Smallville celebrates its 25th anniversary this year, and for anyone who loves the show, there are several episodes that are still highlights for DC television. This series did something incredible during its 10-season run. It told the story of Superman’s origin, but it was never a show about Superman. Instead, this was a DC Comics series about Clark Kent (Tom Welling) and his life in Smallville, and eventually Metropolis, and he never became Superman until the final episode of the series. Despite that, Smallville maintained a high quality of episodes, brought in several fan-favorite characters, and featured one of the best versions of Lex Luthor (Michael Rosenbaum) in history.
For anyone who wants to celebrate the 25th anniversary of Smallville, we have the best episodes from every season of the series for you to check out. These feature the best stories, the biggest moments, and the most exciting events in the show’s 10-year history, and they are among the best in superhero television history.
The best episode from Smallville Season 1 was the season finale, titled “Tempest.” While much of Smallville’s early seasons focused on Clark and Lana’s relationship, the first season narrowed things down to Clark and Chloe, and the two almost shared a kiss at the prom, which was ended when the tornado sirens began to go off. This caused Clark to leave Chloe behind and fly to the rescue of Lana, whose truck was lifted by a tornado, and Clark showed an early example of bravery by flying into the tornado.
However, the most important story here surrounded Lex Luthor and the conflict with his dad, Lionel Luthor. Lionel had shut down the Smallville plant and blamed Lex in a manipulative act to force his son to return. When Lex gets his workers to mortgage their homes to help buy the company, Lionel buys the bank and threatens to foreclose on the homes. This was a case of one-upmanship, and it showed how evil Lionel was and how Lex was turning into his dad little by little. The contrast of Clark saving Lana and Lex considering leaving his father to die was perfect foreshadowing of their future lives.
The best episode of Smallville Season 2 is the 17th episode, titled “Rosetta.” This was the episode where Clark Kent uses a key on a wall at the Kawatche Caves and suddenly downloads the entire Kryptonian language into his mind. He then unwittingly uses his heat vision to burn a symbol meaning hope into a barn, and Chloe ends up publishing it in the Torch. However, what really makes this a special episode is when Clark speaks to a man named Dr. Virgil Swann about the language.
Legendary Superman actor Christopher Reeve stars as Dr. Swann in this episode of Smallville, and this was a perfect casting choice to tie the beloved Superman movies with the new mythos being built in Smallville. Swann told Clark that he received an encrypted transmission 13 years earlier, on the night of the meteor shower, from a world called Krypton that no longer exists. He said it was sent for a son named Kal-El. The ship’s message from Jor-El said, “Rule them with strength, my son.” Swann urged Clark to write his own destiny, and this is where Clark had to figure out who he wanted to be.
“Memoria” was the 19th episode of Smallville Season 3, and it was the directorial debut of one of the series’ creators, Miles Millar. In this episode, Lex entered a program at the Summerholt Institute, and he was submerged in glowing green liquid to recover the seven weeks of memories Lionel had erased with electroshock. He learned more about his mother’s depression issues and about his baby brother, Julian, who had died in his crib. This led to Lionel giving Clark to the Summerholt Institute to stop treatment on Lex.
The green liquid was Kryptonite, and when Clark is submerged, he relives his mother and father placing him in his ship to send him away from Krypton, and he begins to scream until Lex saves him. The episode also ends with two big reveals. First, Lex’s memories returned to reveal that his mother killed his baby brother during postpartum depression, and Lex took the blame to protect her. Clark learned his first word as a baby was his mother’s name, “Lara.” This gives both Clark and Lex the mother issues that would push their stories forward.
The Smallville Season 4 episode, “Transference,” is a body-swap episode that puts Clark Kent in a very problematic position. This starts off with a glowing stone that draws Clark to the prison where Lionel Luthor is dying. When Lionel reaches for Lex with the stone, Clark grabs Lionel, and the two swap bodies. Lionel ends up making a mess of Clark’s life by quitting the football team, insulting Lana and Chloe, making a sexual advance on Lana, and then accidentally firing heat vision while hugging Martha Kent.
Clark ends up in Lionel’s body in prison, powerless, and then he learns that Lionel is dying of liver disease. It took Clark convincing Martha of what happened through a story only the two of them would know for her to get Lionel. While Lionel got away, he ended up back at the prison, and Clark forced them to switch back during a prison riot. This was a hugely important episode. It cured Lionel of his disease, but it also revealed Clark’s secret to him, which made him even more dangerous than ever before. One of the best things about re-watching this Smallville episode is seeing Tom Welling and John Glover imitating each other.
“Reckoning” was a Smallville Season 5 episode that finally helped send Clark and Lana to the next stage of their relationship. In this episode, Clark takes Lana to the Fortress of Solitude, shows her his powers, turns a coal into a diamond, and then proposes to her. She said yes. However, this episode ended in tragedy. Lana died when she was talking on the phone with Clark while driving, and then her car collided with a school bus. Jor-El offers Clark a crystal to reset the day to save Lana, but someone else would die as a result.
