Hi, my name is Tom Welling.

I played Clark Kent on Smallville.

And this is Michael Rosenbaum Lex Luthor.

I'm John Glover.

I was Lionel Luthor on Smallville.

Hey, guys, this is Laura Vandervoord.

I played Kara Kent slash Supergirl on Smallville.

Hey.

This is samwit Where I played Davis Bloom aka Doomsday on Smallville.

Hey, this is Alisander Giuliani doctor Emil Hamilton on Smallville.

Hi.

I'm Jeff John's writer of Legion, Absolute Justice and the Booster Gold episodes of Smallville.

And you're listening to all.

Welcome to Always Hold On to Smallville.

In this podcast, we talk about each and every episode of the Young Superman show that ran from two thousand and one to twenty eleven on the WB and a CW.

I'm your host, Zach Moore, and this is a continuation of our series finale coverage.

I'm Future Zach, continuing on from my hosting duties you heard in the beginning of the last episode.

And this is a special episode finale intermission.

I'm calling an intermission because I'm releasing it in between Finale Part one and Finale Part two.

And it consists entirely of voice messages from previous guest hosts about their thoughts on Smallville and spec the small Liville series finale.

This idea came about for me wanting to include as many previous guest hosts as I could into this series finale podcast, and initially I thought, oh, it's perfect.

I'll play all these when we get to the part of the episode where Clark is reliving his trials right through the Fortress crystals and the reflections of the flashbacks and clips from previous episodes, and I thought that's a inappropriate, clever medalian.

But the response was so good from y'all that it necessitated being its own thing, because if I edded this into the finale part two podcasts, that podcast would be no joke five hours long.

So I really do appreciate all the previous guest hosts who have sin in their thoughts on this series finale.

It's great to hear all the different perspectives.

If you've listened to our finale Part one podcast, you kind of know the general consensus of where we're coming from in the series finale, but there is a wide range of opinions and thoughts and experiences here where.

If you're not exactly connecting with our take on the series finale so far, you're definitely gonna find some takes here you can latch onto and agree with.

So, without further ado, let's seize our destiny and revisit many of our previous guest hosts here on Always Well I'm a Smallville as they share their thoughts on the series finale.

Hey guys, this is Nick Ryan Magdoza.

I am back for a fresh new episode of The Mailbag.

Oh wait, this isn't the mail Bag.

We're talking about the last episode A Smallphone.

Oh.

I actually haven't watched that yet either, so maybe we should just cut to somebody who has.

Hey, all, it's cross.

I happen to see the finale when it aired after having out watched the show for three or four years.

Didn't know what was going on, and I still enjoyed it.

Totally understand the no flights, no tights rule kind of being still enforced at the very end with not a full view of the suit and more CGI stuff, but a little disappointed in that even though I knew it was coming.

But overall I loved it.

I loved the John Williams score.

I loved that Jonathan Kent was the one that gave him the suit.

Kind of wish it was a little bit more inclusive of the Justice League, and maybe they could have brought back everyone, like you know, good old Pete or Lana.

But overall, I thought it was just fitting end to the series.

It was a good representation of the character and I enjoyed it.

I'm going to miss that show, and I'm bye.

Hi Zach might lay them here.

I'm just here to give you a few thoughts on the finale of Smallville.

Congratulations and getting that part.

And I'm not going to do add too long or ramble on for too much because I'm pretty sure the panel is going to be talking about a lot of stuff they're going to be touched upon.

But in terms of my kind of thoughts and feelings about it, I am pretty much vocal in terms that I really do not like the finale, to the point where I think it's one of the weakest finales I think I've ever watched, which I feel is a bit of a downer to end the series.

Aren't as well as perhaps on the podcast, but there is so much in this that I could mutter on for hoes and as I'm not going to actually, but yeah, there's a few things about it that just annoys me.

The main part of it is just the what was the point of a lot of it?

Because the finale does so much to make you wonder what was the point of a lot of stuff leading up to it?

For example, why would you spend so much time building up towards a wedding between Lois and Clark that doesn't happen.

You spend half the finale leading up to this wedding and it just doesn't happen because of reasons, because of reasons that we just don't know, and it is a bit annoy Then there's the whole kind of thing about the costume, which I'm not going to go on to because I'm pretty sure everyone's going to talk about the costume.

Everyone's going to mention about the fact that you just build up to it.

It keeps being shown, and I am looking forward to the talk of an episode where Tom william talks about this, But yeah, that's hard gettle fish.

I don't go then towards the only the only kind of part of the finale that I quite like.

The parts of that Michael Rosen are involved in.

For the most part, the best scene out the whole finale is the Lex and Clark scene, and Lex pretty much goes on to a slighter ramble about he thought that men were right, men were defined by family, then friends, but eventually enemies, which I think is like a really good line that kind of adds a nice kind of encapsulation of Lexi's developments to the point to that point and kind of maps and contextualizes a lot of his art throughout the show and kind of is a nice payoff and that he's developed, that he's remembered, that he kind of remembers everything that's built up to that moment, and it just works really well until they decide to wipe his memory, and by all, well, from what I can imagine, then you just automatically go all the way back to god knows how long.

I mean, if it erases all of the ten years that he's had to that point, and then technically it just be the kind of immature playboy that we saw in the pilot and technically not evil.

So yeah, so I don't see what the point of the whole that was.

And it's again, what was the whole point.

The whole point just doesn't make sense.

And he jumped forward seven years and basically a lot of the reck Conners just seemed to be placed just to go to that seven year stuff.

And it just it just doesn't feel like it pays off anything.

And ten years of following the show, and okay, there's conversations about whether about Tom willing willing to put on the suits and stuff, but you've just been building up to it, and it just doesn't.

It just it just doesn't.

And I don't know, I just I just I mean I remember rewatching the finale and just thinking like, yeah, it's it's still as bad as I thought it would be, which I think is a shame just for ten years worth of entertainment and storylines and character development to be that.

And I.

Yeah, and I just I just along forlorn sigh and I just what could have been?

It just flows through the head and I'm just left a bit but if a damps quib really, But yeah, I'm hoping some of them.

I'm helping other people who have got a lot of more positive things to say about the FINALI or to or can find things to thatch upon.

But yeah, we don On ten years, ten seasons, nine years, ten years, I can't remember, but always hold on to always some Smallville.

So goodbye people.

Hey everybody, this is Tyler from the Crypton Report and thinking about the Small Bill finale.

I remember when I first saw I was in my apartment.

My wife and I had just got married, and it was weird because I was watching it and I was reflecting on just how much of my life that show at all the events that had happened in my life up to that point.

But I had yet to get like, we didn't have TV hooked up or anything or streaming what it wasn't what it was, so I had to watch it on the old CW app where I just watching it on my computer, and I remember watching it and thinking, Okay, it wasn't what I wanted.

I had hoped that there would have been a bigger battle and bigger you know imagery conclusion.

As far as Clark becoming Superman, I wanted to see him in an actual suit.

I love, you know, the shirt Rip was cool at the end, you know, but him having the you know, Superman return symbol just didn't didn't really do it for me.

And I remember the way it starts with Chloe kind of reading the story.

I know that's kind of an ode to Superman the movie, but I didn't really like it that much because it just didn't feel like it was a continue on from where we had left our characters in the previous episode.

But you know, time has passed.

I mean, I did like the idea of like the light versus Dark.

I like the.

Jonathan Kidd always hold on the small villain, gives him the costume and he flies up.

But I.

But over time, I've come to like it more.

And I just remember feeling like it was over ten years.

I didn't feel like we got the big, like last hurrah that I had hoped for out of the finale, But over time and distance, I've come to appreciate it.

It was more in the vein of what Smallville should have been.

I you know, had hope for maybe something along the lines of like a big battle conclusion with Superman taking charge and we had our other heroes.

But in the end, it is the finale, and I like it, and I hope everyone else enjoys it for what it is, not for what we wanted to be, and watching it now, it's fine, But I think it could have.

It could have ended a little different, giving Tom more his own send off than kind of placing him in a Superman movie, And it could have ended with him getting the costume, we're putting it on for the first time and going out, so that we're not left feeling, okay, we didn't see him in the costume.

The way he flew was kind of quick, so it was kind of like, oh, okay, why can't we actually see him fly in the costume and give us that big closing Superman moment.

You know.

It's kind of like with Gotham.

You know, the finale of Gotham is kind of like a reverse pilot where it's like a pilot for a new show and the final shot is them looking up and there's Batman and it cuts off, so kind of like something similar like with this where he's running he does the shirt rip.

Well, that have been great if we hadn't had the earlier scene of him supposedly in the costume pushing a planet, which was pretty crazy out of orbit.

I think it could have been something a little bit different for the symbolism of just you know, pushing the darkness away, But it is what it is.

And I'll always hold on a small Ville and thank you Zach for this podcast.

Hello Zach, Hello, always hold on to small Ville.

This is Daniel Bree.

We used to podcast together back in our Star Trek days.

I don't have any podcasts to plug or anything like that.

Find me on the internet anywhere at one of Dan and we can chat small View, Star Trek or anything.

Okay, my thoughts on finale, Well, first off, this is only my second time ever watching the episode, and I.

Thought it is good.

It's good.

It's not perfect, certainly, and there are some good things and some bad things.

Let's start with the things.

I really like the Lois and Clark of it all.

Of course, big fan of that relationship, and of course we get to see them get married, which is you know, it feels a little bit young in the timeline, but it's fine.

It made me happy to see that.

And of course Lois gets to become her famous award winning journalist self in the episode, which is fantastic.

I love that.

And then of course their sweet moment that was one of my favorite scenes with them doing their vows.

I thought that was great.

Next up in the good category for me, it is great to see if Lex of course, I know, you know, we haven't seen him in a few years.

Although I don't let love everything that happens with Lex, the Tessa stuff, the memory wipe, I don't love, and even having him there, like I like the scene of course with him Clark in the mansion, the burned out mansion.

That was fantastic, but it was a little sloppy, and I mean I just felt a little rushed, and I understand, you know, with everything going on with Michael, but it was great to see him.

And of course he gets to be president at the end too, so setting up for future stuff that we don't get to see but we can imagine, which is sometimes just as fun.

And speaking of the Luthers, of course we see what happens with Lionel, which is you know, I don't know.

Again, that's one of those misses for me.

Like I get that they have to get rid of him, it's the end of this series.

But having him sort of voice dark Side and be the body of dark Side.

Is I get it.

As TeV we only have so much budget, but it's not exactly how I would have wanted to see it.

But that's okay.

It was it was fine.

Of course, we have the big controversy with the suit and you know, Tom not wanting to be in it, and then of course us not really getting to see it that much, which is still disappointing even to this day.

But you know, again, that's okay.

Again, this is after ten years of watching the show, and it can't wrap every single little thing up, so the things sometimes in the glosses over, I'm.

Okay with it.

Of Course, we get to see Chloe at the book ends, which was which was sweet as well.

I kind of forgot about that, And and Green Arrow's little parts are are great as well.

I really like the whole thing.

One thing about the story that I really enjoyed too is basically that it's you know, it's a story about hope and with the whole the apocalypse and Clark becoming a hero unlocking all of the darkness from these people and all that sort of stuff.

I really like that, even if it's a little hokey.

But I'm you know, Supermaran is kind of sometimes and so that's.

Okay with me.

And seeing John Snyder back again is as Papa Kent was heartwarming.

It was great just to see him and then of course this has scenes with Martha our heart heartbreaking, but it was it was good to see all of them back together again.

And of course Clark finally accepting his destiny and becoming Superman.

Obviously, they hit that nail pretty hard a couple of times in the episode, but I thought it was I thought it was a good a good message, so a good way to go out for sure.

And then of course everything culminates with a new power, a new power, the last new power of course, that we get the new power that we've seen I don't know fifty times, the new power that has been teased and shown and every other character can do it.

But of course we finally get to see the flying, very exciting stuff, very exciting.

You know, I love new powers.

So we wish this Clark in this lowest all the best in the future, whether you you know, take what's seen on screen elsewhere or not.

We hope for the best for them.

And of course I just want to say thank you Zach for giving me the opportunity to come on the show several times.

I had great blast revisiting Smallville, and you know what, I might just do another rewatch now.

So that's pretty much all I have for the finale, but remember Always hold.

On to Smallville.

Hey, this is Ian.

I guess starred on Always hold On to Smallville episodes Nocturn and Crisis.

Smallville was a show that I watched with my mom, and so it was something special that we got to share together.

And also, aside from the Superpowers, I feel like my life, in a lot of ways parallel lived Clark's life, so I really related to his journey and as he was taking his steps to becoming Superman, showing himself to the world, showing his true colors, at the same time was moving out of my house, you know, leaving the nest, and also being more true to myself and sharing that with the world.

So just that these kind of both happened around the same time with the finale, and that was pretty special.

And while I don't remember a lot about the finale, I haven't watched it in quite a while, I do remember being pretty happy with what they did now the final season and the fact that we knew it was the final season from the beginning.

I feel like it allowed them to push the boundaries of what they had done before and also just to give a really satisfying conclusion, And I have two things that really stand out about the finale for myself.

One of them is I'll go with the negative verse because they want to end on a positive.

But the negative thing for me was, I remember the episode was so much about that Clark's journey and his memories, you know, all the connections that he had made to find who he was.

You know, that's something that they really pushed for the episode.

And yet at the same time, Lex's memories are taken from him, and yet he's supposed to be a villain.

You know, we'd gone through this journey with Lex as well of building him up, as you know, it wasn't just a switch that happened that he became a villain, you know.

It was the same with Clark.

It was a process, and I feel we were kind of robbed of that.

I feel his character was robbed of that in the end, that it just removes that idea for him.

