You may recall last year’s report card began with a solid “B” but turned into a generous “D” because of Lana Lang’s embarrassing mid-season “super” farewell arc. It could’ve dropped to an “F” if I’d graded the entire season, which included Chloe running off with a serial killer who later killed Jimmy Olsen, who was retconned to “Henry” Olsen. To be fair there were good episodes after the mid-season point last year, but they were so overshadowed by the truly bad that it scarcely mattered and that’s why I decided to wait until the season was completely over this year before issuing a report card.

I’m happy to report Season 9 had the guts to avoid the huge regression traps Smallville writers have always fallen into that have chronically destroyed the momentum in the latter half of the season. I’m sure some things were still changed when they found out they were renewed, and what some have called “fan pandering” resulted in other changes, but on the whole this season Clark was allowed to advance ever closer to his birthright and his destiny with Lois by his side.

Being the Hero

Clark Kent began the season on shaky ground, but that’s not surprising considering that’s where he ended in last year’s finale. After Lois vanished and Jimmy was killed, Clark renounced his human ties and went full on Kryptonian believing purging his emotions would make him a better hero. In truth it was his way of numbing his guilt over Jimmy’s death and the pain of losing Lois.

Clark began training in all things Kryptonian at the Fortress of Solitude. He also created a black ensemble which included his family crest, i.e. the Superman shield. He even burned the emblem onto walls at places where he’d made rescues or taken down bad guys in hopes his calling card would serve as a symbol of hope and a reminder that he was watching over the city.

However, his self-imposed exile ended abruptly when Lois Lane mysteriously reappeared. Clark not only returned to his human life, but he began to pursue Lois romantically. He also reestablished his connection to Lois as the Blur with his phone calls.

On some level he knew he shouldn’t, but on another he discovered a whole new side to Lois that, as he confessed to his mother, made him fall even deeper for her.

Supporting the Hero

Lois returned with a fragmented memory of an apocalyptic future (hey, it’s always something), which included flashes of her and Clark making passionate love to each other. It’s hard to say if that imagery made her more amenable to the idea of dating Clark, but by mid-season they had shared several dates.

At the same time, as mentioned, she and the Blur reestablished their phone-on-phone clandestine relationship, but her feelings for him were evolving. She, like the Lois Lanes before her, became his champion and public defender. Never blindly, but always passionately.

The Justice Society of America was dragged out of retirement to defend themselves against a villain who was systematically murdering their members. The introduction of the JSA boosted Smallville’s comic book currency quite a bit.

And who’d have thunk it? The Wonder Twins, perhaps the least respected super duo in the history of superheroes,were written as sympathetic and actually endearing characters on Smallville, yet their essence as overeager and slightly bungling heroes was preserved.

They were big fans of the Blur who inspired them to use their powers for good. Naturally they had to be brought under control for the sake of the Blur’s reputation, but there was a great scene between the nascent heroes and their idol.

The Blur gave one of those speeches that suited the Superman archetype. He cautioned the twins to be more careful, but commended their heroism. Clark had truly become a hero that other heroes admired and respected.

Always a supporter of the hero, Martha Kent made an unannounced, but welcome visit to the farm and brought Perry White with her as a surprise love interest. This shouldn’t have worked, but for some reason it did. Maybe because Annette O’Toole (Martha) and Michael McKean (Perry) are married in real life. In any case they sold the pairing. On the other hand Martha being the Red Queen, a feared rogue operative, was a bit harder to swallow.

Don’t get me wrong, I definitely believe Martha would do anything to protect her son, even becoming the Red Queen, but Martha’s heroic turn was symptomatic of something that began the previous season with Lana and her tin can fusion super suit. For whatever reason characters had to have the label “hero” bestowed upon them this year. Hopefully next season they’ll leave that to the guy with the “S” on his chest.

Subverting the Hero

I like Oliver Queen, AKA Green Arrow, and I have from the start, but last year and this year he has done some plotting behind Clark’s back. It was time for a comeuppance.

