Yes, it’s true. I am seeing the CW’s Smallville series to the very end. I can’t help it. I still love it. And if the season premiere says anything about what’s to come this year, I’m excited.
A brief recap: the season finale in May left lives in the balance–just about everybody’s, actually, but most important to me, those of Chloe Sullivan and Lana Lang. I was sure Lana was dead.
But, it turns out, both are alive! And the premiere features Chloe dying and then literally rising from death. Chloe has struggled with her fascination with Smallville’s “meteor freaks” for years and then agonized last season over the possibility that she might be one, too. This episode (potentially) symbolically marks Chloe’s “rebirth” to a new life: one of embracing her own strange gifts–she seems to be a healer, yet to heal, it also appears she has to sacrifice her life in the process. Is a cycle of death, healing, and rebirth in Chloe’s future?

And then Lex Luthor wants, of all things, redemption! So much that he is actively pursuing it, turning himself in as responsible for Lana’s apparent death. I’ve long hoped to see Lex’s good side again (even though I know this not to be, at least not for long)–Lex was my favorite character back in the first few seasons because he was so complex–always walking that fine line of good boy and evil one.
So far, Smallville’s 7th season seems (fittingly) all about religious themes. I’m glad it’s back.