And while I think the comic book that followed really dealt with that in a nice way, I just felt that for the finale of the show, you know, setting up, I feel like they were trying to stick too close to what the mythos is that Lex doesn't know who Superman is.

I feel like they could have done something else because obviously they didn't go that way with Lois and Clark, you know.

So that was something that really bothered me at the time.

And also I really loved the character of Tests, so what would happen?

What happened with her I was not very happy about.

But then on a good note, you know.

Again, I can't remember a lot of the episode, but the thing that just really sticks with me is the wedding scene with Clark and Lewis and she doesn't have her father there to walk her down the aisle, and she gets to the head of the aisle and she sees that Clark isn't there, and then he takes her hand and they walk down the aisle together, and I just thought that was such a wonderful moment and just a wonderful portrayal of what their relationship was.

That it was two people on equal footing working together, and that moment just made me cry.

So that was my favorite moment, and that's what I take with me whenever I think about that finel.

Thank you to Zach for letting me be a small part of his wonderful show.

That he's dedicated such a great amount of his life too.

Obviously a wonderful passion project, and I admire that dedication.

Always hold on to Smallville.

Zach, Hi, Zach and crew.

This is Billy from the See You Next Summer podcast.

Although when I recorded with Zach back in twenty seventeen for the early days of Smallville, I did two episodes, I did not have a podcast, and I was literally just a Smallville fan on Twitter and Zach just reached out to me.

So I am always grateful for that opportunity, Zach.

I No, I wasn't exactly the greatest guest or anything like that, but I appreciate that you had me on.

Anyway.

So series finale of Smallville, we finally got here.

I have seen the series three times now, all the way through, and I have to say, on a rewatch, yeah, this finale still holds up.

I mean, it's the wedding of Lois and Clark.

You have the amazing scene of Clark and Lex and the return of Michael Rosenbaum, which is never a bad thing, even though he is wearing a bald cap and you see they put a lot of makeup to give him the megamind Head, but it doesn't matter because Michael's chemistry with Tom is and always will be the heart of this show.

I think they rushed dark Side just in general in season ten, so I'm not a big fan of basically making him a big smoky cloud, like it's the smoke Monster from Lost or something like that.

But I do like that it ends with the iconic shirt rip and you guys chose the perfect name for the podcast, because Always hold on to Smallville basically sums up the entire show for us.

I'm really happy that you guys got all the way through and yeah, Always hold on to Smallville.

Hey, listeners, and Zach, this is your cousin, Corey Corey Moore.

I don't always.

Calling the podcasts, but when I do is to give my thoughts on the Smallville episode titled Finale.

I wonder what that's about.

H Those those of you who have listened or watched Talk Bill will get that reference.

So first off, I apologize for all.

This animal noises.

The when the animals see me, they know they're gonna get food.

They think of me as the real life Jonathan Kent.

But when I first watched this finale episode back in the day.

It was recorded on a DVR, and normally we'd watch with my wife, but that evening I was too excited, couldn't wait for her, so I watched it while she was asleep and then watch it again next day with her.

With that first watching was pretty exciting, I remember having a lot of conflicting feelings.

There was the excitement of it being new episode, It's gonna wrap up the end of small Bill, But then there was a lot of feelings of sadness.

I was like, oh, man, this is the last episode of Smallville.

What am I gonna do now?

Man?

What am I going to watch?

But when I watched it, man, I mean overall, I really really enjoyed it, and still do to this day.

But I'll get onto some dislikes about the episode.

There wasn't a whole lot.

I mean a few few, but I mean it one that stood out was it seemed too easy for slow arrow to kill Dark Sides minions, you know, Granny and Gacade and whatever that other guy's name was, I don't know.

I don't remember if his arrow was his arrows were some type of special magic or what.

But the minions died too quick, even though it was a slow arrow and I also thought dark Side Lionel was kind of lame.

He he his voice too, He's like, all right, will annihilate you?

That was that was garbage.

And you know, once Clark became Superman, you know, he got on that fake suit and flew up and saved the airplane, which was kind of cool.

But then he pushed the apocalypse planet out of the way.

That was seemed a little unrealistic.

Unrealistic.

He seemed a little gonna be a little too too much weight to push get out of get out of our out of our solar system.

But and then another dislike was probably no real Superman costume for our Clark or Tom Willing.

That was not cool.

But onto some of the things I liked.

I did like the Small Bill opening recap.

I thought that was cool.

They did a good job of kind of going through pilot all the way up till now, kind of showing a little bit of the some of the you know, you know, some of the talking points in the just kind of stuff that happened throughout the series.

I liked that.

Another cool thing was when Martha came back to the farm and she you know, talked to Clark about she gave him, gave him the not to sell the house, but to start a life there.

I like that.

And another thing that was cool was Chloe talking to Lois convincing her that Mary and Clark was the right thing for both of them, that you know, Clark needs her and she needs him.

That was that.

Was that was pretty cool.

I did like ghost Jonathan.

He's is been in the comic books in the past, and when he pops up.

I do like Ghosts Jonathan.

There has been some people who have talked about not liking it, but in this episode I.

Felt like it worked.

There was a part where Clark couldn't see Jonathan, and then after Martha talked to him about talk to Clark about you know, looking deeper, and he eventually did get to where he could see.

He goes Jonathan and talk to him.

I thought that was I did like that a lot.

And another thing that I really liked was, you know, Tests ended up killing Earth two Lionel and then Darkseide took his heart and gave it to the Frankenstein Lex, and so that is pretty exciting to think about because this evil heart is now in this Lex and it would explain how the future Lex is just despicable and terrible and all that is pretty exciting to think about.

Was as a viewer you.

Can kind of fill in those points and think about the future Les how well the evil stuff he's gonna do.

And the return of Michael Rosenbaum was a must.

Even though he was wearing a big, giant bald cap to cover up his head, it was great to have him by.

I did like also Clark's midair montage in the air just frozen, going over all of his greatest hits, finally realizing he can fly was pretty exciting, and then he just blasts through dark Side Slash Linyl And of course one of the best parts of this episode is Ghost Jonathan handing the costume to Clark and saying our favorite word always.

Hold on to Smallville.

That was one of my favorite parts, especially now after Zach reviewing ten years of Smallville.

That is pretty special.

That that is, uh, this is pretty special kind of to wrap things up.

I did like the end where Clark did the shirt rip ran towards the camera in slow motion with the music in the background.

Overall, the music in this episode was was pretty good.

They had you know, some some good music throughout this episode.

My original grade for this episode, I believe, was an A, and I feel like that's a little too generous.

After watching the episode multiple times over the years and then listening to, you know, just a lot of thoughts from everybody and watching it the it probably is more like a B plus episode.

And so that's kind of where I stand now.

I do I do get excited when it does come up on my rewatch.

It's something that I and episode that I can watch.

And it's not as good as the Spell episode.

Am I right?

Zach?

Check it out season four Spell episode I was a guest host.

But thanks for this, Zach, and always hold on the small Bill later, guys.

Bye, Hi everyone.

This is Lauren knakau Win.

If my voice sounds familiar, I used to be a pretty frequent contributor to you Always hold on a Smallville.

I took a hard exit from DC a couple of years ago following the release of Zack Steiner's Testice League.

But nothing you Love is ever lost, and I think that's pretty applicable to smallvill I rewatched the finale for the first time in nine or ten years this evening, and in a post Araverse and Marvel Netflix World.

A lot of it doesn't hold up in my opinion, but most of these things are things I think we're less gracefully done to begin with.

It was never a perfect finale, from having the huge responsibility of having to wrap a ten your show and close many plot points like erasing Lex's memory and finally breaking the no flights, no tights rule, and of course shooting around Tom's unwillingness.

To wear the suit.

But the heart of the show persists, and what does hold up are the characters.

They spent ten years developing, characters who will always be loved.

I think Smavels legacy after all these years is the feat of being the longest running superhero show and just how well they did Lois and Clark in regardless of some of the less rewarding writing, the final scene is perfect and we'll always have that.

This is Chris Klou and I just wanted to briefly thank Zach Moore and the entire always hold on to Smallville team for being so kind to me over the years in bringing me on as a guest here and there.

It was always a lot of fun.

I'm eternally grateful to be a part of this whole impressive tapestry, and Zach, well done, my friend.

This is an incredible achievement, and I know it's probably bittersweet, but this is the domination of a really impressive effort on your part, and I really appreciate being a part of it.

So thank you very much.

Now, As probably the only person in my own social circle that meets at the intersection of being a student of narrative fiction, a TV enthusiast, a big time comic book fan, and as the biggest Superman fan, I know, the Smallville series finale made for an unusual watching experience for me.

For ten years, we've been watching a show that, at different times offered substantive nods and homages to what we know Clark's ultimate destiny to be, alongside some occasionally ham fisted attempts at winks and nods that likely made even the most aweshuck Superman fan roll their eyes a little bit.

We saw world class television performances easily overlooked in award shows performance categories, as well as the occasional double take from spoken lines being mystifyingly bad.

But the whole experience of watching the finale was akin to an out of body experience for me.

Truncating year's worth of stories and trials into one two hour stretch that forcibly crammed Jack Kirby's Fourth World mythology onto the top of a foundation laid by no Tights.

No Flights made for an odd experience, especially as a Superman comics fan.

While the return of Michael Rosenbaum as Lex Luthor was generally executed well, the way the finale resolves, which I'm using with heavy air quotes, by the way, the knowledge he has of Clark's identity was one of the most overly simplistic developments I've probably ever seen in a prequel style superhero story.

And yet, years.

Before the finale aired, maybe around the end of season five, I remember envisioning the shirt rip as the final moment of the series.

It just seemed like such a clear way to go out on a satisfying note.

For a brief stretch of time, we got to see what this show could have been by throwing all the pretense in mythology, minimizing pressure out the wind, by embracing the legend of Superman fully despite the maneuvering of the visuals that never actually gave us a real, fully framed look at the Man of Steel himself.

Despite Qualm's I and others may have about its execution, the sentiment of embracing the Big Guy himself, albeit briefly, was appreciated Jimmy voiceover Perry and All.

I wish that the entire final season would have embraced the Superman legend as fully as the finale did.

With more time to line up and stick the landing, the finale could have been a truly satisfying conclusion to a substantive addition to the Superman mythology, as opposed to a footnote in the broader discussion of the series.

Still, I'm extremely grateful to Smallville.

If ever, there.

Was an encapsulation of a belief in the importance of the journey as opposed to the destination.

It's Smallville.

It introduced a whole new generation to Superman storytelling, despite choosing to be a half measure more often than I have preferred.

But it attracted terrific talent who have defined corners of Superman's share of the DC universe on both sides of the camera, and the show connected me with friends including Zach and Lance that have led to great discussions about the episodes and the series implications for the world's greatest hero.

It was a weird feeling coming back the next fall realizing there was no more Smallville, but the journey itself was a hell of a ride, and the show did an effective job keeping Superman alive during a time when his cultural relevance was being challenged, despite the presence of a movie a few years into the show's life.

But it's also because of the friends made along the way that I feel such appreciation for the show, something crystallized even more just prior to his impending return to movie theaters in just over a month's time.

As I record this, believing in something like Superman.

Storytelling can often be measured in the emotional highs and lows that come from.

Moment to moment.

Smallville gave us many of those, and more, rivaling the best of Superman's story, retelling in some cases, despite the annoyance people like me may have about its tepid embracing of parts of his mythology.

But again, the journey was singular, and I'm grateful that I got to grow up with the show as a relative contemporary of Clark's.

While it was on, it offered a unique insight into one of my absolutely favorite characters in fiction and gave me great friends along the way that, in my mind, makes for a pretty good legacy.

Hey all, John Curcio here, I had the privilege of joining Zach on a pair of episodes over the course of his journey, and it's been an honor and a pleasure getting to know him and a little bit of all your personalities as well.

It's been great being able to feel as though I'm a part of a big conversation that I'm simply listening to as I make my way to work or home for them a long evening.

As for my feelings on the finale, to be quite honest, I love it orts and all.

This may sound backhanded or faint praise, but once I got to the tenth season, my experience with small Ville sort of involved a kind of baked in disappointment.

Despite having a superpse even season nine, even it was subject to some of the lesser quality of the series writing that usually includes dropping storylines, swerving into unwanted directions forgetting important characters.

That's prime suspect of that being Lucas Luther and sometimes a general misunderstanding of their own product, but it just sort of became the norm for me.

So going into the finale, I pretty much set a small tight list of things that I wanted to see, and I'd likely give it a break for all the you know, not so great stuff looking at you mind wipe.

And you know what.

From way back when in two thousand and one, I had always assumed that the last shot was probably going to be him ripping the shirt open to reveal the sh shield, and because of that, I was fifty to fifty on whether he'd wear the suit.

So the whole cutting around tom it was humorous to me, but admittedly the last shot of Clark or Superman looking through the window of the plane and smiling and nodding to Lois, I thought it was really sweet and that kind of saved the whole bit for me.

Darkseide felt like an afterthought, zombie Lionel was a choice, and the dispatching of the minions felt like they totally forgot that they had to do something with them and they just called everyone in last minute to wrap things up.

And of course, being a massive Flex Luthor fan, rest In peace, Gene Heckman.

Michael's return was essentially the weight and measure of the episode for me, whilst his last scene could have been handled a little bit better, maybe with Test getting back at Lex in a cleaner way, maybe only erasing a few years of his life instead of the whole continuity of the series.

Regardless, Michael and Cassidy felt as though they had been doing these scenes together for years, like such perfect chemistry and comfort with one another.

Would have really had loved to have seen more of that.

And I employed the work that they did with the bald cap.

I know it's obvious and still photographs, but with the way they cut around it, I think that they actually did a pretty good job.

