"Smallville" Contradictions, Plot Holes, Inconsistencies, Etc.

[moviefan2k4]

What are some of the most glaring ones you remember? Here's a few, off the top of my head.

Doomsday's Backstory

I am not talking about the addition of Davis Bloome; any comic fan knows Doomsday's human side was invented for the show. But there's a few moments which blatantly defy previous episodes, such as Davis' DNA being placed on Clark's ship, and the Luthor Mansion being in Smallville during the early 1990s. Lionel is even shown throwing Davis out as a child, when Lex says in the very first episode he's never stepped through the door.

Lana and Krypton

This is mostly restricted to Season 6, though the Season 5 opener also factors in. Lana encounters Nam-Ek and Aethyr, and specifically hears them mention Kal-El. She also finds Lionel carving the symbol of Zod into the Luthor Mansion floor, and hears Lex's dad refer to them as "the disciples of Zod". One year later, Lex is possessed by Zod's spirit...but fails to recognize his name (even asking directly "what is Zod?"). The villain explains to her that Krypton is a planet, and Lana also witnesses Clark using the same powers Nam-Ek and Aethyr displayed. But when he tells her in the Season 6 finale, that he is from Krypton...she again has no reaction to the planet's name, and doesn't even reference having seen the same powers used by Zod's disciples. I actually contacted Kristin on Twitter about this, but she said she didn't remember much.

Chloe and Kryptonite

This is one that truly irks me, mainly since Chloe was super-smart for most of the show's run. Season 5 features an episode called "Splinter", where Clark is exposed to an artificial form of Kryptonite created by Brainiac. There's a scene of exposition, where Chloe and the Kents are speculating on the source of Clark's unstable behavior. Martha mentions Red Kryptonite, and Jonathan shuts that down...but Chloe responds like she's never heard of it. Flash back to Seasons 2 and 3, where Chloe explicitly told Clark about their school purposely switching out red meteor pieces for rubies to save money...and she also witnesses his criminal personality in Metropolis. When he says Smallville is behind him, Chloe even points out his still wears his school ring. Once she learned Clark's secret in Season 4, you'd think the writers would've paid more attention to consistency...but instead, they hit Chloe with the "stupid stick". You could eliminate just a few seconds from that scene in "Splinter", and it would solve the continuity gaffe completely.

[DJ Doena]

The whole Veritas arc does not make sense in context of Lionel's actual behaviour in the early seasons.

[ss5mmyers]

I like to think Brainiac tooling around back in time had something to do with all the Veritas and Doomsday stuff.

How about Clark using x-ray vision to combat the season 1 invisible man but not the one from season 5?

[jon-el87]

and the Luthor Mansion being in Smallville during the early 1990s. Lionel is even shown throwing Davis out as a child, when Lex says in the very first episode he's never stepped through the door.

Actually, the episode "Onyx" contains references to Lex playing in the mansion as a child. So, "Eternal" isn't the first place that implies that the mansion was built much earlier. Furthermore, the pilot doesn't give much details beyond Clark's line: "Yeah, I remember. The trucks rolled through town for weeks but no one ever moved in." At no point is an actual year of construction stated. The flashbacks in "Eternal" also doesn't contain any external shots of the mansion. It's possible that construction had already begun (with Lex and Davis playing in the completed parts), but was then shut down for a few years for some reason. Eventually, Lionel got around to finishing it and that's the trucks that Clark remembers. Heck, he may even be mistaken. He's only 14 in the pilot (said to be 18 in the S5 episodes "Hidden" and "Aqua"). It's possible that some trucks drove through Smallville and then he saw the Luthor mansion for the first time and, being a kid, assumed that the trucks had been for the construction of that place.

As for Lex's line. Already in "Memoria", Lex was shown to have suppressed memories. It could also have just been a joke, that he told someone he just met. Finally, this is dialogue in the pilot episode. It's not uncommon that stuff from pilots get contradicted in later episodes. Like the pilot for Friends showing Chandler and Rachel meeting for the first time, after she's run from her wedding. While later episodes establishes that they've met numerous times before.

This is one that truly irks me, mainly since Chloe was super-smart for most of the show's run. Season 5 features an episode called "Splinter", where Clark is exposed to an artificial form of Kryptonite created by Brainiac. There's a scene of exposition, where Chloe and the Kents are speculating on the source of Clark's unstable behavior. Martha mentions Red Kryptonite, and Jonathan shuts that down...but Chloe responds like she's never heard of it. Flash back to Seasons 2 and 3, where Chloe explicitly told Clark about their school purposely switching out red meteor pieces for rubies to save money...and she also witnesses his criminal personality in Metropolis. When he says Smallville is behind him, Chloe even points out his still wears his school ring. Once she learned Clark's secret in Season 4, you'd think the writers would've paid more attention to consistency...but instead, they hit Chloe with the "stupid stick". You could eliminate just a few seconds from that scene in "Splinter", and it would solve the continuity gaffe completely.

