It Was the End of an Era for ‘Smallville’ After This Unforgettable Episode

Image via The WB Published Oct 2, 2026, 10:44 PM EDT Michael John Petty is a Senior Author for Collider who spends his days writing, in fellowship with his local church, and enjoying each new day with his wonderful wife and precious daughters. At Collider, he writes features, reviews, recaps, interviews, and breaking news on select occasion. In addition to writing about stories, Michael has told a few of his own, from supernatural thrillers to historical fiction. His Western short story, The Devil's Left Hand, received the Spur Award for "Best Western Short Fiction" in 2025 from the Western Writers of America, of which he is a member. Michael currently resides in North Idaho with his growing family. Sign in to your Collider account When a show is lucky enough to reach milestone episodes, the creative team typically honors what makes the series so great and delivers one of the best episodes. While this concept is highly unlikely for streaming shows due to their shorter episode counts, network television series reaching 100 episodes was a celebration. It not only meant that the series qualified for syndication, but it also gave the studios and teams behind these shows the confidence they needed to prove their work was a success. When Smallville premiered, the series took its time to explore Clark Kent's (Tom Welling) journey before becoming Superman. Clark's powers manifested over multiple seasons, and he didn't officially don the Superman costume until the series finale in Season 10. Fans have seen Superman's origin numerous times in movies and TV, but what Smallville does best is show what those projects typically skip: Clark's formative years from teenhood to adulthood. As a Kryptonian raised on Earth by Jonathan (John Schneider) and Martha Kent (Annette O'Toole), Clark is reminded that even though he has superhuman abilities, his choices and actions all come with a cost. Clark can't always rely on his powers to save the day, and some problems are beyond his control. This is a big lesson in Smallville's 100th episode, which saw Clark experience the tragic loss of two very important people in his life. Clark Kent Loses Two Loved Ones in 'Smallville's 100th Episode In Smallville Season 5, Episode 12, "Reckoning," Clark reveals his Kryptonian heritage to Lana Lang (Kristin Kreuk) and asks her to marry him. Clark and Lana's relationship has been shaky up to this point, as Clark has lied multiple times to explain why he's not around when he's actually saving people. But without Clark having to say much, Lana pieces everything together internally and agrees to marry Clark. Everything seems to be going perfectly for him, as that same day, Jonathan is elected as a Kansas State Senator over Lex Luthor (Michael Rosenbaum). But when Lex drunkenly calls Lana, and she tries to comfort him, he angrily confronts her about why she would agree to marry Clark after knowing about their relationship issues. Collider Exclusive · 8 Questions · 2 Minutes Which Superhero Team Should You Join? Avengers · X-Men · Teen Titans · The Boys Every team is a personality test with a uniform. One saves the world and argues about it the whole way home. One has been fighting for the right to exist since the day it formed. One is still working out who it is while the fighting happens. And one has no powers at all, plus no intention of playing fair. Eight questions decide where you actually belong. 🛡️Avengers(Marvel Studios) 🧬X-Men(Marvel) 🐦Teen Titans(DC) 💊The Boys(Prime Video) FIND YOUR TEAM → 01 What kind of power would you actually want? The power matters less than what you would be willing to do with it. ASomething enormous and obvious. I would not hide it. BSomething I was born with, whether I wanted it or not. CSomething still growing that I cannot quite control. DNone at all. I would rather nobody sees me coming. NEXT QUESTION → 02 Why join a team at all? Nobody puts on the suit for the reason they say out loud. ABecause some threats are too big for anyone alone. BBecause people like me are safer together than apart. CBecause I did not want to do any of this alone. DBecause somebody has to hold these people accountable. NEXT QUESTION → 03 How do you feel about the people in charge? Every team has a chain of command. Very few of them survive contact. AI will follow a good leader and argue with a bad one. BThey have never protected people like me. I expect nothing. CI am still learning who to trust, and getting it wrong. DThey are the problem. That is the entire point. NEXT QUESTION → 04 What is your role inside a group? Every roster needs the same handful of people to function. AThe big personality. I take up room and I earn it. BThe one who protects whoever arrived most recently. CThe heart. I keep everybody talking to each other. DThe one who says the uncomfortable thing