And less we forget the scene between Clark and Lex, which feels like the most perfect bookend to all those conversations of fate and destiny that they had back in the earlier seasons, both men now acknowledging who they are and what's to come.

Well for the moment anyway, I mean, at this point the series was coming to an end, and much like the journey that we've all taken together on this podcast, I mean I just couldn't hate it.

The scene where Clark is given his suit by Jorell and Jonathan I thought was very touching and it also gave this podcast its namesake.

Was the finale a mess?

Yeah, but at ten seasons, I wouldn't want to leave small without a few things kind of sucking in the episode itself.

The series is that's it had that charm.

Episodes good, bad or otherwise.

You know, we never really want to leave, and the same thing here.

Even though the podcast has reached its end, all of our hearts will remain in Smallville.

So again, a big thank you to Zach and everybody involved with Always hold on to Smallville, and I look forward to seeing whatever the next adventure may be.

See you all there, Hello, Always hold on to Smallville.

This is Matthew Rocca, frequent guests on the show.

I am trying not to get too emotional right now, knowing that this is the grand finale.

It has been just an.

Absolute joy to connect with fans who loved this show as much as I always have growing up.

Just an incredible, incredible opportunity that Zach has given us all.

To.

Really just had this wonderful walk down memory lane and wax nostalgic about all our favorite moments and characters, so thank you, Zach, really appreciate it.

Thoughts on a finale, Wow, this is I'm going to try to truncate this because I have way too many and probably.

Could go on for hours and hours.

I mean, we know I could.

I just want to say a few highlights and a few aspects of it that, all these years later really stand out to me and make it a finale that I still love despite what you may think, Zach and a few others may think.

For me personally, I thought it was one of the best finales that I have seen for a series in that it gave me almost all of the emotional beats and character beats that I wanted.

And unlike some finales of TV shows, which go for a very subversive approach, which can be amazing and I love that I'm looking at you, Sopranos, this finale instead just gave us the goods.

That's how I felt.

It gave us what we wanted.

It was exciting, it was fun.

It was really just this amazing kind of love letter to the fans and the mythos and just reminding us all what the heart and soul of the show always has been and was reconnecting us with those moments like the Kents when we see you know, the ghost of Jonathan, how that's played that kind of pivotal role in the in this final season, and we see that moment in the barn where Clark is about to go off and uh and have this you know, this this epic this epic fight, and we have that that really beautiful shot where it's him and his father's ghosts and Martha in the barn together and it just kind of reminded me of you know, in season three when he comes back having had bread kryptonite in his system and you know, and he's watching his parents from afar.

Just that kind of reminder of the Kents really are why Clark is Superman, and they are the heart and soul of not only in the show, but the character.

Love that moment so much.

I love the just the lowest.

Moments, the whole aspect of that that shot as the camera is circulating around them when they're trying not when he's trying not to look at her.

Before the wedding, I was on a wedding video shoot recently and was actually telling the bride about that moment and She's like, oh, that's so cute.

Just again, you know, the heart and soul of the show.

It's interesting because it's like we had the heart and shoal of the original.

Seasons was Lana, but you know, for.

Better or worse, the way that that story are concluded where we're at now is like, this is now the forging of the Lois and Clark that we know and love, and it's just wonderful.

That's one of the things I love about Season ten in general is how much it focused on that relationship.

And then, of course, me being me, this would not be a review of the finale without me mentioning.

The Luthers.

First of all, Lex Luthor returning, Michael Rosenbaum returning.

I remember when the news of this came out, and I was so excited.

We'd all been hoping this for so long as fans, and I think a couple.

Of weeks before or a few weeks.

Before the finale, I think there was like some sort of statement that he was not coming back, and everyone just felt this collective disappointment, and then it was like, no, whoops, actually he is, and everyone had this great sigh of relief in this jubilation and that moment with Lex and Clark talk about your iconic superhero supervillain moment.

That was to me, that's up there with Joker and Batman interrogation room scene in Dark Knight, Like that is just top tier iconic comic book superhero super villain.

It's it's a moment where it's all the more exciting and magical because we're so used to those characters being who they are in that scene in terms of the comics and in terms of all the other movies, but because we've been on this ten yere journey with them, it's like, wow, now we're here and we saw all of that build to this moment.

I love Lex's line about every villain is only as great as his hero.

It's it's it's a perfect way to sort of take that that common saying about every hero is only good as his villain and turn that on its head.

And and the fact that Lex is embracing the fact that he is a villain now it really felt like a sort of mister Glass they called me mister Glass moment, you know, where he's he's realized his role in the story.

He is the archetypal villain, but He's there to challenge Clark, and the two of them are meant to always be on this epic battle, you know, destined to do this forever.

So I just adore that more moment, the way it shot, the way it's lit.

There's a line that Lex says that me and my family always so cooked to this day with you still say it the same way, astonishment mixed with a hint of dread, yet with a hopeful finish.

It's just like, Wow, that moment just gets me every time, just like, Wow, Michael is back, and Michael and Tom are my only regret.

With the whole Lex Luthor thing.

And I'm sure, and we've talked about this before, is the memory wiping thing, and it really it really I really didn't like it when it first happened the first time I watched the I mean when I first watched the episode, I really didn't like that moment when his minds get when his mind gets erased, when all these memories of his time in Smallville at the moment, I felt very disappointed because I, as a fan, as a lot of fans, felt like, wow, well what does that mean?

Right, Like, there's that a waste?

Then his whole journey.

Was that a waste that he doesn't remember it all?

So, like, did why did we see it right?

If it doesn't mean anything?

Or how is he still Lex Luthor then without those memories that shaped him?

But upon subsequent viewings, I did, you know, I did kind of notice in terms of the way that that was put together that there was that line of dialogue he says earlier about that's the thing about memories.

You can't forget them.

And despite that moment where his memories are erased, we see the Luther Corpse sign turn into Lex Corp obvious foreshadowing there, and then when we skip ahead seven years and he's President Lex, his destiny being fulfilled.

So then my head canon was, Okay, well, yes, he doesn't remember why he feels this way about Superman.

He doesn't remember the specifics of you know, his childhood and Lionel and this and.

That, but.

Those memories, those experiences still shaped him, right, So like he's still the same person that he was when we, you know, left off with his character.

It's just that he doesn't know why he's that person, right, And knowing Lex the way we know him, he will go to great lengths to figure out why.

And the season eleven comic really expounded on that a lot too, so, and you know.

That's that is true to actual psychology.

There are examples of people with post traumatic stress who don't remember their trauma, but they are still experiencing trauma.

They just don't know they can't trace it, right like to those repressed memories.

There are examples of people, you know.

Like psychopaths, having specific hatreds of certain kinds of people or whatever it might be, and they don't know why, right.

So I do think that it is.

It makes sense and it is true to psychology if you kind of look at it in that kind of in that perspective.

But it did take me a little while to kind of appreciate that.

I think that was one misstep in an otherwise nearly perfect finale.

Another misstep, of course, was the Superman costume itself on Clark.

But you know what, we will get back.

To that, because I need to first just wrap up the Luther element by saying Lionel was fantastic in this episode.

It's so cool to see him.

As just such a creepy Charles Manson esque psycho with this long, nasty hair and beard and his nails and stuff, his whole mad scientist moment, willing to sacrifice his own daughter's heart for Lex.

It's just so cool and so evil and.

So so perfectly Linel, but in this really demented you know, Earth two Linel specific way.

I just loved it, and it was it was such a great device, you know, like to have Linel be sort of the catalysts for how our og Lex comes back, for how Michael comes back.

That's my other only regret is I would have in terms of the Luther thing, I would have loved to have seen a final scene with the two of them.

I get what, they probably couldn't schedule thing and blah blah blah, but it would have been amazing.

But anyway, what a brilliant sendoff for the magnificent Bastard.

So great.

Yeah, So getting back to.

The Superman costume, Yeah, it's a little yeah, it's a little cheesy that.

We don't get to see Tom in the costume.

I get it, I get it.

I get everyone's disappointment, But you know what, it really didn't bother me that much when I first watched it, and it doesn't bother me that much.

All these years later, Like, I.

Get the frustration, but I guess because I was always watching the show for the journey up to that moment, I never even really thought we would get that moment, if that makes sense.

I kind of thought we might end with like the shirt rip and the s and boom that's it.

Like, so we got a little.

Bit more than you know, I kind of honestly bargained for, and so to me, I was like, Okay, you know, could have been executed.

A little better there, but.

We got a little more suit action than I really thought we would get.

So for that reason, it didn't really bother me.

I get Tom has his creative reasons for not wanting to do it or whatever.

It would have been awesome.

You never know, there could still be a Smallville movie, but no, I think because the build up to it was so epic to me too, It's like everything we saw in the Fortress, Clark remembering all those memories in the crystals, the voice of Jorel combined with Jonathan, and the fact that it's the two of them finally as these two opposite fathers finally connected now, and Jonathan handing the suit off to Clark getting chills thinking about it.

Yeah, and we do get that really cool short rip moment at the very end, and the John Williams theme playing, and the fact that it turns into the S at the end and it's no longer S for Small though now it's S for Superman, just like perfect segue into the iconic movie Superman.

So yeah, I could go on and on.

I really would love to do so, but I'm just gonna leave it at that and just say it's been a journey.

It's been a ride, not only being a fan of the show, but being a guest on the podcast.

I've just loved every moment of it, and the friendships that I've made through this podcast as well with everybody else who have I've gotten the chance to speak about the show together with has been amazing.

Again.

I am Matthew Roca.

That's Rocca, and you can find me on Instagram.

I am a filmmaker.

You can follow my work.

Right now, I'm working on editing a feature that we just shot called Morte m o RTE.

Can find the little temporary poster on IMDb if you look up Matthew Roca Rocca and then the title Morte And yeah, stay tuned for more filmmaking stuff from me.

I think the next one might be a superhero movie.

So here we go.

Hey everyone, my name is Darren Kirsht and if you are not familiar with me or my work, I got my start podcasting about five years ago with Zach on the Level thirty three point one Roundtable episodes above the Patreon had a lot of blast.

I was actually lucky enough to be featured on the season six episode five reunion episode proper of the podcast, and that was Zach and Lance and that was a blast.

It was a ton of fun.

Yeah, it was awesome.

And then I'm also the host of Round two, the film sequel podcast, where Zach has been on a couple of different times, and that's been a lot of fun as well.

And Zach Lance as well, i should say.

And then I also wrote.

A book called The Snyder Verse Saga, which covers the DCEU but mainly the Zach Snyder DC movies.

There is actually a Snyder Cut special that Zach did where we talked a lot about the book with the making of the book, kind of the content of the book.

It was a lot of fun.

I recommend you check it out.

As for my thoughts on Smallville the entire series itself.

I personally prefer the first half of the series because to me, it feels like more of the original PROMI of its conception, and personally I can relate to it more.

You know, I grew up in a rural, small tone hobby farm, so I could just definitely relate to the Superman mythology as a whole as a writer and a journalist per se two.

So to me, I just I always resonated with the first half of the series more than the second half.

But there are great episodes and moments throughout the entire series.

I always tell people and Zach, I'm sure I always finds this really bizarre that one of my favorite episodes is season three, episode four, called Slumber.

I don't know why.

It's just something that it's always been that way for me, and I just really loved that episode.

So it's not the best episode, I should add, it's just one of my personal favorites.

But you know, I think the content in the later seasons of the show, and to an extent, like the show in general, hasn't aged amazingly.

Might be kind of.

Sacrilegious to say in a way but to me, it just it becomes too fantastical and a little bit too comic bookie.

For me, it kind of feels like the tone shifts when they go to Metropolis in the later seasons.

But you know, in fun story in the moment, which for me was like twenty twelve, twenty thirteen, when the was when this for the series finale, I was actually initially skeptical of this New Man of Steel movie because I was such a big fan of Smallville and always champion Tom Welling as like our generation Superman at that time.

And it's really funny now to look back on that over a decade later and to see kind of like how things have really changed, not only with that opinion, but like with our landscape as being Superman fans as a whole.

But I just I owe so much to Tom Welling and his portrayal of Clark Kent for me in my formative years.

It's just something that it's kind of been like a light to guide the way for me and something that I'll always be grateful for.

But as for my thoughts on the series finale, there are moments that are really well done, and I think there are moments that just really don't work for me, like at all.

So I guess overall it is a little underwhelming in terms of, like how you're going to wrap up this show of him becoming Superman, Like that's the whole purpose of the show, is Clark Kent on the journey to becoming Superman, the hero's journey, right, And I just think, you know, and then there might be numerous reasons why it didn't, you know, end up being the level of quality that I feel like it very well could have been and should have been.

But you know, it is what it is, and there's still some good stuff in there too, some stand up moments.

I love everything with Clark and Lewis.

The night before the wedding and they're talking to each side of the door, I thought was worked really well.

The wedding itself, if I thought, was done really well.

The song Breathe Again by Sarah Morellis, I thought that just fit perfectly.

And then the line also like everything all right, Smallville, and then like he responds with you know perfect I think it's cool how that ties back to the pilot with this conversation with Lana and then and the quote from Clark's vow was I actually used in my wedding as well, because it's just I just thought it was perfect and loved it so much.

So I guess another moment for me that I really liked from the finale, the Trials moment, you know, with Jonathan handing in the suit saying the famous quote you know always Alana Smallville and just and just seeing the flashbacks is kind of like a cool way of showing, you know, where we've come from, how far we've come, hal far Clark has has gone on his journey, everything was a trial, and it's kind of active of our lives too, you know, in the trials we go through to become the people that we want to be.

We're all Superman fans because of I feel like we try to strive to be, you know, the best version of ourselves and try to live up to you know, our love and fandom for this character.

And I feel like it's kind of reflective of that in our lives too, and how we look back in that similar way, especially when we're tested the most.

