time at the “Daily Planet” she had some questionable hair cuts, but now she’s the total cutie again. 
Apocalypse
Synopsis: Clark has decided to give up. He knows that Brainiac is on Krypton in the year 1989 and that he will kill baby Kal-El. And Clark has decided that it is the best for everyone if he had never arrived on Earth. And suddenly he hasn’t. No one knows him. Chloe is getting married, Lana lives in France with her husband and her children and all is well. OK, Milton Fine is advisor to President Lex Luthor who plans to start a global thermonuclear war, but who’s nitpicking?
My Opinion: Season’s end comes nearer and it gets better and better. This was a great “what if?” episode. It was a bit sad though, that we didn’t see Jonathan or Martha, it would have been great to seem them on the show again. And I found it a bit unrealistic that both Kryptonians could be shot by Lex. The moment Clark was hit, Kara should have been warned and been able to duck any shots taken at her. But since it was only a dream (or something similar), I will let it slip through. 😉
Quest
Synopsis: Lex may have the Kryptograph but he has no idea what to do with it. Then he gets attacked by a man who carves a kryptonian symbol into his chest. But both Lex and Clark are guided to the Saint Christopher’s Cathedral in Montreal – Saint Christopher is the patron saint of travelers – and there they meet someone who is supposed to be dead.
My Opinion: It’s always fascinating how people try to keep something extremely well hidden, yet they leave a trace of bread crumps to follow. Granted most people would have failed to recognize that music and no one but Lex happens to live in that certain mansion, but why leave a trail when only the wrong people can follow it?
Arctic
Synopsis: Kara damages the plane on which Edward Teague – the last survivor of the Veritas clan – is flying to South America and in the resulting crash he dies. Then she reveals her and Clark’s identity to Lex and finally she points him to the Fortress. But the real Kara has never come back from Krypton, this is Brainiac again. And now Clark wants to stop him once and for all. But can he also make it to the Fortress in time, before Lex starts to control him?
My Opinion: This was a great season finale again and I am wondering what will happen next, considering the news of who will and won’t come back for the next season. I am glad that they didn’t make a killer out of Kara. She also has a destiny to fulfill. On a philosophical level there could be a discussion of whether or not Brainiac/Fine was a sentient life form and Clark did actually kill him instead of just destroying a machine. But sometimes you simply have to make the hard choices, I believe Spike would understand. 😉
The Season – My Opinion: This season had a lot of interesting episodes, yet until the Veritas arc it failed to have a destination to go to and the Veritas arc – as I pointed out – didn’t quite fit. It raises too many questions about the behaviour of the people involved (Lionel and Genevieve Teague for example). What I also noticed about this season is the regular absence of regular cast members. Kara, Lois Jimmy are all in the opening credits yet there were numerous episodes where they didn’t make an appearance. I got the feeling that they didn’t know what to do with them.
The following is about the cast of season 8 and thus “spoilered” (mark to read):
I am not really sad that Kristin Kreuk and Michael Rosenbaum are leaving the show. As I said, the cast seems a bit overcrowded. And I don’t really see where their stories would be going. Both Clark and Lana, as well as Clark and Lex have been going in circles for quite some time now. Yet I hope that Michael will return for the season opener to bring his story to an end.
And even without Lana we still have three femal leads: Chloe, Lois and Kara. What we will need is a new villain.
But I sincerly hope that they decide at some point to bring the story to an satisfying conclusion and that they don’t continue until either the actors resign or the show gets cancelled.
The End. (for now)