I was chatting with Kath about the multi-pronged cliffhanger in “Smallville,” and she put forward an interesting theory that there was more than just “Let’s knock the fans for a loop” at work. I’ll go into detail in the extended for Spoilers sake…
We’ve never had a “Smallville” season finale where just about every single cast member is dead, apparently dead, or gone. Pete and Lana left town, Lex is poisoned, Chloe’s gone blow-ey, Pa Kent’s down, and Clark’s MIA. The only one clearly sucking oxygen is Martha.
On the other hand, we’ve never had a third season ender for “Smallville” before. And the end of third season is a popular time for cast members to try and push for contract renegotiation.
So maybe, as a pre-emptive move, the PTB at “Smallville” mandated that everyone be thrown in the pool so that, if any of the actors balk at coming back unless it’s for a lot more money…the producers shrug and say, “Nice working with you.”
Lana wants more money? Enjoy Paris. Chloe wants more money? Her cousin, Lois Lane, comes to the funeral and resolves to pick up where Chloe left off and dedicate her life to journalism. Pete? Enjoy Wichita. Lex? Well, if Lionel stays around, find a way to cure him and then have him say: “I will dedicate the rest of my life to my son’s memory. In fact, I will henceforth do business using my middle name of Alexander…I shall be Lex Luthor.” Why not? He’s got a shaved head now…
Clark himself? Well, but he’s the star. Ah, but he’s off to be “reborn.” Which means he could come back as a completely different actor and chalk it up to being reborn.
Why were Annette O’Toole and John Glover exempted? Well, she was a late addition after the pilot and he was a later addition to the series, so maybe they’re thoroughly locked into the next season.
If Kath’s right, and I think she is, there’s a raft of annoyed agents right about now who aren’t licking their chops over a fourth season of “Smallville.”
PAD
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One thought- perhaps some of the regular bloggers can help me out here. At one point this season, after the introduction of the new sheriff, ably played by Camille Mitchell, wasn’t Clark more or less threatened with a “full investigation” if he was involved in any more strange happenings?
One of my favorite supporting characters, BTW, that feisty Sheriff Adams.
Missed a few episodes – in fact, the entire 3 episodes prior to the season finale. Whatever happened to her? Surely, if Sheriff Adams is still up and around, she’s not going to sit idly by while “her” town has some of it’s prominent citizens routinely involved in large explosions, death threats, etc?
then again, this is SMALLVILLE, where insurance companies fear to tread…
Just putting in my two cents here… been thinking awhiles about all this. (I love reading everybody’s theories, it makes me go *yay!* knowing I’m not the only one watching and wondering!) Hoping all this isn’t me repeating others or too off-the-wall, here goes:
1) The Voice in the caves — ok, so let’s play along and pretend that maybe it really is the computer-memory-recording version of Jor-El, but those caves are housing a really really really old computer right? When was it last maintenanced? (Tech manual? What tech manual? And who hid my screwdriver?:) And hey, maybe there’s the possibility that the data got corrupted in the initial transfer, or on the trip to Earth (it was travelling in the midst of a lot of Kryptonite, and we know what that radiation does to those computer systems…) I’m also wondering whether the caves did or didn’t have Jor-El’s memories in them until the “heart” of the spaceship got put in and fully activated… one could get really conspiracy-theory and wonder if maybe when Clark had the Kryptonian language downloaded into his brain he got a good dose of something else, since he can’t really remember everything at will or what exactly happened between the initial zap and waking up, if I’m remembering that ep correctly. (Post-hypnotic suggestion anyone?) Otherwise, I like the Brainiac/Zod/Eradicator/archnemesis idea, since it’s sooo much less convoluted:-D
2) Lex poisoned at the end — we never saw Lana get on the plane, nor was there any plane crashing &etc during zero hour at the end of the ep. Since she was just oh-so-conveniently ignored for a good portion of time, I suspect that she decided to run back to Smallville to either catch up with Clark or talk to Lex (since, hey, she was hugging Lex and she probably realized that Clark got the wrong idea when she caught the glimpse of him watching her from across the road) and is going to burst in on the scene at the mansion, scream bloody murder, and promptly call 911 (hey, she’s pulled him off rooftops before, why not another edge?)