So yeah, so I really liked that the Trials moment, not really what comes before or after with you know, you know, Got Dark Side, Lionel and Uh, it's just yeah, anyway, well I'll come back to that later.

But the conversation in the barn with Jonathan and Martha, it's always a treat to see Anet O'Toole and John Schneider together as Jonathan and Martha Kent, and it's just it was really great to kind of bring it back because that was when the beginning of the show, Like that was part of what made the show is so great, was that family dynamic and seeing them, you know, all back together like that, you know, even though like see one of the characters isn't really wasn't really there physically speaking, but it goes for him.

But yeah, I thought that was a great scene.

Obviously, the Clark and Lex scene is probably the most famous.

I would say having Michael Rosenbaum come back so awesome that he did.

I couldn't imagine what it would be like if he wasn't back, and just seeing the two of them together also brings it right back to how the show kind of started and what was so great about it early on.

And then I also really liked how it ended on a.

Flash forward because it kind of mirrors the pilot opening with a flashback, so I thought that was a really fun twist that ties it back to the pilot as well.

And it's kind of interesting because the Harry Potter movie franchise literally and the books I guess too literally did the same thing at that same point in time with Deathie Hollow's Part two.

So just kind of a fun coincidence everything.

So when it comes to what doesn't work with the finale, to me, pretty much everything involving dark Side, and a lot of that I believe is due to the writing and just like the the conceptual idea of it for the not just the episode, but the end for the whole season.

Like there's some large scale issues like that season planning, but there's also like on a smaller scale, a lot of the dialogue just does not.

Sit well with me.

I guess it could have been a lot stronger.

It felt like maybe it was rushed, And I get it, like it's probably hectic and trying to.

Come up with a finale, and I'm sure it's not an easy thing, and not saying I would be any better at it than they are, but I felt like when you look at the earlier seasons of the show, not even just with like you know, Miles and Miller, but.

I'll go on Miles more.

But yeah, I don't know.

I just it wasn't quite as strong as it usually was for me, test erasing Lex's memory.

That also, to me was unfortunate that that whole scene was kind of unfortunate.

Also, why the long time jump to do the wedding again?

Why not just do it a week later?

You know?

So I always thought that was kind of a strange choice, creative story choice.

I know a lot of people are kind of frustrated with the whole cgi Superman, you know, like we don't actually see him physically in the suit right, which it is a bummer, But I totally understand the why of it, you know, when you when you hear Brian Peterson talk about why they chose not to because they felt like it's every other Superman media does it, and for their show, the short rip was like their way of just giving you what you just just the amount of what you need to understand it.

And I and I liked how it ended on that as well.

I think that was really great.

You know, it's kind of sort of how Zack Sander's Justice League ended as well.

But we'll we'll we'll we'll not talk about that.

Uh, you know, to wrap up, uh, Smavel is my favorite show ever, and that's solely based on nostalgia and it will likely remain that way.

You know.

It added so much to the mythology, and it contained some of my favorite aspects of the entire Superman mythos, including certain casting choices like Michael Rosenbaum, John Glover, John Schneider.

I think about some, you know, like the the way the show started with the on the Kryptonite.

Falling and how it kind of and obviously with Lex how that loses his hair.

And I really love the the Kent.

Farm in general, but the barn itself, the loft, I think it was one of my favorite set pieces in all Superman media.

So so much great stuff came from Smallville, and I just want to thank Zach Lance and all y'all small villains for keeping the flame of this.

Amazing show alive and well.

And no matter what good seasons are bad, good episodes are bad, I will always hold on to Smallville.

Hey, always hold on to Smallville.

Chris Fuchs here from always hold on to Star Wars with my thoughts on the Smallville season ten series finale.

This show was one of the first shows that I watched religiously start to finish.

It was appointment television for the first seven or eight years, and then as I got older and had a job and a little bit more of a life, it was catch up on the DVR.

But I made sure I was there for the series finale, and I got to say, when I first watched it, I walked away happy.

I walked away satisfied with the way that the show ended.

I know it's changed over the years with rewatches and seeing how other superhero shows have done it since then, but watching the first time through, I was definitely good with the ending and all the way after that shirt rip had me giddy and just happy to see our Clark Kent become Superman.

Some of the things I really liked about the finale.

One of the biggest things for me was having them incorporate a Lois Lane airplane save.

I think that was huge to have, and it's in almost every Superman story, so to have something like that was cool to see, and it's a nice moment to see Lois have Lois see her Clark become Superman, and we get to experience that as well, and that's what a lot of what the show is is her inspiring and pushing him.

Some of my least favorite parts of the series finale, I think it was definitely slow starting and then rushed finish, so I think they could have done a little bit better in that regard.

Having Oliver disperse dark sides cronies with one shot three arrows was a bit much for me.

And I also really didn't like that comic book story intro where Chloe's reading the story of Clark in Smallville to her son.

I thought that was a bit that and I just took me out of it a bit for there, So it wasn't a fit of that.

Looking back now so many years later, definitely I see the issues a little bit more.

I see the areas that I would have I wish they did that differently, or that wasn't as satisfying.

But coming out of it in the beginning when I first watched it, I was definitely happy and felt good about the ending.

I think back then I probably would have rated it around maybe like a B plus a minus range, and thinking back now, it's probably much lower, probably like a BB minus range in terms of what they gave us but ending on that shirt rip that was everything to me.

So but it's definitely been a fun ride rewatching the series, re listening and meeting this group of people.

Always hold on to Smallville, that my favorite show is as much as I do.

So just like that journey came to the end, now this one is coming to an end.

Can't wait to hear what you have to say about it, Zech and your guests.

Looking forward to that finale coverage and always holding on to Smallville.

This is Casey Cochrane.

You can find me on Twitter or x as it's called nowadays at Casey Cochran fifty three.

I'm now also the livestream producer for Faith UCC and Dunnine, Florida.

I've got a.

Unique memory about when I watched the Smallville finale.

I was working at McDonald's at the time and I had to work the night at the finale.

I also had a coworker who was a small Old fan and we were both working that night, so I invited him to my house after work to watch the finale.

Well, after work was about five am, not the time most people watched it, and I don't remember how I felt at the time when I watched the finale, but having rewatched it again, it still gives me goosebumps.

Another anecdote that I'd like to share is that I recently met my biological father in person for the first time.

Shortly after that, he got married to a lovely woman, and I have visited them several times since they both love Smallville.

They also have a thing for the number thirteen.

He proposed to her on April thirteenth of last year, twenty twenty four, and then they got married a month later on May thirteenth, which was coincidentally the thirteenth anniversary of the Smallville finale.

They didn't realize it at the time, but I pointed it out to them on their one year anniversary this year.

Hello, always hold on to Smallville, Luke Bug the Geek of Steel here and you condy asked me to share a few thoughts on the finale of Smallville, and I hope you have a spare five to ten hours for my rantings and ravings.

That show continues to be a huge part of my life.

After season one ended many many years ago, I wanted to learn more about these characters, To learn more about Superman and Clark and Lois and Lex and Smallville.

From that first encounter of that show, my love for Superman grew and grew and grew to one day, I became the Geek of Steel, and for many years I have loved sharing everything about Superman.

And when that show ended, I was scared to watch that finally.

I didn't want it to end.

I didn't want to say goodbye to these characters and those stories and that town.

But sadly we had to because the time had come for Smallville to end.

I was was.

Emotional, to say the least, when those final credits rolled.

But I'm grateful for that show.

I'm grateful for the characters and the memories and the way that that show has helped create where we are now in the world of pop culture and television.

Just like without action comics, we wouldn't have movies and TV shows like we have now because of Smallville.

We wouldn't have had Arrow, we wouldn't have shows like Gotham, we wouldn't have so many more TV shows about superheroes.

So we must always hold on to Smallville and the memories of that show, and especially that finale.

Smallville and Superman mean so much to me and to thousands of people around the world, and even though that show has sadly ended, it will continue to live on in our memories and in our hats and be a huge part of why we are fans of Superman.

Hey there, this is Anthony Politic from the grun podcast.

We finally made it to the Smallville series finale, and I guess the always hold on the Smallville series finale as well been hell of a ride.

But for the finale, the finale of this Tom Welding led series, I actually tuned in.

I was not a regular viewer of Smallville at this point, and I'm sure a lot of people also weren't a regular viewer of Smallville compared to the earlier years.

But it was impossible to not be a compbook fan around this time period, whether it was because of the movies or whatever, and not be aware that Smallville, this giant Superman show, was reaching its finale.

So I did what any good Samaritan would do, and I tuned in.

I watched the show.

I had no context for half the stuff that was going on.

I just knew that I was watching a Superman show with all these wonderful characters, and you know, to say that it's bad, or say that it's awful, or say that it's this worst thing ever has been said before.

So I won't be saying that here.

I'll simply say that it ended.

No, I didn't cut out.

That's just all I have to say.

It ended.

So thank you so much, Zach for having me on the show the multiple times that you had me.

Thanks for reaching out and having me record this little voice memo.

Just like thousands, I don't know that.

Maybe not thousands, that's not right.

However, many people are here with me talking about the Smallville finale and how it happened.

Great Hey, Zach Eddie here from New York, New York.

It has been a pleasure to listen to you guys, and I can't believe we're at the final.

Really, always hold on to Smallville.

Man, I gotta tell you.

I know the finale had its disappointing moments, but really I remember watching it and being so excited for it.

Watching him fly, that was just a real epic moment.

I have a different take on what it meant for our Clark Kent being the most powerful because he pushed away a planet.

I believe that that was more about the collective group of people on planet Earth rejecting the dark side, combined with Clark slash Superman pushing the planet.

The rejection of the darkness is what enabled the planet to be rejected from Earth.

So it wasn't just about Clark being the most powerful.

It was about the overall rejection of the darkness and the real theme of season ten with darkness.

It's had its up and downs season ten, but at the end of the day, you know, we got Michael back for Lex, we got their confrontation.

It wasn't perfect, but we certainly got a good enough ending.

I give it an A.

And you know, listening to this show has been special, being part of it, being on it, and it's really gonna be tough to you know, not have any new episodes.

I gotta tell you, always hold on to Smallville.

This podcast best one for the best show.

Thank you guys, really appreciate it.

Bye.

Hi.

This is Meredith Borders calling in from Bavaria, Germany.

I've been lucky to join zacun Always hold on to Smallville three times in the final three seasons and each time has been a joy.

Sex done such great work with us podcast, and I can't wait to hear the final episode.

I love the series finale.

I know that's not always a popular opinion, but knowing what we did about Tom Wellen's feelings about the suit, I think they came as close to that Superman in Metropolis magic as this high school, small town show was ever going to get.

I remember spending months on the boards and TV gossip columns trying to learn if we'd see Rosie in the final app and I think, like in Lex's last scene.

Is truly earned.

I love Tessa's triumphant goodbye and Clark's final ascension revisiting all of his most important saves and taking to the skies gives me chills every time.

I know the CGA suit bugs folks, and that's fair, but I'm too busy watching Erica durronson that scene, who gives the performance of a lifetime.

And at long, long last, we've reached the origin story of this podcast's.

Name for me, no notes, Hi, everyone, Alan Burke here from All Star Fan podcast.

You know, I stock with smallvill for nearly seven full seasons, and those early years really meant a lot to me.

There was something powerful about watching young Clark Kente come into his own not as Superman, but as a person learning to carry the weight of who he was meant to become.

The relationships to heart, the emotional grounding, it all works so well, and even as my faded in the later seasons, I never stopped respecting what small Will set out to do, because honestly, Smallville mattered.

It kept the Superman mit us alive during a time when no one else was touching it.

It reintroduced core elements of the character to a new generation, and it laid the groundwork for the golden age of superhero television we see today.

Without Smallville, there's no Arrowverse, no Superman and Lowest Maybe.

Even though MCUTV in the form, we note the show helped redefine what long form superhero storytelling could look like, and that's a legacy to be very proud of.

But when it comes to the finale, it's hard not to feel let down.

After ten years of build up, we were promised the moment Clark would finally become Superman, and it just didn't deliver.

The way the show handled Darkseide and the entire apocalypse plotline felt rushed and toothless.

One of DC's biggest villains reduced to a puff of smoke and vague symbolism.

It felt more like a technicality than a triumph.

And the fact that we never really got to see Tom Welling wherre the k properly it still stings all these years later.

I understand the behind the scenes reasons, but from a fan's perspective, it was a giant misstep.

That was the payoff we waited for, not just the idea of Superman, but Clark becoming him.

We were ready, the moment just never truly came.

All that said, I'm incredibly grateful to Zach Moore from inviting me to be part of They Always went On to Small Bill Journey.

It's been a real honor to revisit what the show got right, what its struggled with, and why he continues to mean so much to so many people.

Zach, thank you for the invitation, and I wish you nothing but success in all your future projects.

You've done something really special with this community, and I'm proud to have been a small part of it.

Was along the way.

Hey, Zach, this is Joey Deenberg from Always hold On to Star Wars.

Just give you some of my thoughts on these Smallville finale.

So back in twenty eleven, I was finishing up my junior year of high school, and I remember that the day the finale came out, I was actually away working at a boy Scout camp, and I was I remember being bummed that I did not get to see it live.

But the good thing about.

Twenty eleven was I did not have a smartphone, I didn't have social media in my fingertips, so I was able to make it out of camp and back home unscathed from any kind of spoilers.

And I made it home and I went straight.

For the DVR.

Normally, after a long week of camp, I'm probably heading straight to bed, but this show had me ignoring, being you know, as tired as I was.

I remember my parents giving me a hard time, trying to tease me and throw some spoilers out there, like oh, yeah, you get to see Tom Welling in the Superman costume, and thinking that that they had spoiled it there, and clearly they did not, and they did not actually watch it.

