Smallville season by season: the complete guide to all 10 seasons

The rule that held for ten years

When Alfred Gough and Miles Millar launch Smallville in October 2001, they set a constraint that will structure the whole show: Clark Kent will not fly and will not wear the suit. The formula, which stayed famous, fits in four English words: no flights, no tights.

That choice forces the writers to tell something else: a teenager discovering his abilities, a small town irradiated by meteorites, and above all relationships. Our feature on the Smallville cast presents the characters who carry that approach.

The show changes network along the way: it starts on The WB and moves to The CW from season 6, in 2006, with no break in tone.

Here's what awaits you, season by season.

Seasons 1 and 2: high school and meteorites

Season 1 (21 episodes, 2001-2002). The premise is simple and repetitive: each week a Smallville resident develops a power from the meteorites, and Clark has to stop them. In parallel the real subject settles in: the friendship with Lex Luthor, the love for Lana Lang, the secret to keep from his parents.

Season 2 (23 episodes, 2002-2003). The mythology steps in. Clark finds the ship hidden in the barn, hears Jor-El's voice for the first time, and tries red kryptonite — Tom Welling's chance to play an arrogant, dangerous Clark.

These two seasons look the most dated, but they set everything up. Our portrait of Tom Welling goes back over what the actor brings from the pilot on.

Worth noting: it's also the most “teen-show” stretch of the whole run. If that tone puts you off, know that it fades from season 4.

Seasons 3 and 4: Lionel, the stones and Lois's arrival

Season 3 (22 episodes, 2003-2004). The show darkens. Lionel Luthor, Lex's father played by John Glover, becomes the main antagonist; Lex is committed to Belle Reve and undergoes electroshock that wipes part of his memory. That's the start of his fall, which our portrait of Michael Rosenbaum.

Season 4 (22 episodes, 2004-2005). Two major additions. The first is the arrival of Lois Lane, played by Erica Durance, at first limited to a handful of episodes. The second is the Kryptonian stones plot, which leads Clark to build the Fortress of Solitude.

Season 4 is often called the most uneven: it mixes witchcraft, American football and Kryptonian mythology. It still ends on one of the show's best cliffhangers.

It's also the season where the show starts owning that it tells Superman's youth, and no longer just that of a different high-school kid.

Season 5: the turning point

Season 5 (22 episodes, 2005-2006). It's the hinge season, and the densest. Clark finds the Fortress, loses then regains his powers, faces two Kryptonians sent by Jor-El, and watches Lex marry the woman he loves.

Above all, it contains Reckoning, the 100th episode, aired January 26, 2006. Clark reveals his secret to Lana, before a trip back in time makes that choice cost dearly: Jonathan Kent dies of a heart attack, the same night as his election to the Kansas Senate. Our portrait of John Schneider goes back over that exit.

After this episode, the show changes nature. Grief replaces high school, the stakes turn adult, and the mythology takes over from the stories of the week.

If you could only watch one season of Smallville, it would be this one.

Seasons 6 and 7: the Phantom Zone and Kara

Season 6 (22 episodes, 2006-2007). Clark returns from the Phantom Zone after freeing Kryptonian prisoners, which gives the season its through-line. It's also the arrival of Oliver Queen, Justin Hartley's Green Arrow, and the first sketches of a hero team.

Season 7 (20 episodes, 2007-2008). Laura Vandervoort joins the show as Kara Zor-El, Clark's Kryptonian cousin: our feature on Kara Zor-El covers the character in the comics. The season is shortened by the writers' strike and ends with the departure of two pillars, Lex Luthor and Lana Lang.

That double departure marks the end of the original show. Our portrait of Kristin Kreuk explains the reasons for hers.

These two seasons are the most skippable if you want the essentials, except for the season 7 finale.

Seasons 8 and 9: Doomsday and the Kandorians

Season 8. Clark joins the Daily Planet and becomes, for Metropolis, an anonymous savior nicknamed “the Blur”. Cassidy Freeman arrives as Tess Mercer to replace Lex at the head of LuthorCorp, and Sam Witwer plays Davis Bloome, Doomsday's human shell. Our article on Doomsday compares this version with the one from the comics.

Season 9. A Kryptonian army settles on Earth under a young Zod, played by Callum Blue. It's the least-watched season of the show, but also the one where Clark comes closest to the hero he will become.

It's also the moment the show fully owns the crossover with the rest of the DC universe, with more and more appearances.

Season 10: Darkseid and the cape

Season 10 (22 episodes, 2010-2011). The last season has one goal: get Clark to the suit. The opponent is up to it, since it's Darkseid himself, present more as influence than as a creature.

The season piles on the returns: Michael Rosenbaum comes back as Lex for the two-part finale, Cat Grant shows up in the newsroom, and several DC heroes pass through the show.

The finale, aired May 13, 2011, stages Clark and Lois's wedding, the attack from Apokolips, and at last what ten seasons had put off: Clark opens his shirt on the crest. Our feature on the Superman and Lois couple places that wedding back in the mythology.

The “no flight, no suit” rule therefore held until the last minutes, which remains a writing feat for a ten-year show.

Where to start depending on your time

A useful note: Smallville doesn't hold up on fast-forward. Its quality lives in relationships that evolve slowly, not in the stories of the week. Skipping episodes works; skipping whole seasons loses the essentials.

To place the show among the other adaptations, our list of Superman series compares the character's major television productions.

Finally, Chloe Sullivan, created for the show, is worth lingering on: our portrait of Chloe Sullivan explains why the comics ended up taking her in.

Conclusion

Smallville is a long, uneven series, and yet one of the most endearing ever devoted to Superman. Ten years to tell how a Kansas teenager becomes a symbol: no movie can offer that time.

Two characters from the show have their own comics-side feature: Cat Grant, who appears in season 10, and Kal-El, the name Jor-El repeats to Clark.

Its secret is in its constraint. By banning flight and the suit, its creators forced themselves to talk about something else — friendship, lying, grief, choice. That's why people still watch it.

To go further, our feature on Smallville covers the show as a whole, and our article on the cast presents each actor.