The solution, which I don’t think was entirely deliberate, was to have Oliver dive into a bottle of booze as his way of dealing, well not dealing, with his guilt over ‘killing’ Lex Luthor the previous season. Oliver also began to pine for ex-lover Lois Lane.

Fortunately for Clark, or unfortunately for Oliver depending on your point of view, Lois was steadfastly loyal to Clark and so the Emerald Archer rebounded to Lois’s cousin Chloe practically in the very next episode.

Yep, Jimmy Olsen’s widow. Not only that, but Chloe called all the shots in their “no strings attached” sex-only relationship.

If that didn’t erase Oliver’s old swashbuckling image, then certainly wearing matching plaid bathrobes at a country bed & breakfast knocked him off the Wheaties shelf and landed him squarely next to the Special K. The one with yogurt clusters.

Admittedly the relationship was a bit tacky given that Jimmy hadn’t even been dead half a year, but apparently Chloe missed sex.

Speaking of Ms Sullivan, the reason she made the “Subverting the Hero” section is because her control freak nature and delusions of grandeur ran amok this season.

She had surveillance equipment everywhere and tapped into the city and the nation’s surveillance systems, bugged Clark’s home, put tracking devices on members of the JLA, at least on Oliver, and bugged documentation she created for the Kandorians.

Clark became the main target of her contempt and resentment. Chloe might’ve felt justified because Clark ran off to be the lone Kryptonian for three weeks right after Jimmy’s funeral, but considering her relationship with Davis Bloome last year while Jimmy was still alive, there seemed to be no real sincerity in terms of her grief.

However, it did create a feeling of déjà vu. In season 8′s finale, which aired May 14 2009, Chloe reconnected with Jimmy and they got all lovey-dovey. Then she told Davis Bloome, a serial killer she had run away with, that she only thought she loved him. This year on May 14, 2010, Chloe told Oliver she loved him. At least she’s predictable, but her character in general was cold, condescending, judgmental, brittle, and she stole from the guy she was sleeping with, which earned her the Lana Luthor chutzpah award. She was also given an ill-fitting hard ass mantle punctuated by dialogue like, “I didn’t realize you were Zod’s little bitch.”

Tess Mercer was the “bitch” in question and for some odd reason Chloe and Tess were paired up at least three times this past season, but only after Chloe and Oliver hooked up.

All I could gather from their scenes together is that Tess, another one of Oliver’s exes, was there to envy Chloe’s place in Oliver’s life and to regret how she never meant as much to him.

This came across as utterly unbelievable, especially considering Tess’ negative opinion of Oliver and the fact that he cheated on her.

Ah, poor Tess, she was all over the map in season 9. She betrayed humankind to Zod because she believed he could save humankind. Figure that one out. Tess was also the victim of a remarkable amount of violence, even from Clark, which is unacceptable.

On the other hand, yeah, the one with the weapon, she’s no slouch when it comes to delivering punishment. In the finale she hammered on Zod’s face with a cool kryptonite knuckle duster. But alas, Zod’s heat vision gave him the advantage of distance when delivering a fatal fiery blow to Tess while he deftly avoided the kryptonite.

Fear not, the finale ended with an old woman going into Tess’ hospital room after the doctor declared her dead. There are hints and spoilers as to whom she might be, but I won’t post speculation here.

Hating the Hero

The infamous General Zod had already made his debut on Smallville at the end of season 5 when he possessed the body of Lex Luthor. He was then dispatched back to the Phantom Zone by Clark in the season 6 premiere. Remember? Good, now forget it.

This year the clone of Zod — Major Zod — and many of his followers from Kandor, were brought out of stasis by Ms Bipolar herself — Tess Mercer.

However, the Kandorians arrived with no super powers due to Jor-El introducing blue kryptonite into the cloning process, which rendered them basically human. Trying to obtain super powers became a critical point for Zod throughout the season because he feared his followers would defect and give their allegiance to Kal-El, who offered them new lives and identities on Earth. Zod also became extremely envious of the adoration the humans felt for Kal-El’s public hero persona The Blur.