So I was able to sit down with my parents and watch it.

It wasn't never a family show in our house, but they.

Always knew what was going on.

And for this one, I remember them tuning in with me to watch.

I loved it in the moment when it came out.

I remember being obsessed with it after the fact, rewatching it on the DVR.

I remember buying the individual episodes on my iPod and rewatching them over and over on bus rides to track meets over the next year, and just always going back to it.

For me, it's still held up.

It was a huge part of my Superman fandom, just.

You know the age I was.

I was too young when Lois and Clark came out, and we're still a few were years away from Man of Steel, so this kind of was it for me.

I mean, there was Superman Returns, but Smallville obviously was just a much more key piece to my fandom.

So I really enjoyed the finale in the moment when it came out.

It's still I still enjoy looking back at it, but I now appreciate Smallville for more of what the journey it was, and I can find myself, you know, rewatching you know, all of season one or some of those earlier episodes before I go back to the finale.

So it's not always my favorite part, but it's still hold a special place in my heart.

I'm really looking forward to hearing your thoughts on the finale throughout this journey of listening to you rewatch the show over over years.

Really excited to hear about your guys' discussion about it, and also just want to say thank you again for the community that you've created.

This is.

This podcast has really meant a lot to me.

It's always there whether you have a good day at work and you just need to pass the time, or you have a bad day and you need to escape this.

You know, your show, not so much Smallville, but your show has really created a community and a place for people like me to come enjoy.

And you know, even before our first thirty three point one roundtable that I got to actually talk to you felt like I knew you and Lance and Kevin, Chris and you know you all felt like friends just listening to you, and I can really tell you guys just are yourselves here on this podcast.

So just appreciated you guys sharing this experience with us.

And again I'm looking forward to it and because of your show, I know I will always hold on to Smallville.

Hey, Zach Anthony Desiotto here from digging for Kryptonite.

I don't know that I've ever been as excited for a television viewing event as I was to watch the series finale of Smallville back in twenty eleven, and it ultimately ended up being a pretty bittersweet affair.

There were moments I absolutely loved, clark reuniting with his parents in the barn Lois and Clark's walk down the aisle, Lex and Clark's first seen together in years, and of course Clark's seeing all of his trials laid out before him.

These are some of my favorite moments of the series.

Fantastic.

Yet, of course, on the other hand, we have things like Lex's mind wipe, an unforgivable offense that undermines the entire journey he's been on over the course of the series, and of course the lack of a proper costume.

And I don't know that I can adequately capture the dissonance I felt as I was watching this live back in the day, the slow realization that not only is it cgi, but that's all we're ever going to get to see.

For that reason, there's always going to be a bit of an asterisk next to the Smallville series finale in my book.

However, I have made a fair measure of peace with it over the years, and I think one of the main things I've come to is that I think the finale is a microcosm of the series as a whole, moments of greatness and moments that frustrate as well.

Yet despite it all, we love it.

So thank you for this opportunity, Congress that's on concluding your series coverage, and of course I will always hold on to Smallville.

Good a Zach, buddy, it's your mate, Ryan Yuniican from across the ocean, out the side of the world.

Even first and foremost, just want to send huge congratulations on finishing up the show.

Extraordinary effort, ungodly effort.

To be honest, you know, I'm sure you had plenty of people in your life to you that you were mad at the beginning of this journey, and here you are, all these years later about to wrap it up.

So congratulations.

You know how I feel about the podcast, my favorite of all time.

I was stoked to come on board and talk to you about one of my favorite episodes, But to be fair, I probably could have chosen the finale to come on and talk about as well, because I love the finale.

I felt like Welling was really up to the task, really staked a claim as a definitive Superman for a lot of people.

And you know, I felt like it really delivered on the promise of setting the stage for what was to come in the comic book pages or whatever you personally side to be the continuity after the ending of the show.

You know, I felt like it really set the stage for you to kind of pick where Soups went from there, whether it was into comics, whether it was into another form of media.

I felt like it delivered on that initial premise and thematically, I thought it was a really beautiful ending.

Like I said, I thought Tom was fantastic, It was great to see Rosie back.

All the supporting casts were fantastic, as they always were, a real highlight of the show.

And obviously Erica Durance.

You know, what, can you say, the entire playing sequence is absolutely extraordinary, And yeah, I just thought it was a really beautiful, fantastic, strong.

Ending to the show.

I felt felt definitive to me.

It felt like, you know, we're putting Clark in the rear view and this is this is you know, the trials and tribulations are done, destiny fulfilled, and we know where he goes from here.

And I've had a lot of arguments over.

The years about whether that's a an accurate raid on it or not, but that's my stance and and that was my raid on it.

And I really really loved that that was my raid on it.

And yeah, fantastic, Always hold on the small Ville man.

Congratulations, I'm super super super styched for you.

Hi, guys.

Rob O'Connor here from the All Stars super Fan podcast to give my thoughts on the Smallville finale.

The finale brings up a lot of memories for me.

I remember when it came out.

I had recently started dating my now fiance, and I remember watching it on my tiny little netbook laptop on the bus on the way back from my internship, which was on the other side of Ireland.

At the time, I was feverishly anticipating this finale, and I think at the time I was mostly okay with it, with a couple of caveats.

I thought the first the first forty minutes or so dragged a bit setting up the wedding that was not to be.

The back end was was really the meat of the whole thing, though, we see Legs come back, we see Clark, you know, finally face down the darkness in the form of Lionel finally learns how to fly, and then he flies to the fortress and we see him finally become Superman in a manner of speaking.

I think at the time, I was obviously frustrated by the lack of Tom Welling actually clearly visibly wearing the Superman costume.

I do admire the lengths the director and the editor and the producers went to working around the problem that Tom Welling wouldn't wear the suit.

I have a lot of respect for how they handled it.

It is still sloppy and shaky and messy and weird to look at when they do these tight shots of his face.

It's just very, very odd, and I am always just frustrated, like why when the Internet was so a washed with images of him wearing the costume in photo shots and stuff like, how would it have made any difference for him to actually wear the costume for five minutes of a TV episode.

It will never make sense to me.

I'm sorry, but everyone who had to work around that problem, I have a lot of respect for what they did.

What I don't respect, however, is the baffling decision to wipe Lex's memories.

It didn't make sense then, it doesn't make sense now.

I guess maybe they just wanted to clean up the status quo and have it be your standard Superman comic book situation where he doesn't know the clerk is Superman.

I guess that's what it was.

Maybe it was a DC comic thing that they were told they had to end the series that way, and there was no wiggle room for Lex to know.

I think they could have.

They could have come up with a scenario or lexis, don't worry, Clark, I won't reveal your secret yet, or something just end the show on a cliff anger like that.

That would have been interesting.

But this is what we got.

Is it the finale?

I would have I would have liked to have seen kind of I think what we've and subsequent years that the plans Alan Miles had where it was going to be Clark Kent the journalist interviewing lexlot at the president with kind of flashbacks to a finale situation that would have been really, really cool, And I kind of wish we'd gotten that but this does a respectable, if messy job.

It's a mixed bag, and you know what, most of small vill is a mixed bag.

I think they leave the characters in a good place.

Lex Aside, they leave the characters in a pretty good place.

We see Lewis and Clark, you know, happily engaged at the Daily Planet.

We see Jimmy two point zero.

We hear Perry's voice.

It's a recognizable Superman status quo.

And while it was clumsy getting there, you know it'll do.

And I think my favorite thing about the finale now is because we have it and we can look back at it.

We can debate about whether it's good or not.

That's one thing.

But for me watching Smallville growing up, it was all about the destination.

How is he going to become Superman?

How is that going to happen?

When is that going to happen?

Why can't we get to that point now?

It's just constant frustration, And I think that's why I left it for a number of years and then came back to it when the endgame was finally in sight.

But now because we know how it ends, it's way easier to go back and just truly enjoy the journey, and there is a lot to enjoy the in that ten years, you know, so I'm very grateful to be able to do that now.

And I want to thank you again, Zach for doing such a great rewatch show all these years, and you've set the standard for other Superman rewatch podcasts, and I tip my fedora to you.

God bless.

Hey there, Michael Bailey.

Here of it all comes back to Superman chining in with my thoughts on the Smallville series finale, which I did watch the night it aired, not as it aired, because I had to work that night.

Normally, this wouldn't be a problem because you've been back in twenty eleven.

We lived in a day and age that you had DVRs hooked into your TV, usually through your cable system.

But ours wasn't working so much like a neanderthought.

I had to take out a VHS tape and actually physically I had to set the VCR in anything.

I was rocking it like it was nineteen ninety two.

And when I got home, I watched it, and then my feelings were I enjoyed this.

I didn't understand certain things because I hadn't been following the show since season five, but I felt, in terms of seeing Clark finally become Superman and take that next big step literally that it worked really well.

I especially liked the scene where he's in the fortress and all the images of everything that's happened to him or swirling around him with that great piece of music, because I think for finales like this, especially a show that runs ten years, I always love those moments in the finales where you get to watch like scenes from earlier that makes you feel like you've really been on a journey.

I appreciate it the fact that they tried a shirt rip.

I do not appreciate the fact that, like you guys have banged on about on numerous occasions, that it feels like they just took out their CD to Superman the Movie and just played the first track.

All these years later, I still feel like the finale works.

I enjoy it.

When I finally did watch all of season ten, I felt like it was a good payoff to the plot lines that have been running through that season.

But more than anything, what the finale did for me then and now is just make me appreciate what position Smallville occupies in the history of Superman.

This is a version of Superman that brought in a whole new generation of people.

He is the It is the Christopher Ye of Superman films.

It is the Dan Kin, Lewis and Clark's.

It is the Henry Cavill Superman, and hopefully the David corn Sweat Superman.

It is that moment that existed beyond just a single thing and created a new status quo for a certain number of people who had just discovered the character.

Anyways, congratulations on getting to the finale and I'm out.

This is Nicole from the Wall of Weird on YouTube.

Thank you Zach for having me back on to share my thoughts on the Smallville finale.

I Binge watched the entire series in two weeks during the COVID shutdowns.

It was a perfect escape from the dystopian reality we were all living through.

Helped me regain a sense of normalcy, sanity.

The heart of the show is what drew me in the most.

As a mother, I deeply connected with the Kent family.

I also loved the Clark and Laana relationship and later Clark and Lois.

However, Clark and lexteynamic truly hoped me.

It gave the show maturity beyond a typical teen drama in the early seasons.

Season nine remains my favorite, but the series finale is my top episode.

The more I rewatch it, the more I love it.

The Clark and Lowe's moments, the Clark and Jonathan scenes, and the Clark and Lex confrontation were perfect.

The finale tied up the storylines beautifully, delivering a classic good versus evil story with compelling theological undertones, and ended perfectly with Clark's soaring into the skies in the suit.

Despite my love for the finale has a few blows.

My biggest disappointment was the scene where Clark pushes the planet away.

It felt underwhelming in both execution and drama, almost too easy.

The action sequence seemed low budget, especially since didn't get a close up with Clark in the suit just a cgi Avatar was also disappointed that the ten years later flash forward show Clark and Lowis still not married.

A town hall wedding doesn't take that long.

Come on, Choosing a favorite scene is really tough, but I picked the Clark and Lowis wedding scene for the win.

It's been an incredible journey and I'll always hold on to Smallville.

Get you all later.

Hey, Zach, Hey the always Malville crew.

This is JJ from the Spider Man Book Club and four comic junkies here to talk about the Smallville series finale.

You know, I'll be perfectly honest with you.

I freaking loved it when it first came out.

I was just over the moon.

I don't know, and even to day, you know, what is it now, fourteen years later?

Jeez?

I still love it.

You know.

It's it's cheesy as heck, and you know, we don't get to see Tom in the suit, and that's a bummer.

But I honestly think that the positives, the the the always hold onto small little bit, you.

Know, ironically, uh lex coming back, the flash forward scene, you know, all all that stuff.

It just it makes up for kind of some of the not so great stuff.

But in all honesty, I don't want to focus on that.

You know.

I love where the where the story went and and kind of how it tied together a little bit, you know, with you know, these are my trials, and then you know when he finally flies at the end, you know, when he fights dark Side.

You know, it just it did it for me.

You know, and I think that that feeling of like wow, this is great.

That I had all those years ago just just never really went away, you know, like the show.

It may have disappointed me from time to time, but I never gave up on it.

You know, always hold on too, Smallville, right, guys, you know, thanks again, this has been an amazing journey and wow, this it's the end.

Now it's crazy.

Look forward to see what you all do next.

Hello, this is Luke deckerd from Mean Streets the Film Noir Podcast.

Zach.

Thank you so much for the opportunity to come on and share some final thoughts about the Smallville finale and be a part of this epic conclusion.

Like so many others, Smallville was a show that I grew up with.

It instantly resonated with me, not just because I lived in a similarly small town, but because Clark's very human struggles mirrored a lot of things that I went through as a teenager.

I think this was the first time that I felt a real connection with Superman as a character other than just sort of enjoying the films and the cartoons and stuff like that.

This really was the first time I felt like, Ah, I get this guy in a way that I just hadn't before.

You Know, though my love of the show waned a little bit around season eight, I still remained loyal to the show.

You know, I had left, I'd moved countries around season eight, and so going back and continuing to watch Smallville felt like, you know, holding onto a piece of home.

I was always holding on too Smallville in a way.

But you know, by the time you know, the show aired, I was finished university, Clark was about to step into his role as Superman, and I was about to go out into.

The real world.

And I a sort of always felt that I.

Shared a parallel journey with Clark, you know, or our lives sort of, you know, we're going in that same sort of you know, we were were dealing with it with similar things along the way, where it was high school stuff, while that was finishing up high school, not knowing what she wanted to do, and then it was going out into the real world.