While Chloe knew Clark's secret, all of this was still new to her. She had only just gotten used to the phrase "Kryptonite" and now Martha was talking about "RED Kryptonite". While the red meteor rocks (as she's known them as for years) are the same as red K, she had never heard the term "red Kryptonite" before (hence her reaction). She knew about green Kryptonite, thanks to the events in "Spirit". However, just because she now knew Clark's secret, he probably didn't stand around and give her the full 411 on his weaknesses. Like that the red meteor rocks are called "red Kryptonite" and how it affects him.

[Dagenspear]

The whole Veritas arc does not make sense in context of Lionel's actual behaviour in the early seasons.

I disagree. In the show, Lionel always gives off the vibe that he knows more than he's saying. He doesn't disregard the idea of the spaceship, just is hesitant. He knows about meteor infected people, but when he has Clark strapped down in Memoria he tells Garner to ask, "Where did he come from?"

[Bally]

In 'Power', Lana has the Prometheus skin suit successfully grafted onto her, rendering her virtually indestructible and giving her powers similar to Clark. The episode tells us that all this happened after she woke up from her Brainiac-induced coma, and that her goodbye video to Clark is something she'd been forced to do. However, when she returns to Smallville in 'Bride' (set several months after Lana's super power-up, and just 3 episodes before 'Power'), Lana is injured during Doomsday's attack and requires hospital treatment. Why did she even need hospital treatment if she was already wearing the Prometheus suit?

[jon-el87]

In 'Power', Lana has the Prometheus skin suit successfully grafted onto her, rendering her virtually indestructible and giving her powers similar to Clark. The episode tells us that all this happened after she woke up from her Brainiac-induced coma, and that her goodbye video to Clark is something she'd been forced to do. However, when she returns to Smallville in 'Bride' (set several months after Lana's super power-up, and just 3 episodes before 'Power'), Lana is injured during Doomsday's attack and requires hospital treatment. Why did she even need hospital treatment if she was already wearing the Prometheus suit?

She got the Prometheus suit grafted onto her, in the present day scenes of "Power", which is after "Bride", not before. So, she was still normal, when she was injured at Chloe's wedding.

[BethHG]

In 'Power', Lana has the Prometheus skin suit successfully grafted onto her, rendering her virtually indestructible and giving her powers similar to Clark. The episode tells us that all this happened after she woke up from her Brainiac-induced coma, and that her goodbye video to Clark is something she'd been forced to do. However, when she returns to Smallville in 'Bride' (set several months after Lana's super power-up, and just 3 episodes before 'Power'), Lana is injured during Doomsday's attack and requires hospital treatment. Why did she even need hospital treatment if she was already wearing the Prometheus suit?

Lana went through the conditioning to make her withstand the grafting of the Prometheus suit before Bride, she came back to Smallville so that she could get the procedure done. She didn't have power yet.

[TheSecretVampire]

The whole Doomsday arch didn't really make any sense on the show. I mean, if Davis was around for the previous 7 seasons and counting, then why was it only until season 8 that he was finally put on track to meet up with Clark Kent? And surely, there had to been grizzly killings from Davis/Doomsday in the past 7 seasons that should've been noticed and alerted towards Clark and Chole and so on....heck, we saw Davis as a kid kill one of Lionel's workers when Davis was left at a stop in that Eternal flashback. And then the way the Doomsday arc ended where he had to be killed for the clones of the Kandorians to be restored to life...that made no sense either because you can't tell me that burying Doomsday deep under a bunch of tunnels killed him.....it just can't. Even if he was knocked out for a while, surely, he should've been able to crawl out and cause more havoc at some angle in season 9, but that didn't happen.

[jon-el87]

How about Clark using x-ray vision to combat the season 1 invisible man but not the one from season 5?

The kid in season 1 covered himself in a kind of oil (that he had to apply manually) to make himself appear invisible. The guy in season 5 possessed a metahuman ability to make himself invisible. While the end result is the same, the ways they accomplished it are different. Hence, Clark being able to use his x-ray vision against the former and not the latter.

[DJ Doena]

The kid in season 1 covered himself in a kind of oil (that he had to apply manually) to make himself appear invisible. The guy in season 5 possessed a metahuman ability to make himself invisible. While the end result is the same, the ways they accomplished it are different. Hence, Clark being able to use his x-ray vision against the former and not the latter.