A small smattering of stuff
Why is it every long weekend I get stuck cooped up indoors building puppets? I’m taking a break from building a bunch of cockroaches (they’ll be showing up in episode…
Eh, I have to disagree with this idea. Most actors are signed to a show for five years, which is just long enough to get 100 episodes so that a series can go into syndication. Since ME is a popular topic around here, note that Anthony Stewart Head left the show after season five and that Sarah Michelle Gellar signed a new contract for two years (for well over a million a year), which meant that Buffy was more or less guaranteed to be around since Season 7, since UPN had picked it up for two years. The real decline in Buffy came after season 5 because the actors were eating up a lot of the show’s costs, which meant less money for production.
Chloe isn’t Lois for the simple reason they already established that Lois is her cousin. All that means is that eventually Chloe WILL die and give Lois her impetus to “take on her fight”….
As to threats to actors and thier contracts, there was one that happened on Star Trek Voyager that was even less veiled in its evil. Garrett Wang (Ensign Kim) likes to be a party animal (I know, I’ve hung out with him at cons) but he tends to not be where he’s supposed to be ontime. That holds for conventions, especially sunday afternoon, and apparently, on the set too. And in Hollywood, you do NOT show up on the set late. There are big monies and lots of people involved, and the old “time is money” holds very true there. But Garrett in his younger days didn’t quite pay attention to that, and it got to the point that they had already been giving him warnings. So they wrote one into an episode. They killed him. And he was replaced by another Kim from another dimension, the original Kim died. They also pointed out that they could do it again and without the reprieve. I think he showed up on time more often after that. 🙂
Hi, I run KryptonSite – the web’s largest fan site for Smallville – and as far as I know, yes, everyone is signed to come back. Lana unfortunately is returning from Paris 🙁 But on the bright side, hopefully this means Chloe didn’t really go blow-y!
As long as they don’t do a magic reset at season’s start. If they do, I hope to see this move mocked in a future PAD comic. (I loved the reaction to Genis’s sister, “Is it like that lame Buffy sister?”) Heh. Always a big fan here.
Chloe isn’t Lois for the simple reason they already established that Lois is her cousin. All that means is that eventually Chloe WILL die and give Lois her impetus to “take on her fight”….
I disagree. That’s definitely one theory and has merit. But I think witness protection program and hair color change will turn this blond cutie into a dark haired star reporter we all know and love. Here’s why:
1. Chloe only said it was her cousin’s name. She could have lied, misstated cousin to mean great aunt, or simply used her real name. Writers can be mean and have lies pop out of their characters mouths.
2. Chloe’s mom has never been named. This leaves the writers a chance to say “Mom’s maiden name was Lane?” or “Sure! I’ll let you and the General adopt me, mom.”
3. Season One Kiss Scene. ’nuff said.
How do we know that the voice is definately that of Jor-El? Could it be too obvious that noone is seeing it may be General Zod tricking Clark/Kal-El into believing it is his father? Trying to sway him from being exactly what Jor-El had planned for Kal-El? The ultimate revenge on Jor-El. Food for thought.
In response to Brandon’s above post about how in the comics Lex had his brain tranplanted into a younger cloned body. That’s inaccurate.
Actually, Lex had his brain removed from his radiation poisoned body (caused by over exposure to his Kyptonite signet ring) and had a new body cloned around it. Which I find flawed because wouldn’t his brain be diseased (well, more diseased) also?
Christo
I don’t know if any of you have heard this or not, but WB has put out a casting call for an actress to play Lois Lane in a four-episode story arc next season. They said she comes looking for Chloe. Also, they are looking for an actor to play a new regular cast member named Jason, a Metropolis University student.
First time reader to this site.. Interesting comments made about each of the characters. I enjoy the show totally and hate to see any of
the characters leave the show and will miss
Sam Jones III (pete) he,in some people’s opinion may not have contributed alot but he was someone
that you enjoyed occasionally seeing. His relationship with clark and chole will be missed.
Also Love Lex and lana..