The television drama Smallville has always ended each season with a cliffhanger. Each cliffhanger is usually well written and intense. The season six episode "Phantom" was no exception.

(Spoilers ahead.)

"Phantom" brought the season six main story arc to a climax with the introduction of Bizarro, a duplicate of Superman, or in this case Clark Kent.

Each Smallville season has had an overarching story that drives most of the episodes. The main story for season six involved Phantom Zone prisoners that were released when Clark escaped from the Zone in the season premiere. (The Phantom Zone is a prison used by Kryptonians for criminals from the 28 known galaxies.) Two other story arcs in this season were Chloe's discovery that she is among the meteor infected and Lana's marriage to Lex.

The season six cliffhanger is my second favorite season finale, after the season five finale, "Vessel". This was a great episode that had a lot of great moments.

While some people feel that the scene where Lana learns Clark is an alien happened too quickly, I think it was done well. In reality, Clark has always wanted to tell Lana the truth about himself. The idea of telling her has been brought up many times, so when Clark was faced with the possibility of losing Lana forever it was very appropriate that Clark finally told her. Besides, he already knew she would accept it since he had told her once before. (In the fifth season episode "Reckoning", Clark reveals everything, including the Fortress of Solitude. After Lana dies in a car crash, Clark turns back time to save her which means that she goes back to not knowing about Clark's origins while Clark still has a memory of having told her.)

The car explosion that seemed to have killed Lana was set up pretty well. While I was disappointed with how they resolved that in a later episode, I thought the initial set up was great. I actually suspected that Lana was faking her death because of the way that a service truck blocked Lionel's view at just the right time. Now that Clark and Lana had talked about his secret, I figured they had come up with a plan together. Unfortunately that was not the case.

Seven episodes earlier Chloe learned that she was a "meteor freak". In "Phantom", we find out what Chloe's power is when she unknowingly saves a dying Lois. I thought they handled that scene quite well. While I suspected that Lana was not really dead, I did worry that the show had really killed Chloe. I was very pleased when season seven began and Chloe was still very much alive.

This episode also introduced Smallville's version of Bizarro. I really enjoyed the hints, in the final scene, that told us that the Clark look alike was Bizarro. For fans of Superman who know the mythology, having the Kryptonite make the phantom stronger was the first hint that he was a version of Bizarro. When asked, "what are you?" the phantom responds, "I'm you, only a little more bizarre". That line was great. When I heard that it confirmed my suspicions that the doppelganger was actually Bizarro.

Smallville has a history of having several intense episodes per season and great season finales. I was very pleased with this season finale and hope that seasons seven and eight will also end with a bang.

Learn more about this author, Veronica Beaudry.
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