Smallville 10.16 "Scion"
The last episode before their final hiatus and Smallville continued its second half trend (outside of Masquerade) of another solid episode. I was worried that the lack of Chloe would impact the episode but the return of Lionel and Conner equaled her departure. The first half of the episode was FANTASTIC, the third quarter was quite dark, but the finish was perfect and gave you that warm Smallville feeling from days past.
The best thing about the Conner development was how much it felt like a throwback to the early Smallville days with Clark now in Jonathan's shoes trying to guide an impetuous lad eager to discover who he is with his help or not. When Conner got hot and bothered over Lois and Clark had to help with the heat vision. PERFECT. And then when Conner was affected by Red!K and Clark was battling him, I got a real reminder of when Jonathan with Jor-El's help went to bring back Clark from Metropolis, especially when Clark said he was taking Conner home. I also loved how Conner without the Red!K corruption chose to stand with Clark and saved the day. Then Conner with the plaid shirt, and the Superboy shirt, and Clark's proud smile ... KENT FAMILY POWERS ACTIVATE! ♥
Also, did anyone notice the Helen Bryce comment?! I think i saw a joke tweet on either Kryptonsite or SHoE but I would love it if it came out that Lex was being healed by Helen this whole time. She's still alive as far as I remember, I think she just disappeared.
It's been so great to have John Glover back this year for multiple episodes. When he's on the screen interacting with Lois, Clark & Tess, you really feel how much the show missed his presence (same with John Schneider - which can I mention I love how this season the show has made a priority of showing old characters: Jonathan, Martha, Chloe, Pete, Lana in pictures). I'm sure we'll feel that again when Michael Rosenbaum appears and I really hope that there is a scene between Lionel and Lex. My only nitpick is that I had really come to enjoy Lionel's previous incarnation that for him to come back not only evil but a truly darker interpretation makes me long for the old Lionel's cunning ways.
I'll even add that the Darkseid apparition that appeared in the graveyard with Lionel was probably the best version the show had shown so far, and gives me hope (although I'm thinking they learned their limitations from Doomsday and we'll never see Darkseid in corporeal form).