A disembodied darkside and "No flights, no tights."
Smallville's finale had many fans talking.
Let's take a look at how the Man of Steel came to be.
After years of small-town superheroics, Clark Kent's biggest challenge arrives in the final
season in the form of an intergalactic evil called Darkseid.
Though Darkseid has usually been a flesh-and-blood being in the original DC Comics, he's portrayed
on Smallville as an almost spiritual dark force of nature.
As this malignant energy, he can take over one's entire being, with a person's own personal
darkness as his doorway.
To make matters worse, the Finale reveals that Darkseid has another trick up his sleeve
as his homeworld of Apokolips arrives, setting itself on a collision course with Earth.
This, coupled with his newly secured hold over Clark's friend and ally, Oliver Queen,
makes it look as if the alien tyrant might win after all.
But this is a Superman story — it couldn't end with the villain celebrating his victory,
could it?
Darkseid's ultimate plan is to claim Clark as his own.
Thankfully, Clark is no longer in danger of falling to his own darker side.
Earlier in Season 10, Clark almost succumbed to Darkseid's influence but was saved by his
cousin Kara Zor-El.
Realizing that he needed to let go of his past in order to prevent Darkseid from having
a foothold in his life, he began a healthy grieving process, dealing with the loss of
his adopted father Jonathan Kent back in episode 100.
Sadly, what started as a good thing soon became unhealthy.
Starting their new life, Clark and Lois Lane decide to sell the Kent Farm and move to Metropolis
to be closer to the action.
Clark thinks he has to leave Smallville in order to fulfill his destiny, and while that's
sort of true, selling his family's homestead isn't the answer either.
Nevertheless, Clark eventually overcomes his guilt about Jonathan's death, keeping Darkseid
from warping his soul.
Of course, before that, Clark vows to marry Lois, but those plans almost don't happen.
Lois calls off the wedding because she's worried that she'll get in the way of Clark's superheroics,
but the truth is that Superman needs his Lois Lane.
After realizing that they're stronger together, Lois and Clark nearly tie the knot before
Darkseid interrupts.
As Clark's best man, Oliver is in charge of the wedding bands, which Darkseid had made
him switch out for a gold kryptonite ring — the only form of Kryptonite that can permanently
strip Clark of his powers.
Recognizing this in time, longtime sidekick Chloe Sullivan stops Oliver, and Clark breaks
Darkseid's hold on Ollie.
Once Oliver's soul is restored, Apokolips has nearly arrived anyway, and they're running
out of time to stop it.
Although Lois and Clark's nuptials are interrupted, that doesn't stop these two from sticking
together and officially tying the knot down the line.
Elsewhere, a mirror-universe version of Lionel Luthor kidnaps Tess Mercer — the biological
daughter of his regular-universe counterpart — to use her organs to resurrect Lex Luthor,
who was killed by Oliver two seasons prior.
Thankfully, Tess proves more resilient than Lionel's other victims and escapes, but not
before mortally wounding Lionel.
As the older Luthor lies at death's door, he makes a pact with Darkseid, giving the
darkness his soul in exchange for Lex's life.
As Darkseid possesses Lionel's corpse, he resurrects Lex, who remembers everything about
his past, including uncovering Clark's Kryptonian heritage.
Over the course of her time on the show, Tess has slowly overcome her family history and
trauma, proving that just having Luthor blood doesn't mean you're destined for evil.
Something that always made Smallville special was the moments that Clark had with his parents,
friends, or love interests in the loft in his barn, and "Finale" may just have the best
barn scene yet.
After turning his back on Jonathan Kent's memory earlier this season, Clark spots his
father's ghost again, after acknowledging his need to hold onto those he loves.
Following Jonathan's spirit to the loft, Clark asks for help.
Almost uncharacteristically, Jonathan tells Clark that he and Clark's mother Martha can't
guide him any further, and that Jor-El — or, at least the Fortress of Solitude's A.I.
version — needs to take over, showing that Jonathan has grown in the afterlife.
After following her son to the loft, Martha adds,
"You were the miracle we prayed for.
Now the world needs that same miracle."
Having given him the strength he needed, Martha and Jonathan watch as Clark speeds off to
save the world, their mission finally complete.
While searching for Tess, Clark finds himself at the recently burned-out Luthor Mansion.,
where he encounters his former best friend Lex.
Newly restored to life, Lex admits to Clark that the world needs him to become the hero
he was always meant to be.
Before his death, Lex saw himself as this story's hero.
He incorrectly believed that saving the world meant killing Clark.
But now, at the end of Smallville, Lex has made peace with the fact that he's the villain
of the story.
Lex tells his former friend,
"We have a destiny together, Clark…only on different sides."
Nothing could be truer, and though their story hasn't been written quite yet, their rivalry
would soon become the stuff of legends.
In a way, Lex's speech inspires Clark to be that "light that inspires the world out of
darkness," further reinforcing the destiny chosen for him.
Though Smallville began with Clark saving Lex's life, the Boy Scout mourns the fact
that he couldn't save his friend's soul.
With nothing left to say, Clark leaves; the battle between Superman and Lex Luthor is
just beginning.
"I'm sorry I couldn't save you Lex."
In the wake of all the craziness going on with Lois and Clark's wedding, plenty of Smallville
stars exit.
For starters, after recognizing that Watchtower is down, Chloe leaves Smallville to restart
the systems and kick the not-quite Justice League into gear in case Clark can't stop
Darkseid's plot.