I agree that this could be the issue. To me, I have more of a problem of how the x-ray vision is used at times. For example, in the introducing episode X-Ray where Clark learns to control it he's obviously able to see nudity (which would explain his grin when he watches Lana in the showers) as well as muscle structure. I can forgive such things if they are never spoken about again. Many TV series introduce concepts either in the pilot or later on but then quietly drop them because they're inconvienent or too convinient*. But then the show made a point about for a joke when Clark saw the birthmark on Chloe's other cheek while being on Red-K (Red).

I can understand Clark using full x-ray by default as to not invade people's privacy but then it makes no sense that he used it on Lois in the closet in Recruit only to then having to open the actual door to identify her. Why didn't he just see-through the door instead of going x-ray?

Then two years later, Chloe asked him to x-ray her in Freak while making a point about them both being adults. This, too, only makes sense as if were implied that for him to use x-ray he actually has to "peel back" all the layers one by one and thus seeing Chloe nude. And Clark's reaction implies exactly this technique. But if that were the case, he would have seen her (and Lana and Lois) plenty of times while using the x-ray to find them. He x-rayed Lana in the introduction episode in the tomb and again in Obscura. He did the same to Chloe oin Obscura to find her in Chandler's field in the coffin.

One would assume that Clark had explained to Chloe how his powers work exactly at some point.


*Stargate SG-1 had the Zat'nik'tel gun which could make stuff disappear. This aspect was dropped because it made plots too easy and also was ridiculous. See Michael Shanks talking about it here.

[jon-el87]

The whole Doomsday arch didn't really make any sense on the show. I mean, if Davis was around for the previous 7 seasons and counting, then why was it only until season 8 that he was finally put on track to meet up with Clark Kent? And surely, there had to been grizzly killings from Davis/Doomsday in the past 7 seasons that should've been noticed and alerted towards Clark and Chole and so on....heck, we saw Davis as a kid kill one of Lionel's workers when Davis was left at a stop in that Eternal flashback. And then the way the Doomsday arc ended where he had to be killed for the clones of the Kandorians to be restored to life...that made no sense either because you can't tell me that burying Doomsday deep under a bunch of tunnels killed him.....it just can't. Even if he was knocked out for a while, surely, he should've been able to crawl out and cause more havoc at some angle in season 9, but that didn't happen.

There probably were more murders, pre-S8. However, if I recall correctly Davis once said that his blackouts (i.e. when he turned into Doomsday) used to be months apart, but had recently started happening more frequent (meaning his development was speeding up).

Season 8 is when the characters lives shifted more towards Metropolis. Think "Prey" was the first episode entirely devoid of scenes set in Smallville. Prior to that, they had largely just made occational visits to Metropolis. Also, their primary concern was Smallville and things that happened there. In fact, pre-S5, Chloe thought everything started with the meteor shower and spent very little time researching things that happened elsewhere.

As for the burying of Doomsday. According to "Beast", the hole they dropped Doomsday into was 10-miles deep (and that may not have been the exact number). So, he's trapped underneat 10-miles of dirt and rock. And Doomsday can die (he's just resurrected afterwards), so he probably died when the hole collapsed. We don't know anything about his body, what position it's in and what happened to it when the hole collapsed. His head could've been crushed underneat the weight of 10-miles of dirt and stone, which it couldn't regenerate, until the pressure on the skull gets removed.

Furthermore, Doomsday had just been separated from Davis. This could've had an impact. We know very little about Davis/Doomsday's original biology. In "Plastique", we see Doomsday lying in an alley and transforming back into Davis. In "Bloodline", we see Davis getting killed and then resurrected, but we never saw Doomsday die and get resurrected. It could be what we saw in "Plastique". Doomsday has died and is resurrected by transforming back into Davis. Meaning that his cells were originally programmed to transform back into Davis, after he's killed, as part of the resurrection. But, Davis was split from him in the S8 finale. Genetically, it means that part of each side's DNA was removed. So, if Doomsday is genetically engineered to revert into Davis, after death, it would mean that part of the process has been removed. Doomsday's body can't resurrect itself, because the DNA of Davis Bloome is no longer there. Basically, the cells in his body knows that they're supposed to complete a task, but they now lack the blueprint (or part of it) to complete the task. Therefore, Doomsday stays dead.

In fact, if we look at "Argo", EarthGov took genetic material from the cloned Faora's unborn baby (who'd genetically would be a sibling to Davis), which they integrated into Doomsday (meaning they would've recreated the original genetic blueprint) and managed to resurrect him. So, that is the answer: Doomsday could no longer resurrect himself, because the genetic material of Davis Bloome had been removed from his cells. Which is why he didn't return in S9.