A Whole Lot of Resurrections Going On.

Friday night seemed to be "bring characters back from the dead" night. Starting off with the final season opener of Smallville, Jon Schneider reprises his role as the previously dead Jonathan "Pa" Kent to appear in a vision to Clark. After the moral beat down by his dead biological father Jor-El who warns Clark against pride and that he will be the biggest danger to humanity, Pa Kent offers a balancing and more positive point of view, inspiring Clark to follow his heart and always try to be a better man than his Kryptonian father thinks he'll be. Last season we got to see Jor-El in the flesh more or less, played by Julian Sands. However, the voice of Jor-El at the fortress is still done by Terrance Stamp, the actor that played Zod in the movie Superman II. Even Clark's survival is played off as him coming back from the dead since he was stabbed rather brutally by Zod in the season finale. Luckily, Lois was on hand to remove from his chest and he got better (which means that Lois now secretly knows Clark's secrets). Lex comes back from the dead in the guise of several clones, many of whom get killed off. Likewise, Tess who seemed to be on her deathbed last season gets a miracle cure.

Somehow I missed that the government agent that was working for Checkmate and Amanda Waller was Rick Flagg, a long-time character at DC. This one is a little more ruthless than his comic counterpart and was in charge of kidnapping Green Arrow. He mercilessly tortures and beats the hero and then somehow Chloe manages to have herself exchanged for Arrow? Of Chloe, she uses Dr. Fate's helmet as an information download into her brain. Checkmate may have more than they are bargaining for.

There is a brief appearance of the Superman costume and the episode sets up as themes for the show that Clark is going to have to step out of the shadows and into the light, thus give up wearing the black and become a more colorful hero. How they will reconcile that with the fact that there's a whole lot of people that know what Clark Kent looks like without glasses is anybody's guess.

The only serious drawbacks were that there was a lot of build up of Lex Luthor's return which was resolved very quickly and the incessant talk of Clark's destiny. It's gotten to the point that even Clark talks about it which does make pride seem to be a big hurdle for him in the future. Especially with him some day taking the name "Superman". Still, the whole destiny bit gets old and pretentious and sets up Superman on that boring pedestal and being unrelatable. Whereas, a big part of what makes the Smallville series work is how much it and Tom Welling humanize the character and ground him. And, with all the talk about it being his destiny and all, it subtracts Clark's actual achievements and the aspects that he becomes this inspiration and great hero through his own inherent beliefs and actions as opposed to being goaded into it.

Supernatural follows up with a resurrection or two of its own. We knew that Sam was coming back, it was shown in the final scene of the season finale. A bigger surprise is the return of their mother's father Samuel who is also a hunter as played by Mitch Pileggi. Neither seem to have any information about why they were brought back but here's betting that Samuel knows more than he's telling.

A year has passed since the finale and the show does a wonderful job juxtaposing Dean's new life vs his old one. His outrage at finding out that Sam (and Samuel) have been back for a year and hunting without contacting him AND that Bobby knew as well is convincing as are their reasons for doing so after all they have experienced. It betrays a certain naivete in thinking that after all Sam & Dean had done not to expect someone would come looking for payback, which a group of djinns do. The djinn angle doesn't play out as well as the rest. They aren't a very convincing threat other than their poisonous touch. After mentioning them as infiltrating the town, having it just as a waitress seen in the first few minutes seemed a letdown. It's also unclear as to whether Dean's neighbors were killed or not. We know Dean's antidotes to the poison are destroyed but Sam shows up moments later with an antidote for Dean. We don't see exactly whether the neighbors are dead by that point or not though nor fallout concerning them.

A lot of negative opinions on the re-introduction of Samuel and the Campbell cousins, another family of hunters. I think people are accepting things a bit too much at face value though. I think we'll see either a more insidious plot behind Sam and Samuel's resurrections and the Campbells will be a part of it or just how different that Sam and Dean are from other hunters and how they need each other as they bring out the best in each as human beings. Kudos for not going for the obvious and easy solution to Family Man Dean. He doesn't leave them nor does the show just kill them off for angst and motivation sake. He chooses to stay and for complicated and complex reasons. Partly because after all that he's been through he does want the simpler life but he feels the responsibility to Sam and family and to all of the innocents that don't know the evils that exist around him. But, he cannot escape his sense of responsibility to his new family, Lisa and Ben either. He's trapped, because of him, they are targets. His staying makes them even more of a target, but his leaving would leave them vulnerable and not completely remove them as targets from those who would seek to strike at Dean.

I'm excited to see where this will be going and how it will play out. Often, just when I think I know how the show will go, it swerves and surprises me. I expect a fun ride.