“Dominion” – a Brave and the Bold team-up of Clark and Oliver set in the negative-land of The Phantom Zone — may have been one of my least favorite episodes of Smallville in awhile, though not for a lack of trying. In fact, from the super-stylized visuals to the overly intense acting, I got the sense that Tom Welling and company – under the direction of castmate Justin Hartley – were trying very hard to make a whole lot from very little. Nonetheless, the sum total was as blah as the desaturated colors of Zod’s pocket dimension prison, and no amount of Spartacus-flavored blood spurting and tremulous, pensive acting could make me feel anything for it. I liked Lois’ Whitesnake pillow. But “Is This Love?” No. Kneel before Zod? Only as I collapsed from boredom and snored at his feet.
In the grand scheme of Smallville’s season-long Darkseid saga, “Dominion” served the purpose of reminding us that the storyline is still very much in play after several weeks of not acknowledging it at all, and that Omega-branded Oliver is a ticking time bomb of Dark Side of the Force turmoil that’s likely to detonate at a most inconvenient time. Say… Lois & Clark’s wedding? Beyond that bit of busywork, “Dominion” offered an excuse to bring back Callum Blue’s riveting Zod one last time before the end of the series, now two weeks away. If only the episode was worthy of his charisma. Still, for anyone who considered the villain’s exile a loose end that required tying before Smallville bowed out, this one was for you.
The plot had Zod tricking the son of Jor-El into The Phantom Zone for the purpose of exacting some bloody vengeance. The corrupt Kryptonian snared Oliver, too, and forced both of them to duel to the death via Gladiator-esque bloodsport. We were encouraged to believe that Zod had seduced Oliver by appealing to their common bond: Membership in the brotherhood of Darkseid. The Dark Lord had laid waste to The Phantom Zone, but promised Zod he could have the dimension for himself if he removed Darkseid’s biggest obstacle to conquering Earth, i.e. Clark. In turn, Zod offered Oliver a position of power in his sham kingdom if the conflicted hero betrayed his friend. (Better to rule in purgatory than serve as Superman’s best man, I guess.) (Speaking of all this throne-y gamesmanship: Anyone else kept waiting for Zod to intone “Winter is coming” during the episode?) I must admit that I gasped when Oliver skewered Clark with the sword… but of course, it was all part of a risky gambit hatched by Clark to draw Zod close and snatch the crystal that could heal his wound and send he and Oliver back home. The Phantom Zone was destroyed. Adios, Zod.
“Dominion” tried to compliment The Phantom Zone storyline with a parallel subplot involving Lois proving her stand-by-your-man superhero wife bona fides by subverting Tess’ mandate to destroy The Phantom Zone if Clark’s mission went awry. Clark thought he had been gone for a few hours, but Lois revealed he had been gone for three weeks. By putting an indefinite delay on the doomsday order, Lois demonstrated an impressive until-death-do-us-part faithfulness that… had somehow been in question? I thought we were past her whole cold feet thing. It was an awkward attempt to give Lois something to do in a relatively thin episode for everyone. Smallville has spent a lot of time this season exploring the meaning of marriage, through allegorical storylines and thoughtfully written, well-acted scenes in which Clark and Lois do nothing more than intensely discuss the subject. In doing so, they have modeled a mature relationship between two people willing to be bravely, even heroically vulnerable with each other. Yayyy! But this week? Wheel-spinning tedium. It’s time to get these two to the altar already – and time for Smallville to engage its apocalyptic endgame.
@EWDocJensen
I agree. I am frustrated, and by looking at the ratings I’m not the only one, with the way this final season has built towards the end. It seems like the focus is all wrong and there is no sense of urgency. They’re on all these side paths that are taking away from what should be an epic rush to a final conflict and finale. Please let the last two make up for it!
smallville is notorious for being either really good or really bad in my opinion, this past season has been mostly really bad, but I am hopeful for the series finale – hopefully the costume and Lex will save it
Ugh! This series is such teen CRAP!
10 years now comes down to 2 weeks *sigh* Nice send off to Zod though I’m guessing the last image was ment to be Ursa and Non trapped with him at the end. Nice touch!
I kind of wish this episode would have happened early on but I’m still glad that it happened. We needed to see the real Zod and we got it.
Correction–the Real Zod and Clone joined as one.
So let me get this straight… Clark is trapped in the Phantom Zone for three weeks, then suddenly appears, and Tess DOESN’T call Lois immediately with the news?