out loud. NEXT QUESTION → 05 How do you win a fight you should lose? This is the scene the entire film gets built around. AOverwhelming force, and a very good landing. BWorking together in a way nobody saw coming. CRefusing to give up long after I should have. DPreparation, leverage, and one extremely dirty trick. NEXT QUESTION → 06 What is this work costing you? Nobody does this for free. The bill just arrives differently for everyone. AMy private life. Everybody knows my face now. BMy safety. The world is frightened of me. CMy childhood. I grew up faster than I should have. DMy peace. I cannot stop now that I know. NEXT QUESTION → 07 How should the world see your team? Half of this job is public relations, and everybody knows it. AAs icons. The team everyone is relieved to see arrive. BAs people. Just people, which is all we ever asked. CAs proof the next generation is going to be fine. DThey should not see us at all until it is done. NEXT QUESTION → 08 The offer arrives. What makes you say yes? Eight questions in, this is the one that decides your team. AThe scale. If the world is ending, I want to be there. BThe promise that I would not have to hide anymore. CThe people. I would be joining friends, not an employer. DThe chance to take down somebody who deserves it. REVEAL MY TEAM → Recruitment Is Complete Your Team Is…Four teams, four completely different reasons to put yourself in danger for strangers. This is the roster you actually belong on, what they would want from you, and what it would cost you to stay. The AvengersYou belong where the stakes are largest and the personalities are loudest. This is a team of people who are all used to being the most important person in the room, which is exactly why it works and exactly why it keeps nearly falling apart. The Avengers are not friends who became a team. They are a team that slowly and reluctantly became friends, and you would recognise every stage of that process. You can hold your own among big egos without needing to win every exchange, which is the real entry requirement here. The arguing is part of the method. This group does its best thinking mid-disagreement, usually at volume, usually in a very expensive building. When the sky opens, they are who shows up. You would want to be standing in that line. The X-MenYou have never had the luxury of being thanked for this. The X-Men protect a world that has never once been comfortable with them existing, and something in you understands exactly why they keep doing it anyway. This is the only team on the list whose central conflict is not a villain. It is being wanted gone by the same people they keep saving. You know what it is to be the outsider in a room and to decide, anyway, that you will not make yourself smaller so everyone else is comfortable. The X-Men are the most genuine found family in comics. People arrive with nowhere else to go and are never once asked to explain themselves. You would not be joining for the glory. There has never been any. The Teen TitansYou do not want colleagues, you want your people. The Titans are the team where the friendship came first and the world-saving turned up afterwards as an inconvenient side effect. Every Titan is somebody's sidekick who decided to stop being one. That decision, not the villain of the week, is what the team is actually about. You would be joining people who are all working themselves out at the same time as you, which is far less lonely than being the only one. The Titans lose regularly. Then they eat together and come back better, which is a more honest model of growing up than any other team here manages. The tower would be loud, chaotic, and the first place that ever felt like yours. The BoysYou are not asking who to trust. You worked out the answer a while ago and it was nobody in a cape. This is where you go once you have decided the people in charge need watching, and that nobody else is going to do it. The Boys have no powers, no mandate and no funding. What they have is leverage, patience, and a very high tolerance for consequences. You are the person in the room who notices the thing everybody else has quietly agreed not to mention. This is not a heroic team and it has never pretended otherwise. It is a group of damaged people doing necessary work in ways nobody would call clean. You would not sleep well. You would keep going anyway. ↻ RETAKE THE QUIZ As she drives away and calls Clark for help, Lex chases her down and inadvertently causes Lana to get hit by a bus. Even with his super speed, Clark isn't fast enough to save her, as Lana instantly dies from the crash. When Clark begs Jor-El (Terence Stamp) for some way to bring Lana back, Jor-El offers Clark the opportunity to redo the same day, but warns him that the universe will find a way to balance things out. When Jor-El resurrected Clark back in Smallville Season 5, Episode 3, "Hidden," he