Clark uses it anyway and resets the day. He keeps his secret from Lana and decides not to tell her so nothing would happen to her. He then confides in Chloe and stops the bus crash. However, the tragedy here isn’t Clark not proposing to Lana and keeping his secret. The tragedy is the death that replaces Lana’s. It was Jonathan Kent, who had a heart attack after a confrontation with Lionel Luthor, and Clark has to live with the fact that his decision to save Lana’s life cost him his adoptive father. Jonathan’s funeral is one of the most emotional moments in Smallville history.
As the title suggests, the Smallville Season 6 episode “Justice” deals with the Justice League, or at least an early version of the superhero team. This episode guest stars Justin Hartley as Oliver Queen (Green Arrow), Kyle Gallner as Bart Allen (Impulse), Alan Ritchson as Arthur Curry (Aquaman), and Lee Thompson Young as Victor Stone (Cyborg). The plot sees Bart stealing data from Lex’s laptop for Green Arrow, who is trying to stop Lex from building an army of kryptonite-enhanced people.
When Lex catches Bart, he begins to torture him, and when Clark tries to save him, he is taken down by a meteor rock in a lead-lined lab. Chloe, acting as Watchtower, sends in Oliver, Arthur, and Victor to save Clark and Bart, and they destroy the facility. This episode is a great look at what could happen in the future with a team like the Justice League. This was the Justice League’s first Smallville appearance, turned Chloe into Watchtower for the first time, and it had the iconic moment with the heroes walking away from an explosion.
Lex Luthor finally crosses the path of no return in the Smallville Season 7 episode “Descent.” In this episode, Lex confronts his father at LuthorCorp about the Traveler. When he realizes it is time to end things, Lex shoots out a window of the building and pushes his father from the building to his death. Lex then taunts his dad and says no one will remember his name in the end. This causes Lex to start to break, as he begins to hallucinate his younger self accusing him of patricide.
Clark ends up facing down Lex at the funeral, and things are never the same between the two men again. This episode also had Lex’s assistant shoot Lois Lane and lock her in a freezer with Jimmy Olsen while trying to cover up her attempted murder. However, the big thing to note here is that this is the episode that sets up Smallville’s Season 7 endgame, which is two lockets that Lionel believes can control Clark. This was Glover’s final episode until a parallel-universe version showed up in the final season, and it solidified Lex as the main villain once and for all.
The best Smallville Season 8 episode is “Legion,” and much like “Justice,” the title explains what DC Comics fans already guessed. This is the episode that presents the time-traveling superheroes from the future, the Legion of Super-Heroes. This is the 11th episode of the season, and it sees the Persuader attacking Clark, only for the Legion heroes to arrive from the 31st century to save him. Meanwhile, Brainiac is living inside Chloe’s body and turns Davis Bloome into Doomsday permanently.
While the Legion said they needed to kill Chloe to stop Brainiac, Clark looks for a way to pull Brainiac out of her instead, and this works, allowing the Legion to take him to the future and reprogram him as Brainiac 5, while leaving Clark a Legion ring. The Legion of Superheroes is one of the most interesting DC Comics superhero teams, and having them appear on Smallville was a huge moment for fans of the books. It is full of Easter eggs and is a great story at the same time.
The best episode of Smallville Season 9 is the 21st, “Salvation.” The episode starts with a dream sequence from the future that actually sets up how Smallville will end in the next season. This sequence sees Superman catching a plane headed toward the Daily Planet, while Lex Luthor is running for President of the United States. General Zod is the villain, and he pretends to be Clark as the Blur. In this episode, he kills Tess, but not before she can tell Clark where to find a power source for the Book of Rao.
This is the episode where Lois finally learns Clark Kent’s secret, and it ends the Kandorian arc. This happens when Clark lets Lois know who he is and then goes to fight Zod, who uses the blue kryptonite dagger to make him and Clark human so they can’t ascend. Clark sacrifices himself by stabbing himself with the dagger, willing to die to stop Zod. This causes Zod’s army to leave him, and he has to ascend alone. The Suicide Squad is also in this episode, attacking Oliver and Chloe, and it introduces Granny Goodness in her first live-action appearance.
The best episode of Smallville Season 10, the final season of the show, wasn’t the finale. The best episode was the fourth one, which was “Homecoming.” This follows Lois Lane as she forces Clark Kent to return to Smallville for his five-year high school reunion, and they end up being named the Homecoming King and Queen. Meanwhile, Brainiac-5 returns from the future and uses his Legion ring to take Clark through his past, present, and future, where Clark faces some dark times.
In the past, Clark learns that Jonathan Kent chose his fate when he confronted Lionel Luthor, and that the heart attack wasn’t his fault, by reversing time. In the future year of 2017, Clark works at the Daily Planet, wearing glasses, and he helps his future self stop a reactor explosion while saving Lois Lane from a falling helicopter. This helped lead Clark to make some big decisions, such as burying his father’s watch at Jonathan’s grave. He backs Oliver when he publicly comes out as Green Arrow, and he dances with Lois as she tells him she loves him for the first time. The episode put the past behind Superman and set him up for the final season of Smallville’s run.
What are your favorite episodes of Smallville? Let us know your favorite moments from the show in the comments below.
