I spent three months waiting to get my hands on the fourth season of Smallville, desperately trying (and mostly managing) to avoid the temptation of tuning into the back-to-back episodes shown after Saturday Night Live each week, contemplating the ramifications of all the events of season three and expressing my ruminations in poetic form, wondering whether the show would be any good with Pete gone and Lois present and several different writers at the helm... It was a summer full of eager anticipation, so when the fourth season arrived at the end of August, I was more than ready to tear that package open and have a marathon or two, with or without the brother who got me hooked on the show and now is in college. It took me almost a month to get through the first half of the season, but then Nathan came home for the night and by the time the sun began to infuse the morning sky with pinkish light, we had blazed through the last ten episodes, leaving Clark and company in yet another climactic situation, this one both more and less precarious than in the season three finale. And leaving me with a few answers but a whole lot more questions.

Season four is the point at which my brother became engrossed in Smallville months ago, so he had quite a few hints to offer about its contents, though he hadn't seen past the twelfth episode. However, because of him I knew that Lionel became a much nicer guy and Lex became more unscrupulous (duh). I knew that Pete was gone for good and Lois Lane was on the way - and that Lois and Chloe were not the same person, though I never would have suspected such a thing because I've never liked Lois and I've loved Chloe from day one. I knew that the season was unnecessarily steamy and suffered at times from uneven writing - and acting, on the part of Kristin Kreuk, pertaining to a rather unwelcome subplot bringing the series into Charmed territory. I knew enough that I may have viewed the season slightly differently having received no such inside info, but I don't think it detracted from my viewing experience. There were still more than enough discoveries to be made on my own.

In the season premiere, several key characters face very big problems, but somehow the episode manages to feel somewhat light-hearted, which is a relief after the oppressive air surrounding the entire third season, particularly the first and last episodes. We are introduced to Lois (Erica Durance), and while she is every bit as annoying as I had imagined she would be, the dynamic that quickly develops between her and Clark (Tom Welling) adds levity, so I can live with it. We learn that Lois is Chloe's (Allison Mack) cousin and that she has come to Smallville to investigate her death, which was implied in the last episode. But we already lost Pete; surely Clark can't be left without Chloe too! Not that he knows the difference in the beginning. After a summer of apparent indoctrination into the particulars of his Kryptonian destiny, he reappears with no memory - and no clothes. When he does begin to recall who and what he is, detached and even brutal Kal-El - a being capable of jetting off into the air and ripping the door off an airplane - seems to have replaced wholesome, gentle Clark. It's up to Martha (Annette O'Toole) to draw out the son she raised and reclaim him.

Now head of Luthorcorp, Lex (Michael Rosenbaum) is globe-trotting in search of ancient artifacts that will become crucial to the season as a whole. These objects unsurprisingly are mysteriously linked to the now-infamous cave walls; what's more surprising is that the same strange symbols show up on a tomb that Lana (Kreuk) is studying in Paris and that when she comes into contact with one of them, she winds up with it tattooed on her back. The is so disconcerting, her only course of action seems to be returning to Smallville, a move that perplexes Jason (Jensen Ackles), the new flame she acquired over the past few months. Meanwhile, poor Lionel (John Glover) and Jonathan (John Schneider) are still dying and imprisoned, so to speak, and the prospects don't look too bright for either of them.

After season three, I figured that things were about to get really ugly in Smallville, and to an extent that is true. But honesty, they're not nearly as bad as I thought they might be, particularly during the first half of the season. Suffice it to say that Chloe, to my immeasurable relief, is not dead, Jonathan and Lionel still have plenty of life in them, and in spite of Clark's very final-sounding renouncement of his friendship with Lex, that relationship isn't dead either. It's certainly more tenuous than it's ever been, and most of their scenes together include at least one awkward stare, one moment of meaningful silence, one statement by Lex almost certainly meaning the opposite of what it seems to, and enough lies that if they were made of wood their noses would stretch around the globe. But there are moments of genuine comradeship, my favorite of which occurs in an episode about siblings - far enough along in the season that Clark has begun to feel easy around Lex again and early enough along that Lex deserves it - in which Lex confides to Clark, "You're closer to me than any blood brother."