After a heartfelt goodbye between Clark and Chloe, she leaves the series in capable hands.
Now free from Darkseid's control, Oliver Queen tracks down Darkseid's minions and dispatches
them with ease.
Upon his victory, Oliver takes to the streets to witness the advent of Superman and stands
in awe as Clark saves the day.
Tess also continues the fight, just in her own way.
Though she and Clark don't get a final goodbye, she dies protecting him.
Confronting her half-brother, the newly resurrected Lex Luthor, Tess uses an experimental neurotoxin
to erase his memories.
But she doesn't just wipe away Clark's secret: Tess rids Lex of everything that made him
who he was.
Lex kills Tess in the struggle, but as she passes away, she watches as Lex becomes a
blank slate, witnessing Superman's appearance alongside the rest of the world.
There's one more superpower Clark must unlock before Superman can truly appear.
Generally, Clark learns a new superpower almost every season.
While most Kryptonians are instantly granted powers under Earth's yellow sun, including
flight, our hero always saw himself as a human being.
Even after he learned of his alien origins, Clark struggled to see himself as anything
but human, and that mental block kept him from using all his natural abilities for years.
Of course, Jor-El might have had something to do with it too.
After Darkseid sends Clark spiraling, our hero catches himself in the air, completing
his final trial, and flies straight through his adversary, defeating the darkness.
Though Darkseid is gone, Apokalips remains.
Clark returns to the Fortress for aid from Jor-El, who finally expresses pride in Kal-El
and deems his training over.
In a powerful moment, Jor-El and Jonathan's ghost present Clark with the Superman uniform
that Martha had made for him.
Honoring his Kryptonian family crest and his adoptive country's colors, Clark's dual heritage
is merged into one, and after years of the "no flights, no tights" rule on Smallville,
Clark embraces both.
Themes regarding destiny and embracing one's past are woven throughout Smallville, but
the most recurring theme throughout the series is the relationship between father and son,
and that's just as true of the series finale.
After embracing Jonathan's ghost, Clark is visited by Jor-El, from whom he learns that
all of Smallville was a trial meant to train him into becoming the world's greatest hero.
While Jonathan has raised Clark into an honorable, hard-working man, Jor-El has fought to make
Kal-El into a warrior who could keep Earth from suffering the same fate as Krypton.
More than maybe any moment in the finale, the Fortress scene is what Smallville has
always been moving toward.
After years of running away from Jor-El's plans, Clark finally understands them and
embraces them, and Smallville, as his own.
Since accepting his calling as a hero, Clark has waited until he was ready to publicly
reveal himself.
Now is the time, and it's here with his father's blessings that Clark first takes flight as
Superman, the Man of Steel.
After Lois sneaks aboard Air Force One to beg the President not to nuke Apokalips, the
engines fail and the plane falls.
Not only does Superman save Lois and the President, but he then moves Apokalips out of orbit,
breaking Darkseid's hold on the people of Earth and inspiring them to fight back.
Before defeating the alien tyrant, Clark tells Darkseid,
"People want to believe in something greater.
And it may be easier to hate, but it's stronger to love."
It took Clark years of wrestling through both to learn that lesson and, now having learned
it, he reveals himself as Superman so that others may too.
Throughout Smallville, Clark has always kept his cards close to his chest, and while he
still holds fast to his secret identity, his superhero identity is now his primary source
of inspiration and hope.
From now on, Clark Kent is just a reporter for the Daily Planet; it's the Man of Tomorrow,
Superman, who inspires others to be better.
Yes, Superman saves the day, but even that isn't the end.
Since Smallville began with a flashback, it's only fitting that it ended with a flash-forward.
While we got glimpses of Clark's destiny through prophecies, visions, and his trip to the future
in the 200th episode, the final few moments of Smallville gave us our best look yet.
Surprisingly, that image comes from a comic book that Chloe reads to her and Oliver's
young son.
But that's not all.
It's here that all the familiar elements of the Superman mythos fall into place: Lois
and Clark at the Daily Planet, a new Jimmy Olsen by their side, Perry White yelling at
Lois, Lex Luthor running for President, and Metropolis again in need of saving.
This sends Clark to the roof as the iconic John Williams "Superman March" gets louder
in the background.
While there, he rips open his shirt in classic Superman form, an obvious nod to the Christopher
Reeve era of Superman movies.
Here, Tom Welling officially claims the torch that Reeve passed to him years prior when
Reeve — who once played Dr. Virgil Swann on Smallville – told Tom Welling that he
should wear the "S." Naturally, Smallville ends with Welling's Superman taking flight,
just as we always knew it would.
Whether it's the number of Smallville fan podcasts, or Tom Welling and Michael Rosenbaum's
own "TalkVille," there's no doubt that Smallville continues to make an impact.
Additionally, DC Comics published Smallville Season 11 in 2012, a comic series that continued
Clark's adventures as Superman, ushering the Smallville story into a greater DC Universe
that included Batman, Wonder Woman, and plenty more adventures.
But that's not all.
During the Arrowverse's long-anticipated "Crisis on Infinite Earths," Tom Welling and Erica
Durance returned as the Smallville versions of Clark Kent and Lois Lane.
Now raising their young girls on the Kent farm, Lois and Clark have left their superheroics
behind.
In the style of the trademark Superman tale "Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow?,"
Clark gives up his abilities for his family, following in his father's footsteps.
Not a bad ending at all.