What Went Wrong With Smallville Season 4

Smallville season 4 was littered with problems, and has long been called one of the show’s worst stories. The fourth season of the Superman prequel series, which was set during Clark’s senior year in high school, was centered on the search for the three Kryptonian Stones of Power. Despite a promising premise, the overall story fell short of the rest of the show.

The Smallville season 3 finale ended on one of the show’s biggest cliffhangers when it landed Lionel (John Glover) in prison, had Clark (Tom Welling) taken away by Jor-El to fulfill his destiny, seemingly killed off Chloe (Allison Mack), put Lex (Michael Rosenbaum) on death’s door, and sent Lana (Kristin Kreuk) to Paris. Season 4 picked up where season 3 left off and told new stories for each character.

Season 4 was an interesting point in the show’s ten-year history. Clark was finally able to play football and become the team’s star player. The introduction of Lana’s new boyfriend, Jason Teague (Jensen Ackles) changed her dynamic with Clark and made their relationship much less important. Lionel started down a redemptive path, and Chloe’s friendship with Clark took a turn when she secretly discovered his powers. But even though season 4 moved many of their stories forward, it received a great deal of criticism. Here’s what went wrong with season 4, and how it could have been better.

Smallville’s Plans For Season 4 Unexpectedly Changed

Plans for season 4 had to be changed due to unforeseen circumstances, and that may have hurt the show. In seasons 2 and 3, legendary Superman actor Christopher Reeve played Dr. Vergil Swann, the scientist who paved the way for Clark to learn about his Kryptonian heritage. When scheduling conflicts prevented him from returned for the season 4 premiere, the series brought in his associate, Dr. Bridget Crosby, played by classic Lois Lane actress Margot Kidder. Smallville used Crosby to provide information that Dr. Swann couldn’t, but still intended on using both characters together at a later point. This became impossible when Christopher Reeve died.

Smallville still had Dr. Crosby though – but unfortunately not for long. Sometime after the big reveal that Crosby had one of the Stones of Power, Kidder asked to be killed off because she felt the show’s producers were trying to capitalize on Reeve’s death. The scene was scrapped, and Crosby was brutally murdered by Jason Teague off-screen. Based on how her story ended, it seemed that Crosby was going to give her Stone to Clark, but it has been rumored in the past that Smallville’s original plan was for Crosby to be the season 4 main villain. It could be that season 4 might have turned out very differently if her character wasn’t suddenly — and unceremoniously — removed from the show. There’s no telling what would have happened if Crosby, who was thought to be a trustworthy ally, turned on Clark.

Smallville Season 4 Had The Show’s Most Hated Storyline

Lana’s arc in season 4 is one of the show’s most hated stories, and it’s easy to see why. First of all, Smallville delivered what was arguably one of its worst episodes when Lana, Chloe, and Lois were all possessed by 17th century witches in “Hex.” This happened as a result of Lana’s connection to her ancestor, Isobel Thoreaux, a woman who was burned at the stake for practicing witchcraft. Apparently, Isobel was after the Stones and used Lana’s body to continue her search. The scenes with the seductive Isobel Thoreaux and her cohorts chanting magical spells were incredibly cringeworthy, and it didn’t help that fans weren’t accustomed to seeing magic on Smallville. Instead of moving past Isobel Thoreaux after “Hex,” Smallville kept the storyline going and let the witch possess Lana on two more occasions.

Season 4 Had Several Poorly-Received Standalone Episodes

“Hex” isn’t the only season 4 episode that gets a lot of hate. During this time, Smallville was still using its “freak of the week” format, with Clark and his friends often going up against meteor-infected students at his high school. This worked nicely for the most part, but as expected, not every episode that used this formula went over well. The problem with that is that several of the show’s most poorly-received episodes happened in season 4 alone. They’re disliked mostly for the same reason, which is that they feel a bit too far-fetched to believable. One example of this is “Spirit,” in which a ghost of a deceased teenager possesses the main characters in order to attend prom. There’s also “Ageless,” with the baby that ages to adulthood in a matter of hours, and “Forever,” where the students are trapped in a building by a boy who never wants high school to end.

Smallville Season 4’s Biggest Problem Was Clark’s Story

What held season 4 back more so than anything else was its approach to the main plot. The beginning of season 4 set up what promised to be one of its most interesting yet, because it weaved a story that encompassed nearly all of its characters. For the first time, Clark, Lana, Lex, and Lionel were all interested in the same thing. Jason and his mother, Genevieve Teague (Jane Seymour), were thrown into the mix as well. Smallville spent several episodes having Lana looking for answers about her ancestor and the Stones. Lex, Lionel, Jason, and Genevieve all had clashes as well, since each person had their own agenda. It’s worth noting that out of everyone who was after the Stones, the person with the least involvement in the search was the character whose destiny was to find them: Clark Kent. Though he was ordered by Jor-El to gather them all, Clark spent very little time actively searching for them. Clark did accompany Lana to China to look for one of the Stones in “Sacred,” but for most of the season, Clark didn’t have much of a role in moving the story along. It certainly wasn’t good that Clark felt like he had been limited to a side character in his own show.

How Smallville Season 4 Could Have Been Better

Despite a number of issues, Smallville season 4 had a lot of good moments. It introduced the concept of Clark teaming up with other DC Comics heroes by having him meet Kyle Gallner’s Bart Allen, and contained one of the most intense season finales in the show’s history. It also brought Erica Durance’s Lois Lane into the fold. The extremely positive reception her character received led to her becoming a series regular for the remainder of the series. All things considered, the season still could have been much better if it had just gone in a different direction with its Stones of Power story. Clark never even got to meet Genevieve, the season’s big bad, and that goes to show how disconnected he was from the overarching plot.

Plus, season 4 could have been so much more interesting if Clark had shared more interactions with Lana, Lex, and Lionel in regards to the Stones. It could be that Smallville avoided situations like that on purpose in order to protect his secret, but the show could have put Clark front-and-center of the story and add more mystery to his connection to the Kawatche Caves. If Smallville had done this before the finale, Lana’s decision to give Clark her Stone would have made a lot more sense. She said she gave it to him because she believed it was meant for him, but she never had a reason to reach this conclusion. Lana didn’t even know that Clark only accompanied her to China to pursue his own interests in the Stones. Similarly, Genevieve never knew that Clark was anything more than Lana’s ex-boyfriend, and as for Jason, he was oblivious to Clark’s real role until the finale. Any of these characters discovering that Clark was after the Stones could have shaken up the story and may have led to some exciting developments.

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