Smallville: "Odyssey"

Season Eight, Episode One: Odyssey
Written by: Todd Slavkin & David Swimmer, Brian Peterson and Kelly Souders
Directed by: Kevin Fair
Original Air Date: September 18, 2008

This episode of Smallville is the third and (so far) last of Aquaman's three appearances on the show--and once again he's got some super-powered friends!

By this point in the show's run, I had stopped watching it regularly. So I apologize while I play a bit of catch-up to what went on on the show just prior to this episode. Apparently, Season Seven ended with Clark heading off to the Arctic and forming what will be The Fortress of Solitude.

Both Lana and Ma Kent left Smallville, and Lois offered Clark a job at The Daily Planet. Chloe got kidnapped, and Clark and Lex had a showdown at the Fortress which seemingly led to Lex's death and the destruction of the Fortress.

This episode kicks off in the Arctic, and LexCorp is running some sort of massive investigation to learn what happened to their boss. A young woman named Tess Mercer arrives, saying she's now in charge.

After they get word they may have something--or someone--we see a familiar face is also there:

After Green Arrow fires a shaft into a piece of LexCorp equipment (causing it explode and crash onto the ground), we see he's not alone. With him on this mission is Black Canary (Alania Huffman):

Using her Canary Cry, she helps Arrow take out some of the LexCorp workers.

One of them gets the drop on Green Arrow, and is ready to shoot him point blank. But then the floor begins to rumble, and then it breaks open. Shooting out of it is...Aquaman!:

Aquaman tosses the gunman aside, knocking him out instantly. The three heroes then follow the trail LexCorp was following, a shaft deep into the ice floor:

At first we see Clark's familiar red jacket, but after they dig it out of the ice we see that's all that's there. Green Arrow, Black Canary, and Aquaman go outside, and wonder where has Clark gone?

Later, we see Tess Mercer have a run-in with an undercover Lois Lane (snooping around Lex's mansion in a French Maid outfit--oh, those Smallville producers don't miss a trick). Lois is there to find out what happened to her cousin Chloe, but Tess pretends not to know.

Chloe, in fact, is imprisoned by some shadowy government agency who is subjecting her to a series of interrogations, determined to find how he hacked into a top-secret government mainframe. Chloe protests her innocence and demands to be freed, but her captor refuses.

Green Arrow, Black Canary, and Aquaman search through Chloe's files to learn what happened to her and Clark, but they find no clues.

We learn that Clark is in Russia, doing manual labor:

Its clear he owes money to a tough-sounding mobster type, and is working to pay off the debt. He asks to make a phone call home, and is refused. Clark then tries to escape by stealing a truck, but is stopped before he can get too far. One of the boss' goons punches Clark, knocking him out! Clearly, something has happened to the once Teen of Steel.

The government agent holding Chloe to work tracking down some "terrorists"--in reality, the locations of Aquaman and Black Canary. After Chloe unwittingly reveals their locations, government agents capture both heroes with the help of some well-aimed tranquilizer darts.

Chloe gets wise to what's happening, and refuses to say any more, leaving Green Arrow still free.

Green Arrow, in fact, has made his way to Russia, having found Clark. Oliver starts an argument with Clark, who goes along with the role-playing. Oliver even decks Clark one:

Oliver "buys" Clark from the Russian mobster, who is all too happy to be rid of him. Oliver gets Clark onto his private jet and they head for home.

On the way, Oliver catches Clark up with what's happened, and they head for a secret base LexCorp has in Montana, where--unbeknownst to him--Black Canary and Aquaman are being held, along with Chloe:

Their captor wants to know where "the alien" is, but they won't talk.

Green Arrow and Clark break their way into the base. They split up, and Clark runs into...Lois Lane?!?

Yes, Lois has gone undercover to find Chloe, so they team-up to try and find her. In the meantime, one of Lex's men injects Chloe with some sort of truth serum, forcing her to decode the information revealing Green Arrow's location--which happens to be in the same building!

Clark and Lois find Chloe, and free her. Clark then goes off to find Green Arrow. When he does, Green Arrow demands to find out from Clark where Lex is. Clark says he doesn't know, and Green Arrow shows he's not kidding around:

Green Arrow asks again, and gets the same answer. He fires another arrow, and shoots it straight through Clark's chest!

Turns out Green Arrow was captured and injected with the same "truth serum" LexCorp zapped Chloe with, and then released as part of a plan.

Clark's life begins flashing before his eyes, and at the end of a series of memories, is a friend--John Jones!:

Jones (Phil Morris) scoops Clark up, and flies with him into the sky:

Later, Clark wakes up, fully healed. John Jones tells him that he took Clark to the sun, which brought Clark back to life. John was entrusted by Jor-El to watch over Clark, but when John saw that Clark was about to die, he stepped in to save him.

Back at Lex's mansion, Tess Mercer takes her place behind Lex's desk, fully committed to finding her missing boss. She reviews some of the evidence found in the Arctic, including a glowing, almost alien-like crystal...

With his father dead and mother moved away, Clark doesn't feel compelled to live in Smallville anymore (but that's the name of the show!). He meets with Oliver, Dinah, and Arthur, who are splitting up to search for Lex Luthor, who they all believe is still alive:

Clark shows up at the offices of The Daily Planet, having accepted a job as a junior reporter. He tells Lois the news, and she sees his new desk is right next to hers.

The end...for now.


This makes two out of three Smallville episodes where Aquaman was tranquilized and held hostage. Since this happened a lot in the comics too, I guess there's just something about Aquaman that makes writers immediately think of having a bad guy knock him out, only for him to wake up later in some death trap.

This remains Aquaman's last appearance to date on Smallville. While I haven't heard any word as to when the show will finally end, it has to be fairly soon, considering the show is in its ninth season (an extraordinary run). Let's hope that before its all over, Alan Ritchson as Arthur Curry gets one last curtain call!