warned him that someone else's life would pay the price. When Clark redoes the day (similar to what Christopher Reeve's version does in Superman), he decides not to tell Lana his secret. Knowing that he's hiding something, Lana decides to break up with Clark. Without Lana running into Lois Lane (Erica Durance) at The Talon to save her from falling, Lois is on the ground unconscious with running water around her. Smallville made it seem that Lois would die, but Clark saves her from an electrical shock in the nick of time. While he's busy with that, Chloe Sullivan (Allison Mack) notices that Lana is missing. This time, when Lana visits Lex, he drunkenly kisses Lana, which causes her to drive off with Lex chasing her once again. But thanks to Chloe's reminder, Clark remembers the time of Lana's accident and stops the bus from crashing into her. Jonathan has no reason to stop by Lana on the road and continues to drive off to secretly meet with Lex's father, Lionel Luthor (John Glover), at the Kent farm. When Lionel threatens to seemingly reveal Clark’s secret, Jonathan goes into a rage and throws Lionel around, warning him to stay away from his family. Whether it's the stress of Clark's secret being out or the physical strain of throwing Lionel, Jonathan is affected by a heart attack just as Clark and Martha arrive home. Without saying a single word, Jonathan gives a loving look to Martha and Kent before dying in their arms. Even though it wasn't Jonathan's choice, tying back to Jor-El's warning in Smallville Season 5, Episode 3, him paying the price for Clark to live is exactly what he would've done. Jonathan Taught Clark What It Means To Be a Hero Image via The CW Jonathan has been a pivotal character in Clark’s upbringing. Clark wouldn't be the superhero he eventually becomes without Jonathan and Martha instilling the morals and values that make up who Superman is in the media. For fans, Jonathan's shocking death left a giant hole in the series, which replicated the feeling that the Smallville characters were going through. As tragic as this was, Jonathan taught Clark a final valuable lesson about not being able to save everyone. No matter how powerful he may be, Clark is reminded that he isn't a god among men. Jonathan's death also highlights the human side of Clark. Clark experiences love and loss as everybody does, but it doesn't make him weaker. Not all of his choices are going to be perfect, but he has to live with them. Even with Jonathan gone, his memory and legacy live on in Martha and Clark. When Clark feels guilty about Jonathan's death, Martha makes him reflect that if he had the choice between saving Lana or Jonathan, he would be able to choose. It's a difficult situation that no one would want to be in. For better or worse, Jonathan needed to die in Smallville for Clark to continue down his path toward being Superman. John Schneider Played the Best Live-Action Jonathan Kent Image via The CW In Richard Donner's Superman, Jonathan also dies from a heart attack before Clark embraces the Superman persona. Audiences never got to see what made Jonathan such an influential character in Clark's journey until Schneider's version in Smallville. As much as Jonathan and Martha raised Clark with good values, Clark also taught them to see the good in people. Even up to his death, Jonathan had so much rage towards the Luthor family, which affected Clark and Lex's friendship over the years. Through the writing and Schneider's portrayal, Jonathan was shown to be just as flawed as Clark was, in a good way. It taught Clark that he didn't need to be perfect, which is another aspect of what makes him so human. After being absent from the series for five years, Schneider eventually returned to Smallville Season 10 as the manifestation of Clark's conscience. It further highlighted that long after Jonathan's death, his teachings and spirit still reside within Clark. In one of the most heartwarming moments in the Smallville series finale, Jonathan is the one to officially give Clark his iconic Superman costume as he finally flies off to save the day. Smallville is available to stream on Hulu in the U.S. Release Date 2001 - 2011-00-00 Network The WB, The CW Showrunner Alfred Gough, Miles Millar, Brian Peterson, Kelly Souders, Todd Slavkin, Darren Swimmer Cast Allison Mack Chloe Sullivan A young Clark Kent struggles to find his place in the world as he learns to harness his alien powers for good and deals with the typical troubles of teenage life in Smallville, Kansas. Directors Mike Rohl, Jeannot Szwarc, Glen Winter, Terrence O'Hara, Whitney Ransick, Mairzee Almas, Paul Shapiro, Rick Rosenthal, David Carson, James L. Conway, Chris Long, Michael Katleman, Morgan Beggs, Allison Mack, David Barrett, Marita Grabiak, Michael W. Watkins, Philip Sgriccia, Rick Wallace, Thomas J. Wright, Todd Slavkin, Brad Turner, Charles Beeson, Craig Zisk