When Zod wasn’t the focus, there was a veritable rogues’ gallery of villains to take up the slack. Toyman returned for some unfinished business, and Metallo, one of Superman’s formidable enemies, debuted this season with an interesting and sympathetic back story. Silver Banshee’s debut wasn’t as auspicious, but it’s nice to have Superman’s vulnerability to magic addressed. Icicle was launched at the JSA by Checkmate’s Amanda Waller, who believes herself to be a good guy, but her tactics, motives and prejudices proved otherwise. Also in a separate chess club was Max Lord who simply wanted to annihilate all meta beings. And though not from the myth, I enjoyed the smarmy crooked D.A. Ray Sacks.

Romancing the Hero

Lois fell deep and hard for both the farm boy and the public hero, which I would’ve thought impossible without Clark having two visible personas, but the writers pulled it off, so kudos to them. Lois’s unique relationship with Clark and the Blur, which recreated the traditional triangle composed of Lois, Clark and Superman, has no parallel with any of the other relationships Clark has ever had on Smallville.

Chloe and Lana, for example, both found out Clark’s secret before he had the public hero persona. They accepted his alien origin when they found out the truth about him, but that’s not the same as falling for both sides of him independently and equally. That’s an important distinction and why it touches Clark as deeply as it does.

Perhaps the most amazing thing about them as a couple is that they’re fun. Not just fun to watch, but obviously they are having fun together. This is no small feat considering how buttoned down and often unhappy Clark has been over the years. And it’s not just Lois having a positive impact on Clark. He is having a positive impact on her as well.

Clark Kent has been the only man who has been able to reel Lois in when she is tempted to cross the wrong lines while pursuing a story, or when picking the wrong person to become confrontational with.

This was a very subtle addition to their relationship. There were no pedantic lectures, or obsequious pleading. In fact it was mostly physical. In the episode Charade, Lois started to angrily charge after Franklin Stern, the Daily Planet’s owner and fill-in editor, but Clark winged a restraining arm out to block her even before she made a move because he knew how she would react. That was a smart way to convey how well Clark has come to know Lois. It also illustrates how much Lois has come to respect Clark’s judgment because, let’s face it, if she didn’t, he’d be chasing his head down the hall.

And finally, debuting without the assist of red kryptonite, was Clark’s sexual assertiveness. He genuinely found his testosterone this season and repeatedly wanted to let Lois know exactly that.

His new found sexual aggression was an offshoot of his general growing confidence at tackling goals, and he definitely wanted to “tackle” Lois. She seemed to be the one who brought it out in him from the beginning, even way back when they swapped pointed barbs instead of kisses.

Heroes and Zeroes

As with any previous season, season 9 delivered both hits and misses, though this year seemed to have the most cohesive overall thematic story line of any season produced thus far. It also created a sense of location with function. In the past the various locations merely existed for compartmentalized blocks of dialogue, or to speed up plot exposition as when Clark visited Chloe at the Daily Planet to take advantage of her hacking skills. Now, thankfully, the Daily Planet actually functions as a newspaper and Clark goes there because (gasp!) he’s a reporter.

Other perks and fun bits this season included Lois finally attending a monster truck rally, John Jones briefly appearing in his true Martian form, and Dr. Emil Hamilton, the show’s chief physician and scientist, displaying a laid back sense of humor in the episode Persuasion. Surprisingly, falling on the “zero” side was Zatanna.

She was depicted as a stereotypical predatory female who needed to steal another woman’s man for whatever reason. She even stooped to putting a spell on Clark to seduce him away from Lois. It’s not just the cliche of such a scenario, it’s that Zatanna is a powerful fascinating character who shouldn’t be wasted on a trivial home-wrecker subplot.

No doubt Zatanna was misused partly so that Clark could prove, by breaking the spell, that his bond with Lois was stronger than her magic. Something similar, without the magic, was done with Lois when she helped John Corben (Metallo) escape from Tess’ lab in Upgrade. He became smitten with Lois and told her how he felt. Lois was quick to point out that she was with someone and that he was “it” for her.

Hopefully this upcoming season, their final season, they won’t need the crutch of third parties to prove how much they love each other, they’ll just tell each other. That would not only be refreshing, it would raise their grade average.