I just sort of always felt connected to the show from that perspective.

Now, when it came time to watch the finale, to say I was disappointed would be an understatement.

Expectations were so freaking high, you know, Michael was coming back, Clark was finally going to be Superman, and the season had teased that suit, that bloody, bloody suit, so hard, and I was ready.

I was ready to see Superman actualized.

Instead, we got a forty minute melodrama about whether Lows and Clerk would get married or not.

You know, they bring back Lex to erase his entire memory and reset him, and then we only a microscopic cgi Superman who pushes a planet away, and that's somehow eradicates this big darkness.

Okay, oh yeah, and dark Side is a cloud of ravens or something.

I don't know.

It was just all a bit silly, uh.

I think the finale bit off far more than it could chew, and it really could have benefited from some restraint.

But there were things I liked about the finale, one of those being Clark's journey.

You know, I think we got to remember that Clark is only meant to be twenty five in this finale.

He's he's always been a bit slow to learn and slow to come around, and I think from from or from the audience perspective, sometimes it was it was easy to forget that he he was he really is a kid most of the time.

Uh and even in the finale, you know.

He he is still very young.

He's still very naive and immature and has growing up that he needs to do.

And the finale needed to wrap up essentially ten years of Clark's apprehension about who he is, wrap up his ten year long or lifelong twenty five year long identity crisis, and I think for the most part it landed that.

I love Clark's eventual realization that he needed to physically move on from Smallville, something that as an audience member I was waiting for since season four.

But also his last lesson was, you know, to understand that there is value in accepting his past experiences that you know, you know, his time in Small Villain.

Embracing that very human part of his life is important and you know, he should not be running away from it, and he should not be ignoring it.

You know that that's a really important message.

I think Martha makes very clear in that very first opening scene.

And.

I think it's quite important that he finally becomes whole when he finds his strength and balancing his human experience is his human life with his Kryptonian side, you know, Lana asks Clark in the pilot, what are you Clark Man or Superman?

And I think, well, for him to become the Superman, he needs to be both man and super And you know, while I don't think we needed the long flashbacks of him just kind of floating in air, you know, and you know, I think his acceptance of who and what he is and what he can be was a very satisfying conclusion to Clark's ultimate journey on the show and the show's ultimate journey, and so I really appreciate the finale for accomplishing that.

I think it landed Clark's ultimate ultimate journey in a way that you know, I thought was satisfying.

There are other little elements that I enjoyed about the finale here and there.

You know, there's obviously a wonderful chemist between Clark and Lois, and I'm always here for Tom and Erica's you know romance on screen.

It's wonderful.

And you know, hey, I.

Can't not mention the Lex and Clark final scene.

I thought that was fantastic.

You know, that was the thing I'd been desperately waiting for since season seven, and I was I think that scene was absolute Golds.

It was special, truly special to witness the chemistry between Tom and Michael one last time, and I you know, that one scene between those two highlights the spark that I think was missing from the you know, the rest of the show post season seven.

Now onto things I maybe didn't like so much.

Short or bugged me.

I've tried to keep this as short as possible because I you know, I could go through this with a fine tooth comb, but I'm not going to do that.

A couple of things that I think bothered me the most about the finale and maybe still sort of bugged me today is one big thing is the donnerifying of the finale.

I think Chloe reading that small vill comic at the beginning was just a bit stupid.

It made no sense for there to be a small Vial comic unless the whole world knows that Clark is Superman.

And if they don't know, well, that comic book is going to make it very very clear who Clark is and who Superman is.

You know, I know they were going for a meta thing, but it just landed like a wet far.

It's clearly a reference to the comic book scene at the beginning of Superman seventy eight and it just really felt out of place.

But I think kind of continuing with the donnerification of the finale, the ending leading up to the shirt rip, well, you know, the shirt rip is a great ending scene for the show, and it was you know, when I was a kid watching, I thought, the way they're going to end this show is the shirt rip.

That's a perfect ending for this, you know, and actually thinking we don't need to see him in a full blown shirt Like I I was fine with him having some sort of finale and then that being the the final scene and just letting our imagination run, you know, but I said, obviously we got teased with CGI miniature microscopic CGI Superman.

Anyway, the shirt leading up to the shirt rip stuff, the whole Clark and lowis Misslaye, there's a bomb, the YadA, YadA, YadA.

It really demonstrated the identity crisis that the show had had been in for several years and was still facing right up to its final moments.

And I think the finale, trying to marry the Donner film with Smallville, it just felt unnecessary.

Small vill didn't need to be turned into a quasi Reeve esque prequel.

It just needed to be its own thing, and it was almost like the show was afraid at the end of you know, concluding without putting all of these DC characters in their traditional places, despite it making zero sense given the show's history and what the show had been doing.

I mean, Lois Lane had been there since his senior year of high school, like you know, the playbook has been thrown out already, So I don't know why they worked so hard to do this sort of yeah, this this weird reset of the of the pieces.

In addition to that reset, the other thing that I just found inexcusable was Lex mindwipe.

I have no doubt this will be a hot topic in the finale discussion, but I just remember being absolutely crushed that they brought Lex back only to wipe his memory to eradicate everything that was important about him becoming the Lex Luthor that we you know, love to hate.

I think the hard reset was egregious and frank leave lazy on the show's part and on the writer's part, And I don't know why they felt they needed to do it.

I don't know if there's some sort of mandate somewhere if someone out there has that, you know, I would love to know.

But I absolutely hated it, and you know, it bummed me out because we had seen Lex go so far and you know, taking all of those experiences away from him just.

It was.

It did a massive disservice to the show and the character.

And I liked the idea of Lex finally knowing the end, but also knowing and both Clark and Lex knowing that there's no way back to their friendships.

It's done.

They are now enemies, and you know, I think that was an interesting way to leave the characters and a missed opportunity.

But you know, whatever the show felt it needed to do a very hard resets and that was just a little bit, a little bit disappointing.

My overall thoughts though on the finale.

You know, when I when I look back on it now, I think I generally accept it for what it is, you know, for what we got.

Yes, it is absolutely a bomber.

We didn't see Tom in the suit.

I think the finale is quite flabby.

You know, that first forty minutes of the will they Won't They stuff get married just felt superfluous.

It's Clark and lowis they're going to get married at some point.

It didn't need to be now, it didn't need to be the focus of the finale.

It just didn't need to be.

But at the same time, you know, it's not easy sticking the landing.

I think the show probably thought that it needed some big bad for its ending, you know, in the way it used dark Side, but in the way that it was unable to use dark Side was should have been the tell that they shouldn't go that way, because really, you know, all Smallville really needed was something as simple as Clark stopping a bomb or catching a falling plane to reveal to the world that he is Superman and you know, become that that beacon of hope.

However, for me, the most important part of the finale wasn't whether Clark and Lois got married, or you know, whether he defeated dark Side or any anything like that.

But you know, you know, it was really about getting Clark to the point where he can fully become Superman and of course bring Lex back after all her Oliver uh murdered him.

And I think the show achieved those you know, last two points with with success, and of course had Cannon tells me that Lex he just got his memories back, which I think happens in the Smallville season eleven comics.

But you know, so for all my issues, you know, I I do think the show landed Clark's journey and and I appreciate it for that alone.

You know, small But will always be a hugely important to show to me, and I appreciate, you know, I appreciate that the it's complicated, you know, I appresue the complicated, you know, nature of trying to end a show and trying to conclude this epic Superman journey in a way that was satisfying.

And you know, who knows, I maybe had some corporate shenanigans and inputs and you know, we all know how producers can be.

So yeah, anyway, Zach, thanks for having me on one last time.

This was great fun.

Hey everyone, this is Mary Kukowski from the Kowski Cast and Rob has a podcast.

And I can't believe we've reached the end already.

Series finales are almost impossible to master perfectly.

We've all seen some really bad ones over the years, looking at you Game of Thrones, but where Smallville is concerned, I think there's a lot to like.

Many of us would have loved the show to go on for another several years, get rebooted, or even spin off in some way, but what we did receive had a good amount of closure and fan service to those who had been watching since the beginning.

I personally loved all of the cameos from characters who'd been off the show for a while.

I know I definitely shed a few tears seeing John Schneider back as Jonathan Kent one last time.

I'll admit Season ten isn't my favorite of the show, but it does give that nostalgic feeling to want to start at the beginning all over again, And isn't that really the best a great TV show can hope for.

Thanks to Zach and everyone else who has contributed to the podcast over the years for keeping the fandom alive.

Hey, this is Eric Folk from Smallville Papers.

I really loved the show's early years.

Then.

It seemed to have some you know, decent highs and major lows, especially you know things like the Laanna pregnancy, but it had enough good moments sprinkled throughout to keep me going.

I was eagerly waiting for Tom to become the Superman that I feel like we all wanted to see, so watching the tenth season, I thought we were going to get like a budget friendly Superman movie for the final episode, since that seemed to be what it was alluding to, and also since my friends and I had worn Superman T shirts every week that the show was on there the first four seasons, I thought it was only fitting that we would wear it one more time for the finale.

I laugh now that I realized that we wore as much as the suit as Tom did, and still feel robbed about not really seeing him become Superman.

I remember thinking, and still do, come on, Man, could you at least wear the suit?

Bringing Lex back was a must, so I'm really glad that he came back.

Seeing him back was fantastic.

I thought that having him back and him also knowing Clark's secret was an excellent take on this version of Superman, but then they decided to get rid of his memories, so I thought that was pretty lame.

I'm still a bit torn on the ending.

I love the cast, I love the show, but I do think that this is something that was just almost good.

But yeah, thanks again for doing this podcast.

I love the show.

Thanks again, Hey, Zach Getts.

Forrest, congratulations on reaching the finale in your podcast.

I know I speak for a ton of your listeners when I say how grateful we are that you've held the Smallville torch, so to speak, and just kept the love and the spark going for Smallville for so many years later.

So thank you, thank you, and thanks for letting me share some thoughts on the finale.

I'm going to tell you, having not heard your full thoughts yet, I like it a lot more than you do.

I'm excited to hear what you like, and, of course, since like the pilot, to hear once again some of the things that don't work for you.

But here my rambled list of things.

I think the previously on is incredible, always good.

As you've mentioned how incredible those are.

I think that's a great previously on, maybe not the best one, but one of the top ones.

I imagine that you and the folks talking about the finale are critiquing the comic book of it all and how that could possibly be real in a world of keeping Clark's identity.

So my head canon is that obviously Chloe, in all of her previously journalistics, Gills just you know, made her son a comic, but that is certainly not sold on the streets of Metropolis.

In general, I feel like it's such a good finale in terms of the people that come back.

I know you have feelings about ghost Dad.

I think it's not so much that Jonathan's there.

I think that Clark is seeing his dad and having conversations, much like maybe anybody would if somebody died.

So I go with it.

I totally hear you on it, and I like to think that it's just Clark imagining many conversations with his dad.

I know that doesn't totally hold up, but that's my head canon.

But I think having Jonathan back, Martha back, Lionel back, and not just Lionel, but like the evil Lionel is obviously the one that we all came to know out of the gate, so I think that is actually really much preferred over the genuine, you know, reformed Lionel of later seasons.

So I think that's a lot of fun.

So yeah, great, great sort of bookends with with our beloved people coming back.

I kind of wish that Lana was in it, but I understand why she isn't It makes sense in terms of moving on and fully focusing on Lois, but I felt her absence just a little bit.

I think the moving on speech from Martha is a little inconsistent and uncharacteristic of her.

She seems kind of angry when she's talking to Clark in the house, and I don't ever really know.

What to do with that, but it feels odd.

I think the vows and the scene of not just the wedding but Lois and Clark reading their different vows to each other is immaculate.

I mean, how could you not be inspired to write your own vows from something like that?

But Lois reading them in the Daily Planet when Chloe gives them to her, just that moment of realization on Lois's face that Clark needs her to do what he does instead of, you know what she felt from the previous episode of her weighing him down.

I just think is incredible.

And I do think that.

Chloe paid plays a pretty soft role in the finale, which I think is a little difficult, but it also again makes sense because we're really trying to focus on, you know, Clark, Lois, and lex So I get it.

Let's talk about the inconsistency of the wedding guests I'm sure you've already you all have already gone there, But yes, I don't know to be more upset about the people who aren't in the room or upset about the people who are in the room who we've never seen.

And I'm sure you've covered already how many people in that room have seen Clark Kent without glasses, So I'm not gonna waste your time on that.

I think the aisle scene in the wedding is probably a top tier scene of any wedding done on TV.

The song and bringing the song back from when Lois was reading the vows before is great.

Obviously, I've listened to that song a thousand times since then.

The fact that Clark walked with her, I know, it's a little weird that her dad's around, although I think we can all write that off that he's busy with what's going on in the world.

I think Clark walking her down is just was a masterful decision.

Again, ghost Dad.

I just think Clark is imagining his dad there.

It does not bother me and Lois calling him Smallville in the you know, walking down the aisle, I think is a great final moment to hear that maybe she does it later, but I think it's great.

Even at the wedding, she's still busting his chops.

Last couple of things, Jonathan and Martha in the loft at the end of part one, I think is really great.

I just like the visuals of it, and they both look older, and I just think it works.

I think Lois on Air Force one is just the right amount of like a comic book bizarreness that we can suspend our disbelief and believe that she would get there.

It seems like a very lowest thing.

I think, while Clark is ascending to being Superman, finally, it makes sense that Lois is also ascending to be this known journalist.

So it's goofy, but I do think it works.

And we all know that this Lois especially would easily confront the president, so totally with her on that.

Last things, Clark and Lex, you guys are probably covering it.

I think it's excellent.

You know, no notes, I know that Lex's bald you know, Michael's baldcap is a little distracting, but for if it meant we got him back, I'm sure nobody has any complaints.

