Review: 'Smallville' - Arctic

"Arctic” makes an impressive opening with a full recap of the major events of the seventh season with an epic-toned score from Mark Snow and a ghostly message from beyond the grave by Lionel Luthor (John Glover).

Beginning with the secret of Veritas and Lex’s (Michael Rosenbaum) recent dark steps, the sequence also covers all of the character developments that have taken place including the awakening of Kara (Laura Vandervoort), Lana’s (Kristen Kreuk) confinement, Chloe’s (Allison Mack) meteor infection and some cryptic Kryptonian threats. It very nicely sets the overall tone of the episode and outlines everything that is at stake.

However, all of the character relationships -- compelling though they are -- serve as a warm up to the main event: Lex finally discovering the truth about Clark (Tom Welling), locating the Fortress of Solitude and using the orb device that will give him complete control over the last son of Krypton.

What makes Lex such a fantastic villain on the show is that he believes he is the hero and is working to make the world a safer place. Through his secret investigations into Clark Kent, Government projects, 33.1 experiments and finally his quest to control the traveler, he has constantly justified his actions through a desire to save mankind (in the same way as his childhood hero Warrior Angel). How ironic it is that in doing so he was destined to become the villain he desired to thwart.

Unfortunately, their confrontation doesn’t come until the final moments and leaves so much unsaid and even more unfinished. Seven years of each character should have amounted to more than three minutes of shouting in the Arctic fortress and a snazzy lightshow. Here’s hoping next season includes everything “Arctic” did not.

What Worked

Robert Picardo as the troubled billionaire on the run from not only recent events but also his past as a member of the Veritas clan was certainly a lot better than his time as a misguided monk last week. And thankfully his scenes were over by the opening credits allowing the episode to move onto more pressing and tougher issues, “Kara” as a super-villain for example. It was brilliant to see Vandervoort don the dark cape and become a baddie on the series as one of the many regrets about her time on the series this year is that we have yet to see her encounter red kryptonite.

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