I know i'm an outspoken critic of the cliffhanger and the end of the season, but unless its done very well, its utterly frustrating. There are few cliffhangers that just work, and don't feel forced. But this is the smallville cliffhanger, so lets check the checklist
- Lex in trouble, caused by his own actions - Check
- Clark loosing battle to kryptonian oo-nasty - Check
- Chloe dead - Check
- Extraordinary forced revealation - Check
- Father figure in critical condition - Check
- Future love interest in mortal peril - Check
- Lex or other character missing the fact of Clark - Check
- Clark ignoring everyone's advice and going off on one - Check
- Lana dead/or in big trouble - Check (okay technically she escaped in the mail van, but according to the information the characters are using, she's dead)
I have to admit, i was expecting either something to go wrong with Ares (which kinda did), or Lex to go big bad, neither which really happened. A kryptonian big bad wasn't what i was expecting, rather that Clark would finally get off his arse, find the phantoms and others, before joining up with the JLA to take on lex, but thats too much to rush in a season really. However this is where what praise i give, ends, because while annoying, Bizarro has been more of a joke character from what i've seen, deadly yes, powerful yes, actual apocalyptic threat... no. Admitedly the fact that he has anything to do with kryptonite suggests something different about him. When i heard the words "kryptonian experiment" i thought maybe Doomsday, who would be scary beyond all reason... but still would have probably been a fairly weak character. Maybe its expecting too much, but with good planning, you give people a storyline over a season, you run them ragged with plot, give them some kind of closure, and then you give them a taster for the next season. Angel was good with this, the second and fourth season finales were good like this, and both times i felt glad of the break, but looking forward to the next season. Maybe people tell them its good marketting, but when you have to wait a whole 6 months to find out what happened, i just feel annoyed and a bit let down.
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