Tess's death.

You know, I know You're not a season eleven comic book canon believer, but I do think that I'm okay with Test coming back, and I'm also okay with her sacrifice there.

I think she has an incredible one of her final lines about how Lex is doing this to her because he wants to prevent her from becoming like him, and Tests responding Clark already did that.

Brilliant, so good.

And then the last thing is I just think it was a really smart move.

The juxtaposition between Clark's flashbacks through ten seasons and all of his lessons that he learned, and then also getting Lex's seven seasons of memories wiped, I just think was a brilliant move in terms of honoring the fans who have been here all along to see both of them come to where they are.

And also, you know, Clark's rising up and being you know, memories that fuel him, and Lex's you know, telling a story of downfall, even if he is forgetting.

Yeah.

So I'm a huge finale fan.

Emotions all across the board, fist pumping, crying, everything in between, Super excited to hear what you all think.

Much love to you and Lance and everybody over there, and congratulations, really really grateful for everything you've done and looking forward to seeing what's next.

Hey, this is Leah from Minneapolis.

Zach, Congratulations on finishing the podcast.

This is an insane achievement.

You have done such a service for the Smallville community.

I think I tell you this when I recorded my episode last year, but none of my friends or family watched Smallville with me growing up.

So when I found the podcast, I was delighted to listen to other people talk about a show who loved it as much as I did.

I think at that point you were on season two or three, and I just binged your entire catalog for a couple weeks straight and have been caught up ever since.

My thoughts on the finale.

First of all, I think for all of the deserved critiques that we all have about it as fans, which I'm sure you've thoroughly discussed on the show, the finale does actually have one of my top five favorite Smallville scenes ever, which is that Kent family hug in the barn loft.

I don't remember a lot about watching the finale live except for that scene.

That scene in the barn, and I remember just suddenly being a wreck catching up and just being a wreck, a sobbing wreck, and the lighting and the score.

It was so classically Smallville in a way that the series hadn't called back to in a long time, which makes sense in those Metropolis years.

And I think seeing Clark being able to take comfort in his parents in that moment could have felt contrived or obligatory by the series, but it didn't at all, and it felt so well earned by the series and the journey that we've been on with Clark.

It was just perfect ten out of ten, and I will leave it at that.

Thank you so much for all the work you put into the pod and for inviting me on and building this network of fans on.

Behalf of all of us.

I'm so grateful.

I can't wait to see what you work on next.

And if anyone wants to interact with me out on the internet, I'm on Blue Sky and x as ha E l v V.

Of course, I will always hold on to Smallville.

Cheerious.

It's Craig mcgenzie from Nie Befour blog slash Nail before Pod, I was on Always hold On at Smallville.

For season nine's upgrade, where we had the return of Metallo red Crypt Tonight and all that good stuff.

Congratulations on making it to the end of the small Ville journey.

That is no main feat.

You've recorded at least as many episodes as Smallville had.

So well done for that.

Well done for persevering right until the ends.

He asked me to reach out and give you some thoughts on the finale, which is also called finale.

My experience of viewing the finale for the first time is I actually had a viewing party where I had a few people over.

We had pizza, snacks and watched the episode.

I enjoyed it in the main There was a mixed reaction in the room, but I had a good time.

I'm not ignorant to the flaws, of course, I think there are many, but broadly I think it delivers on what it sets out to do.

I'll get the negative stuff out the way.

Things like bringing back Lex and setting up a credible reason for him to know Clark's secret but never reveal it only to erase his memory was a bad choice.

It was a waste of Michael Rosenbaum's return.

Although it was great to see him one last time, it's just a shame that he didn't get to keep all of his character development.

In the end, we're poor tests never sharing any screen time with the main cast that did her dirty.

I think she has a scene with Lex she knows about the threat that's coming, but she never actually gets to say goodbye to any of the cast, and then she's somewhat unceremoniously killed off.

That's a bit of a shame.

The Big One.

We never see Clark in the suit, even though I knew in my heart of hearts it had never happened.

Tom Welling was very vocal about never wanting to do that, and I didn't expect that he would change his mind for the finale.

It's still disappointing considering we saw almost every other DC superhero in a version of their costume when they appeared.

Not getting to see the Big Guy himself in his iconic costume a missed opportunity.

I think also dark Side, he was never done well, but the defeat was weak even by those standards.

I do think there wasn't much else they could do considering what they'd set up for that version of the character, but still it's weak.

It's probably something that should never have been attempted on something like Smallville.

With its more limited resources.

Like I said, despite my misgivings, at a good time.

And here's some of my favorite moments.

I love themtage of all the good Clark had done over the years, and let's face at a celebration of all the money they spent over the years making some pretty awesome looking visuals.

I know the creator said that there was no real precedent for realizing Superman's powers in this way, in a modern way, so they set the standard.

They were figuring it all out and they did a fantastic job.

But it was great to see a montage of all of that in the final episode.

Another standout moment is Clark finally flying.

That actually got a round of applause in the room at my viewing party.

Great to finally see it.

Since it's the final episode, the no flight's rule is spent a bit, even though the no tights rule states firmly in place.

And of course, how can we not mention John Glover's magnificent beard.

It was delightfully out of control and it's just there for us all to see.

Other great moments Lois saying I'm an idiot when she decides to go through with the wedding that was pitch perfect.

Jonathan's ghost was a great inclusion, gave the finale much needed emotional theft.

I think it was great to see John Schneider one last time and in the final episode also the final scene I'm perfectly to the music and closed the show on a high ending on the shirt rep.

I'm pretty sure that would have been conceived as a final shot of the show even before it aired, and that gave me everything I wanted, and not ending with the John Williams music, the shirt rip just fantastic, Just a great way to close out the show.

So overall mixed emotions, but generally I'm satisfied and look fondly back on it.

In a way, it's the best possible finale after a very uneven season of television.

I grew up with Smallville.

I was in high school when it started, and I was not in high school when it ended ten years later.

But I always loved the show and stuck with it till the end and always enjoyed it to some degree.

Congratulations again on getting to the end.

What will you do next?

Thanks for having me.

On, Isaac.

This is Matthew Santiago, also known as Matteo just wanted to chime in for my thoughts on the Smallville series finale.

So I remember the first time I saw this, I was very much pretty young at the time.

I was like, I believe thirteen, I think, and I was young and impressionable.

I remember really loving it, specifically just the montage of Clark saving all the people, him flying, finally, him finally putting on the suit.

The closed wedding was great, the Lex reunion, and everything in between.

I think that over time, though, my thoughts on it have seriously changed.

Overall, I think that it's a solid series finale, but it's a bad season finale.

I think that this season had way too much going on, as you've previous said in the past in the pod, this past.

Year, and ultimately there's this season.

This series finale just feels like everything that they wanted to do really could not meet the expectations that they set out for themselves.

And what's even strange to me is that they spend half the finale on a will they won't then of Clark and Lois, and it just it doesn't make sense considering that we as super Superhman fans, we all know they're gonna end up together.

So the idea that you spend half the finale on whether or not they're going to get married, and not spending enough time on the dark side storyline, it just really left a lot to be desired.

I think that the highlights of the.

Episode are obviously with the Lex.

Return, we see the Kent's come back and ghost out aside, I actually really like the scenes with the three of them together, and I think the final scene with the Daily Planet staff, Clark and Lois assuming their roles in the Natural Superman Cannon, I think that it was a really good sign up.

I think that that scene is that scene and the Clark and Lex scene, I think are all timer scenes.

I think that this series left off exactly where it should, even though the episode that led up to it was a much complicated a much more complicated misstep.

If you ask me.

But overall, I think that this series is still going to be remembered very fondly even though this episode these episodes were not the highest ste praise.

But one more thing I want to say before I log out is I want to say thanks to Zach and all the work that he's done over the last many years.

I stopped counting a while back.

Honestly, I think that he's done a great job in building a community that so many of us can chime in talking about Superman and all of other superhero fandom.

Of course, it's kind of crazy because I remember sending a mail back estimating that he'd be done by twenty twenty three, and here we are in twenty twenty five.

But yeah, it's crazy things how things play out.

But yeah, I'm glad to have been a part of the journey, and yeah, I will always be holding on to small Bill.

This is Mike Demante, author of Punk Rocket and Here FoST Rangers in Fiction, Hey, Suburbian other titles, and also a longtime friend of Zach and Lance.

I've been a guest on some of the sub shows before.

I just want to say, guys, congratulations on getting to the finale and all y'all's great work you guys done through the years.

My vague childhood remembers the series finale is obviously that iconic shot at the end, you know, he's on the rooftop and he rips open a shirt and see the s.

But outside of that, that was really cool.

How dark side and this is kind of like this unseen force, almost like this gin like negative energy.

Hello Zach and friends, this is Tom Elliott from the Twilight Zone podcast with a few words about the small Ville finale.

Now, I'm probably the only person sends and an eclip to the show that hasn't actually seen this before.

I was a small Villa watcher back in the day, and I didn't stop watching because I wasn't enjoying the show.

But in the pre streaming days, it was appointment television over here and easy to lose track of which unfortunately I did so.

I don't know what the general fan reaction is to this finale, and I thought it would be quite interesting to come to this cold, but unfortunately, I think cold is probably the theme of my review here.

My first criticism is that I think there's so much going on and so many things competing for our time, that it was difficult to feel anything about any of this.

Characters that I know had so much heart and soul in them in the past just felt like pieces being moved around a chessboard, and it felt like they were just doing what they needed to do to save us, what they were trying to do in the finale, rather than this being a good and natural conclusion for these characters.

And it's a bit of a weird comparison, but I remember watching the finale of the sitcom Friends, and I felt that I wasn't really watching the characters anymore.

I was watching the actors just going through a bunch of scenarios that were needed for what they thought was necessary for a finale, again, rather than if feeling like anything natural.

And unfortunately, nothing in this felt natural to me.

You know.

All the stuff with Lois and Clark talking to each other through the door just felt like a conversation with no authenticity to it.

Michael Rosenbaum coming back really felt like nothing at all, And they tried to pull on the heartstrings with the Jonathan Kent stuff, but I just didn't really care about that much either.

I think I would rather have had a story that was smaller in scope without all of the dark side stuff, because that all felt very undercooked to me as well.

I don't know whether it had been leading up to that all season.

Maybe that's just me and I've missed all that, but it all felt very insubstantial, and I would rather have had more meaning to rosen Barn coming back, like more of a showdown between them, and yeah, I know we needed something big for Clark to kind of interact with as Superman, I guess, but I don't know.

It just all felt very out of place, but also very undercooked.

And then there's the end, and you know, what do you do with Clark and the Superseeds at the end.

I think there are pros and cons as to whether to show them in it or not, and valid arguments on both sides.

But for me, you either don't show them in it at all and just do the shaite open at the end, or you go all in, because if you're ever going to do it in this show, now is the time to do it.

After ten years.

I think my personal preference would have been to have a final show down with him fully realized as Superman in the suit.

But what we get is this weird kind of half ars in it where we see this kind of special effect version or animated version or whatever that was in the distance, and I just thought it was the waste of all worlds do one thing or the other, but just down half Arson in this way.

And I'm not sure Chloe reading the comic book of all this to her kid makes any sense either.

But you know, that's the least of its problems.

So you know, there's a lot more I can say.

But I've been pretty negative about this.

But what I'm not negative about is you reaching this milestone.

It's been great to kind of see you become one of the foremost Superman commentators and certainly Smallville commentators on the web.

And you have truly in that place, Zach.

And I know you'll be going forward and doing other stuff on this.

This isn't the end, but it is certainly a great achievement.

And you know what, maybe one day I'll go back and watch Smallville all over again and listen along to the podcast.

It would be quite a good thing to do.

So congratulations, Zach, and I'm glad I'm one of the people who has become your friend as you've been doing this.

Take care, I'll speak to you later.

And everyone at the always Hold On a Smallville podcast family.

This is be Ken Marion here, DC comics artist, and yeah, I'm just chimming in on the Smallville finale.

Yeah, I remember watching this when I was right out of college.

So I was right out of college, went like the all after graduated college and this show had been a constant in my life from the from eighth grade.

All the way up through then.

So yeah, I remember watching it.

I watched with my dad every week, and we used to like when I was, you know, older, when we weren't living in the same I.

Was saying more.

I would call him on the phone afterwards every time an episode were there.

And I think that's the thing I missed the most about Small Villain in general, is that kind of like thing that I do with my dad and my mom and like just watch walks of show.

And it was a really good, good memories, good family times and yeah, and every episode me and my dad would have the discussion like when do you think he's gonna put the costume on?

When's he gonna put the Superman suit on?

So the last episode, while we didn't get a ton of him in the suit, we actually got more than I was anticipating.

So we got into the Superman shirt rip and I consider that a huge win.

So yeah, I remember, I really liked the episode, really liked the finale.

That was a really good wrap up to the show, and it had me pumped for Superman in general.

And the show in the whole way was like that for me.

So yeah, a really fun show, really good finale.

I know some people wanted him the suit more, but like, let's be realistic.

I think we're happy with what we got.

And yeah, and Zach, thank you so much for doing the show for so long.

It's been really cool to get to know you and listening to the show and you know, and just hear all these fun, entertaining thoughts on Smallville, this show that I grew up with.

So yeah, thanks again for having me and I'll always hold on Smallville.

What's going on, everybody?

This is David Kocher.

I'm an actor and I am a producer, prominently known for Superman Reborn, a live action script reading performance of what would have been Christopher Eve's fifth Superman movie.

I just want to give a special thanks to Zach Moore and always hold on a Smallville.

Zach, thank you so much for taking a time to shine a light and raise awareness of our production.

It's because of people like you that our production had a voice that could be heard, and I really do appreciate that and I don't ever forget stuff like that, So I'll always check in with you from time to time.