In fact, much of the first half of the season is marked by frivolity, by which I mostly mean a shameless barrage of clothes-shedding and lip-locking apparently intended to appease the hormonally-charged core fan base. Ick. At least most of it stops short before it goes to far, though there is one scene involving Lex that is gratuitously graphic - though I suppose this is partly to draw a contrast between him and his more inexperienced - and morally grounded - young friends. Part of the reason for all the lewd shenanigans is Clark's decision to finally defy his father's admonitions and join the football team. This opens up a whole new world of cheerleading floozies and public accolades, and after so many years of being considered dorky, all the attention is quite the ego boost. Can Clark still be a hero off the field when so many people are cheering his name under the bright stadium lights? Several of those closest to him aren't too sure, but at least he has a confidante in the new assistant coach, who just happens to be Jason. However, neither of them realize the other's history with Lana. What will happen when they become aware of their mutual connection?

Once the chaos of the first couple of episodes is settled, then, the first half of the season, is fairly typical high school drama with a side of the supernatural, though more important matters do come to the forefront now and again. Like the fact that Lana has been possessed by the spirit of a 16th-century witch who is after the same artifacts Lex is searching for so diligently. When the search for these stones really heats up, it becomes like Lord of the Rings, with a lust for their combined powers blinding all but the one who is worthy of possessing them: Clark, of course. At least Lana is in a nice, steady relationship with a perfectly normal guy now, even though their romance must remain a secret because of his position at Smallville High. Poor Jason, saddled with icy, aristocratic parents - especially his Cruella De Vil-like mother Genevieve (Jane Seymour) - and discovering, after following her across the world, that his girlfriend is badly in need of an exorcism... But it's so great to see her get together with someone who is neither a zombie nor a homicidal mutant. I mean, given her track record, I had my doubts, but Jason Teague is one heck of a guy. Almost makes up for Pete being gone (and given one scant two-second reference in the entire season). I sure am glad that I don't have to worry about him turning sour...

Before this season began, I figured that the character who would interest me the most throughout the 22 episodes would be Lionel. This, after all, is the season when Lionel finally begins to cast off the mantle of his maleficence and Lex begins to accept it. To my disappointment, however, Lionel's role is diminished to almost season one proportions. When he is in the spotlight, he is glorious, particularly in the critical Transference and the next few episodes in which he appears, and I was thrilled to see him released from prison because of the prospect that I might actually get to see that trademark hair again. More than that, I was overjoyed to witness a miraculous moment of redemption - only to be infuriated when it was seemingly snatched away episodes later. Lionel remains a wild card, but I fervently hope his goodness is not a mere whiplash-inducing plot device. His fate is not sealed as Lex's is; I will be heartbroken if the series finale leaves him rotten to the core.

Lex is still trying his best to be a good person, but his motivations grow ever murkier, and while he's stopped investigating Clark, his obsession with the caves has been elevated to a dangerous degree. In the beginning, his intentions may remain less than nefarious, at least mostly; he wants the vast stores of knowledge the stones would provide because of his innate curiosity, his desire to put his resources to good use, and his increasing awareness that vile personages also know of and want the stones and would wreak havoc if they had them. But like Boromir, he exhibits ruthless behavior in his quest to acquire the sacred objects, and by the end of the season it seems his dark side - which we see all too clearly in the devastating Onyx (which is, incidentally, very similar to the Star Trek episode The Enemy Within) - is on the verge of overtaking him entirely.

I compared season three Clark to book five Harry Potter, and just as Harry's angst was brought down to a much more manageable level in the sixth book, so Clark is much more consistently likable in this season than in the last. Yes, he falls into the jock trap, but he rarely lets it go to his head, and he is much more forgiving and generally easy-going than in his last outing. He is slow to accept Lex's earnest overtures of friendship, and he continues to lie to him repeatedly even once their relationship is once again on fairly solid footing, but in most other aspects of his life he is back to being the good old farm boy we have come to know and love. His love life takes a back seat as he juggles platonic relationships with three very different girls, but his nurturing nature is allowed full bloom in a couple of episodes when he is given the opportunity to act as a mentor to young men with extraordinary attributes. Best of all: He gets a dog! But Clark cannot evade his destiny forever, and eventually typical high school concerns will fade into the background when Jor-El comes back into the picture.

Jonathan and Martha are pretty much the same, as they should be, since they really are the foundation upon which Clark's extraordinary character is built. They are the moral cornerstone of the show, and it's refreshing to be able to depend upon them week after week to deliver a hefty dose of wholesomeness and heart. I worry about Jonathan, whose heart has been in a weakened state since he made his bargain with Jor-El in the beginning of the third season. Not only is he more fragile now, but Jonathan does not appear in the movies, which makes me think that his time is almost up. Good thing those Kansas farmers are made of such strong stuff.