That May 13 finale teaser with the “Krypton” soundtrack gives me chills every time I see it.
Absolutely awesome.
Didn’t really like this episode, but can’t wait til the finale!
I couldn’t disagree more with all of you. This episode was intense and showed the real hatred between Clark and Zod. It was intense, and showed the ultimate fight that Lois and Clark will face in their future. I didn’t find it boring at all, I was on the edge of my seat the entire time. The ending did have a few holes, like wouldn’t Tess have told Oliver and Clark right away it had been 3 weeks? But all in all, this was a great build towards the finale, and puts the Zod storyline to rest for good, in a good way.
I agree with you. It wasn’t bad at all, though maybe something other than gladiators would’ve been more appropriate (however, the battles to the death do reflect Zod’s survival of the fittest mindset, where the strong are the ones with the right to rule). Still, I liked it a lot.
Not to mention offering insight into Clark’s Kryptonian heritage that I’m not sure he knew prior to this. Hence his later confession to Lois. Getting Clark to make a distinction between his Kryptonian nature and his human upbringing is an essential factor in his becoming the Superman we know.
I agree. It really wasn’t that bad. It was cool to see Zod again and there were a lot of nice moments, like Clark wearing that red cape while fighting Oliver, gaining some self-awareness about his Kryptonian side and the fact that he has let Lois in on everything, the nods to “Superman II” and of course that really sweet scene between Clark & Lois at the end. I even thought it was a nice touch that she put her mother’s blue bird on the windowsill. It wasn’t as good as last week’s episode, but there was much to like about it.
Also, this was Erica Durance’s 100th episode AND the episode that Smallville takes the title for Longest-Running Sci-Fi show in North America Ever! “Dominion” indeed!
I’m mixed in regards to feelings. Certainly it was great to see that the Zod storyline got wrapped up before the finale, because i have a feeling they will be trying to juggle a few too many balls anyway. Unfortunately this season has felt rather adrift. I remember how chilling it was to have Lionel standing in the cemetary, begging for his son back, darkside appearing and then scene. Of course after that scene nothing has been made mention of that situation, and the darkside “epic story” has pretty much vanished. I’m sure that the last two episodes will be very much about that, but in past seasons we’ve had a very tangible villian, even several, but now we have a couple mentions, some appearances by minor villians and really nothing more. I’m personally not sure how they will wrap up all the plotlines in a little under 3 hours, but i’m sure t hey will reward our patience. With all the negative, a weak episode of smallville is better than pretty much anything else on tv, well except supernatural.
This is what I fear. It’s starting to feel a bit like, dare I say, Lost. Where we went into the finale wondering how they could possibly wrap it all up well but trusting they would. Then, at least for me, utterly failing to do so. I hate the Lost finale. I don’t think Smallville will end that way (nor could it, since we’re dealing with a different type of story), but it still could struggle to wrap things up appropriately given the amount of time it has left to do so.
I’m on the fence with this episode. I kind of agree that it was a bit slow and I wish they had introduced the “Orion” storyline earlier in the season.
However the action was very good, Callum Blue was at his best and I did really enjoy the Clois scene at the end.
I’d probably give this a 7/10, not bad but not exactly stellar either.
Did anyone catch the glimpse of the Legion of Doom table in the previews for next week. I think I peed a little when i saw that. LOL
You have completely lost your mind, whoever you are, that was one of the best smallville eps ever. KNEEL BEFORE ZOD!
Kneel before ZOD. I laughed when I heard that. Where’s the red chamber when you need it?
just no celophane shield…
This episode was so boring that I fast forwarded through most of it. I’ve never really cared for clone Zod and this ep did nothing to change my opinion. They should have used this ep to showcase someone from the New Gods like Orion or Big Barda or anyone else than retreading through the Phantom zone. If I have to sit through filler than I’d at least like it used to see a DC comics character brought to the screen like Booster last week.
I was bored too. Definitely used the fast forward. It is too bad bc there is so little smallville left.
It is an enormous relief that this will be the final season. They really dragged it on even though it has some positive qualities. They should have made it shorter but better written and they would have been able to have ended it a few years earlier.
Stargate SG-1 (filmed in Canada like SMALLVILLE) ran for 214 episodes in its 10 seasons
First!
did not like the last few episodes of Smallville, hope the finale will be better.