And I have no doubt that you're going to move on to other successful ventures, and I wish you nothing but the best and as always, always hold on to Smallville.

Hi.

This is Russ Demino.

I write the Many Faces columns for krypton Site.

Biggest issue I had with the finale actually wasn't not getting to see Tom Welling in the costume.

It was that they erased LAX's memories, basically bringing Michael Rosenmam back just to undo a decade of character develop meant with the best Lex Luthor we'd ever had.

I know the argument can be made that, oh, Lex can't know that Clark is Superman in this version.

I think he absolutely could.

It was very much earned.

And also, think about it, if Lex saw Clark walking around wearing glasses, in a suit and tie and acting all clumsy, he would be like, dude, what the hell are you doing?

Lex would not care about secret identity Clark Ken.

He wouldn't give him the time of day.

He would care about Superman because the Clark he grew up with was Superman, So I think the secret identity would actually be completely irrelevant to this Lex Luther.

But seriously, folks, we got ten years of Superman stories, and yes, I say Superman stories, because even without the tights or the flights, Tom Welling absolutely embodied the qualities and characteristics of Superman for ten years.

And the fact that Michael Rosenbaum did come back for the finale, John Schneider came back, a nett O'tool came back, John Glover came back, Aaron Ashmore came back.

We got to see many familiar faces one more time to help send off one of the greatest runs that any superhero series ever had, And that is something that I'll always hold on to.

There's Nike Mackenzie from Superman that I might a podcast.

I just want to congratulate Zach on complaining Smallville ten sasons.

My friend, I can't believe you finally mighte it.

I was just thinking about when first listen to your podcast back in the back in the day.

I can't believe you can say it now.

Back in the day, I remember first listening to it.

I think I was about midway through season one, I might have been season two, and you spoke about doing a mail bag episode, and I thought, oh, this would be a good opportunity to reach out.

You know, a fellow Superman fan, and so I did, and it was just so great to listen, you know, listen to your read out everybody's email or you know review, especially taking the time to you know, do that, and you read out my letter or email that I sent you, and yeah, it was just I think that was our first interaction, so to speak, like obviously you didn't know me other than just reading words on a piece of paper.

And then not long after that, you started doing up a Patreon and you know, I was really quick off the march to join and he started going into a thirty three point one.

I thought, okay, this is this is interesting.

And I know I wasn't the first, even though I was so grateful and lucky to be the first one that we actually you know recorded, but you know, being on there for the first day three point one episode with you.

I think we did three episodes together.

It was great to finally meet you, you know, doing the video recording.

Yeah, it was just a shame I wasn't able to do a lot more episodes with you.

Obviously with the time differences.

Me being in Australia made it very difficult.

But I'm just grateful for giving me the opportunity to join you on the podcast, which made so much fun over the years listening to and you know, just and also the yeah, the many friends that I've actually gained over the years from not just your podcast, but from other sick Men podcasts around the place.

And you know, I'm just so grateful and thankful for what you've done and what do you continue to do.

Leading into the finale of Smallville, you know, so many people have got so many different ideals on this episode.

Obviously we're all upset with regards to the not really wearing the suit with Tom Welling, but I think it was a feeling finale, Like you know, season tens not everyone's cup of tea.

It's not the best season of Smallville, you know a lot.

I'm sure a lot of people have got their own different opinions, but you know, I think it finished on a good note.

It finished with you know, some yeah, you know, some thought.

I've seen seeing Tom in the suit, even if it is for a short time, even if it is cgi, but we get to see it and on this journey not just with Tom and the other characters throughout the shape, but also with yourself, Zach and the many guests.

You know, Land's been the top there, you know, and so much more.

Like I said, you've gained so many friends over the years that we've all listened to gone on to create out the podcast, and it can be now to continue this Superman legacy, which I'm so grateful for.

So again, Zach, Congratulations, I'm completing ten years of Smallville.

I can't wait to say what comes up next?

For yourself and to all those other Superman fans out there, let's all put our hands together and congratulate Zach on ten years of Smallville.

All right, well done, buddy, take care and I wish you all the best.

All right, bye, Hello, Zach, this is Lex Ledger from thirty three point one Roundtable back in the day.

Congratulations on finally making it to the end of this nine to ten year journey.

Fantastic.

So thoughts about the final.

There are a lot of them.

At the time when I was going into it, of course, super excited, just like everybody else, being like, We're finally going to see him in the suit.

It's going to be like a little Superman movie.

It's been building to this.

I got halfway through the two parter, so the end of the first episode and I was like, Okay, that was a waste.

Nothing happened, just the marriage back and forth, completely forced.

Very disappointed in that, and yeah, that was not a good part.

The second half I did quite enjoy as it was building up to Superman, and I didn't think we'd get a full episode of Superman, but I figured the last five ten minutes we would.

I was still wrong with that.

We had like maybe a minute of him in a CG Superman suit.

But over the years I've softened a little bit on it because now, like in the Zack Snyder movies, his cape is CG.

A lot better CG, mind you, but still CG.

So maybe Smallville was just a little bit ahead of its time with the CG suit.

At the end of the day, it's still him in what would what would he look.

Like in that suit?

So I've kind of softened on that a little bit.

I still wish he wore the suit, of course, I still wish we had more time with him in the suit, but I've softened a little bit on it being in actual suit.

Dark Side was a complete, complete fail.

They'd stucked way too much into season ten, but they didn't execute any of it that well, so that was an unfortunate drop.

Lois Lane was fantastic.

I love her line in the finale where she's talking to the President and he's saying, this is not the time for your hero's miss and then she says, Lane, and this is exactly the time they will come.

They will save us.

That is very Lowis Lane is fantastic.

Overall, I can still watch it.

I don't think it's super satis as an ending, but I'm not as disappointed as I once was.

But of course, over time you get used to it and expect to know what's coming because you've seen it before, so ups and downs with it.

I think it should have been better.

But it's not the worst.

And I do not count crisis at all in continuity that completely did not happen.

Finally, that mind wipe of Lex Luthor is atrocious.

That will never be forgiven or forgotten by this les So that really could ruin the majority.

That ruins, like the entire series almost with me, But overall, congratulations Again, I'm curious to hear your thoughts that you haven't already spoiled over the ten years of talking about the final But I'm curious to see everybody else's thoughts and how things go and who agrees with me and who doesn't.

So congratulations again.

Curious to see what you do next.

Up up in a way.

Hi, This is Craig Burn from Krypton site.

Zach asked me to speak about my thoughts of the smavel the series finale, and now that it's been almost fifteen years, of course I view it differently than I did then.

At least.

The funny thing about that finale is the most emotional I got was not necessarily the ending, but rather there was a pre episode montage that the CW showed some press a couple days before the finale aired, and it was what we got in the episode, but it was like fifteen minutes long, and I'm just going through the entire journey all over again, and that was just so rewarding to see that we started one place ended there.

It was a long journey and I think that was really cool.

I'm gonna start with the elephant in the room.

No, I'm not going to complain about Tom not wearing the costs him yet, but I just want to know if all it took to stop Dark Side was to inspire people, why did Oliver go all the way out into space or whatever to try to fix his mark of Oriyan or whatever it was?

Also, where were Pete and Lana at the wedding unless you know they had a falling out or something.

I mean, even if Sam and Kristen weren't available, surely you could have had the two people who looked like them in the audience.

I still don't know who all those people are.

And I also don't know why Clark failed to wear his glasses at the wedding.

Obviously, it was so great to have Rosenbaum back.

I was becoming convinced that it was definitely not going to happen, and then you know, about two months beforehand, as a Yellow revealed the good news, and you know, his scenes with Clark are great.

I love that we got to see a scene between Lex and Tests.

Tests was probably one of my favorite parts of the final scene, and they finally figured out what to do with her character and she was great.

You know, I appreciate the cloest shippy stuff from this episode more as an adult than I did at the time.

At the time, it seemed like it was just padded out to get to that second hour, especially since they didn't up getting married anyway, Smallville's dark side was really terrible, like the giant cloud Galactus or something like that.

And also what they did to John Glover's hair in this episode may have a served Batman and Robin is the worst treatment he has gotten on a DC project.

One of my favorite scenes in the episode, though, despite involving dark side, was the montage right before Clark could fly, which, again, you know, it's kind of like that montage I said in the beginning that I loved, just you know, it took a while to get here.

We're here and we're moving to the future, and I think that's great.

Jonathan handing Clark the cape and saying always hold on to Smallville may seem a bit silly, and I still don't totally understand the ghost thing from season ten, but you know, it would be kind of fitting if Jorrel made Clark feel as though that Jonathan was the one giving him the suit and it was a heartfelt moment, So I'm gonna give that one a pass.

I do remember when I was watching when Lois was on Air Force one and she turns around to interview someone I did half expect to see full frontal Superman.

I know, you know, I'm sure I was told beforehand that no, we're not getting it, but I just kind of held out hope.

I was like, oh, we're gonna see her talk to an interview Superman.

We didn't elas, but oh well.

I was very disappointed and annoyed for a while that we didn't get Clark in the full costume at the end of the series, especially without characters like Booster Gold hyped up his arrival.

I've softened on that now because hey, that's not the journey that we were invited to go on.

And b if the final shot of the series had been Clark forming the Fortress way back in season four, we would have accepted it.

I mean, it's weird that, you know, somebody like Booster Gold would be like, oh, the day you revealed to the world, and then we don't actually see it.

But whatever.

I know that some of my annoyance was aimed at Tom at the time, but that feeling has softened as well.

I don't know if it's you know, spending time around Tom at different events or hearing him talk and talk Pill podcast, but I kind of get it, you know, he did ten seasons in two hundred and eighteen episodes.

He should be the master of his own destiny of what he does or doesn't want to do.

Plus, now we know, in this time period of revivals and reunions and stuff, that there's still time to get him in the tights, right Tom.

I touched upon this before, but I you wish we had seen Lana, even if it was just her reacting to the arrival of Superman and watching TV or something like Kristen could have filmed it wherever she was.

I do like the finale a lot more than I'm older.

It's still definitely not perfect, but I've seen much worse.

Hello Heroes are Born finale or the finale of The Flash where Cecil was the hero of the episode still doesn't make sense to me.

After the finale aired, I admit I had such a feeling of relief.

The day after May fourteenth was a friend's birthday, and we went to Six Flags, and I just felt like I had been able to finally take off in Fly, kind of like Clark.

I guess you know.

It was like no more ship or wars any of that kind of nonsense.

And then a couple of years later, you know I had to deal with things like Elicity, which make them all seem tame.

I do love that now, the different fan groups of the show seemed to mingle and appreciate the show for what it was.

One thing I noticed at the Smallville Convention small vill Convention last year was when you ask people who they supported.

There was cheering, but there was no like stink eye to each other or anything like that.

It's like, we all loved this show, and I think that's great.

Personally, I shipped Clark in his cape, so I was a little disappointed.

I would I have wanted to see in Alan Miles version of the finale, absolutely, but you know, it is what it is, and it's also funny.

I never expected to see these versions of the characters and live action again, imagine my surprise.

You know, eight years later when Tom Erica showed up in Crisis, which is an ending that I have no problem with.

I know that's kind of contentious and people are like, that's not the real Clark and Lois, but in my heart it is.

The final episode of Smallville was the end of a fantastic journey, and that's a journey that I'm glad to revisit at any time.

I'm also glad that new generations of yours are catching the show for the first time.

Smallville definitely changed my life, and I'm grateful for it.

Obviously, I had some great opportunities, and I also made some great friends.

Hoping to see everyone at Slut's Smallville in September.

I'm going to end not with always Held in a Smallville, but a quote from the final issue of Brian Q.

Miller's Batgirl comic book run, It's only the end if you want it to be.

As long as we keep the show in our hearts and talk about it and continue to enjoy it, the story will continue indefinitely.

Thank you, Zach for all your years doing this podcast.

I love that we're still talking about Smallville in New Year twenty twenty five.

All right, we're back here in the far future of twenty eighteen.

Lex Luthor has just been an elected president, and uh, I just want to say thank you again to all the many previous guests hosts so sit in their thoughts about the series finale.

I hope you guys enjoyed that.

You know, I really enjoyed it too.

I know I'm pretty down on the series finale, but we're listening to a lot of these takes is kind of softened me on it, and I feel like I might be being too harsh on the series finale, especially listening back to our conversations in the finale Part one and Finale Part two podcasts here, because a lot of things really connected with people.

Things I didn't like at all, people love.

I mean, I think there's a lot of consensus about certain things like the lex Amesia and the interpretation of Dark Side.

But that's the beautiful thing here.

This is why I loved having rotating guest hosts on the podcast, so everyone could get different points of view.

Because so many different people from so many backgrounds and so many walks of life and so many different demographics have this show and still love this show and experience this show in their own way.

We could just talk about and compare our experiences and thoughts and theories and what connected with us and what spoke to us and what didn't and what worked and what didn't.

It's really wide range, and it's so interesting to hear these passion takes about things that I completely disagree with on some and completely agree with on others, And you know, I've kind of changed my opinion about maybe a couple of things here listening back.

I especially liked some of the theories about the darkness right, and how the people's belief and the rejection of the darkness is what helped Superman push away Apocalypse.

I really love that theory.

Shout out to Eddie Bissell for that, and a lot of people connected with the wedding stuff, which I you know, all of us really on finale part one, we were pretty we were pretty rough on the wedding, but you know, a lot of people really really worked for them.

So I really am happy for those that the finale works so well for, and I wish.

I was you.

But stay tuned, y'all, because this write and over yet we have finale Part two coverage coming up next with me, Lance Laster, Matt Truix, and Cavante Chillis, So stay tuned and Always hold on to Smallville.

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