Martha is underused in this season, I think, and at a couple points she acts more harshly than I would think her character would. I guess it's an indication of how much stress she has been under and that such a situation would take its toll on anyone, but I count on Martha to be all-forgiving, so it's difficult to see her step away from that, especially when she turns out to be wrong. My real disappointment, though, was the near lack of interaction between her and either of the Luthors. She has scenes with them in one episode each, by my count. I had a hunch that she would help to heal the rift between Clark and Lex, but she doesn't come into it at all. At least we should see her and Lex having a chat now and then, though; after all, he is her boss now, and he and Lana certainly spent a lot of time together when Lana was running the Talon. I'm hoping that she has more to do with both of them in the fifth season.

I'm tired of Lana, quite frankly, though I liked her better in the second half of the season than the first. Still, it seems she's always whining or snapping at somebody, always in accusation mode. I guess there's only so much a girl can take, and one can't blame her for having a hard time dealing with everything happening around her... Ah well. Ageless - another episode with strong Star Trek overtones (this time TNG's The Child - puts her back in my favor, but if we had to drop another character from the series you know which one I'd vote off the island. I roll my eyes each time Lois comes on screen and starts talking a mile a minute or punches Clark in the arm, but I have to admit she's a lot of fun. I guess she can stick around. But I worry that with Lois as Chloe's cousin, this calls for some sort of dramatic departure on Chloe's part, since otherwise there is precious little excuse for Chloe not remaining an important part of Clark's adult life when her cousin works with him every day.

So it is Chloe who actually wound up being my favorite character of the season. Sorry, Lionel; better luck next time. Part of this can be chalked up to sheer relief that she was not blown into a million bits. Part of it derives from the fact that from the start, she has been not only my favorite of the two love interests but one of my favorite female characters on television. Chloe went through a rather rough patch circa the end of season two and the beginning of season three, but her ordeal seems to have cleansed her of less admirable traits, at least for the most part. She is wholly likable here, wholly sympathetic, and she has settled into her best friend role quite comfortably while only occasionally daring to hope that Clark's feelings for her might change. But a significant mid-season event is what cemented Chloe as the most fascinating character for me as she finds herself in a position that will shake her to the core and fundamentally challenge her integrity. Let's just say that Chloe comes out of this season looking pretty darn good.

The writing of which I was given fair warning turned out not to be so bad after all. There are moments that seem out of character, such as Martha laying into Clark for something he did while under the influence of red Kryptonite, and there are sequences that are highly improbable, most notably Clark saving Chloe's life and making the winning play all in the space of a second and a teenager building a phony Smallville High in the space of a couple months. There is too much stuff about witches, which is going to have to be explained more thoroughly in later episodes, though part of me wishes they'd just drop the whole thing. And there are patches of abhorrent dialogue, my favorite of which involves Jonathan, after being knocked down a flight of stairs by an axe-wielding Chloe (possessed by the spirit of a psychotic would-be prom queen), calmly assuring Clark that he is okay but "Chloe isn't herself." Oh, and did I mention the high percentage of episodes in which at least one character loses control over his or her actions due to drugging, body-snatching and -switching and accidents involving covert Luthorcorp experiments? Can anybody be held accountable for anything when everyone's faculties are so unprotected? But on the whole, the episodes are engaging, entertaining and well worth three months of waiting.

How long will I have to wait now before I get to see the fallout from the season four finale? Is there any good left in Lex? Is there hope for Lionel? Will Jonathan make it to the sixth season? Is Clark ever going to entrust someone else in his inner circle with his secret? So many questions... And more, no doubt, will surface from the moment I pop in that first DVD. Am I growing Lex-like in my frenzied search for answers? I guess that's a chance I will have to take...

Pilot
Season One
Season Two
Season Three
Season Five

Poems:
His Friendship
A Luthor is a Lion
A Father's Love
Metamorphosis
Martha
Destiny
Jonathan
This Moment

Parodies:
The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald
Save Me
Harrigan
Rhymes and Reasons
Leaves That Are Green
Kathy's Song
Silver Bells
A Most Peculiar Man

Recommended:
Yes

Viewing Format: DVD